This stimulating little chapbook would work very well as a basis for classroom debate on speculative fiction, history, or the notion of free will. - Publishers Weekly The foremost writer of literary utopias.' - Time magazine Its no coincidence that one of our most visionary science fiction writers is also a profoundly good nature writer.' ...

A rich, southern voice tells the unforgettable story of two vulnerable outsiders, the lightning strike that turns their world upside down and the true meaning of lucky. Nate Harlow would love to be lucky, just once!He'd like to win a prize, get picked first, call a coin toss right, even! But his best friend, Genesis Beam (aka Gen), believes in science and logic, and she doesn't think for one second that there's such a thing as luck, good or bad. She doesn't care what names the other kids call them. She cares about being right, about saving the turtles of Paradise Beach, and she cares about Nate.Then, on his birthday, at the Goofy Golf mini-golf course, Nate is struck by lightning -- and survives! Suddenly baseballs are drawn to his bat-popular kids want HIM on their side. It seems the whole town of Paradise Beach thinks Nate has the magic touch. But is there room for Gen in Nate's lucky new world?Lucky Strike tells the unforgettable story of two vulnerable outsiders and what luck is really all about.

Many objects are beautiful; and many creations are functional. But only few achieve enduring status. The "Design Classics" series presents such select products that have set standards in form, function and brand communication. Each monograph is a richly illustrated essay and product portrait, from conception to production, from prototype to collectors' item.

Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch: Thinking About Television’s Mad Men explores the attributes of the AMC series that allow it to be such a popular and vital contribution to contemporary cultural discourse. Set in the 1960s in New York, the Emmy and Peabody-winning series Mad Men follows the competitive, seductive, and oftentimes ruthless lives of the men and women of Madison Avenue’s advertising agencies. Many alluring and captivating qualities constitute the Mad Men experience: the way it evokes nostalgia, even from those who did not live in the era being portrayed; its interrogations into identities, and how these interrogations of the past illuminate viewers’ concepts of the present; the compelling (and often heartbreaking) relationships between characters who are trying to make their way in an ever changing and increasingly complex world; the titillation of the characters’ discovery of the powers of mass mediated communication and its abilities to allow learning, information sharing, manipulation, and connection; and, of course, the striking differences in sex roles and sexuality in the workplace that simultaneously celebrates and challenges views of gendered progress in contemporary times. Twenty-six authors – most coming from academic posts but others from practitioner, administrator, or cultural critic positions – come together to explore these themes through eighteen engaging and thoughtful essays and an illuminating introduction, each unique to this collection and exploring a particular aspect of the series through a different academic lens.

Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling bestseller and National Book Finalist is a gritty, high-stakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties. In America's flooded Gulf Coast region, oil is scarce, but loyalty is scarcer. Grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people. Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life.... In this powerful novel, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a fast-paced adventure set in the vivid and raw, uncertain future of his companion novels The Drowned Cities and Tool of War. "Suzanne Collins may have put dystopian literature on the YA map with The Hunger Games...but Bacigalupi is one of the genre's masters, employing inventively terrifying details in equally imaginative story lines." —Los Angeles Times A New York Times Bestseller A Michael L. Printz Award Winner A National Book Award Finalist A VOYA 2010 Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers Book A Rolling Stone 40 Best YA Novels Book Don’t miss the other books in the series: The Drowned Cities Tool of War

In 1951, a critic in Downbeat magazine wrote that Sue Bennett was "one of the coming female singers in the country." Bennett was a featured singer on several network shows during TV's early years, including Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge, The Freddy Martin Show, and Your Hit Parade. Decades later, Andrew Fielding began exploring the period of live television, via the shows on which his mother sang. His resulting portrait of the era - which includes conversations with such early television luminaries as Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, Raymond Scott, Merv Griffin, Arthur Penn, and Kay Kyser - is both enlightening, and captivating.