Books like Forever Barbie by M. G. Lord

Tim Wu examines the evolution of attention harvesting—from early advertising to digital algorithms—exploring how the pursuit of human focus reshapes society, culture, and commerce.

**Is Ghost Ranch *Really* Haunted?** Barbie visits her friend Nia at her ranch in the Rocky Mountains, and learns that some strange and unexplainable things have been happening lately. Everyone thinks it's the handiwork of Old Timer, the ghost that haunted the forgotten mine nearby. Everyone except Barbie, that is. She is determined to find out who is really playing tricks on her friends - and why!

Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon--one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Disdain for logic and evidence defines a pervasive malaise fostered by the mass media, triumphalist religious fundamentalism, mediocre public education, a dearth of fair-minded public intellectuals on the right and the left, and, above all, a lazy and credulous public.Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the American addiction to infotainment--from television to the Web--and cites this toxic dependency as the major element distinguishing our current age of unreason from earlier outbreaks of American anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism. With reading on the decline and scientific and historical illiteracy on the rise, an increasingly ignorant public square is dominated by debased media-driven language and received opinion.At this critical political juncture, nothing could be more important than recognizing the "overarching crisis of memory and knowledge" described in this impassioned, tough-minded book, which challenges Americans to face the painful truth about what the flights from reason has cost us as individuals and as a nation.From the Hardcover edition.

American studies scholar and former deejay Alice Echols captures the experience of the Disco Years--on dance floors, at the movies, in the streets, and beneath the sheets. Disco may have presented itself as shallow and disposable--the platforms, polyester, and plastic vibe of it all--but the disco scene carved out a haven for gay men who reclaimed their sexuality on dance floors where they had once been surveilled and harassed; it thrust black women onto center stage as some of the genre's most prominent stars; and it paved the way for the opening of Studio 54 and the viral popularity of the shoestring-budget Saturday Night Fever, a movie that challenged traditional notions of masculinity, even for heterosexuals. But while exploring the cultural milieu, Echols never loses sight of the era's defining soundtrack, which propelled popular music into new sonic territory, influencing everything from rap and rock to techno and trance.--From publisher description.

"The black man suffering at the hands of whites, the white woman sexually threatened by the black man. Both images have long been burned into the American conscience through popular entertainment, and today they exert a powerful and disturbing influence on American's understanding of race. So argues Linda Williams in this inquisitive book, where she probes the bitterly divisive racial sentiments aroused by such recent events as O. J. Simpson's criminal trial. Williams, the author of Hard Core, explores how these images took root, beginning with melodramatic theater, where suffering characters acquire virtue through victimization."--BOOK JACKET.

A critique of consumer culture through essays on corporations, marketing, and popular culture in America's 1990s and 2000s.

An informal and personal description of the rise and fall of comic books in the '40s and '50s, with a focus on the Educational Comics (E.C.) company run by Gains, father then son (M.C. then William). The fall came in two steps, the first in the '40s and aimed at crime comics, and the second in the '50s and aimed at almost all comics, but with emphasis on horror comics.

Barbie and her sister Skipper sneak into a TV news studio, where Barbie helps interview a famous fashion designer and, in a dramatic twist, saves an international fashion show from disaster.

Barbie knows that any day can turn into an exciting adventure. It all depends on your attitude. Whether she's helping one of her sisters tackle a problem or lending a hand to a friend, you can be sure that everyone has a smile in the end! When Skipper offers to baby-sit her sisters it sounds like a cinch - a night of videos and popcorn. But as soon as Barbie leaves, a surprise adventure is just around the corner. Share in the fun as one frazzled teen learns a lesson in baby-sitting she'll never forget!