Hastings House & Us

Pullers

PULLERS

A Novel

Tom Graves

Explains to us things about professional arm-wrestling — the techniques used to psych-out opponents, the sleazy settings for the contests themselves, the broken wrists, the compund fractures — we could never find out on our own without spending lots of time at interstate truck stops and the back rooms of unsavory beer joints along the back roads.

Hastings House

ISBN 0-8038-9424-4

$21.00, hc

Music in the Air

MUSIC IN THE AIR

America's Changing Tastes in Popular Music, 1920 - 1980

Philip K. Eberly

Diversity has been the distinguishing attribute of that branch of entertainment we call popular music. Technology and media have helped keep the pop music fires burning. Edison's phonograph and Emile Berliner's flat disc recording inventions, and the introduction of the home radio receiver transfigured American popular music.

Here in 21 chapters that range from the makeshift early broadcasts to speculation about Formats for the Future, is a well-documented "history" of radio's contribution to our popular music.

Hastings House

ISBN: 0-8038-4743-2

Trade paperback, $23.00

Recycled Elegance

RECYCLED ELEGANCE

Decorating with Second-Hand Treasures

Joan and Don Bingham

Champagne tastes on a beer budget? Written by two authors with recognized experience in the areas of antiques and collectibles, as well as apartment living, Recycled Elegance is an outstanding reference guide for those interested in furnishing their homes with style, at a fraction of the cost.

The authors tell where to find fine home furnishings — from estate sales to auctions to garage sales — explain what to look for before buying, and then give thorough instructions for cleaning and repairing each treasure. The book is a wonderful introduction to the world of second-hand wares including tremendous bargains in furniture, accessories, china, tools, frills, and necessities — practically everything you need to turn your home into your tastefully decorated castle.

At today's prices, most people can't afford elegant pieces of furniture such as mahogany or cherry. But there are plenty of pieces available in flea markets, tag sales, and house sales, and the authors show the reader how to reap the fruits of this largely untapped market.

Hastings House

ISBN: 0-8038-9408-3

Trade paperback, $16.95

Mapplethorpe

MAPPLETHORPE

Assault With A Deadly Camera

Jack Fritscher, Ph.D.

This book is based on the author's detailed journals and Jack Fritscher creates a fresh, fast-paced account that hooks the reader like a page-turning novel. It started when the undiscovered Mapplethorpe flew to San Francisco in 1977 to ask Fritscher to look at his portfolio. Fritscher, recognising Mapplethorpe's talent, assigned and supervised his first cover. They later became friends, colleagues and lovers. Mapplethorpe repeatedly asked Fritscher to write about him. Frirscher responded with features and fiction depicting the photographer. When Fritscher wrote the novel Some Dance to Remember, he dedicated it to Mapplethorpe, who read it in progress. The book was published to wide acclaim after Mapplethorpe's death in 1989. The New Republic named the book a classic on a par with Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar and James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. This is a vivid and compelling story of a specific group at a specific time in a specific place, living in a Golden Age before AIDS and its lost civilization beneath the viral sea.

Hastings House

ISBN: 0-8038-9362-0

Hardcover, $24.95