"Should you encounter any of the plants in this book, do not treat them lightly. They can kill you. Or cause you unbearable agony. Or land you in jail. Consider yourself warned." Science, history, mystery, and horror intersect in a brilliantly illustrated compendium that explains how certain plants evolved to avoid being eaten--and how their toxic chemicals have been used by humans for medicine, warfare, and sinister acts of foul play. Award-winning science writer Rebecca E. Hirsch shines an informative and entertaining light on Mother Nature's ghoulish garden, from a hallucinogenic fungus linked to the Salem Witch Trials (ergot), to the weed that killed Abe Lincoln's mother (white snakeroot).

When a clinical psychologist enters his waiting room in 1999 to summon his new client, he notices all the chairs are empty. Suddenly, his eyes fall upon a woman crouched in the corner with her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a protective posture. Dr. Hirsch has just met Anne, a woman who would eventually relay an unforgettable story of incredible abuse and amazing survival as she gathered the courage to escape the darkness of cult abuse.

Within the walls of a strict and isolated religious community that advocated traditional values and social responsibility, another reality lurked. As Dr. Hirsch delves deep into Anne's past, she begins to expose a history of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by leaders of a religious cult who kept children in cages, ruled mysterious deaths accidental, and tragically misused religion to justify the acts. As Dr. Hirsch questions why such incomprehensible acts occurred in the first place, a powerful and trusting relationship ensues between Anne and her therapist, changing both of them forever.

As Anne summons the strength to testify against cult leaders, a captivating story of resilience is revealed, providing wonderful insight into how psychotherapy helped lead one woman out of the darkness and into the light.

From stars like Britney Spears and Mariah Carey to classic icons like Yoko Ono, female musicians have long been the target of double standards and toxic labels in the media and pop culture: liar, crazy, snake, diva, slut, b*tch. These words can hurt all of us. The popular expression "sticks and stones" is wildly wrong. And the wounds are everywhere. Lily Hirsch confronts the full range of this sexist labeling as well as the repercussions, concentrating on the experiences of Yoko Ono, Courtney Love, Britney Spears, FKA twigs, Taylor Swift, Kesha, Mariah Carey, and Ariana Grande, among many others. While men can make outrageous backstage demands, women like Carey are punished as "divas." A sign of supposed genius for men, "crazy" is a word of condemnation for many women-with legal ramifications in Spears' case. Hirsch dives into the world of these women, looking at their personal lives, relationships and breakups, music, media coverage, public reception, as well as the origins of these toxic labels and how they have caused serious damage. With this focus, the book reveals the inner workings of misogyny and invites us to think about these remarkable women on their own terms-showing us how women have fought back too, sometimes reclaiming these words and their own story through music.

This book is the first to address in a serious way the impact and meaning of the music of “Weird Al� Yankovic. Though everyone knows his name, Yankovic is often dismissed as a novelty. His music builds on a rich American tradition of parody song, with many levels of signification—humorous, insulting, political, often at the same time. His songs, including his original compositions, make us laugh but also have a point of view, be it on society, popular culture, food, or words themselves. Very few other artists have created music so dense in meaning and for so long, and it’s high time we recognize Yankovic’s cloyingly humorous appeal. Through original interviews with the man himself, Lily Hirsch addresses Yankovic’s relationship to past parody song as well as his unique approach to the art form. Focusing mainly on his fourteen studio albums, the book explores his music based on themes like insult, politics, race, and word abuse. It also discusses his reputation as one of the music industry’s good guys. In today’s age of incivility (political and otherwise), his nice-guy persona stands out and has helped win him fiercely loyal fans who’ve found in his music a certain acceptance and affirmation. This book is for those fans but also invites music enthusiasts of all stripes to consider and reconsider Yankovic’s music.

Featuring even more insights on "Weird Al" Yankovic including his activities during a tumultuous 2020 and 2021, this expanded edition dives deeper into the world of the iconic man who has made a career out of making us laugh. Funny music is often dismissed as light and irrelevant, but Yankovic's fourteen successful studio albums prove there is more going on than comedic music's reputation suggests. Lily Hirsch weaves together original interviews with the prince of parody himself, creating a fresh take on comedy and music's complicated romance. She reveals that Yankovic's jests have always had a deeper meaning, addressing such topics as bullying, celebrity, and racial and gender stereotypes, and that his music served as a much-needed bright spot for many fans. From his love of accordions and Hawaiian print shirts to his popular puns and trademark dance moves, Weird Al is undeterred by those who say funny music is nothing but a low-brow pastime. And thank goodness. With his good-guy grace still intact, Yankovic remains unapologetically and unmistakably himself. Reveling in the mischief and wisdom of Yankovic's over forty-year career, this book is an Al-expense-paid tour of a true comedic and musical genius.

This iconoclastic book proposes that superconductivity is misunderstood in contemporary science and that this hampers scientific and technological development. Superconductivity is the ability of some metals to carry electric current without resistance at very low temperatures. Properly understanding superconductivity would facilitate finding materials that superconduct at room temperature, providing great benefits to society.The conventional BCS theory of superconductivity, developed in 1957 and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972, is generally believed to fully explain the lower temperature 'conventional superconductors' but not the more recently discovered 'high temperature superconductors', for which the charge carriers are positive Holes rather than negative electrons. Instead, this book proposes the holistic view that Holes are responsible for superconductivity in all materials. It explains in simple terms how the most fundamental property of all superconductors, that they expel H-fields (the Meissner effect), can be understood with Hole carriers and cannot be explained by BCS. It describes the historical development of the conventional theory and why it went astray, and credits pre-BCS researchers for important insights that were forgotten after BCS but are in fact relevant for the proper understanding of superconductivity.The book's author, Jorge E Hirsch, is a renowned expert in the field of condensed matter physics who has published over 250 articles on the subject. He has developed the theory of 'Hole superconductivity', the focus of this book, over the last 30 years. He is also the inventor of the H-index, a bibliometric measure of scientific impact which, he admits in this book, fails to identify high scientific achievement in the field of superconductivity.

Insulting Music explores insult in and around music and demonstrates that insult is a key dimension of Western musical experience and practice. There is insult in the music we hear, how we express our musical preferences, as well as our reactions to settings and sites of music and music making. More than that, when music and insult overlap, the effects can both promote social justice or undermine it, foster connection or break it apart. The coming together of music and insult shapes our sense of self and view of other people, underlining and constructing difference, often in terms of race and gender. In the last decade, music's power dynamics have become an increasingly important concern for music scholars, critics, and fans. Studying musicians such as Frank Zappa, Nickleback, Taylor Swift, and the Insane Clown Posse, and musical phenomena such as musician jokes, the use of music to torture people, and the playing of music in restaurants, this book shows the various and contradictory ways insults are used to negotiate those existing dynamics in and around music.

A book for kids filled with jokes and fun ideas for April 1st.

"The War in American Culture" explores the role of World War II in the transformation of American social, cultural, and political life.
World War II posed a crisis for American culture: to defeat the enemy, Americans had to unite across the class, racial and ethnic boundaries that had long divided them. Exploring government censorship of war photography, the revision of immigration laws, Hollywood moviemaking, swing music, and popular magazines, these essays reveal the creation of a new national identity that was pluralistic, but also controlled and sanitized. Concentrating on the home front and the impact of the war on the lives of ordinary Americans, the contributors give us a rich portrayal of family life, sexuality, cultural images, and working-class life in addition to detailed consideration of African Americans, Latinos, and women who lived through the unsettling and rapidly altered circumstances of wartime America.