By using transparencies to overlay traditional constellation figures onto his photographs of the night sky, renowned astrophotographer Chen has created an exciting and unusual way to link the brightest stars within each constellation.

The Little Book of Stars answers, in the clearest language, the questions anyone might have about our heavenly canopy. How are stars born? How do they die? Why do they shine? How long do they shine? Is our star, the Sun, dying? How can you tell time from the stars? Or navigate? What are the measures of stars? Can we ever travel to other stars? In this engagingly written and concise book, the second in the Little Book series, noted astronomer James B. Kaler shows us "the significance that the stars have had in human life, how we have used them to tell our stories, and how we use them to find who and where we are."

This groundbreaking book examines portable art collections assembled in the courts of Greater Iran in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Made for members of the royal families or ruling elites, albums were created to preserve and display art, yet they were conceptualized in different ways. David Roxburgh, a leading expert on Persian albums and the art of the book, discusses this diversity and demonstrates convincingly that to look at the practice of album making is to open a vista to a culture of thought about the Persian art tradition. The book considers the album’s formal and physical properties, assembly, and content, as well as the viewer’s experience. Focusing on seven albums created during the Timurid and Safavid dynasties, Roxburgh reconstructs the history and development of this codex form and uses the works of art to explore notions of how art and aesthetics were conceived in Persian court culture. Generously illustrated with over 175 images, many rare and previously unpublished, the book offers a range of new insights into Persian visual culture as well as Islamic art history.

Ezra Pound referred to 1922 as Year One of a new era. It was the year that began with the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and ended with the publication of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, two works that were arguably "the sun and moon" of modernist literature, some would say of modernity itself. In Constellation of Genius, Kevin Jackson puts the titanic achievements of Joyce and Eliot in the context of the world in which their works first appeared. As Jackson writes in his introduction, "On all sides, and in every field, there was a frenzy of innovation." It is in 1922 that Hitchcock directs his first feature; Kandinsky and Klee join the Bauhaus; the first AM radio station is launched; Walt Disney releases his first animated shorts; and Louis Armstrong takes a train from New Orleans to Chicago, heralding the age of modern jazz. On other fronts, Einstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physics, insulin is introduced to treat diabetes, and the tomb of Tutankhamun is discovered. As Jackson writes, the sky was "blazing with a ‘constellation of genius' of a kind that had never been known before, and has never since been rivaled." Constellation of Genius traces an unforgettable journey through the diaries of the actors, anthropologists, artists, dancers, designers, filmmakers, philosophers, playwrights, politicians, and scientists whose lives and works—over the course of twelve months—brought a seismic shift in the way we think, splitting the cultural world in two. Was this a matter of inevitability or of coincidence? That is for the reader of this romp, this hugely entertaining chronicle, to decide.

A Best Book of 2020 at Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and Refinery29 A Best Book of Summer at Vulture, Refinery29, Yahoo! Life, Alma, Subway Book Review, and Lit Hub A Best Book of the Month at Entertainment Weekly, Hello Giggles, and PopSugar EDITORS' CHOICE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 CARNEGIE MEDAL and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize "Miraculous: spry and mordant, with sentences that lull you with their rhythms, then twist suddenly and sting." —Lauren Groff, author of Florida "A twisting, strange delight, Parakeet shimmers a soft and generous light on the darkest of a woman's innermost thoughts." —Kristen Iversen, Refinery29 Acclaimed author of 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas Marie-Helene Bertino's Parakeet is a darkly funny and warm-hearted novel about a young woman whose dead grandmother (in the form of a parakeet) warns her not to marry and sends her out to find an estranged loved one. The week of her wedding, The Bride is visited by a bird she recognizes as her dead grandmother because of the cornflower blue line beneath her eyes, her dubious expression, and the way she asks: What is the Internet? Her grandmother is a parakeet. She says not to get married. She says: Go and find your brother. In the days that follow, The Bride's march to the altar becomes a wild and increasingly fragmented, unstable journey that bends toward the surreal and forces her to confront matters long buried. A novel that does justice to the hectic confusion of becoming a woman today, Parakeet asks and begins to answer the essential questions. How do our memories make, cage, and free us? How do we honor our experiences and still become our strongest, truest selves? Who are we responsible for, what do we owe them, and how do we allow them to change? Urgent, strange, warm-hearted, and sly, Parakeet is ribboned with joy, fear, and an inextricable thread of real love. It is a startling, unforgettable, life-embracing exploration of self and connection.

This is the largest and most comprehensive atlas of the universe ever created for amateur astronomers. With finder charts of unprecedented detail, in both normal and mirror-image views, and an extensive list of 14,000 objects, it provides a detailed observing guide for almost any practical amateur astronomer, up to the most advanced. Spanning some 3,000 pages, this is a project that is possible only on CD-ROM. The CD-R pages are extensively indexed and referenced for quick location of objects. The accompanying book gives an introduction to the Atlas, showcases the maps, describes the CD-R content and organization, and includes various appendices.

“Uncovers evidence of covert Canadian usurpation . . .Thankfully, Colburn has some tips on identifying these stealthy yet tidy marauders in our midst.” —Seattle Weekly Canadians are peaceable, friendly, unassuming, and adorable. They’re also secretly in control of nearly every aspect of life in the Southernmost Canadian territory known as the United States. This hilarious illustrated compendium of real facts and wild assertions traces a vast, maple-leaf conspiracy that plays up Canada’s self-effacing second fiddle image to the U.S. while it creates and clandestinely controls nearly everything Americans hold dear, from Superman to basketball to William Shatner to macaroni and cheese. With everyday life in the U.S. already as much as 70% Canadian, and our music, movies, and TV shows filled with subliminal pro-Canadian messages, the authors of So, You Want to Be Canadian reveal that in actuality, you already are. “The premise is that Canadians have gotten their overly polite (and no doubt well groomed) mitts on everything. The U.S. of Eh? includes lists of many Canadian things—hotties, music, actors, inventions—as well as lots of general silliness about the ‘maple leaf conspiracy.’” —January Magazine

It has been reviled, dismissed, attacked, and occasionally been the subject of Congressional hearings, but still, the genre of music known as heavy metal maintains not only its market share in the recording and downloading industry, but also as a cultural force that has united millions of young and old fans across the globe. Characterized by blaring distorted guitars, drum solos, and dramatic vibrato, the heavy metal movement headbanged its way to the popular culture landscape with bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath the 1970s. Motley Crue and Metallica made metal a music phenomenon in the 1980s. Heavy metal continues to evolve today with bands like Mastodon and Lamb of God. Providing an extensive overview of the music, fashion, films, and philosophies behind the movement, this inclusive encyclopedia chronicles the history and development of heavy metal, including sub-movements such as death metal, speed metal, grindcore, and hair metal. Essential and highly entertaining reading for high school and undergraduate courses in popular music studies, communications, media studies, and cultural studies, the Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music and Culture offers a guide to the ultimate underground music, exploring its rich cultural diversity, resilience, and adaptability. Entries for musicians include a discography for those wanting to start or develop their music collections.

Legendary singer/songwriter Radney Foster found commercial success and critical acclaim due in large part to his literary approach to country music. Known for penning dozens of Top Forty, Top Twenty, Top Ten hits for both himself and Nashville's elite, he felt driven to tell stories longer than the three minutes allowed for radio. For You to See the Stars is a testament to his talent, showing the diversity of his voice, bringing lyrical prose to the page, and presenting Radney Foster to a whole new audience. The CD of the same title, includes the ten songs that inspired these stories.