Real TV Series

Real TV Series
Author: Wendy G Lawton
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 669
Release: 2005-06-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0802482317

This set includes all four books of the Real TV series: Changing Faces, Flip Flop, Less is More, and Dating Do-Over. Dive into Wendy Lawton's newest teen fiction series based on the reality television craze called Real TV - Real Transformations. In Changing Faces, Olivia O'Donnell wins a total fashion makeover on the hot, new reality TV show of the same name. After her whirlwind trip to Hollywood, she comes home sporting a polished, uptown look. As she deals with her over-committed schedule and the changed attitude of those around her, she has to face the fact that her polish is only skin deep. In Flip Flop, best friends, Chickie and Brianna know everything about each other- or so Chickie thinks. When they win a spot on the reality TV show, they are ecstatic. The girls change bedrooms, and along with a team of designers, get ready to do a room makeover. Brianna seems strangely quiet, and when the production team tells her they want "drama", she bursts into tears. Eventually Chickie finds out that all is not what it seems at Brianna's house and the "drama" Brianna fears is not the made-for-television variety. More than the makeover of their bedrooms, both girls learn a lesson as to what will truly make over their homes and not-so-perfect families. In Less is More, Abby gets tired of the constant teasing about her weight at youth group. When her PE teacher submits her name for the fitness challenge on her favorite reality TV show, Less is More, it seems to be the perfect solution. But is Abby up for the challenge? In Dating Do-Over, Bailey is sweet seventeen and never been kissed, okay, she's never even been out with a guy. When the producers of the television show, Dating Do-Over, contact her, she's delighted. As the image consultants begin to work their magic, the young production grip intern, Luke, quietly models the beautyof authenticity.

The Terror

The Terror
Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 798
Release: 2007-03-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316003883

The "masterfully chilling" novel that inspired the hit AMC series (Entertainment Weekly). The men on board the HMS Terror — part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage — are entering a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, they struggle to survive with poisonous rations, a dwindling coal supply, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is even more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror clawing to get in. “The best and most unusual historical novel I have read in years.” —Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe

Life Just Got Real

Life Just Got Real
Author: Sadie Robertson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-06-13
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1501127063

Sixteen-year-old A.J. Smith, who was born and raised in backwoods Tennessee, attends school with Kate Kelly, a fashionable girl on a reality show, and the two Christian girls eventually become friends, even as the show's producers try and cause conflict.

I Said Yes

I Said Yes
Author: Emily Maynard Johnson
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0718038444

Millions know Emily Maynard Johnson from her appearances on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. At the end of a long, fruitless search for a husband, Emily found that waiting right in front of her all along was the truest love of all: the unconditional love of the Lord. Overcome with embarrassment following her nationally televised heartbreaks, Emily finally committed herself to the only one she knew would never leave her empty and alone. Abandoning her need to be chosen by men and finding peace in the fact that she was already chosen by God, Emily found the joy she had been looking for in serving God. I Said Yes chronicles Emily's experiences on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and the way that God turned her life upside down through the knowledge and acceptance of His true love. As Emily sheds light on her life as a believer in the spotlight, she teaches us: How to embrace the gift of true redemption What it means to fully surrender your heart to God How to say yes to God's ways, God's love, and God's timing In I Said Yes, Emily tells the story of her life before and after reality TV fame, describing the profound new reality she discovered when she traded fame in favor of the Lord--and to that unconditional love, Emily said yes.

Pedro and Me

Pedro and Me
Author: Judd Winick
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2000-09-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780805064032

In this inspiring memoir in graphic novel form, the author relates his friendship with an HIV-positive AIDS activist while they were roommates during the filming of the MTV show "Real World". Pedro Zamora showed how people afflicted with the AIDS virus can live with dignity and humor. Illustrations.

The Innocent Man

The Innocent Man
Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2010-03-16
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0307576019

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LOOK FOR THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES • “Both an American tragedy and [Grisham’s] strongest legal thriller yet, all the more gripping because it happens to be true.”—Entertainment Weekly John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction: a true crime masterpiece that tells the story of small town justice gone terribly awry. In the Major League draft of 1971, the first player chosen from the state of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A’s, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of big league glory. Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits. He began to show signs of mental illness. Unable to keep a job, he moved in with his mother and slept twenty hours a day on her sofa. In 1982, a twenty-one-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder. With no physical evidence, the prosecution’s case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. Ron Williamson was sent to death row. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. Don’t miss Framed, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, co-authored with Centurion Ministries founder Jim McCloskey.

Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening
Author: Steven Sater
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2010-02
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 145876706X

Spring Awakening is an extraordinary new rock musical with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Grammy Award-nominated recording artist Duncan Sheik. Inspired by Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 play about teenage sexuality and society's efforts to control it, the piece seamlessly merges past and present, underscoring the timelessness of adolescent angst and the universality of human passion.

The Tube Has Spoken

The Tube Has Spoken
Author: Julie Taddeo
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2010-09-12
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813129419

Featuring ordinary people, celebrities, game shows, hidden cameras, everyday situations, and humorous or dramatic situations, reality TV is one of the fastest growing and important popular culture trends of the past decade, with roots reaching back to the days of radio. The Tube Has Spoken provides an analysis of the growing phenomenon of reality TV, its evolution as a genre, and how it has been shaped by cultural history. This collection of essays looks at a wide spectrum of shows airing from the 1950s to the present, addressing some of the most popular programs including Alan Funt’s Candid Camera, Big Brother, Wife Swap, Kid Nation, and The Biggest Loser. It offers both a multidisciplinary approach and a cross-cultural perspective, considering Australian, Canadian, British, and American programs. In addition, the book explores how popular culture shapes modern western values; for example, both An American Family and its British counterpart, The Family, showcase the decline of the nuclear family in response to materialistic pressures and the modern ethos of individualism. This collection highlights how reality TV has altered the tastes and values of audiences in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It analyzes how reality TV programs reflect the tensions between the individual and the community, the transformative power of technology, the creation of the celebrity, and the breakdown of public and private spheres.

The Leftovers

The Leftovers
Author: Tom Perrotta
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2011-08-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429989130

With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers—now adapted into an HBO series—is a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss. What if—whoosh, right now, with no explanation—a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened—not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children. Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start. A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011 A USA Today 10 Books We Loved Reading in 2011 Title One of NPR's 10 Best Novels of 2011