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Breakup, Makeup
by Stacey AnthonyIn this sweet and stylish romance, two lovers turned cosplay rivals go head-to-head for a chance at their dream school . . . and maybe a second chance at love. Eli Peterson is a self-taught, up-and-coming makeup artist in the cosplay scene who is barely making ends meet. While they might be slaying it with their breathtaking looks, they&’re also trying to save enough money for top surgery and convince their parents that their artistic dream is worthwhile. During a convention, Eli hears about Makeup Wars, a competition that could change everything . . . The grand prize? A scholarship to Beyond, the best SFX school on the West Coast. The problem? Going head-to-head with the most talented up-and-coming makeup artists in the scene—including rival influencer Zachary Miller, their ex-boyfriend. Eli will have to juggle their makeup brushes, their rekindled feelings for Zach, and their self-doubt in order to win everything they&’ve ever wanted: a chance to chase their dream and a second chance at love.
NerdCrush
by Alisha EmrichHappily Ever Afters meets You've Got Mail in this geeky, Black Girl Magic filled debut romance about cosplay and finding the courage to be yourself. Ramona Lambert is a typical shy, artistic sixteen-year-old. She has a best friend whom she&’s known since they were in diapers; parents who love her; a love for cosplay; and a crush on the cute boy in her class. The only problem? Her best friend moved away; her parents don't quite understand her love of cosplay; and she is pretty sure her crush has no idea she exists. To escape her troubles, Ramona turns to cosplay and her original character, Rel, who gives her the confidence and freedom that she lacks in real life. Embracing this confidence, she decides to strike up an email conversation with her crush, Caleb Wolfe, from her cosplay account in the hopes getting to know him . . . and maybe win his heart. Then as Caleb and Ramona are swept up in their emails back and forth to each other, and Ramona falls even harder as he opens up about his hopes, insecurities, and his own geeky loves. However, as Caleb starts to grow closer and closer to Rel, he also strikes up a friendship with Ramona, who knows she can't keep the truth about Rel from Caleb but isn't sure she is ready to risk losing him. With an important cosplay convention coming up and the anxiety of her double-life weighing on her, Ramona has to decide if she&’ll hide behind her cosplay character forever or take the chance and let Caleb see the real her--because he might actually like her for who she is.
Promposal
by RaeChell GarrettAn overachiever must decide if risking her heart by working with her former crush turned enemy is worth the reward in this snappy rom-com, perfect for fans of Tweet Cute and The Upside of Falling. High school senior Autumn Reeves has been waitlisted at her dream school. Determined to move to the top of the list, she must find a way to stand out. When a promposal she planned for a friend has half the senior class asking for her help, a brilliant business idea that will look great on her application is born: Promposal Queen. Autumn has no clue how to start a business, so she joins the Young Black Entrepreneurs group and finds herself face-to-face with Mekhi Winston, the boy whose unexpected freshman-year kiss—a kiss that meant everything to her and nothing to him—cost Autumn her best friend. He&’s the only person with the experience to help her, but how can she possibly trust him? With her dreams on the line, Autumn&’s willing to risk it. After all, Mekhi could be a good business partner without being a guy she would ever let near her heart again. But when working with Mekhi jeopardizes her only chance at rekindling a friendship with her ex-best-friend, and secrets long buried threaten to ruin Promposal Queen, another broken heart may be the least of her worries--her entire future is on the line.
An Appetite for Miracles
by Laekan Zea KempAward-winning author Laekan Zea Kemp&’s heart-wrenching novel-in-verse follows two teens who must come together to heal the pain from their pasts, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nicola Yoon. Danna Mendoza Villarreal&’s grandfather is slowly losing himself as his memories fade, and Danna&’s not sure her plan to help him remember through the foods he once reviewed will be enough to bring him back. Especially when her own love of food makes her complicated relationship with her mother even more difficult. Raúl Santos has been lost ever since his mother was wrongly incarcerated two years ago. Playing guitar for the elderly has been his only escape, to help them remember and him forget. But when his mom unexpectedly comes back into his life, what is he supposed to do when she isn&’t the same person who left? When Danna and Raúl meet, sparks fly immediately and they embark on a mission to heal her grandfather ... and themselves. Because healing is something best done together—even if it doesn&’t always look the way we want it to.
We'll Never Tell
by Wendy Heard"Those who love One of Us Is Lying, will devour this page-turner." (Buzzfeed) Delve into a murderous, twisty whodunit doused in juicy Hollywood lore. No one at Hollywood High knows who&’s behind We'll Never Tell—a viral YouTube channel where the anonymous creators trespass behind the scenes of LA's most intriguing locales. The team includes CASEY, quiet researcher and trivia champ; JACOB, voice narrator and video editor, who is secretly dating EDDIE, aspiring filmmaker; and ZOE, coder and breaking-and-entering extraordinaire. Now senior year is winding down and with their lives heading in different directions, the YouTubers vow to go out with a bang. Their last episode will be filmed at the infamous Valentini &“murder house,&” which has been left abandoned, bloodstained, and untouched since a shocking murder/suicide in 1972. When the teens break in, they capture epic footage. But someone trips an alarm, and it&’s a mad dash to get out before the police arrive—at which point they realize only three of them escaped instead of four. Jacob is still inside, slain and bleeding out. Is his attack connected to the historic murder, or is one of their crew responsible? A week of suspicions and cover-ups unfolds as Casey and her remaining friends try to stay alive long enough to solve murder mysteries past and present. If they do, their friendship may not survive. If they don't, the house will claim more victims.
Make the Fireflies Dance
by Rachel BatemanIn this rom com from the author of Someone Else's Summer, a hopeless romantic juggles senior year stress, family problems, and faulty friendships around the end of senior year and prom. Quincy Walker is a hopeless romantic, so when she's kissed by a stranger in a dark theater, her rom-com obsessed imagination begins plotting the perfect movie-version ending to her senior year (which ends, like all great high school rom-coms, with the prom). With the help of her friends, Operation Mystery Kisser is born: a plan to set Quin up on dates with all the guys who were at the theater that night so she can discover who kissed her. The only problem? Her friends insist on blind dates, and Quin hates letting go of control--just ask the members of her group for her final project for film class. As prom draws nearer, Quin is no closer to finding who her mystery kisser was, and she's not sure she wants to continue looking. Maybe it's her dad's failing health and her brother's absence; maybe it's the fact that she's fighting with her best friend; or maybe--just maybe--it's that she's falling for a guy who definitely isn't the one she's been looking for.
Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay
by Kelly McWilliamsThis sharp-witted, timely novel explores cancel culture, anger, and grief, and challenges the romanticization of America's racist past with humor and heart—for readers of Dear Martin by Nic Stone and Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson. Harriet Douglass lives with her historian father on an old plantation in Louisiana, which they&’ve transformed into one of the South's few enslaved people&’s museums. Together, while grieving the recent loss of Harriet&’s mother, they run tours that help keep the memory of the past alive. Harriet's world is turned upside down by the arrival of mother and daughter Claudia and Layla Hartwell—who plan to turn the property next door into a wedding venue, and host the offensively antebellum-themed wedding of two Hollywood stars. Harriet&’s fully prepared to hate Layla Hartwell, but it seems that Layla might not be so bad after all—unlike many people, this California influencer is actually interested in Harriet's point of view. Harriet's sure she can change the hearts of Layla and her mother, but she underestimates the scale of the challenge… and when her school announces that prom will be held on the plantation, Harriet&’s just about had it with this whole racist timeline! Overwhelmed by grief and anger, it&’s fair to say she snaps. Can Harriet use the power of social media to cancel the celebrity wedding and the plantation prom? Will she accept that she&’s falling in love with her childhood best friend, who&’s unexpectedly returned after years away? Can she deal with the frustrating reality that Americans seem to live in two completely different countries? And through it all, can she and Layla build a bridge between them?
All the Yellow Suns
by Malavika KannanA coming-of-age story about a queer Indian American girl exploring activism and identity through art, perfect for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Sixteen-year-old Maya Krishnan is fiercely protective of her friends, immigrant community, and single mother, but she knows better than to rock the boat in her conservative Florida suburb. Her classmate Juneau Zale is the polar opposite: she&’s a wealthy white heartbreaker who won&’t think twice before capsizing that boat. When Juneau invites Maya to join the Pugilists—a secret society of artists, vandals, and mischief-makers who fight for justice at their school—Maya descends into the world of change-making and resistance. Soon, she and Juneau forge a friendship that inspires Maya to confront the challenges in her own life. But as their relationship grows romantic, painful, and twisted, Maya begins to suspect that there&’s a whole different person beneath Juneau&’s painted-on facade. Now Maya must learn to speak her truth in this mysterious, mixed-up world—even if it results in heartbreak.
Some Shall Break (The None Shall Sleep Sequence #2)
by Ellie MarneyThis electrifying, chilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller None Shall Sleep focuses on junior FBI consultants Travis Bell and Emma Lewis with a new case that may unravel everything they&’ve been working for. After a harrowingly close contact with juvenile sociopath Simon Gutmunsson, junior FBI consultants Emma Lewis and Travis Bell went their separate ways: Emma rejected her Quantico offer and Travis stayed to train within a new unit of the FBI Behavioral Science division. But the unit&’s latest case is feeling eerily familiar and Kristin Gutmunsson—Simon Gutmunsson&’s eccentric twin—reaches out to Travis to send a warning: Emma is in peril. When Travis and Kristin turn up evidence that points back to Daniel Huxton, the serial killer that Emma had escaped, things become more complicated. With a copycat on the loose, Emma returns to Quantico and is thrown back into her past traumas. Compelled to prevent more tragedy—even if it means putting herself in danger—Emma turns to Simon for help once again. But Simon is keeping secrets that could impact their entire investigation. Will the team be able to stop the Huxton copycat before time runs out for his next victims?
Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do about It
by Daniel Simons Christopher ChabrisFrom two New York Times-bestselling psychologists, &“an engaging master class in how to foil purveyors of false promises&” (Philip E. Tetlock, author of Superforecasting) From phishing scams to Ponzi schemes, fraudulent science to fake art, chess cheaters to crypto hucksters, and marketers to magicians, our world brims with deception. In Nobody&’s Fool, psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris show us how to avoid being taken in. They describe the key habits of thinking and reasoning that serve us well most of the time but make us vulnerable—like our tendency to accept what we see, stick to our commitments, and overvalue precision and consistency. Each chapter illustrates their new take on the science of deception, describing scams you&’ve never heard of and shedding new light on some you have. Simons and Chabris provide memorable maxims and practical tools you can use to spot deception before it&’s too late. Informative, illuminating, and entertaining, Nobody&’s Fool will protect us from charlatans in all their forms—and delight us along the way.
The Yawnicorn
by Emily HamiltonMagic is waiting in this rhythmic, calming tale that is the perfect bedtime story for when little ones struggle to fall asleep!You're tucked into bed, ready for sleep. But . . . your head is all busy. and your legs are all twitchy. And this blanket is so itchy!It's time to call on the Yawnicorn! Tuck in for an enchanting nighttime adventure flying over oceans, marching through jungles, and soaring across glittering galaxies until you find your perfect dreamland. With the Yawnicorn's help, young readers are destined for a night of magical wonder and sweet dreams.Join the Yawnicorn on a bedtime adventure you'll never forget!
The Bedtime Book of Incredible Questions
by Isabel ThomasThis fascinating and fact-filled book tackles a multitude of weird and wonderful questions about everything from unicorns to the universe.A Guardian Best Children's Book of 2022"The perfect present for any inquisitive child." -The Sunday Times Have you ever struggled to concentrate because there are SO many questions buzzing around your brain? Here are answers to seventy-one of the most bamboozling questions and curious queries that you can think of. How many stars are in the night sky? Why don't animals wear clothes? Do plants have feelings?This book will define, debunk, and demystify the trickiest of questions and open your eyes to amazing facts you have never even thought of! With engaging and accessible text and accompanied by exciting, inviting illustrations, The Bedtime Book of Incredible Questions is the perfect bedside companion to delve into when you are wondering if there really is an answer to everything."Top-notch nonfiction from a profoundly accomplished creator, it's the sort of book that could ignite lifelong scientific curiosity." -Guardian
Bear's Big Dreaming
by Michael RosenFrom beloved author Michael Rosen (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) and award-winning illustrator Daniel Egnéus comes a modern classic picture book about love, hope and the dreams that sustain us.* “A soothing tale that will be welcomed in autumn or at bedtime in any season of the year.” -Booklist, starred review The Cold is coming, and it's time for Big Bear and Little Bear to get ready for the Big Sleep: for bears sleep all winter long, and wake up in the spring. But Little Bear is worried. What if they run out of dreams during the Big Sleep? Little Bear sets out bravely to find enough dreams to see them through the long winter. On his journey, he discovers dreams of happiness, dreams of homecoming, and dreams of hope. But with the Cold approaching fast, will Little Bear make it back home in time for the Big Dreaming? A resonant and uplifting tale from a master storyteller, The Big Dreaming is a classic in the making, filled with luminous illustrations by award-winning artist Daniel Egnéus.Read Bear's Big Dreaming if you are looking for: A cozy bedtime book to inspire sweet dreams A gift to treasure with stunning gold foilA seasonal story that introduces bear hibernation
The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier
by Amy GodineThe Black Woods chronicles the history of Black pioneers in New York's northern wilderness. From the late 1840s into the 1860s, they migrated to the Adirondacks to build farms and to vote. On their new-worked land, they could meet the $250 property requirement New York's constitution imposed on Black voters in 1821, and claim the rights of citizenship. Three thousand Black New Yorkers were gifted with 120,000 acres of Adirondack land by Gerrit Smith, an upstate abolitionist and heir to an immense land fortune. Smith's suffrage-seeking plan was endorsed by Frederick Douglass and most leading Black abolitionists. The antislavery reformer John Brown was such an advocate that in 1849 he moved his family to Timbuctoo, a new Black Adirondack settlement in the woods. Smith's plan was prescient, anticipating Black suffrage reform, affirmative action, environmental distributive justice, and community-based racial equity more than a century before these were points of public policy. But when the response to Smith's offer fell radically short of his high hopes, Smith's zeal cooled. Timbuctoo, Freemen's Home, Blacksville and other settlements were forgotten. History would marginalize this Black community for 150 years. In The Black Woods, Amy Godine recovers a robust history of Black pioneers who carved from the wilderness a future for their families and their civic rights. Her immersive story returns the Black pioneers and their descendants to their rightful place at the center of this history. With stirring accounts of racial justice, and no shortage of heroes, The Black Woods amplifies the unique significance of the Adirondacks in the American imagination.
Penguin on Vacation (Penguin)
by Ms. Salina YoonGeisel Honor-winning author/illustrator Salina Yoon's beloved character Penguin hits the beach in Penguin on Vacation--a charming picture book that's perfect for summer vacation.Penguin is tired of the snow and cold--so he decides to visit the beach! But when his favorite activities like skiing and skating don't work so well on sand, can a new friend help Penguin learn how to have fun in the sun? Seasoned, award-winning author/illustrator Salina Yoon's charming text and bright, energetic illustrations ensure that readers will be clamoring for more Penguin stories--wherever they make their home!Don't miss these other books from Salina Yoon!The Penguin seriesPenguin and PineconePenguin on VacationPenguin in LovePenguin and PumpkinPenguin's Big AdventurePenguin's Christmas WishPenguin and PenelopeThe Bear seriesFoundStormy NightBear's Big DayThe Duck, Duck, Porcupine seriesDuck, Duck, PorcupineMy Kite is Stuck! And Other StoriesThat's My Book! And Other StoriesBe a Friend
Pennybaker School Is Revolting: Holy Places In Louisiana
by Jennifer BrownSixth-grader Thomas Fallgrout is finally settling in at Pennybaker School, home of student unicyclers, thespians, acrobats, and other classmates with unique and unusual gifts. After a bit of an unusual start to the school year, things are finally starting to seem normal. As normal as they ever could be at this decidedly unusual school, anyway. Until his Facts After the Fact (aka History) teacher Mr. Faboo goes missing, right in the middle of his favorite lesson of the year, leaving the class not a clue as to why or how. And his Four Square (aka Phys Ed) teacher introduces a new unit that is decidedly distressing. And Thomas's neighbor, the formerly friendless Chip (he of the wacky sock collection), swoops in and bonds with all of Thomas's friends, leaving Thomas in the dust. This year is getting out of control, and it's up to Thomas to take matters into his own hands. It's time… for a revolution. Featuring black-and-white illustrations throughout, this wildly funny follow-up to Pennybaker School is Headed for Disaster is full of humor and wacky wit by acclaimed author Jennifer Brown.
Old Norse Folklore: Tradition, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia (Myth and Poetics II)
by Stephen A. MitchellThe medieval northern world consisted of a vast and culturally diverse region both geographically, from roughly Greenland to Novgorod and culturally, as one of the last areas of Europe to be converted to Christianity. Old Norse Folklore explores the complexities of this fascinating world in case studies and theoretical essays that connect orality and performance theory to memory studies, and myths relating to pre-Christian Nordic religion to innovations within late medieval pilgrimage song culture.Old Norse Folklore provides critical new perspectives on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the first time in English. Stephen A. Mitchell presents emerging methodologies by analyzing Old Norse materials to offer a better understandings ofunderstanding of Old Norse materials. He examines, interprets, and re-interprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by posterity—myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture, conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes—targeting largely overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.
The Commander-in-Chief Test: Public Opinion and the Politics of Image-Making in US Foreign Policy (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Jeffrey A. FriedmanIn The Commander-in-Chief Test, Jeffrey A. Friedman offers a fresh explanation for why Americans are often frustrated by the cost and scope of US foreign policy—and how we can fix that for the future.Americans frequently criticize US foreign policy for being overly costly and excessively militaristic. With its rising defense budgets and open-ended "forever wars," US foreign policy often appears disconnected from public opinion, reflecting the views of elites and special interests rather than the attitudes of ordinary citizens.The Commander-in-Chief Test argues that this conventional wisdom underestimates the role public opinion plays in shaping foreign policy. Voters may prefer to elect leaders who share their policy views, but they prioritize selecting presidents who seem to have the right personal attributes to be an effective commander in chief. Leaders then use hawkish foreign policies as tools for showing that they are tough enough to defend America's interests on the international stage. This link between leaders' policy positions and their personal images steers US foreign policy in directions that are more hawkish than what voters actually want.Combining polling data with survey experiments and original archival research on cases from the Vietnam War through the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Friedman demonstrates that public opinion plays a surprisingly extensive—and often problematic—role in shaping US international behavior. With the commander-in-chief test, a perennial point of debate in national elections, Friedman's insights offer important lessons on how the politics of image-making impacts foreign policy and how the public should choose its president.
Unraveling the Gray Area Problem: The United States and the INF Treaty
by Luke GriffithIn Unraveling the Gray Area Problem, Luke Griffith examines the US role in why the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty took almost a decade to negotiate and then failed in just thirty years. The INF Treaty enhanced Western security by prohibiting US and Russian ground-based missiles with maximum ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Significantly, it eliminated hundreds of Soviet SS-20 missiles, which could annihilate targets throughout Eurasia in minutes. Through close scrutiny of US theater nuclear policy from 1977 to 1987, Griffith describes the Carter administration's masterminding of the dual-track decision of December 1979, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) initiative that led to the INF Treaty. The Reagan administration, in turn, overcame bureaucratic infighting, Soviet intransigence, and political obstacles at home and abroad to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the INF negotiations. Disagreements between the US and Russia undermined the INF Treaty and led to its dissolution in 2019. Meanwhile, the US is developing a new generation of ground-based, INF-type missiles that will have an operational value on the battlefield. Griffith urges policymakers to consider the utility of INF-type missiles in new arms control negotiations. Understanding the scope and consistency of US arms control policy across the Carter and Reagan administrations offers important lessons for policymakers in the twenty-first century.
Shapes of Time: History and Eschatology in the Modernist Imagination (Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought)
by Michael McGillenShapes of Time explores how concepts of time and history were spatialized in early twentieth-century German thought. Michael McGillen locates efforts in German modernism to conceive of alternative shapes of time—beyond those of historicism and nineteenth-century philosophies of history—at the boundary between secular and theological discourses. By analyzing canonical works of German modernism—those of Karl Barth, Franz Rosenzweig, Siegfried Kracauer, and Robert Musil—he identifies the ways in which spatial imagery and metaphors were employed to both separate the end of history from a narrative framework and to map the liminal relation between history and eschatology.Drawing on theories and practices as disparate as constructivism, non-Euclidean geometry, photography, and urban architecture, Shapes of Time presents original connections between modernism, theology, and mathematics as played out within the canon of twentieth-century German letters. Concepts of temporal and spatial form, McGillen contends, contribute to the understanding not only of modernist literature but also of larger theoretical concerns within modern cultural and intellectual history.
Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773–1776
by James R. FichterIn Tea, James R. Fichter reveals that despite the so-called Boston Tea Party in 1773, two large shipments of tea from the East India Company survived and were ultimately drunk in North America. Their survival shaped the politics of the years ahead, impeded efforts to reimburse the company for the tea lost in Boston Harbor, and hinted at the enduring potency of consumerism in revolutionary politics.Tea protests were widespread in 1774, but so were tea advertisements and tea sales, Fichter argues. The protests were noisy and sometimes misleading performances, not clear signs that tea consumption was unpopular. Revolutionaries vilified tea in their propaganda and prohibited the importation and consumption of tea and British goods. Yet merchant ledgers reveal these goods were still widely sold and consumed in 1775. Colonists supported Patriots more than they abided by non-consumption. When Congress ended its prohibition against tea in 1776, it reasoned that the ban was too widely violated to enforce. War was a more effective means than boycott for resisting Parliament, after all, and as rebel arms advanced, Patriots seized tea and other goods Britons left behind. By 1776, protesters sought tea and, objecting to its high price, redistributed rather than destroyed it. Yet as Fichter demonstrates in Tea, by then the commodity was not a symbol of the British state, but of American consumerism.
The Retrospective Muse: Pathways through Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (Myth and Poetics II)
by Froma I. ZeitlinThe Retrospective Muse showcases the celebrated work of Froma I. Zeitlin. Over many decades, Zeitlin's innovative studies have changed the field of classics. Her instantly recognizable work brings together anthropology, gender studies, cultural studies, and an acute literary sensibility to open ancient texts and ideas to new forms of understanding. A selection of her luminous essays on topics still timely today are collected for the first time in a volume that shows the full range and flair of her remarkable intellect. Together, these illuminating analyses show why Zeitlin's work on ancient Greek culture has had an enduring impact on scholars around the world, not just in classics but across multiple fields. From Homer to the Greek novel, from religion to erotics, from myth and ritual to theatrical performance, she expounds on some of the most important works of ancient writing and some of modernity's most significant critical questions. Zeitlin's writing still sheds light on the durable aspects of classics as a discipline, and this book encapsulates her achievement.
Infrastructures of Impunity: New Order Violence in Indonesia (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project)
by Elizabeth F. DrexlerIn Infrastructures of Impunity Elizabeth F. Drexler argues that the creation and persistence of impunity for the perpetrators of the Cold War Indonesian genocide (1965–66) is not only a legal status but also a cultural and social process. Impunity for the initial killings and for subsequent acts of political violence has many elements: bureaucratic, military, legal, political, educational, and affective. Although these elements do not always work at once—at times some are dormant while others are ascendant—together they can be described as a unified entity, a dynamic infrastructure, whose existence explains the persistence of impunity. For instance, truth telling, a first step in many responses to state violence, did not undermine the infrastructure but instead bent to it. Creative and artistic responses to revelations about the past, however, have begun to undermine the infrastructure by countering its temporality, affect, and social stigmatization and demonstrating its contingency and specific actions, policies, and processes that would begin to dismantle it. Drexler contends that an infrastructure of impunity could take hold in an established democracy.
Dickens's Idiomatic Imagination: The Inimitable and Victorian Body Language
by Peter J. CapuanoDickens's Idiomatic Imagination offers an original analysis of how Charles Dickens's use of "low" and "slangular" (his neologism) language allowed him to express and develop his most sophisticated ideas. Using a hybrid of digital (distant) and analogue (close) reading methodologies, Peter J. Capuano considers Dickens's use of bodily idioms—"right-hand man," "shoulder to the wheel," "nose to the grindstone"—against the broader lexical backdrop of the nineteenth century. Dickens was famously drawn to the vernacular language of London's streets, but this book is the first to call attention to how he employed phrases that embody actions, ideas, and social relations for specific narrative and thematic purposes. Focusing on the mid- to late career novels Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend, Capuano demonstrates how Dickens came to relish using common idioms in uncommon ways and the possibilities they opened up for artistic expression. Dickens's Idiomatic Imagination establishes a unique framework within the social history of language alteration in nineteenth-century Britain for rethinking Dickens's literary trajectory and its impact on the vocabularies of generations of novelists, critics, and speakers of English.
Ethnopolitical Entrepreneurs: Outsiders inside Armenian Los Angeles
by Daniel FittanteEthnopolitical Entrepreneurs presents the story of the Armenians of Glendale, California. Coming from Argentina, Armenia, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, and many other countries, this group is internally fragmented and often has limited experience with the American political system. Nonetheless, Glendale's Armenians have rapidly mobilized and remade an American suburban space in their own likeness. In telling their story, Daniel Fittante expands our understanding of US political history. From the late nineteenth-century onward, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and several other immigrant populations in large American cities began changing the country's political reality. The author shows how Glendale's Armenians—as well as many other immigrants—are now changing the country's political reality within its dynamic, multiethnic suburbs. The processes look different in various suburban contexts, but the underlying narrative holds: immigrant populations converge on suburban areas and ambitious political actors develop careers by driving coethnics' political incorporation.