Showing titles in Cultural & Regional

A personal meditation on, examination of, and tribute to Black single motherhood, unapologetically told through poignant essays and candid interviews by a celebrated cultural critic “Jamilah Lemieux is one of the most important feminist writers of the twenty-first century.”—Brittney Cooper...

Akhenaten is one of ancient Egypt's most famous pharaohs both for fathering Tutankhaten and being the only pharaoh bold enough to discard thousands of years of religious history in favor of a new god, the Sun-Disk Aten. Akhenaten single-handedly altered Egypt more on its own than it would be changed until outside Greek influence took over. The impact his changes had on the religion of Egypt during and after his life cannot be understated, and the ways in which his predecessors worked to undo everything he had done is a remarkable act of revisionist history.

Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, and a New Yorker best book of 2024, a “startling glimpse into the meatpacking industry’s abuse of undocumented and incarcerated workers” (The New York Times Book Review) and those who had the courage to fight back. On June 27, 2011, a...

Nasser Abu Srour grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. As a child, he played in its shadow and explored the little world within the camp. As he grew older, he began questioning the boundaries that limited his existence. Later, sentenced to life in prison, with no hope of parole, he found himself surrounded by a physical wall. This is the story of how, over thirty years in captivity, he crafted a new definition of freedom. Turning to writings by philosophers as varied as Derrida, Kirkegaard and Freud, he begins to let go of freedom...

One of the most important figures in the Scots revival of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is Billy Kay. Through radio, television, plays, creative writing and especially his hugely influential book Scots The Mither Tongue, Kay’s work helped change people’s negative perception of Scots and paved the way for its acceptance as a key element in Scottish cultural identity.

"[These contributions] touch on so many different facets of the immigrant experience that readers will find much to ponder... [and] experience how creative writing enriches our understanding of each other and our lives." –Booklist Introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh...

From standup comedian Youngmi Mayer, an unforgettable memoir written with “raw, enviable freedom that simply floors you,” interrogating whiteness, gender, and sexuality in America, navigating a tumultuous childhood in Korea and Saipan, and coming to terms with her parents’ shortcomings...

Growing up in Seale, Alabama as a Black Queer kid, then attending the Rhode Island School of Design as an undergraduate, Jon Key hungered to see himself in the fields of Art and Design. But in lectures, critiques, and in the books he read, he struggled to see and learn about people who intersected with his identity or who GOT him. So he started asking himself questions: What did it mean to be a graphic designer with his point of view? What did it mean to be a Black graphic designer?

Born in the Philippines, young Grace Talusan moves with her family to a New England suburb in the 1970s. At school, she confronts racism as one of the few kids with a brown face. At home, the confusion is worse: her grandfather's nightly visits to her room leave her hurt and terrified, and she learns to build a protective wall of silence that maps onto the larger silence practiced by her Catholic Filipino family. Later, she learns that her family history is threaded with violence and abuse. Despite all this, she finds love, and success as a teacher.

The New York Times bestselling memoir-now available as an enhanced paperback edition with a new Introduction and never-before- seen photos! In this New York Times bestseller, international superstar Ricky Martin, who has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, opens up for the first time...

Courage, high adventure, and a deep faith in God’s goodness are all part of this story of an Iraqi Christian family’s harrowing escape from death and destruction in their native country. Victimized by a conflict they didn’t create, they risk everything for the possibility of peace and freedom. On foot with little food and water, they fight their way through the rugged mountains separating Northern Iraq from Turkey before being abandoned with thousands of others on the Turkish border.

The samurai are dead. That’s not a morbid or melancholic statement - just a fact. Every samurai who ever lived has long since passed, and only the memory of their way of life remains. By the mid 1800s, the old ways were fading. For centuries, Japanese society had followed a Confucian hierarchy that placed the samurai at the top.

‘Sometimes, 1+1 = changing the world. Cathy Newman’s witty, warm history on the power of determined couples will make you look at your relationship and wonder, “Could we be doing more this weekend than just going to IKEA?”’ CAITLIN MORAN Throughout history, collaboration has fuelled...

In 1931 Molly led her two sisters on an extraordinary 1600-kilometre walk across remote Western Australia. Aged eight, eleven and fourteen, they escaped the confinement of a government institution for Aboriginal children removed from their families. Barefoot, without provisions or maps, tracked by Native Police and search planes, the girls followed the rabbit-proof fence, knowing it would lead them home. Their journey – longer than many of the celebrated treks of recognised explorers – reveals a past more cruel than we could ever imagine.

In letters addressed to their friends, to members of their family - both biological and chosen - and to fellow storytellers, Akwaeke describes the shape of a life lived in overlapping realities. Through heartbreak, chronic pain, intimacy with death, becoming a beast, this is embodiment as a nonhuman: outside the boundaries imposed by expectations and legibility. This book is an account of the gruelling work of realignment and remaking necessary to carve out a future for oneself. The result is a black spirit memoir: a powerful, raw unfolding of identity.

Picking up where he left off in his acclaimed memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin brilliantly captures a bygone era, and the thrills of new adulthood in the early 80s.It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his own author photo that he hopes will someday grace...

"You will be a son, my daughter." With these stunning words Ukmina learned that she was to spend her childhood as a boy. In Afghanistan there is a widespread practice of girls dressing as boys to play the role of a son. These children are called bacha posh: literally "girls dressed as boys." This practice offers families the freedom to allow their child to shop and work - and in some cases, it saves them from the disgrace of not having a male heir. But in adolescence, religion restores the natural law.

On the 18th of June 1994, weeks before the end of the massacres in which hundreds of thousands of her fellow Tutsi, Rwanda's Bantu-speaking ethnic group, were slaughtered by the Hutu, Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse and her mother were fortunate to find a safe passage out of Rwanda with a convoy of children organised by a Swiss humanitarian organisation. Fifteen years later, after rebuilding her life and becoming a successful novelist, Mairesse is ready to begin the long process of reconstructing her incomplete memories of the escape.

Provocative, inspiring, and unflinchingly honest, My Grandfather's Son is the story of one of America's most remarkable and controversial leaders, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told in his own words. Thomas speaks out, revealing the pieces of his life he holds dear, detailing the...

In "Amish Renegade: The Anthropology of an Amish Girl Turned CEO," journey into the extraordinary life of a woman who defied the confines of tradition and forged her own path to success. From her humble beginnings in an Amish community to becoming a serial entrepreneur with global influence and the co-founder of a non-toxic beauty brand, the author shares her captivating story of transformation and resilience. Discover the challenges she faced, the decisions that shaped her destiny, and the lessons learned along the way.