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Get Thee to a Bakery: Essays
by Rick BaileyGet Thee to a Bakery is a collection of short, tart essays that explore both humorous and harrowing aspects of growing older and making sense of social, technological, and environmental change. Topics range from earworms and industrial eggs to peaches and personal data, from bug die-offs to algae blooms and global warming, and from beards and yoga to the irrepressible American smile. Many of these essays make discursive moves into science and literature, framing issues and conflicts that resonate in contemporary American life. With a conversational style, distinctive voice, and great comic timing, Bailey entertains and surprises.
Get Up Mum
by Justin HeazlewoodIt?s 1992 in Burnie, Tasmania and 12-year-old Justin lives alone with his mum. When she is well, Mum is perfect. She knows he likes his carrots raw and his toast cooled, and she knows how to sooth his growing pains. But when she is sick she cries uncontrollably and never gets out of bed. High school is on the horizon and Justin is bursting with adolescent energy. But his mum?s mental illness hangs over him like a shadow and he feels the need to grow up fast. Told with youthful exuberance, Get Up Mum is a wildly endearing, entertaining and incredibly powerful memoir about love, family, and coming-of-age.
Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, & Weirdos
by Bucky SinisterA (former) skeptic works the 12-step program. &“An incredibly funny and interesting guide on how to successfully unpack one&’s mind when it&’s overpacked.&”—Amber Tamblyn, Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress This smart and snide book is a testament to the effectiveness of the 12-Step Program, a path to recovery that Bucky Sinister never expected to go down (and work). As a poet, author, and comedian, Sinister doesn&’t hold back from speaking the truth in this book. He speaks bluntly about addiction and his own struggles with it. Sinister appeals to those who are turned off by the usual recovery self-helps. He talks straight to readers who struggle to buy into the effectiveness of the 12-Step Program—particularly those like Sinister, an atheist, who have problems with the &“higher power&” concept intertwined with the program.Get Up presents itself as self-help, but don&’t expect it to have the same tone as others you&’ve read. The book is full of Sinister&’s comedic touch, colorful language, and stories from &“scumbags&” that contain life-saving wisdom. An unabashed testimony to Sinister&’s personal journey to sobriety and those of others, this recovery book is sure to educate, entertain, and inspire. Readers of books such as The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober; Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions; and Staying Sober Without God will find further guidance and inspiration in Get Up, which should be the next book for you. &“Step 13: Read Get Up, do what Bucky says, and find your inner A-Team character. And if you&’re a &‘normie,&’ buy this book for your friend who thinks they are too cool to get sober.&”—Jen Kirkman, stand-up comedian, actor, and writer
Get Your Elbow Off the Horn: Stories through the Years (Gallaudet New Deaf Lives #10)
by Jack R. GannonGet Your Elbow Off the Horn is a collection of interactions and observations written by Jack R. Gannon, a lifelong advocate for the Deaf community. Warm and amusing, Gannon’s stories begin with his rural childhood in the Ozarks and continue through his experiences as a student, educator, coach, husband, parent, and community leader. These vignettes reveal a down-to-earth family man who believed in making a difference one person at a time. Many of his recollections are brief sketches that reveal much about being Deaf—and about being human. From reflecting on the difficult choices parents must make for their children, to recounting awkward communication exchanges, Gannon marries good humor with a poignant advocacy for sign language rights. His stories preserve and share Deaf American life and culture as he experienced it.
Get Your Hopes Up: 90 Devotions and True Stories for Young World Changers
by Carlos WhittakerTweens will encounter much-needed hope, read inspiring true stories, and learn to love generously and why connection matters in this 90-day devotional from Carlos Whittaker, bestselling author, activist, and head of the "Instafamilia," a hope-minded online community. With Bible truths, stories of real hope and joy, and Carlos's "let's do this" energy, kids will be empowered to thrive no matter how life tries to discourage them, put them down, make them anxious, or cause them to feel isolated.In Get Your Hopes Up, 8 to 12-year olds willconnect Bible verses with real-life stories of finding and spreading hope,see prayer in action today,discover ways to advocate for the marginalized, andlearn to lead with love and fight for change.In this plugged-in world, the lines between childhood and adulthood have become blurred, and kids are exposed to hate, division, injustice, and negative emotions earlier than ever. Knowing where to find truth and positive environments can be confusing. Jesus gave us something long ago, though, that helps us remain grounded and steady in the face of all that's broken in our world: hope.
Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching the Game!: A Woman's Guide to Loving Pro Football
by Daniel Paisner Holly Robinson PeeteYear after year, Sunday afternoons and Monday nights during the NFL season have belonged to men. While they cheer and argue play calls, the women in their lives are relegated to beer and chip detail. It's time for these women to join the action, and Holly Robinson Peete, star of 21 Jump Street, For Your Love, and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and wife of NFL quarterback Rodney Peete, has written this hip, smart, cheerful guide to help them do so.In Get Your Own Damn Beer, I'm Watching the Game!, Peete shares her infectious enthusiasm for pro football and takes the complexity out of the game by breaking it down to its component parts. She explains the role of each position player, provides a rundown of all on-field penalties and referees' hand signals, and offers an illustrated guide to some of the most common plays in the NFL. She gives her take on the most memorable plays in NFL history and dishes some inside dirt-in a breezy, girl-talkin' narrative that promises to turn the novice spectator into a well-informed football fanatic.
Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference
by Donald T. Phillips Cal RipkenBaseball?s all-time Iron Man, Cal Ripken, Jr., retired from baseball in 2001 after breaking countless records, including Lou Gehrig?s record for consecutive games played. Now, in Get in the Game, he gives us his insights on hard work and success that can be applied on and off the field, based on stories from his exhilarating career in baseball. Get in the Game includes Ripken?s 8 Elements of Perseverance: 1. The Right Values 2. A Strong Will to Succeed 3. Love What You Do 4. Preparation 5. Anticipation 6. Trusting Relationships 7. Life Management 8. The Courage of Your Convictions Ripken is admired not only for his relentless perseverance but also for his unparalleled integrity. From his numerous public-speaking engagements each year to his weekly ?Ask Cal? column for the Baltimore Sun, Cal Ripken, Jr., is a sought-after advisor and role model to fans from all walks of life.
Get in the Game: Nothing Missing: You Have Everything Needed to Succeed
by Kevin AtlasBe inspired by the story of Kevin Atlas (formerly Laue), whose faith and perseverance helped him become an NCAA Division I basketball player, despite being born with only one arm.Even before entering the world, Kevin Atlas was a fighter. He should have died in childbirth, as the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, but he survived because his left arm was in the middle of it, allowing blood to flow to his brain. But since circulation was cut off in that arm, he was born with his left arm ending just below his elbow. GET IN THE GAME is Kevin's story of transformation: Moving from anger to joy. From embarrassment to confidence. From the sidelines and wishing his life was different to getting in the game and showing who he is. Kevin's arduous journey to earning a scholarship to Manhattan College in New York City and becoming the first NCAA Division I basketball player missing a limb has given him keen insights to help anyone who feels trapped and defeated by less-than-perfect circumstances, whether physical, mental, or environmental. Kevin doesn't encourage readers to simply accept and live with their challenges, hurts, and losses. He spurs them on to believe any weakness can, in reality, become the one thing that propels them to achieve their greatest potential. As Kevin has learned throughout his life, you can't win if you don't get in the game!
Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
by Bianca BoskerAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY NPR, TIME, AND THE ECONOMIST&“Get the Picture is one of the funniest books I&’ve read . . . Brilliant.&” —The Washington Post &“A gripping and often hilarious investigation into the art world. . . . Bosker goes full Tom Wolfe.&” —TIME &“Funny, whip-smart, and gorgeously written, Get the Picture will forever transform the way you see. . . . I loved every word.&” —Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms The New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork takes readers on another fascinating, hilarious, and revelatory journey—this time burrowing deep inside the secretive world of art and artistsAn award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker&’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world—and couldn&’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she—or any of us—could engage with it more deeply.In Get the Picture, Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves—the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly-naked performance artist, and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for hours on end while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living.Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and from the science of sight to the importance of beauty as it examines art&’s role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever.
Getcha Rocks Off: Sex & Excess. Bust-Ups & Binges. Life & Death on the Rock ‘N' Roll Road
by Mick WallHanging out with rock stars, trying to steal their chicks, or throwing up over their guitars after launching into the hospitality a little too enthusiastically, Mick Wall spent much of the 1980s sprawled in limos and five-star hotels with the biggest rock bands in the world, including Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Motörhead and more. He was Kerrang! magazine's star writer and the presenter of Monsters of Rock, his own weekly show on Sky TV, and the decade passed in a blur of hard drugs, hot women, and some of the heaviest people your mother definitely would not like. Depicting a world where vague concepts like 'the future' are disdained in favour of nights that last a week and weeks that last forever, Getcha Rocks Off is a rock apocalypse Cider With Roadies, and a more frank and disturbing Apathy for the Devil. It is the kind of book you need to put on your leather jacket to read, open that bottle of Jack and reach for the Charlie. And let the good times roll...
Getcha Rocks Off: Sex & Excess. Bust-Ups & Binges. Life & Death on the Rock ‘N’ Roll Road
by Mick Wall'Packed with war stories from a golden age of rock, and insights into the stars that made that music' CLASSIC ROCK MAGAZINE'On reading Getcha Rocks Off you realise just how drastically things have changed in the rock industry but books like this perfectly evoke what they were like. Good times...' RECORD COLLECTORHanging out with rock stars, trying to steal their chicks, or throwing up over their guitars after launching into the hospitality a little too enthusiastically, Mick Wall spent much of the 1980s sprawled in limos and five-star hotels with the biggest rock bands in the world, including Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Motörhead and more. He was Kerrang! magazine's star writer and the presenter of Monsters of Rock, his own weekly show on Sky TV, and the decade passed in a blur of hard drugs, hot women, and some of the heaviest people your mother definitely would not like. Depicting a world where vague concepts like 'the future' are disdained in favour of nights that last a week and weeks that last forever, Getcha Rocks Off is a rock apocalypse Cider With Roadies, and a more frank and disturbing Apathy for the Devil. It is the kind of book you need to put on your leather jacket to read, open that bottle of Jack and reach for the Charlie. And let the good times roll...
Getting Along Famously
by Melissa HellsternWhere would we be without our friends? If we are truly fortunate, we each have one special friend in our lives-the one who cheers every accomplishment no matter how small, who lifts spirits in even the darkest hour, and who knows our deepest secrets and will never tell. In a look at six of the most iconic best friends of our time, bestselling author Melissa Hellstern crafts a charming celebration of strong women and the enduring bonds that unite them. With pairs like Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, Coco Chanel and Madame Misia Sert, and Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, Getting Along Famously brings these famous friendships down to earth and explores the precious the art of friendship and the many forms it takes. These women walked the world side by side building friendships that not only withstood all the joys and sorrows of life, but often encouraged them to reach the top of their professions. Whether through laughter or tears, these dynamic relationships illuminate the importance of friendship in every woman's life. Part surprising biography, part tribute to the unique bonds of friendship, Getting Along Famously will remind you of your delight in your own friends and is the perfect book to share with those woman that mean so much you choose to call them family.
Getting Along Famously
by Melissa HellsternWhere would we be without our friends? If we are truly fortunate, we each have one special friend in our lives--the one who cheers every accomplishment no matter how small, who lifts spirits in even the darkest hour, and who knows our deepest secrets and will never tell. In a look at six of the most iconic best friends of our time, bestselling author Melissa Hellstern crafts a charming celebration of strong women and the enduring bonds that unite them. With pairs like Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, Coco Chanel and Madame Misia Sert, and Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, Getting Along Famously brings these famous friendships down to earth and explores the precious the art of friendship and the many forms it takes. These women walked the world side by side building friendships that not only withstood all the joys and sorrows of life, but often encouraged them to reach the top of their professions. Whether through laughter or tears, these dynamic relationships illuminate the importance of friendship in every woman's life. Part surprising biography, part tribute to the unique bonds of friendship, Getting Along Famously will remind you of your delight in your own friends and is the perfect book to share with those woman that mean so much you choose to call them family.
Getting Away With Murder (A Jane Tennison Thriller)
by Lynda La PlanteThe hilarious and moving tell-all memoir from the UK's queen of crime drama.'Screamingly funny and deliciously candid, full of wisdom and joie de vivre, this is memoir with the grip of a thriller' ERIN KELLY 'A rollercoaster ride' THE TIMES 'Fascinating and funny' SUNDAY EXPRESS Lynda La Plante has lived an illustrious life and has the stories to prove it. From her early days in Liverpool to her unexpected acceptance into RADA, joining peers Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Ian McShane; from beginning her scriptwriting career with Widows and Prime Suspect and becoming a BAFTA award-winning writer and producer, Lynda's tales of stage and screen will have you gasping in shock as well as laughing in the aisles. Lynda has an important story to tell, one of breaking down stereotypes and blazing a trail for others along the way. Starting her writing career in the eighties, an era of entrenched gender inequality both in front of and behind the camera, Lynda faced innumerable obstacles to her vision. Getting Away with Murder shows how she overcame them to create generation-defining television and become a multi-million-copy Sunday Times bestselling author. Still at the very top of her game, Lynda shares her story on her own terms, in a way that's guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and be inspired to live a life without limits.
Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case
by Chris CrowePresents a true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.
Getting Better
by William CarterOn October 7th, 2007, his senior year of high school, Will Carter leaves work and heads home to get sleep before re-taking the SAT the following morning. Three weeks later, he wakes up in a hospital bed, a trach in my throat, covered in IV' s and scars, confused, and with a terrible pain in his head. He learns that he has suffered a brain injury and stroke and that he is waking up from a medically induced coma. Will takes what scraps and bits he has of his memory to reclaim his story, as he takes the reader on a harrowing 7-month journey from his car accident and coma to his recovery and return to high school. Will fights the internal battle of wanting to be the person he was before and accepting who he is now. He must fight to graduate high school, re-learn how to walk, and re-discover how to live his life again. He must strive to figure out what getting better really looks like. Will must come to terms with God and fight to hold onto his faith. He must finally come to see getting better as not something physical but something emotional, personal, and spiritual.
Getting Better: Life lessons on going under, getting over it, and getting through it
by Michael RosenIn our lives, terrible things may happen. Michael Rosen has grieved the loss of a child, lived with debilitating chronic illness, and faced death itself when seriously unwell in hospital. In spite of this he has survived, and has even learned to find joy in life in the aftermath of tragedy.In Getting Better, he shares his story and the lessons he has learned along the way. Exploring the roles that trauma and grief have played in his own life, Michael investigates the road to recovery, asking how we can find it within ourselves to live well again after - or even during - the darkest times of our lives. Moving and insightful, Getting Better is an essential companion for anyone who has loved and lost, or struggled and survived.
Getting Even
by Woody AllenIn "Getting Even," Woody Allen revenges himself on such significant subjects as death, obesity, organized crime, the invention of the sandwich, adult education, laundry lists of famous people, and Latin American revolutionaries.
Getting Good at Being You: Learning to Love Who God Made You to Be
by Lauren AlainaWith a little bit of country, a whole lot of faith, and a healthy dose of sass, award-winning singer-songwriter Lauren Alaina's debut book, Getting Good at Being You, invites you to take the road less traveled as you step right up to who God calls you to be.After years in the spotlight on American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, country music star Lauren Alaina has learned a thing or two about fighting self-doubt and feeling at home in her own skin. In Getting Good at Being You, Lauren shares stories about everything from lost loves to getting a nose ring to battling an eating disorder to grieving a loved one&’s death. Each story leads to practical tips, take-it-on-the-road strategies, and encouragement for your own personal and spiritual growth.In this book, you will be inspired to:speak to yourself with kindness and compassionchase the dreams that light your spirit on firecultivate rich relationships with family and friendsidentify self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviorsoffer forgiveness for yourself and othersThroughout the book, you will find:behind-the-scenes photos from Lauren's career in country music.lists, tips, and strategies to boost your self-confidence.prompts to help you dream big and run toward who you are.This beautiful book is a perfect gift forwomen who celebrate other womenbirthday celebrations or career promotionshigh school and college graduationsfans who want to know more about country music stardomEach of us deserves head-over-heels, can't-get-enough, shout-it-from-the-mountaintops self-love. By the final page of Getting Good at Being You, that's just the kind of confidence you'll have. As Lauren discovered, maybe life is getting good after all.
Getting It Through My Thick Skull: Why I Stayed, What I Learned, and What Millions of People Involved with Sociopaths Need to Know
by Mary Jo Buttafuoco"I think, every once in a while, about the life I should be living, the one I fully expected to be enjoying right about now. In the life I was supposed to have, my husband and I would be admiring the view from our waterfront home in the town where we were both born and raised. Good friends and neighbors would be next door, up the street, and all over the neighborhood. Our parents would live only blocks away, in our childhood homes. We'd be taking our grandchildren to the beach club on weekends, enjoying the fruits of our labors and looking forward to a peaceful retirement. That was the plan, anyway . . . but the whole world knows how that turned out."Mary Jo Buttafuoco's anonymous life as a suburban wife and mother in sleepy Massapequa, New York, on Long Island, ended in May 1992, when she was shot in the head on her own front porch by her husband's sixteen-year-old mistress. The 'Long Island Lolita' saga sparked a media frenzy that continues to this day. As the years passed and Mary Jo steadfastly stood by her man, Joey Buttafuoco, while he and Amy Fisher continued to make headlines, one question lingered in the minds of people everywhere: Why did she stay for so long? In Getting It Through My Thick Skull, Mary Jo finally answers that question fully and convincingly. The answer is simple, yet it took almost three decades of turmoil to discover for herself—she was married to a sociopath. Using her tragic and triumphant life lessons and never-before-told accounts of life with Joey, Mary Joe helps readers undrestand sociaopathic behavior and the emotional traps it springs on willing partners, and offers hope and help for the millions of people caught in the cycle of toxic relationships.In addition, readers will meet a new-and-improved Mary Jo, confident and at peace with her new life, and will be inspired by her comback. Through private details of the resiliency and rebuilding she has forged over the past seventeen years, Mary Jo shares for the first time: Her addiction to painkillers and her recovery through the Betty Ford Center Her overdue decision to leave Joey and start over again in California—3,000 miles from her support system Taking control of her physical, spiritual, and emotional health and learned to feel attractive and in control again Her highly controversial forgiveness of Amy Fisher The letters she recieved from both Amy and Joy, and her reactions to both How she found the courage to trust, believe, and find hope in a committed relationship once again The details of the new love in her life and the joys and challenges of raising a Brady Bunch—style family Includes a 16-page color insert from the Buttafuoco family album.
Getting Life: An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace
by Michael Morton“A devastating and infuriating book, more astonishing than any legal thriller by John Grisham” (The New York Times) about a young father who spent twenty-five years in prison for a crime he did not commit…and his eventual exoneration and return to life as a free man.On August 13, 1986, just one day after his thirty-second birthday, Michael Morton went to work at his usual time. By the end of the day, his wife Christine had been savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple’s bed—and the Williamson County Sherriff’s office in Texas wasted no time in pinning her murder on Michael, despite an absolute lack of physical evidence. Michael was swiftly sentenced to life in prison for a crime he had not committed. He mourned his wife from a prison cell. He lost all contact with their son. Life, as he knew it, was over. Drawing on his recollections, court transcripts, and more than 1,000 pages of personal journals he wrote in prison, Michael recounts the hidden police reports about an unidentified van parked near his house that were never pursued; the bandana with the killer’s DNA on it, that was never introduced in court; the call from a neighboring county reporting the attempted use of his wife’s credit card, which was never followed up on; and ultimately, how he battled his way through the darkness to become a free man once again. “Even for readers who may feel practically jaded about stories of injustice in Texas—even those who followed this case closely in the press—could do themselves a favor by picking up Michael Morton’s new memoir…It is extremely well-written [and] insightful” (The Austin Chronicle). Getting Life is an extraordinary story of unfathomable tragedy, grave injustice, and the strength and courage it takes to find forgiveness.
Getting Lost
by Annie ErnauxThe diary of one of France’s most important, award-winning writers during the year she had a passionate and secret love affair with a Russian diplomat. Getting Lost is the diary Annie Ernaux kept during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger, married man, a Russian diplomat. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, but here her writing is immediate, unfiltered. <p><p>In these diaries it is 1989 and Annie is divorced with two grown sons, living outside of Paris and nearing fifty. Her lover escapes the city to see her there and Ernaux seems to survive only in expectation of these encounters, saying “his desire for me is the only thing I can be sure of.” She cannot write, she trudges distractedly through her various other commitments in the world, she awaits his next call; she lives only to feel desire and for the next rendezvous. When he is gone and the desire has faded, she feels that she is a step closer to death. <p><p>Lauded for her spare prose, Ernaux here removes all artifice, her writing pared down to its most naked and vulnerable. Getting Lost is as strong a book as any that she has written, a haunting, desperate view of strong and successful woman who seduces a man only to lose herself in love and desire. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
Getting Off at Elysian Fields: Obituaries from the New Orleans Times-Picayune
by John PopeNo city in America knows how to mark death with more funerary panache than New Orleans. The pageants commemorating departed citizens are often in themselves works of performance art. A grand obituary remains key to this Stygian passage. And no one writes them like New Orleanian John Pope. Collected here are not just simple, mindless recitations of schools and workplaces, marriages, and mourners bereft. These pieces in Getting Off at Elysian Fields: Obituaries from the New Orleans “Times-Picayune” are full-blooded life stories with accounts of great achievements, dubious dabblings, unavoidable foibles, relationships gone sour, and happenstances that turn out to be life-changing. To be sure, there are stories about Carnival monarchs, great philanthropists, and a few politicians. But because New Orleans embraces eccentric behavior, there are stories of people who colored way outside the lines. For instance, there was the doctor who used his plasma to make his flowers grow, and the philanthropist who took money she had put aside for a fur coat to underwrite the lawsuit that desegregated Tulane University. A letter carrier everyone loved turned out to have been a spy during World War II, and a fledgling lawyer changed his lifelong thoughts about race when he saw blind people going into a Christmas party through separate doors—one for white people and another for African Americans. Then there was the punctilious judge who got down on his hands and knees to edge his lawn—with scissors. Because New Orleans funerals are distinctive, the author includes accounts of four that he covered, complete with soulful singing and even some dancing. As a popular, local bumper sticker indisputably declares, “New Orleans—We Put the Fun in Funeral.”
Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction
by Erica GarzaA courageous account of one woman’s unflinching and ultimately hopeful journey through sex and porn addiction.A fixation on porn and orgasm, strings of failed relationships and serial hook-ups with strangers, inevitable blackouts to blunt the shame – these are not things we often hear women share publicly, and not with the candor, eloquence and introspection Erica Garza brings to Getting Off. What sets this courageous and riveting account apart from your typical misery memoir is the absence of any precipitating trauma beyond the garden variety of hurt we’ve all had to endure in simply becoming a person ― reckoning with family, learning to be social, integrating what it means to be sexual. Whatever tenor of violence or abuse Erica’s life took on through her behavior was of her own making, fueled by fear, guilt, self-loathing, self-pity, loneliness, and the hopelessness those feelings brought on as she runs from one side of the world to the other in an effort to break her habits —from East Los Angeles to Hawaii and Southeast Asia, through the brothels of Bangkok and the yoga studios of Bali to disappointing stabs at therapy and twelve-steps back home. In these remarkable pages, Garza draws an evocative, studied portrait of the anxiety that fuels her obsessions, as well as the exhilaration and hope she begins to feel when she suspects she might be free of them. And yet there is no false or prepackaged sense of redemption here. Even her relationship with the man she will ultimately marry seems credibly, painfully rocky as it finds its legs with several false starts. Erica’s increasing sense of self-acceptance and peace by journey’s end feels utterly earned, and absent of recovery platitudes. In exploring the cultural taboos surrounding sex and porn from a female perspective, Garza offers a brave and necessary voice to our evolving conversations about addiction and the impact that Internet culture has had on us all.
Getting Open
by Tom Graham Rachel Graham CodyBill Garrett was the Jackie Robinson of college basketball. In 1947, the same year Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball, Garrett integrated big-time college basketball. By joining the basketball program at Indiana University, he broke the gentleman's agreement that had barred black players from the Big Ten, college basketball's most important conference. While enduring taunts from opponents and pervasive segregation at home and on the road, Garrett became the best player Indiana had ever had, an all-American, and, in 1951, the third African American drafted in the NBA. In basketball, as Indiana went so went the country. Within a year of his graduation from IU, there were six African American basketball players on Big Ten teams. Soon tens, then hundreds, and finally thousands walked through the door Garrett opened to create modern college and professional basketball. Unlike Robinson, however, Garrett is unknown today. Getting Open is more than "just" a basketball book. In the years immediately following World War II, sports were at the heart of America's common culture. And in the fledgling civil rights efforts of African Americans across the country, which would coalesce two decades later into the Movement, the playing field was where progress occurred publicly and symbolically. Indiana was an unlikely place for a civil rights breakthrough. It was stone-cold isolationist, widely segregated, and hostile to change. But in the late 1940s, Indiana had a leader of the largest black YMCA in the world, who viewed sports as a wedge for broader integration; a visionary university president, who believed his institution belonged to all citizens of the state; a passion for high school and college basketball; and a teenager who was, as nearly as any civil rights pioneer has ever been, the perfect person for his time and role. This is the story of how they came together to move the country toward getting open. Father-daughter authors Tom Graham and Rachel Graham Cody spent seven years reconstructing a full portrait of how these elements came together; interviewing Garrett's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, and digging through archives and dusty closets to tell this compelling, long-forgotten story.