Best of
Social-Issues

2015

Who Will Hear Me When I Cry (Tucker, #5)


David Johnson - 2015
    He provides the majority of care for his younger siblings and for his mother who is sick with cancer. His stepfather stays gone for days and weeks on drinking binges, only to come home to take out his anger and frustration on his family. This family’s nomadic life brings them to the house that Ella used to live in beside Tucker. Tucker sets her sites on the evil stepfather, while April, who has returned home with her own complications to live with Tucker, identifies with Benjamin’s struggles with being teased and bullied and decides she can help save him from self-destructing.This is a story of simple people engaged in heroic acts, the kinds of acts that change people’s lives.

War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony


Nelson A. Denis - 2015
    Violence swept through the island: assassins were sent to kill President Harry Truman, gunfights roared in eight towns, police stations and post offices were burned down. In order to suppress this uprising, the US Army deployed thousands of troops and bombarded two towns, marking the first time in history that the US government bombed its own citizens.Nelson A. Denis tells this powerful story through the controversial life of Pedro Albizu Campos, who served as the president of the Nationalist Party. A lawyer, chemical engineer, and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from Harvard Law School, Albizu Campos was imprisoned for twenty-five years and died under mysterious circumstances. By tracing his life and death, Denis shows how the journey of Albizu Campos is part of a larger story of Puerto Rico and US colonialism.Through oral histories, personal interviews, eyewitness accounts, congressional testimony, and recently declassified FBI files, War Against All Puerto Ricans tells the story of a forgotten revolution and its context in Puerto Rico's history, from the US invasion in 1898 to the modern-day struggle for self-determination. Denis provides an unflinching account of the gunfights, prison riots, political intrigue, FBI and CIA covert activity, and mass hysteria that accompanied this tumultuous period in Puerto Rican history.

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle


Angela Y. Davis - 2015
    Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."

All American Boys


Jason Reynolds - 2015
    Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.And that’s how it started.And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.Cuz that’s how it can end.

The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail


Jason De León - 2015
    The Land of Open Graves reveals the suffering and deaths that occur daily in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona as thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.Drawing on the four major fields of anthropology, De León uses an innovative combination of ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and forensic science to produce a scathing critique of “Prevention through Deterrence,” the federal border enforcement policy that encourages migrants to cross in areas characterized by extreme environmental conditions and high risk of death. For two decades, this policy has failed to deter border crossers while successfully turning the rugged terrain of southern Arizona into a killing field.In harrowing detail, De León chronicles the journeys of people who have made dozens of attempts to cross the border and uncovers the stories of the objects and bodies left behind in the desert.The Land of Open Graves will spark debate and controversy.

Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America


Ari Berman - 2015
    The act enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. And yet, fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power, with lawmakers devising new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth and with the Supreme Court declaring a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.Berman brings the struggle over voting rights to life through meticulous archival research, in-depth interviews with major figures in the debate, and incisive on-the-ground reporting. In vivid prose, he takes the reader from the demonstrations of the civil rights era to the halls of Congress to the chambers of the Supreme Court. At this important moment in history, Give Us the Ballot provides new insight into one of the most vital political and civil rights issues of our time.A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, NonfictionA New York Times Notable Book of 2015A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015A Boston Globe Best Book of 2015A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2015An NPR Best Book of 2015Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. Give Us the Ballot tells this story for the first time.

Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race–And Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us


Benjamin Watson - 2015
    In a country aflame with the fallout from the racial divide–in which Ferguson, Charleston, and the Confederate flag dominate the national news, daily seeming to rip the wounds open ever wider–is there hope for honest and healing conversation? For finally coming to understand each other on issues that are ultimately about so much more than black and white? An NFL tight end for the New Orleans Saints and a widely read and followed commentator on social media, Watson has taken the Internet by storm with his remarkable insights about some of the most sensitive and charged topics of our day. Now, in "Under Our Skin, " Watson draws from his own life, his family legacy, and his role as a husband and father to sensitively examine both sides of the race debate and appeal to the power and possibility of faith as a step toward healing.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic


Sam Quinones - 2015
    Communities where heroin had never been seen before—from Charlotte, NC and Huntington, WVA, to Salt Lake City and Portland, OR—were overrun with it. Local police and residents were stunned. How could heroin, long considered a drug found only in the dense, urban environments along the East Coast, and trafficked into the United States by enormous Colombian drug cartels, be so incredibly ubiquitous in the American heartland? Who was bringing it here, and perhaps more importantly, why were so many townspeople suddenly eager for the comparatively cheap high it offered?With the same dramatic drive of El Narco and Methland, Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of American capitalism: The stories of young men in Mexico, independent of the drug cartels, in search of their own American Dream via the fast and enormous profits of trafficking cheap black-tar heroin to America’s rural and suburban addicts; and that of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut, determined to corner the market on pain with its new and expensive miracle drug, Oxycontin; extremely addictive in its own right. Quinones illuminates just how these two stories fit together as cause and effect: hooked on costly Oxycontin, American addicts were lured to much cheaper black tar heroin and its powerful and dangerous long-lasting high. Embroiled alongside the suppliers and buyers are DEA agents, local, small-town sheriffs, and the US attorney from eastern Virginia whose case against Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin made him an enemy of the Bush-era Justice Department, ultimately stalling and destroying his career in public service.Dreamland is a scathing and incendiary account of drug culture and addiction spreading to every part of the American landscape.

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ


Rosaria Champagne Butterfield - 2015
    They are the stuff of news headlines and vitriolic social media posts. But they also reflect stirrings of the heart in real people with real questions and concerns.Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, once a leftist professor in a committed lesbian relationship and now a confessional Christian, but always the thoughtful and compassionate professor, has written a followup to The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. This book answers many of the questions people pose when she speaks at universities and churches, questions not only about her unlikely conversion to Christ but about personal struggles that the ques­tioners only dare to ask someone else who has traveled a long and painful journey.Dr. Butterfield not only goes to great lengths to clarify some of today's key controversies, she also traces their history and defines the terms that have become second nature today - even going back to God's original design for marriage and sexuality as found in the Bible. She cuts to the heart of the problems and points the way to the solution, which includes a challenge to the church to be all that God intended it to be, and for each person to find the true freedom that is found in Christ.Chapters include:Conversion: the Spark of a New IdentityIdentity: the Flame of Our Union in ChristRepentance: the Threshold to God and the Answer to Shame, Temptation, and SinSexual Orientation: Freud’s 19th Century Category MistakeSelf-Representation: What Does It Mean to Be “gay”?Conflict: When Sisters DisagreeCommunity: Representing Christ to the World

The Making of Asian America: A History


Erika Lee - 2015
    But as award-winning historian Erika Lee reminds us, Asian Americans also have deep roots in the country. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present-day.An epic history of global journeys and new beginnings, this book shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life in the United States: sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500s; indentured “coolies” who worked alongside African slaves in the Caribbean; and Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and South Asian immigrants who were recruited to work in the United States only to face massive racial discrimination, Asian exclusion laws, and for Japanese Americans, incarceration during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a “despised minority,” Asian Americans are now held up as America’s “model minorities” in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States.Published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the United States’ Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that has remade our “nation of immigrants,” this is a new and definitive history of Asian Americans. But more than that, it is a new way of understanding America itself, its complicated histories of race and immigration, and its place in the world today.

What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?


Kevin DeYoung - 2015
    In this timely book, award-winning author Kevin DeYoung challenges each of us—the skeptic and the seeker, the certain and the confused—to take a humble look at God's Word regarding the issue of homosexuality.After examining key biblical passages in both the Old and New Testaments and the Bible's overarching teaching regarding sexuality, DeYoung responds to popular objections raised by Christians and non-Christians alike, making this an indispensable resource for thinking through one of the most pressing issues of our day.

People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue


Preston Sprinkle - 2015
    In People to Be Loved, Preston Sprinkle challenges those on all sides of the debate to consider what the Bible says and how we should approach the topic of homosexuality in light of it.In a manner that appeals to a scholarly and lay-audience alike, Preston takes on difficult questions such as how should the church treat people struggling with same-sex attraction? Is same-sex attraction a product of biological or societal factors or both? How should the church think about larger cultural issues, such as gay marriage, gay pride, and whether intolerance over LGBT amounts to racism? How (or if) Christians should do business with LGBT persons and supportive companies?Simply saying that the Bible condemns homosexuality is not accurate, nor is it enough to end the debate. Those holding a traditional view still struggle to reconcile the Bible’s prohibition of same-sex attraction with the message of radical, unconditional grace. This book meets that need.

Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel


Russell D. Moore - 2015
    That may be bad news for America, but it can be good news for the church. What's needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.   We seek the kingdom of God, before everything else. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonize opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let's do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.   The signs of the times tell us we are in for days our parents and grandparents never knew. But that's no call for panic or surrender or outrage. Jesus is alive. Let's act like it. Let's follow him, onward to the future.

Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call


Arthur Manuel - 2015
    Unsettling Canada chronicles the modern struggle for Indigenous rights covering fifty years of struggle over a wide range of historical, national, and recent international breakthroughs. Arthur Manuel has participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues since its inception in 2002. Since 2003, he has served as spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade (INET). Working through INET, Manuel succeeded in having the struggle for Aboriginal title and treaty rights injected into international financial institutions, setting important precedents for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada. Manuel is a spokesperson for the Defenders of the Land. Author of the book's Afterword, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson has been elected chief of his Westbank First Nation six times and is one of the most successful First Nations business people in Canada. He was made a Grand Chief by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in recognition of a lifetime of political and economic leadership. Naomi Klein provides the Foreword. The volume has the occasional black and white photograph, references, and an index. This is an important contribution to the current literature about First Nations' perspectives on their roles in the political and sovereignty movements across Canada from the 1950s, the White Paper, the Red Paper, Constitution Express, Oka, RCAP, Delgamuukw, Sun Peaks, international lobbying, the Fourth World, and Idle No More. An important call to action for all Canadians from a respected First Nation leader and activist.

American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic


John Temple - 2015
    From a fortress-like former bank building, American Pain's doctors distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to hundreds of customers a day, mostly traffickers and addicts who came by the vanload. Inked muscle-heads ran the clinic's security. Former strippers operated the pharmacy, counting out pills and stashing cash in garbage bags. Under their lab coats, the doctors carried guns and it was all legal sort of. American Pain was the brainchild of Chris George, a 27-year-old convicted drug felon. The son of a South Florida home builder, Chris George grew up in ultra-rich Wellington, where Bill Gates, Springsteen, and Madonna kept houses. Thick-necked from weightlifting, he and his twin brother hung out with mobsters, invested in strip clubs, brawled with cops, and grinned for their mug shots. After the housing market stalled, a local doctor clued in the brothers to the burgeoning underground market for lightly regulated prescription painkillers. In Florida, pain clinics could dispense the meds, and no one tracked the patients. Seizing the opportunity, Chris George teamed up with the doctor, and word got out. Just two years later Chris had raked in $40 million, and 90 percent of the pills his doctors prescribed flowed north to feed the rest of the country's insatiable narcotics addiction. Meanwhile, hundreds more pain clinics in the mold of American Pain had popped up in the Sunshine State, creating a gigantic new drug industry. American Pain chronicles the rise and fall of this game-changing pill mill, and how it helped tip the nation into its current opioid crisis, the deadliest drug epidemic in American history. The narrative swings back and forth between Florida and Kentucky, and is populated by a gaudy and diverse cast of characters. This includes the incongruous band of wealthy bad boys, thugs and esteemed physicians who built American Pain, as well as penniless Kentucky clans who transformed themselves into painkiller trafficking rings. It includes addicts whose lives were devastated by American Pain's drugs, and the federal agents and grieving mothers who labored for years to bring the clinic's crew to justice."

We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong


R. Albert Mohler Jr. - 2015
    Now, access to same-sex marriage is increasingly seen as a basic human right. In a matter of less than a generation, western cultures have experienced a moral revolution.Dr. R. Albert Mohler examines how this transformation occurred, revealing the underlying cultural shifts behind this revolution: the acceptance of divorce culture, liberation of sex from reproduction, the prevalence of heterosexual cohabitation, the normalization of homosexuality, and the rise of the transgender movement. He then offers a deep look at how the Bible and Christian moral tradition provide a comprehensive understanding upon which Christians can build their personal lives, their marriages, church ministry, and cultural engagement.Dr. Mohler helps Christians in their understanding of the underlying issues of this significant cultural shift and how to face the challenge of believing faithfully, living faithfully, and engaging the culture faithfully in light of this massive change.

Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction


Caleb Kaltenbach - 2015
    As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: A Novel by Mitch Albom | Summary & Analysis


Instaread Summaries - 2015
    Frankie’s life story is told from the perspective of music, a fictional narrator. This is fitting, given that Frankie was one of the world’s greatest guitarists.The story, however, begins at its end: Frankie has died during a music festival. During a performance, his body levitates and then drops to the stage. The novel opens at Frankie’s funeral, where music-industry figures—including nonfictional musicians such as Lyle Lovett and Ingrid Michaelson—have gathered to pay their respects and share their thoughts about the deceased guitarist. Music, the narrator, uses the opportunity of the funeral to reflect on Frankie’s life…  PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.    Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto:  • Summary of book • Introduction to the Important People in the book • Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style  About the Author With Instaread, you can get the summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.

Accused: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and the Strength to Forgive


Tonya Craft - 2015
    Tonya Craft, a Georgia kindergarten teacher and loving mother of two, was, in May 2008, accused falsely of child molestation which turned her world upside down. The trial that followed dragged her reputation through the mud and lent nationwide notoriety to her nameTonya’s life spiraled into a nightmare in which she was deemed guilty before her innocence could be determined by a jury. Her children were taken away without even a goodbye, and her own daughter was forced to take the stand against her in a courtroom. Over the course of two years, Tonya rallied to take charge of her own defense, flying across the country and knocking on doors on a desperate quest for answers, and defying her own lawyers on more than one occasion. Tonya’s goal was not only to avoid conviction; it was to clear her name, and, most of all, regain custody of her children.Accused is about more than Tonya’s shocking trial and fight for justice. It is the story of a mother’s extraordinary love, the faith that sees her through it all, and the forgiveness that sets her free.

Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides


Scott Sauls - 2015
    Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward--away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.

The Plausibility Problem


Ed Shaw - 2015
    But is it realistic? Isn't it unrealistic and unfair to those who struggle with this issue? Doesn't it condemn them to loneliness, a lack of fulfilment and the loss of basic human satisfactions like sex and marriage? Is what the church teaches a plausible way of life?Ed Shaw experiences same-sex attraction, and yet he is committed to what the Bible says and what the church has always taught about marriage and sex. In this honest book, he shares his pain in dealing with these issues - but, at the same time, shows us that obedience to Jesus is ultimately the only way to experience life to the full.He shows that the Bible's teaching seems unreasonable not because of its difficulties, but because of missteps that the church has often taken in its understanding of the Christian life. We have been shaped by the world around us, and urgently need to re-examine the values that drive our discipleship. Only by doing this in the light of the Bible, can we make sense of its call on the lives of those who are attracted to their own sex.We have so often made Jesus' way sound like a bad deal. Only by reclaiming the reality of gospel discipleship, can we truly see and appreciate that life in Christ is the best way for any human life to be lived - whomever we are attracted to

Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future


Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada - 2015
    This report, the summary volume, includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy.This report lays bare a part of Canada's history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission discusses the logic of the colonization of Canada's territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to end the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples.Using brief excerpts from the powerful testimony heard from Survivors, this report documents the residential school system which forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been studying, and subjected to emotional, psychological and often physical abuse. In this setting, cruel punishments were all too common, as was sexual abuse.More than 30,000 Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy of this experience is ongoing today. This report explains the links to high rates of Aboriginal children being taken from their families, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and high rates of suicide. The report documents the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive cultures, traditions, and governance.The report offers 94 calls to action on the part of governments, churches, public institutions and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to meaningful reconciliation of Canada today with Aboriginal citizens. Even though the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities, the United Nation's declaration of the rights of aboriginal peoples and the specific recommendations of the Commission offer a path to move from apology for these events to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.

The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America


Tamara Winfrey Harris - 2015
    In the '60s, the Matriarch, the willfully unmarried baby machine leeching off the state, joined them. These stereotypes persist to this day through newspaper headlines, Sunday sermons, social media memes, cable punditry, government policies, and hit song lyrics. Emancipation may have happened more than 150 years ago, but America still won't let a sister be free from this coven of caricatures.Tamara Winfrey Harris delves into marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality, beauty, and more, taking sharp aim at pervasive stereotypes about black women. She counters warped prejudices with the straight-up truth about being a black woman in America. "We have facets like diamonds," she writes. "The trouble is the people who refuse to see us sparkling."

Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt


Chris Hedges - 2015
    We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges—who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class—investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as “sublime madness” — the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this “sublime madness.”From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.

Paper Things


Jennifer Richard Jacobson - 2015
    There’s just one problem—Gage doesn’t actually have a place to live.When Ari’s mother died four years ago, she had two final wishes: that Ari and her older brother, Gage, would stay together always, and that Ari would go to Carter, the middle school for gifted students. So when nineteen-year-old Gage decides he can no longer live with their bossy guardian, Janna, Ari knows she has to go with him. But it’s been two months, and Gage still hasn’t found them an apartment. He and Ari have been "couch surfing," staying with Gage’s friend in a tiny apartment, crashing with Gage’s girlfriend and two roommates, and if necessary, sneaking into a juvenile shelter to escape the cold Maine nights. But all of this jumping around makes it hard for Ari to keep up with her schoolwork, never mind her friendships, and getting into Carter starts to seem impossible. Will Ari be forced to break one of her promises to Mama? Told in an open, authentic voice, this nuanced story of hiding in plain sight may have readers thinking about homelessness in a whole new way.

The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America


D. Watkins - 2015
    And then seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by a wannabe cop in Florida; and then eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and then Baltimore blew up; and then gunfire shattered a prayer meeting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Suddenly the entire country awakened to a stark fact: African Americans—particularly young black men—are an endangered species.Now the country’s urban war zone is brought powerfully to life by a rising young literary talent, D. Watkins. The author fought his way up on the east side (the “beast side”) of Baltimore, Maryland—or “Bodymore, Murderland,” as his friends call it—surviving murderous business rivals in the drug trade and equally predatory lawmen. Throughout it all, he pursued his education, earning a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, while staying rooted in his community.When black residents of Baltimore finally decided they had had enough—after the brutal killing of twenty-five-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody—Watkins was on the streets when the city erupted. He writes about his bleeding hometown with the razor-sharp insights of someone who bleeds along with it. Here are true dispatches from the other side of America.

My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts


Laura T. Coffey - 2015
    Coffey’s TODAY show website story about photographer Lori Fusaro’s work with senior shelter pets. While generally calm, easy, and already house-trained, these animals often represent the highest-risk population at shelters. With gorgeous, joyful photographs and sweet, funny, true tales of “old dogs learning new tricks,” Coffey and Fusaro show that adopting a senior can be even more rewarding than choosing a younger dog. You’ll meet endearing elders like Marnie, the irresistible shih tzu who has posed for selfies with Tina Fey, James Franco, and Betty White; Remy, a soulful nine-year-old dog adopted by elderly nuns; George Clooney’s cocker spaniel, Einstein; Susie, the funny little senior dog who got adopted by "Humans of New York" creator Brandon Stanton and "Susie's Senior Dogs" founder Erin Stanton; and Bretagne, the last known surviving search dog from Ground Zero. They may be slower moving and a tad less exuberant than puppies, but these pooches prove that adopting a senior brings immeasurable joy, earnest devotion, and unconditional love.

Cherringham: A Cosy Crime Series Compilation (Cherringham, #10-12)


Matthew Costello - 2015
    Sarah's a Web designer who's moved back to the village find herself. But their lives are anything but quiet as the two team up to solve Cherringham's criminal mysteries. -- This compilation contains episodes 10 - 12: A DEADLY CONFESSION, BLADE IN THE WATER and DEATH ON A SUMMER NIGHT. Here local priest Father Byrne meets his unexpected demise. Jack and Sarah investigate - who could harm the beloved Father? And what secrets did he take to the grave? The Cherringham Regatta is shaken when vandalism of boots turns into bloody murder. And when a murder suspect is freed from prison after 25 years, it's apparent someone in Cherringham wants him to continue serving his sentence - to death. But Jack and Sarah start to question ... did he commit the crime in the first place? -- Cherringham is a serial novel à la Charles Dickens, with a new mystery thriller released each month. Set in the sleepy English village of Cherringham, the detective series brings together an unlikely sleuthing duo: English web designer Sarah and American ex-cop Jack. Thrilling and deadly - but with a spot of tea - it's like Rosamunde Pilcher meets Inspector Barnaby. Each of the self-contained episodes is a quick read for the morning commute, while waiting for the doctor, or when curling up with a hot cuppa. -- For fans of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series, Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who series, Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders, and the American TV series Murder She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury. -- Co-authors Neil Richards (based in the UK) and Matthew Costello (based in the US), are known for their script work on major computer games. The Cherringham crime series is their first fictional transatlantic collaboration.

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret


Keegan Kuhn - 2015
    This companion to the documentary Cowspiracy explores the impacts of the most environmentally destructive industry on the planet: animal agriculture. The award-winning documentary Cowspiracy presents alarming truths about the effects of animal agriculture on the planet. One of the leading causes of deforestation, greenhouse gas production, water use, species extinction, ocean dead-zones, and a host of other ills, animal agriculture is a major threat to the future of all species, and one of the environmental industry’s best-kept secrets. The Sustainability Secret expands upon Cowspiracy in every way. Journey with authors Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn as they discover one shocking statistic after another and interview leading businesses, environmental organizations, and political groups about the subject of animal agriculture and its disastrous effects. Extended transcripts, updated statistics, tips on becoming vegan, and comprehensive reading lists provide an in-depth overview of this planetary crisis and demonstrate effective ways to offset the damage through personal dietary choices. Firmly rooted in science and supporting research, The Sustainability Secret reveals the absolutely devastating environmental impact of the meat and dairy industry and offers a path to global sustainability for a growing population

Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom


Ryan T. Anderson - 2015
    Innocent citizens have been coerced and penalized by the government, and Anderson offers a strategy to protect the natural right of religious liberty.Gathering the latest scholarly research on same-sex parenting, Anderson adds a human face to the statistics with the testimony of children raised by gays and lesbians. He closes with a comprehensive roadmap on how to rebuild a culture of marriage, with work to be done by everyone.The nation's leading defender of marriage in the media and on university campuses, Ryan Anderson has produced the must-read manual on where to go from here. There are reasonable and compelling arguments for the truth about marriage, but too many of our neighbors haven't heard them. Truth is never on "the wrong side of history," but we have to make the case.

Indian Art and Culture


Nitin Singhania - 2015
    A wide ranged knowledge base of the Indian, Art, paintings, music and architecture has been presented with the help of several pictures and diagrams which will arouse the readers interest. There are questions at the end of each chapter which will help students prepare for the examinations.

Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country


Shelby Steele - 2015
    Amid the bickering and inertia, the promise of the 1960s -- when we came together as a nation to fight for equality and universal justice -- remains unfulfilled. As Shelby Steele reveals in Shame, the roots of this impasse can be traced back to that decade of protest, when in the act of uncovering and dismantling our national hypocrisies -- racism, sexism, militarism -- liberals internalized the idea that there was something inauthentic, if not evil, in the America character. Since then, liberalism has been wholly concerned with redeeming modern American from the sins of the past, and has derived its political legitimacy from the premise of a morally bankrupt America. The result has been a half-century of well-intentioned but ineffective social programs, such as Affirmative Action. Steele reveals that not only have these programs failed, but they have in almost every case actively harmed America's minorities and poor. Ultimately, Steele argues, post-60s liberalism has utterly failed to achieve its stated aim: true equality. Liberals, intending to atone for our past sins, have ironically perpetuated the exploitation of this country's least fortunate citizens. It therefore falls to the Right to defend the American dream. Only by reviving our founding principles of individual freedom and merit-based competition can the fraught legacy of American history be redeemed, and only through freedom can we ever hope to reach equality. Approaching political polarization from a wholly new perspective, Steele offers a rigorous critique of the failures of liberalism and a cogent argument for the relevance and power of conservatism.

Counting on Community


Innosanto Nagara - 2015
    Counting up from one stuffed piñata to ten hefty hens—and always counting on each other—children are encouraged to recognize the value of their community, the joys inherent in healthy eco-friendly activities, and the agency they posses to make change. A broad and inspiring vision of diversity is told through stories in words and pictures. And of course, there is a duck to find on every page!

Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India


Harsh Mander - 2015
    -Faiz Ahmed FaizIn the two decades since the early 1990s, when India confirmed its allegiance to the Free Market, more of its citizens have become marginalized than ever before, and society has become more sharply riven than ever.In 'Looking Away', Harsh Mander ranges wide to record and analyse the many different fault lines which crisscross Indian society today.There is increasing prosperity among the middle classes, but also a corresponding intolerance for the less fortunate. Poverty and homelessness are also on the rise-both in urban and rural settings- but not only has the state abandoned its responsibility to provide for those afflicted, the middle class, too, now avoids even the basic impulses of sharing. And with the sharp Rightward turn in politics, minority communities are under serious threat-their very status as citizens in question-as a belligerent, monolithic idea of the nation takes the place of an inclusive, tolerant one.However, as Harsh Mander points out, what most stains society today is the erosion in the imperative for sympathy, both at the state and individual levels, a crumbling that is principally at the base of the vast inequities which afflict India. Exhaustive in its scope, impassioned in its arguments, and rigorous in its scholarship, 'Looking Away' is a sobering checklist of all the things we must collectively get right if India is to become the country that was promised, in equal measure, to all its citizens.

Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities Into Unity, Wholeness and Justice


Brenda Salter McNeil - 2015
    We are ready to rise up. But how, exactly, do we do this? How does one reconcile? What we need is a clear sense of direction. Based on her extensive consulting experience with churches, colleges and organizations, Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil has created a roadmap to show us the way. She guides us through the common topics of discussion and past the bumpy social terrain and political boundaries that will arise. In these pages she voices her call to all believers: It's time for the followers of Jesus to embark on the prophetic journey that leads to reconciliation and transformation around the world. Many of us may already be aware of the need for reconciliation in our own backyards. . . . We cannot ignore the plight of the people around us and as globalization continues its relentless march onward, we cannot turn a blind eye to the world at large either. We have to face the realities here at home and we must also embrace the stories of people all around the world. Each chapter lays out the next step in the journey. With reflection questions and exercises at the end of each chapter, it's ideal to read together with your church or organization. If you are ready to take the next step into unity, wholeness and justice, then this is the book for you.

Same-Sex Attraction and the Church: The Surprising Plausibility of the Celibate Life


Ed Shaw - 2015
    In this honest book, he shares his pain in dealing with these issues, but at the same time shows us that obedience to Jesus is ultimately the only way to experience life to the full. He shows that the Bible's teaching seems unreasonable not because of its difficulties, but because of missteps that the church has often taken in its understanding of the Christian life. We have been shaped by the world around us and urgently need to re-examine the values that drive our discipleship. Only by doing this in the light of the Bible can we make sense of its call on the lives of those who are attracted to their own sex.

Société


Alexander Helas - 2015
    Christian Matters is a neurotic architect living in Chicago, but thrown off his routine by a bizarre episode he blames the whiskey on, he abandons his promising career, girlfriend, and home for a life-changing journey to California, where he meets a cavalier aristocrat named Lester Rothschild and the extravagant musician Ella Athens. Mysterious and insane, Lester takes Christian on his adventure to open Société, the most luxurious entertainment complex at the heart of the world's richest city. But, with the chance meeting of an unlikely visitor and the sudden death of a lover, colliding events lead him to unravel the true ambitions behind the greatly anticipated opening of Société, where he discovers the fate of something much greater is at stake. @AlexanderHelasForeword INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards Finalist, 2015USA Best Book Awards Finalist Visionary FictionUSA Best Book Awards Finalist New Age FictionSouthern California Book Festival Honorable Mention, LAMidwest Book Awards Honorable Mention, Chicago

Sister Heart


Sally Morgan - 2015
    There, she slowly makes a new life for herself and, in the face of tragedy, finds strength in new friendships.Poignantly told from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart affirms the power of family and kinship.

Gorilla Dawn


Gill Lewis - 2015
    Deep in the heart of the African jungle, a baby gorilla is captured by a group of rebel soldiers. Imara and Bobo are two children also imprisoned in the rebels' camp. When they learn that the gorilla is destined to be sold into captivity, they swear to return it to the wild before it's too late. But the consequences of getting caught are too terrible to think about. Will the bond between the gorilla and the children give them the courage they need to escape?

One Thousand Wells: How an Audacious Goal Taught Me to Love the World Instead of Save It


Jena Lee Nardella - 2015
    Armed with a diploma, a thousand dollars, and a dream to build one thousand wells in Africa, she joined forces with Grammy Award-winning band Jars of Clay to found Blood:Water and begin her mission.Jena's dream for her nonprofit turned that initial $1 into $20, and then $100, and today into more than $25 million. Working throughout eleven countries in Africa, Blood:Water has provided healthcare for over 62,000 people in HIV-affected areas and has partnered with communities to provide clean water for more than one million people in Africa. But along the way she faced many harsh realities that have tested her faith, encountered corruption and brokenness that nearly destroyed everything she'd fought for, and taught her that wishful thinking will not get you very far. Jena discovered that true change comes only when you stop trying to save the world and allow yourself to love it, even when it breaks your heart.With a fresh, intelligent, and winsome voice, Jena Lee Nardella weaves an evocative personal narrative filled with honest and hard-won lessons that demonstrate the amazing things that can happen when you fight for your dreams.

Oneness Embraced: Reconciliation, the Kingdom, and How We are Stronger Together


Tony Evans - 2015
    Let the kingdom unity of Scripture point the way.Today’s world is torn apart. Tension is everywhere. Brother is pitted against brother, sister against sister, citizen against citizen, even Christian against Christian. It’s so hard to find agreement—much less real harmony—in our polarized society. Can there be a way forward?Tony Evans knows how elusive unity can be. As a black man who’s also a leader in white evangelicalism, he understands how hard it can be to bring these worlds together. Yet he’s convinced that the gospel provides a way for Christians to find oneness despite the things that divide us. In the Word of God, we find a kingdom-based approach to matters of history, culture, the church, and social justice. In this book, you’ll get:A Biblical Look at OnenessA Historical View of the Black ChurchA Kingdom Vision for Societal ImpactAlthough oneness is hard to achieve, the Christian must never stop striving. It’s a kingdom imperative. As Tony reminds us, “Glorifying God is our ultimate goal. Oneness exists to enable us to reach our goal.”

The Men of Otherworld: Collection Two


Yasmine Galenorn - 2015
    In this collection:FAE-TED TO LOVE: Vanzir and Aeval take a startling turn in their relationship. SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Smoky has to decide just how he feels about humans...and he tastes his first inkling of love.LUCK BE A LEPRECHAUN: Bruce discovers that sometimes, there's a good reason to stay out of the woods.FAMILY TIES: Morio's caught in a lie that he told for love.These are the stories that can't fit into the actual novels.

Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race


Derald Wing Sue - 2015
    Rather than endure the conflict of racial realities, many people choose instead to avoid the topic altogether, or remain silent when it is raised. Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race puts an end to that dynamic by sharing strategies for smoothing conversations about race in a productive manner.A guide for facilitating and participating in difficult dialogues about race, author Derald Wing Sue - an internationally recognized expert on multiculturalism, diversity, and microaggressions - explores the characteristics, dynamics, and meaning behind discussions about race as well as the hidden ground rules that inhibit honest and productive dialogue. Through emotional and visceral examples, this book explains why conversations revolving around racial issues are so difficult, and provides guidelines, techniques, and advice for navigating and leading honest and forthright discussions. Readers will develop a stronger ability to build rapport with people unlike themselves, and discover how not talking about race impacts society as a whole.Overcome and make visible the fears associated with race talk Learn practical ideas for talking openly about race Facilitate and navigate discussion with expert strategy Examine the hidden rules that govern race talk Understand the benefits of successful conversations Discussions about race do not have to result in disastrous consequences, and can in fact be highly beneficial to all parties involved. It's important that people have the ability to converse openly and honestly with their students, colleagues, children, and neighbors, and Race Talk provides the path for achieving this goal.

Wrapped in Red


Mika Jolie - 2015
    For Minka Montgomery, it’s anything but. While the small towns of Martha’s Vineyard burst with festive lights and good cheer, a black shadow parades around and within Minka. With her Christmas spirit conspicuously absent, her marriage to Jason Montgomery has snowballed and is spiraling out of control. The weight of motherhood – and her new role as a wife – presses on her shoulders. Self-doubt creeps in and swiftly turns to hopelessness. As her anxiety level rises, can she share what’s in her heart with her husband? Is there a branch of hope to hold on to? With Christmas only twelve days away, can she find her Christmas spirit and rediscover the true meaning of the season?

Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship


Aimee Meredith Cox - 2015
    Based on eight years of fieldwork at the Fresh Start shelter, Cox shows how the shelter's residents—who range in age from fifteen to twenty-two—employ strategic methods she characterizes as choreography to disrupt the social hierarchies and prescriptive narratives that work to marginalize them. Among these are dance and poetry, which residents learn in shelter workshops. These outlets for performance and self-expression, Cox shows, are key to the residents exercising their agency, while their creation of alternative family structures demands a rethinking of notions of care, protection, and love. Cox also uses these young women's experiences to tell larger stories: of Detroit's history, the Great Migration, deindustrialization, the politics of respectability, and the construction of Black girls and women as social problems. With Shapeshifters Cox gives a voice to young Black women who find creative and non-normative solutions to the problems that come with being young, Black, and female in America.

The Forgiveness Project


Marina Cantacuzino - 2015
    They raise the possibility of alternatives to resentment, retaliation and revenge, with each story showing the very real impact of forgiveness within a particular context.

Subverted: How I Helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women's Movement


Sue Ellen Browder - 2015
    How did the women’s movement, which fought for equal opportunity for women in education and the workplace, and the sexual revolution, which reduced women to ambitious sex objects, become so united?In Subverted, Sue Ellen Browder documents for the first time how it all happened, in her own life and in the life of an entire country. Trained at the University of Missouri School of Journalism to be an investigative journalist, Browder unwittingly betrayed her true calling and became a propagandist for sexual liberation. As a long-time freelance writer for Cosmopolitan magazine, she wrote pieces meant to soft-sell unmarried sex, contraception, and abortion as the single woman’s path to personal fulfillment. She did not realize until much later that propagandists higher and cleverer than herself were influencing her thinking and her personal choices as they subverted the women’s movement.The thirst for truth, integrity, and justice for women that led Browder into journalism in the first place eventually led her to find forgiveness and freedom in the place she least expected to find them. Her in-depth research, her probing analysis, and her honest self-reflection set the record straight and illumine a way forward for others who have suffered from the unholy alliance between the women’s movement and the sexual revolution.

My Little Book of Big Freedoms: The Human Rights Act in Pictures


Chris Riddell - 2015
    Chris Riddell brings to life 16 fundamental freedoms outlined by the Human Rights Act.

Dreams of Freedom


Amesty International - 2015
    I have tried not to falter... I have taken a moment to rest, but I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities." Nelson Mandela"If you are tired, keep going. If you are scared, keep going. If you are hungry, keep going. If you want to taste freedom, keep going." Harriet TubmanThis inspirational book, following We Are All Born Free, contains 17 quotations about many different aspects of freedom, from the freedom to have an education to that not to be hurt or tortured, the freedom to have a home and the freedom to be yourself. All the chosen quotations are in simple words that can be understood by young children.Authors of the quotations include: Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi and Malala Yousafzai. The book is illustrated by internationally acclaimed and award-winning illustrators, including Alexis Deacon, Chris Riddell, Ros Asquith, Jackie Morris and Shirin Adl from the UK, Barroux from France, Roger Mello from Brazil, Birgitta Sif from Iceland, aboriginal artist Sally Morgan from Australia and Mordicai Gerstein from the USA. The cover is illustrated by best-selling author/illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence


Katie Cappiello - 2015
    By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, SLUT captures the real lives of teens and young adults as they negotiate sex and the cruel scapegoating that still hobbles female sexuality and power. This groundbreaking play, written in collaboration with New York City high school students, and guidebook offers communities and individuals concrete tools to inspire change and stop slut. The guidebook includes production notes, a guide for talk-backs, and provocative essays by Leora Tanenbaum, Jennifer Baumgardner, Farah Tanis, Jamia Wilson, among others, providing the resources to inspire change within our communities and ourselves.

Project Animal Farm: An Accidental Journey into the Secret World of Farming and the Truth About Our Food


Sonia Faruqi - 2015
    Instead of turning away from the animal cruelty she came to witness, Sonia made the most courageous decision of her life: a commitment to change things.Driven by impulsive will and searing passion, Sonia left behind everything she knew and loved to search the planet for solutions to benefit animals, health, and the environment. Over the course of living with farmers, hitchhiking with strangers, and risking her life, she developed surprising insights and solutions—both about the food industry and herself.Lively and heartfelt, Sonia takes readers on an unforgettable adventure from top-secret egg warehouses in Canada to dairy feedlots in the United States, from farm offices in Mexico to lush pastures in Belize, from flocks of village chickens in Indonesia to factory farms in Malaysia.

Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence: A Practical Guide to Walking with Low-Income People


Steve Corbett - 2015
    Because poverty is complex, however, helping low-income people often requires going beyond meeting their material needs to holistically addressing the roots of their poverty. But on a practical level, how do you move forward in walking with someone who approaches your church for financial help?From the authors of When Helping Hurts comes Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence, a guidebook for church staff, deacons, or volunteers who work with low-income people.Short and to the point, this tool provides foundational principles for poverty alleviation and then addresses practical matters, like:How to structure and focus your benevolence workHow to respond to immediate needs while pursuing long-term solutionsHow to mobilize your church to walk with low-income peopleWith practical stories, forms, and tools for churches to use, Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence is an all-in-one guide for church leaders and laypeople who want to help the poor in ways that lead to lasting change.

Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security


Sarah Chayes - 2015
    Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosion of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war, Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption.Since the late 1990s, corruption has reached such an extent that some governments resemble glorified criminal gangs, bent solely on their own enrichment. These kleptocrats drive indignant populations to extremes—ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion. Chayes plunges readers into some of the most venal environments on earth and examines what emerges: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government (but also redesigning Al-Qaeda), and Nigerians embracing both radical evangelical Christianity and the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. In many such places, rigid moral codes are put forth as an antidote to the collapse of public integrity.The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Through deep archival research, Chayes reveals that canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument connecting the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Thieves of State presents a powerful new way to understand global extremism. And it makes a compelling case that we must confront corruption, for it is a cause—not a result—of global instability.

Missing Nimama


Melanie Florence - 2015
    Missing Nimama shows the human side of a tragic set of circumstances.An afterword by the author provides a simple, age-appropriate context for young readers. Includes a glossary of Cree terms.

The Ferguson Report: Department of Justice Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department


U.S. Department of Justice - 2015
    For months afterward, protestors took to the streets demanding justice, testifying to the racist and exploitative police department and court system, and connecting the shooting of Brown with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and other young black men at the hands of police across the country.In the wake of these protests, the Department of Justice launched a six-month investigation, resulting in a report that Colorlines characterizes as "so caustic it reads like an Onion article" and laying bare what the Huffington Post calls "a totalizing police regime beyond any of Kafka's ghastliest nightmares." Among the report's findings are that the Ferguson Police Department "Engages in a Pattern of Unconstitutional Stops and Arrests in Violation of the Fourth Amendment," "Detain[s] People Without Reasonable Suspicion and Arrest[s] People Without Probable Cause," "Engages in a Pattern of First Amendment Violations," "Engages in a Pattern of Excessive Force," and "Erode[s] Community Trust, Especially Among Ferguson's African-American Residents."Contextualized here in a substantial introduction by renowned legal scholar and former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Theodore M. Shaw, The Ferguson Report is a sad, sobering, and important document, providing a snapshot of American law enforcement at the start of the twenty-first century, with resonance far beyond one small town in Missouri.

The Safest Lie


Angela Cerrito - 2015
    Anna draws the attention of Jolanta—the code name for the real-life Resistance spy Irena Sendler, who smuggled hundreds of children out of the ghetto. Jolanta wants to help Anna escape. Anna's mother drills her day and night, teaching her a new identity, that of Roman Catholic Anna Karwolska. Soon Anna is whisked out of Warsaw to a Catholic orphanage and then to a foster family.Anna's story is a suspenseful and deeply moving account of the sacrifices endured, the dangers faced, and the heroism demonstrated by courageous young victims, their parents and their saviors. It sheds light on yet another tragedy of the Holocaust: rescued children who lost not only their loved ones, but their very identities and Jewish heritage.

Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto


Eric Tang - 2015
    Unsettled chronicles the unfinished odyssey of Bronx Cambodians, closely following one woman and her family for several years as they survive yet resist their literal insertion into concentrated Bronx poverty.  Eric Tang tells the harrowing and inspiring stories of these refugees to make sense of how and why the displaced migrants have been resettled in the “hyperghetto.” He argues that refuge is never found, that rescue discourses mask a more profound urban reality characterized by racialized geographic enclosure, economic displacement and unrelenting poverty, and the criminalization of daily life. Unsettled views the hyperghetto as a site of extreme isolation, punishment, and confinement. The refugees remain captives in late-capitalist urban America. Tang ultimately asks: What does it mean for these Cambodians to resettle into this distinct time and space of slavery’s afterlife?

Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics


Lester K. Spence - 2015
    “I’m not a business man; I’m a business, man.” Perhaps no better statement gets at the heart of this turn. Increasingly we’re being forced to think of ourselves in entrepreneurial terms, forced to take more and more responsibility for developing our “human capital.” Furthermore a range of institutions from churches to schools to entire cities have been remade, restructured to in order to perform like businesses. Finally, even political concepts like freedom, and democracy have been significantly altered. As a result we face higher levels of inequality than any other time over the last century. In Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics, Lester K. Spence writes the first book length effort to chart the effects of this transformation on African American communities, in an attempt to revitalize the black political imagination. Rather than asking black men and women to “hustle harder” Spence criticizes the act of hustling itself as a tactic used to demobilize and disempower the communities most in need of empowerment.

Out from the Underworld


Heather Siegel - 2015
    Forty years later, Heather Siegel tells the remarkable story of how she and her siblings, Jaz and Greg, banded together to find out what happened to their mother and fight their way Out from the Underworld with nothing but their wits, determination, unbreakable bonds and gifts for humor and compassion to sustain them. A wrenching, inspiring story filled with heartbreak, hope and love, Out from the Underworld will move you to laughter and tears.

Ring of Ice


Kailin Gow - 2015
    Can the denizens of Feyland and Empress Breena trust the vampires and gifted humans on the trail of Queen Neriti? Jaegar Greystone, an ancient vampire with the beautiful Kalina Calloway, a human girl with vampire powers?Or are they part of Queen Neriti's evil plan for revenge against all?Ring of Ice is a new series based on the characters from the Bitter Frost Series and from The PULSE Vampire Series.For age 16 and up.A Continuation of the Bitter Frost Series, now in production as a major game.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3787790/?...Bitter Frost is Now in Development as a Film.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3400474/?...

The Wit and Wisdom of Downton Abbey


Jessica Fellowes - 2015
    With each stroke of his pen Julian Fellowes seems to gift us with a cuttingly dry quip from the Dowager Countess, a perfectly timed word of wisdom from Mrs Patmore or a touchingly nostalgic pronouncement from Carson. Here in The Wit and Wisdom of Downton Abbey, Jessica Fellowes has gathered together her favorite quotes from the complete Downton Abbey oeuvre to take each of us back to the most memorable moments from the show and ensure we are armed with the very best ripostes should we ever need to chastise an impertinent lady's maid.

Don't Call Me Kit Kat


K.J. Farnham - 2015
    Cliques form and break apart. Couples are made and destroyed. And a reputation is solidified that you won’t ever be able to escape. Everything you do and say, and everyone you spend your time with, matters.Katie Mills knows that. She gets it. That’s why she tried so hard to get in with the cool girls at school. And why she was so devastated when those efforts found her detained for shoplifting and laughed out of cheer squad tryouts.But Katie has more to worry about than just fitting in. Her parents are divorced and always fighting. Her sister never has time for her. And her friends all seem to be drifting apart. Even worse? The boy she has a crush on is dating the mean girl at school.Everything is a mess, and Katie doesn’t feel like she has control over any of it. Certainly not over her weight, which has always topped out at slightly pudgier than normal—at least, according to her mother.So when she happens to catch one of the popular girls throwing up in the bathroom one day, it sparks an idea. A match that quickly engulfs her life in flames.Is there any going back once she gets started down this path?And would she even want to if she could?

Wintr's Homecoming: Secrets


Jen A. Durand - 2015
    Instead Jinx found herself running into old acquaintances and discovering an unwelcome surprise.Dominic Lowell had changed. He no longer lived for the adventure. He yearned for a home. Only now he was hoping to build those things with her. Faced with the remnants of a childhood crush and the fear that history would repeat itself. Should she continue to exist with a closed heart or should she trust the love of her wolf?

FREE FALL SERIES BOX SET with Never Been Released Before FREE FALL VOL. 3


Kailin Gow - 2015
    In order to protect everyone he loves, Nat must continue living with his new identity for however long it takes, even if that means several years later. Will the love he feels for Summer still last, even when he is no longer the Nat Donovan he used to be? This can be read separately from the Loving Summer Series, but is also part of the Loving Summer Series: Donovan Brothers, currently in development as a feature film." From the award-winning author of the Loving Summer Series, comes: FREE FALL BOOK 2 The Dragon, one of the most ruthless and evasive lord of a powerful crime ring, has taken the only thing or the only person who has kept him sane and in control for the last ten years... The woman he has ever loved... The one who got away, but is now engaged to his brother... His childhood sweetheart whom he had promised to protect on his beloved Aunt's deathbed. His Perfect and Lasting Summer. The woman who risked her life to save his. He owed it to her to do everything in his power to save her. But what he didn't expect was the heavy price he would pay to get her back, and whether it was too late to save her love. Free Fall Vol. 2 is a continuation of Free Fall Vol. 1, and is recommended for age 18+ due to language, adult situations, sexual situations, and violence. This rating is equivalent to Rated R or TV-MA. FREE FALL BOOK 3 In the concluding book to the Free Fall Series, told mostly in Nat Donovan's point of view, one of the Donovans is hanging to life by a thread while another is losing his mind. A truth about Summer is discovered that may change everything. <

Ferguson and Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community


Leah Gunning Francis - 2015
    Louis-area clergy stepping up to support the emerging young leaders of today's Civil Rights Movement. Seminary professor Leah Gunning Francis was among the activists, and her interviews with more than two dozen faith leaders and with the new movement's organizers take us behind the scenes of the continuing protests. Ferguson and Faith demonstrates that being called to lead a faithful life can take us to places we never expected to go, with people who never expected us to join hands with them. Ferguson and Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community is the first book from the partnership of the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) and Chalice Press.

Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran


Laura Secor - 2015
      In 1979, seemingly overnight—moving at a clip some thirty years faster than the rest of the world—Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has been largely a black box to the West, a sinister presence looming over the horizon. But inside Iran, a breathtaking drama has unfolded since then, as religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have imagined and reimagined what Iran should be. They have drawn as deeply on the traditions of the West as of the East and have acted upon their beliefs with urgency and passion, frequently staking their lives for them.   With more than a decade of experience reporting on, researching, and writing about Iran, Laura Secor narrates this unprecedented history as a story of individuals caught up in the slipstream of their time, seizing and wielding ideas powerful enough to shift its course as they wrestle with their country’s apparatus of violent repression as well as its rich and often tragic history. Essential reading at this moment when the fates of our countries have never been more entwined, Children of Paradise will stand as a classic of political reporting; an indelible portrait of a nation and its people striving for change.

Restoring All Things: God's Audacious Plan to Change the World through Everyday People


Warren Cole Smith - 2015
    It can often feel as if God has left the building and we are on our own. This soul-stirring book cuts through the chaos and uncertainty to show you how God is powerfully active and intensely engaged in fulfilling His promise to restore all things. Through inspiring real-life stories of justice, mercy, love, and forgiveness in our communities and neighborhoods, you'll encounter a God who is intimately involved in His creation and using His church to work out the redemption of this world..

Glass Girl: Modern Cinderella


Kailin Gow - 2015
    Being a modern-day Cinderella never felt more complicated, especially when there are not one, but two princes in the picture, a sentimental fairy godmother, and a queen of romance who needs rescuing herself.Being a Glass Girl (Glamour and Class Girl) has never been harder under the circumstances, but with two swoon-worthy men - the billionaire with the heart of gold, and her boss' wounded brother; Cynthia's life has just gotten more than interesting...A light-hearted romantic retelling with a twist on the fairy tale Cinderella, Glass Girl shines as a modern tale of finding true love and true worth.This is a Happy Ever After Standalone Novel Series by award-winning bestselling author Kailin Gow, author of the Loving Summer Series, and over 222 other books.

Beyond Measure: Rescuing an Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation


Vicki Abeles - 2015
    In Race to Nowhere, Vicki Abeles identified a widespread problem in our nation’s schools: as students race against each other to have constantly higher grades, better test scores, and more AP courses than their classmates, they are irreparably damaging their mental and physical health. Now Abeles taps into this same grassroots community across the nation to find the solutions in Beyond Measure, which publishes simultaneously with the release of her new documentary. Pulling from powerful anecdotes and convincing new research, Abeles presents inspirational, quantifiable success stories and shows how anyone—students, parents, and educators—can effect change. Teachers who cut students’ workload see scores rise; kids discover their own motivation once parents relieve the pressure to perform; schools that institute later start times have well-rested students who are able to learn more efficiently; and schools that emphasize depth over test prep find students more attentive, inventive, and ready to thrive. It’s no secret that our education system is broken, and Beyond Measure inspires parents, educators, and students to take practical steps to fix it—starting today. In so doing, it empowers all of us to redefine learning and success, and to discover the true, untapped potential awaiting our children, not just in college, but in life.

LadyLike: Living Biblically


Rebekah Curtis - 2015
    This book surveys historical, sociological and scientific defense of women s roles. It investigates cultural clichés. And, most important, it explores the biblical perspective of God s planned order and how women are to function within it.

Finding Pony


Kara Lucas - 2015
    With a meth addict for a mom and a drug dealer for a stepdad, Jesse spends most nights taking care of his sister, Pony. But when the cops arrest his mom for a mini-mart robbery gone wrong, Jesse hides his sister under a pile of dirty clothes and escapes through a window. In the morning, he finds his mom and stepdad have been arrested, and Pony is gone. And due to a botched drug deal, she may also be in danger.Scared, homeless, and desperate to find her, Jesse sets off on a trek that sends him from dusty rural back roads to the drug-infested streets of Los Angeles. He must dodge drug dealers, gangs, cops, and social workers as he searches to find Pony and ultimately, himself. A gritty story told from the point of view of those most affected by other’s actions. Those with the most to lose. Disillusioned by the institutions designed to help, Jesse is forced to become an adult, and does his best to protect his sister and their way of family. Sometimes without much success. Jesse is villain. Jesse is a hero. Jesse is a survivor. Chance encounters teach him not everyone is who they appear, there are reasons . . . and there are consequences for everything.

Girls in Justice


Richard Ross - 2015
    Girls in Justice, the much-anticipated follow up to Juvenile in Justice, turns our focus specifically to girls in the system, and not a moment too soon. While the number of youth in the juvenile justice system has steadily declined, girls are a growing share of youth arrested, detained and committed. A rare, multidimensional look at these girls' vulnerable lives, Girls in Justice speaks to the unique issues they face with both hard-hitting words and Richard Ross' evocative images. Essays from some of the top girls' criminology scholars and advocates in the U.S. give readers a picture of their work with young women in the system as well as cold, hard facts about the issue. As with Juvenile in Justice, the photographs are accompanied by girls' first-person stories, as told to Ross in interviews from over 250 detention facilities across the U.S. Even for those who work with girls in the system daily, this book is sure to expand your understanding of the realities of these girls' lives.

A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism


Kristin Kobes Du Mez - 2015
    An internationally-known social reformer and women's rights activist, Bushnell rose to prominence through her highly publicized campaigns against prostitution and the trafficking of women in America, in colonial India, and throughout East Asia. In each of these cases, the intrepid reformer struggled to come to terms with the fact that it was Christian men who were guilty of committing acts of appalling cruelty against women. Ultimately, Bushnell concluded that Christianity itself - or rather, the patriarchal distortion of true Christianity - must be to blame. A work of history, biography, and historical theology, Kristin Kobes DuMez's book provides a vivid account of Bushnell's life. It maps a concise introduction to her fascinating theology, revealing, for example, Bushnell's belief that gender bias tainted both the King James and the Revised Versions of the English Bible. As Du Mez demonstrates, Bushnell insisted that God created women to be strong and independent, that Adam, not Eve, bore responsibility for the Fall, and that it was through Christ, "the great emancipator of women," that women would achieve spiritual and social redemption. A New Gospel for Women restores Bushnell to her rightful place in history. It illuminates the dynamic and often thorny relationship between faith and feminism in modern America by mapping Bushnell's story and her subsequent disappearance from the historical record. Most pointedly, the book reveals the challenges confronting Christian feminists today who wish to construct a sexual ethic that is both Christian and feminist, one rooted not in the Victorian era, but rather one suited to the modern world.

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America


Jill Leovy - 2015
    His assailant ran down the street, jumped into an SUV, and vanished, hoping to join the vast majority of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes. But as soon as the case was assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shifted. Here is the kaleidoscopic story of the quintessential American murder--one young black man slaying another--and a determined crew of detectives whose creed was to pursue justice at all costs for its forgotten victims. Ghettoside is a fast-paced narrative of a devastating crime, an intimate portrait of detectives and a community bonded in tragedy, and a surprising new lens into the great subject of murder in America--why it happens and how the plague of killings might yet be stopped.

'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.


Colin Flaherty - 2015
     That was the biggest news story of 2014 and it was easy to find in the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Spike Lee, Oprah, USA Today, and lots of other places. The President got in on the act in 2014 when he told the Congressional Black Caucus about a “justice gap.” Where “too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement. Guilty of walking while black. Driving while black. Judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness.” War on black people, anyone? That is the biggest lie of our generation. Because just the opposite is true. Black crime and violence against whites, gays, women, seniors, young people and lots of others is astronomically out of proportion. It just won’t quit. Neither will the excuses. Or the denials. Or the black on white hostility. Or those who encourage it. That is what ‘Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry’ is about.

Distraction


Laura Clark - 2015
    She understands the difference between reality and fantasy, which is why Sam Woodson is not realistic boyfriend material. After all, he’s in college, and college boys simply do not date high school girls. Plus, he’s Laila’s brother’s best friend. According to the unspoken bro-code, messing around with your friend’s little sister is pretty high on the list of forbidden taboos. What happens when Laila discovers that her secret crush on Sam isn’t quite so one-sided? What if the only way it will work is to keep their relationship hush-hush? Is Sam worth all the lying and sneaking around? As if things weren’t confusing enough with Sam, an old family friend suddenly shows up after being gone for more than three years. Laila isn't expecting Trevor Maddox to move back to Brookville. She isn't expecting him to attend her high school, and she certainly isn't expecting him to be so damned gorgeous. Laila doesn't want or need this unexpected distraction . . . or does she?

Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trama


Barbara Sorrels - 2015
    You are also the gateway to healing. In Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma, you will find the tools and strategies to connect with harmed children and start them on the path to healing. Award Winner!  Recipient of 2016 Academics' Choice Smart Book Award

DisCrit—Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education


David J. Connor - 2015
    Scholars examine the achievement/opportunity gaps from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as the overrepresentation of minority students in special education and the school-to-prison pipeline. Chapters also address school reform and the impact on students based on race, class, and dis/ability and the capacity of law and policy to include (and exclude). Readers will discover how some students are included (and excluded) within schools and society, why some citizens are afforded expanded (or limited) opportunities in life, and who moves up in the world and who is trapped at the “bottom of the well.”Contributors: D.L. Adams, Susan Baglieri, Stephen J. Ball, Alicia Broderick, Kathleen M. Collins, Nirmala Erevelles, Edward Fergus, Zanita E. Fenton, David Gillborn, Kris Guitiérrez, Kathleen A. King Thorius, Elizabeth Kozleski, Zeus Leonardo, Claustina Mahon-Reynolds, Elizabeth Mendoza, Christina Paguyo, Laurence Parker, Nicola Rollock, Paolo Tan, Sally Tomlinson, and Carol Vincent“With a stunning set of authors, this book provokes outrage and possibility at the rich intersection of critical race, class, and disability studies, refracting back on educational policy and practices, inequities and exclusions but marking also spaces for solidarities. This volume is a must-read for preservice, and long-term educators, as the fault lines of race, (dis)ability, and class meet in the belly of educational reform movements and educational justice struggles.” —Michelle Fine, distinguished professor of Critical Psychology and Urban Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY“Offers those who sincerely seek to better understand the complexity of the intersection of race/ethnicity, dis/ability, social class, and gender a stimulating read that sheds new light on the root of some of our long-standing societal and educational inequities.” —Wanda J. Blanchett, distinguished professor and dean, Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education

Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities


Chad Broughton - 2015
    When he learns of Maytag's plans to shutter its refrigerator plant, a move decried by a young Senator Obama, Broughton begins a decade-long dive into the drama that envelops both Galesburg, Illinois, where townspeople are losing their $15.14-an-hour livelihood, and Reynosa, Mexico, where the same jobs will pay $1.10 and come with a cost. The results are both epic and surprising. The pitfalls of such a project are many, but Broughton avoids pity and screed, delivering a story that is beautifully detailed and rich in human and historic dimension. Most of us talk about a global economy with a vague sense of what that really means. With Boom, Bust, Exodus Broughton has defined it indelibly." --Ann Marie Lipinski, Curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard UniversityIn 2002, the town of Galesburg, a slowly declining Rustbelt city of 34,000 in western Illinois, learned that it would soon lose its largest factory, a Maytag refrigerator plant that had anchored Galesburg's social and economic life for decades. Workers at the plant earned $15.14 an hour, had good insurance, and were assured a solid retirement. In 2004, the plant was relocated to Reynosa, Mexico, where workers spent 13-hour days assembling refrigerators for $1.10 an hour.In Boom, Bust, Exodus, Chad Broughton offers a ground-level look at the rapid transition to a globalized economy, from the perspective of those whose lives it has most deeply affected. We live in a commoditized world, increasingly divorced from the origins of the goods we consume; it is easy to ignore who is manufacturing our smart phones and hybrid cars; and where they come from no longer seems to matter. And yet, Broughton shows, the who and where matter deeply, and in this book he puts human faces to the relentless cycle of global manufacturing.It is a tale of two cities. In Galesburg, where the empty Maytag factory still stands, a hollowed out version of the American dream, the economy is a shadow of what it once was. Reynosa, in contrast, has become one of the exploding post-NAFTA "second-tier cities" of the developing world, thanks to the influx of foreign-owned, export-oriented maquiladoras--an industrial promised land throbbing with the energy of commerce, legal and illegal.And yet even these distinctions, Broughton shows, cannot be finely drawn: families in Reynosa also struggle to get by, and the city is beset by violence and a ruthless drug war. Those left behind in the post-Industrial decline of Galesburg, meanwhile, do not see themselves as helpless victims: they have gone back to school, pursued new careers, and learned to adapt and even thrive. In an era of growing inequality and a downsized middle class, Boom, Bust, Exodus gives us the voices of those who have borne the heaviest burdens of the economic upheavals of the past three decades. A deeply personal work grounded in solid scholarship, this important, immersive, and affecting book brings home the price and the cost of globalization.

The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle


Jude Isabella - 2015
    The boy, Leo, treasures his bicycle so much he gives it a name -- Big Red. But eventually Leo outgrows Big Red, and this is where the bicycle's story takes a turn from the everyday, because Leo decides to donate it to an organization that ships bicycles to Africa. Big Red is sent to Burkina Faso, in West Africa, where it finds a home with Alisetta, who uses it to gain quicker access to her family's sorghum field and to the market. Then, over time, it finds its way to a young woman named Haridata, who has a new purpose for the bicycle -- renamed Le Grand Rouge -- delivering medications and bringing sick people to the hospital. This book makes an excellent choice for cultural studies classes; author Jude Isabella has provided several terrific suggestions in the back of the book for projects large and small, while a map shows the distance the bicycle traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. Award-winning illustrator Simone Shin's digitally composed artwork includes evocative depictions of Alisetta's and Haridata's communities in rural Africa, creating vivid comparisons between Leo's life and their lives. Youngsters will learn how different the world is for those who rely on bicycles as a mode of transportation, and how one ordinary bicycle -- and a child's desire to make a difference -- can change lives across the world. This book also offers an excellent opportunity for expanding character education lessons on caring, compassion and empathy to include the wider world.

My Final Word: Holding Tight to the Issues that Matter Most


Charles W. Colson - 2015
    Some of these issues include:crime and punishmentnatural lawIslamsame-sex marriagethe persecution of Christiansand moreLongtime readers and new readers alike will be struck by the power and immediacy of Colson’s arguments. My Final Word is a fitting end to Colson’s distinguished publishing career, a behind-the-scenes encounter with an influential thinker, and a needed call to an ongoing and relevant Christian public witness.

Paris at War: 1939-1944


David Drake - 2015
    Readers will relive the fearful exodus from the city as the German army neared the capital, the relief and disgust felt when the armistice was signed, and the hardships and deprivations under Occupation. David Drake contrasts the plight of working-class Parisians with the comparative comfort of the rich, exposes the activities of collaborationists, and traces the growth of the Resistance from producing leaflets to gunning down German soldiers. He details the intrigues and brutality of the occupying forces, and life in the notorious transit camp at nearby Drancy, along with three other less well known Jewish work camps within the city.The book gains its vitality from the diaries and reminiscences of people who endured these tumultuous years. Drake’s cast of characters comes from all walks of life and represents a diversity of political views and social attitudes. We hear from a retired schoolteacher, a celebrated economist, a Catholic teenager who wears a yellow star in solidarity with Parisian Jews, as well as Resistance fighters, collaborators, and many other witnesses.Drake enriches his account with details from police records, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newsreels. From his chronology emerge the broad rhythms and shifting moods of the city. Above all, he explores the contingent lives of the people of Paris, who, unlike us, co­uld not know how the story would end.

Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice


Les Leopold - 2015
    In 1970, the ratio of pay between the top 100 CEOs and the average worker was 45 to 1. Today it is a shocking 829 to one! During that time a new economic philosophy set in that cut taxes, deregulated finance, and trimmed social spending. Those policies set in motion a process that greatly expanded the power of financial interests to accelerate inequality. But how exactly does that happen?Using easy-to-understand charts and graphs, Runaway Inequality explains the process by which corporation after corporation falls victim to systematic wealth extraction by banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds. It reveals how financial strip-mining puts enormous downward pressure on jobs, wages, benefits, and working conditions, while boosting the incomes of financial elites.But Runaway Inequality does more than make sense of our economic plight. It also shows why virtually all the key issues that we face--from climate change to the exploding prison population--are intimately connected to rising economic inequality.Most importantly, Runaway Inequality calls upon us to build a common movement to tackle the sources of increasing income and wealth inequality. As the author makes clear, the problem will not cure itself. It will take enormous energy and dedication to bring economic justice and fairness back to American society.The book is divided into four parts:Part I: What is the fundamental cause of runaway economic inequality? What has made our economy less fair and left most of us less secure?Part II: How does the United States really compare with other major developed countries? How do we stack up on quality of life, health, and well-being?Part III: What does economic inequality have to do with so many of the critical issues we face, including taxes, debt, education, criminal justice, racism, climate change, foreign trade, and war?Part IV: What concrete steps can we take to begin building a fair and just society?From the book: "There is nothing in the economic universe that will automatically rescue us from runaway inequality. There is no pendulum, no invisible political force that 'naturally' will swing back towards economic fairness. Either we wage a large-scale battle for economic, social, and environmental justice, or we will witness the continued deterioration of the world we inhabit. The arc of capitalism does not bend towards justice. We must bend it."

The Alchemy of Being Fourteen


Leah Williams - 2015
    But when Winter starts having problems with a boy at school and Arden continues to suffer inexplicable and terrifying blackouts, each girl must tease loose a separate thread of fate from their interwoven, close-knit identity as sisters in order to unravel the arcane mystery of who they really are. Once their futures are disentangled, Winter and Arden find that destiny has drafted them both into the oldest war the world’s ever known—but placed them on opposite sides.

June’s Stolen Rose (Seasons of Love and War Book 4)


Brenda Ashworth Barry - 2015
    Things are out of order in their life and someone is watching Beth Ann. She finds things vanishing and hears footsteps and shadows that spell danger. Then Kaylob comes home and nobody knows where she is. The disappearance of Beth Ann sends the police force and others searching for her. Family and friends seem to think Blake has taken her, but does he have her? And if he doesn’t, who does? Let the mystery unfold into the darkness of an evil mind as Beth Ann fights for her life. SEASONS OF LOVE AND WAR SAGA 1. Seasons of Love and War 2. December Road 3. The Journey of Elizabeth Ann Rose 4. June's Stolen Rose

Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror


Equal Justice Initiative - 2015
    EJI researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950 – at least 800 more lynchings of black people in these states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date. In 2017, EJI supplemented this research by documenting racial terror lynchings in other states, and found these acts of violence were most common in eight states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.Lynching in America makes the case that lynching of African Americans was terrorism, a widely supported phenomenon used to enforce racial subordination and segregation. Lynchings were violent and public events that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials. This was not “frontier justice” carried out by a few marginalized vigilantes or extremists. Instead, many African Americans who were never accused of any crime were tortured and murdered in front of picnicking spectators (including elected officials and prominent citizens) for bumping into a white person, or wearing their military uniforms after World War I, or not using the appropriate title when addressing a white person. People who participated in lynchings were celebrated and acted with impunity.The report explores the ways in which lynching profoundly impacted race relations in this country and shaped the contemporary geographic, political, social, and economic conditions of African Americans. Most importantly, lynching reinforced a narrative of racial difference and a legacy of racial inequality that is readily apparent in our criminal justice system today. Mass incarceration, racially biased capital punishment, excessive sentencing, disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities, and police abuse of people of color reveal problems in American society that were shaped by the terror era.No prominent public memorial or monument commemorates the thousands of African Americans who were lynched in America. Lynching in America argues that is a powerful statement about our failure to value the black lives lost in this brutal campaign of racial violence. Research on mass violence, trauma, and transitional justice underscores the urgent need to engage in public conversations about racial history that begin a process of truth and reconciliation in this country.“We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era of racial terrorism until we tell the truth about it,” said EJI Director Bryan Stevenson. “The geographic, political, economic, and social consequences of decades of terror lynchings can still be seen in many communities today and the damage created by lynching needs to be confronted and discussed. Only then can we meaningfully address the contemporary problems that are lynching’s legacy.”

Wishing on Baby Dust


Lydia Winters - 2015
    No one knows that better than Megan. After six years of insanity-inducing hormone drugs and desperate prayers, all she has to show for her efforts are enough negative pregnancy tests to fill a bassinet. All around her women are accidentally getting pregnant—like her star piano student—while Megan remains hopelessly barren. Megan’s never felt so alone. But she’s not the only one struggling.Christina has just entered the world of infertility, made worse by the fact her husband isn’t ready to be a father. Their marriage, already hanging in the balance, is being torn apart. Then there’s Kyra, the mother of a precocious three-year-old. She’s shocked to be struggling with secondary infertility. A baby is priceless, but sometimes Kyra feels like she’s being forced to choose which commandment to keep: stay out of debt, or multiply and replenish the earth. When Megan and Christina are assigned as Kyra’s visiting teachers, they all realize that what you see isn’t necessarily what’s beneath the surface. Some secrets aren’t worth the cost of keeping them.

No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and Other Transgressions


Ryan Berg - 2015
    His job was to help these teens discover their self worth, get them back on their feet, earn high school degrees, and find jobs. But he had no idea how difficult it would be, and the complexities that were involved with coaxing them away from dangerous sex work and cycles of drug and alcohol abuse, and helping them heal from years of abandonment and abuse.In No House to Call My Home, Ryan Berg tells profoundly moving, intimate, and raw stories from the frontlines of LGBTQ homelessness and foster care. In the United States, 43% of homeless youth were forced out by their parents because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Berg faced young people who have battled extreme poverty, experienced unbalanced opportunities, structural racism, and homophobia. He found himself ill-equipped to help, in part because they are working within a system that paints in broad strokes, focused on warehousing young people, rather than helping them build healthy relationships with adults that could lead to a successful life once they age out of foster care.By digging deep and asking the hard questions, and by haltingly opening himself up to his charges, Berg gained their trust. Focusing on a handful of memorable characters and their entourage, he illustrates the key issues and recurring patterns in the suffering, psychology and recovery of these neglected teens.No House to Call My Home will provoke readers into thinking in new ways about how we define privilege, identity, love and family. Because beyond the tears and abuse, the bluster and bravado, what emerges here is a love song to that irrepressible life force of youth: hope.

A Justice Primer


Douglas Wilson - 2015
    But its popular meaning and application have become distorted. If God is the Judge of all the earth, His definition of justice and His standards for applying it must be the basis of every creature’s pursuit of it. In A Justice Primer, Randy Booth and Douglas Wilson bring their considerable pastoral experience to the topic. They unfold biblical principles that can be applied among individuals and in the spheres of family, church, and state. Issues including jurisdiction, charges, evidence, and the particularly thorny topic of sex abuse are covered. And all parties—accused and accuser, judge and jury, witness and rubbernecking internet bystander—are reminded that, although justice on earth will never be perfect, the Judge of all the earth will do right, letting no guilt go unpunished and no offended innocence go unavenged.DOUGLAS WILSON & RANDY BOOTH have over seventy years’ pastoral experience between them. Doug has shepherded Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, almost since its inception and is the author of scores of books. He and his wife, Nancy, have three children and seventeen grandchildren. Randy currently serves at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he is also the director of Covenant Media Foundation. He is married to Marinell, and they have three children and sixteen grandchildren.

A Home for Abigail


S. Marriott Cook - 2015
    . . .Join Abigail on her journey as she becomes a beloved family member in a forever home.Based on a true story, A Home for Abigail is a book to be enjoyed by pet lovers of all ages.Awards won by A Home for AbigailThe Kindness Award for The Feathered Quill 2015-2016 Best Children’s Book of the Year for Reader Views Kids First Place Royal Dragonfly Award pet/animal category 2016First Place Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards 2016 for the Young Reader Category 2015-2016 I Have Something to Say Press Award 2nd place Purple Dragonfly Award Best Children’s Book over 6 2nd place Purple Dragonfly Award Children’s Book in pet/animal categoryA Home for Abigail is on the approved reading list of The National Humane Education Society

Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground: An Ethnography of Climate Change in Shishmaref, Alaska


Elizabeth Marino - 2015
    But the island, home to Iñupiaq Eskimos who still live off subsistence harvesting, is falling into the sea, and climate change is, at least in part, to blame. While countries sputter and stall over taking environmental action, Shishmaref is out of time.Publications from the New York Times to Esquire have covered this disappearing village, yet few have taken the time to truly show the community and the two millennia of traditions at risk. In Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground, Elizabeth Marino brings Shishmaref into sharp focus as a place where people in a close-knit, determined community are confronting the realities of our changing planet every day. She shows how physical dangers challenge lives, while the stress and uncertainty challenge culture and identity. Marino also draws on Shishmaref’s experiences to show how disasters and the outcomes of climate change often fall heaviest on those already burdened with other social risks and often to communities who have contributed least to the problem. Stirring and sobering, Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground proves that the consequences of unchecked climate change are anything but theoretical.

Harry Helps Grandpa Remember


Karen Tyrrell - 2015
    Harry and Grandpa love playing hide-and-seek together. On Grandparent's Day, Grandpa becomes confused and lost. He couldn't even remember Harry's name. Then Harry discovers clever ways to boost Grandpa's memory. How does Harry help Grandpa remember? "Harry" raises awareness of dementia, Alzheimer's and memory loss through humour, compassion and Hope. Includes Teacher Notes on prevention tips to reduce the risk as a well as memory boosting tips. Winner of RADF Grant via Arts Queensland Australia and Logan City Council 'Harry' provides a gentle introduction for children to the realities of Dementia and Alzheimer's. *5 STAR Reviews on Goodreads from Teachers, school counsellors, parents and children's authors. https: //www.goodreads.com/book/show/25514349-... Themes: Alzheimer's, Dementia, memory loss, memory, problem solving, grandparents, family. FREE Teacher Notes and Kids Activities www.karentyrrell.com

The Executions


Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer - 2015
    A war is brewing in the Choctaw Nation as two political parties fight out issues of old and new ways. Caught in the middle is eighteen-year-old Ruth Ann, a Choctaw who doesn’t want to see her family killed. In a small but booming pre-statehood town, her mixed blood family owns a controversial newspaper, the Choctaw Tribune. Ruth Ann wants to help spread the word about critical issues but there is danger for a female reporter on all fronts—socially, politically, even physically. But what is truly worth dying for? This quest leads Ruth Ann and her brother Matthew, the stubborn editor of the fledgling Choctaw Tribune, to old Choctaw ways at the farm of a condemned murderer. It also brings them to head on clashes with leading townsmen who want their reports silenced no matter what. More killings are ahead. Who will survive to know the truth? Will truth survive?

Subway Stations of the Cross


Ins Choi - 2015
    Part public disturbance, part performance artist, and part modern-day prophet, Ins Choi embodies the form of a nameless vagabond who is both beggar and seer. He creates a rich tapestry of the profane and the sacred, the humorous and the banal, the contemptuous and the poignant in both poetry and lyric. It is a holy communion for the urban soul. This relevant and challenging show is captured here in book form with illustrations of subway drawings by Guno Park, whose work has been featured internationally.

Mariama: Different But Just the Same


Jerónimo Cornelles - 2015
    She’s going to discover a world where the streets, her school, and the food are all different. But what about the people?A beautiful tale about identity, the process of integration, and solidarity.Are you ready to meet Mariama and play with her?Lexile Level 810LGuided Reading Level L

Prepare: Living Your Faith in an Increasingly Hostile Culture


J. Paul Nyquist - 2015
    Trend lines, unless altered, point to accelerated cultural change and even greater drift from the historic roots of this country. As a result, there is a growing intolerance towards believers and their message. Increasingly, followers of Jesus are being viewed as narrow, bigoted and hateful.  Yet all of this was predicted by Christ before His departure.Prepare: Living Your Faith in an Increasingly Hostile Culture will set forth a biblical, theological, and practical approach to navigating the challenging days ahead and a reason for hope and optimism - the power of the Gospel and the possibility of societal transformation.

Seattle Stories Box Set


Con Riley - 2015
    The last thing he’s looking for is a new lover, but as Theo discovers, sometimes life has its own plans.Two men bring Theo closer to acceptance, only just when he’s ready to commit, Theo finds he isn't the only one haunted by the past.~ hurt comfort, angst, online relationships, hope and healing, and age is just a numberSaving SeanNo more running from love…Nearly a year after being rejected for another man, Seattle paramedic Peter Morse is still pining when the one that got away asks him for a favor. His mission: track down Sean Reid.Everything about Sean stirs Peter’s protective instincts, but he never anticipated falling for someone so hell-bent on running from him. Asking for help is a bitter pill for Peter to swallow, but if he can’t, how can he expect Sean to accept his help—and his love—in turn?~ hurt comfort, men in uniform, angst, forced proximity, and the power of found familyAiden’s LuckNo more hiding the truth…House-sitting for a friend is supposed to be a lucky break for Aiden Daly—an escape from the mental load he carries without his family knowing. Discovering his new housemate, Marco, is the image of his first crush turns it into a nightmare.When a crisis finally brings Aiden to his breaking point, accepting support from Marco is a gamble, but it could be just what Aiden needs to turn his luck around.~ enemies to lovers, hurt comfort, angst, and an irrepressible Italian

Redbone


Mahogany L. Browne - 2015
    It's such a moving act. Such a caring and true telling. Such a singing. --Ross Gay, author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Zappa's Mam's a Slapper


John Lynch - 2015
    Having a harlot for a mother doesn’t make life easy and nor does going to jail at fourteen, but when he is reunited with his childhood sweetheart peace enters Billy's heart. Then fate deals a wrecking blow. The book shows Billy through his own eyes and words as he learns to forgive, let go of the bad things in life, accept with grace the good things and finally reach out to others. It’s a coming of age book that begins in tragedy and ends in hope. A bittersweet story of love, loss and one young man's refusal to accept what life offers.

Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America


Tim Wise - 2015
    In his bracing new book, Under the Affluence, he brilliantly engages the roots and ramifications of radical inequality in our nation, carefully detailing the heartless war against the poor and the swooning addiction to the rich that exposes the moral sickness at the heart of our culture. Wise's stirring analysis of our predicament is more than a disinterested social scientific treatise; this book is a valiant call to arms against the vicious practices that undermine the best of the American ideals we claim to cherish. Under the Affluence is vintage Tim Wise: smart, sophisticated, conscientious, and righteously indignant at the betrayal of millions of citizens upon whose backs the American Dream rests. This searing testimony for the most vulnerable in our nation is also a courageous cry for justice that we must all heed."—Michael Eric Dyson, author of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in AmericaTim Wise is one of America's most prolific public intellectuals. His critically acclaimed books, high-profile media interviews, and year-round speaking schedule have established him as an invaluable voice in any discussion on issues of race and multicultural democracy.In Under the Affluence, Wise discusses a related issue: economic inequality and the demonization of those in need. He reminds us that there was a time when the hardship of fellow Americans stirred feelings of sympathy, solidarity for struggling families, and support for policies and programs meant to alleviate poverty. Today, however, mainstream discourse blames people with low income for their own situation, and the notion of an intractable "culture of poverty" has pushed our country in an especially ugly direction.Tim Wise argues that far from any culture of poverty, it is the culture of predatory affluence that deserves the blame for America's simmering economic and social crises. He documents the increasing contempt for the nation's poor, and reveals the forces at work to create and perpetuate it. With clarity, passion and eloquence, he demonstrates how America's myth of personal entitlement based on merit is inextricably linked to pernicious racial bigotry, and he points the way to greater compassion, fairness, and economic justice.Tim Wise is the author of many books, including Dear White America and Colorblind.