The Great Recession in Fiction, Film, and Television: Twenty-First-Century Bust Culture sheds light on how imaginary works of fiction, film, and television reflect, refract, and respond to the recessionary times specific to the twenty-first century, a sustained period of economic crisis that has earned the title the "Great Recession." This collection takes as its focus "Bust Culture," a concept that refers to post-crash popular culture, specifically the kind mass produced by multinational corporations in the age of media conglomeration, which is inflected by diminishment, influenced by scarcity, and infused with anxiety. The multidisciplinary contributors collected here examine mass culture not typically included in discussions of the financial meltdown, from disaster films to reality TV hoarders, the horror genre to reactionary representations of women, Christian right radio to Batman, television characters of color to graphic novels and literary fiction. The collected essays treat our busted culture as a seismograph that registers the traumas of collapse, and locate their pop artifacts along a spectrum of ideological fantasies, social erasures, and profound fears inspired by the Great Recession. What they discover from these unlikely indicators of the recession is a mix of regressive, progressive, and bemused texts in need of critical translation.

The Great Recession in Fiction, Film, and Television: Twenty-First-Century Bust Culture sheds light on how imaginary works of fiction, film, and television reflect, refract, and respond to the recessionary times specific to the twenty-first century, a sustained period of economic crisis that has earned the title the "Great Recession." This collection takes as its focus "Bust Culture," a concept that refers to post-crash popular culture, specifically the kind mass produced by multinational corporations in the age of media conglomeration, which is inflected by diminishment, influenced by scarcity, and infused with anxiety. The multidisciplinary contributors collected here examine mass culture not typically included in discussions of the financial meltdown, from disaster films to reality TV hoarders, the horror genre to reactionary representations of women, Christian right radio to Batman, television characters of color to graphic novels and literary fiction. The collected essays treat our busted culture as a seismograph that registers the traumas of collapse, and locate their pop artifacts along a spectrum of ideological fantasies, social erasures, and profound fears inspired by the Great Recession. What they discover from these unlikely indicators of the recession is a mix of regressive, progressive, and bemused texts in need of critical translation.

Christie Plays Field Hockey is author Susan O'Hara's fourth book in the series of books designed to inspire the joy of playing team sports. The books revolve around her children, Tim and Christie, and the sports they played when they were young. Lovingly illustrated by Rebecca Barrett, this next exciting book in the series was inspired by her daughter Christie learning to play field hockey. The young reader can follow along with Christie as she tries something new - being a goalie - and falls in love with field hockey and her team. Follow along as Christie finds success and fun playing field hockey, a game she had never considered playing before. Enjoy the books with your sons and daughters as they learn about the joys of teamwork and sports. Susan O'Hara lives in Southwest Florida with her husband, Steve. She loves to play tennis, golf and yoga. She enjoyed watching her children play many high school sports, and then college field hockey and football. Her other books are Tim's First Baseball Game, Tim's First Soccer Game, and Christie Plays Softball. Next up is Tim's First Football Game and Christie Plays Lacrosse Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/SusanOHara

Christie's love of baseball and her friends inspire her to give up baseball and join her friends' softball team. What will happen to Christie when she takes the risk of giving up something she loves and faces this new and exciting challenge in life? The fun story Christie Plays Softball was inspired by the author's daughter, Christie, whose love of life and sports has led her to a successful college field hockey career. Susan O'Hara resides in southwest Florida with her husband, Steve, where she is involved in her community and enjoys tennis, golf, yoga, walking, and reading. More than anything else, however, she enjoys watching her children play college field hockey and football. She has already published Tim's First Baseball Game and Tim's First Soccer Game and is working on the next books in her sports series for children, Christie Plays Field Hockey and Tim's First Football Game. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/SusanOHara

When an older boy offers to teach Tim soccer, Tim is eager to learn more about the game. He signs up to join a team, led by a wonderful coach. When the team needs a goalie, Tim volunteers even though what he loves is scoring goals and has never played goalie. Can he step into this important role? What will Tim learn about, beyond playing the game, as he takes a risk and faces this huge test of ability and teamwork? Follow the fun adventure in Tim's First Soccer Game. Young readers will delight in the action as they learn to always do their best, both in sports and in life. Susan O'Hara resides in southwest Florida with her husband, where she is involved in her community and enjoys tennis, golf, yoga, and walking. More than anything else, however, O'Hara enjoys watching her children play college field hockey and football. She has already published Tim's First Baseball Game and is working on the next books in her sports series for children - Tim's First Football Game, Tim's First Basketball Game, Christie Plays Softball, and Christie Plays Field Hockey. Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/SusanO'Hara

The congregants thanked God that they weren't like all those hopeless people outside the church, bound for hell. So the Westboro Baptist Church's Sundayservice began, and Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a curious observer, wondered why anyone would seek spiritual sustenance through other people's damnation. It is a question that piques many a witness to Westboro's more visible activity-the "GOD HATES FAGS" picketing of funerals. In God Hates, sociologist Barrett-Fox takes us behind the scenes of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church. The first full ethnography of this infamouspresence on America's Religious Right, her book situates the church's story in the context of American religious history-and reveals as much about the uneasy state of Christian practice in our day as it does about the workings of the Westboro Church and Fred Phelps, its founder. God Hates traces WBC's theologicalbeliefs to a brand of hyper-Calvinist thought reaching back to the Puritans-an extremeCalvinism, emphasizing predestination, that has proven as off-putting as Westboro's actions, even for other Baptists. And yet, in examining Westboro's role in conservative politics and its contentious relationship with other fundamentalist activist groups,Barrett-Fox reveals how the church's message of national doom in fact reflects beliefs at the core of much of the Religious Right's rhetoric. Westboro's aggressively offensive public activities actually serve to soften the anti-gay theology of moremainstream conservative religious activism. With an eye to the church's protest at military funerals, she also considers why thepublic has responded so differently to these than to Westboro's anti-LGBT picketing.The congregants thanked God that they weren't like all those hopeless people outside the church, bound for hell. So the Westboro Baptist Church's Sunday service began, and Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a curious observer, wondered why anyone would seek spiritual sustenance through other people's damnation. It is a question that piques many a witness to Westboro's more visible activity-the "GOD HATES FAGS" picketing of funerals. In God Hates, sociologist Barrett-Fox takes us behind the scenes of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church. The first full ethnography of this infamous presence on America's Religious Right, her book situates the church's story in the context of American religious history-and reveals as much about the uneasy state of Christian practice in our day as it does about the workings of the Westboro Church and Fred Phelps, its founder. God Hates traces WBC's theological beliefs to a brand of hyper-Calvinist thought reaching back to the Puritans-an extreme Calvinism, emphasizing predestination, that has proven as off-putting as Westboro's actions, even for other Baptists. And yet, in examining Westboro's role in conservative politics and its contentious relationship with other fundamentalist activist groups, Barrett-Fox reveals how the church's message of national doom in fact reflects beliefs at the core of much of the Religious Right's rhetoric. Westboro's aggressively offensive public activities actually serve to soften the anti-gay theology of more mainstream conservative religious activism. With an eye to the church's protest at military funerals, she also considers why the public has responded so differently to these than to Westboro's anti-LGBT picketing. With its history of Westboro Baptist Church and its founder, and its profiles of defectors, this book offers a complex, close-up view of a phenomenon on the fringes of American Christianity-and a broader, disturbing view of the mainstream theology it at once masks and reflects.