本书的作者约翰逊吸收了经济学、神经系统科学、传媒学的理论，指出人们唯恐避之不及的 垃圾 文化其实正使人类变得更聪明。他认为，一款电子游戏、一部影视剧不可能像一本书，也没有理由 渴望 成为一本书。事实证明，从游戏《俄罗斯方块》到影视剧《反恐24小时》，再到真人秀节目《学徒》（The Apprentice），都提高了人们的lQ值与认知能力，而这些未必能从书本中学到。约翰逊以实例证明了当今的大众文化不是在衰退，而是在变化 似令人兴奋而刺激的方式在变化，这一点可以从我们日常生活中轻松地理解。 游戏、电影、电视、网络这些大众文化是否像传统看法认为的那样庸俗、肤浅?在《坏事变好事》这本书中，著名畅销书作家、文化学者史蒂文 约翰逊提出了与众不同的观点，他认为我们每天沉浸其中的大众文化，在逐年变得成熟，它所带来的认知挑

作者考察了中国的小脚部落――云南通海六一村的历史，采访了几十位小脚妇女，发掘了她们的缠足史，叙述了她们的生命历程并探索了世代缠足者的心理及其欣赏缠足者的变态心理。

An absolutely wonderful book. --Russell Baker "Rick Bragg writes like a man on fire. And All Over but theShoutin' is a work of art. While reading this book, I fell in lovewith Rick Bragg's mother, Margaret Bragg, a hundred times. I feltlike I was reading one of the prophets in the Old Testament whenreading parts of this book. I thought of Melville, I thought ofFaulkner. Because I love the English language, I knew I was readingone of the best books I've ever read. By explaining his life to theworld, Rick Bragg explained part of my life to me. You feel thingsin every line this man writes. His sentences bleed on you. I weptwhen the book ended. I never met Rick Bragg in my life, but Icalled him up and told him he'd written a masterpiece, and I sentflowers to his mother." --Pat Conroy "Searingly honest, beautifully written, All Over but the Shoutin'is perhaps the most courageous thing Pulitzer Prize-winningjournalist Rick Bragg has ever written. Making his reputation on

Suddenly they go from striving for A’s to barely passing, fromfretting about cooties to obsessing for hours about crushes. Formerchatterboxes answer in monosyllables; freethinkers mimic everythingfrom clothes to opinions. Their bodies and psyches morph throughthe most radical changes since infancy. They are kids in themiddle-school years, the age every adult remembers well enough todread. Here at last is an up-to-date anthropology of this criticallyformative period. Prize-winning education reporter Linda Perlsteinspent a year immersed in the lunchroom, classrooms, hearts, andminds of a group of suburban Maryland middle schoolers and emergedwith this pathbreaking account. Perlstein reveals what’s reallygoing on under kids’ don’t-touch-me facade while they grapple withschoolwork, puberty, romance, and identity. A must-read for parentsand educators, Not Much Just Chillin’ offers a trail map to thebaffling no-man’s-land between child and teen.

From the bestselling, National Book Award-nominated auhtor ofGenius and Chaos, a bracing new work about the accelerating pace ofchange in today's world. Most of us suffer some degree of "hurry sickness." a malady thathas launched us into the "epoch of the nanosecond," aneed-everything-yesterday sphere dominated by cell phones,computers, faxes, and remote controls. Yet for all the hours,minutes, and even seconds being saved, we're still filling our daysto the point that we have no time for such basic human activitiesas eating, sex, and relating to our families. Written with freshinsight and thorough research, Faster is a wise and witty look at aharried world not likely to slow down anytime soon.

The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspiredthe film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquelyAmerican memoir--a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at thedawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of agroup of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outerspace . . . and who made those dreams come true. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickampaints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia miningtown of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, whenanything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed itsmen alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and gettingout, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle oftriumph--at once exquisitely written and marvelouslyentertaining. Now with 8 pages of photographs.

If the thought of bacteria conjures images of germs thatshould be avoided at all costs—and certainly not ingested—thinkagain! Some friendly bacteria, called probiotics, are not onlybeneficial to your health, they’re essential. Now aninternationally recognized scientist at a top U.S. medicalschool—one of the leading researchers in the field—sheds light onthe extraordinary benefits of these natural healthsuperstars. Thanks to an explosion of research in recent years, one thing isclear: probiotics, the healthy bacteria that inhabit the digestivetract, are the body’s silent partners for good health, optimizingthe power of the immune system to fight disease and the “bad” germswe fear. But how do they work? And in the face of factors likestress and poor diet, which decrease their numbers, how do you keepyour supply well stocked? Here is an up-to-the-minute, highly accessible guide toprobiotics and the foods and supplements that contain and supportthem—many of which may be in you

"I heard you paint houses" are the first words Jimmy Hoffaever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran. To paint a house is tokill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls andfloors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviewsFrank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more thantwenty-five hits for the mob, and for his friend Hoffa. Sheeranlearned to kill in the U.S. Army, where he saw an astonishing 411days of active combat duty in Italy during World War II. Afterreturning home he became a hustler and hit man, working forlegendary crime boss Russell Bufalino. Eventually he would rise toa position of such prominence that in a RICO suit then-U.S.Attorney Rudy Giuliani would name him as one of only twonon-Italians on a list of 26 top mob figures. When Bufalino orderedSheeran to kill Hoffa, he did the deed, knowing that if he hadrefused he would have been killed himself. Sheeran's important andfascinating story includes new information on other famous murders,and

Mustang Designer tells the story of American wartime fighterdevelopment, including engines and armaments, as part of anationwide program of aircraft builders and fliers, focusing onEdgar Schmued, the designer of the Mustang. The P-51 Mustang iswidely regarded as the best propeller-driven fighter that everflew. What many might not realize is that the plane's developer wasa German migrant. This book tells of how Schmued created a weaponthat would ultimately prove lethal to the aspirations of those whohad seized control over his native land.

At the beginning of thetwentieth century, the South Pole was the most coveted prize in thefiercely nationalistic modern age of exploration. In this brilliantdual biography, the award-winning writer Roland Huntford reexaminesevery detail of the great race to the South Pole between Britain'sRobert Scott and Norway's Roald Amundsen. Scott, who died along theway with four of his men only eleven miles from his next cache ofsupplies, became Britain's beloved failure, while Amundsen, who notonly beat Scott to the Pole but returned alive, was largelyforgotten. This account of their race is a gripping, highlyreadable history that captures the driving ambitions of the era andthe complex, often deeply flawed men who were charged with carryingthem out. The Last Place on Earth is the first of Huntford's masterly trilogyof polar biographies. It is also the only work on the subject inthe English language based on the original Norwegian sources, towhich Huntford returned to revise and update this edition.

A remarkable introduction to cultural studies as relevant todayas it was in 1934, Ruth Benedict's groundbreaking study is the bookthat first brought the concept of "culture" to lay readers. In thisfascinating work, Benedict compares the cultures of three peoples:the Kwakiutl of western Canada, the Zuni of the southwestern UnitedStates, and the Dobuans of Melanesia. Featuring an introduction byFranz Boas, a preface by Margaret Mead, and a foreword by MaryCatherine Bateson, Patterns of Culture shows the importance culturehas on everyday life.