Was Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor based on Aleister Crowley? Can Captain Marvel be linked to the Sun gods on antiquity? In Our Gods Wear Spandex, Christopher Knowles answers these questions and brings to light many other intriguing links between superheroes and the enchanted world of estoerica. Occult students and comic-book fans alike will discover countless fascinating connections, from little known facts such as that DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz started his career as H.P. Lovecraft's agent, to the tantalizingly extensive influence of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy on the birth of comics, to the mystic roots of Superman. The book also traces the rise of the comic superheroes and how they relate to several cultural trends in the late 19th century, specifically the occult explosion in Western Europe and America. Knowles reveals the four basic superhero archetypes—the Messiah, the Golem, the Amazon, and the Brotherhood—and shows how the occult Bohemian... Views: 71
HE WAS THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY MALE
The kind a small-town girl like Marly Jessop had rarely -- if ever --
seen in the flesh. Deacon Cage arrived in Mission Creek, Texas, like a
specter in the night, stealthy and secretive. And his ability to stir
Marly's feminine senses was like no other man's....
But she didn't have time for female fantasies. As local deputy, Marly
had her hands full with a rash of suspicious suicides. Could there be a
link between them and the killer Deacon came to catch? And would Marly
survive her run-in with the desirable Deacon? Views: 70
Dorothy Martin's neighbor and closest friend, Jane Langland, has been having a fling with Bill Fanshawe--or, as much of a fling as two 80-year olds in a small town are allowed. Now there are rumors that Jane and Bill may move in together, and Dorothy needs to know exactly what's happening. What neither woman expects is that Bill is missing, and that within a day his body is going to be discovered in the tunnel under the Sherebury town museum. Why would anyone want to harm a harmless old man, a historian who loves the town and the people who live there? Given his age, and the strange letter found in his hand, Dorothy thinks that whatever happened has its roots in WWII. Everyone, including her husband, retired police office Alan, looks askance, but when another old man is murdered--a man who served at the same RAF base as Bill--no one denies Dorothy's suspicions may be right. Dorothy investigates, knowing that the best Christmas gift she can give her friend Jane is the truth about what happened to Bill. And Jane has a surprise of her own for Dorothy... ** Views: 70
They were called a generation without heroes. Then they were called upon to be heroes. Within hours of 9/11, America’s war on terrorism fell to those like the twenty-three Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam. They were a new pop-culture breed of American warrior unrecognizable to their forebears—soldiers raised on hip hop, video games and The Real World. Cocky, brave, headstrong, wary and mostly unprepared for the physical, emotional and moral horrors ahead, the “First Suicide Battalion” would spearhead the blitzkrieg on Iraq, and fight against the hardest resistance Saddam had to offer. Now a major HBO event, Generation Kill is the national bestselling book based on the National Magazine Award- winning story in Rolling Stone. It is the funny, frightening, and profane firsthand account of these remarkable men, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality and camaraderie of a new American War. Views: 70
In December 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington made headlines when it responded to protests from the Catholic League by voluntarily censoring an excerpt of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly from its show on American portraiture.Why a work of art could stir such emotions is at the heart of Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly, the first biography of a beleaguered art-world figure who became one of the most important voices of his generation. Wojnarowicz emerged from a Dickensian childhood that included orphanages, abusive and absent parents, and a life of hustling on the street. He first found acclaim in New York's East Village, a neighborhood noted in the 1970s and '80s for its abandoned buildings, junkies, and burgeoning art scene. Along with Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wojnarowicz helped redefine art for the times.As uptown art collectors looked downtown for the next big thing, this community of cultural outsiders... Views: 70
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA Views: 70
The United States is obsessed with virginity — from the media to schools to government agencies. In The Purity Myth Jessica Valenti argues that the country's intense focus on chastity is damaging to young women. Through in-depth cultural and social analysis, Valenti reveals that powerful messaging on both extremes — ranging from abstinence curriculum to "Girls Gone Wild" infomercials — place a young woman's worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, rather than values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti sheds light on the value — and hypocrisy — around the notion that girls remain virgin until they're married by putting into context the historical question of purity, modern abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex. The Purity Myth presents a revolutionary argument that girls and women are overly valued for their sexuality, as well as solutions for a future without a... Views: 70
In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, two men--the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer--met in the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film. Thirty years later, David Edmonds and John Eidinow, authors of the national bestseller Wittgenstein's Poker, have set out to reexamine the story we recollect as the quintessential cold war clash between a lone American star and the Soviet chess machine--a machine that had delivered the world title to the Kremlin for decades. Drawing upon unpublished Soviet and U.S. records, the authors reconstruct the full and incredible saga, one far more poignant and layered than hitherto believed.... Views: 70
The brilliant sequel to Road to Perdition, Max Allan Collins' masterpiece of crime fiction that became both a literary and cinematic classic. Michael O'Sullivan returns from WWII and infiltrates the mob to avenge his family from within. Views: 70
