The author--a lesbian, sex radical, ex-hooker, feminist, leftist organizer, and award-winning filmmaker--presents over 20 years of her writings and five new essays, including "A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home". She looks at themes such as the relationship between activism and desire and how sexuality is tied to one's class identity. 41 photos.
My pops had been telling me to settle down for years. He told me to find a woman who would stand by me no matter how tough things got, and would have my back through thick and thin. And the truth was, I was tired of empty sex. I was tired of one-night stands, and I was tired of screwing women just to toss them away and never speak to them again. I'd built myself an empire from nothing. I'd put blood, sweat and tears to get to where I was today, to be the owner of several huge businesses, including my multi-million dollar software company Indigo Limited. And now...I just wanted a woman to share that with. So when Sapphire Myers walked into my office telling me that she was the new Python developer, I couldn't help but to fall head over heels for her beauty. She was so fucking sexy and she didn't even realize it, but I could see the pain in her eyes. She looked tired, exhausted, broken... She looked like a mystery. A mystery that I wanted to solve. But I was battling with my own demons. I had some dirty secrets of my own, and a past that I wasn't proud of. I was part of a Mafia family. A family of organized crime. But God help me, even though I had my own skeletons in the closet... If I'd have known that Sapphire was going to betray me in the worst fucking possible way, I would have torched that bitch and left her to die the first time I ever laid eyes on her. I would have disposed of her without a second fucking thought, and then moved on with my life without looking back. It takes more than a pretty girl to bring me to my knees. The more I push, the more she pushes back. Sapphire is a challenge that I'm not used to, but she needs to learn a thing or two about loyalty. Because in my world, snakes and rats are buried six feet under. To teach them a lesson not to fuck with me. Because in the Mafia, we're bound by blood... And I won't hesitate to do the same thing to her for getting on the wrong side of me. I won't hesitate to give her the same treatment that countless people before her got. Somebody should have warned her that if you play with fire you'll get burned. Because at the end of the day... I didn't choose this life. This. Life. Chose. Me.
Feared by humans, envied by werewolves, the Dire wolves are immortal shifters, obeying no laws but their own bestial natures. Once they were many, but now only a few remain, a dangerous wolfpack forever on the hunt… Jinx is a Dire wolf without a pack. Kicked out of the house by his king, and living with a vampire named Jez, Jinx has been trying to undo the damage he’d unintentionally caused during the reign of the Dire ghost army, which unleashed some of Purgatory’s worst monsters on the world at large. But when he hears that an unshifted Were is being held in a psychiatric hospital, he immediately drops everything to help her. Gillian Black has no idea what’s happening to her—and Jinx discovers that she’s not just any Were, but a Dire wolf from the original Greenland pack. He helps her escape and promises to keep her safe from the men—and wolves—who are hunting her, and teach her everything about being a wolf. He must also fight his feelings, wanting to claim her as his mate…at least until after he defeats the supernatural enemies that threaten all of them.
Drawing upon contemporary film and fiction, The Body's Perilous Pleasures is an investigation of the nature of the body and the manner in which it figures in transvestism, cyborgs and female desire, body piercing, AIDS and reincarnation.
Dangerous Desires By Julia Templeton Rochford Manor, outside London, 1810: When her dying father entrusts her to the care of Dominic Santrell, one of London's most infamous rakes, Arlie Whitman is thrust into a world of elegance and privilege she had never imagined. But her initiation into society is nowhere near as frightening as the powerful desire she feels for Dominic himself. The dark and dashing earl claims that she needs a husband, but Arlie knows she needs only Dominic. Dominic had vowed never to marry. In his experience, love was, at best, an evening's pleasure. Yet the parade of young men courting his ward is unbearable. Arlie's innocent beauty haunts his dreams. The passion they share cannot be denied... But desire can be dangerous.
Originally written in 1938 but never published due to its controversial nature, an insightful guide reveals the seven principles of good that will allow anyone to triumph over the obstacles that must be faced in reaching personal goals.
CAN A PIRATE LEARN . . . River pirate "Charming" Mickey O'Connor has lifted himself from the depths of the slums to be the king of St. Giles. Anything he wants he gets-with one exception. Silence Hollingbrook has been haunting his dreams ever since she spent a single night in his bed. THAT THE ONLY TRUE TREASURE . . . Once Silence was willing to sacrifice anything to save the man she loved. Now a widow, she's finally found peace when Charming Mickey comes storming back into her life with an offer she can't refuse. But this time she won't be the only one paying the price for his sins. LIES IN A WOMAN'S HEART? When his past comes back to torment him, Mickey must keep Silence safe from a merciless enemy, while wrestling with the delicious hold this widow has on his heart. And in the face of mounting danger, both will have to surrender to something even more terrifying . . . true love.
“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class.” So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project. Now back in print after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin’s crimes became public. From the immigrant Jewish enclaves of the Bronx and Brooklyn and the docks of Puget Sound to the mining towns of Kentucky and the suburbs of Cleveland, over a million Americans found a sense of belonging and an expanded sense of self through collective struggle. They also found social isolation, blacklisting, imprisonment, and shattered hopes. This is their story--an indisputably American story.
“Chad Ford reminds us that humanity lies within all of us, and although conflict is everywhere in today's world, we have the tools we need to overcome obstacles and to thrive. This is a fantastic, timely book that I highly recommend." —Steve Kerr, Head Coach, Golden State Warriors Knowing how to transform conflict is critical in both our personal and professional lives. Yet, by and large, we are terrible at it. The reason, says longtime mediator Chad Ford, is fear. When conflict comes, our instincts are to run or fight. To transform conflict, Ford says we need to turn toward the people we are in conflict with, put down our physical and emotional weapons, and really love them with the kind of love that leads us to treat others as fellow human beings, not as objects in our way. We have to open ourselves up with no guarantee that anyone on the other side will do the same. While this can feel even more dangerous than conflict itself, it allows us to see the humanity of others so clearly that their needs and desires matter to us as much as our own. Ford shows dangerous love in action through examples ranging from his work in the Middle East to a deeply moving story about reconciling with his father. He explains why we disconnect from people at the very time we need to be most connected and the predictable patterns of justification and escalation that ensue. Most importantly, he gives us a path to practice dangerous love in the conflicts that matter most to us.
