Jones learned early on to factor “pain calculations” into every plan, every situation. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis which affects both her stature and gait, her pain is physical. But there is also the pain of being judged and pitied for her appearance, of being dismissed as “less than.” The way she has been seen—or not seen—has informed her lens on the world her entire life. She resisted this reality by excelling academically and retreating to “the neutral room in her mind” until it passed. But after unexpectedly becoming a mother (in violation of unspoken social taboos about the disabled body), something in her shifts, and Jones sets off on a journey across the globe, reclaiming the spaces she’d been denied, and denied herself. From the bars and domestic spaces of her life in Brooklyn to sculpture gardens in Rome; from film festivals in Utah to a Beyoncé concert in Milan; from a tennis tournament in California to the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh, Jones weaves memory, observation, experience, and aesthetic philosophy to probe the myths underlying our standards of beauty and desirability, and interrogates her own complicity in upholding those myths. With its emotional depth, its prodigious, spiky intelligence, its passion and humor, Easy Beauty is the rare memoir that has the power to make you see the world, and your place in it, with new eyes.

    A handyman. An impossible secret.Is it love or lust? And what happens when a mill girl breaks the cardinal rule?Men beg to touch her body. Yet, I’m the one grasping onto Cece time and time again.I tried to keep them away for her safety and to help her reach the goal of a better life. We were careful to make sure what happened between us remained unnoticed. But when our impossible secret gets out, I’m the one labeled an opportunistic creep.I’m a simple man. All I want is a chance. Though, it’s uncertain Cece’s ready to defend the love we share. It’s obvious now our silence was golden... And there’s more than a sliver of truth that I’ll never be the one for her.—Dusty

    Verónica, a Peruvian‑American teen, must deal with both her painful hip dysplasia and her overprotective immigrant parents, all while chasing her dream to become a professional mermaid in this gorgeously written, authentic novel about secrets and finding your wings (or tail).

    He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none. And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life—a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever. Or so Arlo thought. After years trying to heal his broken heart, Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment which unlocks buried memories of his past. Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along, and if his lost love might be found again. No longer willing to accept what others tell him, Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth. After all, who better to bring on this quest than his gay interpreter and wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend? Despite the many forces working against him, Arlo will stop at nothing to find the girl who got away and experience all of life’s joyful possibilities.

    So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney's unusual talents.Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke several weeks later at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. Now, twelve years later, Delaney Meyers-Petrov has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton's been ordered to keep far away from the new girl... and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton -- she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming -- yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them -- and their forbidden partnership -- apart.

    

    And neither can her mother—or the trolls, imps, gnomes, and faeries who all live in the Glade and call it home. Though Sparrow’s weak heart keeps her wheelchair bound, she and her mother have dedicated their lives to protecting the Glade, especially from the worst bogeyman of them all: the skin-stealing, poison-ingesting witch called Black Annis.But one night, Sparrow makes a terrible mistake, and everything she once held dear is taken from her. The Glade is no longer a sanctuary, and the only way Sparrow can save her mother and her friends is to journey out into a monster-ridden world that wasn’t made for her or her wheelchair. Joined by her half-goblin friend, Rush, Sparrow will have to confront her fears before the ones they love are lost forever.A Daughter of the Trolls will appeal to fans of European folklore and the darker Grimm Brother’s fairytales. This is a spine-tingling young adult fantasy adventure about evil witches, monsters, and the imperfect heroes who face them all. You’ll join Sparrow and her faerie friends on a life changing journey where they face not only their outer demons, but their inner ones as well.

    This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they'll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who's never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school's golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another--and changed forever.This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, cochlear implants and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.

    Tragedy defines her, but she refuses to let it destroy her. When her brother, Commanding Officer Oliver Rose, is killed in combat in Libya, Ivy learns to put her faith in what remains constant in her life – the natural beauty of her native, coastal California.Her life is beautiful but incredibly lonely. That is until three of Oliver's soldiers show up on her doorstep in the wake of his death, in a moment that will change all of their lives irrevocably.When Ivy's peaceful life collides with the soldiers' lives of conflict, she is inevitably exposed to a terrifying world of war, enmity, and a betrayal that she learns has forged an intricate path of destruction in the minds of the soldiers. The four friends find themselves navigating an uncharted, modern world that will test their inner strength, unveil their deepest fears, and lay bare the raw passion of living in the present.

    In a world where flowers have become frightening, Ben has come to accept that most people will want to keep their distance from his dandelions. However, when an enthusiastic photographer arrives out of the blue and asks Ben to be a part of his project, Ben begins to discover what being a “flowerpot” really means.

    A story of love, loss, and learning to accept when life gives you a second chance. Elena Salazar has taken care of her gambling-addicted brother since her parents’ death. When he calls her late one night asking for help, she’s thrown into Tristan Mercier’s life and is at his mercy. Unable to pay her brother’s debt, a contract is signed: she will live and work for Tristan for six months while her brother is sent to rehab. Tristan Mercier is scarred, both physically and emotionally. He lost his happily ever after five years earlier in a fire that nearly took his life. He’s broken and bitter, but with Elena’s arrival, things are changing, and the feelings he thought long buried begin to resurface. Can this brute open his heart to give his belleza a chance?

    Kim uses the concept of curative violence to question the representation of cure as a universal good and to understand how nonmedical and medical cures come with violent effects that are not only symbolic but also physical. Writing disability theory in a transnational context, Kim tracks the shifts from the 1930s to the present in the ways that disabled bodies and narratives of cure have been represented in Korean folktales, novels, visual culture, media accounts, policies, and activism. Whether analyzing eugenics, the management of Hansen's disease, discourses on disabled people's sexuality, violence against disabled women, or rethinking the use of disabled people as a metaphor for life under Japanese colonial rule or under the U.S. military occupation, Kim shows how the possibility of life with disability that is free from violence depends on the creation of a space and time where cure is seen as a negotiation rather than a necessity.

    But when they're chosen to play a duet for the concert, they worry that their differences will sink their chances.Noah, a cello prodigy from a long line of musicians, wants to stick to tradition. Daisy, a fiercely independent disabled violinist, is used to fighting for what she wants and likes to take risks. But the two surprise each other when they play. They fall perfectly in tune.After their performance goes viral, the rest of the country falls for them just as surely as they're falling for each other. But viral fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No one seems to care about their talent or their music at all. People have rewritten their love story into one where Daisy is an inspiration for overcoming her cerebral palsy and Noah is a saint for seeing past it.Daisy is tired of her disability being the only thing people see about her, and all of the attention sends Noah’s anxiety disorder into high speed. They can see their dream coming closer than it’s ever been before. But is the cost suddenly too high?

    Includes guest comics from the Sad Ghost Club family.

    Guaranteed.Fleeing a wedding to a man she doesn't love, Euphemia "Effie" Werrington stows away on an airship, only to discover the ship's owner is the love who left her years before.Charlie Wilson has been through a lot in the years since Effie's family sent him away, but despite his new piratical appearance, his heart remains as devoted as ever to the woman he left behind.Pirates roam the skies and an angry family is hot on their tail, but the road to true love is never without a few bumps. Let romance take flight!Love is in the Airship is a 10,000 word novelette set in the Sass and Steam world.Previously published as part of the Love in Bloom anthology.

    Although published by the Association of Young People with ME (known as AYME) as well as containing advice for children and young people, the entire book is suitable for adults of all ages. A4 in size, there are over 130 jam packed pages with guidance on every conceivable area of life with severe ME as well as specific help for carers, partners, siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians, speech language therapists, psychologists, social workers and home tutors.To see the contents page, click here: http://www.severeme.info/docs/Content...

    Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity as part of an experiment led by the obsessive Dr. Blum. Drawn by a strong connection to the dolphins, Cora falls in with the scientists and discovers her need to protect the animals.Recognizing Cora's knack for communication, Blum uses her for what will turn into one of the most fascinating experiments in modern science: an attempt to teach the dolphins human language by creating a home in which she and a dolphin can live together.As the experiment progresses, Cora forges a remarkable bond with the creatures, until her hard-won knowledge clashes with the male-dominated world of science. As a terrible scandal threatens to engulf the experiment, Cora's fight to save the dolphins becomes a battle to save herself.

    Thrasher comes a powerful and crucial exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our times: how viruses expose the fault lines of society.Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone.Told through the heart-rending stories of friends, activists, and teachers navigating the novel coronavirus, HIV, and other viruses, Dr. Thrasher brings the reader with him as he delves into the viral underclass and lays bare its inner workings. In the tradition of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, The Viral Underclass helps us understand the world more deeply by showing the fraught relationship between privilege and survival.

    Allie couldn’t care less. Together, these polar opposites must work together if they have any hope of saving their school’s robotics program.Eighth-graders Evelyn and Allie are in trouble. Evelyn’s constant need for perfection has blown some fuses among her robotics teammates, and she’s worried nobody’s taking the upcoming competition seriously. Allie is new to school, and she’s had a history of short-circuiting on teachers and other kids.So when Allie is assigned to the robotics team as a last resort, all Evelyn can see is just another wrench in the works! But as Allie confronts a past stricken with grief and learns to open up, the gears click into place as she discovers that Evelyn’s teammates have a lot to offer—if only Evelyn allowed them to participate in a role that plays to their strengths.Can Evelyn learn to let go and listen to what Allie has to say? Or will their spot in the competition go up in smoke along with their school’s robotics program and Allie’s only chance at redemption?An excellent pick for STEAM enthusiasts, this earnestly told narrative features a dual point of view and casually explores Autistic and LGBTQ+ identities.

    At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.

    Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP, author of Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing AutismFor every visibly Autistic person you meet, there are countless "masked" Autistic people who pass as neurotypical. Masking is a common coping mechanism in which Autistic people hide their identifiably Autistic traits in order to fit in with societal norms, adopting a superficial personality at the expense of their mental health. This can include suppressing harmless stims, papering over communication challenges by presenting as unassuming and mild-mannered, and forcing themselves into situations that cause severe anxiety, all so they aren't seen as needy or "odd."In Unmasking Autism, Dr. Devon Price shares his personal experience with masking and blends history, social science research, prescriptions, and personal profiles to tell a story of neurodivergence that has thus far been dominated by those on the outside looking in. For Dr. Price and many others, Autism is a deep source of uniqueness and beauty. Unfortunately, living in a neurotypical world means it can also be a source of incredible alienation and pain. Most masked Autistic individuals struggle for decades before discovering who they truly are. They are also more likely to be marginalized in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other factors, which contributes to their suffering and invisibility. Dr. Price lays the groundwork for unmasking and offers exercises that encourage self-expression, including:- Celebrating special interests- Cultivating Autistic relationships- Reframing Autistic stereotypes- And rediscovering your valuesIt's time to honor the needs, diversity, and unique strengths of Autistic people so that they no longer have to mask--and it's time for greater public acceptance and accommodation of difference. In embracing neurodiversity, we can all reap the rewards of nonconformity and learn to live authentically, Autistic and neurotypical people alike.

    And I get paid to talk about it. Sure, I'm behind the scenes of the best baseball talk show on television, but that's where I'm comfortable. Where I'm safe. And then Jake Hutchinson showed up and I started dreaming again. Dreaming of so much more than being behind the scenes. He reminded me of why I got into this business in the first place. I was determined to put my head down and do my work, and not get involved...but the closer I work with him, the harder I fall...Jake:I was determined to come in and make a good first impression. Though, soliciting a free meal from my producer probably wasn't the way to do that. And then she started talking about the game I love, the game I played, and I was hooked. I could listen to her talk about baseball for the rest of my life. I can't get involved with my producer, can I? With her talent she won't be a producer for much longer, and what's life without a little risk, right?The Curveball is a closed-door, friends to lovers, workplace romance featuring a baseball loving heroine and former baseball player hero. The Curveball is very much a love letter to baseball and the bonds created when it is shared. The Curveball also features #OwnVoices Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and chronic pain representation, written by an author who lives with PCOS and the associated chronic pain.

    (Not credited but is from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)*English translation by fans

    She’s been betrayed and devastated and is finally pulling her life back together, when a smooth Jamaican man walks into her dressing room and makes her long for everything she didn’t know she was missing. Unfortunately, he could cost her career and peace of mind. Anif Montague is focused on keeping the attention of his adoring readers when he lays eyes on Nyoka. She’s perfect to be the cover model for his next book, and the woman in his life, but can he convince this mysterious woman to take a chance on him? Will she accept the deal he’s offering? Or will the secrets she’s keeping explode between them with dire consequences?