This book examines the practice of portraits as a way in to grasping the paradoxes of subjectivity. To Nancy, the portrait is suspended between likeness and strangeness, identity and distance, representation and presentation, exactitude and forcefulness. It can identify an individual, but it can also express the dynamics by means of which its subject advances and withdraws. The book consists of two extended essays written a decade apart but in close conversation, in which Nancy considers the range of aspirations articulated by the portrait. Heavily illustrated, it includes a newly written preface bringing the two essays together and a substantial Introduction by Jeffrey Librett, which places Nancy's work within the range of thinking of aesthetics and the subject, from religion, to aesthetics, to psychoanalysis. Though undergirded by a powerful grasp of the philosophical and psychoanalytic tradition that has rendered our sense of the subject so problematic, Nancy's book is at heart a delightful, unpretentious reading of three dozen portraits, from ancient drinking mugs to recent experimental or parodic pieces in which the artistic representation of a sitter is made from their blood, germ cultures, or DNA. The contemporary world of ubiquitous photos, Nancy argues, in no way makes the portrait a thing of the past. On the contrary, the forms of appearing that mark the portrait continue to challenge how we see the bodies and representations that dominate our world.

In 1947 and 1948, Van Johnson was MGM's top male box office draw. "On screen he was the Pied Piper; Elizabeth Taylor's lover, he was a war pilot with Spencer Tracy," writes his friend and decorator Carleton Varney in the introduction for Van Johnson's Hollywood: A Family Album. Along the way, his wife, Evie Wynn Johnson, an amateur shutterbug captured behind-the-scenes images of their friends some of Hollywood's most famous stars, such as Gary Cooper, Judy Garland, and Humphrey Bogart on the road, on the set, around the pool, and at their Hollywood home. She put together these casual and candid images in a family album that has never been published before. Their daughter, Schuyler adds her memories to this unique document of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Whether you are a visitor or a resident, Pittsburgh celebrates families. You can take boat rides on the three rivers -- or tour the city on a trolley or duck. You can take the Duquesne Incline to see the Golden Triangle from atop Mt. Washington. There's North and South Park and all kinds of sporting facilities. You can enjoy the many different area libraries. There are theaters and farms designed to educate and entertain kids. Pittsburgh is home to the National Aviary and a great zoo. There are bridges, bridges, and bridges There's the Heinz History Center and the Carnegie Museum of Natural Sciences (dinosaur bones). You can play at the Carnegie Science Center and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. "Fun Days in Pittsburgh" is a picture book of Pat McGrath Avery's glorious photos of Pittsburgh aimed at children and the adults that love them.