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Showing 1 - 20 of 53 items
By Rinaldo Walcott, Idil Abdillahi. 2019
What does it mean in the era of Black Lives Matter to continue to ignore and deny the violence that…
is the foundation of the Canadian nation state? BlackLife discloses the ongoing destruction of Black people as enacted not simply by state structures, but beneath them in the foundational modernist ideology that underlies thinking around migration and movement, as Black erasure and death are unveiled as horrifically acceptable throughout western culture. With exactitude and celerity, Idil Abdillahi and Rinaldo Walcott pull from local history, literature, theory, music, and public policy around everything from arts funding, to crime and mental health--presenting a convincing call to challenge pervasive thought on dominant culture's conception of Black personhood. They argue that artists, theorists, activists, and scholars offer us the opportunity to rethink and expose flawed thought, providing us new avenues into potential new lives and a more livable reality of BlackLife.By Lauren McKeon. 2020
A groundbreaking, insightful book about women and power from award-winning journalist Lauren McKeon, which shows how women are disrupting the…
standard (very male) vision of power, ditching convention, and building a more equitable world for everyone.In the age of girl bosses, Beyoncé, and Black Widow, we like to tell our little girls they can be anything they want when they grow up, except they’ll have to work twice as hard, be told to “play nice,” and face countless double standards that curb their personal, political, and economic power. Women today remain a surprisingly, depressingly long way from gender and racial equality. It’s worth asking: Why do we keep playing a game we were never meant to win?Award-winning journalist and author of F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, Lauren McKeon examines the many ways in which our institutions are designed to keep women and other marginalized genders at a disadvantage. In doing so, she reveals why we need more than parity, visible diversity, and lone female CEOs to change this power game. She talks to people doing power differently in a variety of sectors and uncovers new models of power. And as the toxic, divisive, and hyper-masculine style of leadership gains ground, she underscores why it’s time to stop playing by the rules of a rigged game.By Julie S. Lalonde. 2020
For over a decade, Julie Lalonde, an award-winning advocate for women’s rights, kept a secret. She crisscrossed the country, denouncing…
violence against women and giving hundreds of media interviews along the way. Her work made national headlines for challenging universities and taking on Canada’s top military brass. Appearing fearless on the surface, Julie met every interview and event with the same fear in her gut: was he there?Fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20, Julie was stalked by her ex-partner for over ten years, rarely mentioning it to friends, let alone addressing it publicly. The contrast between her public career as a brave champion for women with her own private life of violence and fear meant a shaky and exhausting balancing act.Resilience sounds like a positive thing, so why do we often use it against women? Tenacity and bravery might help us survive unimaginable horrors, but where are the spaces for anger and vulnerability?Resilience is Futile is a story of survival, courage and ultimately, hope. But it’s also a challenge to the ways we understand trauma and resilience. It’s the story of one survivor who won’t give up and refuses to shut up.By Daphne B., Alex Manley. 2021
A nuanced, feminist, and deeply personal take on beauty culture and YouTube consumerism, in the tradition of Maggie Nelson’s Bluets…
As Daphné B. obsessively watches YouTube makeup tutorials and haunts Sephora’s website, she’s increasingly troubled by the ways in which this obsession contradicts her anti-capitalist and intersectional feminist politics. In this poetic treatise, she rejects the false binaries of traditional beauty standards and delves into the celebrities and influencers, from Kylie to Grimes, and the poets and philosophers, from Anne Boyer to Audre Lorde, who have shaped the reflection she sees in the mirror. At once confessional and essayistic, Made-Up is a meditation on the makeup that colours, that obscures, that highlights who we are and who we wish we could be. The original French-language edition was a cult hit in Quebec. Translated by Alex Manley—like Daphné, a Montreal poet and essayist—the book’s English-language text crackles with life, retaining the flair and verve of the original, and ensuring that a book on beauty is no less beautiful than its subject matter. “The most radical book of 2020 talks about makeup. Radical in the intransigence with which Daphne B hunts down the parts of her imagination that capitalism has phagocytized. Radical also in its rejection of false binaries (the authentic and the fake, the futile and the essential) through the lens of which such a subject is generally considered. With the help of a heady combination of pop cultural criticism and autobiography, a poet scrutinizes her contradictions. They are also ours.” —Dominic Tardif, Le Devoir “[Made-Up] is a delight. I read it in one go. And when, out of necessity, I had to put it down, it was with regret and with the feeling that I was giving up what could save me from a catastrophe.” —Laurence Fournier, Lettres Québécoises, five stars "Made-Up is a radiant, shimmering blend of memoir and cultural criticism that uses beauty culture as an entry point to interrogating the ugly contradictions of late capitalism. In short, urgent chapters laced with humor and wide-ranging references, Daphné B. plumbs the depths of a rich topic that’s typically dismissed as shallow. I imagine her writing it in eye pencil, using makeup to tell the story of her life, as so many women do." —Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points "A companion through the thicket of late stage capitalism, a lucid and poetic mirror for anyone whose image exists on a screen." —Rachel Kauder Nalebuff "Made-Up is anything but—committed to the grit of our current realities, Daphné B directs her piercing eye on capitalism in an intimate portrayal of what it means to love, and how to paint ourselves in the process. Alex Manley has gifted English audiences with a nuanced translation of a critical feminist text, exploring love and make-up as a transformative social tool." —Sruti Islam "The book will leave you both laughing in recognition and wincing at the reality of the beauty world’s impact on our collective psyche." —Chatelaine d"[Made-Up] examines the intersection of beauty culture and consumer culture... Aided by the work of writers like Anne Carson, Anne Boyer, Amanda Hess, and Arabelle Sicardi... B. makes sharp observations about the ideologies behind both beauty [...] and consumerism." —Bitch Media "Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture under Late Capitalism is well worth reading." —Literary Review of Canada "[Made-Up], newly translated by writer/poet Alex Manley from its original French, puts an iTelling stories specific to Columbia Plateau farmers and farmland, this journalist puts the lives and difficulties of individual farmers into…
national and global contexts. He interweaves family narratives, historical episodes and his own experience as a young harvest hand to illuminate the transformation of rural America from the 19th to 21st centuryBy Rob Elliott, Gearbox. 2017
Three joke books, written between 2017 and 2019, each featuring a different theme. Includes Laugh-Out-Loud Awesome Jokes for Kids, Laugh-Out-Loud…
Road Trip Jokes for Kids, and Laugh-Out-Loud Springtime Jokes for Kids. For grades 2-4. 2019By Dan Gutman, Jim Paillot. 2013
By Pankaj Mishra. 2017
The author of From the Ruins of Empire (DB 76629) and The Romantics (DB 52514) explores the origins of the…
great waves of paranoid hatred that persist throughout the world in the early twenty-first century. Also discusses historical periods in which similar trends occurred. 2017By Robin Romm. 2017
A collection of twenty-four essays examining perceptions of ambitious women and the ways that many societies discourage women from having…
ambition. Includes essays from Pam Houston, Roxane Gay, Francine Prose, Molly Ringwald, and others. Some strong language. 2017By Dan Baum. 2010
The author examines life in New Orleans, Louisiana, through the lives of nine individuals. Covers the period of time between…
Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and explores how these storms affected the city. 2009By Dan Gutman, Jim Paillot. 2014
By Sophie Pinkham. 2016
Journalist explores contemporary life in Ukraine, examining Ukraine's repeated rebuilding of itself, the political roots of its early twenty-first century…
conflicts, and its issues with corruption, poverty, ethnic divisions, and Russian aggression. Also profiles the many-faceted lives of Ukrainian individuals, including a doctor, an art gallerist, and a musician. 2016By Margot Lee Shetterly. 2016
Daughter of a NASA engineer profiles the black women who worked for NASA, and its predecessor NACA, as human computers.…
Discusses their lives prior to joining NACA/NASA, the challenges they faced due to gender and race discrimination, and their impact on the space program. Basis for the 2016 movie. 2016By Rick Bragg. 2015
Essays about life in the American South by the author of popular memoirs like All Over but the Shoutin' (DB…
46142). The seventy-two essays, many of which originally appeared in Southern Living magazine, are broken down into categories of "Home," "Table," "Place," "Craft," and "Spirit."2015By Paul Martin, Paul Martín, Paul D Martin. 2014
Thirty portraits of little-known scoundrels throughout history whose misdeeds range from unspeakable acts of evil to unscrupulous behavior. Includes Ed…
Gein, the notorious Wisconsin serial killer who was the inspiration for Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 2014Contributing editor from Wired recounts how four undocumented Mexican immigrants in Arizona put together an underwater robot named Stinky from…
scavenged parts, and went on to win the National Underwater Robotics Competition at UC Santa Barbara in 2004. 2014By Alexander H. Harcourt, A. H Harcourt, Alexander H Harcourt. 2015
Anthropologist examines the movement of the human species and discusses the impact this has had on evolutionary development. Analyzes the…
results of Western imperialism, cultural convergences and diaspora, and the ways local ecology influenced choices of nomadism versus settlement. 2015By G. Willow Wilson. 2010
Author's memoir of her conversion to Islam and her romantic relationship with an Egyptian man after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.…
Details her spiritual search as a college student, her move to Cairo at age twenty-one, and the culture clash she experienced as an American living in Egypt. 2010By Alison Stewart. 2013
Award-winning journalist Stewart chronicles the rise and fall of the first public African American high school, from its founding in…
1870 to the twenty-first century. Explores the historical segregation of Washington, D.C., educational reform, and inner-city problems. Some violence and some strong language. 2013By Roger Rosenblatt. 2013
While teaching a class on memoir writing in 2011, Rosenblatt, the author of Making Toast (DB 72799) and Kayak Morning…
(DB 76815), strolled through his childhood neighborhood of Gramercy Park. He reminisces about his obsession of becoming a detective in 1950s New York City and ponders life and memory. 2013