A powerful way to master every performance in your career and life, from presentations and sales pitches to interviews and tough conversations, drawing on the methods the author applied as a working actor and has honed over a decade of coaching salespeople, marketers, managers, and business owners.

George Pelecanos calls Thomas Kaufman "a welcome new voice in Washington, D.C., crime fiction." Willis Gidney needs money because he's found a girl. No, no, not that kind of girl. This is an abandoned baby girl. Gidney found her on a case. So he hands the girl to the cops, right? Wrong, because Gidney started life the same way---abandoned. He knows all about D.C.'s juvenile-justice system, having barely survived it himself. That makes it hard to give up the girl. Too bad that unmarried private eyes aren't usually thought of as ideal parents. So now Gidney needs a lawyer, and that means money. Enter Rush Gemelli, a code-writing hacker who pays Gidney to commit a felony. Just a small one. Nothing serious, really, but you know how these things can snowball. Gidney thinks this is a onetime venture, but Gemelli has other ideas. He blackmails Gidney into joining up with his father, Chuck, the head of the motion picture lobby in D.C. And when Chuck's former partner is murdered, it looks like someone may be playing Gidney. Add to that the unwanted attentions of a crazed actress, the D.C. case worker from hell, and the Vietnamese and Salvadoran gangs out to kill him, and it's all Gidney can do to keep from getting his movie ticket punched--permanently. A unique hero, a quirky cast, and a riveting mystery make Steal the Show a winner.

Enjoy carnival rides and deep fried pickles in this warm, funny middle-grade novel about family and friendship. Miranda is the lead singer in her family's musical band, Miranda y Los Reyes. Her family has worked hard performing at festivals and quinceañeras. Now, they have a shot at the main stage. How will Miranda make it a performance to remember? Flor's family runs the petting zoo at Mr. Barsetti's carnival. When she accidentally overhears Mr. Barsetti and Miranda's dad talk about cutting the zoo to accommodate Miranda y Los Reyes's main stage salary, she knows she has to take action. Will she have the heart for sabotage once she and Miranda actually start to become friends?

Stealing the Show is a study of African American actors in Hollywood during the 1930s, a decade that saw the consolidation of stardom as a potent cultural and industrial force. Petty focuses on five performers whose Hollywood film careers flourished during this period—Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Lincoln “Stepin Fetchit” Perry, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Hattie McDaniel—to reveal the “problematic stardom” and the enduring, interdependent patterns of performance and spectatorship for performers and audiences of color. She maps how these actors—though regularly cast in stereotyped and marginalized roles—employed various strategies of cinematic and extracinematic performance to negotiate their complex positions in Hollywood and to ultimately “steal the show.” Drawing on a variety of source materials, Petty explores these stars’ reception among Black audiences and theorizes African American viewership in the early twentieth century. Her book is an important and welcome contribution to the literature on the movies.

From a leading cultural journalist, the definitive cultural history of female showrunners—including exclusive interviews with such influential figures as Shonda Rhimes, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, and many more. “An urgent and entertaining history of the transformative powers of women in TV” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). In recent years, women have radically transformed the television industry both behind and in front of the camera. From Murphy Brown to 30 Rock and beyond, these shows and the extraordinary women behind them have shaken up the entertainment landscape, making it look as if equal opportunities abound. But it took decades of determination in the face of outright exclusion to reach this new era. In this “sharp, funny, and gorgeously researched” (Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker) book, veteran journalist Joy Press tells the story of the maverick women who broke through the barricades and the iconic shows that redefined the television landscape starting with Diane English and Roseanne Barr—and even incited controversy that reached as far as the White House. Drawing on a wealth of original interviews with the key players like Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls), Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black), and Jill Soloway (Transparent) who created storylines and characters that changed how women are seen and how they see themselves, this is the exhilarating behind-the-scenes story of a cultural revolution.

Steal the Stars, a debut novel by Nat Cassidy, is based on the science fiction podcast from Tor Labs, written by Mac Rogers. Dakota “Dak” Prentiss guards the biggest secret in the world. They call it “Moss.” It’s your standard grey alien from innumerable abduction stories. It still sits at the controls of the spaceship it crash-landed eleven years ago. A secret military base was built around the crash site to study both Moss and the dangerous technology it brought to Earth. The day Matt Salem joins her security team, Dak’s whole world changes. It’s love at first sight—which is a problem, since they both signed ironclad contracts vowing not to fraternize with other military personnel. If they run, they’ll be hunted for what they know. Dak and Matt have only way to be together: do the impossible. Steal Moss and sell the secret of its existence. And they can’t afford a single mistake.

A single-volume guide to recreating 100 top-selected synthesizer sounds from hit songs provides illustrated two-page spreads that list details about how the sound was originally created on professional-grade synthesizers and how to create the same sounds today using modern plug-ins and readily available software instruments. Original.