I’m Not Like Everybody Else is a collection of short stories and poetry that explores how the rainy North-West can create anti-heroes and rebel spirits. Drawing from the music and culture of the region, Richard explores themes of isolation, focusing on rebellious thoughts and actions from a cast of characters that have been marginalised and driven to the edge of society. “Manchester, you are in my blood, I can never leave you.” The book was written in an unplanned and spontaneous frenzy and at a time of extreme emotional turmoil for the author. I’m Not Like Everybody Else expresses themes of isolation through the eyes of those who are alienated by society: murderers, psychopaths, the homeless, the falsely accused, cross-dressers and fatalistic revisionists. “I’m not like everybody else. I feel that strong urge for isolation too.” Inspired by Irvine Welsh and Charles Bukowski, Richard’s second collection will be enjoyed by readers based in the North-West, as well as fans of poetry and short stories, and his first collection, I Wasn’t Made For These Times.

Despite the presence of the Flaming Lips in a commercial for a copier and Iggy Pop’s music in luxury cruise advertisements, Jeffrey T. Nealon argues that popular music has not exactly been co-opted in the American capitalist present. Contemporary neoliberal capitalism has, in fact, found a central organizing use for the values of twentieth-century popular music: being authentic, being your own person, and being free. In short, not being like everybody else. Through a consideration of the shift in dominant modes of power in the American twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from what Michel Foucault calls a dominant “disciplinary” mode of power to a “biopolitical” mode, Nealon argues that the modes of musical “resistance” need to be completely rethought and that a commitment to musical authenticity or meaning—saying “no” to the mainstream—is no longer primarily where we might look for music to function against the grain. Rather, it is in the technological revolutions that allow biopolitical subjects to deploy music within an everyday set of practices (MP3 listening on smartphones and iPods, streaming and downloading on the internet, the background music that plays nearly everywhere) that one might find a kind of ambient or ubiquitous answer to the “attention capitalism” that has come to organize neoliberalism in the American present. In short, Nealon stages the final confrontation between “keepin’ it real” and “sellin’ out.”

The last forty years have seen a massive change in the delivery of healthcarein the UK. Starting from well outside the establishment, SteveBollen negotiated his way through prejudice and personal problemsand, from a base in one of the most socially deprived areas in the UK,rose through the ranks to become one of the country's leading sportsinjury surgeons. Part autobiography, part observation, comment and commentaryon the Health Service, health, life, love and death, sprinkled withstardust from his long association with top sportsmen and women,his story shares the laughter, tears, frustrations and triumphs of a longand fulfilling surgical career.

Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else is a critical biography of Ray Davies, with a focus on his music and his times. The book studies Davies’ work from the Kinks’ first singles through his 2006 solo album, from his rock musicals in the early 1970s to his one-man stage show in the 1990s, and from his films to his autobiography. Based on interviews with his closest associates, as well as studies of the recordings themselves, this book creates the most thorough picture of Davies’ work to date. Kitts situates Davies’ work in the context of the British Invasion and the growth of rock in the '60s and '70s, and in the larger context of English cultural history. For fans of rock music and the music of the Kinks, this book is a must have. It will finally place this legendary innovator in the pantheon of the great rock artists of the past half-century. Thomas M. Kitts, Professor of English and Chair of the Division of English/Speech at St. John’s University, NY, is the co-editor of Living on a Thin Line: Crossing Aesthetic Borders with The Kinks, the author of The Theatrical Life of George Henry Boker, articles on American literature and popular culture, reviews of books, CDs, and performances, and a play Gypsies. He is the book review editor of Popular Music and Society and the editor of The Mid-Atlantic Almanack.

A Note from the Author I write many poems, they are like diary entries for me. They commemorate and explore significant moments in my life. I do not necessarily write my poems for a public audience or with the goal of conveying a specific meaning to a reader. It is my hope that the words, images, experiences, and feelings conveyed in my poems will speak to the lives and emotions of the benevolent and brave people who take time to wander through this book of poems. It was only because of the encouragement of friends and family that I found the motivation and insanity to solicit a publisher for my book of poems. My early poems can broadly be considered a reflection on how we often make decisions that create distance between who we are and the people we want to be. My more recent poems deal, in part, with the adjustment inherent to the sudden and unexplained arrival of love and the process of, and choices involved in, moving from youth into adulthood. Along the journey are poems that were written for the purpose of seeking to understand myself and to be deciphered by others. Also included are many poems written only out of a spirit of spontaneity and fun.

From the former editor-in-chief of Nylon comes a provocative and intimate collection of personal and cultural essays featuring eye-opening explorations of hot button topics for modern women, including internet feminism, impossible beauty standards in social media, shifting ideals about sexuality, and much more. Gabrielle Korn starts her professional life with all the right credentials. Prestigious college degree? Check. A loving, accepting family? Check. Instagram-worthy offices and a tight-knit group of friends? Check, check. Gabrielle’s life seems to reach the crescendo of perfect when she gets named the youngest editor-in-chief in the history of one of fashion’s most influential publication. Suddenly she’s invited to the world’s most epic parties, comped beautiful clothes and shoes from trendy designers, and asked to weigh in on everything from gay rights to lip gloss on one of the most influential digital platforms. But behind the scenes, things are far from perfect. In fact, just a few months before landing her dream job, Gabrielle’s health and wellbeing are on the line, and her promotion to editor-in-chief becomes the ultimate test of strength. In this collection of inspirational and searing essays, Gabrielle reveals exactly what it’s truly like in the fashion world, trying to find love as a young lesbian in New York City, battling with anorexia, and trying not to lose herself in a mirage of women’s empowerment and Instagram perfection. Through deeply personal essays, Gabrielle recounts her struggles to reconcile her long-held insecurities about her body while coming out in the era of The L Word, where swoon-worthy lesbians are portrayed as skinny, fashion-perfect, and power-hungry. She takes us with her everywhere from New York Fashion Week to the doctor’s office, revealing that the forces that try to keep women small are more pervasive than anyone wants to admit, especially in a world that’s been newly branded as woke. From #MeToo to commercialized body positivity, Korn’s biting, darkly funny analysis turns feminist commentary on its head. Both an in-your-face take on impossible beauty standards and entrenched media ideals and an inspiring call for personal authenticity, this powerful collection is ideal for fans of Roxane Gay and Rebecca Solnit.

You Really Got Me is Nick Hasted’s illuminating biography of The Kinks, drawing on years of in-depth interviews with Ray and Dave Davies and shedding new light on a turbulent 30-year career scarred by suicide attempts, on-stage fights and recurring mental breakdowns. The Kinks’ distorted fuzz cut through popular music like a chainsaw and unexpectedly propelled two brothers from North London straight to the heights of stardom, to stand alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. With exclusive interviews Nick Hasted untangles this turbulence: Why The Kinks became the only British group to be banned from America at the height of their success; why original bassist Pete Quaife quit in 1968; Ray Davies’ fraught relationship with Chrissie Hynde; how The Kinks’ later years rehabilitated their reputation in America. Updated to include details of the hit musical Sunny Afternoon and an up-to-the-minute report on the troubled relationship between the Davies brothers, You Really Got Me is the ultimate Kinks biography. “Keen eyed critique of a most contrary band” Uncut “Hasted is illuminating” Guardian

Combining the personal memories and critical analysis of a self-confessed pop addict with a wealth of contemporary documentary evidence, Gathered From Coincidence reconstructs a truly momentous era to tell the story of the music of the Sixties year by year. By tracing in parallel the origins and development of the recording careers of major talents on both sides of the Atlantic - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Dusty Springfield and many more besides - this account shows how they traded creativity with one another. All the great Sixties' hits - as well as a host of less well-known gems - are described in the context of the charts of the day, tracking the ups and downs of different trends as they came and went, such as: rock'n'roll, rhythm & blues, psychedelia, modern folk, the concept album or supergroups. But beyond this, each chapter also places the music in a broader historical and cultural setting of landmark events at home and abroad - the space race, the Profumo affair, the Cold War, Vietnam, the growth of satire - to show how, as the decade unfolded, the paths of pop and current affairs drew ever closer together. If you thought the Sixties were just about the fleeting dreams of hippies in the Summer of Love, then think again! This book will open your eyes to a far-reaching imaginative legacy and how it came to shape pop music as a dazzling art form in its own right.

The last forty years have seen a massive change in the delivery of healthcare in the UK. Starting from well outside the establishment, Steve Bollen negotiated his way through prejudice and personal problems and, from a base in one of the most socially deprived areas in the UK, rose through the ranks to become one of the country's leading sports injury surgeons. Part autobiography, part observation, comment and commentary on the Health Service, health, life, love and death, sprinkled with stardust from his long association with top sportsmen and women, his story shares the laughter, tears, frustrations and triumphs of a long and fulfilling surgical career.