A collection of the icon’s surprising and heartfelt thoughts on topics A-to-Z, plus recipes and photos—a wonderfully addictive scrapbook for fans. From the wonderfully varied and witty mind of Marlene Dietrich comes an alphabetized collection of her most zany, honest, and heartfelt thoughts. Offering her take on a range of ideas, people, and items, Marlene Dietrich’s ABC is an unprecedented glimpse into one of history’s brightest and most enigmatic stars. Nothing is too small or grand for Dietrich’s unique eye. From her entry for hardware store—“I’d rather go to a hardware store than to the opera”—to her entry for egocentric—“If he is a creative artist, forgive him”—she transforms both the mundane and the mysterious into snapshots of her own spirit. Complete with photos from her vast career, Marlene Dietrich’s ABC is an unexpected and addicting treat.

From the stages of Berlin to anti-Nazi efforts and silver-screen stardom, Steven Bach reveals the fascinating woman behind the myth surrounding Marlene Dietrich in a biography that will stand as the ultimate authority on a singular star. Based on six years of research and hundreds of interviews—including conversations with Dietrich—this is the life story of one of the century’s greatest movie actresses and performers, an icon who embodied glamour and sophistication for audiences around the globe.

Few movie stars have meant as many things to as many different audiences as the iconic Marlene Dietrich. The actress-chanteuse had a career of some seventy years: one that included not only classical Hollywood cinema and the concert hall but also silent film in Weimar Germany, theater, musical comedy, vaudeville, army camp shows, radio, recordings, television, and even the circus. Having renounced and left Nazi Germany, assumed American citizenship, and entertained American troops, Dietrich has long been a flashpoint in Germany’s struggles over its cultural heritage. She has also figured prominently in European and American film scholarship, in studies ranging from analyses of the directors with whom she worked to theories about the ideological and psychic functions of film. Dietrich Icon, which includes essays by established and emerging film scholars, is a unique examination of the many meanings of Dietrich. Some of the essays in this collection revisit such familiar topics as Germany’s complex relationship with Dietrich, her ambiguous sexuality, her place in the lesbian archive, her star status, and her legendary legs, but with fresh critical perspective and an emphasis on historical background. Other essays establish new avenues for understanding Dietrich’s persona. Among these are a reading of Marlene Dietrich’s ABC—an eclectic autobiographical compendium containing Dietrich’s thoughts on such diverse subjects as “steak,” “Sternberg (Joseph von),” “Stravinsky,” and “stupidity”—and an argument that Dietrich manipulated her voice—through her accent, sexual innuendo, and singing—as much as her visual image in order to convey a cosmopolitan world-weariness. Still other essays consider the specter of aging that loomed over Dietrich’s career, as well as the many imitations of the Dietrich persona that have emerged since the star’s death in 1992. Contributors. Nora M. Alter, Steven Bach, Elisabeth Bronfen, Erica Carter, Mary R. Desjardins, Joseph Garncarz, Gerd Gemünden, Mary Beth Haralovich, Amelie Hastie, Lutz Koepnick, Alice A. Kuzniar, Amy Lawrence, Judith Mayne, Patrice Petro, Eric Rentschler, Gaylyn Studlar, Werner Sudendorf, Mark Williams

Wildly entertaining, Maria Riva reveals the rich life of her mother in vivid detail. Opening with Dietrich’s childhood in Berlin, we meet an energetic, disciplined, and ambitious young actress whose own mother equated the stage with a world of vagabonds and thieves. Dietrich would quickly rise to stardom on the Berlin stage in the 1920s with her sharp wit and bisexualality—while wearing the top hat and tails that revolutionized our concept of beauty and femininity. Dietrich comes alive in these pages in all of her incarnations: as muse, artistic collaborator, bonafide movie star, box-office poison, lover, wife, and mother. She would stand up to the Nazis and galvanize American troops, eventually earning the Congressional Medal of Freedom. There were her artistic relationships with Josef von Sternberg (The Blue Angle, Morocco, Shanghai Express), Colette, Erich Maria Remarque, Noël Coward, and Cole Porter, and her heady romances. In her final years, she would make herself visibly invisible, devoting herself to the immortality of her legend. Marlene Dietrich: The Life captures this complex and astonishing woman. Maria Riva’s biography of her mother has the depth, range, and resonance of a novel and captures the conviction and passion of its remarkable subject.

Amelie Hastie rethinks female authorship within film history by expanding the historical archive to include dollhouses, scrapbooks, memoirs, cookbooks, and ephemera.

Featured in multiple “must-read” lists, No One Tells You This is “sharp, intimate…A funny, frank, and fearless memoir…and a refreshing view of the possibilities—and pitfalls—personal freedom can offer modern women” (Kirkus Reviews). If the story doesn’t end with marriage or a child, what then? This question plagued Glynnis MacNicol on the eve of her fortieth birthday. Despite a successful career as a writer, and an exciting life in New York City, Glynnis was constantly reminded she had neither of the things the world expected of a woman her age: a partner or a baby. She knew she was supposed to feel bad about this. After all, single women and those without children are often seen as objects of pity or indulgent spoiled creatures who think only of themselves. Glynnis refused to be cast into either of those roles, and yet the question remained: What now? There was no good blueprint for how to be a woman alone in the world. It was time to create one. Over the course of her fortieth year, which this ​“beguiling” (The Washington Post) memoir chronicles, Glynnis embarks on a revealing journey of self-discovery that continually contradicts everything she’d been led to expect. Through the trials of family illness and turmoil, and the thrills of far-flung travel and adventures with men, young and old (and sometimes wearing cowboy hats), she wrestles with her biggest hopes and fears about love, death, sex, friendship, and loneliness. In doing so, she discovers that holding the power to determine her own fate requires a resilience and courage that no one talks about, and is more rewarding than anyone imagines. “Amid the raft of motherhood memoirs out this summer, it’s refreshing to read a book unapologetically dedicated to the fulfillment of single life” (Vogue). No One Tells You This is an “honest” (Huffington Post) reckoning with modern womanhood and “a perfect balance between edgy and poignant” (People)—an exhilarating journey that will resonate with anyone determined to live by their own rules.

To many, Kentucky means the greatest thoroughbreds in the world. To others, it is the home of the finest bourbon. But the obvious success of burgoo, Owensboro barbeque, and Harlan Sanders's Kentucky Fried Chicken carries the state's reputation for excellence to a wider audience. From the perfect mint julep to benedictine, from a classic hot brown to cheese chutney, Kentucky's Best captures the full range of the state's culinary delights. Linda Allison-Lewis combines traditional and gourmet dishes, offering recipes from all parts of the state and from beloved restaurants and inns. Start with a mouth-watering soup from Amelia's Field Country Inn or experience the wonderful smell of the Seelbach Hotel's Sourmash Bourbon Bread as it bakes in the oven. And be sure to save room for peanut butter pie from Gambill Mansion Bed and Breakfast or a slice of Kentucky Whiskey Cake! For special meals, check out sections such as "Lunch and Teatime Favorites" and "Derby Favorites." A delight to read as well as to use, Kentucky's Best also reveals the stories behind the favorites. Whether it's the story of Old Talbott Tavern, the oldest stage-coach stop in America, or the tale of young Alma Harbin's mistaking gladiola bulbs for onions when she first prepared potato salad for her husband-to-be, Allison-Lewis reveals a flair for storytelling.

Bring the family together with this collection of budget-friendly, hearty and healthy meals, plus tips for preparation & leftovers and conversation starters. In today’s fast-paced world, many people find themselves waiting in line at fast food restaurants more often than gathering around the dinner table with loved ones. Cooking and eating together can help families grow closer, but it can be challenging for parents to put a meal on the table when time is limited and money is tight. Cook Together, Eat Together is designed to help families enjoy more home-cooked, healthy meals. Featuring easy recipes for breakfast dishes, soups, vegetables, salads, and one-pot meals, the book lays out a strategy to enable families to spend more quality time together while also preparing foods that are affordable and delicious. In addition, the authors provide a toolkit for lifestyle changes, including budgeting tips, nutrition guides, breakdowns explaining how to evaluate food labels, and even a quick guide to shopping smart at the farmers’ market. Each recipe comes with useful information?from preparation tricks that help reduce mess, to ideas for how to use leftovers, all the way to icebreakers for starting fun conversations around the table. The no-nonsense, nutritious recipes in this cookbook are designed to get the whole family in the kitchen, enjoying comforting foods, and making memories. Cook Together, Eat Together serves up tasty, budget-friendly dishes that home cooks and their kids can prepare with less stress. “Replete with full color photographic examples of mouth-watering finished dishes, Cook Together, Eat Together is thoroughly ‘user friendly’ in organization and presentation?making it a memorably ideal and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, family and community library cookbook collections.” —Midwest Book Review

Actor. Director. Musician. Heartthrob. Feminist icon (sort of). There's only one Ryan Gosling. Women want him. Men want to be him. Most Tumblr blogs are about him. No mere Hollywood pretty boy, he's a model of sensitive masculinity, symbolic of everything modern manhood should aspire to. Did you see The Notebook? Exactly. Filled with edgy humour and photos that graphically illustrate his physical perfection, 100 Reasons to Love Ryan Gosling provides scientifically irrefutable evidence of exactly why Ryan is so damn loveable. Is it because he looks good in anything? Breaks up street brawls? Is great with kids? Has no problem with nudity? It's all these things - and more.

Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an ‘economic’ entity that they count in universal units of ‘utils’ or ‘abstract labour’, respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don’t exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most – the accumulation of capital. This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape – or creorder – their society. Written in simple language, accessible to lay readers and experts alike, the book develops a novel political economy. It takes the reader through the history, assumptions and limitations of mainstream economics and its associated theories of politics. It examines the evolution of Marxist thinking on accumulation and the state. And it articulates an innovative theory of ‘capital as power’ and a new history of the ‘capitalist mode of power’.