Talk Back Barbie

The Secret Service met their match when they hired a blonde, spunky, Southern debutante from Atlanta, Georgia to join the Uniformed Division. With a mouth on fire and a will that never breaks, the one and only "Talk Back Barbie" brings chaos and laughter everywhere she goes. When rules are made to be broken and trouble is her middle name, that begs the question: what in the world will "Talk Back Barbie" do next?

Technofeminist Storiographies: Women, Information Technology, and Cultural Representation analyzes both historical and contemporary accounts of women’s lived experiences of technology, from Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr to women working across the tech industry today, and juxtaposes them with larger cultural representations of women and technology. The book explores both the relationship between gender and technology and the cultural contexts that enable and constrain that relationship, questions that call for opportunities for women to share their lived experiences and to have such experiences represented across media genres. Despite the rich, complex stories and histories women have with technology—as programmers, inventors, and workers—media throughout history, including film, television, games, toys, children’s books, and biographies, often inadequately and inaccurately represent them. Throughout the book, Kristine Blair chronicles the portrayal of the relationship between women and information technology across these media genres. Inevitably, the societal conditions that surround technology use—including portrayal through popular media—impact the extent to which women and girls gain and maintain access within those cultural contexts. This book calls for a more visible history of women’s technological achievements in which their stories are heard for generations to come, rather than be forgotten and unknown.

BARBIEr TALKS! is a free-wheeling account of life at Mattel during the “Golden Age” of the sixties and early seventies. This is the first book written by two toy designers who actually worked in the wonderful, top secret circus of Mattel’s Research and Design. BARBIEr TALKS! relates the genius, the hilarity and the craziness that, Gwen Florea and Glenda Phinney encountered in the workplace and their roles in making Talking Barbie a reality. In their well-written intersecting personal memoirs, the authors reveal the inside story of how Barbie got her voice, and why Barbie’s figure took the unrealistic shape that it did. There are both humorous and poignant stories about the antics of the toy designers and executives of Mattel. These historical events are interwoven with an honest and very readable account of the loves, marriages, and the blindly sexist business world, which triggered development of a feminine consciousness in each woman. What do Barbie Dolls do when they grow up? They have amazing lives and achieve their goals! BARBIE TALKS! is a revealing account of two women who came of age in the shadow of Barbie, and reveals a lie to the notion that Barbie was a poor influence for young women. Visit us on the web, www.barbietalks.com and see some of the fun pictures that didn’t make it into the book. We’d also love to hear from you.

Long before Snopes.com and Wikipedia, The Book of Common Fallacies set out to debunk popular beliefs and set the record straight. By tracking down the facts and citing experts in a multitude of fields, Philip Ward points out the senseless ideas that we have come to accept as fact. Newly updated with today’s common misconceptions and available as a single-volume paperback for the first time, The Book of Common Fallacies exposes the truth behind hundreds of commonly held false beliefs.

From how to deal with cyberbullying to the strange, true stories behind Barbie and G.I. Joe, media insider Bill Ratner takes an inside look at our wired-up world in a fascinating book—part memoir, part parenting guide—for the digital age. Landing his first job in advertising at age fourteen, Ratner learned early that the media doesn't necessarily have our best interests at heart. His career as one of America’s most popular voiceover artists and his life as a parent and educator gives readers a first-hand look at the effects of digital media on children and what you can do about it.

A major collection of superb "flash fiction" writing by one of Canada's best authors. Ken Rivard has published two collections of poetry and eight collections of fiction during his literary career. "CanalWatch is a collection of flash fiction written over numerous visits to Ohau, the man made waterway in Honolulu which serves as the dividing line of Waikiki on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Each story is based on the passing image of a particular person, place, event, object or overheard conversation (whether real or imagined ) in or around the La Wai Canal. Readers are invited to sit in the brief story moment of each flash fiction peice. Most times each narrative turns back on itself with the first line of this story also becoming the last line, resulting in a kind of story portrait...Occasionally, readers may be asked to suspend their disbelief. Other times, the point in time being described may appear to be too real to be untrue. Often, a particular idea or image simply asks "what if?" Then the story takes off and brings the readers along for the ride. Enjoy the "what if's" and the "not so what if's." - Ken Rivard, from the IntroductionCritical Acclaim for Ken Rivard"Rivard's writing is honest, refreshing, startling, imaginative and gets the reader emotionally involved..." - W.P. Kinsella"A master of imagery...once again Rivard treats these personal subjects with humanity." - Wendy RaJalka, Calgary Herald"Amazing collection...Such thought-provoking portraits ...render the reader party to intense moments in private life..." - Virginia Gilllham, Canadian Book Review Annual"The most impressive of Rivard's work is its tendency towards a surrealistic, dream-like quality." - Bob Attridge, Newest Review."I was born and raised on a working-class Montreal street inhabited more by rats than people. We were surrounded by fields, factories, railroad tracks and trains where, as

Jude Deveraux continues her beloved Montgomery saga in America with this dramatic, passion-filled tale of rebellion and love—a breathtaking adventure to be savored all over again—or discovered for the first time! In colonial New England, the British are hunting a fearless, masked patriot whose daring foils them at every turn. He's known simply as the Raider. Jessica Taggert, a proud-tempered beauty, thrills to the Raider's scorching midnight embrace, but despises Alexander Montgomery, the drunken town buffoon. In truth, the cleverly disguised Montgomery lives two lives...and only his triumph over the hated Redcoats will free him, at last, to know the full pleasure of Jessica's love.

While many books and articles are emerging on the new area of game studies and the application of computer games to learning, therapeutic, military and entertainment environments, few have attempted to contextualize the importance of virtual play within a broader social, cultural and political environment that raises the question of the significance of work, play, power and inequalities in the modern world. Many studies tend to concentrate on the content of virtual games, but few have questioned how power is produced or reproduced by publishers, gamers or even social media; how social exclusion (e.g., race, class, gender, etc.) in the virtual environments are reproduced from the real world; and how actors are able to use new media to transcend their fears, anxieties, prejudices and assumptions. The articles presented by the contributors in this volume represent cutting-edge research in the area of critical game play with the hope to draw attention to the need for more studies that are both sociological and critical.