Take a tour with Trevor Romain of some of his wildest, most memorable experiences in this collection of coming-of-age stories about living in South Africa in the 1970s. Whether he was scaling walls in search of mulberry leaves for his shoebox of silkworms, hitchhiking to the local ice rink on a Friday night, or keeping his head firmly down as a new conscript, these anecdotes will leave you laughing, crying, or just shaking your head in disbelief. Every story is accompanied by one of Trevor’s iconic drawings, which have been carefully crafted with a pitch-perfect combination of humour and nostalgia to leave an enduring imprint on your own memories and to keep you wanting more. Both entertaining and deeply moving, this is a book perfect for anyone looking for what it really means to be proudly South African.
Armed with a 10-point list of dating criteria, skin-tight jeans, and flash cards on Nascar, football, and micro-breweries, she enlists everyone in sight to set her up on blind dates in a passionate quest to meet just one really great guy. Names are changed to protect the rejected as she humorously dishes dot-com hunks, rappers manques, and tattooed graduates of the Gene Simmons School of Dating. Bridget Jones would be proud of her American cousin. Elizabeth chronicles her true-life dating spree set off by the broken engagement as a marriage-minded mortician in her mid-30's.
Elaine Sturtz shares in Living in the Different that grief is messy, hard, painful, filled with tears and loneliness, but it also includes faith, hope and love. She walks through the journey, the emotions, the changes and hurts. Each grief is different, and grief changes our lives. We are different, and how we live and interact with others is different. The journey of grief takes different forms as we learn to live and mingle joy and sorrow together. Elaine offers hope-a hope of hope-through these passages of sorrow and loss. Hope is found in our faith in God who is love, and love never ends. As you read these words, may God bring comfort and guidance and give you hope.
Funeral Diva is the Winner of the Lambda Award for Lesbian Poetry! A poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art. "Sneed is an acclaimed reader of her own poetry, and the book has the feeling of live performance. . . . Its strength is in its abundance, its desire for language to stir body as well as mind."—Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review "She is a writer for the future, in that she defies genre."—Hilton Als "This notable achievement, traveling from youth to adulthood, is a harrowing account of how Sneed transforms violence and pain into an artist's life."—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American Lyric "There's an eerie sense of timeliness to this book, which features prose and poetry by the writer and teacher Pamela Sneed and is largely — though not entirely — about mourning Black gay men killed too soon by a deadly virus."—Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed "OH MY GOODNESS, it was amazing. I was in tears by the end. What starts off as beautiful memoir evolves into incredibly moving poetry, painful and sweet and lovely."—Marie Cloutier, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY "Balancing and mixing, with rhyme and reason, love and anger, good and bad, memory and the created present, all to tell the story of a life, a memoir unrestrained, devoid of artificial forms. Honest. Free."—Anjanette Delgado, New York Journal of Books In this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on Black Queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead. Sneed’s poems not only converse with lovers past and present, but also with her literary forebears—like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde—whose aesthetic and thematic investments she renews for a contemporary American landscape. Offering critical focus on matters from police brutality to LGBTQ+ rights, Funeral Diva confronts today's most pressing issues with acerbic wit and audacity. The collection closes with Sneed's reflections on the two pandemics of her time, AIDS and COVID-19, and the disproportionate impact of each on African American communities. "Riveting, personal, open-hearted, risky and wise."—Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse " . . . a tour de force about the collision between a coalescing 1980s 'Black lesbian and gay literary and poetic movement' in New York and the onslaught of AIDS."—Donna Seaman, Booklist "Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva is deft, defiant, and devastating."—Tommy Pico, author of Feed "Funeral Diva is urgent and necessary reading to live by. This is writing at its finest. Keep this book close to your heart and soul."—Karen Finley, author of Shock Treatment "Reminiscent of Audre Lorde’s Zami, Pamela Sneed’s memoir is, in itself, a healing balm, affirming in its truths and honesty. I cannot remember ever reading a book that illustrates the impact of the AIDS epidemic on our community more poignantly than Funeral Diva."—Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy "Pamela Sneed takes enormous risks in this book. She tells the truth with fierce concentration and an abiding sense of purpose.”—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
'Denton's funny, self-effacing genuineness will keep readers rooting for him' Kirkus Reviews 'Full belly-laugh funny' Notes From The Underground 'Freaking hilarious' goodreads.com 'Very, very funny . . . fresh, original and an absolute joy to read' thebookbag.co.uk 'This book! Oh my god, this book is brilliant! … It's so exciting and awesome! Who has ever heard of a teen angsty, hilariously funny, fast-paced, exciting dystopian? I love it!' Once Upon a Bookcase The first of two books, Denton Little's Deathdateis an utterly gripping read - with a killer plot twist, hilarious characters, and atruly memorable voice. Imminent death has never been so funny!Denton Little's Deathdatetakes place in a world exactly like our own - except that everyone knows the day on which they will die. For Denton, that's in just two days - the day of his senior prom. Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life - but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle (the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend's sister. Though he's not totallysure - see, first hangover). His anxiety builds when he discovers a mysterious purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? Then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton's long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious characters . . . Suddenly Denton's life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers. Debut author Lance Rubin takes us on a fast, gripping, and outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager's life as he searches for love, meaning and (just maybe) a way to live on . . .
In 2016, on observing the 55th anniversary of their whirlwind courtship and marriage in 1961, Bill & Elin Walker reflected on how the first half of the 1960s, impacted and molded their world view, as they became witnesses to history in the making in what turned into a long ride with the military. This book tries to capture some essence of those times through recollections, letters, and stories from 1961 through 1965.
From Bella Jewel, the USA Today bestselling author of the wildly popular Alphas Heart e-series, comes a pulse-pounding thriller about a serial killer who’s hiding in plain sight, targeting his prey one BLIND DATE at a time. . . After the death of her husband four years ago, Hartley Watson is finally ready to meet someone—and maybe even have a second chance at love. But then, just as her dating life seems to be getting started, Hartley is struck with a horrifying realization: Someone is watching her. Entering her own home. Even knows the intimate details of her life. How else to explain the strange deliveries, or the sudden appearance of mementos from her dead spouse—ones that she had kept for so long in storage? If only Hartley could know for sure whether what is happening to her is real or if her grief is making her lose touch with reality. Those around her aren’t convinced that she’s being stalked, nor is the wonderful, supportive man Hartley’s started dating. The exciting new life she has created for herself is slowly becoming a nightmare. . .How can Hartley seek protection when nobody believes that she’s at risk—and the only one in the world she can trust is herself?
Songs for a Blind Date is the second in a trilogy. Each book stands alone but is linked by themes of place and the story of Jessica. In the second book, Ernesto, an Italian war orphan, is put on a ship to Australia when he is twelve years old. Ernesto grows into Queensland manhood in the canefields of the North and becomes Ernie, the postman who delivers Jessicas mail in a suburb of Brisbane. By the time Ernie meets Jessica, he has re-invented himself as a bachelor living on acreage with his own mail delivery company. Now he sings snatches of his own song but still yearns for the songs of his mother. Jessica is an established academic, living her own life and working on her PhD. Ernie and Jessica find some joy in each other but is it enough for them both to find new notes to harmonise the clashing chords of their different lives?
From the author of the poignant and provocative debut Anything Could Happen comes an astonishing novel in verse about love, death, and the poetry we find when we most need it. How do you deal with a hole in your life?Do you turn to poets and pop songs?Do you dream? Do you try on love just to see how it fits? Do you grieve? If you're Avery, you do all of these things. And you write it all down in an attempt to understand what's happened--and is happening--to you. I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain is an astonishing novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself.
