Lost In The Usa

Remembered as an era of peace and prosperity, turn-of-the-millennium America was also a time of mass protest. But the political demands of the marchers seemed secondary to an urgent desire for renewal and restoration felt by people from all walks of life. Drawing on thousands of personal testimonies, Deborah Gray White explores how Americans sought better ways of living in, and dealing with, a rapidly changing world. From the Million Man, Million Woman, and Million Mom Marches to the Promise Keepers and LGBT protests, White reveals a people lost in their own country. Mass gatherings offered a chance to bond with like-minded others against a relentless tide of loneliness and isolation. By participating, individuals opened a door to self-discovery that energized their quests for order, autonomy, personal meaning, and fellowship in a society that seemed hostile to such deeper human needs. Moving forward in time, White also shows what marchers found out about themselves and those gathered around them. The result is an eye-opening reconsideration of a defining time in contemporary America.

"Nothingless than the soul of an extremely interesting human being at war on ourbehalf." —Kurt Vonnegut Astunning portrait of modern America by Colby Buzzell,the critically acclaimed author of My War: Killing Time in Iraq.Recounting his five-month journey through the country, from its thrivingcoastlines to its rust-belt wrecks, Buzzell reveals aparadoxical landscape of American dreams both achieved and broken, manifestdestinies claimed and refuted, and community ties pulled apart and patchedtogether. In the tradition of John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, Buzzell’s Lost in America uncovers the starkrealities of our national character even as it explores the deepest questionsof identity, unity, and fatherhood.

A writer renowned for his insight into the mysteries of the body now gives us a lambent and profoundly moving book about the mysteries of family. At its center lies Sherwin Nuland’s Rembrandtesque portrait of his father, Meyer Nudelman, a Jewish garment worker who came to America in the early years of the last century but remained an eternal outsider. Awkward in speech and movement, broken by the premature deaths of a wife and child, Meyer ruled his youngest son with a regime of rage, dependency, and helpless love that outlasted his death. In evoking their relationship, Nuland also summons up the warmth and claustrophobia of a vanished immigrant New York, a world that impelled its children toward success yet made them feel like traitors for leaving it behind. Full of feeling and unwavering observation, Lost in America deserves a place alongside such classics as Patrimony and Call It Sleep.

Lost in America helps inspire Christians to think and behave as missionaries here in North America. It help encourage and challenge church members to change the way they think of evangelism and begin reaching out to people in their communities. Includes practical advice and steps for churches to take towards lasting change.

For fans of The Scrambled States of America, this is an irresistible new geography picture book—featuring an adorable dog character, unbelievable facts about all fifty states, maps, capitals, and so much more! Austin grew up in a pet store, but he dreamed of finding a real home. . . . So one night he takes off with his trusty map and backpack to go in search of it. In Ohio, he is almost bitten . . . by a policeman. In Florida, he is invited for dinner . . . to be the main course. And in Oregon, he finds the world’s smallest park. Will he ever find the place where he truly belongs? Follow Austin across America on a madcap journey in which he travels to each of the fifty states. Packed with fascinating facts and doggy tidbits that seem almost too crazy to be true . . . this book makes learning geography a blast.

"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.

Koons by himself: the new definitive overview, featuring the artist's commentary on his works and career This handsomely designed volume brings together more than 60 of the artist's most iconic sculptures and paintings along with new productions and recently completed works. Edited by curator Masimilliano Gioni, the book focuses in particular on Koons' art as seen in relation to contemporary American culture. With an aesthetics of abundance remaining a constant throughout his career, Koons has composed a "fantasy America ... custom-made from art and schmaltz and emotions"--to use Warhol's description of his own interpretation of American culture. Through the inclusion of source materials, personal recollections and biographical narratives by Koons himself, the book reads each of Koons' celebrated series through the prism of his biography and the ways in which his individual history intersects with that of his country and culture. The publication composes an unconventional view of Jeff Koons and his work, retracing the personal influences and cultural histories that have shaped Koons' art. Published to accompany a major exhibition in Qatar, the catalog features an interview with Koons by the exhibition's curator along with essays by Armenian American art critic Dodie Kazanjian and Qatari American writer and artist Sophia Al Maria. Jeff Koons(born 1955) is best known for his work that engages with pop culture in dynamic and unexpected ways, such as his famous large-scale stainless steel sculptures of balloon animals. His work has been exhibited worldwide since his career took off in the 1980s and his pieces frequently break auction sales records.