Spending long, languid weekends in St. Thomas would seem like a dream job for most people. For single, thirty-something Ashley Farrell, however, it comes with the humiliation of having to act as chaperone for the varlous bachelor and bachelorette winners of a popular TV dating show. But this dead-end junket shows signs of new life. Between safeguarding the morals of curvaceous Melissa and voracious Randy and avoiding the diamond-dripping wife of a reputed crime boss, Ashley is attracting the serious attention of a tall, deliciously sexy stranger she met on the airplane. Things are definitely looking up!
Until she discovers a dead bodyguard on the beach...
Until she finds herself surrounded by FBI agents...
Until she is arrested for murder...
And now there's big trouble in paradise for sure!

Pretend I'm Not Here

Literature & Fiction

Gavaler, Chris

Literary

HarperTorch

Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

"This book addresses how our revisionary practices account for relations between texts and how they are read. It offers an overarching philosophy of revision concerning works of fiction, fact, and faith, revealing unexpected insights about the philosophy of language, the metaphysics of fact and fiction, and the history and philosophy of science and religion. Using the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien as exemplars, the authors introduce a fundamental distinction between the purely physical and the linguistic aspects of texts. They then demonstrate how two competing theories of reference-descriptivism and referentialism-are instead constitutive of a single semantic account needed to explain all kinds of revision. The authors also propose their own metaphysical foundations of fiction and fact. The next part of the book brings the authors' philosophy of revision into dialogue with Thomas Kuhn's famous analysis of factual, and specifically scientific, change. It also discusses a complex episode in the history of paleontology, demonstrating how scientific and popular texts can diverge over time. Finally, the authors expand their philosophy of revision to religious texts, arguing that, rather than being distinct, such texts are always read as other kinds, that faith tends to be more important as evidence for religious texts than for others, and that the latter explains why religious communities tend to have remarkable historical longevity. Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith offers a unique and comprehensive account of the philosophy of revision. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of language, metaphysics, philosophy of literature, literary theory and criticism, and history and philosophy of science and religion"--

Goldberg, Nathaniel

Religion & Spirituality

Routledge

This book addresses how our revisionary practices account for relations between texts and how they are read. It offers an overarching philosophy of revision concerning works of fiction, fact, and faith, revealing unexpected insights about the philosophy of language, the metaphysics of fact and fiction, and the history and philosophy of science and religion. 
Using the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien as exemplars, the authors introduce a fundamental distinction between the purely physical and the linguistic aspects of texts. They then demonstrate how two competing theories of reference―descriptivism and referentialism―are instead constitutive of a single semantic account needed to explain all kinds of revision. The authors also propose their own metaphysical foundations of fiction and fact. The next part of the book brings the authors’ philosophy of revision into dialogue with Thomas Kuhn’s famous analysis of factual, and specifically scientific, change. It also discusses a complex episode in the history of paleontology, demonstrating how scientific and popular texts can diverge over time. Finally, the authors expand their philosophy of revision to religious texts, arguing that, rather than being distinct, such texts are always read as other kinds, that faith tends to be more important as evidence for religious texts than for others, and that the latter explains why religious communities tend to have remarkable historical longevity. 
Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith offers a unique and comprehensive account of the philosophy of revision. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of language, metaphysics, philosophy of literature, literary theory and criticism, and history and philosophy of science and religion.

School for Tricksters: A Novel in Stories

United States

Southern Methodist Univ Pr

Creating Comics: A Writer's and Artist's Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies)

For creative writers and artists, comics provide unique opportunities for expression - but unique challenges, too. Creating Comics brings together in one volume an authoritative guide to the creative process, with practical drawing exercises throughout and an anthology of comics demonstrating the eclectic possibilities of the form. Creating Comic covers: · Using images to conceive and develop characters and stories · The complete range of possible relationships between two images · The step-by-step structure of visual narratives · How to approach each page like a unique canvas · Combining words and images to create new meanings Fully integrated with the main guide, the anthology section includes work by creators including: Lynda Barry, Alison Bechdel, Jaime Hernandez, Marjane Satrapi, Adrian Tomine, and many others.

Comics & Graphic Novels

Beavers, Leigh Ann

History & Price Guides

Bloomsbury Academic

About the Author\nChris Gavaler is Associate Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, USA. He is also the author of On the Origina of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1 (2015) and Superhero Comics (2017) and Creating Comics (2021), both publishing by Bloomsbury. Since 2021, he has been series editor of Bloomsbury Comics Studies.\nLeigh Ann Beavers is Instructor of Art at Washington and Lee University, USA.\nJoe Wilkins is Associate Professor of English at Linfield College, USA. His memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers: Growing Up on the Big Dry won the GLCA New Writers Award for non-fiction and his work has appeared in Georgia Review, Harvard Review and Slate among many other periodicals.\nSean Prentiss is Associate Professor of English at Norwich University, USA. He is author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave (2015), which won the National Outdoor Book Award for Biography/History. He is also co-editor of The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre (2014).\nFor creative writers and artists, comics provide unique opportunities for expression – but unique challenges, too. Creating Comics brings together in one volume an authoritative guide to the creative process, with practical drawing exercises throughout and an anthology of comics demonstrating the eclectic possibilities of the form.\nCreating Comic covers:\n· Using images to conceive and develop characters and stories 
· The complete range of possible relationships between two images 
· The step-by-step structure of visual narratives 
· How to approach each page like a unique canvas 
· Combining words and images to create new meanings\nFully integrated with the main guide, the anthology section includes work by creators including: Lynda Barry, Alison Bechdel, Jaime Hernandez, Marjane Satrapi, Adrian Tomine, and many others.

The Comics Form: The Art of Sequenced Images

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Superhero Comics (Bloomsbury Comics Studies)

A complete guide to the history, form and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar of comic book genres.
 In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals:
 ·The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st century evolutions ·Cultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, KKK vigilantism, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representation ·Key texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black Panther ·Approaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction

A complete guide to the history, form and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar of comic book genres. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals: ·The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st century evolutions·Cultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, KKK vigilantism, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representation·Key texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black Panther·Approaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction

Most readers think that superheroes began with Superman’s appearance in Action Comics No. 1, but that Kryptonian rocket didn’t just drop out of the sky. By the time Superman’s creators were born, the superhero’s most defining elements—secret identities, aliases, disguises, signature symbols, traumatic origin stories, extraordinary powers, self-sacrificing altruism—were already well-rehearsed standards. Superheroes have a sprawling, action-packed history that predates the Man of Steel by decades and even centuries. On the Origin of Superheroes is a quirky, personal tour of the mythology, literature, philosophy, history, and grand swirl of ideas that have permeated western culture in the centuries leading up to the first appearance of superheroes (as we know them today) in 1938. From the creation of the universe, through mythological heroes and gods, to folklore, ancient philosophy, revolutionary manifestos, discarded scientific theories, and gothic monsters, the sweep and scale of the superhero’s origin story is truly epic. We will travel from Jane Austen’s Bath to Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars to Owen Wister’s Wyoming, with some surprising stops along the way. We’ll meet mad scientists, Napoleonic dictators, costumed murderers, diabolical madmen, blackmailers, pirates, Wild West outlaws, eugenicists, the KKK, Victorian do-gooders, detectives, aliens, vampires, and pulp vigilantes (to name just a few). Chris Gavaler is your tour guide through this fascinating, sometimes dark, often funny, but always surprising prehistory of the most popular figure in pop culture today. In a way, superheroes have always been with us: they are a fossil record of our greatest aspirations and our worst fears and failings.

On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

University Of Iowa Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gavaler, Chris. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gavaler, Chris

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gavaler, Chris. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pretend I'm Not Here

Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)

School for Tricksters: A Novel in Stories

Creating Comics: A Writer's and Artist's Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies)

Creating Comics: A Writer's and Artist's Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies)

The Comics Form: The Art of Sequenced Images

Superhero Comics (Bloomsbury Comics Studies)

Superhero Comics (Bloomsbury Comics Studies)

On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1