Best of
Social-Issues

2013

Is God anti-gay?: And other questions about homosexuality, the Bible and same-sex attraction


Sam Allberry - 2013
    Christians, the church and the Bible seem to be out of step with modern attitudes towards homosexuality. And there is growing hostility towards those who hold a different view. So is God homophobic? And what do we say, and how do we relate to to both Christians and non Christians who experience same-sex attraction.In this short, simple book, Sam Allberry wants to help confused Christians understand what God has said about these questions in the scriptures, and offers a positive and liberating way forward through the debate.

Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces


Radley Balko - 2013
    As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko, over the last several decades, America’s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an other—an enemy.Today’s armored-up policemen are a far cry from the constables of early America. The unrest of the 1960s brought about the invention of the SWAT unit—which in turn led to the debut of military tactics in the ranks of police officers. Nixon’s War on Drugs, Reagan’s War on Poverty, Clinton’s COPS program, the post–9/11 security state under Bush and Obama: by degrees, each of these innovations expanded and empowered police forces, always at the expense of civil liberties. And these are just four among a slew of reckless programs.In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko shows how politicians’ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative shows how over a generation, a creeping battlefield mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.

The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence


Gary A. Haugen - 2013
    Few of us think of violence. But beneath the surface of the poorest communities in the developing world is a hidden epidemic of everyday violence-of rape, forced labor, illegal detention, land theft, police abuse, and more- that is undermining our best efforts to assist the poor. Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros's The Locust Effect offers a searing account of the way pervasive violence blocks the road out of poverty, undermines economic development, and reduces the effectiveness of international public health efforts. As corrupt and dysfunctional justice systems allow the locusts of predatory violence to descend upon the poor, the ravaging plague lays waste to programs of income generation, disease prevention, education for girls and other assistance to the poor. And tragically, none of these aid programs can stop the violence. In graphic real-world stories-set in locales ranging from Peru to India to Nigeria- The Locust Effect offers a gripping journey into the vast, hidden underworld of everyday violence where justice is only available to those with money. But the book holds out hope, recalling that justice systems in developed countries were once just as corrupt and brutal; and explores a practical path for throwing off antiquated colonial justice systems and re-engineering the administration of justice to protect the poorest. Sweeping in scope and filled with unforgettable stories, The Locust Effect will force us to rethink everything we know about the causes of poverty and what it will take make the poor safe enough to prosper.

Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States


Seth Holmes - 2013
       An anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, Seth Holmes shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and healthcare. Holmes’s material is visceral and powerful. He trekked with his companions illegally through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the U.S., planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This “embodied anthropology” deepens our theoretical understanding of how health equity is undermined by a normalization of migrant suffering, the natural endpoint of systemic dehumanization, exploitation, and oppression that clouds any sense of empathy for “invisible workers.”  Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is far more than an ethnography or supplementary labor studies text; Holmes tells the stories of food production workers from as close to the ground as possible, revealing often theoretically-discussed social inequalities as irreparable bodily damage done. This book substantiates the suffering of those facing the danger of crossing the border, threatened with deportation, or otherwise caught up in the structural violence of a system promising work but endangering or ignoring the human rights and health of its workers.All of the book award money and royalties from the sales of this book have been donated to farm worker unions, farm worker organizations and farm worker projects in consultation with farm workers who appear in the book.

Orphan Justice: How to Care for Orphans Beyond Adopting


Johnny Carr - 2013
    Too often, we only discuss or theologize the issues, relegating the responsibility to governments. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something; Christians are clearly called to care for orphans, a group so close to the heart of Jesus.Based on his own personal journey toward pure religion, Johnny Carr moves readers from talking about global orphan care to actually doing something about it in Found. Combining biblical truth with the latest social research, this inspiring book:investigates the orphan care and adoption movement in the U.S. today; examines new data on the needs of orphans and at-risk children; connects “liberal issues” together as critical aspects or orphan care; discovers the role of the church worldwide in meeting these needs; develops a tangible, sustainable action plan using worldwide partnerships; fleshes out the why, what, and how of global orphan care.

Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence


Preston Sprinkle - 2013
    With prophetic relevance, New York Times bestselling author Preston Sprinkle tackles the controversy surrounding violence and grapples with surprising conclusions. Anyone who has struggled with the morality of violence will appreciate this convincing biblical guide.

Second Suns: Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives


David Oliver Relin - 2013
      In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, gifted ophthalmologists who have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to some of the world’s most isolated, impoverished people through the Himalayan Cataract Project, an organization they founded in 1995. Tabin was the high-achieving bad boy of Harvard Medical School, an accomplished mountain climber and adrenaline junkie as brilliant as he was unconventional. Ruit grew up in a remote Nepalese village, where he became intimately acquainted with the human costs of inadequate access to health care. Together they found their life’s calling: tending to the afflicted people of the Himalayas, a vast mountainous region with an alarmingly high incidence of cataract blindness.  Second Suns takes us from improvised plywood operating tables in villages without electricity or plumbing to state-of-the-art surgical centers at major American universities where these two driven men are restoring sight—and hope—to patients from around the world. With their revolutionary, inexpensive style of surgery, Tabin and Ruit have been able to cure tens of thousands—all for about twenty dollars per operation. David Oliver Relin brings the doctors’ work to vivid life through poignant portraits of patients helped by the surgery, from old men who cannot walk treacherous mountain trails unaided to cataract-stricken children who have not seen their mothers’ faces for years. With the dexterity of a master storyteller, Relin shows the profound emotional and practical impact that these operations have had on patients’ lives.  Second Suns is the moving, unforgettable story of how two men with a shared dream are changing the world, one pair of eyes at a time.Praise for Second Suns   “As miracles go, it’s hard to beat making the blind see. Yet that’s exactly what the eye surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Tabin can do. He services poor people in the developing world who have developed cataracts—a clouding of the lens of the eye that is the world’s leading cause of blindness. . . . Second Suns is a hopeful work, a profile of two doctors who have dedicated their lives to bringing light to those in darkness.”—Time   “A compelling and inspiring book . . . Second Suns portrays heroic health care delivered under harrowing conditions: Ruit and his teams carry their equipment on multi-day treks up steep mountain trails, sometimes hiking at night with flashlights or head lamps, to reach settlements where they typically spend several days operating on hundreds of villagers in makeshift surgical theaters.”—The Washington Post   “Second Suns should be required reading for anybody with an interest in humanitarian philanthropy—or, for that matter, a desire to feel a little better about the world.”—Outside   “A detailed, heartfelt account of the work of [two] dedicated pioneers.”—Kirkus Reviews

Golden Boy


Tara Sullivan - 2013
    Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can’t take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame.Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo for the first time, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt Albinos in Mwanza because Albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. And soon Habo is being hunted by a fearsome man with a machete. To survive, Habo must not only run but find a way to love and accept himself.

Guns


Stephen King - 2013
    Anger and grief in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School are palpable in this urgent piece of writing, but no less remarkable are King’s keen thoughtfulness and composure as he explores the contours of the gun-control issue and constructs his argument for what can and should be done.

Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time


Jeremy Courtney - 2013
    After an encounter with a father whose little girl was dying from a heart defect, they began to investigate options for helping and learned that untold thousands of children across Iraq were in similar need, waiting in line for heart surgery in a country without a qualified heart surgeon. With the help of their closest friends, they dived in to save the lives of as many as they could, but sending children abroad proved to be expensive and cumbersome, and it failed to make an impact on the systemic needs of Iraqi hospitals—the place where these children really should be saved. Despite fatwas, death threats, bombings, imprisonments, and intense living conditions, Jeremy and his team persevered to overcome years of hostilities and distrust in an effort to eradicate the backlog of thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children waiting in line for much-needed heart surgery. “This true story of people coming together to live the doctrine of 'love first, ask questions later' by building bridges and saving lives is powerfully inspiring, touching, and, unfortunately, urgently relevant” (Publishers Weekly). “Courtney’s moving story gives us some of the best news to come out of Iraq in ages” (Los Angeles Times).

Answers to Your Questions about Heaven


David Jeremiah - 2013
    Fortunately, Scripture is filled with helpful information about our future home—we just have to know where to look.Dr. David Jeremiah has spent a lifetime studying what the Bible has to say about heaven, and now in Answers to Your Questions about Heaven, he has done just that—provided answers to your most pressing questions about heaven, angels, and eternity in a straightforward, easy-to-understand, biblically based book. A perfect gift for friends and family and a handy resource to keep on your own shelf, this handsome little book will ignite your imagination and whet your appetite for all the amazing experiences that await!

Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class


Ian F. Haney-López - 2013
    In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president. In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney Lopez offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform. Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney Lopez links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party's increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class — white and nonwhite members alike.

Love Into Light: The Gospel, the Homosexual and the Church


Peter Hubbard - 2013
    Headlines teem with stories of athletes "coming out," politicians changing positions and courts handing down same-sex marriage rulings. Sadly the church has often been afraid to talk about homosexuality. Many Christians feel confused and divided between the call to love and the call for truth. And many who struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction feel alone and alienated by the church. The time is ripe for God's people to think and speak about same-sex attraction in a way that is both biblical and beneficial. We must reject our fears and misunderstandings and see ourselves together in need of the grace of Jesus. Love Into Light is designed to move the church toward that end. Written from the heart of a pastor with a love for people and a sensitivity to our culture, Love Into Light is your next step toward becoming more faithfully and helpfully engaged with people in your families, in your church and in your neighborhood.

A Place of Hope


Anna Jacobs - 2013
    It’s only when Emily reaches The Drover’s Hope, the former pub on the edge of the Lancashire moors, bequeathed to her by her late cousin Penelope, that she begins to feel safe. She also discovers that love can be found in the most unexpected places. But it’s not so easy to escape the clutches of someone as determined as George . . .

Hawaiki Rising


Sam Low - 2013
    Sam Low, the author, has sailed with us on three voyages, written numerous articles and now, after ten years of work, has finished Hawaiki Rising. This book is an important part of our 'olelo, our history, and it contains the mana of all those who helped create and sail Hokule'a." Nainoa Thompson

To Be a Friend Is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind


Kirk W. Johnson - 2013
    Despite his opposition to the war, Johnson felt called to civic duty and wanted to help rebuild Iraq.Appointed as USAID’s first reconstruction coordinator in Fallujah, he traversed the city’s IED-strewn streets, working alongside idealistic Iraqi translators—young men and women sick of Saddam, filled with Hollywood slang, and enchanted by the idea of a peaceful, democratic Iraq. It was not to be. As sectarian violence escalated, Iraqis employed by the US coalition found themselves subject to a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination.On his first brief vacation, Johnson, swept into what doctors later described as a “fugue state,” crawled onto the ledge outside his hotel window and plunged off. He would spend the next year in an abyss of depression, surgery, and PTSD—crushed by having failed in Iraq.One day, Johnson received an email from an Iraqi friend, Yaghdan: People are trying to kill me and I need your help. After being identified by a militiaman, Yaghdan had emerged from his house to find the severed head of a dog and a death threat. That email launched Johnson’s now seven-year mission to get help from the US government for Yaghdan and thousands of abandoned Iraqis like him. The List Project has helped more than 1,500 Iraqis find refuge in America. To Be a Friend Is Fatal is Kirk W. Johnson’s unforgettable portrait of the human rubble of war and his efforts to redeem a shameful chapter of American history.

High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing


Audrey Petty - 2013
    These stories of community, displacement, and poverty in the wake of gentrification give voice to those who have long been ignored, but whose hopes and struggles exist firmly at the heart of our national identity.

Walk in Their Shoes: Can One Person Change the World?


Jim Ziolkowski - 2013
    Under Jim’s leadership, buildOn volunteers have contributed more than 850,000 hours of community service, and the organization has constructed more than 430 schools worldwide, from the South Bronx, to Detroit, Chicago, and Oakland, to Haiti, Senegal, Nicaragua, and Nepal.Walk in Their Shoes is packed with the ingredients of a powerful bestseller as it traces Jim’s story from his transformation from a thrill-seeking twenty-something backpacker, to a Harlem-based idealist trying to launch a not-for-profit organization, and finally to the head of buildOn.Ziolkowski compellingly chronicles his exciting story of worldwide travel and adventure, creating a moving portrait of the power of faith, teamwork, and the boundless potential of the human spirit. Blessed with relentless optimism and an unshakable faith, both of which have fortified his commitment to the poor and the underprivileged, Jim Ziolkowski’s inspirational memoir reveals that helping and empathizing with others can help—and heal—ourselves.

In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez


Paul Farmer - 2013
    Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez joined in their option for the poor, their defense of life, and their commitment to liberation. Farmer has credited liberation theology as the inspiration for his effort to do "social justice medicine," while Gutierrez has recognized Farmer's work as particularly compelling example of the option for the poor, and the impact that theology can have outside the church. Draws on their respective writings, major addresses by both at Notre Dame, and a transcript of a dialogue between them.

Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart


Christena Cleveland - 2013
    We cluster in theological groups, gender groups, age groups, ethnic groups, educational and economic groups. We criticize freely those who disagree with us, don't look like us, don't act like us and don't even like what we like. Though we may think we know why this happens, Christena Cleveland says we probably don't. In this eye-opening book, learn the hidden reasons behind conflict and divisions. Learn: Why I think all my friends are unique but those in other groups are all the same Why little differences often become big sources of conflict Why categorizing others is often automatic and helpful but can also have sinister side effects Why we are so often victims of groupthink and how we can avoid it Why women think men are judging them more negatively than men actually are, and vice versa Why choices of language can actually affect unity With a personal touch and the trained eye of a social psychologist, Cleveland brings to bear the latest studies and research on the unseen dynamics at work that tend to separate us from others. Learn why Christians who have a heart for unity have such a hard time actually uniting. The author provides real insight for ministry leaders who have attempted to build bridges across boundaries. Here are the tools we need to understand how we can overcome the hidden forces that divide us.

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools


Diane Ravitch - 2013
    assistant secretary of education, "whistle-blower extraordinaire" (The Wall Street Journal), author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System ("Important and riveting"--Library Journal), The Language Police ("Impassioned . . . Fiercely argued . . . Every bit as alarming as it is illuminating"--The New York Times), and other notable books on education history and policy--an incisive, comprehensive look at today's American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools.​In Reign of Error, Diane Ravitch argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement but a concerted effort to destroy public schools in this country. She makes clear that, contrary to the claims being made, public school test scores and graduation rates are the highest they've ever been, and dropout rates are at their lowest point.​She argues that federal programs such as George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama's Race to the Top set unreasonable targets for American students, punish schools, and result in teachers being fired if their students underperform, unfairly branding those educators as failures. She warns that major foundations, individual billionaires, and Wall Street hedge fund managers are encouraging the privatization of public education, some for idealistic reasons, others for profit. Many who work with equity funds are eyeing public education as an emerging market for investors.​Reign of Error begins where The Death and Life of the Great American School System left off, providing a deeper argument against privatization and for public education, and in a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, putting forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve it. She makes clear what is right about U.S. education, how policy makers are failing to address the root causes of educational failure, and how we can fix it.​For Ravitch, public school education is about knowledge, about learning, about developing character, and about creating citizens for our society. It's about helping to inspire independent thinkers, not just honing job skills or preparing people for college. Public school education is essential to our democracy, and its aim, since the founding of this country, has been to educate citizens who will help carry democracy into the future.

Bleating Hearts: The Hidden World of Animal Suffering


Mark Hawthorne - 2013
    Comprehensive and hard-hitting, Bleating Hearts examines the world's vast exploitation of animals, from the food, fashion, and research industries to the use of other species for sport, war, entertainment, religion, labor and pleasure.

Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino -/ American Postcolonial Psychology


E.J.R. David - 2013
    However, very little is known about how their historical and contemporary relationship with America may shape their psychological experiences. The most insidious psychological consequence of their historical and contemporary experiences is colonial mentality or internalized oppression. Some common manifestations of this phenomenon are described below: Skin-whitening products are used often by Filipinos in the Philippines to make their skins lighter. Skin whitening clinics and businesses are popular in the Philippines as well. The "beautiful" people such as actors and other celebrities endorse these skin-whitening procedures. Children are told to stay away from the sun so they do not get "too dark." Many Filipinos also regard anything "imported" to be more special than anything "local" or made in the Philippines. In the United States, many Filipino Americans make fun of "fresh-off-the-boats" (FOBs) or those who speak English with Filipino accents. Many Filipino Americans try to dilute their "Filipino-ness" by saying that they are mixed with some other races. Also, many Filipino Americans regard Filipinos in the Philippines, and pretty much everything about the Philippines, to be of "lower class" and those of the "third world." The historical and contemporary reasons for why Filipino -/ Americans display these attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors - often referred to as colonial mentality - are explored in Brown Skin, White Minds. This book is a peer-reviewed publication that integrates knowledge from multiple scholarly and scientific disciplines to identify the past and current catalysts for such self-denigrating attitudes and behaviors. It takes the reader from indigenous Tao culture, Spanish and American colonialism, colonial mentality or internalized oppression along with its implications on Kapwa, identity, and mental health, to decolonization in the clinical, community, and research settings. This book is intended for the entire community - teachers, researchers, students, and service providers interested in or who are working with Filipinos and Filipino Americans, or those who are interested in the psychological consequences of colonialism and oppression. This book may serve as a tool for remembering the past and as a tool for awakening to address the present."

They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America's Wars: The Untold Story


Ann Jones - 2013
    A reporter’s firsthand, close-up-and-personal look at the impact of our recent wars on America’s unlucky soldiers.

This Is Where I Am


Karen Campbell - 2013
    Heartbreaking, uplifting and unforgettable, This is Where I Am is a tender and eye-opening novel about loss and survival, and an unlikely friendship between a Glaswegian widow and a Somali asylum seeker.

Truth Speaks to Power: The Countercultural Nature of Scripture


Walter Brueggemann - 2013
    Brueggemann asserts that the Bible presents a sustained contestation over truth, in which established institutions of power do not always prevail. But this is not always obvious at first glance. A closer look reveals that the text actually contradicts the apparent meaning of an innocent, face-value reading. Brueggemann invites the reader into this thick complexity of the textual reading, where the authority of power is undermined in cunning and compelling ways. He insists that we are--as readers and interpreters--always contestants for truth, whether we recognize ourselves as such or not.

Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church's Debate on Same-Sex Relationships


James V. Brownson - 2013
    Fairly presenting both sides in this polarized debate — "traditional" and "revisionist" — Brownson conscientiously analyzes all of the pertinent biblical texts and helpfully identifies "stuck points" in the ongoing debate. In the process, he explores key concepts that inform our understanding of the biblical texts, including patriarchy, complementarity, purity and impurity, honor and shame. Central to his argument is the need to uncover the moral logic behind the text. Written in order to serve and inform the ongoing debate in many denominations over the questions of homosexuality, Brownson's in-depth study will prove a useful resource for Christians who want to form a considered opinion on this important issue.

Why Christian Kids Need A Christian Education


Douglas Wilson - 2013
    This is an antithesis that cuts across all areas of human life, including education. Christian parents are left with only two options for the training of their children: faithful education or unbelieving education. Though the right choice seems obvious, many Christian parents do not see the antithesis. In this little book, Douglas Wilson presents the case for providing a faithful, Christian education for all Christian kids, and explains why we even have to make that case to begin with.

Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation


Estelle B. Freedman - 2013
    elections confirms that it remains a word in flux. Redefining Rape tells the story of the forces that have shaped the meaning of sexual violence in the United States, through the experiences of accusers, assailants, and advocates for change. In this ambitious new history, Estelle Freedman demonstrates that our definition of rape has depended heavily on dynamics of political power and social privilege.The long-dominant view of rape in America envisioned a brutal attack on a chaste white woman by a male stranger, usually an African American. From the early nineteenth century, advocates for women's rights and racial justice challenged this narrow definition and the sexual and political power of white men that it sustained. Between the 1870s and the 1930s, at the height of racial segregation and lynching, and amid the campaign for woman suffrage, women's rights supporters and African American activists tried to expand understandings of rape in order to gain legal protection from coercive sexual relations, assaults by white men on black women, street harassment, and the sexual abuse of children. By redefining rape, they sought to redraw the very boundaries of citizenship.Freedman narrates the victories, defeats, and limitations of these and other reform efforts. The modern civil rights and feminist movements, she points out, continue to grapple with both the insights and the dilemmas of these first campaigns to redefine rape in American law and culture.

Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit


Marie Battiste - 2013
    Chronicling the negative consequences of forced assimilation and the failure of current educational policies to bolster the social and economic conditions of Aboriginal populations, Battiste proposes a new model of education. She argues that the preservation of Aboriginal knowledge is an Aboriginal right and a right preserved by the many treaties with First Nations. Current educational policies must undergo substantive reform. Central to this process is the rejection of the racism inherent to colonial systems of education, and the repositioning of Indigenous humanities, sciences, and languages as vital fields of knowledge. Battiste suggests the urgency for this reform lies in the social, technological, and economic challenges facing society today, and the need for a revitalized knowledge system which incorporates both Indigenous and Eurocentric thinking. The new model she advocates is based on her experiences growing up in a Mi'kmaw community, and the decades she has spent as a teacher, activist, and university scholar.

When I Wear My Alligator Boots: Narco-Culture in the US-Mexico Borderlands


Shaylih Muehlmann - 2013
    In particular, the book explores a crucial tension at the heart of the war on drugs: despite the violence and suffering brought on by drug cartels, for the rural poor in Mexico’s north, narcotrafficking offers one of the few paths to upward mobility and is a powerful source of cultural meanings and local prestige. In the borderlands, traces of the drug trade are everywhere: from gang violence in cities to drug addiction in rural villages, from the vibrant folklore popularized in the narco-corridos of Norteña music to the icon of Jesús Malverde, the patron saint of narcos, tucked beneath the shirts of local people. In When I Wear My Alligator Boots, the author explores the everyday reality of the drug trade by living alongside its low-level workers, who live at the edges of the violence generated by the militarization of the war on drugs. Rather than telling the story of the powerful cartel leaders, the book focuses on the women who occasionally make their sandwiches, the low-level businessmen who launder their money, the addicts who consume their products, the mules who carry their money and drugs across borders, and the men and women who serve out prison sentences when their bosses' operations go awry.

To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation


Paul Farmer - 2013
    One of the most passionate and influential voices for global health equity and social justice, Farmer encourages young people to tackle the greatest challenges of our times. Engaging, often humorous, and always inspiring, these speeches bring to light the brilliance and force of Farmer’s vision in a single, accessible volume.A must-read for graduates, students, and everyone seeking to help bend the arc of history toward justice, To Repair the World:-Challenges readers to counter failures of imagination that keep billions of people without access to health care, safe drinking water, decent schools, and other basic human rights;-Champions the power of partnership against global poverty, climate change, and other pressing problems today;-Overturns common assumptions about health disparities around the globe by considering the large-scale social forces that determine who gets sick and who has access to health care;-Discusses how hope, solidarity, faith, and hardbitten analysis have animated Farmer’s service to the poor in Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, and elsewhere;-Leaves the reader with an uplifting vision: that with creativity, passion, teamwork, and determination, the next generations can make the world a safer and more humane place.

Compassion or Apocalypse?: A Comprehensible Guide to the Thought of Rene Girard


James Warren - 2013
    A few years later, with Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, Girard made it clear that his basic insights derived of all places from the Bible. Those insights are finally escaping the confines of academia, and coming to the awareness of a broader, theologically minded public. Many people are beginning to find in Girard answers to troublesome questions such as: Is God violent? Is there a necessary relationship between violence and religion? Why are there so many violent stories in the Bible? Why did Jesus have to die? Are we living in the end times? In clear, understandable prose, Compassion or Apocalypse shows how the Girardian perspective answers such questions, making Girard s mimetic theory and its application to biblical interpretation available to those who have little or no familiarity with Girard s work. To read the Bible from a Girardian point of view is to discover the radical message of God s nonviolent love in its historical wrestling with human violence, and its immanent confrontation with the gathering human apocalypse.

FADE OMNIBUS (Books 1 through 4)


Kailin Gow - 2013
     5 out of 5 Stars - "The beginning of this book grabs you right away and you cannot put it down!" - Ashley @ Step Into Fiction 5 out of 5 Stars - "Fast-paced and Crazy Unique!" - Liberty Ann 5 out of 5 Stars - "Thrilling and mind boggling series. Fade introduces readers to a concept that is out of this world." - Woven Myst From the International Bestselling Author of the FROST Series and The Loving Summer Series comes a Dystopian and Apocalyptic Action Adventure Love Story that Defies All Odds... What if you found out you never existed? "My name is Celestra Caine. I am seventeen years old, which makes me a senior at Richmond High. I never thought this would happen to me, but it has... I'm one of those people you see every day, go to school with, remember seeing at the supermarket or the mall, and then one day you don't hear about them any longer. They're gone, and eventually, you forget them." Omnibus Contains the Complete Series FADE Falling (FADE #2) Forgotten (FADE #3) Fever (FADE #4) In Kindle, Print, and Audio Book Format This is a YA-Mature New Adult Dystopian Thriller appropriate for age 17 and up. For exact date of release, sign up for New Releases at theEDGEbooks.com.

Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together


Steve Heinrichs - 2013
    Essays on land use, creation, history, and faith appear among poems and reflections by people across ethnic and religious divides. The writers do not always agree—in fact, some are bound to raise readers&rsqup; defenses. But they represent the hard truths that we must hear before reconciliation can come.Many who read Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry are wondering, “How can I respond?” Paths for Peacemaking with Host Peoples is a short document intended to give people tangible ways to act and respond to some of the things learned in Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry. Click here to download.Free downloadable study guide available here.

Night Shift


B.R. Myers - 2013
    On his first shift Daniel narrowly escapes a fatal fall down an elevator shaft and is rescued by Mary—a bossy and intriguing girl far too beautiful for after hours inventory.Anticipating every night shift as a chance to be with her, Daniel thinks his traveling days are over hoping that Manhattan is the place to call home. But as his life becomes more entwined with Willard's, Daniel senses unnatural changes and bizarre coincidences both with Mary and the store itself. Soon he begins to suspect Willard's is hiding something more sinister than gossip about ghosts—something that could make him the next casualty of the NIGHT SHIFT.Read it for free on Wattpad at: http://www.wattpad.com/15560537-night....

The Offenders: Saving the World, While Serving Detention!


Jerry Craft - 2013
    But instead of being able to transform into cool super-beings, they take on the characteristics of the kids they bully. Sure their abilities may be at an all-time high, but do they really have what it takes to save their school when their self-esteem is at an all-time low? "The Offenders is the best use of detention since The Breakfast Club - funny, exciting, and the most charming thing I've read in ages. Writing something entertaining is tough, but writing something important is even tougher. Jerry and his boys have made it look easy." - Drew Pearce, writer of Iron Man 3

Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Epic Challenge to the Church


Edward Gilbreath - 2013
    In the twentieth century, compelled by the Spirit of God and a yearning for freedom, the African American church took the lead in heralding the effort. Like almost no other movement before or since, Christian people gave force to a social mission. And, remarkably, they did it largely through nonviolent actions. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words and historic efforts as the Moses of this civil rights movement stand out as perhaps the most significant instance of a modern Christian leader acting in a prophetic role to instigate political change. In many ways The Letter from Birmingham Jail stands at the center of that movement. In this book African American journalist Edward Gilbreath explores the place of that letter in the life and work of Dr. King. Birmingham Revolution is not simply a work of historical reflection. Gilbreath encourages us to reflect on the relevance of King's work for the church and culture of our day. Whether it's in debates about immigration, economic redistribution or presidential birth certificates, race continues to play a role in shaping society. What part will the church play in the ongoing struggle?

Making Neighborhoods Whole: A Handbook for Christian Community Development


Wayne Gordon - 2013
    And so the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) was born, with Wayne Gordon an immediate and enthusiastic participant. Nearly thirty years later CCDA's eight key components of community development still set the bar for how churches, parachurches and nonprofits engage cities with the whole gospel.Relocation Reconciliation Redistribution Leadership Development Listening to the Community Church-Based Development A Wholistic Approach to Ministry Empowerment In Making Neighborhoods Whole Perkins and Gordon revisit these eight commitments and how they've played out in real communities, even as they scan the horizon of urban ministry to set a new tone. With profiles of longstanding and emerging community development ministries, they guide a new conversation and empower disciples of Jesus to seek the welfare of their cities to the glory of God.

Losing It All


Marsha Cornelius - 2013
    A soup kitchen and a makeshift shanty sure beat his days as a POW in Vietnam. But Chloe Roberts can’t handle the eviction that sends her into the hell of homelessness. With no family or friends to turn to, Chloe and her children are sucked into the traumatic world of night shelters, and dangerous predators.When they bump into each other at the soup kitchen, Frank offers Chloe a glimmer of hope that she can pull her life back together. She rekindles his lost sense of self-worth by taking his mind off his own problems. But they will not meet again until Frank is riding high as a working man, and Chloe has hit rock bottom.By helping Chloe rebuild her broken life, Frank banishes the demons from his own past. Unfortunately, the past comes strolling back into their lives, threatening to destroy the happiness they have finally found.

That's That: A Memoir


Colin Broderick - 2013
    Broderick's Catholic family lived in County Tyrone --the heart of rebel country. In That’s That, he brings us into this world and delivers a deeply personal account of what it was like to come of age in the midst of a war that dragged on for over two decades.  We watch as he and his brothers play ball with the neighbor children over a fence for years, but are never allowed to play together because it is forbidden. We see him struggle to understand why young men from his community often just disappear. And we feel his frustration when he is held at gunpoint at various military checkpoints in the North. At the center of his world—and this story—is Colin’s mother. Desperate to protect her children from harm, she has little patience for Colin’s growing need to experience and understand all that is happening around them. Spoken with stern finality, "That's that" became the refrain of Colin's childhood.      The first book to paint a detailed depiction of Northern Ireland's Troubles, That’s That is told in the wry, memorable voice of a man who's finally come to terms with his past.

The Wyoming Heir


Naomi Rawlings - 2013
    Yet when his estranged grandfather dies, leaving him everything, he'll travel to Valley Falls, New York—but only to collect his sister and his inheritance. He won't be roped into saving a floundering girls' school, no matter what mathematics teacher Elizabeth Wells says. Elizabeth has defied social convention and her own family for the sake of her beloved Hayes Academy. Luke is pure rancher, from the tip of his Stetson to the scuff on his boots, yet he's also becoming her unlikely ally. Only he can help save her job and school…but how much will she lose when the time comes for him to leave?

Zombie-Kids Go Green (KiteReaders Monster Series)


Julia Dweck - 2013
    This merry band of recycled friends will teach us all a thing or two about caring for our most important resource, planet earth. Of course, Zombie-Kids do everything in the zaniest, funniest, and most outrageous ways imaginable. There’s lot of belly laughs for everyone.Hold onto your recyclables—Zombie Kids are back!

Bailey Beats the Blah


Karen Tyrrell - 2013
    

Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World


Alexia Salvatierra - 2013
    have largely been built on assumptions that are secular origin--such as reliance on self-interest and having a common enemy as a motivator for change. But what if Christians were to shape their organizing around the implications of the truth that God is real and Jesus is risen? Alexia Salvatierra has developed a model of social action that is rooted in the values and convictions born of faith. Together with theologian Peter Heltzel, this model of faith-rooted organizing offers a path to meaningful social change that takes seriously the command to love God and to love our neighbor as ourself.

The Transgender Studies Reader 1&2 Bundle


Susan Stryker - 2013
    First collected in Routledge's own The Transgender Studies Reader in 2006, the field has moved on, rapidly expanding in many directions. The Transgender Studies Reader 2 gathers these disparate strands of scholarship, and collects them into a format that makes sense for teaching and research. Complimenting the first volume, rather than competing with it, the second volume introduces another 50 articles, with explanatory head notes for each essay, and bibliographic suggestions for further reading.Buy the two volumes together at a discount in this bundle, and enjoy both the historic and modern takes on this rapidly growing, vibrant field.

Rape is Rape: How Denial, Distortion, and Victim Blaming are Fueling a Hidden Acquaintance Rape Crisis


Jody Raphael - 2013
    As author Jody Raphael reveals in Rape Is Rape, the more acquaintance rape is reported and taken seriously by prosecutors, judges, and juries, the louder the clamor of rape denial becomes.Through firsthand interviews with victims, medical and judicial records, social media analysis, and statistics from government agencies, Rape Is Rape exposes the tactics used by the deniers, a group that includes conservatives and right-wing Christians as well as some controversial feminists. The personal stories of young acquaintance rape victims whom Raphael interviewed demonstrate how assaults on their credibility, buttressed by claims of low prevalence, prevent many from holding their rapists accountable, enabling them to rape others with impunity.Rape Is Rape is an exposé of those using rape denial to further their political agendas, and it is a call to action to protect the rights of women and girls, making it safe for victims to come forward, and end the acquaintance rape crisis. A resources section is included for those seeking help, advice, or hoping to get involved.

Hexe


Skadi Winter - 2013
    Growing up under the care of her grandmother, she soon learns that by the end of war, bombs had destroyed countries and people but that it would take much longer to destroy a system of deceit. Like Lemmings, her people had followed false prophets to the edge of the abyss. While she struggles to come to terms with hatred and violence surrounding her, she develops a close and passionate love for her grandmother, an extraordinary and proud woman. At the end, it is her grandmother who nurtures her wounded soul and broken heart by showing and teaching her the ways of ancient heathen wisdom of her people. It is a journey of a young girl's soul-searching for love and understanding to survive a time of violence, hatred, and prejudice to learn that even wars cannot change the eternal rules of crime and retribution.

We Shall Not Be Moved


M.J. O'Brien - 2013
    The image strikes a chord for all who lived through those turbulent times of a changing America. The photograph, which plays a central role in the book's perspectives from frontline participants, caught a moment when the raw virulence of racism crashed against the defiance of visionaries. It now shows up regularly in books, magazines, videos, and museums that endeavor to explain America's largely nonviolent civil rights battles of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Yet for all of the photograph's celebrated qualities, the people in it and the events they inspired have only been sketched in civil rights histories. It is not well known, for instance, that it was this event that sparked to life the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. Sadly, this same sit-in and the protest events it inspired led to the assassination of Medgar Evers, who was leading the charge in Jackson for the NAACP. We Shall Not Be Moved puts the Jackson Woolworth's sit-in into historical context. Part multifaceted biography, part well-researched history, this gripping narrative explores the hearts and minds of those participating in this harrowing sit-in experience. It was a demonstration without precedent in Mississippi--one that set the stage for much that would follow in the changing dynamics of the state's racial politics, particularly in its capital city.

Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy


Gary May - 2013
    Before long, however, white segregationists across the South counterattacked, driving their black countrymen from the polls through a combination of sheer terror and insidious devices such as complex literacy tests and expensive poll taxes. Most African Americans would remain voiceless for nearly a century more, citizens in name only until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act secured their access to the ballot. In Bending Toward Justice, celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succeeded because of the courageous work of local freedom fighters and national civil rights leaders -- as well as, ironically, the opposition of Southern segregationists and law enforcement officials, who won public sympathy for the voting rights movement by brutally attacking peaceful demonstrators. But while the Voting Rights Act represented an unqualified victory over such forces of hate, May explains that its achievements remain in jeopardy. Many argue that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama rendered the act obsolete, yet recent years have seen renewed efforts to curb voting rights and deny minorities the act's hard-won protections. Legal challenges to key sections of the act may soon lead the Supreme Court to declare those protections unconstitutional. A vivid, fast-paced history of this landmark piece of civil rights legislation, Bending Toward Justice offers a dramatic, timely account of the struggle that finally won African Americans the ballot -- although, as May shows, the fight for voting rights is by no means over.

Looks Like Daylight


Deborah Ellis - 2013
    For two years she traveled across the United States and Canada interviewing Native children. The result is a compelling collection of interviews with children aged nine to eighteen. They come from all over the continent, from Iqaluit to Texas, Haida Gwaai to North Carolina, and their stories run the gamut — some heartbreaking; many others full of pride and hope.You’ll meet Tingo, who has spent most of his young life living in foster homes and motels, and is now thriving after becoming involved with a Native Friendship Center; Myleka and Tulane, young artists in Utah; Eagleson, who started drinking at age twelve but now continues his family tradition working as a carver in Seattle; Nena, whose Seminole ancestors remained behind in Florida during the Indian Removals, and who is heading to New Mexico as winner of her local science fair; Isabella, who defines herself more as Native than American; Destiny, with a family history of alcoholism and suicide, who is now a writer and powwow dancer.Many of these children are living with the legacy of the residential schools; many have lived through the cycle of foster care. Many others have found something in their roots that sustains them, have found their place in the arts, the sciences, athletics. Like all kids, they want to find something that engages them; something they love.Deborah briefly introduces each child and then steps back, letting the kids speak directly to the reader, talking about their daily lives, about the things that interest them, and about how being Native has affected who they are and how they see the world.As one reviewer has pointed out, Deborah Ellis gives children a voice that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to express so readily in the mainstream media. The voices in this book are as frank and varied as the children themselves.

Comfort of Fences


Stacy Overman Morrison - 2013
    Ruth knows she has been overprotective, but hoped that she would outlive her special-needs daughter. Metastasized cancer crushes that hope and forces Ruth to find a way to provide for Denise once she is dead. First Ruth turns to Social Security for Disability benefits. After tests, pokes and prods, doctors, nosy psychologists, and ill-furnished waiting rooms, the government declares Denise not eligible for benefits. Mad at the world and daring the government to arrest her so they will have to take care of her since they wouldn't her daughter, Ruth takes up smoking pot in the backyard. A few joints in, Ruth begins to realize her anger is self-directed. She doubts every decision she has ever made in raising her daughter that doctors, in the 1950s, labeled "retarded." Partially to coax her mother from the backyard and partially because Ruth will not speak of the past, Denise asks her mother to write down their history of which Denise has no memory. Trying to atone and explain how she could be so obtuse, Ruth agrees. Telling her story becomes an obsession for Ruth who sees the history as her only chance to leave a place for herself in the world since cancer is steadily eating away her physicality. While Ruth writes, Denise begins to pursue her own independence, despite the minor setbacks of a chopped off fingertip and chemo poisoning. She begins to make choices for herself and finally tells her mother pieces of her own truth: Denise stayed with her mother because she chose to, because she loved her mother more than any life she could make for herself. In claiming her own truth, Denise also chooses silence about the biggest secrets of all. Comfort of Fences explores the messy business of mothering. It is a story about the love between a devoted mother and her special daughter that exposes the irony that the people we love the most can also be the ones we underestimate the greatest.

Brock


Anthony McGowan - 2013
    His mum's gone, his dad's on bail and his brother Kenny needs looking after. It's still dark out when Kenny drags Nicky from his bed, making him a witness to the senseless killing of an innocent animal. The two brothers manage to save something from the horror and it changes them in ways they never expected.

Better Off


Yesenia Vargas - 2013
    After meeting Carlos at a quinceanera party, she wants one. But her parents, who grew up with the traditional ways of Mexico, simply won’t allow it. And she just decided she doesn’t need permission anymore…Ariana is ready for the freedom that comes with having a driver’s license. But she must convince her brother, Jimmy, to not say anything when she starts seeing Carlos behind their parents’ back, and even then, having a boyfriend isn’t what she thought it would be. Because Carlos is still hurting from his past. Is she ready for the consequences of her decision?...Ariana never would have guessed finally having a boyfriend would come at such a huge price. She doesn’t know how long she can keep up the lie to her parents. And she never realized how much her heart might have to pay if this relationship isn’t something Carlos is ready for. When Carlos starts showing her just how damaged he is, Ariana isn’t sure she’s ready for this either. A Young Adult Contemporary Romance Better Off is a full-length high school romance novel of 61,000 words with a not-so-conventional happily ever after. Better Off is a prequel in the Changing Hearts series, and it recounts events that happened prior to book 1, Without You. Better Off can be read before or after book 1. Please note: this book is intended for readers aged 14+ due to some cursing/sexual situations. Previously published as Unbreakable Love

Recall Abortion: Ending the Abortion Industry's Exploitation of Women


Janet Morana - 2013
    Frank Pavone. Abortion harms women. Bad products are recalled every day: the Ford Pinto, faulty tires, dangerous prescription pills, contaminated lettuce. If a product is found to pose even a modest risk to those who use it, you can bet it will soon be pulled from the market. . . . Unless that product is abortion. Every abortion kills an unborn child. But more, abortion harms women risking the health and well-being of those who all too often are conned or coerced into making this terrible choice. If it were any other product, abortion would have been removed from the market long ago. In Recall Abortion , author Janet Morana exposes the myriad ways abortion exploits women, and calls for a national recall of this deadly procedure. She documents the way abortion risks and degrades women's health. And she exposes the false promises and lies by which it is pushed and sold. Morana also investigates abortion's debilitating after-effects, and gives a voice to those women who have chosen abortion and have regretted it. These testimonies (so often silenced by the abortion industry) are a powerful and sometimes heartbreaking glimpse into the real suffering abortion causes, including deep depression and lasting physical and emotional scars. Abortion does not empower women. It is not health care. It harms women, severely. Isn't it time we Recall Abortion?

Creating Room to Read


John Wood - 2013
    In 1999, at the age of thirty-five, Wood quit a lucrative career to found the nonprofit Room to Read. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “the Andrew Carnegie of the developing world,” he strived to bring the lessons of the corporate world to the nonprofit sector—and succeeded spectacularly. In his acclaimed first book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Wood explained his vision and the story of his start-up. Now, he tackles the organization’s next steps and its latest challenges—from managing expansion to raising money in a collapsing economy to publishing books for children who literally have no books in their native language. At its heart, Creating Room to Read shares moving stories of the people Room to Read works to help: impoverished children whose schools and villages have been swept away by war or natural disaster and girls whose educations would otherwise be ignored. People at the highest levels of finance, government, and philanthropy will embrace the opportunity to learn Wood’s inspiring business model and blueprint for doing good. And general readers will love Creating Room to Read for its spellbinding story of one man’s mission to put books within every child’s reach.

Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America


Catherine A. Brekus - 2013
    Remarkably, the memoir she created that year survives today, as do more than two thousand additional pages she composed over the following three decades. Sarah Osborn's World is the first book to mine this remarkable woman’s prolific personal and spiritual record. Catherine Brekus recovers the largely forgotten story of Sarah Osborn's life as one of the most charismatic female religious leaders of her time, while also connecting her captivating story to the rising evangelical movement in eighteenth-century America.A schoolteacher in Rhode Island, a wife, and a mother, Sarah Osborn led a remarkable revival in the 1760s that brought hundreds of people, including many slaves, to her house each week. Her extensive written record—encompassing issues ranging from the desire to be "born again" to a suspicion of capitalism—provides a unique vantage point from which to view the emergence of evangelicalism. Brekus sets Sarah Osborn's experience in the context of her revivalist era and expands our understanding of the birth of the evangelical movement—a movement that transformed Protestantism in the decades before the American Revolution.

The Third Law


Tamra Ryan - 2013
    The Third Law shows us that even as women work to change their lives there are forces pushing back on that change, societal obstacles that must be overcome and internal demons that must be squelched. It explores what is required for chronically unemployed and impoverished women to create new lives for themselves. Most of all, the book argues for a more compassionate view of recovering addicts, convicted felons and victims of domestic abuse. Sometimes, believing in an other person's potential isa ll it takes for lasting change.

Team Charlie


Mark Lages - 2013
    Charlie no longer lives with his wife and children. He's been hearing voices in his head for years, and has been living under the protective care of his elderly father. But suddenly his father dies, and Charlie is catapulted into a journey to fend for himself, an adventure that leads him from one fascinating predicament to the next. You will laugh and cry with Charlie as he tries his best to survive in a topsy-turvy real world. You will be introduced to all Charlie's voices, including an eighteenth century pirate, a beatnik bohemian, and a lovely heartthrob from his younger days. The story entertains but also explores the remarkable power of human delusion. And while the ending is predictable, it also comes as a complete surprise.

Gift of the Raven


Catriona Troth - 2013
    Canada. 1971.Terry always believed his father would return one day and rescue him from his dark and violent childhood. That's what Indian warriors were supposed to do. But he's thirteen now and doesn't believe in anything much. Yet his father is alive. Someone has tracked him down. And Terry is about to come face to face with the truth about his own past and about the real nature of the gift of the raven. [Novella/Coming of Age/ Cultural Heritage]

I dreamt...


Gabriela OlmosChubasco - 2013
    Wars, gangs, guns, crime, bullying, harassment, and fear keep kids from living the full, free lives every child should enjoy. This book was created in Mexico, where for the past six years a vicious war has brought fear and insecurity to many children's lives. Their dreams have become nightmares. Some of Mexico’s best illustrators have donated their art to create a book that gives children a way to talk about their fears, a reason to hope, and the inspiration to resist falling into grief.

Am I Pretty?


Lindsey Jensen Berke - 2013
    She loves to swing from the monkey bars, draw on the sidewalk with chalk, and go on the slides. Today she decides to join the other girls in the sandbox.But one of her classmates tells Julia that unless she is wearing fingernail polish, she can't play with them. After all, only the prettiest girls wear nail polish. Julia is shocked and hurt. Isn't she pretty enough?Her mom has told her, "It is what's in your heart that matters." But Julia wants to be pretty on the inside and outside.Julia decides to ask her mom if she is pretty. What will her mom say?

A Wild Justice: The Death and Resurrection of Capital Punishment in America


Evan Mandery - 2013
    But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme Court struck down Georgia's death penalty law in Furman v. Georgia. Though the decision had sharply divided the justices, nearly everyone, including the justices themselves, believed Furman would mean the end of executions in America. Instead, states responded with a swift and decisive showing of support for capital punishment. As anxiety about crime rose and public approval of the Supreme Court declined, the stage was set in 1976 for Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Court dramatically reversed direction.A Wild Justice is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes look at the Court, the justices, and the political complexities of one of the most racially charged and morally vexing issues of our time.

Triumph Over Tragedy: an Anthology for the Victims of Hurricane Sandy


R.T. KaelinBradley P. Beaulieu - 2013
    It will contain all sorts of stories: fantasy (traditional or urban), sci-fi, mystery, pulp, romance, action…• Robert Silverberg (Hugo and Nebula award winner)• Michael J. Sullivan• Bradley P. Beaulieu• Phillip Athans• Stephen D. Sullivan• Rick Novy• Jean Rabe• Maxwell Alexander Drake• SM Blooding• Erik Scott de Bie• Alex Bledsoe• Timothy Zahn• R.T. Kaelin• Ari Marmell• Tobias Buckell• Bryan Thomas Schmidt• C.J. Henderson• Marian Allen• Marion Zimmer Bradley• Bryan Young• Donald Bingle• Jaym Gates• Janine Spendlove• T.L. Gray• Miya Kressin• Steven Saus• Addie King• Vicki Johnson-Steger• Tracy Chowdhury• Doris Stever• Elisabeth Waters

The Last Hours of Humanity: Warming the World to Extinction


Thom Hartmann - 2013
    

Heaven on Earth: Experiencing the Kingdom of God in the Here and Now


R. Alan Streett - 2013
    Alan Streett exposes half-truths about the kingdom that many believers have unwittingly accepted. He contrasts these with the testimony of Scripture:Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of God on the earth—it has already begun. As ambassadors of the kingdom, we are to fulfill our responsibilities and enjoy its benefits here and now.Salvation does not culminate with the soul escaping the body and living forever in heaven. Our bodies will eventually be transformed, and we will live with God on a restored earth.The church is like an embassy of heaven in a foreign country. In their life together, believers demonstrate kingdom realities to the world.Readers will find hope and direction in this fresh presentation of the historic teaching on the kingdom.

Women in War: The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador


Jocelyn Viterna - 2013
    Why do women become guerrilla insurgents? What experiences do they have in guerrilla armies? And what are thelong-term repercussions of this participation for the women themselves and the societies in which they live?Women in War answers these questions while providing a rare look at guerrilla life from the viewpoint of rank-and-file participants. Using data from 230 in-depth interviews with men and women guerrillas, guerrilla supporters, and non-participants in rural El Salvador, Women in War investigates whysome women were able to channel their wartime actions into post-war gains, and how those patterns differ from the benefits that accrued to men. By accounting for these variations, Women in War helps resolve current, polarized debates about the effects of war on women, and by extension, develops ournascent understanding of the effects of women combatants on warfare, political violence, and gender systems.In the process, Women in War also develops a new model for investigating micro-level mobilization processes that has applications to many movement settings. Micro-level mobilization processes are often ignored in the social movement literature in favor of more macro- and meso-level analyses. Yetindividuals who share the same macro-level context, and who are embedded in the same meso-level networks, often have strikingly different mobilization experiences. Only a portion are ever moved to activism, and those who do mobilize vary according to which paths they follow to mobilization, whatskills and social ties they forge through participation, and whether they continue their political activism after the movement ends. By examining these individual-level variations, a micro-level theory of mobilization can extend the findings of macro- and meso-level analyses, and improve ourunderstanding of how social movements begin, why they endure, and whether they change the societies they target.

Depression and Your Child: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers


Deborah Serani - 2013
    Mental illness in children can be particularly draining due to the mystery surrounding it, and the issue of diagnosis at such a tender age. "Depression and Your Child" gives parents and caregivers a uniquely textured understanding of pediatric depression, its causes, its symptoms, and its treatments. Serani weaves her own personal experiences of being a depressed child along with her clinical experiences as a psychologist treating depressed children. Current research, treatments and trends are presented in easy to understand language and tough subjects like self-harm, suicide and recovery plans are addressed with supportive direction. Parents will learn tips on how to discipline a depressed child, what to expect from traditional treatments like psychotherapy and medication, how to use holistic methods to address depression, how to avoid caregiver burnout, and how to move through the trauma of diagnosis and plan for the future. Real life cases highlight the issues addressed in each chapter and resources and a glossary help to further understanding for those seeking additional information. Parents and caregivers are sure to find here a reassuring approach to childhood depression that highlights the needs of the child even while it emphasizes the need for caregivers to care for themselves and other family members as well.

Stories from a Corfu Childhood: A Selection of His Own Stories Written and Read by Gerald Durrell


Gerald Durrell - 2013
    They were recorded on Jersey in 1985 and are used by kind permission of the Estate of Gerald Durrell.©2012 Crimson Cats Audio Books/Gerald Durrell Estate; (P)2012 Crimson Cats Audio Books

Crow After Roe: How "Separate But Equal" Has Become the New Standard in Women's Health and How We Can Change That


Jessica Mason Pieklo - 2013
    Wade, one of the most divisive rulings ever to shape American politics. In recent years, attempts to overturn Roe v. Wade have reached a fevered pitch. Since 2010 hundreds of bills banning or creating roadblocks to abortion access, contraception, and basic women s health have been proposed across the United States, with nearly one hundred new laws going into effect. The goal is to create a law that will eventually be brought before the most conservative Supreme Court ever to occupy the bench, in order to overturn Roe v. Wade. Crow After Roe: How Separate But Equal Has Become the New Standard In Women's Health And How We Can Change That takes a look at twelve states that since 2010 have each passed a different anti-abortion or anti-women's health law, and how each law is explicitly written to provoke a repeal of Roe v. Wade. The book will detail not just the history of the laws in question, but how they challenge Roe v. Wade and create a reproductive health care system that puts womenespecially poor, rural, or those of colorinto a separate class with fewer choices or control. Robin Marty is RH Reality Check's senior political reporter, focusing primarily on state legislation restricting women s reproductive rights. Her political, women's rights, and reproductive articles have appeared in Ms. magazine, Truthout, AlterNet, and BlogHer. Jessica Mason Pieklo is the assistant director of the Health Law Institute at Hamline Law School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She covers law and politics at Care2.com and RH Reality Check. Her articles have appeared in Ms. magazine, Truthout, and AlterNet."

Fault Lines


Beverly Bell - 2013
    Since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, 2010, that struck the island nation, killing more than a quarter-million people and leaving another two million Haitians homeless, Bell has spent much of her time in Haiti. Her new book, Fault Lines, is a searing account of the first year after the earthquake. Bell explores how strong communities and an age-old gift culture have helped Haitians survive in the wake of an unimaginable disaster, one that only compounded the preexisting social and economic distress of their society. The book examines the history that caused such astronomical destruction. It also draws in theories of resistance and social movements to scrutinize grassroots organizing for a more just and equitable country.Fault Lines offers rich perspectives rarely seen outside Haiti. Readers accompany the author through displaced persons camps, shantytowns, and rural villages, where they get a view that defies the stereotype of Haiti as a lost nation of victims. Street journals impart the author's intimate knowledge of the country, which spans thirty-five years. Fault Lines also combines excerpts of more than one hundred interviews with Haitians, historical and political analysis, and investigative journalism. Fault Lines includes twelve photos from the year following the 2010 earthquake.Bell also investigates and critiques U.S. foreign policy, emergency aid, standard development approaches, the role of nongovernmental organizations, and disaster capitalism. Woven through the text are comparisons to the crisis and cultural resistance in Bell's home city of New Orleans, when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Ultimately a tale of hope, Fault Lines will give readers a new understanding of daily life, structural challenges, and collective dreams in one of the world's most complex countries.

Observation City


Kerry Louise Connelly - 2013
    'Observation City' is one light and enjoyable read.

That's So Gay!: Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community


Kevin L. Nadal - 2013
    Microaggressions are commonplace interactions that occur in a wide variety of social settings, including school or the workplace, among friends and family, and even among other LGBT people. These accumulated experiences are associated with feelings of victimization, suicidal thinking, and higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and other health problems among members of the LGBT community. In this book, Kevin Nadal provides a thought-provoking review of the literature on discrimination and microaggressions toward LGBT people. The generous use of case examples makes the book ideal for gender studies courses and discussion groups. Each case is followed by analysis of the elements involved in microaggressions and discussion questions for the reader to reflect upon.This book includes advice for mental health practitioners, organizational leaders, educators, and students who want to adopt LGBT-accepting worldviews and practices. It has tips for how to discuss and advocate for LGBT issues in the realms of family, community, educational systems, and the government.

Going to Water: The Journal of Beginning Rain


Stan Rushworth - 2013
    She sees into the child's dreams to find that events of the modern era have slipped through time into her mind, so she journeys far into the future to change the human imagination, the human dream, to expand it beyond the limitations imposed by empires and despots and all those afraid to live a life in balance with Nature. She learns to move through centuries, through many places and times, in order to confront the perpetrators of destruction on a grand scale and a small scale both, to dive deeply into their minds and hearts, and to offer them a clear vision of what they are doing and what they have done to all people, and what they will continue to do unless they face themselves honestly and with courage. She succeeds and fails, triumphs and falls, and like all of us, has to come to terms with herself on the deepest levels of reflection possible. No matter what, she must go on, for Agana knows that every moment in time touches every other moment in time, and in this, her mission is for the salvation of all children's dreams of what life can be, across every culture and era. This deeply philosophical novel is an emotional, very current, and powerful journey through our time and the times surrounding us. An Indigenous story, it spans continents and peoples, meeting the famous and the infamous, always bringing us to reflect on our own values and experience in a world struggling to find, and sustain, the beauty that pulses at the heart of all life. It is the journal of a woman with relentless courage, a sharp tongue, a clear mission, and profound love.

Unthinkable: The Shocking Scandal of Britain's Trafficked Children


Kris Hollington - 2013
    Yet many childcare experts reckon these crimes are just the tip of an iceberg of wide scale exploitation occurring across the country. The Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said in June 2012 that there 'isn't a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited'. As this book goes to press, a gang of men similar to those convicted in Rochdale stands trial for similar crimes in Oxford. What is happening in Britain that means young vulnerable girls can be exploited in this way? Award-winning journalist Kris Hollington tells the inside story of some of the most shocking and heartbreaking crimes of recent years, focusing on the Rochdale case but also analysing recent cases in the London area that have echoes of the brutality of organised slavery. His findings expose how the British justice system is failing to protect children in the 21st century. It is a scandal that cannot be ignored.

Australians All


Nadia Wheatley - 2013
    The historical narrative is interspersed with over seventy mini-biographies and childhood accounts, including some well-known Australians such as William Barak, Ethel Turner, Eddie Mabo, and Mark Oliphant as well as many lesser-known Australians. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with a combination of facsimile images including photographs, paintings, and cartoons, as well as new illustrations by Ken Searle, this groundbreaking work will be treasured by young Australians and their families.

Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy


Chris Crass - 2013
    These essays and interviews present powerful lessons for transformative organizing. It offers a firsthand look at the challenges and the opportunities of antiracist work in white communities, feminist work with men, and bringing women of color feminism into the heart of social movements. Drawing on two decades of personal activist experience and case studies within these areas, Crass’s essays insightfully explore ways of transforming divisions of race, class, and gender into catalysts for powerful vision, strategy, and building movements in the United States today. This collection will inspire and empower anyone who is interested in implementing change through organizing.

Blogging the Revolution


Francisco Toro - 2013
    This compilation by its editors, Toro and Nagel, brings together their best work.With Hugo Chávez's passing, Venezuela enters a new era. The time has come to look back on a decade of unprecedented upheavals. From a sharply critical stance, Blogging the Revolution surveys the evolution of both chavismo and the opposition, the disintegration of Venezuela's public sphere, the political economy of the petrostate, and its impact on everyday life in the South American nation.Francisco Toro founded Caracas Chronicles in September, 2002. Born and raised in Caracas, he studied at Reed College (Portland, Oregon) and the London School of Economics. A political scientist by training, his journalistic work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the International Herald Tribune, The New Republic, and the Financial Times, among others. He's currently a consultant based in Montreal, where he lives with his wife and daughter.Juan Cristobal Nagel has co-edited Caracas Chronicles since 2004, and edited the present volume. Born and raised in Maracaibo, he graduated from Caracas' Universidad Católica, and then went to the University of Michigan for graduate work in Economics. His work on Venezuela has appeared in Foreign Policy, Americas Quarterly, Prodavinci, and El Mercurio of Chile, among others. He is currently Professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile, where he lives with his wife and their three daughters. He divides his time between Chile and Venezuela. Earth Edition: A portion from the sales of this title is donated to our planet. http://www.cognitiobooks.com/book.asp...

The Making of Men


Arne Rubinstein - 2013
    For this to happen, it’s vital we understand their world, their challenges, and how our relationship with them must change as they become young men.Using real-life examples, parenting expert Dr Arne Rubinstein clearly explains the risks teenagers face today, including drugs, alcohol, technology and peer group pressure. He then shows how you can equip your son to make safe and sensible choices.Whether you’re a single mum of a happy-go-lucky eight-year old, or the parent of a troubled teen, The Making of Men is a practical, commonsense guide to helping your son transition from a boy to a young man who is motivated and inspired.‘Funny, encouraging, gritty and real.’Steve Biddulph, bestselling author of Manhood and Raising Boys

1 in 3: These Are Our Stories


Advocates for Youth - 2013
    The 1 in 3 Campaign is about ending the cultural stigma and shame women are made to feel around abortion. By sharing stories, we can empower others to end their silence and encourage all supporters of abortion access to publicly take a stand. The 1 in 3 Campaign is a project of Advocates for Youth.

Food Choice and Sustainability: Why Buying Local, Eating Less Meat, and Taking Baby Steps Won't Work


Richard Oppenlander - 2013
    Explanation of this incongruity lies in the fact that sustainability efforts are rarely positioned to include food choice in an accurate or adequate manner. This is due to a number of influencing cultural, social, and political factors that disable our food production systems and limit our base of knowledge—falsely guiding us on a path of pseudo sustainability, while we devastate the ecosystems that support us, cause mass extinctions, and generate narrowing time lines because of our global footprint that will ultimately jeopardize our very survival as a civilization. Dr. Oppenlander’s goal with this book is to increase awareness in order to effect positive change—before it is too late. Food Choice and Sustainbility is a groundbreaking book, and given the urgency and magnitude of the problem, it’s a book that anyone who cares about our future and that of other species should read —individuals, academic institutions, businesses, organizations, and policy makers. Categories of global depletion are detailed, widely held myths are debunked, critical disconnects are exposed, and unique, profound solutions are offered. Food Choice and Sustainability also unveils a new model of multidimensional sustainability for developing countries to eradicate world hunger and poverty as it compels us all to become aware of the enormous effect of our food choices, make necessary changes, and then, inspire others to do the same. As Dr. Oppenlander explains, ""For most people, the word sustainable means “lasting a while” or “enduring” and unfortunately it’s usually customized or molded to fit a momentary need or want—all fairly subjective. For me, sustainability must account for the realities of time, space, relativity, and optimization. The concept of being sustainable must project beyond self to include society and future societies, human and non-human life—both domesticated and wild life. The thought of achieving sustainability must extend through many layers—economic, social, ethical—not just ecological—and ultimately be carried by our choice of foods."

When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health


João Biehl - 2013
    It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach.Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The contributors explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast. When People Come First sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.

Roadmap to Redemption


Rebecca Bender - 2013
    Rebecca Bender was lured into the life of human trafficking at the vulnerable age of 18. Now, rescued and restored, she uses the valuable lessons she's learned to help bring other survivors toward redemption. This ten week workbook is cupped with her personal testimony and injected with scripture. Rebecca uncovers the seductive tactics traffickers use in America today and equips anyone who wants to work with exploited victims. This workbook can be used one on one, privately or in a group setting. Roadmap to Redemption should be in the hands of every victim of trauma and every advocate working in the field! www.rebeccabender.org

Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal


Michael D'Antonio - 2013
    He found a scandal in the making, confirmed by secret files revealing complaints that had been hidden from police and covered up by the Church hierarchy. He also understood that the United States judicial system was eager to punish offenders and those who aided them. He presented all of this to the American bishops, warning that the Church could be devastated by negative publicity and bankrupted by its legal liability. They ignored him.Meanwhile, a young lawyer listened to a new client describe an abusive sexual history with a priest that began when he was ten years old. His parents' complaints were downplayed by Church officials who offered them money to go away. The lawyer saw a claim that any defendant would want to settle. Then he began to suspect he was onto something bigger, involving thousands of priests who had abused countless children while the Church had done almost nothing about it. The lawsuit he filed would touch off a legal war of historic and global proportions.Part history, part journalism, and part true-crime thriller, Michael D'Antonio's Mortal Sins brings to mind landmark books such as All the President's Men, And the Band Played On, and The Informant, as it reveals a long and ferocious battle for the soul of the largest and oldest organization in the world.

What Went Wrong: How the 1% Hijacked the American Middle Class . . . and What Other Countries Got Right


George R. Tyler - 2013
    We’ve been told from the time we were children that we live in the best country in the world, with the most expanding and dynamic economy. We’ve been told that we live in the home of the American Dream, a country that—more than any other—allows people to rise up from poverty into the ranks of the rich. But the truth is average real incomes in the United States have been flat for more than three decades. Economic inequality in the United States is now closer to a third-world country than to our first-world peers, and is growing. Many things have been blamed for these failures—globalization, outsourcing, economic cycles, weakening education, and so on—but the reality is that the failure of our economy stems directly from a set of political and economic choices voters have made since the early 1980s.Proof of this is embodied in several countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden—that practice "family capitalism,” a variation of free-market capitalism that emphasizes corporate productivity and growth in family incomes. These countries, facing even harsher challenges than the United States, have achieved dramatically better results: growing wages, higher productivity, higher incomes, and lower inequality.This isn’t about the size of government or social welfare programs. And it isn’t about left versus right—prudent Australia, for example, had a right-wing government for many years and is ranked by the Heritage Foundation as far more free than the United States. It’s about policies on wages and corporate governance that have converted globalization to nationwide family prosperity and have been proven over decades to generate superior results. It’s about crafting an economy that creates wealth for all, not just for a few. It’s about returning to a set of policies that once made the United States the most dynamic and fair economy on the planet.What Went Wrong is a fact-based analysis of how America got on the wrong track and what we can do to return our nation to greatness. It is the most optimistic book about economics you will ever read.

Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition


Ayesha S. Chaudhry - 2013
    Especially contentious is passage 4:34, which covers the legitimacy of marital violence and the subjugation of women within Islam. Scholarly opinion on the topic is heavily influenced by contemporary context, so the issue remains largely unsettled. While pre-colonial Islamic jurists permitted the use of violence against women, they still held ethical concerns about the disciplinary privileges of husbands. Consequently, the debate for these early scholars was focussed on the level of violence permitted, and how to apply the three disciplinary steps: admonishment, abandonment, and physical abuse.Ayesha Chaudhry argues that all living religious traditions are rooted in a patriarchal, social, and historical context, and they need ways to reconcile gender egalitarian values with religious tradition. Post-colonial, modern Islamic scholars that consult the Qur'an for gender-egalitarian interpretations must confront a difficult and unique debate: equality vs authority. As in many religions, authority is derived from tradition, rebelling from which results in a loss of authority in the eyes of the community.Chaudhry reveals that Muslims do not speak with one voice about Islam. Instead, Muslim scholarly discourse is spirited and diverse. The voices of contemporary Muslim scholars enrich the scope of the 'Islamic tradition'.Many recent works on Islam strive to promote a 'public relations' image of Islam. This book deals with ethical problems of domestic violence as discussed in historic and contemporary Islamic religious doctrine. The stakes are high, and very real. The author confronts the significant issue of how modern Muslims can relate to Islamic tradition and the Qur'anic text.

Loves God, Likes Girls: A Memoir


Sally Gary - 2013
    "LOVES GOD, LIKES GIRLS--A MEMOIR" is one woman's recollection of her journey, allowing faith to plunge her into deeper discovery of the truth about her sexuality.

Do Funerals Matter?: The Purposes and Practices of Death Rituals in Global Perspective


William G. Hoy - 2013
    Death educators, researchers, counselors, clergy, funeral-service professionals, and others will appreciate the book's theory- and research-based approach to the ways in which different cultural groups memorialize their dead. They will also find clear clinical and practical applications in the author's exploration of the five ritual anchors of death-related ceremonial practice and help for professionals counseling the bereaved surrounding funerals. Based on nearly three decades of research and teaching on funeral rites, this volume promises to fill an important gap in the cross-cultural literature on bereavement, while answering an important question for our generation: Do funerals matter?

The Wall: Rebuilding a culture of life in America and ending abortion as we know it


Kirk Walden - 2013
    Though we've experienced a generation of tragedy following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, The Wall reminds us that it is often when hope seems lost that God orchestrates extraordinary victory through ordinary people. In addition, The Wall shows that surprisingly, today is the perfect time for creating a new culture of life in America. Get ready to be inspired; and be prepared to take your place building The Wall.

The Consequences of Forever


Kaitlyn Oruska - 2013
    Then again, meeting Adam Montgomery on a cool summer night wasn’t either.Faced with the hardest decision of her life, Lainey chooses Adam and their baby. But motherhood in high school isn’t something that can ever be handled with ease and Adam’s promises of forever only do so much to help. With summer long behind them and an uncertain future looming ahead of them, will Lainey and Adam figure out how to make it work?'The Consequences of Forever' is a story about first love, friendship and the meaning of family.

The Awakening of Latin America: A Classic Anthology of Che Guevara's Writing on Latin America


Ernesto Che Guevara - 2013
    This classic anthology on Latin America shows the Argentine-born revolutionary s cultural depth, rigorous intellect and intense emotional engagement with a continent and its people.Selected from his family s personal archives, this book offers the best of Che s writing: examples of his journalism, essays, speeches, letters and even his poetry, revealing the evolution of an extraordinary mind from that of an impressionable young medical student to the heroic guerrilla, brutally assassinated in Bolivia. This anthology of Che Guevara's writing on Latin America is destined to become an instant classic comparable to Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. I consider my country to be not only Argentina but the entire Americas. Ernesto Che Guevara"

The Road to Afghanistan


Linda Granfield - 2013
    Coupled with striking and evocative images of Afghanistan and other lands where Canadian soldiers have served through the years, this story honours those who have put their own lives on the line in a country far from home.

Fortify A Step Toward Recovery


Fight the New Drug - 2013
    With easy access to the most extreme pornographic material at the tip of our fingers, we are facing something our parents never did. In the palm of our hand we can be exposed to images, messages, and ideas that cripple our potential and distort our very nature. FORTIFY was specifically designed to help young people facing an addiction to pornography eventually reach long-lasting freedom. In this book you will find the tools, education, and resources necessary to help you or someone you love overcome this addiction.

Hounded by God: A Gay Man's Journey to Self-Acceptance, Love, and Relationship


Joseph Gentilini - 2013
    Born in 1948, he grew up in the '50s, '60s, and '70s when homosexuality was considered either a mental illness or a major sin. In 1968, he had his first homosexual experience. Feeling shame and trying to repress his feelings, he spent over six years in therapy. Raised a strict Roman Catholic, Joseph confessed his many "sins" to a priest and attended Mass daily. He felt hopeless in accepting his homosexuality and living happily as a gay man, repeating nightly, "If it gets too bad, I can always kill myself." By 1974, he knew that therapy was not changing his sexual orientation and felt desperate. Joseph experienced God as hounding him to accept his gay identity and to believe that God loves him as he is. His autobiographical journal reveals his gradual awakening to live his vocation, not only as a gay man in relationship with his partner and with God, but also as someone willing to share his journey with those who struggle with their homosexuality and their faith. St. Augustine put it beautifully into words: "You made us for yourself, Oh Lord, and our hearts will never rest until they rest in you." Most of us go through life covering over that yearning at the heart of every human, distracting ourselves with the desires of this world. Not so, Joseph Gentilini. God gave Joseph an extraordinary awareness of that call to union with God. In his autobiographical journal, Joe spells out his painful journey as an active gay man, from revolt against that voice of God to final acceptance with God's grace of his gay identity given to him by God-a remarkable journey which brings hope to all of us that God's call to union is to the authentic self. God dwells within us, and the only way to union with that God is through the authentic self! John McNeill, former Jesuit priest and author of The Church and the Homosexual; Taking a Chance on God; Freedom, Glorious Freedom; and My Spiritual Journey: Both Feet Planted in Midair

Human Trafficking Around the World: Hidden in Plain Sight


Stephanie Hepburn - 2013
    Combining statistical data with intimate accounts and interviews, journalist Stephanie Hepburn and justice scholar Rita J. Simon create a dynamic volume sure to educate and spur action.Hepburn and Simon recount the lives of victims during and after their experience with trafficking, and they follow the activities of traffickers before capture and their outcomes after sentencing. Each chapter centers on the trafficking practices and anti-trafficking measures of a single country: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Niger, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Syria, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examining these nations' laws, Hepburn and Simon reveal gaps in legislation and enforcement and outline the cultural norms and biases, societal assumptions, and conflicting policies that make trafficking scenarios so pervasive and resilient. This study points out those most vulnerable in each nation and the specific cultural, economic, environmental, and geopolitical factors that contribute to each nation's trafficking issues. Furthermore, the study also highlights common phenomena that governments and international anti-traffickers should consider in their fight against this illicit trade.

Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis


Lua Gregory - 2013
    Jacobs, Cushla Kapitzke, Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier, and Maura Seale. Chapters address the democratizing values implicit in librarianship's professional ethics, such as intellectual freedom, social responsibility, and democracy, in relation to the sociopolitical context of information literacy. Contributors, ranging from practicing librarians to scholars of related disciplines, demonstrate how they construct intentional connections between theoretical perspectives and professional advocacy to curriculum and pedagogy. The book contributes to professional discourse on libraries in their social context, through a re-activation of the library neutrality debate, as well as through an investigation of what it means for a global citizen to be information literate in late capitalism.The violence of information literacy : neoliberalism and the human as capital / Nathaniel F. Enright --The neoliberal library / Maura Seale --You've got to know and know properly : citizenship in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never let me go and the aims of information literacy instruction / Jeff Lilburn --From "A crusade against ignorance" to a "Crisis of authenticity" : curating information for a participatory democracy / Andrew Battista --Critical information literacy in the college classroom : exploring scholarly knowledge production through the digital humanities / Andrea Baer --The tyranny of tradition : how information paradigms limit librarians' teaching and student scholarship / Carrie Donovan and Sara O'Donnell --The three-credit solution : social justice in an information literacy course / Anne Leonard and Maura A. Smale --Hip-hop and information literacy : critically incorporating hip-hop in information literacy instruction / Dave Ellenwood --Forces of oppression in the information landscape : free speech and censorship in the United States / Lua Gregory and Shana Higgins --Critical legal information literacy : legal information as a social construct / Yasmin Sokkar Harker --Information power to the people : students and librarians dialoguing about power, social justice, and information / Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh --Information literacy and service-learning : creating powerful synergies / Christopher A. Sweet --The public academic library : friction in the teflon funnel / Patti Ryan and Lisa Sloniowski

Breaking the Silence


A.L. Daniels - 2013
    She nearly gave up hope when the justice system refused to protect her daughter and was exhausted at the long, drawn-out trial that seemed to go nowhere. Years later she is finally able to put the past behind her and becomes an advocate for those still living in silence. Taking the stage at the End Violence Against Women Conference, Kate tells the audience how she lived through the worst years of her life, and offers hope to victims still living with their secret.

A Refuge of Lies: Reflections on Faith and Fiction


Cesareo Bandera - 2013
    The book brought into focus the fundamental difference that exists between the two basic approaches to the textual representation of reality in Western culture. These two “styles,” as Auerbach called them, were archetypically displayed in Homer’s poems and in the Old Testament, respectively. Auerbach’s differentiation is the starting point for Bandera’s insightful work, which expands and develops on this theory in several key ways. One of the more significant differences between the two styles transcends and grounds all the others. It concerns the truth of each of the two archetypal texts, or rather, the attitude exhibited in those texts with regard to the truth of what they narrate. Auerbach, Bandera notes, is amazed at the Bible’s “passionate” concern for the truth of what it says—a concern he found absent in Homer. Bandera finds that what the prophet Isaiah called “a refuge of lies” defines Homer’s work. He draws on his own research and René Girard’s theory of the sacred to develop an enhanced perspective of the relationship between these texts.

Paul Robeson: A Life of Activism and Art


Lindsey R. Swindall - 2013
    Swindall's knack for thorough, detailed research and reflection. Paul Robeson was, at points in his life, an actor, singer, football player, political activist and writer, one of the most diversely talented members of the Harlem Renaissance. Swindall centers Robeson's story around the argument that while Robeson leaned toward Socialism, a Pan-African perspective is fundamental to understanding his life as an artist and political advocate. Many previous works on Robeson have focused primarily on his involvement with the US Communist Party, paying little attention to the broader African influences on his politics and art. With each chapter focused on a decade of his life, this book affords us a fresh look at his story, and the ways in which the struggles, successes and studies of his formative years came to shape him as an artist, activist and man later on. Robeson's story is one not simply of politics and protest, but of a man's lifelong evolution from an athlete to an entertainer to an indispensible man of letters and African American thought. Swindall neatly outlines the events of Robeson's life in a way that freshly presents him as a man whose work was influenced by more than just his circumstances, but by a spirit rooted in dedication to the African's place in American art and politics.