Laura's brother, Paul, had been missing for 48 hours - he and his erstwhile girlfriend, Melissa. So when he was found, dripping wet and on his own, many people leaped to a natural, unflattering, and very wrong conclusion. But the correct story was so unlikely, and ran counter to so many long-held pre-conceptions, that there is no chance that anyone will believe it. Abducted by aliens? The boy must be hallucinating! Can he pull himself together enough, in his exhausted and shocked state, to delude the police and doctors, and not get arrested for murdering Melissa? His only chance is if Melissa is found safe and well - but he is sure that she elected to stay with the aliens, and not return at all. Can Melissa triumph over her essentially selfish nature, and do the honourable thing?
Would you trust a complete stranger? After Chloe and her daughter Freya are rescued from disaster by a man who seems too good to be true, Chloe decides she must find him again to thank him. But instead of meeting her knight in shining armour, she comes across a woman called Nadine Caspian who warns her to stay well away from him. The man is dangerous, Nadine claims, and a compulsive liar. Alarmed, Chloe asks her what she means, but Nadine will say no more. Chloe knows that the sensible choice would be to walk away - after all, she doesn't know anything about this man. But she is too curious. What could Nadine have meant? And can Chloe find out the truth without putting herself and her daughter in danger?
Why socialism has failed to play a significant role in the United States - the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism - has been a critical question of American history and political development. This study surveys the various explanations for this phenomenon of American political exceptionalism.
The #1 New York Times bestselling (mostly true) memoir from the hilarious author of Furiously Happy. “Gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate.”—O, The Oprah Magazine When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it. In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives. Readers Guide Inside
Liquid Ecstasy, Ruffies and Forget-Me Pills are all slang terms for date rape drugs now commonly used by sex offenders. One should be called Liquid Hell for all the agony, grief and despair it caused Nadege Anthony. She grew up in a working class section of Boston and was able to overcome many of the temptations in her environment. She graduated with honors from college with a degree in Computer Science and then went on to become a rising star in her field. That all came to an abrupt end after she befriended Derick -- who would later become her lover. Her association with him almost ruined her life and it took her almost ten years to find out most of the answers. Liquid Ecstasy (or GHB) had left her with amnesia and she had been labeled a manic-depressive. But, it was their cold, calculated and deliberate act of taking her baby that kept her from submitting to that diagnosis and to persevere in her search for the truthThat might sound funny but many of today's sex offenders get away clean because Liquid Ecstasy (or GHB) causes amnesia. If you think drink spiking only happens in bars between strangers, think again. Ever hung out with a trusted friend or associate and woke up unable to remember details of the night before? Street preparations of the drug are easy to produce and when mixed with alcohol, the victim appears extremely intoxicated. Since the crime is one of control, many times successful, confident looking women -- normally out of their reach -- are targeted. However, gender doesn't really matter when it comes to being susceptible. This book will make you laugh. It will make you angry and, it might make you cry. It could happen to you, your wife, your husband, your teenager or even your grandmother. The book will also teach you what to look for in order to protect yourself and your loved ones.
“An ambitious re-writing—a re-synthesis, even—of concepts of media and culture . . . It is nothing less than an attempt at a history of Being.” —Los Angeles Review of Books When we speak of clouds these days, it is as likely that we mean data clouds or network clouds as cumulus or stratus. In their sharing of the term, both kinds of clouds reveal an essential truth: that the natural world and the technological world are not so distinct. In The Marvelous Clouds, John Durham Peters argues that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse is just as true—environments are media. Peters defines media expansively as elements that compose the human world. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow human life to thrive. Through an encyclopedic array of examples from the oceans to the skies, The Marvelous Clouds reveals the long prehistory of so-called new media. Digital media, Peters argues, are an extension of early practices tied to the establishment of civilization such as mastering fire, building calendars, reading the stars, creating language, and establishing religions. New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions of society and ecology: how to manage the relations people have with themselves, others, and the natural world. A wide-ranging meditation on the many means we have employed to cope with the struggles of existence—from navigation to farming, meteorology to Google—The Marvelous Clouds shows how media lie at the very heart of our interactions with the world around us.
From New York Times bestseller Kody Keplinger comes an astonishing and thought-provoking exploration of the aftermath of tragedy, the power of narrative, and how we remember what we've lost. It's been three years since the Virgil County High School Massacre. Three years since my best friend, Sarah, was killed in a bathroom stall during the mass shooting. Everyone knows Sarah's story--that she died proclaiming her faith. But it's not true. I know because I was with her when she died. I didn't say anything then, and people got hurt because of it. Now Sarah's parents are publishing a book about her, so this might be my last chance to set the record straight . . . but I'm not the only survivor with a story to tell about what did--and didn't--happen that day. Except Sarah's martyrdom is important to a lot of people, people who don't take kindly to what I'm trying to do. And the more I learn, the less certain I am about what's right. I don't know what will be worse: the guilt of staying silent or the consequences of speaking up . . .
When Danish immigrant soldier, Hans Olufsen, heads west in 1856 seeking land of his own, he meets and marries an Indian woman named Little Feather. They settle in the Sheyenne River Valley of what is now North Dakota. Together they negotiate many disputes and settlements between the white man and the Indians. Hundreds of whites are killed during the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862. Hans must use artillery skills that he learned in the Danish army to defend Fort Abercrombie. When some three hundred Indians are imprisoned and condemned to death, Hans and Little Feather go to Washington, D.C. with a preacher to plead for President Abraham Lincoln's intervention. Lincoln frees all but thirty-eight of the Indians, of whom one is Little Feather's nephew. Following the Civil War, Hans and Little Feather return home, where Little Feather teaches prairie survival and English to the immigrant women. But after the massacre of General Custer and his troops in 1876, the community turns against Little Feather and her children. This social upheaval threatens to destroy all that Hans and Little Feather have worked so hard to create. It Just Didn't Happen tells the story of their adventurous and loving life together.
Recounted chiefly in winsome illustrations, this fantasy of a GI who's transformed into a dog offers a witty take on WWII–era life among soldiers and on the home front. "Wonderful fun." — Chicago Tribune.