PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic

Discover a world of excellence and originality with Bloomsbury Academic’s distinguished fall list, which advances the publisher’s commitment to bold ideas, literary innovation, and cultural resonance.

This season introduces MARVEL AGE OF COMICS, a series of concise, affordable, beautifully designed books that explore the history of over 85 years of Marvel Comics. The acclaimed Object Lessons series makes its debut on Audible, extending its celebration of the hidden lives of ordinary things through the power of audio.

Among the standout titles are She’s Just Spirited, a relatable and intimate guide to parenting a neurodivergent child; Positively Fourth and Mercer, certain to appeal to music enthusiasts interested in the New York scene and the legendary club, The Bottom Line; and Wicked Witch of the West, an empowering feminist treatment of an enduring antagonist.

Whether you're after smart audio, timely nonfiction, or imaginative narrative prose, Bloomsbury’s fall list has something for every reader and listener.

This newsletter was created in partnership with Bloomsbury.

Marvel Age of Comics
Daredevil: Born Again by Chris Ryall

In Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Daredevil: Born Again, the comic's titular hero has his life destroyed after his most menacing enemy learns his real identity. His attempts to rebuild his life and sanity result in one of the most gripping and impactful super hero storylines of all time.

Released in 1986, the storyline is an extraordinary exploration of what happens when a hero's identity is revealed, and his personal life completely annihilated. We see Daredevil reduced to the lowest depths in the character's history, but we also follow his painstaking path toward redemption.

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The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s by Paul Cornell

Writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby co-created the all-star group of six super heroes in September 1963. From there, just three main writers chronicled Earth's Mightiest Heroes in that most turbulent of decades: Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, and Jim Shooter, each with differing approaches. The Avengers quickly became the pivot around which the Marvel Universe turned. To look back through its issues is to get a crash course in '70s pop culture.

Illustrated with full-color art from this legendary run, Paul Cornell's entry in the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS series explores how the Mighty Avengers became icons during a time of immense change and upheaval.

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Doctor Strange: A Decade of Dark Magic by Stuart Moore

Doctor Strange, one of Marvel's most fascinating early characters, began at the hands of cocreators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and his ethereal voyages through other dimensions made him an important figure in 1960s culture.

From his first appearance in 1963, Strange captivated a wide range of readers. Over his first ten years, a succession of writers and artists—including Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Gardner F. Fox, P. Craig Russell, Marie Severin, and notably Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner—expanded on Ditko's original mind-bending concepts.

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Spider-Man: Miles Morales by Ytasha L. Womack

First introduced in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Miles Morales reconceived Spider-Man as African American and Latinx, and his debut marked a new direction in the beloved saga.

Miles Morales as Spider-Man is a coming-of-age tale of a smart, affable teen coming into his power. From his reluctance to becoming a super hero to his desire to help others, to the rocky balance between his school life and super hero responsibilities, Miles is always at the precipice of making decisions-choices whose consequences are as weighted in his personal life as they often are for the survival of the world.

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PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
Object Lessons Comes to Audio
Listening Is the Object Here

Fans of Bloomsbury’s acclaimed Object Lessons series can now experience its signature blend of insight, wit, and cultural curiosity in a whole new way—on Audible. These concise, thought-provoking works that tell the story of how we got here, one object at a time, are now available as audiobooks, making them perfect for listening on the go. The transition to audio adds a new dimension to a series already celebrated for transforming the ordinary into the unforgettable.

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PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
More Titles to Look Out For
Organize Your Business Like a Boss by Jane Stoller

Use the power of organization to transform chaos into efficiency so you can run your business instead of letting it run you.

Entrepreneurship doesn't have to be synonymous with exhaustion and sacrifice. In a world where hustle culture is fading and intentional business-building takes center stage, Organize Your Business Like a Boss book offers her finely tuned six-step method to optimize your business for sustainable success and personal freedom. Drawing on her extensive experience transforming failing businesses into profitable ones, this system will help you gain control over your business without the burnout.

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She's Just Spirited by Nefertiti Austin

One diagnosis can change everything. That is what Nefertiti Austin discovered when she was told her daughter Cherish had ADHD and SPD. After much learning, on both their parts, Nefertiti and Cherish finally found the letters that worked for them, chief among them M-O-M.

In She's Just Spirited: Parenting a Neurodivergent Child and the Diagnosis that Changes Everything, Nefertiti captures the failures and triumphs of raising a neurologically diverse child. Alongside relatable anecdotes from her own experiences, Nefertiti offers insight from experts and easy to digest strategies she wishes she had had from the start. She also shines a light on why many neurologically diverse children and teenagers are overlooked and undiagnosed-often due to hurtful stereotypes, gender bias, racism, and homophobia in the healthcare and education systems-and what parents can do to ensure their child is evaluated by the right people at the right time.

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Make My Funk the P-Funk by Daniel Bedrosian

P-Funk keyboardist Daniel Bedrosian brings to life the recording and musical activity of Parliament-Funkadelic in 1975, an epoch-making year marked by the release of three seminal albums: Chocolate City, Let's Take It to the Stage, and Mothership Connection. By the end of it, George Clinton and P-Funk were catapulted into superstardom, becoming a massive platinum success with multiple hit singles.

Incorporating exclusive insights and memories from significant P-Funk members including Clinton himself, the book investigates how P-Funk evolved throughout the year and eventually crystallized a unique sound most associated with the group. Bedrosian pulls back the curtain on these three albums, revealing important details of production styles, artistic processes, musical influences, themes, historical importance, and so much more. He also dives into major P-Funk lore and political and social influences during this time, including Clinton's Afrofuturism.

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Wicked Witch of the West by Lona Bailey

In Wicked Witch of the West: The Enduring Legacy of a Feminist Icon, Lona Bailey explores the radical feministic undertones of one of the most enduring characters in popular culture. Introduced in 1900 through L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch has captivated generations as both a symbol of fear and empowerment. More than just a villain, she embodies rebellion and resistance, refusing to conform to the roles historically assigned to women. This book traces her transformation over the past century, highlighting how she has evolved through countless adaptations from The Wizard of Oz to the film adaptation of Wicked while maintaining her core identity as a powerful, defiant figure.

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You Can't Kill the Boogeyman by Wayne Byrne

You Can't Kill the Boogeyman: The Ongoing Halloween Saga—13 Movies and Counting is a cultural and critical examination of the legendary Halloween film franchise, considering the style, themes, and development of the series within temporal and industrial contexts. Through candid conversations with author Wayne Byrne, a variety of directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, and actors from across the Halloween films offer exclusive insights into their careers, their unique aesthetic approaches, and their experiences of working on one of the most celebrated horror franchises within the history of American cinema.

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Positively Fourth and Mercer by Allan Pepper and Billy Altman

The story of the Bottom Line is the tale of childhood friends who turned their shared dream into a reality—and, through determination, hard work, and, most of all, a belief in each other, made entertainment history, and memories, to last a lifetime. Told by co-founder Allan Pepper and award-winning music journalist Billy Altman, as well as scores of on and offstage participants whose exploits helped create its lasting legacy, Positively Fourth and Mercer: The Inside Story of New York's Iconic Music Club, The Bottom Line is certain to appeal to anyone interested in music, show business and the inner and outer workings of a legendary club that defined its time in the firmament of New York City nightlife. Positively Fourth and Mercer is about a time and place. It is a love story about friendship, romance, and following a dream.

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The Accidental Picasso Thief by Whit Rummel with Noah Charney

In 1969, a Picasso painting titled Portrait of a Woman and a Musketeer vanished from Logan International Airport's loading dock in Boston and ended up in the home of Merrill "Bill" Rummel, a forklift operator. Unaware of its contents, Rummel took the crate home, discovering that it contained the painting only later. Not appreciating the art, he hid it in his closet. As the FBI began investigating the missing Picasso, Rummel and his fiancée panicked. They panicked further when they learned that the Winter Hill Gang, the Boston mob run by Whitey Bulger, had also learned about the Picasso and was on the hunt for it. What happened next was a sort of reverse heist. The tricky part was to devise a foolproof plan to return it without getting arrested or killed.

This book, coauthored by Whit Rummel Jr. and best-selling author and art crime expert Noah Charney, will tell the full story, while also looking at incidents of art theft in the United States, thus putting this particular, quirky crime into context.

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Cosmic Thing by Pete Crighton

The B-52s were always queer, though not overtly, and this book dissects the coded queer messaging in their music, using 1989's Cosmic Thing as a focal point.

Cosmic Thing took the world by storm in 1989 in the wake of the band's single greatest tragedy: losing guitarist Ricky Wilson to complications from AIDS in 1985. Cosmic Thing is a celebration of queer joy in the face of that seismic setback. Not only did the B-52s have to fight through their pain and grief to make their fifth full length record, the band was also up against a conservative government under Reagan (then Bush), a misunderstood virus still ravaging the queer community and an indifferent public after years out of the spotlight. Watching the band enjoy their greatest success in the face of adversity was part of what made Cosmic Thing such a marvel to behold—as miraculous as the B-52s' entire career.

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Jaws by Antonia Quirke

In her foreword to this new edition, Antonia Quirke looks back on Jaws, its compelling power and its contemporary resonances fifty years after its release.

Jaws exerts an extraordinary power over audiences. Apparently simplistic and manipulative, it is a film that divided critics into two broad camps: those who dismissed it as infantile and sensational—and those who saw the shark as freighted with complex political and psychosexual meanings. Antonia Quirke, in an impressionistic response, argues that both interpretations obscure the film's success simply as a work of art. In Jaws, Spielberg's ability to blend genres combined with his precocious technical skill to create a genuine masterpiece, which is underrated by many, including its director. Indeed, Quirke argues, it may be his finest work.

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PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
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About the Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic is a leading independent publishing house, established in 1986, with authors who have won the Nobel, Pulitzer, and Booker Prizes. Bloomsbury has offices in New York, London, New Delhi, Oxford and Sydney. Within Bloomsbury’s Academic division, it publishes under Bloomsbury, as well as under a number of prestigious and historic imprint names.

The Academic & Professional division has lifelong learning at the heart of our business, publishing works of excellence and originality to inspire, educate and inform, and believing that intellectual curiosity and educational achievement go hand-in-hand.


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PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic
PW Presents: Bloomsbury Academic