Download or read book Coal to Diamonds A Memoir written by Beth Ditto and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A raw and surprisingly beautiful coming-of-age memoir, Coal to Diamonds tells the story of Mary Beth Ditto, a girl from rural Arkansas who found her voice. Born and raised in Judsonia, Arkansas—a place where indoor plumbing was a luxury, squirrel was a meal, and sex ed was taught during senior year in high school (long after many girls had gotten pregnant and dropped out) Beth Ditto stood out. Beth was a fat, pro-choice, sexually confused choir nerd with a great voice, an eighties perm, and a Kool Aid dye job. Her single mother worked overtime, which meant Beth and her five siblings were often left to fend for themselves. Beth spent much of her childhood as a transient, shuttling between relatives, caring for a sickly, volatile aunt she nonetheless loved, looking after sisters, brothers, and cousins, and trying to steer clear of her mother’s bad boyfriends. Her punk education began in high school under the tutelage of a group of teens—her second family—who embraced their outsider status and introduced her to safety-pinned clothing, mail-order tapes, queer and fat-positive zines, and any shred of counterculture they could smuggle into Arkansas. With their help, Beth survived high school, a tragic family scandal, and a mental breakdown, and then she got the hell out of Judsonia. She decamped to Olympia, Washington, a late-1990s paradise for Riot Grrrls and punks, and began to cultivate her glamorous, queer, fat, femme image. On a whim—with longtime friends Nathan, a guitarist and musical savant in a polyester suit, and Kathy, a quiet intellectual turned drummer—she formed the band Gossip. She gave up trying to remake her singing voice into the ethereal wisp she thought it should be and instead embraced its full, soulful potential. Gossip gave her that chance, and the raw power of her voice won her and Gossip the attention they deserved. Marked with the frankness, humor, and defiance that have made her an international icon, Beth Ditto’s unapologetic, startlingly direct, and poetic memoir is a hypnotic and inspiring account of a woman coming into her own.

Download or read book The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu written by Joshua Hammer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice** To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven in this “fast-paced narrative that is…part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller” (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief. In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door. “Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey…Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise” (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist “has all the elements of a classic adventure novel” (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.

Download or read book A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far Poems 1978 1981 written by Adrienne Rich and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1993-07-17 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “We are in the presence here of a major American poet whose voice at mid-century in her own life is increasingly marked by moral passion.”—New York Times Book Review

Download or read book Badass Affirmations written by Becca Anderson and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Positive Affirmations and Motivational Quotes for a Badass “No matter how you use it, there can be benefits for you and your daily life.”―Nerdy Girl Express #1 Best Seller in Popular Culture, Quotations, Women’s Studies, Love & Marriage Humor, Self-Esteem, LGBT, and Trivia Badass Affirmations is full of positive affirmations, profiles of powerful real-life heroines, and inspirational quotes for women. Packed with just the right amount of sass, this book is the perfect women empowerment gift for you and all your fabulous BFFs. Even a badass needs positive affirmations. No one leaps out of bed knowing they’re amazing and about to have an incredible day. We find ourselves rushing around, working hard to please others―and often we find ourselves making everyone happy but our own damn selves. Badass Affirmations is here to stop the negativity with positive quotes and affirmations from powerful women. Discover strong women quotes and encouraging self-affirmations. In Badass Affirmations, positive living and affirmation queen Becca Anderson reminds you that you are pretty darn great. Inside this motivational quotes and affirmations book, you’ll be fired up by inspirational quotes for women, by women. Alongside these women empowerment quotes, you’ll gain new knowledge of the badass ladies who have left their mark on the world with a mix of short bios and longer profiles. And when you’re done learning from other fierce females, you can work on affirming yourself with uplifting journal prompts. Read Badass Affirmations and: • Learn the habit of affirming yourself daily • Empower yourself and strengthen your self-esteem • Be encouraged by words of wit and wisdom Readers of affirmations books and positive quote books for women like Let That Sh*t Go, A Year of Positive Thinking, or Beautifully Said will love the inspirational quotes for women in Badass Affirmations.

Download or read book Toni Morrison written by Toni Morrison and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2008 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years of interviews with the author of The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and other novels

Download or read book Bend in the Road written by Sara Biren and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A teen rock star returns home to Minnesota and finds himself falling for a local farm girl in this electric YA romance Seventeen-year-old Gabe’s life is a mess. His debut album—produced by his rock star dad—made him an overnight sensation, but his second album tanked, he just got dumped by his on-again, off-again girlfriend, and he’s desperate to come up with the money he needs to fix a major screwup. The only place he can be free from the paparazzi and rumors is the family farm—the farm that seventeen-year-old Juniper’s family has managed since before she was born. When Juniper learns that Gabe’s about to inherit the farm, she worries that he’ll sell it. She comes up with a plan to get close to him and stop that from happening. At first, Juniper and Gabe couldn’t be more at odds, but the more time they spend with each other, the more they grow to like each other. Can they set aside their differences to do what’s best for the farm—and each other? Or will all the drama and secrets tear them apart? "A beautiful and tenderhearted exploration of the meaning of home, Sara Biren's Bend in the Road will stick with you like a favorite song that instantly transports you to a place and time you always want to remember." --Marisa Reichardt, author of Aftershocks and A Shot at Normal "A pitch-perfect, slow-burn romance combined with loveably complex characters and the most charming farm setting, Sara Biren’s Bend in the Road made my heart soar." ~ Katy Upperman, author of Kissing Max Holden, The Impossibility of Us, and How the Light Gets In

Download or read book The Velvet Promise written by Jude Deveraux and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Forbes’s 30 Best Romance Novels of All Time! All of England rejoiced on her wedding day. But Judith vowed that her husband would get only what he took from her... At the flower-bedecked altar, the first touch of their hands ignited an all-consuming passion. Gavin Montgomery looked deep into her golden eyes and burned with desire for her...but his heart had been pledged to another. Humiliated and alone in a strange castle, Judith resolved to hate this husband who took her body, but rejected her love...never admitting her fear of losing him. But destiny held another fate for Judith...a fate that would keep at last...The Velvet Promise.

Download or read book Allegedly written by Tiffany D. Jackson and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 4 starred reviews! Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer’s Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home. Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

Download or read book Mind Prey written by John Sandford and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1996-05-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucas Davenport has met his match-a brilliant, wanton killer who knows more about mind games than Lucas himself. This man is more depraved and intelligent than anybody Lucas has tracked before-and with a female psychiatrist in his trap, he's already one step ahead of Lucas...

Download or read book Downbelow Station written by C. J. Cherryh and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2008-12-02 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Hugo Award-winning classic sci-fi novel about interstellar war. The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations. Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe. But Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was sitll a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.

Download or read book Here Lies Arthur written by Philip Reeve and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the dark side of Camelot. The acclaimed author of Mortal Engines delivers a “powerfully inventive” re-creation of the King Arthur tale (Booklist, starred review). Gwynna is just a girl who is forced to run when her village is attacked and burns to the ground. To her horror, she is discovered, but it is Myrddin the bard, a traveler and spinner of tales, who has found her. He agrees to protect Gwynna if she will agree to be bound in service to him. Gwynna is frightened but intrigued, for this Myrddin serves the young, rough, and powerful Arthur. In the course of their travels, Myrddin transforms Gwynna into the mysterious Lady of the Lake, a boy warrior, and a spy. It is part of a plot to transform Arthur from the leader of a ragtag war-band into King Arthur, the greatest hero of all time. If Gwynna and Myrrdin’s trickery is discovered, what will become of Gwynna? Worse, what will become of Arthur? Only the endless battling, the mighty belief of men, and the sheer cunning of one remarkable girl will tell. “Nodding to canon and history while not particularly following either Reeve, like Myrddin, turns hallowed myth and supple prose to political purposes, neatly skewering the modern-day cult of spin and the age-old trickery behind it. Smart teens will love this.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Is there room for yet another reworking of the Arthur legend? If it’s this one, yes . . . Absorbing, thought-provoking and unexpectedly timely.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A multilayered tour de force for mature young readers.” —School Library Journal

Download or read book The Blue Sword written by Robin McKinley and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Newbery Honor Book and a modern classic of young adult fantasy, The Blue Sword introduces the desert kingdom of Damar, where magic weaves through the blood and weaves together destinies. New York Times–bestselling and award-winning author Robin McKinley sets the standard for epic fantasy and compelling, complex heroines. Fans of Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and Rae Carson will delight in discovering the rich world of Damar. Harry Crewe is a Homelander orphan girl, come to live in Damar from over the seas. She is drawn to the bleak landscape, so unlike the green hills of her Homeland. She wishes she might cross the sands and climb the dark mountains where no Homelander has ever set foot, where the last of the old Damarians, the Free Hillfolk, live. Corlath is the golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the legendary Lady Aerin. When he arrives in Harry’s town to ally with the Homelanders against a common enemy, he never expects to set Harry’s destiny in motion: She will ride into battle as a King’s Rider, bearing the Blue Sword, the great mythical treasure, which no one has wielded since Lady Aerin herself. Legends and myths, no matter how epic, no matter how magical, all begin somewhere.

Download or read book Fierce Heart written by Tara Grayce and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essie would do anything for her kingdom...even marry an elf prince she just met that morning. The human kingdom of Escarland and the elven kingdom of Tarenhiel have existed in an uneasy peace after their last wars ended with both kings dead. As tensions rise once again, desperate diplomacy might be the only way to avert war. If only negotiations between elves and humans were that simple. When a diplomatic meeting goes horribly wrong, Essie, a human princess, finds herself married to the elf prince and warrior Laesornysh. Fitting in to the serene, quiet elf culture might be a little difficult for this talkative princess, but she's determined to make it work. With impending war and tenuous alliances, it will be up to Essie to unite her two peoples. And maybe get her hands on elven conditioner while she's at it.

Download or read book Rulantica 1 written by Michaela Hanauer and published by Coppenrath Verlag. This book was released on 2021-05-07 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aquina is a mermaid. She has always felt different from the other merpeople on Rulantica. Shortly after her twelfth birthday, she finds out something incredible: she has a twin brother. Mats, a human boy! And he is in great danger. For Aquina, there's no holding back: she has to find her real family before it's too late. Ever since he was found on the beach as a baby, Mats has been brought up in a children's home. He has always been afraid of the sea and of water. What he doesn't know is that he'll soon be diving into the biggest adventure of his life! By coming together, Aquina and Mats are fulfilling a centuries-old prophecy by the Nordic gods – this could be a chance to save the island world of Rulantica, but it could also mean its total destruction ...

Download or read book Please Louise written by Toni Morrison and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a gray, rainy day, everything seems particularly frightening and bad to Louise until she enters a library and finds books that help her to know and imagine the beauty and wonder that have been there all along.

Download or read book Murder at the Nightwood Bar written by Katherine V. Forrest and published by Kate Delafield Mystery. This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dory Quillin, nineteen-years old, her white-blonde hair ruffled by the gentle breezes of a June evening, lies dead in the parking lot of a lesbian bar. Her bewildered silver-blue eyes stare beseechingly into the mind and soul of the woman who kneels beside her: LAPD homicide detective Kate Delafield. The investigation is far from a simple matter. Kate uncovers shocking facts about the brief life of the murdered young lesbian. She finds her road to the killer obstructed by Dory's uncooperative, judgmental parents, the waning interest of her own partner, and most frustrating of all, the open hostility of women who should be her allies--the lesbians who frequent the Nightwood Bar. Kate's emotional equilibrium is further disturbed by her powerful attraction to one of those women, the enigmatic Andrea Ross. Who killed Dory Quillin? And why? Accompany Kate Delafield on her electrifying, emotional journey to the answer, an answer you will never forget. A Kate Delafield Mystery Series Book 2.

Download or read book Dina s Book written by Herbjorg Wassmo and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2011-12-12 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Norway in the mid-nineteenth century, Dina’s Book presents a beautiful, eccentric, and tempestuous heroine who carries a terrible burden: at the age of five she accidentally caused her mother’s death. Blamed by her father and banished to a farm, she grows up untamed and untaught. No one leads the child through her grief, and the accident remains a gruesome riddle of death, with Dina left haunted by the vindictive spirit of her mother. When her father agrees to take her back after several years, his efforts to cultivate her have little lasting effect. Tamed only by her tutor, who is able to reach her through music and draw out her gift for mathematics, Dina remains private and closely guarded, while her unconventional behavior and erotic power enchant and ensnare those around her. At age sixteen, she is married off to Jacob, a wealthy fifty-year-old landowner, who later dies under odd circumstances. Wrestling with her two unappeased ghosts, Dina becomes mute and then emerges from her shock to run Jacob’s estate with an iron hand . . . until one day a mysterious stranger, the Russian wanderer Leo, enters her life and changes it forever.