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Speech Therapy: 65 Pick-Me-Ups to Get You Through Many of Life's What-the-F*cks
by The CaptainAn expanded edition of the bestselling self-published self-help book, featuring 13 exclusive essays from creator and self-proclaimed instigator Kyle Creek, aka “The Captain.” We all deal with bad days and hard times that leave us feeling frustrated, angry, and defeated. Bestselling author and self-proclaimed instigator “The Captain” is the funny and wise friend we need most in times like these: someone who tells it like it is and gives us the tough-love advice we need to get back up and meet our challenges head on.In Speech Therapy, The Captain shares witty wisdom on a variety of difficult yet common situations, such as:Getting caught in a compromising situationExperiencing co-parenting conundrumsDealing with a bad roommateHitting a creative wallRegretting parting ways with someoneBecoming stranded on a deserted islandNo matter the issue, you’ll find sage advice and insightful commentary to help you survive and overcome an ordeal before it ruins your mood, your day, or years of your life.For those familiar with The Captain’s original self-published version, get ready for more wisdom and even more WTFs—this expanded edition features 13 brand new, never-before-seen essays and illustrations. With humor that both cuts and heals, this wise collection of life lessons is the relatable literary therapy that we all need from time to time.Speech Therapy includes 65-75 black and white illustrations.
The Tainted Khan: The Soulbound Saga, Book 2 (The Soulbound Saga #2)
by Taran MatharuThe next installment in New York Times bestselling author Taran Matharu’s Soulbound Saga--a thrilling cultivation and progression epic fantasy series--continuing the harrowing journey of Jai as he navigates returning to his own people, growing in his magic and as a warrior, fending off attacks both without and within...and, of course, bonding even more with his dragon!Jai dreams of being a dragon rider. He dreams of freedom from the Sabine Empire and a world in which he can lead his people, the Kidara, to freedom. But even though he has his dragon, Winter, she is still growing, just as he’s still growing in his own power. And the road to victory is even more fraught than he had hoped.Because even when he finds a tribe on the Great Steppe, they are not his people. More, they are outcasts, the Tainted, and he finds that he knows little of the customs and political intricacies that take place in these vast grasslands. He is a stranger amongst his own kind, and that is even more apparent when he reunites with the Kidara, for Jai’s uncle rules, and is loath to cede power to his nephew. And even if Jai was sure he could take the reins of the leadership, he isn’t sure he could actually hold them.But the legionaries and Gryphon Guard of the Sabine Empire are wreaking havoc against the other tribes of the Great Steppe, and Jai is forced to learn a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in a matter of months. From taming the massive khiroi that make up the tribe’s calvary, to levelling up his magic, to becoming a true warrior, worrying over the fate of the woman he loves, and strengthening his bond with Winter, Jai is a dragon rider with a massive weight on his young shoulders. And his greatest hope is that the shoulders of Winter will soon be strong enough to help carry him.
California Lizards and How to Find Them (California Herping Guides)
by Emily TaylorThe author of California Snakes and How to Find Them invites budding reptile enthusiasts into a wonderland of lizards."This guide joyfully celebrates the beauty and quirkiness of our native lizards." —John Muir LawsLizards: they are cute, endearing, and mind-bogglingly diverse, and yet they are so easy to overlook among California’s natural abundance. Start watching them, though, and a wonderland of lizard life appears. In California Lizards and How to Find Them, lizard lover Emily Taylor profiles over 60 native and introduced species, from California's iconic Western Fence Lizard to the adorable Desert Iguana to the chonky Ringed Wall Gecko. With her expert knowledge and joyous, laugh-out-loud writing, Taylor provides tips for finding, watching, and responsibly catching lizards. She offers absorbing insights on lizard evolution, and she explains the toll of invasive lizard species on California's ecosystems. Featuring more than 100 full-color photographs, and designed for easy use in everyday life, this is the ideal guide for budding reptile enthusiasts and longtime naturalists alike.
Eat the Ones You Love
by Sarah Maria Griffin“Do you mind me asking—what kind of help do you need?”After losing her job and her fiancé and moving back from the city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy?But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow—and Neve’s secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show, and he is hungry . . . and he has a plan for them all.When the choices are to either bury yourself in the warmth of someone else’s fertile soil, or face the cold and disappointing world outside—which would you choose? And what if putting down roots came at a cost far higher than just your freedom?This is a story about desire, dreams, decay—and working retail at the end of the world.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive: being dreamity, algoriddims, chants & riffs
by Marcia DouglasA startling new dream-like vision of Jamaica—a work of surreal poetic fiction, lavishly studded with ecological prayers, drawings, and footnotes about healing herbs, disappearing flora-fauna, and buried herstories—by Whiting Award winner Marcia Douglas Zooming into tight focus on present-day life and dashing deep into the past in turns, the pace is fast and fierce in The Jamaica Kollection of the Shante Dream Arkive, which continues Marcia Douglas’ “speculative ancestral project” (The Whiting Foundation) begun with The Marvellous Equations of the Dread. Her new poetic and eco-spiritual book carries further the cultural preservation so central to Douglas’ vision. The Shante Dream Arkive brings alive a mosaic of characters—all searching through history for something or someone lost to the island: a mother searches for her missing child through time and space; an undocumented migrant’s struggles with loss while living in the US; a youth wanders through dream-gates seeking liberation and the lost parts of himself. And one key to the whole is Zora Neale Hurston’s left-behind camera. Each chapter/poem opens like an aperture onto another aspect of the dream story. And, each and every potent dream story contains the spirit, beauty, and riddim of Jamaica: For after three hundred years of slaughter, monk seals know better than to reveal themselves to humans. These days, they stay low, adapting to below surface conditions and establishing habitat with the underwater spirits of drowned horses and slaves disappeared overboard. For things happen below sea that have never been told. There is wheelin there and turnin; and far-far down past brochure azure, cerulean and indigo, there is a vast dark ink and vortices of voices caught up in such a trumpet of rah- &-glory bottomsea sound as to move earth’s axis. And after that, more ink blue, and cobalt and sapphire and a calm-calm wata— velvet and kin to the moon brand new. The monk seals dare not go this far. But the spirits do.
The Eternal Dice: Selected Poems
by César VallejoOne of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century, the Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo now has a translator worthy of his genius The Peruvian poet César Vallejo—one of Latin America’s most famous poets—was involved in various literary circles and began publishing his poems in 1914 in magazines, after discovering the works of Walt Whitman, the French symbolists, and the modernist Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario. He brought out his first book of poems in 1919, Los heraldos negros, and in 1922, he published his famous Trilce, which met a cool reception. Vallejo spent many years of his life in Europe—in Paris and Spain. Like many of the surrealists, he became a Marxist, and he was an ardent supporter of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. In his poems, Vallejo poignantly describes human misery, isolation, and anguish. As the translator Margaret Jull Costa explains: “Vallejo edited and redrafted and honed his poetry. This is the only way in which he could describe the antithetical, paradoxical, oxymoronic universe he was living in, by using language at full tilt, making it perform all kinds of acrobatics. The resulting poems often defy interpretation…” This marvelous new bilingual selection of poems spanning his career up to his early death confirms Robert Hass’s assessment that Vallejo was “one of the essential poets of the twentieth century, a heartbreaking and groundbreaking writer.”
The Honditsch Cross
by Ingeborg BachmannA powerful historical work about war and its victims, never before in English, from the celebrated author of Malina Written when Ingeborg Bachmann was only eighteen, The Honditsch Cross, her second-longest completed work of prose, is a historical novella set during the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813. A young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer, who has been exploiting and terrorizing his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the center of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies... In this gripping work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will pre-occupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity
Atavists: Stories
by Lydia MilletA Harper's Bazaar "Best Book Coming Out This Spring" Pick • One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 • One of The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2025 A fast-moving, heartbreaking collection of short fiction from "the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves" (Chicago Tribune). The word atavism, coined by a botanist and popularized by a criminologist, refers to the resurfacing of a primitive evolutionary trait or urge in a modern being. This inventive collection from Lydia Millet offers overlapping tales of urges ranging from rage to jealousy to yearning—a fluent triumph of storytelling, rich in ideas and emotions both petty and grand. The titular atavists include an underachieving, bewildered young bartender; a middle-aged mother convinced her gentle son-in-law is fixated on geriatric porn; a bodybuilder with an incel’s fantasy life; an arrogant academic accused of plagiarism; and an empty-nester dad determined to host refugees in a tiny house in his backyard. As they pick away at the splitting seams in American culture, Millet’s characters shimmer with the sense of powerlessness we share in an era of mass overwhelm. A beautician in a waxing salon faces a sudden resurgence of grief in the midst of a bikini Brazilian; a couple sets up a camera to find out who’s been slipping homophobic letters into their mailbox; a jilted urban planner stalks a man she met on a dating app. In its rich warp and weft of humiliations and human error, Atavists returns to the trenchant, playful social commentary that made A Children’s Bible a runaway hit. In these stories sharp observations of middle-class mores and sanctimony give way to moments of raw exposure and longing: Atavists performs an uncanny fictional magic, full of revelation but also hilarious, unpretentious, and warm.
Promised Lands: Hadassah Kaplan and the Legacy of American Jewish Women in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine
by Sharon Ann MusherHow adventurous Jewish women’s travels upended Jewish normsIn 1922, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, first initiated the bat mitzvah as a rite-of-passage for Jewish girls. Characterized as a lifelong supporter of women’s rights, Kaplan’s family, including his wife and four daughters, played a role in shaping his ideas about women, culture, and Zionism. This was especially true of his second daughter, Hadassah Kaplan, who joined a small but influential cohort of American Jewish women who studied, worked, and volunteered in British Mandate Palestine.Promised Lands provides a window into the lives of American Jewish women in both New York City’s Upper West Side and Palestine during the interwar period. By tracing Hadassah’s journey, the volume offers a sense of what drew this generation of adventurous women to Palestine, and helps us to understand their impact on American Jewry. Drawing on a rich personal archive of diary entries, photographs, and letters, Sharon Ann Musher displays how unconventional women like Hadassah Kaplan were able to challenge cultural norms and experiment with ideological commitments while still remaining “good” daughters, wives, and mothers. Their knowledge and experience in volunteering, philanthropy, and education within the United States helped them to build Jewish institutions and communities abroad, and to center Zionism in American Jewish education, institutions, and identity. Crafting a compelling portrait of an influential Jewish woman, Promised Lands showcases the legacy of Hadassah Kaplan and her fellow travelers on American Jewish life.
How to Queer the World: Radical Worldbuilding through Video Games
by Bo RubergWhat video games teach us about building a more inclusive worldWhat does it mean to build a world? Worldbuilding is traditionally understood as an expression of storytelling across media forms. Yet, as video games show us, worldbuilding does not necessarily need to center narrative elements. Instead, new worlds can allow us to reimagine existing structures, conventions, and constants. Doing so gives us the tools to queer the world around us.How to Queer the World argues that video games provide us with keen insight into worldbuilding. With these insights come a new understanding of the ever-elusive ideals of queer worldmaking. Video games challenge us to address how worlds are built through underlying systems rather than surface-level representation. They also offer opportunities to envision alternate and queer ways of living, loving, desiring, and being. Each of the chapters in this book presents a close reading of a video game that illustrates one way of building worlds and encoding them with meaning, focusing on elements of digital media often overlooked as technical rather than cultural.From the design of game mechanics and user interfaces to the use of graphics software and physics simulations, Bo Ruberg argues that these aspects of video games represent a critical toolkit for seeing the work of worldbuilding differently—in video games and beyond. Simultaneously, each of these video games models an approach to what Ruberg terms “queer worldbuilding.” Queer worldbuilding radically remakes the world by destabilizing the fundamental logics of our own universe: who we are, what we can do, how our bodies move, and how we exist within time and space.
Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection
by Corinna Barrett LainLethal injection is nothing like what people think. This is its untold story.In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it usually provides a “humane” death. In reality, however, not one of those things is true.Secrets of the Killing State pulls back the curtain on this clandestine punishment practice, presenting a view of lethal injection that states have worked hard to hide. Botched executions are a part of this story, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. For all the suffering that we see, there is also suffering that we don’t see. Indeed, the story told here is even bigger than the executions themselves, for behind the scenes is where it unfolds. Fake science, torturous drugs, inept executioners, prison problems, and decades of state secrecy have created an execution method hard-wired to go wrong in countless ways.The story of lethal injection is a story of gross incompetence, law breaking, torturous deaths, and a stunning indifference to the way in which human beings die at the hands of the state. These are the secrets of the killing state—all that we know from litigation files, scientific studies, investigative journalism, autopsy reports, interviews, and scholarship across a number of fields. Death penalty expert Corinna Barrett Lain uses this groundbreaking journey into the dark reality of lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly and show that the state at its most powerful moment is also the state at its worst.We are now over 45 years into the lethal injection era, and most Americans still have no idea what states are doing in their name. It’s time they found out.
Everyday Activists: Undocumented Immigrants' Quest for Justice and Well-Being
by Christina M. GetrichStrategies of resistance by undocumented young adultsAbout 825,000 of the more than two million undocumented young adults in the United States benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program started by President Obama in 2012. Through DACA, these young adults are able to work legally in the United States and have been insulated from deportation. However, since President Trump’s attempted termination of the program in 2017, DACA recipients have endured a rollercoaster of legal battles that have left them in an unimaginable state of prolonged limbo.Amid this rapidly shifting political climate, many undocumented young adults have joined the large-scale, high-visibility social movement to fight for policy change and immigrant justice. Yet often overlooked are the thousands more DACA recipients nationwide who have never participated in immigration-related activism. As Christina M. Getrich argues, in less publicly visible ways, they are nonetheless fighting for immigrant well-being and justice in their everyday adult lives, and their more private forms of action should be considered political activism. Drawing from five years of rich ethnographic research with a diverse population of thirty DACA recipients living in the Washington, D.C., area, Everyday Activists portrays the alternative political engagement strategies they enact in their daily lives as they leverage their unique knowledge bases and skill sets and make a meaningful impact in their communities. The volume reveals how these young activists’ strategies are instructive for thinking creatively about how to show up in our everyday lives for immigrants and others who are systematically subjected to social exclusion.
Fandom for Us, by Us: The Pleasures and Practices of Black Audiences (Postmillennial Pop)
by Alfred L. Jr.The convergence of the politics of representation and Black fan culturesBoldly going where few fandom scholars have gone before, Fandom for Us, by Us breaks from our focus on white fandom to center Black fandoms. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., engages these fandoms through what he calls the “four C’s”: class, clout, canon, and comfort.Class is a key component of how Black fandom is contingent on distinctions between white, nationally recognized cultural productions and multicultural and/or regional cultural productions, as demonstrated by Misty Copeland’s ascension in American Ballet Theatre. Clout refers to Black fans’ realization of their own consumer spending power as an agent for industrial change, reducing the precarity of Blackness within historically white cultural apparatuses and facilitating the production of Black blockbusters like 2018’s Black Panther. Canon entails a communal fannish practice of sharing media objects, like the 1978 film The Wiz, which lead them to take on meanings outside of their original context. Comfort describes the nostalgic and sentimental affects associated with beloved fan objects such as the television show, Golden Girls, connected to notions of Black joy and signaling moments wherein Black people can just be themselves.Through 75 in-depth interviews with Black fans, Fandom for Us, by Us argues not only for the importance of studying Black fandoms, but also demonstrates their complexities by both coupling and decoupling Black reception practices from the politics of representation. Martin highlights the nuanced ways Black fans interact with media representations, suggesting class, clout, canon, and comfort are universal to the study of all fandoms. Yet, for all the ways these fandoms are similar and reciprocal, Black fandoms are also their own set of practices, demanding their own study.
The New Reproductive Order: Technology, Fertility, and Social Change around the Globe
by Sarah Franklin Marcia C. InhornThe transformative impact of new reproductive technologies over the past half centuryBoth fertility and infertility are commonly depicted as individual, biological, and choice dependent conditions that can be mediated by technology. In contrast, The New Reproductive Order documents the complex material, historical, and political forces that both enable and limit human reproductivity, while also arguing that both fertility and infertility have become condensed symbols of wider changes to family forms, national political agendas, global economies, and local environments. Combining anthropological, sociological, and intersectional feminist research from across the globe, this landmark volume reveals how changing perceptions of fertility and infertility are altering how people imagine, pursue, and experience reproductivity both individually and collectively. Using a comparative global methodology based on detailed case studies, The New Reproductive Order persuasively argues that changing perceptions of fertility and infertility are giving rise to a distinctive reproductive politics based on new models of reproductive cause and effect. This groundbreaking and sophisticated volume opens new horizons of scholarship on the relationship between fertility, infertility, reproductive technologies, and social change, as well as new thinking on policy, practice, and activism in the twenty-first century’s new reproductive order.
The Parent Pivot: What to Do When Your Young Adult Is in Psychological Distress
by Lynne Carroll Paula Jean Gilroy Mikal CrawfordThis book provides information, guidance, and above all hope for parents struggling to support their young adult children in psychological distress. The period of emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 29) is a psychologically vulnerable time. Many emerging adults are anxious, depressed, or otherwise distressed and may turn to unhealthy coping strategies, including substance misuse, unhealthy eating, Internet misuse, and risky and impulsive behaviors such as sexual acting out and reckless driving. Where parents previously functioned in the caretaker role for their young children, they must now "pivot" to a new role: coach, wise counsel, or compeer. Parents may also need to pivot back to a caretaking role for a time if their young adults are dealing with more serious mental health issues. This book provides essential information and practical advice to help parents navigate these difficult challenges and deal with their own distress as they assist their struggling emerging adults. The authors describe various mental health symptoms and disorders common to this age group. They also discuss the difference between normal and more problematic behaviors, and options for professional help and treatment approaches. Not all young adults are willing to receive help, whether from family, friends, or professionals. But regardless of their situation, this book offers tips and strategies for how parents can maintain a loving, empathic relationship with their young adult, even in the most challenging circumstances. Written by psychologists with extensive experience helping emerging adults and their families, this book provides invaluable guidance for communicating effectively, setting boundaries, managing collateral damage within the family, practicing self-care, mourning losses, and developing and practicing compassion for yourself and your young adult. It reflects the complex emotional dynamics occurring both within and between young adults and their parents, and it provides hope for struggling families.
Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them
by Admiral William H. McRaven#1 New York Times bestselling author Admiral McRaven tells stories from his life and career that illustrate the principles of effective leadership during times of crisis. Throughout his 40-year career, Admiral McRaven has experienced every manner of calamity imaginable. From managing failed hostage rescues to responding to student unrest, McRaven has learned how to successfully navigate crises—those moments that push the limits of your experience and challenge your confidence, when leadership skills alone may not be enough.Conquering Crisis provides a new set of tools for facing these stressful moments with poise. It breaks crises down into five phases assess, report, contain, shape, and manage—and provides concrete steps to come out the other side stronger. With incredible personal stories, thought-provoking parables, and memorable lessons, Admiral McRaven sheds light on the ways we can rise to the occasion in times of crisis and act as leaders, no matter the situation.
Living in Wisdom: A Path to Embodying Your Authentic Self, Embracing Grief, and Developing Self-Mastery
by Devi BrownFrom Devi Brown, master well-being educator and voice of the Chopra app, this full-bodied guide offers inside-out advice for getting unstuck, relieving your internal suffering, and harnessing the power of your authentic self for true personal growth. We endure so much over the course of our lives. Some of it is beautiful; some of it traumatic and sometimes, that trauma can keep us from realizing and embracing all the good we cultivate; our successes and achievements and positive relationships. This book is for those who feel like something in life is missing, like they want to change some aspect of their lives or themselves, but are being held back as they are denying the true origin of these feelings...so they are stuck. They may be high-achievers and externally, their life looks perfect, yet they are struggling to accept themselves, or even like themselves. They lack the tools, self-trust and personal power to make their ideal life real. In this space, Devi Brown offers help for those struggling to recognize the barriers that keep them from experiencing joy, vulnerability, and self-knowledge. Sharing the wisdom she has gathered as a healer and master well-being educator, Brown guides readers along the path to self-mastery through a combination of spirituality, psychology, ancient wisdom traditions, edgy holistic self-care, and her own inspiring and surprising life experiences. Readers will: Learn aligned decision-making Gain practices to alleviate internal suffering Expand awareness of their unhelpful patterns Discover an integrated approach to self-love and self-acceptance Live in embodied wellness For all those seeking self-improvement, this is an essential manual for getting out of your head and into your life. It is a full-bodied approach to total transformation of mind, body, and spirit. You can heal your life while fully living it. You can learn from life while enjoying it. You can cultivate a stable inner peace even amidst chaos, and release control to find the flow for your life's unique path.
2 Sisters Murder Investigations: A Thriller (A 2 Sisters Detective Agency Mystery #2)
by James Patterson Candice FoxPatterson&’s greatest crime-solving team since the Women&’s Murder Club is the Bird Sisters. Rhonda and Barbara &“Baby&” Bird are half-sisters—and full partners in their Los Angeles detective agency. They agree on nothing. Rhonda, a former attorney, takes a by-the-book approach to solving crimes, while teenage Baby relies on her street smarts. But when they take a controversial case of a loner whose popular wife has gone missing, they&’re accused of being PIs who can&’t tell a client from a killer. The Bird sisters share a late father, but not much else…except their willingness to fight. Fight the system. Fight for the underdog. Fight for the truth. If they can stop fighting each other long enough to work together.
You Make My Heart Stop
by Becky HunterA young woman with a life-threatening medical condition must decide between her life on earth and her soulmate—who she can only be with in the afterlife—in this "magical" exploration of loss, love, and fate—perfect for fans of Kirsty Greenwood and Jojo Moyes (Sarah J. Harris, author of Meet Me On the Bridge). For years, Emery has lived with a condition that means her heart could literally stop at any second. While her friends and family try too hard to protect her, Emery refuses to live in perpetual fear. Besides, she has a secret—when her heart stops, Emery actually dies . . . and that&’s the only time she can see Nick. Nick is Emery&’s constant—the man who exists in the space between life and death, helping souls cross over to whatever comes next. Usually, he meets people just once and for a fleeting moment. But Emery and Nick keep meeting, keep tilting each other&’s worlds and pushing the limits of their time together. Every brush with death brings Emery closer to a soulmate she can never have while she remains alive. Yet the universe seems determined to prove it still has a few surprises left for her—first kisses, second chances, and unexpected, world-changing opportunities. Emery could finally have a chance at a real future, but how can she give up the love of her afterlife to seize the life she has now?
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity
by Adam BeckerThis "wild and utterly engaging narrative" (Melanie Mitchell) shows why Silicon Valley&’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death, building AI tyrants, and creating limitless growth—are about oligarchic power, not preparing for the future Tech billionaires have decided that they should determine our futures for us. According to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and more, the only good future for humanity is one powered by technology: trillions of humans living in space, functionally immortal, served by superintelligent AIs. In More Everything Forever, science journalist Adam Becker investigates these wildly implausible and often profoundly immoral visions of tomorrow—and shows why, in reality, there is no good evidence that they will, or should, come to pass. Nevertheless, these obsessions fuel fears that overwhelm reason—for example, that a rogue AI will exterminate humanity—at the expense of essential work on solving crucial problems like climate change. What&’s more, these futuristic visions cloak a hunger for power under dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. The giants of Silicon Valley claim that their ideas are based on science, but the reality is darker: they come from a jumbled mix of shallow futurism and racist pseudoscience. More Everything Forever exposes the powerful and sinister ideas that dominate Silicon Valley, challenging us to see how foolish, and dangerous, these visions of the future are.
The World of Nancy Kwan: A Memoir by Hollywood's Asian Superstar
by Nancy KwanA Hollywood icon and Asian superstar shares the inspiring story of her groundbreaking career. When Nancy Kwan burst onto the scene in the early 1960s, Asian characters in film were portrayed by white actors in makeup playing &“yellowface,&” and those minor roles were the stuff of cliché: shopkeepers, maids, prostitutes, servants. When—against all odds—Nancy landed the lead role in the much-anticipated 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong, she became an international superstar and was celebrated for her beauty, grace, authenticity, and spunk: a &“Chinese Garbo,&” the &“Asian Bardot.&” From Hong Kong to London, Hollywood and beyond, The World of Nancy Kwan charts Nancy&’s journey. The obstacles she faced, the prejudices she overcame, and how her success created paths for others. Never allowing show business to change her, Kwan persevered in an industry where everything was stacked against her, breaking through barriers and becoming a beacon of hope to generations of Asians who aspired to be seen. The World of Nancy Kwan is a multi-faceted personal history of an iconic actress whose triumphant rise and resilience illuminates the broader history of Hollywood and how the only way forward is to stay true to oneself.
Please Yell at My Kids: What Cultures Around the World Can Teach You About Parenting in Community, Raising Independent Kids, and Not Losing Your Mind
by Marina LopesFrom an acclaimed journalist, this "eye opening and insightful" book shows how global cultures parent in community, sharing practical guidance for American parents on how to reimagine the way they raise their children (Iben Dissing Sandahl, author The Danish Way Of Parenting). Raising kids in America is difficult—no federally supported parental leave, a lack of mental health support, a crushing combination of workplace pressure and aspirational parental perfection, and the fresh hell that is the playgroup Facebook page. But what if there was another way? Parenting—and specifically motherhood—looks wildly different across nations. Please Yell at My Kids is an around the world journey and a practical guide to rethinking parenting. What can we learn from Brazilian birth parties, Singaporean grandparents, and Danish babies sleeping soundly outside of coffee shops? And how can that be integrated into the lives of American readers? Journalist Marina Lopes travels around the globe, interviewing parents and caregivers to provide practical, actionable ways to change the way we view parenting in the United States. At the heart of many global approaches to parenting lies one simple, and not so simple thing: community. In America, parenting is, at best, a dual mission. But globally, parenthood is more often a team sport. From guiding caregivers through how to define their own non-negotiable values, to navigating tricky conversations with their in-laws, Please Yell at My Kids provides readers with the tools to build a community of care in their own lives and find a newfound joy in parenting.
Of My Own Making: A Memoir
by Daria BurkeWe are not defined by our origin stories. We choose who we become. Daria Burke&’s childhood growing up under the shadow of an absent father and a mother debilitated by drug addiction was marked by neglect and poverty. Despite these fractured beginnings, she forges a triumphant path out of Detroit and into fashion&’s C-Suite. After ten years of therapy, she believes her healing journey is complete. When she discovers a photograph of the car accident that she believes altered the course of her early life, Burke is forced to confront the parts of her childhood she had avoided. This discovery sparks a four-year immersion into neuroplasticity, epigenetics, the impact of adverse childhood experiences on early brain development, and ultimately, why some of us remain stuck in past trauma while others experience post-traumatic growth. She dives headfirst into an exploration of her trauma, grappling with the enduring grip of the past on the present and the mind's influence over the body. More than a story of personal triumph, Of My Own Making is a soulful and scientific exploration of the power to shape one's destiny. In facing the stark reality of her past, Burke reminds us that every moment demands a choice, and that we owe it to ourselves to reparent our inner child and reclaim the lives we deserve. Burke&’s lyrical account of a life lived with courage and intention offers an empathetic and hard-won perspective on the nature versus nurture debate and the power of acceptance. Part memoir, part methodology, it is a fearless rallying cry inspiring us to excavate and examine the stories that define our lives. Ultimately, the narratives that we craft with our own hands are the only ones that matter.
Chicken-Fried Women: Friendship, Kinship, and the Women Who Made Us This Way
by Melissa RadkeFrom the bestselling author of Eat Cake. Be Brave, a love letter to the strong, opinionated Southern women who raised her and surround us all. Lucy and Ethel. Laverne and Shirley. Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose. Chicken-Fried Women is a celebration of them: the women who raised us, taught us to cook and clap back. The ones who prayed for us, raged at us and humbled us a notch or two when we needed it. These are the women who have encouraged us, teased us, chastised us, and mortified us. And as they fill up the seats around our table, we realize we wouldn&’t have it any other way. They&’re our Chicken-Fried Women—battered on the outside, tender on the inside. Some are salty and a couple are Nashville Hot. Filled with a hilarious cast of larger-than life women, this book explores why no one messes with Southern women and their hair, why the whole family comes along when you go bra shopping, why true crime and aquarobics brings us together, and how faith shapes us through it all. Insightful, big-hearted and laugh-out-loud funny, Chicken-Fried Women is a celebration of friendship, kinship and the women who shaped us.
The Shadow Girls
by Nina LaurinSet in the ruthlessly competitive world of elite ballet schools, this psychological thriller is for fans of Black Swan and Megan Abbott&’s The Turnout. Georgina Prescott&’s world collapses when her daughter, star dancer at a prestigious ballet academy, is grounded by a metatarsal fracture—the same injury that ended Georgina&’s own career two decades prior. And one person knows what happened: Naomi Thompson, Anna&’s best friend who takes over the principal role. Dawn Thompson is proud of her daughter. But suddenly, ugly rumors course through the close-knit ballet community saying that Naomi somehow caused Anna to fall and hurt herself. But Naomi would never do such a thing… Would she? While Georgina grows obsessed with Naomi, Dawn wonders just how far a mother should go to protect her daughter. Then Anna receives an anonymous letter telling her to keep her mouth shut—and vanishes without a trace…