In this two-volume set, a series of expert contributors look at what it means to be a boy growing up in North America, with entries covering everything from toys and games, friends and family, and psychological and social development. Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia spans the breadth of the country and the full scope of a pivotal growing-up time to show what "a boy's life" is really like today. With hundreds of entries across two volumes, it offers a series of vivid snapshots of boys of all kinds and ages at home, school, and at play; interacting with family or knocking around with friends, or pursuing interests alone as they begin their journey to adulthood. Boy Culture shows an uncanny understanding of just how exciting, confusing, and difficult the years between childhood and young adulthood can be. The toys, games, clothes, music, sports, and feelings—they are all a part of this remarkable resource. But most important is the book's focus on the things that shape boyhood identities—the rituals of masculinity among friends, the enduring conflict between fitting in and standing out, the effects of pop culture images, and the influence of role models from parents and teachers to athletes and entertainers to fictional characters.
"Although doctors want to treat 17-year-old Emery Land for the seizures that define her life, she runs away from the hospital in the hopes of uncovering the secret behind her "loops"--the moments during her seizures when she travels to different places and moments in time" --
Growing Up Can Be Perfect in Its Imperfection The Jessica Darling series chronicles one young woman’s coming-of-age in the first decade of the 21st century. Over five books and ten years, Jessica Darling fumbles her way into adulthood. She evolves from a sixteen-year-old cynic, snarking in her diary about catty cliques, unrequited crushes, and other high school indignities, into a jet-setting twenty-six-year-old urbanite searching for more meaning in her life. Through all her misadventures in high school, college, and beyond, Jessica gets long-distance support from her best friend, Hope. But it's her on-again/off-again love of her life, Marcus Flutie, who can always be counted on to complicate her life in ways that are infuriating, intoxicating, and ultimately irresistible. SLOPPY FIRSTS: Meet Jessica Darling—and fall for Marcus Flutie—in this high school comedy of many, many errors. A fresh, funny, utterly compelling fiction debut, Sloppy Firsts is an insightful true-to-life look at sixteen-year-old Jessica's predicament as she embarks on another year of teenage torment—from the dark days after her best friend, Hope, moves away through her months as a type-A personality turned insomniac to her completely mixed up feelings about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious "Dreg" who works his way into her heart. SECOND HELPINGS: Can Jessica survive senior year without losing her mind . . . or her heart? This time, Jess is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her last year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious Marcus Flutie continue to distract her, but Hope still lives in another state, and she can't seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew, her annoying so-called friends. To top it off, Jessica's parents won't get off her butt about choosing a college. Will Jess crack under the pressure of senioritis? CHARMED THIRDS: Jessica is in college . . . and smart girls have more fun! Jessica has finally left her hometown/hellhole for Columbia University; she's into Marcus more than ever (so what if he's at a Buddhist college in California), and she's making new friends. But Jess soon realizes that her bliss might not last. As she and Marcus hit the rocks, will she fall for her GOPunk, neoconservative RA . . . or for the hot grad student she's assisting on a summer project . . . or for the oh-so-sensitive emo boy down the hall? Will she even make it now that her parents have cut her off financially? And what do the cryptic one-word postcards from Marcus really mean? FOURTH COMINGS: Is the real world ready for Jessica Darling? At first it seems like she's living the New York City dream. She's subletting an apartment with her best friend, working for a magazine that actually cares about her psychology degree, and is still deeply in love with Marcus. But when Marcus proposes—giving her only one week to answer—Jessica must decide if she's ready to give up a world of late-night literary soirees, art openings, and downtown drunken karaoke to move back to New Jersey and be with the one man who's gripped her heart for years. PERFECT FIFTHS: Does Jessica and Marcus's journey end here? Or is it just the beginning? . . . Now a young professional in her mid-twenties, Jess is off to a Caribbean wedding. As she rushes to her gate at the airport, she literally runs into her former boyfriend, Marcus Flutie. It's the first time she's seen him since she reluctantly turned down his marriage proposal three years earlier—and emotions run high. They have both changed dramatically, yet their connection feels as familiar as ever. Is their reunion just a fluke, or has fate orchestrated this collision of their lives once again?
Two sworn enemies start to fall in love through anonymous notes in How to Speak Boy, a fun and charming YA novel from Tiana Smith. Quinn and Grayson have been fierce speech and debate rivals for years. They can't stand one another, either in competition or in real life. But when their AP Government teacher returns their school assignments to the wrong cubbies, they begin exchanging anonymous notes without knowing who the other one is. Despite their differences, the two come together through their letters and find themselves unknowingly falling for the competition. Before the state tournament, the two of them need to figure out what they want out of life, or risk their own future happiness. After all, what’s the point of speech and debate if you can't say what's in your heart?
Between the Lines Never in Plain Sight By: Keira Brown 25-year-old Alison Olivia Woods is an American singer-songwriter, The Queen of all pop music. Alison thought she had it made in the clouds with her perfect career, fame, fortune, and adoring fans. However, after making a huge decision that will force her onto a rocky path, Alison quickly discovers that life in the spotlight isn't all rainbows and sunshine. Upon discovering a secret that her dad kept hidden from the entire family, Alison's life begins to turn upside down. Especially when she begins to receive notes from an unknown threat who wants to destroy everything she has worked so hard for. Will Alison succeed in maintaining her career or will it fall by the hands of her tormentor?
Katie likes to believe she’s invisible. It seems so much safer than being exposed as who she is: shy, poor, and vulnerable. So getting up in front of audience as the lead in her school’s production of The Taming of the Shrew should be complete torture. But as Katie tells it, something totally unexpected happened when she stepped on stage: “My head exploded. I loved it. Acting hit me like a sucker punch and I loved, loved, loved it! Invisible Katie became visible Katherina.” Evan is, as they say, another story. He knows just what it takes to get noticed, and he uses every one of the skills he’s perfected from years of being the new kid at yet another new school. Rich, smart, and ridiculously charming, he’s like nothing and no one Katie has ever encountered. How then could someone like him possibly be interested in someone like her? But before she knows it they are inseparable. Over the dizzying course of their relationship, Katie must confront the fact that the power of love can conceal darker truths.
This "mesmerizing" (Entertainment Weekly) novel from Booker Prize-shortlisted author Monica Ali brings us into the vivid world of a London restaurant. Gabriel Lightfoot, an enterprising man from a northern English mill town, is making good in London. As executive chef at the once-splendid Imperial Hotel, he aims to run a tight kitchen. Though he’s under constant challenge from the competing demands of an exuberantly multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is secretly planning a move to a restaurant of his own, all Gabe’s hard work looks set to pay off. Until, that is, a worker is found dead in the kitchen’s basement. It is a small death, a lonely death—but it is enough to disturb the tenuous balance of Gabe’s life. Enter Lena, an eerily attractive young woman with mysterious ties to the dead man. Under her spell, Gabe makes a decision, the consequences of which strip him naked and change the course of the life he knows—and the future he thought he wanted. With prose that "crackles with verve and vivacity" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and "a truly Dickensian cast of characters" (The Buffalo News), Ali’s "portrait of a middle-aged Holden Caulfield wandering the streets" (The Plain Dealer) is a sheer pleasure to read.
This book is about a good police officer in this fictional story. He stopped crime and save the day. And it ties-in with my other book titled "The Emo Boy"
Dale E. Basye sends Milton and Marlo to Snivel, the circle reserved for crybabies, for their latest hilarious escapade in Heck. Snivel is a camp—a bummer camp—a dismal place where it's always raining, and Unhappy Campers are besieged by swarms of strange mosquitoes that suck the color right out of them. Soon the Fausters discover that some Unhappy Campers have been disappearing. So after Marlo gets chosen for a special project and never comes back, Milton makes up his mind to find her and all the missing children. Can Milton find his sister and get the heck out of Snivel? With the help of some new friends, his pet ferret, and Vincent Van Gogh's ear, he just might have a chance.
