Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies looks at how film shapes identity. Through ten cleverly constructed essays, Ison explores how a lifetime of movie-watching has, for better or worse, taught her how to navigate the world and how to grapple with issues of career, family, faith, illness, sex, and love. Cinema is a universal cultural experience, one that floods our senses with images and sounds, a powerful force that influences our perspective on the world around us. Ison discusses the universal aspects of film as she makes them personal, looking at how certain films across time shaped and molded who she has become. Drawing on a wide ranging catalog of films, both cult and classic, popular and art-house, Reeling Through Life examines how cinema shapes our views on how to make love, how to deal with mental illness, how to be Jewish, how to be a woman, how to be a drunk, and how to die with style. Rather than being a means of escape or object of mere entertainment, Ison posits that cinema is a more engaging form of art, a way to slip into other identities and inhabit other realities. A way to orient oneself into the world. Reeling Though Life is a compelling look at one popular art form and how it has influenced our identities in provocative and important ways.

Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at the Movies looks at how film shapes identity. Through ten cleverly constructed essays, Ison explores how a lifetime of movie-watching has, for better or worse, taught her how to navigate the world and how to grapple with issues of career, family, faith, illness, sex, and love. Cinema is a universal cultural experience, one that floods our senses with images and sounds, a powerful force that influences our perspective on the world around us. Ison discusses the universal aspects of film as she makes them personal, looking at how certain films across time shaped and molded who she has become. Drawing on a wide ranging catalog of films, both cult and classic, popular and art-house, Reeling Through Life examines how cinema shapes our views on how to make love, how to deal with mental illness, how to be Jewish, how to be a woman, how to be a drunk, and how to die with style. Rather than being a means of escape or object of mere entertainment, Ison posits that cinema is a more engaging form of art, a way to slip into other identities and inhabit other realities. A way to orient oneself into the world. Reeling Though Life is a compelling look at one popular art form and how it has influenced our identities in provocative and important ways.

Finding the perfect cup of coffee in Seattle is easy. Finding a guy, not so much--unless that guy finds you...in the most unexpected way. Snap. Click. Snap. Molly steers clear of anything that doesn't have her behind the lens of her trusty camera. That is her passion, her love and her life. Being an award-winning photographer who creates countless book covers for authors all over the world has its perks--half-naked men, for starters. Always looking but never touching--mixing business with pleasure is a big no-no in her line of work. Molly never could picture herself having a happily ever after like the romance novels where her cover shots are featured. There are plenty of fish in the sea, but what happens when you get clobbered by one--literally? Molly finds herself being the catch of the day in Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market. After meeting Owen, a sexy fisherman with stormy-gray eyes, everything changes. Not ready to take the plunge and dive into this romance, Molly finds herself barely keeping above water as she swims in a sea of new emotions and wild love. She isn't so sure she is cut out for this relationship, but Owen sets out to prove that fate has him Reeling in Love. Will Owen and Molly sail off into the sunset or will Molly be the one that got away, only to stay...Single in Seattle?

“The deep relevance and the nuanced portrayal of the myriad effects of abuse on [the characters] lives are skillfully done. Layered and disquieting.” —Kirkus Reviews Award-winning author Lola Lafon continues her exploration of the psyches of young girls–their fragility, their resilience. Fontenay, a Parisian suburb, 1984. Cléo is twelve when her parents prod her into taking ballet classes. She drops out after a long year of feeling lost, not classy nor graceful enough, and undoubtedly not as rich as the other kids. By chance, she signs up for Modern Jazz class at a MJC–a state funded organization whose mission is to provide access to art and culture to all children. Modern Jazz is her calling, and soon Cléo is transformed, working out constantly, dreaming of becoming a professional dancer. That’s when she catches the attention of Cathy, an elegant middle-aged woman, who is a talent scout for Galatée–a foundation that gives fellowships to exceptionally gifted teenagers. Fascinated by Cathy and the many gifts with which this providential “godmother” is showering her, Cléo introduces her to her parents, receiving their blessing to spend more time with her, ultimately falling prey to Galatée’s trap. “The great strength of Reeling is the way Lafon weaves together social failures that, on the surface, seem quite disparate.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “An immersive, captivating story.” —Buzz magazine, UK “An impassioned novel on the consequences of sexual exploitation and the dead ends of forgiveness.” —Pages of Hackney, London “Lola Lafon writes for all those who have stayed in the shadows, all those whose voices cannot be heard, shaking off the contemporary mythology of powerful women.” —France-Amerique

"Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol or sex: it was film. After moving to L.A., Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships. Set in the nascent days of L.A.'s alternative comedy scene, Oswalt's memoir chronicles his journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way"--

Ball is the thrilling and emotionally provocative debut collection of short fiction by the acclaimed author of the novels Rockaway and A Child Out of Alcatraz and the essay collection Reeling through Life. Ball explores the darker edges of love and sex and death, how they are intimately and often violently connected, with bright, vivid stories set mostly in contemporary Los Angeles. In “Cactus,” a young girl comes to fear the outside world following the freakish, accidental death of her adventure-seeking, naturalist boyfriend in the California desert; in “Wig,” a woman must help her best friend face life-threatening cancer while covering up an unseemly affair with her friend’s husband; in “Fish,” the narrator sits watch over a dying uncle, trying to pay for past sins while administering to his final needs, but distracted by the ravenous fish in the Koi pond near the hospital; and in the collection’s stunning title story, the bonds of friendship and pet ownership collide in the most startling and unexpected ways. With a keen insight into the edges of human behavior and an assured literary hand, Ball is the new book by one of the West’s most provocative stylists.

"Reeling in the Years illustrates the wide range of emotions at work in younger/older gay male relationships - from fear and loathing to love and happiness. Beneath the bitchy asides, passionate relationships, rock-solid friendships, and hateful distrust, men struggle to answer the question: "Can older gay men really be friends with younger gay men?" In their own words, hundreds of men discuss what it's like to be 16, 28, 40, or 70, examining myth and reality about age and aging from different attitudes and perspectives."--Jacket.

Searing, and yet enormously compelling, this stinging portrait of the downward spiral of a mother and young daughter will haunt the reader's days and dreams. Olivia grows up in a neighborhood like most others--except it is on the island of Alcatraz, where there is no escape.

A comprehensive study of theology and film that explores how the Christian faith is portrayed in film throughout history.