Gay culture has become a nightmare of consumerism, whether it's an endless quest for Absolut vodka, Diesel jeans, rainbow Hummers, pec implants, or Pottery Barn. Whatever happened to sexual flamboyance and gender liberation, an end to marriage, the military, and the nuclear family? As backrooms are shut down to make way for wedding vows, and gay sexual culture morphs into "straight-acting dudes hangin' out," what are the possibilities for a defiant...

In this powerful examination of "the greatest propaganda campaign of all time"--The masterful marketing of black inferiority, aka the BI Complex--Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think and act like slaves.

Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. Thats just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, theyll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on Hemlock Street without a rooftop Frosty; they wont be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they arent even going to have a tree. They wont need one, because come December 25...

Around the globe, people are facing the same problem - that we are born as individuals but are forced to conform to the rules of society if we want to succeed. To see our uniqueness expressed in our achievements, we must first learn the rules - and then how to change them completely. Charles Darwin began as an underachieving schoolboy, Leonardo da Vinci as an illegitimate outcast. The secret of their eventual greatness lies in a 'rigorous apprenticeship':...

"Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with An Untamed State and the New York Times bestselling essay collection Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial). Gay returns with Difficult Women, a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted...

Piper's mum wants her to be "normal," to pass as hearing and get a good job. But growing up reading lips in a world that demands she conform has always left Piper feeling stifled. Her art journal is the one place where she can fully express herself, much needed when there's a food shortage ravaging the country and a government that won't listen. Then she meets Marley, who introduces her to sign language and the Deaf community and suddenly, the possibilities...

"Sometimes we hide who we really are to conform to the way we think we are supposed to be in the world. Sometimes we compare ourselves to others and feel we don't fit in. But when we realize we are something to be celebrated, and we proudly live out loud as our true selves, we can make our unique mark on the world--and share our joy!"

Why does my voice crack like that? What should I eat to build muscle? How do I talk to someone I have a crush on? What do I do if someone calls me names or bullies me? Growing from a boy to a man is no easy task. Bodies are changing, social circles are evolving, hair is appearing in places it never was before -- and on top of it all, there's the ever-present pressure to conform to the typical idea of what it means to be "manly" and masculine. But...

You think that your choices and behaviors are driven by your individual, personal tastes, and opinions. Our own personal thoughts and opinions is patently obvious. Right? Wrong. Other people behavior has a huge influence on everything we do, from the mundane to the momentous. Berger integrates research and thinking from business, psychology, and social science to focus on the subtle, invisible influences behind our choices as individuals.

Seeking peace and safety after a hard childhood, Leah marries Judah, a strong and gentle man, and for the first time in her life believes she can rest easily. But the land is ruled by Antiochus IV, and when he issues a decree that all Jews are to conform to Syrian laws upon pain of death, devout Jews risk everything to follow the law of Moses. Judah's father resists the decree, and is cost him his life. But before dying, he commands his son to pick...