Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster enclaves while the cassette’s likeness pops up on T-shirts, coffee mugs, belt buckles, and cell phone cases. In Unspooled, Rob Drew traces how a lowly, hissy format that began life in office dictation machines and cheap portable players came to be regarded as a token of intimate expression through music and a source of cultural capital. Drawing on sources ranging from obscure music zines to transcripts of Congressional hearings, Drew examines a moment in the early 1980s when music industry representatives argued that the cassette encouraged piracy. At the same time, 1980s indie rock culture used the cassette as a symbol to define itself as an outsider community. Indie’s love affair with the cassette culminated in the mixtape, which advanced indie’s image as a gift economy. By telling the cassette’s long and winding history, Drew demonstrates that sharing cassettes became an acceptable and meaningful mode of communication that initiated rituals of independent music recording, re-recording, and gifting.

The Anatomy of an Actor series takes ten roles by a single actor, each studied in a dedicated chapter, and identifies the key elements that made the performances exceptional - carefully examining the actor's craft for both a professional audience and movie fans alike. Tom Cruise (born 1962), first cast by Francis Ford Coppola in The Outsiders (1983), gained international notoriety in the mid-1980s thanks to Tony Scott's Top Gun (1986). One of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood, Cruise has oriented his career to blockbusters, starring in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005) and the Mission: Impossible series (1996, 2000, 2006, 2011) An accessible text combines both a narrative and analytical dimension and is illustrated by 300 film stills, set photographs and film sequences.

Thomas Black is Vice President of Engineering at Fairfield Electric Cooperative in Blythewood, South Carolina. He is a member and deacon at Sandy Level Baptist Church in Blythewood. He is married to Cynthia, a wonderful wife of eighteen years, and stays busy raising two teenagers, Shelley and Jordan. In 2010, he served as the project coordinator for the Gavilan-Patastule Suspended Bridge near the town of Matiguas in Nicaragua. Thomas graduated from the University of South Carolina at Lancaster in 1989 with an Associate in Science, and from Clemson University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He is a registered Professional Engineer with the state of South Carolina. Losing two high school friends in 2009 would cause Thomas Black to reflect back not only on his childhood but on how short life really is. It would cause him to take a fresh look at his own life, at the accomplishments at his job, and ask himself a question: Is this it; is this all there is to lifemoney and daily routines? Then, as he sat at the computer late one night in March of 2010, searching his mind for answers, he fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke, somewhat startled, he quickly realized what had just happenedJesus had given him a life vision. He prayed that night for God to give him another mountain to climb and a physical sign that he was being called out of the boat. The answers to those two questions came, with God not only showing him the mountain and the physical sign he had prayed for but taking him on a faith journey that would change his life forever. Then in September, after venting in an e-mail to his pastor about his unanswered prayers for another church to become involved in the mission project and for the fundraising to end with a miracle that only God could do, God provided answers to both of those prayersthe next night! For Thomas, 2010 would quickly become a spiritual marker. Ten One-Dollar Bills not only tells the story of this incredible journey but reminds us that life is a journey, not a destination, and as with any journey, serving the Lord + loving people = purpose. We are all challenged to get out of the boatmove beyond comfortlove without limitthat is where well discover not only who we truly are, but the bounty of Christ. REVIEW: Read the book from cover to cover. An absolutely amazing and compelling story. The courage you have shown in your walk with the Lord is very inspiring to me. And when reading it, in between tears and joy, all I felt was Gods healing grace. Thank you so much. Ken Frantz

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.