Download or read book The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These intertwining narratives "beautifully demonstrate . . . that the people who are excluded and bullied for their offbeat passions and refusal to conform are often the ones who are embraced and lauded for those very qualities in college and beyond" (The New York Times). In a smart, entertaining, reassuring book that reads like fiction, Alexandra Robbins manages to cross Gossip Girl with Freaks and Geeks and explain the fascinating psychology and science behind popularity and outcasthood. She reveals that the things that set students apart in high school are the things that help them stand out later in life. Robbins follows seven real people grappling with the uncertainties of high school social life, including: The Loner, who has withdrawn from classmates since they persuaded her to unwittingly join her own hate club The Popular Bitch, a cheerleading captain both seduced by and trapped within her clique's perceived prestige The Nerd, whose differences cause students to laugh at him and his mother to needle him for not being "normal" The New Girl, determined to stay positive as classmates harass her for her mannerisms and target her because of her race The Gamer, an underachiever in danger of not graduating, despite his intellect and his yearning to connect with other students The Weird Girl, who battles discrimination and gossipy politics in school but leads a joyous life outside of it The Band Geek, who is alternately branded too serious and too emo, yet annually runs for class president In the middle of the year, Robbins surprises her subjects with a secret challenge -- experiments that force them to change how classmates see them. Robbins intertwines these narratives -- often triumphant, occasionally heartbreaking, and always captivating -- with essays exploring subjects like the secrets of popularity, being excluded doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you, why outsiders succeed, how schools make the social scene worse -- and how to fix it. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth is not just essential reading for students, teachers, parents, and anyone who deals with teenagers, but for all of us, because at some point in our lives we've all been on the outside looking in.
Download or read book Unnatural Selection written by Mark Roeder and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unnatural Selection is the first book to examine the rise of the "technocentric being"—or geek—who personifies a distinct new phase in human evolution. People considered geeks often have behavioral or genetic traits that were previously considered detrimental. But the new environment of the Anthropocene period—the Age of Man—has created a kind of digital greenhouse that actually favors their traits, enabling many non-neurotypical people to bloom. They resonate with the technological Zeitgeist in a way that turns their weaknesses into strengths. Think of Mark Zuckerberg versus the towering, Olympics-bound Winklevoss twins in the movie Social Network. Roeder suggests that the rise of the geek is not so much the product of Darwinian "natural selection" as of man-made—or unnatural—selection. He explains why geeks have become so phenomenally successful in such a short time and why the process will further accelerate, driven by breakthroughs in genetic engineering, neuropharmacology, and artificial intelligence. His book offers a fascinating synthesis of the latest trends in these fields and predicts a twenty-first century "cognitive arms race" in which new technology will enable everyone to become more intelligent and "geek-like."
Download or read book And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth written by Carljoe Javier and published by Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth, Carl Javier writes funny essays about being a geek, interviewing girls for men's mags, pondering the nuances of a pee-lemma (if you don't know what that is, you'll see in the book), teaching at an all-girls school, joining a reality show, and many other topics. Packed with insights as well as punchlines, the book is a fun and entertaining read for geeks and non-geeks alike.
Download or read book The Overachievers written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2006-08-08 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Pledged returns with a groundbreaking look at the pressure to achieve faced by America's teens In Pledged, Alexandra Robbins followed four college girls to produce a riveting narrative that read like fiction. Now, in The Overachievers, Robbins uses the same captivating style to explore how our high-stakes educational culture has spiraled out of control. During the year of her ten-year reunion, Robbins goes back to her high school, where she follows heart-tuggingly likeable students including "AP" Frank, who grapples with horrifying parental pressure to succeed; Audrey, whose panicked perfectionism overshadows her life; Sam, who worries his years of overachieving will be wasted if he doesn't attend a name-brand college; Taylor, whose ambition threatens her popular girl status; and The Stealth Overachiever, a mystery junior who flies under the radar. Robbins tackles teen issues such as intense stress, the student and teacher cheating epidemic, sports rage, parental guilt, the black market for study drugs, and a college admissions process so cutthroat that students are driven to suicide and depression because of a B. With a compelling mix of fast-paced narrative and fascinating investigative journalism, The Overachievers aims both to calm the admissions frenzy and to expose its escalating dangers.
Download or read book Pledged written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2011-05-24 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexandra Robbins wanted to find out if the stereotypes about sorority girls were actually true, so she spent a year with a group of girls in a typical sorority. The sordid behavior of sorority girls exceeded her worst expectations -- drugs, psychological abuse, extreme promiscuity, racism, violence, and rampant eating disorders are just a few of the problems. But even more surprising was the fact that these abuses were inflicted and endured by intelligent, successful, and attractive women. Why is the desire to belong to a sorority so powerful that women are willing to engage in this type of behavior -- especially when the women involved are supposed to be considered 'sisters'? What definition of sisterhood do many women embrace? Pledged combines a sharp-eyed narrative with extensive reporting and the fly-on-the-wall voyeurism of reality shows to provide the answer.
Download or read book Secrets of the Tomb written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2002-09-06 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the only exposé of one of the world's most secretive and feared organizations: Yale University's nearly 200-year-old secret society, Skull and Bones. Through society documents and interviews with dozens of members, Robbins explains why this old-boy product of another time still thrives today.
Download or read book The Manifesto on How to be Interesting written by Holly Bourne and published by Usborne Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Apparently I'm boring. A nobody. But that's all about to change. Because I am starting a project. Here. Now. For myself. And if you want to come along for the ride then you're very welcome. Bree is by no means popular. Most of the time, she hates her life, her school, her never-there parents. So she writes. But when Bree is told she needs to stop shutting the world out and start living a life worth writing about, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting is born. A manifesto that will change everything... ...but the question is, at what cost?
Download or read book The Geek Handbook 2 0 written by Alex Langley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An indispensable guide to life, the universe, and everything that’s awesomely geeky, The Geek Handbook 2.0 is packed with even more self-improvement and maintenance tips, lifehacks, and sound advice to help you power up your skills to build a better, faster, stronger you and have fun along the way. Among the things you’ll discover: • Ways to light your inner fire of creativity, whether you want to learn a new skill, write a novel, or try ham-butting. • How to conquer school and rule it on a throne of iron and blood, whether you’re in high school, college, or at Hogwarts. • Steps you can take toward crushing your career in your mighty fist. • Tech-tonic toys and geektastic gadgets. • Learning everything you need to know about relationships from Mass Eff ect. • How to prep for a number of possible apocalyptic ends to the world. • The things geeks dream about that don’t involve nudity. If you’re willing to put in the time to fi nd your Zen and hone your mad skills, The Geek Handbook 2.0 is the Obi-Wan to your Luke Skywalker, helping you build Yourself into Yourself 2.0.
Download or read book The Nurses written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller. “A funny, intimate, and often jaw-dropping account of life behind the scenes.”—People Nurses is the compelling story of the year in the life of four nurses, and the drama, unsung heroism, and unique sisterhood of nursing—one of the world’s most important professions (nurses save lives every day), and one of the world’s most dangerous, filled with violence, trauma, and PTSD. In following four nurses, Alexandra Robbins creates sympathetic characters while diving deep into their world of controlled chaos. It’s a world of hazing—“nurses eat their young.” Sex—not exactly like on TV, but surprising just the same. Drug abuse—disproportionately a problem among the best and the brightest, and a constant temptation. And bullying—by peers, by patients, by hospital bureaucrats, and especially by doctors, an epidemic described as lurking in the “shadowy, dark corners of our profession.” The result is a page-turning, shocking look at our health-care system.
Download or read book Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-10-05 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The practical followup to the acclaimed bestseller In 2001, the groundbreaking book Quarterlife Crisis® addressed the unique and unsettling trials of entering modern adulthood. For the first time, it identified how twentysomethings were lost and confused, and lamented the absence of a guide-a roadmap with solutions for how to emerge from the crisis successful, happy, and sane. Now, the author of Quarterlife Crisis® delivers that roadmap. Alexandra Robbins goes beyond defining the problem of the quarterlife crisis and puts readers on the path to conquering it. She asks-and answers-the tough, soul-searching questions that keep young adults awake at night: - How do I weigh doing what I love versus making money? - Will I ever find my "soul mate"? - Why is it so hard to make friends? - Why are my twenties so different from what I expected? With new voices as well as follow-up interviews with some of the original Quarterlife Crisis® twentysomethings, Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis® is the new go-to guide for people who want it all...but just aren't sure what that is yet.
Download or read book Earthfall written by Orson Scott Card and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1996-01-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earthfall, the fourth volume in Orson Scott Card's space opera Homecoming series The Oversoul of the colony planet Harmony selected the family of Wetchik to carry it back to long-lost Earth. Now grown to a tribe in the years of their journey to Harmony's hidden starport, they are ready at last to take a ship to the stars. But from the beginning there has been bitter dispute between Nafai and Elemak, Wetchick's youngest son and his oldest. On board the starship Bailica, the children of the tribe will become pawns in the struggle. Two factions are each making secret plans to awaken the children, and themselves, early from the cold-sleep capsules in which they will pass the long decades of the journey. Each side hopes to gain years of influence on the minds of the children, winning their loyalty in the struggle for control of reclaimed Earth. But the Oversoul is truly in control of this journey. It has downloaded a complete copy of itself to the Ship's computers. And only Nafai, who wears the Cloak of the Starmaster by the Oversoul's command, really understand what this will mean to all their plans for the future. Homecoming series The Memory of Earth The Call of Earth The Ships of Earth Earthfall Earthborn At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Fraternity written by Alexandra Robbins and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * A Real Simple Best Book of 2019: "An essential read for parents and students." * The New York Times bestselling author of Pledged is back with an unprecedented fly-on-the-wall look inside fraternity houses from current brothers’ perspectives—and a fresh, riveting must-read about what it’s like to be a college guy today. Two real-life stories. One stunning twist. Meet Jake, a studious freshman weighing how far to go to find a brotherhood that will introduce him to lifelong friends and help conquer his social awkwardness; and Oliver, a hardworking chapter president trying to keep his misunderstood fraternity out of trouble despite multiple run-ins with the police. Their year-in-the-life stories help explain why students are joining fraternities in record numbers despite scandalous headlines. To find out what it’s like to be a fraternity brother in the twenty-first century, Robbins contacted hundreds of brothers whose chapters don’t make headlines—and who suggested that many fraternities can be healthy safe spaces for men. Fraternity is more than just a page-turning, character-driven read. It’s a vital book about the transition from boyhood to manhood; it brilliantly weaves psychology, current events, neuroscience, and interviews to explore the state of masculinity today, and what that means for students and their parents. It’s a different kind of story about college boys, a story in which they candidly discuss sex, friendship, social media, drinking, peer pressure, gender roles, and even porn. And it’s a book about boys at a vulnerable age, living on their own for perhaps the first time. Boys who, in a climate that can stigmatize them merely for being male, don’t necessarily want to navigate the complicated, coming-of-age journey to manhood alone.
Download or read book Saddam Hussein written by Saïd K. Aburish and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-22 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A brilliant Arab-Western examination.Written with pace, detail, and a host of witnesses and sources' Sunday Tribune
Download or read book Con nerd written by Oliver Phommavanh and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's one small step for nerds, one giant leap to being cool. Mama tells me I'm gifted and talented. But I know the truth. I'm just a nerd. Kids call me Con-nerd - half Connor and all nerd. I'm supposed to become a doctor but i have this deep, dark secret: I want to be a cartoonist. And all of a sudden my mega-cool comics are getting noticed at school - I might even get into a special art class. That would sure impress this girl I'm keen on . . . and it might just be my chance to show the world my true destiny. But I'm not sure Mama will see it quite that way . . .
Download or read book Daemon written by Daniel Suarez and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-01-08 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Suarez’s New York Times bestselling debut high-tech thriller is “so frightening even the government has taken note” (Entertainment Weekly). Daemons: computer programs that silently run in the background, waiting for a specific event or time to execute. They power almost every service. They make our networked world possible. But they also make it vulnerable... When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol’s secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it’s up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose—one that goes far beyond anything Sebeck could have imagined...
Download or read book One Soldier s War written by Arkady Babchenko and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A visceral and unflinching memoir of a young Russian soldier’s experience in the Chechen wars. In 1995, Arkady Babchenko was an eighteen-year-old law student in Moscow when he was drafted into the Russian army and sent to Chechnya. It was the beginning of a torturous journey from naïve conscript to hardened soldier that took Babchenko from the front lines of the first Chechen War in 1995 to the second in 1999. He fought in major cities and tiny hamlets, from the bombed-out streets of Grozny to anonymous mountain villages. Babchenko takes the raw and mundane realities of war the constant cold, hunger, exhaustion, filth, and terror and twists it into compelling, haunting, and eerily elegant prose. Acclaimed by reviewers around the world, this is a devastating first-person account of war that brilliantly captures the fear, drudgery, chaos, and brutality of modern combat. An excerpt of One Soldier’s War was hailed by Tibor Fisher in The Guardian as “right up there with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Michael Herr’s Dispatches.” Mark Bowden, bestselling author of Black Hawk Down, hailed it as “hypnotic and terrifying” and the book won Russia’s inaugural Debut Prize, which recognizes authors who write despite, not because of, their life circumstances. “If you haven’t yet learned that war is hell, this memoir by a young Russian recruit in his country’s battle with the breakaway republic of Chechnya, should easily convince you.” —Publishers Weekly
Download or read book Mean Deviation written by Jeff Wagner and published by Bazillion Points Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revered former Metal Maniacs editor Jeff Wagner analyses the heady side of metal in this exhaustive narrative history of a relentlessly ambitious musical subculture. Beginning with the hugely influential mid-1970s efforts of progressive rock acts Rush and King Crimson, Wagner unfurls a vast colourful tapestry of sounds and styles, from the 'Big 3' of Queensryche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater to the extreme prog pioneers Voivod, Watchtower, Celtic Frost and others.
