Under Their Thumb

At age sixteen, Bill German began publishing a Rolling Stones fanzine out of his bedroom in Brooklyn. And when he presented an issue to the band on a street in New York, he obviously made an impression: before he knew it, the Stones had hired him to document their career, inviting him in to the studio and to their private jam sessions. He traveled the world with them, stayed at their homes, and, for almost two decades, witnessed their wild parties and nasty feuds. Yet through it all, he never lost his identity as that “nice boy from Brooklyn.” Under Their Thumb is a fish-out-of-water tale about a fan who wanted to know everything about his favorite rock group—and suddenly learned too much. This updated edition, published to mark the Stones’ sixtieth anniversary, features forty new pages of text and more than thirty never-before-seen photos.

Women write about their experiences of loving music that doesn’t love them back – a feminist 'guilty pleasures'.e - a kind of feminist guilty pleasures. In the majority of mainstream writing and discussions on music, women appear purely in relation to men as muses, groupies or fangirls, with our own experiences, ideas and arguments dismissed or ignored. But this hasn’t stopped generations of women from loving, being moved by and critically appreciating music, even – and sometimes especially – when we feel we shouldn’t. Under My Thumb: Songs that Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them is a study of misogyny in music through the eyes of women. It brings together stories from journalists, critics, musicians and fans about artists or songs we love (or used to love) despite their questionable or troubling gender politics, and looks at how these issues interact with race, class and sexuality. As much celebration as critique, this collection explores the joys, tensions, contradictions and complexities of women loving music – however that music may feel about them. Featuring: murder ballads, country, metal, hip hop, emo, indie, Phil Spector, David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, 2Pac, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, AC/DC, Elvis Costello, Jarvis Cocker, Kanye West, Swans, Eminem, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Combichrist and many more.

David Gessner first moved to Colorado in the wake of a bout with cancer. In Under the Devil's Thumb, this young New Englander takes readers on a joyous quest to discover the mysteries of the western landscape and the landscape of the soul as well. In the West Gessner began to rewrite his life. Under the Devil's Thumb is a story of rugged determination and sweat, as well as humor, adventure and hope. In and around his new hometown of Boulder, Colorado, Gessner hiked hard and ran alongside flooded creeks. He found that the West was a place of storiesÑstories that grow out of the ground, flow out of the dirt, work their way through one's limbs, and drive people to push their physical limits. Hiking up scree slopes toward the Devil's Thumb, a massive outcrop of orange rock that attracts climbers, hikers, and contemplaters, Gessner reflects on the illness he has so recently survived. He pushes his physical limits, hoping to outrun death, to outrun dread. He finds momentary transcendence in the joys and self-inflicted pain of mountain biking. "Nothing but the hardest ride has the power to flush out worry, mind clutter, and dread." In tranquil moments he seeks a chance to recover an animal self that is strong and powerful enough to conquer mountains, but also still and quiet enough to see things human beings ignore. In the mountain West, Gessner finds what Wallace Stegner called "the geography of hope." He finds within himself an interior landscape that is healthy and strong. Combining memoir, nature writing, and travel writing, Under the Devil's Thumb is one man's journey deep into a place of healing.

The B on Your Thumb is a book of rhymes and delightful ditties to boost early reading. Each rhyme teaches a particular sound, spelling, or rule, and will delight young children with the silliness of the English language.

Say their names: Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Daniel Shaver. George Floyd. And too many others. They died, the victims of a justice system which, for many people in our country and around the world, is seldom just. In this anothology, our authors explore the darker side of the badge, where a traffic stop can go one of two ways--bad or worse. Where evidence can and will be forged. Where the Blue Wall of Silence closes ranks, and accountability becomes a four-letter word. At the end, you'll wonder--is the system broken? Or more chillingly, is it operating just the way it was intended, and are we meant to live our lives Under the Thumb? Guest-edited by New York Times Bestseller S.A. Cosby, with stories by: Travid Wade Beaty, Andrew Case, Hilary Davidson, Hector Duarte Jr., Michael Downing, Jeffrey Eaton, Michael A. Gonzales, James D.F. Hannah, Zakariah Johnson, Preston Lang, Bobby Mathews, Mike McHone, Richie Narvaez, Oluseyi Onabanjo, James Queally, Keith Rosson, Jeff Soloway, Joseph S. Walker, and Tim P. Walker.

From the introduction: "Standing at the threshold of modern times, Francis Bacon saw in experimental science and technological innovation the keys to humanity's future. Human history to that point, he thought, was an endlessly repeated cycle of despair and false hopes. The false hopes were fed by the old illusion that a few cheap tricks and the right magical formulas would unlock nature's treasury where unlimited wealth and power lay. The despair arose from humanity's seeming inability to escape from subjection to the natural forces that periodically visited famine, disease, pestilence, and destruction upon it."

Leon and his friend Susan live in New Auckland, a small isolated fishing village on the coast of British Columbia. One day, the village receives an unexpected gift from the Government of Canada -- a fire truck. But New Auckland is surrounded by mountains and hugs a tiny beach. There are no roads, no cars, no fire hydrants. What will the village do with its new truck? The man who comes to build the fire station brings with him a practical joke that scares the wits out of Leon and Susan -- a real live wiggling thumb, completely detached from its owner. Which will leave the biggest mark on the village -- the first vehicle most villagers have ever seen, or a simple joke?

Following My Thumb follows the wandering, rambling, bumbling travels of Gabriel Morris from 1990-2000. In the summer of 1990, at the age of 18, he sets off to Europe with his over-sized backpack, thumb guiding the way. He hitchhikes the entire length of Great Britain, sleeps in barns, on bridges and beaches and under benches, explores the Greek Isles, sneaks into a Parisian movie theater, spends a night at the center of the Place de la Concorde roundabout, and more. In Part 2 of the book, he spends the bulk of the mid-1990s as a wandering traveler back home in the United States, searching for something elusive: a place to call home, a community, love, adventure, meaning, purpose. He both finds and loses all to varying degrees as he attends tribal Rainbow Gatherings in the woods, falls in and out of love on the road, lives on farms and communes, and spends several months in an idyllic valley, far from civilization in the Hawaiian rainforest. The book culminates with his amazing and thought-provoking travels in the mystical land of India. ,