Most Popular Books by Michael RYAN

This hands-on survey introduces students to the diverse fields that comprise cultural studies, from visual culture to popular music and new media. It can be used as a standalone text or is the perfect companion volume to Ryan''s Cultural Studies: An Anthology. Provides a comprehensive overview of the field, from cyberculture and digital media to fashion and new formulations of gender identity Includes student exercises and activities for each chapter Teaches cultural analysis through practical examples and application Gives students across disciplines the tools to become practitioners of Cultural Studies and active cultural analysts The perfect companion volume to Ryan''s Cultural Studies Anthology (2008)

"Ryan is a scrupulously observant poet with a gift for going for the jugular . . . His work is finely honed, provocative, questing, and humane." - Edward Hirsch, Washington Post Book World Michael Ryan''s first collection in many years shows the acclaimed poet at the height of his powers. Highlighting the wit and passion displayed throughout his career, Ryan''s latest work comprises fifty-seven poems from three award-winning volumes and thirty-one new poems. In both dramatic lyrics and complex narratives, Ryan renders the world with startling clarity, freshness, and intimacy. New and Selected Poems is filled with the stuff of everyday life, and as the New York Times Book Review said, it "include[s] pain and fear but also surprise, joy, laughter, everything human." "New and Selected Poems reminds us how much we have relied on this poet to forge a path for us in plain style." - Carol Muske-Dukes, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Ryan''s poems have always felt as if they neded to be written. They seem to exist because of some pressure to respond, not because of a facility for language alone. This is a rare quality among poets. The commitment to it is as hard-won, and real, as any you are likely to find in poetry." - David Rivard, American Poetry Review Michael Ryan is the author of many acclaimed books, including three previous volumes of poetry. Among the honors for his work are the prestigious Kingsley Tufts Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, a Whiting Writers'' Award, and NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. Ryan is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of California at Irvine.

A collection by an award-winning poet applies darkly comic language, classic and freestyle forms, and observations that explore a range of themes, in a volume that features such entries as "Half Mile Down," "Sixtieth-Birthday Dinner," and "Airplane Food."

"A memoir whose sensational subject - childhood molestation and sexual addiction - becomes, through the extraordinary candor and dispassion of its telling, a deeply moral and spiritual autobiography." "Michael Ryan came of age in the fifties and sixties - a seemingly idyllic period for him of Little League baseball, Boy Scout overnight hikes, a first job delivering newspapers, summers spent at the community swimming pool, cruising Main Street, and high school graduation trips to the Jersey shore. But the reality that lay beneath this chrome surface was a secret life that was initiated when, as a five-year-old, Ryan was molested by a neighbor. It continued as he contended with his father''s alcoholism, and as he himself started down the road of sexual obsession."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

An Introduction to Film Analysis is designed to introduce students to filmmaking techniques while also providing an invaluable guide to film interpretation. It takes readers step by step through: -the basic technical terms -shot-by-shot analyses of film sequences -set design, composition, editing, camera work, post-production, art direction and more -each chapter provides clear examples and full colour images from classic as well as contemporary films Ryan and Lenos''s updated edition introduces students to the different kinds of lenses and their effects, the multiple possibilities of lighting, and the way post-production modifies images through such processes as saturation and desaturation. Students will learn to ask why the camera is placed where it is, why an edit occurs where it does, or why the set is designed in a certain way. The second section of the book focuses on critical analysis, introducing students to the various approaches to film, from psychology to history, with new analysis on postcolonial, transnational and Affect Theory. New to this edition is a third section featuring several in-depth analyses of films to put into practice what comes before: The Birds, The Shining, Vagabond, In the Mood for Love, Before the Devil Knows You''re Dead.

"I am speechless. The Dirtiest Toilet Humor Book Ever is the most disgusting, crude book I have ever read. I am ashamed to say my son wrote this. Where did I go wrong?" -Mother of Author Michael Ryan, too embarrassed to give her name "I succeeded! It is clear that my superb parenting skills paid off. The Author, Michael Ryan, tells the A to Zs of shit taking. He demonstrates his expertise on the always funny material of the infamous #2." -Proud Father of Author Michael Ryan, who''s wife wouldn''t let him give his first name The Dirtiest Toilet Humor Book Ever was written for anyone who wants to laugh out loud about the topic of taking a crap. Author Michael Ryan displays his expertise on the often unspoken everyday experience of going to the bathroom. He dissects every imaginable issue from the toilet paper texture to the writings on the bathroom stall doors. A few of the many other topics covered are: types of doody, locations, bathroom spray, courtesy flush, the bidet, what to do while going to the bathroom, types of farts, clogging the bowl, activities, wiping (sitting vs. standing), diarrhea, hemorrhoids, girls, masturbation, constipation and public toilets in various countries.

Q I think Im gay, what do I do? Q Who can I talk to about being gay? Q What do all the terms within the Gay Community mean? Q As a parent, how can I best support my gay child? This book has the answer to these and two hundred other questions to help you understand what life is like for a gay person and how to make the most of that life. If you are gay or think you might be gay or if you are someone who needs to understand the world of a gay person, then this book is for you. It covers many of the questions gay people have in relation to this new discovery and questions their family and friends might ask. It also answers questions about gay culture and gay relationships and gives tips and hints for staying healthy and safe. The content is deemed to be suitable for people aged fourteen and over. Michael Ryan is a counsellor and psychotherapist who is also gay. He has worked with hundreds of gay people. He wrote this book because he needed a resource to give to students, clients and their supporters to help them in their personal discovery about being gay, or how best to support someone else who is gay. Its basically a Gay mini-encyclopedia David (17) Exactly the book I needed to explain to me what being gay is all about Lauren (14) The perfect resource for parents who have a gay child Claire (Parent)

Michael Ryan''s comprehensive textbook on the practice of literary theory demonstrates how the full panoply of theoretical approaches can be used to read the same texts.

" a modern mythography, a study of contemporary Hollywood films based on the tools offered by feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxist cultural theory, and deconstruction." -- Village Voice "Solidly thought-out observation of the films of the 70''s and 80''s that comment on the system." -- Audience ..". intelligent, open advocacy. Its responsible arrangement of carefully described cultural materials will challenge students and instructors alike." -- Teaching Philosophy Camera Politica is a comprehensive study of Hollywood film during a period of tremendous change in American history, a period that witnessed the end of the American empire, crises in the economy, a failure of political leadership, loss at war, and the rise of the Right.

This is the long-awaited revision of the best-selling classic mammalogy text. The biology of mammals is viewed from a broad range of perspectives, making it useful to instructors with contrasting approaches to the subject. Based on the extensive studies of researchers, MAMMALOGY holds the interest of students, while maintaining the respect of the members of the scholarly community of mammalogists. The topics covered were chosen as the most important, interesting, and essential to the understanding of mammals.

An accessible and thorough introduction to literary theory and contemporary critical practice, this book is an essential resource for beginning students of literary criticism. Covers traditional approaches such as formalism and structuralism, as well as more recent developments in criticism such as evolutionary theory, cognitive studies, ethical criticism, and ecocriticism Offers explanations of key works and major ideas in literary criticism and suggests key elements to look for in a literary text Also applies critical approaches to various examples from film studies Helps students to build a critical framework and write analytically

Introduction to Sociology offers a comprehensive guide that connects traditional sociological concepts and contemporary social phenomena, such as globalization, consumer culture, the internet, and "McDonaldization," to students′ lives in today′s global society. This accessible text encourages learners to apply a sociological perspective and explore how public sociologists address critical modern issues.

This book is a Compendium of all documented UFO sightings through out history, from as early as 200 BC to Events taking place today on a world wide scale! What does it all mean? Are "They" real? and if so why are they here? In the end, the decision is yours...

Originally published in 1982. Aside from Jacques Derrida''s own references to the "possible articulation" between deconstruction and Marxism, the relationship between the two has remained largely unexplored. In Marxism and Deconstruction, Michael Ryan examines that multifaceted relationship but not through a mere comparison of two distinct and inviolable entities. Instead, he looks at both with an eye to identifying their common elements and reweaving them into a new theory of political practice. To accomplish his task, Ryan undertakes a detailed comparison of deconstruction and Marxism, relating deconstruction to the dialectical tradition in philosophy and demonstrating how deconstruction can be used in the critique of ideology. He is a forceful critic of both the politics of deconstruction and the metaphysical aspect of Marxism (as seen from a deconstructionist perspective). Besides offering the first book-length study of Derrida in this context, Ryan makes the first methodic attempt by an American scholar to apply deconstruction to domains beyond literature. He proposes a deconstructive Marxism, one lacking the metaphysical underpinnings of conservative "scientific" Marxist theory and employing deconstructive analysis both for Marxist political criticism and to further current anti-metaphysical developments within Marxism. Marxism and Deconstruction is an innovative and controversial contribution to the fields of literary criticism, philosophy, and political science.

A Guide for Adults and Children by the Founder of the Award-Winning Lesson One Program This indispensable book gives adults a proven plan to help children develop the life skills and internal discipline necessary to learn and thrive in today''s society. Following the logical progression of a child''s development, the book uses upbeat activities and games that adults and children can share to ground themselves in Lesson One skills for use in everyday life. Offering much-needed answers to major problems gripping our culture, here is the book that anyone living and working with children has been waiting for -- a lesson plan that works for life.

Looking at health service institutions in the Soviet Union, this book looks particularly at the role of doctors and their recruitment, pay and administrative duties. The book also studies entrepreneurial medicine, material resources and the decline of the general practitioner.

A Complete Guide to Literary Analysis and Theory offers an accessible introduction to all the current approaches to literary analysis. Ranging from stylistics and historicism to post-humanism and new materialism, it also includes chapters on media studies and screen studies. The Guide is designed for use in introductory literature courses and as a primer in theory courses. Each chapter summarizes the main ideas of each approach to the study of literature in clear prose, providing lucid introductions to the practice of each school, and conducts readings using classic and modern works of literature from around the world. The book draws on examples from a wide range of works from classics such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare''s King Lear to contemporary works such as Ocean Vuong''s On Earth We''re Briefly Gorgeous and Amanda Gorman''s "The Hill We Climb." This wide-ranging introduction is ideal for students encountering literary study for the first time, as well as more advanced students who need a concise summary of critical methods. It strives to make complex ideas simple and provides readings that undergraduates should be able to understand and enjoy as well as training them to conduct analyses of their own.

Investing in US Property has been written with international property investors squarely in mind. Almost every facet of the US property market differs from those of other countries, and even from those of other states in the US. The book explains the intricacies of the US property market, including looking at the overall economy, working out the correct strategy for individual investors, dealing with currency exchange, financing, locations, building an investment team, renovating and maintenance, researching the chosen market, finding properties, evaluating deals, making offers, closing, renting, selling and travelling to the US. As most people will turn to online research, more than one hundred great websites are listed that are pivotal to ensuring timely, cost-effective and efficient information. Each chapter is accompanied with a short video available on the www.investinginusproperty.com website, explaining and further enhancing the information. The website also has tons of information, news articles, widgets, and weekly videos and newsletters to keep readers informed in real time. Anyone even thinking about investing in US property should read this to gain a better understanding of how the US system works. Investors who already have property in the US can gain powerful knowledge and inside information on this fascinating and lucrative property market.

This book is an exploration of why we are here, who we are and where we are going. This book contains no answers, only questions that will hopefully inspire us to think about where we are heading.

The first comprehensive field guide to the habitats and wildlife of the Adirondack State Park

It’s six-year-old Juniper Ann’s very first day of school, and she’s bursting with excitement. This special day has finally arrived, and Juniper is eager to dive into her new adventure. Despite facing a few challenges, especially when explaining her somewhat unusual name to her new classmates, Juniper finds just the right words to handle the situation. Nothing can stop her from making this the best first day of school ever. Join us for this charming tale of hope, perseverance, and determination as Juniper navigates her first day with grace and joy.

God in the Corridors of Power: Christian Conservatives, the Media, and Politics in America is a comprehensive study of Christian conservative power in America''s political culture—how it was achieved, how it is maintained, and where it is going. It came about in part because of an enduring influence in the school room, the seminary and in the pulpit, and in part because conservatives are so skilled at using commercial and non-commercial media, including religious media, to disseminate their views to broader audiences. Though their power has waxed and waned, they continue to be a potent force in public policy today. The authors argue that the astonishing electoral successes of Christian conservatives at all levels of national, state and local government was made possible by linking political, social, media and religious interests with an emerging consensus about what constitutes a conservative mindset in American politics. Christian conservatives unquestionably have been the most significant component in a coalition of religious conservatives, traditionalist conservatives and neoconservatives that has driven the Republican Party now for almost two generations. This multifaceted understanding of Christian conservative activists in religion and politics traces the impact Christian conservatives have had on American Christianity as a whole while also examining the limitations imposed on the Christian conservative agenda by American civil religion, the Constitution and case law. The authors explore women''s reproductive rights in the debate over contraception and abortion, and gay civil rights in the debate over gay marriage and family rights. The debate over intelligent design and evolution is examined in the context of the campaign to transform public school education. The run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is scrutinized against the background of the declared "war on terrorism." While the conservative religious and secular coalition within the Republican Party began to fragment even before the end of George W. Bush''s first term in office, it remained a powerful force in the 2004 and 2008 elections. The book concludes with some thoughts about the impact of Christian conservatives in politics, media and religion in the future.

At summer camp, a combative collection of Boy Scouts becomes the first to face a shocking event out of a horror film: a bizarre storm mysteriously appears over the forest one night and spins above their camp. This otherworldly tempest moves in a way that no normal storm should: willfully. Predatory monsters that can only be seen in reflections rain down to earth wherever the storm goes. They bite and paralyze their victims before feeding on them and prey on everything that moves. The storm soon races its way to suburbia and into the city, leaving chaos and few survivors in its wake. One of the Scouts is brought together by the mayhem with other young survivors from different parts of town, and these kids, who would never have met otherwise, become fast friends as they come to believe they can survive—or even stop—the storm. But first they must outwit adults who would rather hurt them than follow them. Invisible monsters are not the only things that kill.

“[In] preliterate societies, even those as late as ancient Greece and Anglo-Saxon England, the poet is the ideologue, historian, theologian, philosopher, TV, newspaper, Internet, and megamultiplex cinema rolled into one”--so begins Michael Ryan’s lively description of the cultural context of ancient poetry, in pointed contrast to that of poetry now. Informed by his own experience as a poet and writer, A Difficult Grace examines the lives and works of Dickinson, Yeats, Pound, Eliot, Williams, Whitman, Frost, Bishop, and Stevens (as well as other poets and writers before and since), deftly combining literary history, critical writing by the writers themselves, and Ryan''s expert understanding of their work. The result is a collection of powerfully argued essays written in a style easily accessible to a wide range of readers. Attending to the difficult graces of form, structure, rhythm, and technique, Ryan illuminates the unifying subject of his book: the vocation of the poet and the writer in the contemporary world. This is an essential book for both writers and readers.

Pacifism as Pathology has long since emerged as a dissident classic. Originally written during the mid-1980s, the seminal essay “Pacifism as Pathology” was prompted by veteran activist Ward Churchill’s frustration with what he diagnosed as a growing—and deliberately self-neutralizing—”hegemony of nonviolence” on the North American left. The essay’s publication unleashed a raging debate among activists in both the U.S. and Canada, a significant result of which was Michael Ryan’s penning of a follow-up essay reinforcing Churchill’s premise that nonviolence, at least as the term is popularly employed by white “progressives,” is inherently counterrevolutionary, adding up to little more than a manifestation of its proponents’ desire to maintain their relatively high degrees of socioeconomic privilege and thereby serving to stabilize rather than transform the prevailing relations of power. This short book challenges the pacifist movement’s heralded victories—Gandhi in India, 1960s antiwar activists, even Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights movement—suggesting that their success was in spite of, rather than because of, their nonviolent tactics. Churchill also examines the Jewish Holocaust, pointing out that the overwhelming response of Jews was nonviolent, but that when they did use violence they succeeded in inflicting significant damage to the nazi war machine and saving countless lives. As relevant today as when they first appeared, Churchill’s and Ryan’s trailblazing efforts were first published together in book form in 1998. Now, along with the preface to that volume by former participant in armed struggle/political prisoner Ed Mead, postscripts by both Churchill and Ryan, and a powerful new foreword by leading oppositionist intellectual Dylan Rodríguez, these vitally important essays are being released in a fresh edition.

Are you feeling elated, or are you more enraptured? Are you a bit glum, or is it more like melancholy? The words we use to express emotions are as plentiful and nuanced as the feelings those words describe.Dictionary of Emotions: Words for Feelings, Moods, and Emotions is a comprehensive reference book of such terms. The book''s accompanying definitions are based on the context of feeling and are intended to be a starting point to help shape an individual''s interpretation of both the word and their experience.Psychologists, therapists, actors, authors, and those who are associated with these fields will find Dictionary of Emotions an invaluable communication tool. The book will help anyone seeking to enhance their emotional intelligence with a vocabulary of emotional awareness and expression.

Michael Ryan′s Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition introduces students to the full range of contemporary approaches to the study of literature and culture, from Formalism, Structuralism, and Historicism to Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, and Global English. Introduces readings from a variety of theoretical perspectives, on classic literary texts. Demonstrates how the varying perspectives on texts can lead to different interpretations of the same work. Contains an accessible account of different theoretical approaches An ideal resource for use in introductory courses on literary theory and criticism. Designed to function both as a stand–alone text and a companion to Rivkin and Ryan’s Literary Theory: An Anthology, Second Edition.