This immensely likeable satire of the American civilizing mission in Okinawa was a phenomenon when it was published in 1951. The many-layered novel retains its charm and power today; beneath the comical mayhem that engulfs the village Tobiki we see the pitfalls and possibilities of cultural exchange and nation-building.

A Pail of Oysters tells the moving story of nineteen-year-old villager Li Liu and his quest to recover his family's stolen kitchen god. Li Liu's fate becomes entwined with that of an American journalist who investigates the situation beyond the propaganda, learns of a massacre, and is drawn into the world of the Formosan underground.

Glenn Ford—star of such now-classic films as Gilda, Blackboard Jungle, The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Rounders—had rugged good looks, a long and successful career, and a glamorous Hollywood life. Yet the man who could be accessible and charming on screen retreated to a deeply private world he created behind closed doors. Glenn Ford: A Life chronicles the volatile life, relationships, and career of the renowned actor, beginning with his move from Canada to California and his initial discovery of theater. It follows Ford’s career in diverse media—from film to television to radio—and shows how Ford shifted effortlessly between genres, playing major roles in dramas, noir, westerns, and romances. This biography by Glenn Ford’s son, Peter Ford, offers an intimate view of a star’s private and public life. Included are exclusive interviews with family, friends, and professional associates, and snippets from the Ford family collection of diaries, letters, audiotapes, unpublished interviews, and rare candid photos. This biography tells a cautionary tale of Glenn Ford’s relentless infidelities and long, slow fade-out, but it also embraces his talent-driven career. The result is an authentic Hollywood story that isn’t afraid to reveal the truth. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

Prolific literature, both popular and scholarly, depicts America in the period of the High Cold War as being obsessed with normality, implicitly figuring the postwar period as a return to the way of life that had been put on hold, first by the Great Depression and then by Pearl Harbor. Demographic Angst argues that mandated normativity—as a political agenda and a social ethic—precluded explicit expression of the anxiety produced by America’s radically reconfigured postwar population. Alan Nadel explores influential non-fiction books, magazine articles, and public documents in conjunction with films such as Singin’ in the Rain, On the Waterfront, Sunset Boulevard, and Sayonara, to examine how these films worked through fresh anxieties that emerged during the 1950s.

"Shin Yu Pai is a poet known for her wide-ranging collaborations and creative practice engaged as much in physical space as the page. With its blend of personal essays reflecting on the development of her poetics, Ensō places new work next to old, to create not only a mid-career retrospective, but a guidebook for poets interested in moving their practice off the page and into the world around them. From her early work in place-based and ekphrastic poetry to her current experimentation with installation and projections, Ensō highlights the creative process to her poetry--the identities that resonate for her--and her thoughts on cultural hybridity, exchange and appropriation. She speaks deeply of how motherhood transformed her views of what is possible in poetry, reconnecting to her immigrant mother's creative legacy, and how personal and systematic racism and misogyny have shaped her practice, while inviting the reader into a deeper conversation about how a poet writes with and about their community"--

THE STORY: As told by McClain in the New York Journal-American: ...pursues the career of an Army of Occupation officer stationed in a remote town in Okinawa. His duty is to teach Democracy to the natives, and there is a stern and stupid Colonel brea

In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Yoko Kawaguchi explores the Western portrayal of Japanese women—and geishas in particular—from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. She argues that in the West, Japanese women have come to embody certain ideas about feminine sexuality, and she analyzes how these ideas have been expressed in diverse art forms, ranging from fiction and opera to the visual arts and music videos. Among the many works Kawaguchi discusses are the art criticism of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the opera Madama Butterfly, the sculptures of Rodin, the Broadway play Teahouse of the August Moon, and the international best seller Memoirs of a Geisha. Butterfly’s Sisters also examines the impact on early twentieth-century theatre, drama, and dance theory of the performance styles of the actresses Madame Hanako and Sadayakko, both formerly geishas.

A satire, on some of today's ideas and attitudes, recounting the adventures of a Southeast Asian boy who goes to college in Ashtabula, Ohio, but is called home to be king of the Nakashima Islands.

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year "Brando’s Smile returns us to the power of his greatest performances." —Dan Chiasson, New York Review of Books When people think about Marlon Brando they think of the movie star, the hunk, the scandals. Here, Susan L. Mizruchi—who gained unprecedented access to Brando’s letters, audiotapes, revised screenplays, and books—reveals the complex man whose intelligence belies the high-school dropout. She shows how Brando’s embrace of foreign cultures and social outsiders led to his brilliant performances in unusual roles to test himself and to foster empathy in his audience.