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Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir
by Walela NehandaA searing debut YA poetry and essay collection about a Black cancer patient who faces medical racism after being diagnosed with leukemia in their early twenties, for fans of Audre Lorde's The Cancer Journals and Laurie Halse Anderson's Shout.When Walela is diagnosed at twenty-three with advanced stage blood cancer, they're suddenly thrust into the unsympathetic world of tubes and pills, doctors who don&’t use their correct pronouns, and hordes of "well-meaning" but patronizing people offering unsolicited advice as they navigate rocky personal relationships and share their story online.But this experience also deepens their relationship to their ancestors, providing added support from another realm. Walela's diagnosis becomes a catalyst for their self-realization. As they fill out forms in the insurance office in downtown Los Angeles or travel to therapy in wealthier neighborhoods, they begin to understand that cancer is where all forms of their oppression intersect: Disabled. Fat. Black. Queer. Nonbinary.In Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir, the author details a galvanizing account of their survival despite the U.S. medical system, and of the struggle to face death unafraid.
Blossoming Into Disability Culture Following Traumatic Brain Injury: The Lotus Arising (ISSN)
by Dee Phyllis GenettiThis book tells the author’s story of her ten-year journey of recovery and identity transformation from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Dr. Dee is a survivor who regained the ability to articulate what many TBI survivors cannot, and this powerful account, provided in real-time, portrays the many seemingly unrelatable symptoms of brain injury and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dr. Dee portrays how events pushed her beyond her limits and resulted in life-altering learning experiences, revealing a process of first figuring out how to live, then making meaning of her struggle.When half-way through her PhD program, Dr. Dee was crashed into by a car travelling at 65 miles per hour. She suffered a TBI. She lost her ability to read and write. She had a severe speech impediment and significantly impaired memory. Her journey of recovery, described in the book as her trek, spans four significant periods. The road begins with the loss of most of herself. Diagnosis and evolving symptoms show her broken pathway. The author goes through a rocky road of changes in her relationships and reidentification of herself as she finds her life coach, re-learns to read and write, and deals with mental health issues that felt like the end of her recovery. The final trek reveals hope and posttraumatic growth (PTG) and showcases the value of Disability Culture as a source of pride.This story is for fellow TBI survivors, their caretakers, families and friends, and professionals in the neurorehabilitation field. It brings light to the daunting changes after TBI and give hope for all who tread on this challenging path.
Blueprint for Going Green: How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation
by Gerald P. McCarthyHow one organization took on industrial pollution—and the lessons for our new century In 1977, one forward-thinking judge took an ecological disaster—the poisoning of the James River by Allied Chemical—and turned it into a great environmental-protection legacy. The $8 million payment made by Allied would go on to fund the game-changing Virginia Environmental Endowment.Blueprint for Going Green provides an insider&’s account of the remarkable results of this landmark ruling and the foundation it spawned. Over the following decades, the VEE helped to grow the fledgling environmental movement in Virginia into a powerful force for protecting the state&’s water quality and conserving its landscape. This inspiring story reveals how a small group can make a profound difference by engaging in public policy work, funding science to advance public policy, and helping to build a lasting and effective citizen-led environmental movement.
The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
by Daniel de ViséThe Blues Brothers hit theatres on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage; but Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honour the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists - Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles - made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft drugged-out stars, The Blues Brothers opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 44 years since it has been acknowledged a classic: inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural significance, even declared a 'Catholic classic' by the Church itself, and re-aired thousands of times on television to huge worldwide audiences. It is, undeniably, one of the most significant films of the 20th century.The saga behind The Blues Brothers, as Daniel de Visé reveals, is epic, encompassing the colourful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard's Lampoon and Chicago's Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born as an act amidst turmoil and rivalry; and, of course, the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.
The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
by Daniel de ViséThe Blues Brothers hit theatres on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage; but Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honour the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists - Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles - made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft drugged-out stars, The Blues Brothers opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 44 years since it has been acknowledged a classic: inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural significance, even declared a 'Catholic classic' by the Church itself, and re-aired thousands of times on television to huge worldwide audiences. It is, undeniably, one of the most significant films of the 20th century.The saga behind The Blues Brothers, as Daniel de Visé reveals, is epic, encompassing the colourful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard's Lampoon and Chicago's Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born as an act amidst turmoil and rivalry; and, of course, the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.
The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
by Daniel de ViséThe Blues Brothers hit theatres on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage; but Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honour the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists - Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles - made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft drugged-out stars, The Blues Brothers opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 44 years since it has been acknowledged a classic: inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural significance, even declared a 'Catholic classic' by the Church itself, and re-aired thousands of times on television to huge worldwide audiences. It is, undeniably, one of the most significant films of the 20th century.The saga behind The Blues Brothers, as Daniel de Visé reveals, is epic, encompassing the colourful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard's Lampoon and Chicago's Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born as an act amidst turmoil and rivalry; and, of course, the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.
A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria
by Caroline CramptonPart cultural history, part literary criticism, and part memoir, A Body Made of Glass is a definitive biography of hypochondria.Caroline Crampton’s life was upended at the age of seventeen, when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a relatively rare blood cancer. After years of invasive treatment, she was finally given the all clear. But being cured of the cancer didn’t mean she felt well. Instead, the fear lingered, and she found herself always on the alert, braced for signs that the illness had reemerged. Now, in A Body Made of Glass, Crampton has drawn from her own experiences with health anxiety to write a revelatory exploration of hypochondria—a condition that, though often suffered silently, is widespread and rising. She deftly weaves together history, memoir, and literary criticism to make sense of this invisible and underexplored sickness. From the earliest medical case of Hippocrates to the literary accounts of sufferers like Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust to the modern perils of internet self-diagnosis, Crampton unspools this topic to reveal the far-reaching impact of health anxiety on our physical, mental, and emotional health.At its heart, Crampton explains, hypochondria is a yearning for knowledge. It is a never-ending attempt to replace the edgeless terror of uncertainty with the comforting solidity of a definitive explanation. Through intimate personal stories and compelling cultural perspectives, A Body Made of Glass brings this uniquely ephemeral condition into much-needed focus for the first time.
Bones Worth Breaking: A Memoir
by David MartinezBones Worth Breaking is a portrait of the unbreakable bond between brothers and a reckoning with the global forces that shaped them.Nobody around David Martinez saw how quickly he was breaking apart except for his younger brother, Mike. They stood out in Idaho: mixed-race in a Mormon community that, in the years before David’s birth, considered Black people ineligible for salvation. The Martinez brothers were raised to be “good boys,” definitely not to get high, skateboard all night, or get arrested, all of which they did with zeal. Then their paths diverged. David went on a two-year mission trip to Brazil like his father before him, and Mike stayed in the States, finding himself in and out of prison. When David returned, in the middle of the still-unnamed opioid epidemic, things had irrevocably changed, and in 2021, Mike unexpectedly died in prison.Martinez writes with a serrated edge, as viscerally felt as an exposed nerve, and transforms from a stoic boy constantly seeking escape to a vulnerable man eager to contextualize the legacies and losses that have shaped his life. With a wild, ragged velocity—flipping and soaring like a pro skater—Martinez defies a linear telling of his life and tackles topics from abuse and racism to writing and capturing the meaning of the specific nostalgia of saudade.Bones Worth Breaking is a portrait of the unbreakable bond between brothers who were robbed of the chance to grow old together, and a reckoning with the brutal global forces that let so many poor young men of color fall perilously through the cracks.
The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
by Adam SmythA scholar and bookmaker &“breathes both books-as-objects and their creators back into life&” (Financial Times) in this five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created them Books tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture&’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it. Books have transformed humankind by enabling authors to create, document, and entertain. Yet we know little about the individuals who brought these fascinating objects into existence and of those who first experimented in the art of printing, design, and binding. Who were the renegade book-makers who changed the course of history? From Wynkyn de Worde&’s printing of fifteenth-century bestsellers to Nancy Cunard&’s avant-garde pamphlets produced on her small press in Normandy, this is a celebration of the book with the people put back in.
A Book of Days
by Patti SmithIn 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message “Hello Everybody!” Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books she’s reading, the graves of beloved heroes—William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims. Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mother’s keychain, and a husband’s Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smith’s archives of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world. <P><P> With over 365 photographs taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer, and performer. Hopeful, elegiac, playful—and complete with an introduction by Smith that explores her documentary process—A Book of Days is a timeless offering for deeply uncertain times, an inspirational map of an artist’s life. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Book of Mothers: How Literature Can Help Us Reinvent Modern Motherhood
by Carrie Mullins"Timely and evergreen, engaging and infuriating, personal and universal—a necessary reintroduction to some of fiction's most familiar mothers." —Cecile Richards, bestselling author of Make Trouble and former president of Planned ParenthoodThis treasure trove for book lovers explores fifteen classic novels with memorable maternal figures, and examines how our cultural notions of motherhood have been shaped by literature.Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from—and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture’s idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards––standards rarely created by mothers themselves.To discover how we might talk about motherhood in a more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon––from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club—Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood, and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today—if we choose to listen?
Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder
by Alexander KrissAn intimate, compassionate, and expansive portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder that rejects the conventional wisdom that the condition is untreatable and those diagnosed with it are &“difficult,&” told by a psychologist who specializes in BPDMental illness is heavily stigmatized within our society, and folks with BPD are portrayed as especially hopeless by doctors and popular culture alike. When, as a graduate student, Alexander Kriss first began working as a therapist in the field, his supervisors warned him that borderline patients were manipulative and had a tendency to drop out of treatment. Yet, years later, when Kriss was establishing his private practice and a patient named Ana came to his office, he felt compelled to try to help her, despite all of the warnings he'd heard.Borderline is the story of his work with Ana—how their relationship led Kriss to a deeper understanding of the borderline experience and what it means to be a person. Borderline is also the story of the disorder itself—Kriss traces accounts of the condition going back to antiquity, showing how this diagnosis has been known by many names over the millennia, most of them gendered: witchcraft, hysteria, moral insanity. All referred to a person—usually a woman—whose behavior and personality were seen as unstable, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. Kriss illustrates the pivotal role borderline patients played in the invention of psychotherapy, the development of modern psychology and psychiatry, and current attitudes about what it means to be healthy. Through the interweaving of personal and global histories, he ultimately argues that BPD is the most important diagnosis of our time: the individual expression of cultural angst that emerges out of systemic inequality, the fracturing of narratives, and our collective search for meaning and identity.
Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen in American Life, 3rd edition, Revised and Expanded (Music / Culture Ser.)
by Jim CullenPioneering the field of Springsteen scholarship when it first appeared in 1997, Born in the U.S.A. remains one of the definitive studies of Springsteen’s work and its impact on American culture. Moving beyond journalistic and biographical approaches, Jim Cullen situates the artist in a wider historical canvas that stretches from the Puritans to Barack Obama, showing how he has absorbed, refracted, and revitalized American mythology, including the American Dream, the work ethic, and the long quest for racial justice. Exploring difficult questions about Springsteen’s politics, he finds a man committed to both democratic and republican principles, as well as a patriot dedicated to revealing the lapses of a country he loves. This third edition of Born in the U.S.A. is fully revised and updated, incorporating discussion of Springsteen’s wide output in the 21st century. While addressing Springsteen’s responses to events like 9/11, it also considers the evolution of his attitudes towards religion, masculinity, and his relationship with his audience. Whether a serious Springsteen fan or simply an observer of American popular culture, Born in the U.S.A. will give you a new appreciation for The Boss.
Born Naughty: My Childhood in China
by Jin Wang Tony JohnstonShare in the joyful, adventure-filled shenanigans of a child growing up in a small mud hut in Inner Mongolia in this charming, illustrated memoir for young middle grade readers.Growing up in Inner Mongolia, Jin Wang was rambunctious and boisterous and did not always listen to her Ma. Jin and her family were poor, but like kids everywhere, she still found a way to have fun and get into lots of mischief climbing trees, digging for mushrooms, and even looking for wolves.Paired with delightful, kid-friendly illustrations, this early middle grade memoir invites readers to join Jin and her family in the outskirts of Inner Mongolia to remind us that though we all have different customs and traditions, we are more alike than not, and that mischief lives within all of us.
Borne by the River: Canoeing the Delaware from Headwaters to Home
by Rick Van NoyAfter a near-fatal stroke and a separation, amidst a global pandemic, Rick Van Noy decided to go for a paddle. In Borne by the River, he charts the story of discovery, and healing that came from this solo canoe journey. Paddling two hundred miles on the Delaware River to his boyhood home just upriver from Trenton, New Jersey, Van Noy contemplates his fate and life, as well as the simple joy of sitting in a small boat floating down a large river with his dog, Sully.Deftly combining memoir, natural and local history, and engaging reportage of his encounters with other paddlers and river enthusiasts, including members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania, Van Noy reveals deep and shifting layers of environmental, historical, cultural, and personal significance of the Delaware. Borne by the River reckons with the way that rivers braid into one's own life—thrilling rapids, eddying pauses, and life-changing rifts and falls. Van Noy rediscovers and shares how river journeys can scatter anxieties, wash away regrets, and recreate the spirit in its free-flowing currents.
The Bower Atmosphere: A Biography of B. M. Bower
by Victoria LamontB. M. (Bertha Muzzy) Bower was the first author to make a living writing popular westerns, creating more than sixty novels and hundreds of short stories that were read by millions of Americans. Bower&’s were among the first westerns adapted to film, and the exploits of her cowboys at the fictional Flying U ranch established a tradition that flourishes to this day. A Montana mother of three, she began writing short stories in 1900, desperate for money that would allow her to leave her unhappy marriage to a cowboy employed by the McNamara ranch. Discouraged by her editors from publicizing her identity as a woman, Bower&’s important contribution to American mass culture faded from cultural memory after her death in 1940. Based on extensive research in Bower&’s personal archives and publishers&’ records, as well as interviews with some of her descendants, The Bower Atmosphere recounts the remarkable twists and turns of Bower&’s life, from her beginnings on a Montana cattle ranch to her success as a writer of serial westerns, all the while contending with the conflicting pressures of editors, husbands, children, and her own creative aspirations.
The Boy From Clearwater: Book 2
by Pei-Yun YuThe "glorious" sequel to Freeman Award-winning The Boy from Clearwater After his imprisonment in Green Island, Kun-lin struggles to pick up where he left off ten years earlier. He reconnects with his childhood crush Kimiko and finds work as an editor, jumping from publisher to publisher until finally settling at an advertising company. But when manhua publishing becomes victim to censorship, and many of his friends lose their jobs, Kun-lin takes matters into his own hands. He starts a children’s magazine, Prince, for a group of unemployed artists and his old inmates who cannot find work anywhere else. Kun-lin’s life finally seems to be looking up... but how long will this last? Forty years later, Kun-lin serves as a volunteer at the White Terror Memorial Park, promoting human rights education. There, he meets Yu Pei-Yun, a young college professor who provides him with an opportunity to reminisce on his past and how he picked himself up after grappling with bankruptcy and depression. With the end of martial law, Kun-lin and other former New-Lifers felt compelled to mobilize to rehabilitate fellow White Terror victims, forcing him to face his past head-on. While navigating his changing homeland, he must conciliate all parts of himself––the victim and the savior, the patriot and the rebel, a father to the future generation and a son to the old Taiwan––before he can bury the ghosts of his past. P R A I S E ★ "Yu, Zhou, and King bear glorious witness to little-known tragic history by empathetically spotlighting an everyday superhero who survived—and thrives." –Booklist (starred) ★ "An accessible, timely account of Taiwan’s struggles for democracy and human rights as experienced through a personal lens." –Kirkus (starred) "Triumphant and rewarding." –Foreword
Boy Wanted on Savile Row: From Apprentice to Tailoring Icon
by Timothy EverestThe son of restaurateurs, young Timothy Everest wanted nothing more than to be a racing driver. This was not to be, but little did he know that a job he took at age 17 – as a sales assistant at Hepworths in Milford Haven – would set the trajectory for success to come.Boy Wanted on Savile Row is the remarkable story of Everest’s meteoric rise in the British fashion industry. Starting in the 1980s and studying under Tommy Nutter, the rebel of Savile Row, while rubbing shoulders with the likes of Steve Strange and Boy George, he branched out on his own the following decade. Here he initially styled bands and pop stars, before spearheading the ‘Cool Britannia’ generation and becoming the face of the New Bespoke Movement. After earning over 3,500 clients, including Tom Cruise, David Beckham and Jay-Z, to name but a few, Everest turned his hand to tailoring for film, creating some truly iconic pieces for such franchises as James Bond and Mission Impossible.In this revealing memoir, featuring a wealth of famous names and celebrity anecdotes, Timothy Everest details the evolution of British tailoring that has shaped the way we view and buy our clothes.
The Boy Who Promised Me Horses
by David Joseph Charpentier&“He tried to outrun a train,&” Theodore Blindwoman told David Joseph Charpentier the night they found out about Maurice Prairie Chief&’s death. When Charpentier was a new teacher at St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, Montana, Prairie Chief was the first student he met and the one with whom he formed the closest bonds. From the shock of moving from a bucolic Minnesota college to teach at a small, remote reservation school in eastern Montana, Charpentier details the complex and emotional challenges of Indigenous education in the United States. Although he intended his teaching tenure at St. Labre to be short, Charpentier&’s involvement with the school has extended past thirty years. Unlike many white teachers who came and left the reservation, Charpentier has remained committed to the potentialities of Indigenous education, motivated by the early friendship he formed with Prairie Chief, who taught him lessons far and wide, from dealing with buffalo while riding a horse to coping with student dropouts he would never see again. Told through episodic experiences, the story takes a journey back in time as Charpentier searches for answers to Prairie Chief&’s life. As he sits on top of the sledding hill near the cemetery where Prairie Chief is buried, Charpentier finds solace in the memories of their shared (mis)adventures and their mutual respect, hard won through the challenges of educational and cultural mistrust.
BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity
by Ruth WhippmanCombining painfully honest memoir, cultural analysis, and reporting, BoyMom is a humorous and heartbreaking deep dive into the complexities of raising boys in our fraught political moment.&“Rapist, school-shooter, incel, man-child, interrupter, mansplainer, boob-starer, birthday forgetter, frat boy, dude-bro, homophobe, self-important stoner, emotional-labor abstainer, non-wiper of kitchen counters. Trying to raise good sons suddenly felt like a hopeless task.&” As the culture wars rage, and masculinity has been politicized from all sides, feminist writer and mother of three boys Ruth Whippman finds herself conflicted and scared. While the right pushes a dangerous vision of fantasy manhood, her feminist peers often dismiss boys as little more than entitled predators-in-waiting. Meanwhile her home life feels like a daily confrontation with the triumph of nature over nurture. With young men in the grip of a loneliness epidemic and dying by suicide at a rate of nearly four times their female peers, Whippman asks: How do we raise our sons to have a healthy sense of self without turning them into privileged assholes? How can we find a feminism that holds boys to a higher standard but still treats them with empathy? And what do we do when our boys won&’t cooperate with our plans? Whippman digs into the impossibly contradictory pressures boys now face; and the harmful blind spots of male socialization that are leaving boys isolated, emotionally repressed, and adrift. Feminist gonzo-style, she spends months interviewing incels, reports on a conference for boys accused of sexual assault; crashes at a residential therapy center for young men in Utah, talks to a wide range of psychologists and other experts, and gets boys of all backgrounds to open up about sex, consent, porn, body image, mental health, cancel culture, screens, friendship and loneliness. Along the way, she finds her simple certainties about male privilege seriously challenged. With wit, honesty, and a refusal to settle for easy answers, BoyMom charts a new path to give boys a healthier, more expansive, and fulfilling story about their own lives.
The Boys and Me: My Life in the Country Music Supergroup Sawyer Brown
by Mark MillerThe Boys and Me is the behind-the-scenes, untold story of front man and lead singer Mark Miller and his band—country music icons Sawyer Brown!Before The Voice and American Idol, there was Star Search with Ed McMahon. In the first season, an eclectic and charismatic country-rock band called Sawyer Brown appeared on the show, taking America by storm. From ignored underdogs in Nashville to overnight rock stars from LA to New York, they swept the competition and won. Since 1984, &“the boys&” legendary live shows, along with their relentless drive to stay true to themselves, have captivated faithful fans around the world. As front man and lead singer of the band, Mark Miller&’s rise to fame wasn&’t exactly the path he envisioned for himself. After losing his father, Mark was raised by his mom whose solid faith and strong work ethic helped guide and shape him and his brother, Frank. With his sights set on playing pro basketball, Mark never dreamed of becoming an entertainer, especially considering he was terrified to stand on a stage. But God had a different plan. Now, forty years later, Sawyer Brown has eighteen studio albums to their name, multiple No. 1 singles, fifty-plus songs charting on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, and legendary award-winning videos. And they have no plans of stopping any time soon. The band&’s longevity is a testament to their strong songwriting, high-energy performances, and hard work. This is the behind-the-scenes, untold story of Mark Miller and &“the boys&”—country music icons Sawyer Brown!
The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room
by Amy LowThis honest and emotional memoir presents much needed lessons and advice for navigating uncertainty in the worst of times. Amy Low resides in a room that is her last—her medical team is clear-eyed with her: there is no cure for Stage IV metastatic colon cancer, and the odds of long-term survival are scant. Miraculously, she&’s lived four years with her diagnosis, and that life between life has changed her. Through the swirl of prolonged trauma and unbearable grief, a vantage point emerged—a window that showed her the way to relish life and be kinder to herself and others while living through the inevitable loss and heartbreak that crosses everyone&’s paths. Instead of viewing joy and sorrow as opposites, she saw how both exist in harmony, full of mystery and surprise. Instead of seeing days as succeeding or failing, and physical selves as healthy or unwell, she&’s learned to carry both achievements and afflictions in stride. And instead of bitterness and betrayal, forgiveness—toward her body, toward others, toward herself—became her wisest light. Mapping her experiences to the words that St. Paul wrote in his own last room, The Brave In-Between is a sacred invitation to explore that space between triumph and tragedy. We all have a heart to marvel at miracles, a lightness to spot the absurdity, and an imagination to pause and extend empathy for others—even when tragedy strikes. Sometimes we just need a guide.
Brazil after Bolsonaro: The Comeback of Lula da Silva
by Richard BourneBrazil after Bolsonaro captures and presents the voices of a wide range of stakeholders including academics and journalists in Brazil and abroad to produce the first systematic engagement with Lula’s latest presidency. Providing fair and balanced perspectives on Lula, the authors examine the legacy of Lula’s previous presidency; what happened in the interim in the eras of Rousseff, Temer, and Bolsonaro; and what are the challenges facing a new Lula administration. This book is divided into three main sections (Background to change, Context and issues, and Foreign policy) and chapters detail the political, social, and economic dimensions of change in Brazil and its wider repercussions. A fourth section sees Luís Guillermo Solís Rivera, President of Costa Rica from 2014 to 2018, offer reflections on Lula from the perspective of a fellow president. Assuming no prior knowledge and written in an accessible style, this book is ideal for those seeking to further their understanding of contemporary politics in Brazil and to learn the context and consequences of the transfer of power from Jair Bolsonaro to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Breaking Glass: Tales from the Witch of Wall Street
by Patricia Walsh ChadwickKicked out of a cult at seventeen, Patricia Walsh Chadwick started on the bottom rung of the ladder in the world of business and worked her way to the top—breaking through the glass ceiling to become a global partner at Invesco.Patricia grew up in a religious community-turned-cult in the Boston area. At the age of seventeen, she was forced out of her home, leaving behind her entire family, and without access to higher education. From her first job as a receptionist at a brokerage firm, she clawed her way up the ladder—rung by rung—in that bastion of male chauvinism: Wall Street. By going to college at night, she achieved her degree in economics from Boston University, and from there, she headed to New York City. With a drive that earned her the moniker &“Witch of Wall Street,&” she rose from the ranks of research analyst to portfolio manager, where she was responsible for billions of dollars in pension and endowment assets. A turning point in her life was giving birth to twins at the age of forty-five, and she continued forward in her career, becoming a global partner at Invesco. At the turn of the millennium, she left Wall Street behind and embarked on a second career as a corporate board director.
Breaking the Curse: A Memoir about Trauma, Healing, and Italian Witchcraft
by Alex DiFrancescoA tour de force of narrative nonfiction, a reimagining of the self-help genre, and a brave memoir about mystical forces, trauma, trans life, and how we must heal ourselves to survive.For readers of memoirs by Elliot Page (Pageboy) and Elissa Washuta (White Magic), and fans of writers like Carmen Maria Machado, Samantha Hunt, and Chavisa Woods.In Breaking the Curse, Alex DiFrancesco takes their own crushing experiences of assault, addiction, and transphobic violence as the starting point for a journey to self-reclamation. Reeling in the aftermath of a rape that played out as painfully in public as in private, DiFrancesco begins to pursue spirituality in earnest, searching for an ancestral connection to magic as a form of protection and pathway to transformation. Propelled by a knowledge of the spiritual role of the transgender person in society, Alex winds through Cleveland and Brooklyn and Philly—from rehab and pagan AA meetings and friends&’ spare mattresses to tarot readers and books about Italian witchcraft to daily ritual, prayer, altar-making, and folk tradition. In so doing, they begin to not only piece together a way to heal but also call into existence a life that finally feels worth living. Breaking the Curse weaves spells, blasphemous novenas, and personal memories to imagine a new memoir form. Speaking about trauma does not always take its power away, DiFrancesco reminds us, but one can write their truth so that the hurt no longer fills the whole horizon."'I see this world as few others do,' writes Alex DiFrancesco, and thank goodness for that. In their memoir, Breaking the Curse, DiFrancesco offers readers a mesmerizing vision of this world and the workings of trauma, gender identity and magic within it. A spell-binding work."—Molly Roden Winter author of More: A Memoir of Open Marriage