by Kenneth Partridge (2011)
This volume contains reprints of articles, excerpts from books, transcripts from speeches, and studies of social trends in the United States and other countries. These sources provide background information and discussion from various points of view that illuminate the subject of social networking. This work traces its history, weighing its pros and cons, and raising some of the key questions that the 2010 film The Social Network asks us to consider. This work includes a primer course on social media past and present and an exploration on how companies are using social-networking sites to promote their products. The editors have included information pertaining to how activists, nonprofit organizations (NPOs), and candidates for offices big and small are taking their messages on-line and also the educational benefits of social networking. The kinds of personal troubles that can result from joining an on-line network are presented as well as a look at how social media has shaped and been shaped by society. Authors of the included articles offer both positive and negative criticisms of on-line social networks.
John Barth
Journalist Simon Behler finds himself in the house of Sinbad the Sailor after being washed ashore during a sea-going adventure. Over the course of six evenings, the two take turns recounting their voyages in a brilliantly entertaining weave of stories within stories.
Stephen Krensky
Examines the races, tribes, wanderers, and explorers who may have found America before Columbus, including the prehistoric nomads who crossed the land bridge from Asia and possible Polynesian, Phoenician, and European visitors by sea.
written and drawn by Christine Mari Inzer
The summer before she turned sixteen, author/illustrator Christine Inzer traveled solo to Tokyo to get reacquainted with her birthplace. Through charming illustrations, photos, and musings, Christine takes us on a journey through modern Japan: she explores the fashion hub of Harajuku; she hunts down geisha in Kyoto; she eats the best sushi of her life in Tsukiji; and she meets many interesting characters along the way. Halfway Home is an engaginguand often hilariousulook at a fascinating country and a girl rediscovering her roots.
Barry Lopez
"Apologia is a story that gives our vague sense of apprehension about brutality in the modern world a focus, and, because the narrator actually does something on behalf of animals killed on the road, it gives us reason to believe that we can retrieve our dignity and a sense of purpose from the indifferent circumstances of everyday life." "It has long been a habit of writer Barry Lopez to remove dead animals from the road. At the conclusion of a journey from Oregon to Indiana in 1989, he wrote Apologia to explore the moral and emotional upheaval he experienced dealing with the dead every day. On the highway he encountered dozens of animals - raccoons, jackrabbits, porcupines, red foxes, sparrows, spotted skunks, owls, deer, gulls, badgers, field mice, garter snakes, barn swallows, pronghorn antelope, squirrels - all victims of vehicular destruction. Stopping for each body he saw, he gently removed each one from the road." "Lopez's eloquent prose is accompanied by Robin Eschner's dramatic woodcuts. By turns violent, raw, and tender, they provide a stunning counterpoint to a reverent testimony." --Book Jacket.