In a gripping tale of abuse, perpetual violence, homelessness, incarceration, and suicidal ideation, NKrumah Lewis utilizes his new found academic voice to tell a tale of triumph and metamorphosis. It is too dismissive to say that every man of color should read this book. Every person that has ever endured any indignation or painful setback that was believed to be insurmountable should turn from page to page with pen in hand, and experience a wonderful testimony of redemption and forgiveness. The sum of these pages remove any excuse for not getting back up again. Suffering has met a worthy adversary in this man's voice. Please note that the text is written at a collegiate level and also contains depictions of graphic violence that may not appropriate for young readers.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • Time • NPR • Good Morning America • San Francisco Chronicle • The Guardian • The Economist • Financial Times • Newsday • New York Post • theSkimm • Refinery29 • Bloomberg • Self • Real Simple • Town & Country • Bustle • Paste • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • LibraryReads • Book Riot • Pamela Paul, KQED • New York Public Library

Butterfly Wars is about the destructive nature of post-traumatic stress disorder over time. In a one-year reflective journal, the narrator tells the first-person account of the development and fragility of his character, which is then subjected to provocative challenges that shatter expectations, reducing one to chronic depression. The net result overtime is low self-esteem, with personal value only credited to experiences outside of himself. The challenges are glimpses at the destructive nature of fundamentalism, the skewed perception in accepting responsibility when one is too young, the crushing weight of trusting others, and progressing to the ultimate in humiliation. The account is about failed efforts to be responsible for taking care of oneself and chronic isolation. Failure is the inability to see true value, when self-worth is not deemed possible. He wears blinders when surrounded by high self-achievement. The first step in recovery is the late life experiencing of one significant other. The book is a storyline that concludes with the realization of a beginning.

After a marijuana-addled brawl with a rival gang, 16-year-old Azael wakes up to find himself surrounded by a familiar set of concrete walls and a locked door. Juvie again, he thinks. But he can't really remember what happened or how he got picked up. He knows his MS13 boys faced off with some punks from Crazy Crew. There were bats, bricks, chains. A knife. But he can't remember anything between that moment and when he woke behind bars. Azael knows prison, and something isn't right about this lockup. No phone call. No lawyer. No news about his brother or his homies. The only thing they make him do is watch some white girl in some cell. Watch her and try to remember. Lexi Allen would love to forget the brawl, would love for it to disappear back into the Xanax fog it came from. And her mother and her lawyer hope she chooses not to remember too much about the brawl?at least when it's time to testify. Lexi knows there's more at stake in her trial than her life alone, though. She's connected to him, and he needs the truth. The knife cut, but somehow it also connected.

Haunted by an urgent voice she hears each time she reads a book by Carlos Castaneda, Gail seeks out Castaneda's apprentice, and she finds herself catapulted into a strange world of shamans, metaphysics, and ancient beings. She is thrust forward onto a dangerous path that takes her from the safety of her everyday world into the radiant landscape where true power lives. Here, she is introduced to an ancient couple, who have lived and loved beyond time itself. She offers up her heart to become a co-conspirator with them in an unbelievable task. She must journey into the ancient records and retrieve the knowledge that broke this ancient couple and humanity itself apart. The death-bed promise this ancient couple made to each other eons ago is also the key to humanity's own resurrection. It is this-the Butterfly Promise-that will return us to our true powers and to our wholeness once again.

In Black Utopias Jayna Brown takes up the concept of utopia as a way of exploring alternative states of being, doing, and imagining in Black culture. Musical, literary, and mystic practices become utopian enclaves in which Black people engage in modes of creative worldmaking. Brown explores the lives and work of Black women mystics Sojourner Truth and Rebecca Cox Jackson, musicians Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, and the work of speculative fiction writers Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler as they decenter and destabilize the human, radically refusing liberal humanist ideas of subjectivity and species. Brown demonstrates that engaging in utopian practices Black subjects imagine and manifest new genres of existence and forms of collectivity. For Brown, utopia consists of those moments in the here and now when those excluded from the category human jump into other onto-epistemological realms. Black people—untethered from the hope of rights, recognition, or redress—celebrate themselves as elements in a cosmic effluvium.

THIS RICHLY INFORMATIVE JOURNEY INTO THE 1970S CAPTURES THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF THE BLACK PERFORMERS, MUSICIANS, FILMMAKERS, AND ATHLETES WHO IGNITED A CULTURAL REVOLUTION. WHAT SINGER/SONGWRITER WAS THE FIRST WHITE PERFORMER TO APPEAR ON SOUL TRAIN? WHAT PHILADELPHIA 76ER MADE NBA HISTORY WHEN, AGAINST THE KANSAS CITY KINGS, HIS TWO-HANDED DUNK SHATTERED THE BACKBOARD? WHAT ROCK-AND-ROLL STAR WOULD BEGIN HIS CAREER PLAYING GUITAR FOR ARTISTS LITTLE RICHARD AND THE ISLEY BROTHERS? Whether you’re a ’70s culture aficionado or these questions have you stumped, Todd Boyd’s exciting look at one of the most influential periods in popular culture will be a fun and exciting roller-coaster ride that you won’t want to miss. Dr. Boyd (known as “The Notorious Ph.D.”) delves into the personalities, passions, and politics that swept America and the world in the ’70s and introduced a style and attitude that still reverberates today with the hip hop generation. From movies like Shaft, Super Fly, and Cleopatra Jones to Richard Pryor’s edgy routines on race to the rise of Dr. J and other sports superstars, The Notorious Ph.D.’s Guide to the Super Fly ’70s mixes social insight with an all-out celebration of the contributions of a wide variety of Black icons. Covering every aspect of Black culture from the period and including a quiz that you and your friends will love answering together, Dr. Boyd’s hip writing style will educate while it entertains.

"Butterfly Tears reveals the gripping and intimate stories of nine brave Pathways women who found the strength to turn their dark, raging worlds around. Women who, against all odds, broke free of the destructive cycle of addiction and abuse to attain love, security, and successful lives--women who have emerged as lawyers, teachers, and counselors to joyfully give back to society."--Jacket back.

Renewal of higher-education programs in US prisons creates a need for science education. This is the first book to address STEM education in prisons in the United States. It calls on activist science teachers to develop innovative ways to teach in challenging carceral settings. Over the last fifty years, science education and prison education have moved in different directions, one expanding and the other contracting. This book brings these educational endeavors into cooperative engagement. Democratic citizenship opens opportunities for all people, irrespective of civil status, to study science. The book presents student narratives and case studies emphasizing the achievements of STEM education behind prison walls. STEM education equity can help address the deep social inequities that mass incarceration creates and magnifies. Contributors are: Cassandra Barrett, Andrew Bell, George Bogner, Adrian Borealis, Drew Bush, Kelli Bush, Sandy Chang, Kelle Dhein, Amalia Handler, Steven Hart, Steven Henderson, Tiffany Hensley-McBain, Paul Kazelis, Joe Lockard, Edward Mei, Tsafrir Mor, Rob Scott, Laura Taylor, Joslyn Rose Trivett and Emily Webb.

A collection of personal essays from men who wrestle with what it means to be a father in academia today. Organized in three sections, the stories of the contributors depict not merely a balancing act of parenting, teaching, and writing, but also the revelatory collision and occasional fusion of competing identities. Essays in the first section, "Fathers in Theory, Fathers in Praxis, " focus on challenges related to merging work and parenting. The authors contemplate to what degree we engage our children in the academy, while also allowing them to grow independently, recognizing the challenge of keeping the roles of parent and teacher distinct. The second section, "Family Made, " explores fatherhood against the grain and includes narratives of single dads, fathers raising children with disabilities, biracial families, and other "non-traditional" parenting situations. "Forging New Fatherhoods, " the third section, articulates the strategies created by men to "balance diapers and a doctorate" or to reconcile fatherhood with professional ambition. The contributors' reflections reveal how fatherhood is instrumental to their successes and failures in the workplace, and demonstrate that the relationship between fatherhood and academia is a rich and legitimate subject for study.