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Book The Reinvention of Martha Ross

Download or read book The Reinvention of Martha Ross written by Charlene Allcott and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One of the freshest, funniest, most exciting new voices I've read for a long time.' Jane Fallon Meet Martha Ross. She dreams of being a singer, but she’s been working in a call centre for far too long. She’s separating from her husband, the father of her eighteen-month-old son. And she’s moving back home to her parents, toddler in tow. Life has thrown her a few lemons . . . but Martha intends to make a gin and tonic. It’s time to become the woman she’s always wanted to be. And at least her mum’s on hand to provide free childcare – along with ample motherly judgement, of course. But Martha’s attempts at reinvention – from writing a definitive, non-negotiable list of everything she’s looking for in a new man, to half-marathons, business plans and meditation retreats – tend to go awry in the most surprising of ways. And soon she comes to realise that in order to find lasting love, happiness and fulfilment, she needs to find herself first . . . Who said starting over was easy? A warm, vibrant and painfully funny novel that will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever had their heart broken, hasn’t quite got their sh*t together yet, or who finds themselves wide awake at 3am thinking, ‘How did I get here?’

Book The Single Mum s Wish List

Download or read book The Single Mum s Wish List written by Charlene Allcott and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -------------------------- 'One of the freshest, funniest, most exciting new voices I’ve read for a long time' JANE FALLON 'Fresh and funny and REAL ... Martha really spoke to me. She will steal everyone's heart!' VERONICA HENRY 'Beautifully written and emotionally intelligent. I rooted for Martha from the start.' Daily Mail Meet Martha Ross. She dreams of being a singer, but she’s been working in a call centre for far too long. She’s separating from her husband, the father of her son. And she’s moving back home to her parents’ as a single mum, toddler in tow. Life has thrown her a few lemons . . . but Martha intends to make a gin and tonic. It’s time to become the woman she’s always wanted to be. And at least her mum’s on hand to provide childcare – and ample motherly judgement, of course. Soon Martha realises that in order to find lasting love and fulfilment, she needs to find herself first . . . But her attempts at reinvention – from writing a definitive wish list of everything she wants in a new man, to half-marathons, business plans and meditation retreats – tend to go awry in the most surprising of ways . . . A warm, vibrant and painfully funny novel for fans of Why Mummy Drinks, Fiona Gibson and Lucy Vine. *Also published as The Reinvention of Martha Ross*

Book More Than a Mum

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charlene Allcott
  • Publisher : Random House
  • Release : 2020-02-20
  • ISBN : 1473560322
  • Pages : 284 pages

Download or read book More Than a Mum written by Charlene Allcott and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mother: a woman considered in relation to her child or children. Wife: a woman considered in relation to her spouse. Shouldn’t there be more? Alison has built her life around her family. Every day she packs lunches, rushes to work, and breaks up her daughter’s squabbles. She’s bored, restless and hungry for some excitement. Perhaps the charismatic Frank could be what she’s missing. But is Frank all he makes out to be? And what if a new, glamorous life isn’t quite what she needs? Praise for Charlene Allcott: 'One of the freshest, funniest, most exciting new voices I've read for a long time.' Jane Fallon 'Fresh and funny and REAL...' Veronica Henry 'Very funny and delightfully relatable - this was a real treat.' Trisha Ashley

Book Death and the City

    Book Details:
  • Author : Susan Kahn
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2018-05-08
  • ISBN : 0429912560
  • Pages : 200 pages

Download or read book Death and the City written by Susan Kahn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organisational collapse is part of our vernacular. Enron, Woolworths, Lehman's, Bank of America, Rover, BOAC, Northern Rock - these failures are part of our cultural experience of work. At a time when working lives are often vulnerable and organisational mortality is under threat from technology and the economy the consequences of organizational death are worthy of attention. Organisations can face many different endings - sharp and brutal, premature, or carefully planned and premeditated - all these endings have emotional collateral damage. We are working in an environment where crises, failure, and demise are everyday features. Death and the City provides an in-depth portrait of an organisation in a palliative state. It transports the analytic concepts of mourning and melancholia and of the death drive into the workplace, and brings this important, but under explored, stream of psychoanalytic thought to the fore as a means of interrogating and further understanding organisational life. .

Book War and National Reinvention

    Book Details:
  • Author : Frederick R. Dickinson
  • Publisher : Harvard Univ Asia Center
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9780674005075
  • Pages : 408 pages

Download or read book War and National Reinvention written by Frederick R. Dickinson and published by Harvard Univ Asia Center. This book was released on 1999 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Japan, as one of the victorious allies, World War I meant territorial gains in China and the Pacific. At the end of the war, however, Japan discovered that in modeling itself on imperial Germany since the nineteenth century, it had perhaps been imitating the wrong national example. Japanese policy debates during World War I, particularly the clash between proponents of greater democratization and those who argued for military expansion, thus became part of the ongoing discussion of national identity among Japanese elites. This study links two sets of concerns--the focus of recent studies of the nation on language, culture, education, and race; and the emphasis of diplomatic history on international developments--to show how political, diplomatic, and cultural concerns work together to shape national identity.

Book Aretha

    Book Details:
  • Author : Meredith Ochs
  • Publisher : Union Square + ORM
  • Release : 2018-12-11
  • ISBN : 1454934727
  • Pages : 224 pages

Download or read book Aretha written by Meredith Ochs and published by Union Square + ORM. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an award–winning journalist, an illustrated retrospective of Aretha Franklin, celebrating her life, music and legacy. Aretha Franklin’s voice was legendary, unforgettable: deeply rooted in gospel, yet versatile enough to brilliantly interpret R&B, rock, soul, pop, and jazz standards, it fueled a six-decade career. Her vocal wallop was a mix of preaching, rebuke, and elation. From the languorous “I Never Loved a Man (the Way That I Love You),” to the funky “Chain of Fools,” to the fiercely feminist “Think,” to the definitive, demanding version of Otis Redding’s “Respect,” Franklin’s songs played out against the tumultuous sociopolitical backdrop of the late ’60s like a soundtrack meant to set things right. Her accolades were many: she received the Kennedy Center honor in 1994, won 18 Grammys®, was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and performed for presidents and the Pope. Illustrated with 85 photos, and with insightful text from noted radio personality and author Meredith Ochs, Aretha explores the diva’s life, from her formative years growing up in Detroit, to her singing and recording career from the 1950s until her untimely death in 2018, to her numerous honors, awards, and causes, including her advocacy for civil rights and the arts.

Book Reload

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mary Flanagan
  • Publisher : MIT Press
  • Release : 2002-05-03
  • ISBN : 9780262561501
  • Pages : 604 pages

Download or read book Reload written by Mary Flanagan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An anthology of feminist cyberfiction and theoretical and critical writings on gender and technoculture. Most writing on cyberculture is dominated by two almost mutually exclusive visions: the heroic image of the male outlaw hacker and the utopian myth of a gender-free cyberworld. Reload offers an alternative picture of cyberspace as a complex and contradictory place where there is oppression as well as liberation. It shows how cyberpunk's revolutionary claims conceal its ultimate conservatism on matters of class, gender, and race. The cyberfeminists writing here view cyberculture as a social experiment with an as-yet-unfulfilled potential to create new identities, relationships, and cultures. The book brings together women's cyberfiction—fiction that explores the relationship between people and virtual technologies—and feminist theoretical and critical investigations of gender and technoculture. From a variety of viewpoints, the writers consider the effects of rapid and profound technological change on culture, in particular both the revolutionary and reactionary effects of cyberculture on women's lives. They also explore the feminist implications of the cyborg, a human-machine hybrid. The writers challenge the conceptual and institutional rifts between high and low culture, which are embedded in the texts and artifacts of cyberculture.

Book No More Masterpieces

    Book Details:
  • Author : Lucy Bradnock
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2021
  • ISBN : 0300251033
  • Pages : 241 pages

Download or read book No More Masterpieces written by Lucy Bradnock and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking account of postwar American art traces the profound influence of Antonin Artaud Proposing an original reassessment of art from the 1950s to the 1970s, No More Masterpieces reveals how artistic practice in postwar America was profoundly shaped by the work of the rebellious French poet and dramatist Antonin Artaud (1896-1948). A generation of artists mobilized Artaud's countercultural ideas to imagine new forms of representation and to redefine the relationship between artist and audience. The book shows how Artaud's radical writings inspired the experimental theatrical work of John Cage, Rachel Rosenthal, and Allan Kaprow; the attack on artistic and social conventions launched by assemblage artists Wallace Berman and Bruce Conner; and the feminist work of Carolee Schneemann and Nancy Spero. Lucy Bradnock traces the dissemination of Artaud's writings in America and demonstrates how his interest in political and cultural disorder, the dangers of authority, and the unreliability of representation found fertile ground in the context of the Cold War, disillusionment with the ideals of Abstract Expressionism, and the early years of identity politics.

Book Jay DeFeo and The Rose

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jay DeFeo
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2003-11-13
  • ISBN : 0520233557
  • Pages : 217 pages

Download or read book Jay DeFeo and The Rose written by Jay DeFeo and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-11-13 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rarely has an artist been so closely associated with a single work as is Jay DeFeo with her painting "The Rose". In this major study of "The Rose" in particular and of Jay DeFeo in general, 11 art and cultural historians and writers unfold the story of the creation and rescue of her masterpiece.

Book Reinventing Russia

    Book Details:
  • Author : Yitzhak M. BRUDNY
  • Publisher : Harvard University Press
  • Release : 2009-06-30
  • ISBN : 0674028961
  • Pages : 366 pages

Download or read book Reinventing Russia written by Yitzhak M. BRUDNY and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What caused the emergence of nationalist movements in many post-communist states? What role did communist regimes play in fostering these movements? Why have some been more successful than others? To address these questions, Yitzhak Brudny traces the Russian nationalist movement from its origins within the Russian intellectual elite of the 1950s to its institutionalization in electoral alliances, parliamentary factions, and political movements of the early 1990s. Brudny argues that the rise of the Russian nationalist movement was a combined result of the reinvention of Russian national identity by a group of intellectuals, and the Communist Party's active support of this reinvention in order to gain greater political legitimacy. The author meticulously reconstructs the development of the Russian nationalist thought from Khrushchev to Yeltsin, as well as the nature of the Communist Party response to Russian nationalist ideas. Through analysis of major Russian literary, political, and historical writings, the recently-published memoirs of the Russian nationalist intellectuals and Communist Party officials, and documents discovered in the Communist Party archives, Brudny sheds new light on social, intellectual, and political origins of Russian nationalism, and emphasizes the importance of ideas in explaining the fate of the Russian nationalist movement during late communist and early post-communist periods. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments 1. Russian Nationalists in Soviet Politics 2. The Emergence of Politics by Culture, 1953-1964 3. The First Phase of Inclusionary Politics, 1965-1970 4. The Rise and Fall of Inclusionary Politics, 1971-1985 5. What Went Wrong with the Politics of Inclusion? 6. What Is Russia, and Where Should It Go? Political Debates, 1971-1985 7. The Zenith of Politics by Culture, 1985-1989 8. The Demise of Politics by Culture, 1989-1991 Epilogue: Russian Nationalism in Postcommunist Russia Notes Index Reviews of this book: Mr. Brudny provides a salient background to understanding one of the great phenomena of post-1945 history: how Russians arrive at their view of the West. --Ron Laurenzo, Washington Times Reviews of this book: Brudny is a good guide to the origins of what probably lies ahead. --Geoffrey A. Hosking, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: If readers think that today's anti-Western, antimarket, antisemitic variety of Russian nationalism is simply the fallout from the country's current misery, they should think again. With care and intelligence, Brudny traces its lineage back to the Khrushchev years. What began among the so-called village prose writers as a lament for a rural past ravaged by Stalin's experimentation gradually accumulated further grievances: the devastation of Russian culture and monuments, the infiltration of 'corrupting' Western values, and ultimately under Gorbechev the 'criminal' destruction of Russian power. Much of the book concentrates on how Khrushchev and Brezhnev tried--but ultimately failed--to harness this discontent for their own purposes. --Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs Reviews of this book: Brudny's survey of relations between Russian nationalism and the Soviet state provides an in-depth insight into one of the most complicated aspects of the Soviet multi-national state. --Taras Kuzio, International Affairs Reviews of this book: A thought-provoking book. --Virginia Quarterly Reviews of this book: Brudny shows that Russian cultural nationalism was a powerful force in the post-Stalin years, with ultimate political consequences. In meticulous detail Brudny sets out the various strains of Russian nationalism and points to the regime's encouragement of a certain kind of nationalism as a means of bolstering legitimacy through the 'politics of inclusion'...This volume is a significant contribution to the literature. --R. J. Mitchell, Choice Reviews of this book: In Reinventing Russia, situated at the intersection of culture (specifically the literature of the village prose movement) and politics, Brudny has managed admirably to draw out the wider implications of his inquiry and provided an extremely useful set of orientation points in the current, seemingly so chaotic, political debate in Russia. --Hans J. Rindisbacher, European Legacy Reviews of this book: Brudny's book paints a fascinating picture. It delineates a rich Soviet culture and society, one that is much more varied than has been previously depicted by most Western researchers. The overriding importance of the book derives from its argument that the post-Stalinist cultural debate in the Soviet Union is what created the infrastructure for the seemingly odd alliance between communist ideology and the nationalist intelligentsia--today's 'red-brown' alliance. It's a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of the nationalist idea...[Reinventing Russia provides] an enthralling overview of a historic development that has been neglected by most Western researchers...His book proves once more that anyone who seeks to understand developments in Eastern Europe cannot do so by merely analyzing the economic policy of the political maneuvers of the governing elite. --Shlomo Avineri, Ha'aretz Book Review Yitzhak Brudny offers us a most persuasive attempt to explain the intricate, often puzzling relation between Soviet political and cultural bureaucracy and the rise of Russian nationalism in the post-Stalin era. His analysis of Russian nationalist ideology and its role in the corrosion of the official Soviet dogmas is uniquely insightful and provocative. Students of Soviet and post-Soviet affairs will find in Brudny's splendidly researched book an indispensable instrument to grasp the meaning of the still perplexing developments that led to the breakdown of the Leninist state. In the growing body of literature dealing with nationalism and national identity, this one stands out as boldly innovative, theoretically challenging, and culturally sophisticated. --Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, College Park, author of Fantasies of Salvation Yitzhak Brudny has produced an impressive and scholarly account of the divisions within the Russian political and cultural elite during the last four decades of the Soviet Union's existence. His book is important both for the fresh light it throws on that period and as essential context for interpreting the debates on nationhood and statehood which rage in Russia today. --Archie Brown, University of Oxford Reinventing Russia provides us with a vivid portrayal of the politics behind the rise of Russian nationalism in post-Stalinist Russia. It is a finely detailed study of not only the relationship of political authority to the spread of nationalist ideas, but also reciprocally of the role played by these ideas in shaping the political. --Mark Beissinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison Rival nationalists literally shook the Soviet Union apart. The very structure of the Soviet state encouraged all major ethnic groups--including the Russians--to view battles over resources in terms of ethnic and national conflict. Brudny, in this important study, explores precisely how rival nationalist claims emerged during the years following Stalin's death, and why they proved to be simultaneously so robust and pernicious. --Blair Ruble, Director, Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center

Book States of Emergency

Download or read book States of Emergency written by Patricia Rodden Zimmermann and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Killing the White Man s Indian

Download or read book Killing the White Man s Indian written by Fergus M. Bordewich and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1997-04-14 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of a new lightly romanticized view of Native Americans, Killing the White Man's Indian bravely confronts the current myths and often contradictory realities of tribal life today. Following two centuries of broken treaties and virtual government extermination of the "savage redmen," Americans today have recast Native Americans into another, equally stereotyped role, that of eternal victims, politically powerless and weakened by poverty and alcoholism, yet whose spiritual ties with the natural world form our last, best hope of salvaging our natural environment and ennobling our souls. The truth, however, is neither as grim , nor as blindly idealistic, as many would expect. The fact is that a virtual revolution is underway in Indian Country, an upheaval of epic proportions. For the first time in generations, Indians are shaping their own destinies, largely beyond the control of whites, reinventing Indian education and justice, exploiting the principle of tribal sovereignty in ways that empower tribal governments far beyond most American's imaginations. While new found power has enriched tribal life and prospects, and has made Native Americans fuller participants in the American dream, it has brought tribal governments into direct conflict with local economics and the federal government. Based on three years of research on the Native American reservations, and written without a hidden conservative bias or politically correct agenda, Killing the White Man's Indian takes on Native American politics and policies today in all their contradictory--and controversial-guises."

Book Securing the World Economy

    Book Details:
  • Author : Patricia Clavin
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2015-12-03
  • ISBN : 0191086649
  • Pages : 416 pages

Download or read book Securing the World Economy written by Patricia Clavin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Securing the World Economy explains how efforts to support global capitalism became a core objective of the League of Nations. Based on new research drawn together from archives on three continents, it explores how the world's first ever inter-governmental organization sought to understand and shape the powerful forces that influenced the global economy, and the prospects for peace. It traces how the League was drawn into economics and finance by the exigencies of the slump and hyperinflation after the First World War, when it provided essential financial support to Austria, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, and Estonia and, thereby, established the founding principles of financial intervention, international oversight, and the twentieth-century notion of international 'development'. But it is the impact of the Great Depression after 1929 that lies at the heart of this history. Patricia Clavin traces how the League of Nations sought to combat economic nationalism and promote economic and monetary co-operation in a variety of, sometimes contradictory, ways. Many of the economists, bureaucrats, and policy-advisors who worked for it played a seminal role in the history of international relations and social science, and their efforts did not end with the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1940 the League established an economic mission in the United States, where it contributed to the creation of organizations for the post-war world - the United Nations Organization, the IMF, the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization - as well as to plans for European reconstruction and co-operation. It is a history that resonates deeply with challenges that face the Twenty-First Century world.

Book Mike Nichols

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kyle Stevens
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2015-08-03
  • ISBN : 0199375836
  • Pages : 304 pages

Download or read book Mike Nichols written by Kyle Stevens and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With iconic movies like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, and Carnal Knowledge, Mike Nichols was the most prominent American director during the cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Mike Nichols: Sex, Language, and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism argues that he overhauled the style of psychological realism, and, in doing so, continues to shape the legacies of Hollywood cinema. It also reveals that misreadings of his films were central to foundational debates at the emergence of Cinema Studies as a discipline, inviting new reflections on critical dogma. Focusing on Nichols' classic movies, as well as later films such as Silkwood, The Birdcage, and Angels in America, Kyle Stevens demonstrates that Nichols' realism lies not in the plausibility of his characters but in their inherent mystery. By attending to the puzzling words and silences, breaths and laughter, that comprise these characters, Stevens uncovers new insights into the subversive potential of a range of cinematic elements, and reveals how Nichols' satirical oeuvre, and Hollywood itself, participated in several of the nation's most urgent social, political, and philosophical advances.

Book Encyclopedia of New Media

Download or read book Encyclopedia of New Media written by Steve Jones and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2002-12-10 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Scholars and students finally have a reference work documenting the foundations of the digital revolution. Were it not the only reference book to cover this emergent field, Jones′s encyclopedia would still likely be the best." --CHOICE "The articles are interesting, entertaining, well written, and reasonably long. . . . Highly recommended as a worthwhile and valuable addition to both science and technology and social science reference collections." --REFERENCE & USER SERVICES QUARTERLY, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION From Amazon.com to virtual communities, this single-volume encyclopedia presents more than 250 entries that explain communication technology, multimedia, entertainment, and e-commerce within their social context. Edited by Steve Jones, one of the leading scholars and founders of this emerging field, and with contributions from an international group of scholars as well as science and technology writers and editors, the Encyclopedia of New Media widens the boundaries of today′s information society through interdisciplinary, historical, and international coverage. With such topics as broadband, content filtering, cyberculture, cyberethics, digital divide, freenet, MP3, privacy, telemedicine, viruses, and wireless networks, the Encyclopedia will be an indispensable resource for anyone interested or working in this field. Unlike many encyclopedias that provide short, fragmented entries, the Encyclopedia of New Media examines each subject in depth in a single, coherent article. Many articles span several pages and are presented in a large, double-column format for easy reading. Each article also includes the following: A bibliography Suggestions for further reading Links to related topics in the Encyclopedia Selected works, where applicable Entries include: Pioneers, such as Marc Andreesen, Marshall McLuhan, and Steve Jobs Terms, from "Access" to "Netiquette" to "Web-cam" Technologies, including Bluetooth, MP3, and Linux Businesses, such as Amazon.com Key labs, research centers, and foundations Associations Laws, and much more The Encyclopedia of New Media includes a comprehensive index as well as a reader′s guide that facilitates browsing and easy access to information. Recommended Libraries Public, academic, government, special, and private/corporate

Book Resolutions

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael Renov
  • Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
  • Release : 1996
  • ISBN : 9780816623303
  • Pages : 454 pages

Download or read book Resolutions written by Michael Renov and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resolutions provides, by far, the best, boldest, and most thorough account to date of video art and activism, practice, and theory. The long-awaited follow-up to a project conducted by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), this volume presents original articles by many of the most interesting video artists, filmmakers, and critical theorists writing today. Their subjects, from video pedagogy to emerging technologies, are many and varied and together constitute a clear and complete picture of the state of the medium. Constructed like an inquiry into newly forming video practice, the collection at once interweaves and questions a series of relationships among politics, popular culture, artistic intervention, and social practices. The often provocative essays, on topics ranging from video porn to Geraldo Rivera to lesbian representation to the politics of video memory, contribute significantly to a much needed reconceptualization of the electronic medium.

Book Exposing Lifestyle Television

Download or read book Exposing Lifestyle Television written by Gareth Palmer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last decade lifestyle television has become one of the most dominant television genres, with certain shows now global brands with formats exploited by producers all over the world. What unites these programmes is their belief that the human subject has a flexible, malleable identity that can be changed within television-friendly frameworks. In contrast to the talk shows of the eighties and nineties where modest transformation was discussed as an ideal, advances in technology, combined with changing tastes and demands of viewers, have created an appetite for dramatic transformations. This volume presents case studies from across the lifestyle genre, considering a variety of themes but with a shared understanding of the self as an evolving project, driven by enterprise. Written by an international team of scholars, the collection will appeal to sociologists of culture and consumption, as well as to scholars of media studies and media production throughout the world.