Other books that might interest you

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  Wei Shu and Wu - The Three...

  Rolf Hedger

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  The fall of the Han Dynasty marked the end of one of China’s longest and most influential imperial reigns, setting the stage for the chaotic period of the Three Kingdoms. While the dynasty had enjoyed centuries of stability and prosperity, internal corruption, weak leadership, and external rebellions steadily eroded its power. By the late second century AD, the once-mighty Han court was little more than a battleground for rival factions, warlords, and opportunists seeking to seize control. 
  One of the first major signs of decline was the increasing corruption within the imperial court. Eunuchs, who had gained substantial influence over the young emperors, manipulated state affairs for personal gain. As these power struggles intensified, competent officials and generals were sidelined or purged, leaving the empire vulnerable to both internal unrest and external threats. The weakening of central authority allowed regional governors and warlords to act with growing independence, further fragmenting the empire. 
  Amidst this political turmoil, a major peasant uprising erupted in 184 AD—the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Led by Zhang Jue, a Taoist healer who promised salvation through divine intervention, the rebellion quickly spread across northern and central China, drawing hundreds of thousands of followers. Although the Han government eventually crushed the revolt, the effort severely drained the empire’s resources and exposed its inability to maintain control. The rebellion’s suppression also elevated the status of military commanders, many of whom would later become the powerful warlords who divided the empire.

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  See What You're Missing - New...

  Will Gompertz

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  Taking us into the minds of artists—from contemporary stars to old masters—See What You're Missing shows us how to look and experience the world with their heightened awareness. 
   
   
   
  Artists are expert lookers: they have learned to pay attention. The rest of us spend most of our time on autopilot, rushing from place to place, our overfamiliarity blinding us to the marvelous, life-affirming phenomena of our world. But that doesn't have to be the case. 
   
   
   
  In his inimitable engaging style, Will Gompertz takes us into the minds of artists—from contemporary stars to old masters, the well-known to the lesser-so, and from around the world—to show us how to look and experience the world with their heightened awareness. 
   
   
   
  In See What You're Missing we learn, for example, how Hasegawa Tohaku can help us to see beauty, how David Hockney helps us to see color, and how Frida Kahlo can help us see pain. In doing so we come to know the exhilarating feeling of being truly alive. See What You're Missing is at once entertaining and enlightening art history while delivering empowering new insights to its listener.

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  Jeff Buckley's Grace

  Daphne A Brooks

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  The power and influence of Grace increases with each passing year. Here, Daphne Brooks traces Jeff Buckley's fascinating musical development through the earliest stages of his career, up to the release of the album. With access to rare archival material, Brooks illustrates Buckley's passion for life and hunger for musical knowledge, and shows just why he was such a crucial figure in the American music scene of the 1990s.EXCERPT:Jeff Buckley was piecing together a contemporary popular music history for himself that was steeped in the magic of singing.  He was busy hearing how Dylan channeled Billie Holiday in Blonde On Blonde and how Robert Plant was doing his best to sound like Janis Joplin on early Led Zeppelin recordings.  He was thinking about doo-wop and opera and Elton John and working at developing a way to harness the power of the voice...In the process, he was re-defining punk and grunge ""attitude"" itself by rejecting the ambivalent sexual undercurrents of those movements, as well as Led Zeppelin's canonical ""cock rock"" kingdom that he'd grown up adoring.  He was forging a one-man revolution set to the rhythms of New York City and beyond.  And he was on the brink of recording his elegant battle in song for the world to hear.

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  Drawing Hands and Feet

  Šárka Darton

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  This practical and inspiring book explains how to draw realistic hands and feet. With a focus on the importance of practice and observation, it looks first at fundamental anatomy and external structures before explaining how to simplify form and develop your own artistic style. With over 300 images, this book is a detailed and impressive guide for all artists keen to master these key subjects.

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  Gays on Broadway

  Ethan Mordden

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  Writing with his customary verve and wit, author Ethan Mordden follows the steady liberation of gay themes on the American stage. The story begins in the early twentieth century, when gay characters were virtually banned from productions. The 1920s saw a flurry of plays closed on moral grounds as well as the Wales Padlock Act, which forbade representation of "sex degeneracy". While authorities made consistent attempts to shutter the movement, the public remained curious, and after a few decades of war making, a truce broke out when The Boys In the Band became a national smash hit. From this point on, gay theatre proved too popular to abolish. 
   
   
   
  With this change, theatre was graced with a host of unforgettable characters—from thrill killers to historical figures to drag performers, as well as professional gays (such as the defiantly effeminate window dresser in Kiss of the Spider Woman), closeted gays, and those run-of-the-mill citizens who don't reside entirely within the colorful nonconformist identity (like the two male lovers in the comedy Norman, Is That You?). 
   
   
   
  Spoken plays and musicals, playwrights, directors, and actors all played their part in popularizing the gay movement through art. Gays on Broadway is an essential chronological review of the long journey to bring the culture of gay men and women onto the American stage.

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  Thelma & Louise

  Susan Kollin

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  Thelma & Louise, the 1991 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, has been described as a road movie, a buddy movie, a feminist parable, and only incidentally as a Western. An Oscar winner for first-time screenwriter Callie Khouri, Thelma & Louise catalyzed a national conversation about women, violence, and self-determination in a Hollywood still shrugging off the West of John Wayne and in an America that still viewed women as accessories to the national mythology. 
   
   
   
  In this latest volume in the Reel West series, Susan Kollin recreates this watershed moment for women's movies in general and women's Westerns in particular.

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