Aya and "Shirayuri-sama" are a lot of things: Gamers, rivals...and now friends. They turn the school upside-down looking for the perfect place to game in secret, but just when they think they've found the solution, their cover is blown by two members of the Dormitory Affairs Committee. Video games are strictly prohibited at their prim-and-proper school, and being caught with a fight stick carries dire penalties. Threatened with expulsion, they propose a wild challenge that might just be crazy enough to work!!
Aya, Mio, and friends attend a prim-and-proper academy where video games are banned and the punishment for playing them is severe. Now, they're duking it out at Japan's biggest fighting game tournament! After defeating a pro gamer in the losers bracket, Mio's scheduled for a grudge match against Arisa, the tiny spitfire. What follows is the culmination of their tempestuous tourney relationship and a no-holds-barred fight to the death! (And maybe, in the heat of battle, a little personal growth?)
Kuromi Girls' Academy is a refined, elegant school that expects the very best in deportment from its young ladies. Aya got into this peerless rich-girls' institution on a scholarship, and hopes to grow as lovely as her fellow student and idol, the so-called "Shirayuri-sama." But Shirayuri hides a terrible secret: she's a trash-talking, combo-chaining, newbie-stomping, ruthless hardcore gamer! Could a mutual indulgence in no-holds-barred video game combat grow into a deeper rapport between these two girls?
Aya, Mio, and their new friends Yuu and Tamaki are prim-and-proper young ladies by day, but when night falls, they turn to bloodthirsty hardcore gaming! They've set their sights on a huge fighting game tournament called EX Japan, where pros and amateurs alike gather for the ultimate test of skill. With so many experienced fighters out for blood, can the girls hope to get the results they want? From qualifying pools to grand finals, it's bound to be a wild ride!
Aya and Mio attend a prim-and-proper academy for young ladies, one where video games are outright banned. That hasn't stopped them from following their secret gaming passion all the way to Japan's biggest fighting game tournament! Now, both of them face a high-stakes battle against oddball pro gamers. Aya plays head-to-head against an intimidating biker hooligan, while Mio faces a cute, diminutive girl whose tiny frame hides a truly vicious spirit. Just how far will their love for gaming take them at an arena full of the world's strongest?
Aya, Mio, Yuu, and Tamaki are all students at a prim-and-proper academy for young ladies, one where video games are outright banned. That hasn't stopped them from following their fighting game passions all the way to EX Japan, one of the biggest e-sports championships in the world! But to have a spot in the main event, you've got to prove your worth in the preliminary qualifiers. Each young lady will have to prevail in a do-or-die battle in the qualifying pools, against a whole set of oddball fighting game aficionados.
A Finalist for the NAACP Image Award A Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction A Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay An NPR Best Book of the Year A Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite of the Year From the host of podcast "Stuck with Damon Young," cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in Americais enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as “How should I react here, as a professional black person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It’s a condition that’s sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the “being straight” thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to “Portlandia . . . but with Pierogies.” And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. From one of our most respected cultural observers, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a hilarious and honest debut that is both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of Blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity.
My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?
