A new volume by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dream of the Unified Field and The End of Beauty explores a metaphorical threshold at which civilization as it is known becomes unsustainable in the face of unrealized passions, regrets, and limited prospects. Original.

By the author of the bestseller Hello, He Lied, a veteran producer takes a witty look at the new Hollywood. Lynda Obst returns to dish on the experts, tastemakers, and moguls of today’s Hollywood and the movies they make. She describes how the movie business has lost its MO—and is now losing its talent to network and especially cable TV.With the collapse of the DVD market, the movie industry was crippled. The business reacted by producing tentpoles (mega-hits) or tadpoles (which nobody gets a chance to see). Why? Since the majority of their revenue comes from the foreign market, especially China and Russia, studios are no longer dependent on expensive stars or dialogue (i.e. writers). Special effects and 3D replace people. Obst speaks from the front lines. Her subjects are friends, moguls, former employers, mentors, and even relatives, who express their opinions with disarming bluntness and hilarity. Obst combines her experiences with insights from the smartest people in the business. In what Obst calls the New Abnormal (because Hollywood wasn’t normal to begin with), studios are paralyzed. Can the movie business be resurrected? Can it once again make the movies that make us laugh, cry, and wish we could own the DVD? Obst is ready.

Art security expert Anthony M. Amore and award-winning investigative reporter Tom Mashberg reveal the actors behind the major Rembrandt heists in the last century. Through thefts around the world—from Stockholm to Boston—the authors track daring entries and escapes from the world’s most renowned museums. There are robbers who coolly walk off with multimillion dollar paintings; self-styled art experts who fall in love with the Dutch master and desire to own his art at all costs; and international criminal masterminds who don't hesitate to resort to violence.

Labor Day, 1969. Two recent Harvard graduates move to New York to edit a new magazine called The National Lampoon. Brilliant humorists Henry Beard and Doug Kenney presided over a team that within a decade transformed American culture and conquered the mainstream with a brand of subversive humor that provoked, offended, and often illuminated. With unparalleled access to the architects and impresarios of this boom, journalist Ellin Stein takes us behind the jokes to witness the fighting and partying, collaboration and competition of those who led a rebellion of the self-consciously disenchanted. At its zenith, the brand birthed the anarchic earthiness of John Belushi, the suave slapstick of Chevy Chase, and the deadpan wit of Bill Murray. Set against the roiling political and cultural landscape of the 1970s, That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick brims with insiders’ stories while offering crucial insight into a transformation in comedy that still echoes today.

Presents a collection of stories that explores the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal, and the echoes of intimacy.