Meet Hadjii. He’s got a loving family, a taste for making trouble, and a wicked sense of humor. His first book, Don’t Let My Mama Read This, is a rarity—an upbeat memoir about a blessedly normal childhood written by a natural-born storyteller. In it, he offers a warm, witty look at the pleasures and pitfalls of growing up in a close-knit Southern family, from a young man who’s just like you, only funnier.

Somewhere between a paperboy's first cup of chicory coffee and the memories of the Madam who inspired Belle Watling of Gone With the Wind fame, there lies a story of sex, secrets and spiritual redemption. Interweaving portals to the past with the magic of a Spirit Guide called back to his lover's deathbed, Belle Brezing is a haunting love story about a loyal paperboy on a high-stakes mission: To guide his former lover to remember the secret that forged her rise to fame but closed her heart to love. Belle Brezing, the novel, takes a look at the woman who died in virtual isolation in 1940, decades after her business was closed by the Army in 1917. Brezing was a nationally known southern Madam whose obituary appeared on the front of the NY Times as well as Time Magazine. (1863-1940) Belle Brezing was a charismatic woman who brought herself out of poverty and an emotionally and physically painful early childhood. Shedding light on the connections of a wounded past and a life lived in quiet desperation, the award-winning novel Belle Brezing exposes the scandals and secrets of this dynamic woman whose life parallels timely issues in the arena of prostitution and sex trafficking.

Frustrated by the challenge of opening teacher education students to a genuine understanding of the social justice concepts vital for creating an equitable learning environment?Do your students ever resist accepting that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer people experience bias or oppression, or that their experiences even belong in a conversation about “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” or “social justice?”Recognizing these are common experiences for teacher educators, the contributors to this book present their struggles and achievements in developing approaches that have successfully guided students to complex understandings of such threshold concepts as White privilege, homophobia, and heteronormativity, overcoming the “bottlenecks” that impede progress toward bigger learning goals and understandings. The authors initiate a conversation – one largely absent in the social justice education literature and the discourse – about the common content- and pedagogy-related challenges that social justice educators face in their work, particularly for those doing this work in relative or literal isolation, where collegial understanding cannot be found down the hall or around the corner. In doing so they hope not only to help individual teachers in their practice, but also strengthen social justice teacher education more systemically. Each contributor identifies a learning bottleneck related to one or two specific threshold concepts that they have struggled to help their students learn. Each chapter is a narrative about individual efforts toward sometimes profound pedagogical adjustment, about ambiguity and cognitive dissonance and resistance, about trial and error, and about how these educators found ways to facilitate foundational social justice learning among a diversity of education students. Although this is not intended to be a “how-to” manual, or to provide five easy steps to enable straight students to “get” heteronormativity, each chapter does describe practical strategies that teachers might adapt as part of their own practice.

"This ground-breaking book on pedagogy, research, and philosophy in teacher education expands the imagination of justice-oriented education and arts-based scholarship. Based on a multi-year study of Jones’ use of feminist pedagogies, the book seamlessly moves between classroom practice, theory, and philosophy in a way that will offer something for everyone: those who are looking for new ways of doing teacher education, those who hope to better understand philosophy, and those who seek new ways of doing inquiry and scholarship. Demonstrating through pedagogy, method, and form that we “have more power than we think” and don’t have to repeat what has been handed down to us, the creators critique the restrictions of traditional teacher education and academic discourse. This critique prompts a move outward into unpredictable spaces of encounter where a “maybe world” might be lived in education. In this way, Jones and Woglom don’t make the case for a certain kind of pedagogy or scholarly inquiry that might be repeated, but rather they invite educators and researchers to take seriously the philosophical ideas of Deleuze, Guattari, Barad, and others who argue that humans are in a constant aesthetic process of becoming with other humans, non-human life, and the material world around them. Thus, education – even teacher education – is not about reaching an already known end goal, but growing and changing through multiple ways of being and perceiving in the world. The authors call this mutant pedagogies and show one ethical path of mutating."

" I don't think I want you around Bobby Lowe anymore-and I sure don't want him around me or Jason." Rick sat back and looked at Kylie. "Sweetheart, he's one of my oldest and best friends. I can't just 'not' see him anymore." Kylie glowered at Rick, "And I'm your wife," she pointed toward the room where Jason slept, "and that's your son. Your friend is a menace to himself, this family and anyone else he comes in contact with." Traveling through his old hometown on a photo assignment, photographer Rick Gaines stops in Zephyrhills, Florida, to visit his old friends, Mit Suggs and Bobby Lowe. Rick wants a career in New York until he runs into Kylie Simmons, an old friend from high school. Mit Suggs, the redneck, wants to drink beer and chase women-until he meets Kylie's older sister, Trina. Bobby Lowe, the mama's boy, works at his mother's Laundromat and soon joins the army. The friends pick up their relationship where they left off, and things seem to be the same. But something is about to change, taking each of them to new highs and, ultimately, to a tragic low.

Jorge Grapler grew up an insecure loner in rural, Idaho. Now, a young man, he wants nothing more than to prove himself strong and capable, not only to himself, but also to everyone in his world. So, when an opportunity falls into his lap that will place him in the lead role of an embezzlement conspiracy, he jumps at the chance. After changing his name, Jorge (a.k.a. Jag) heads west to search for his target, Dillon Andresen, a ruthless businessman who seems to have the life Jorge has always wanted. In the midst of the heist, Jorge learns that things arent always as they seem. With the shadow of a second conspiracy looming and the suspicion that he is being double-crossed by his partner, Jorge finds himself plagued with the same self-doubt he had as a child. The clock is ticking. The police are in motion. Everything is at stake. Will Jorge take the money and run, or stick around and finally learn what it truly takes to be a man. Twin Conspiracies is a breathtaking story of deception and mistrust that weaves in and out of manipulation, revenge, greed, and seduction.

Help the members of your congregation begin 40 days of transformation by using this book to unify them in study. The daily readings are centered on the themes of Prayer, Presence, Gifts, & Service. Each reading helps the reader focus on discerning God's plan for them individually and how they can help live out God's plan for the church. This book is an integral part of the program, Transformed Giving: Realizing Your Church's Full Stewardship Potential and can be used by youth and adults. Each member and small group/class leader participating in the study will need a copy of the book. Members will also need a copy of the Participants Workbook, while leaders will use the Leader's Guide with DVD. To learn more about Transformed Giving, please click here.

Award-winning journalist, Dr. Donna Clovis, recounts the stories of Princeton, New Jersey, in the early 1900s through the late 1950s through the eyes of two of the oldest citizens by means of interviews, diaries, and articles. The synchronicity of being at the right place at the right time for the interviews, locations, and journals plays a major role in the construction of the book. KIRKUS REVIEW In her latest novel, Clovis (Another SAT, 2005, etc.( depicts a century of change in the one-time home of Albert Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey, a tree-lined town dominated by its famous university, contains many magnificent homesincluding the Rosedale House, which serves as the focal point of this book. Its residents witness many changes in the town, starting in the early 1900s. Those residents include Ida, an African-American girl who yearns to break away from Carnethia, her suffocating mother; Daisy, the white mistress of the house; her husband, Barker; a rebellious African-American girl named Beatrice; and Tina, who dreams of success as a singer. As they go about their lives, growing and changing, Princeton grows and changes as well; horse-drawn vehicles give way to automobiles, and older homes and buildings are torn down and replaced by modern hotels, stores, and landmarks such as Palmer Square. At the center of everything is the Rosedale House, the one constant in a sea of change. The writing throughout is strong, with frequent use of simile ("They strolled slowly from Nassau Street to the Rosedale house, like a dark sea creeping its way along a pale, sandy beach"). Clovis begins the book with observations about how she came to write it through a happy accident of circumstances. She effectively uses a large, ever-changing cast of characters, weaving them in and out of the story in various locales, but never letting the focus wander from Princeton and the theme of time's passage. It also depicts the casual and violent racism of American society in the early-to mid-1900s, such as when Beatrice is raped by a white man, or when Daisy attempts to help an African-American family move into another town's white neighborhood. Even the chapter about Einstein, a legendary character in Princeton for his violin playing and absent-minded wanderings, shows the otherwise open-minded community's surprising bigotry. Given the recent, racially charged events in Ferguson, Missouri, and other places, Clovis' version of Princeton seems like a microcosm of America. An engaging look at the evolution of a town, its people, and its attitudes.

In the continuing U.S. debate over illegal immigration, a human face has rarely been shown. The topic has been presented as a monolithic abstraction, a creation of statistics, political rhetoric, and fear. This collection of letters between undocumented immigrants in California and their families back home reveals the other side of the story. Published for the first time in paperback, Between the Lines reveals the often poignant human drama currently being played out along the U.S.-Mexico border. The letters, presented in Spanish and English, express powerful feelings of hope, uncertainty, and fear among the undocumented travelers as they arrive in the United States and seek work, social support and legal status. The letters from their families in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador return feelings of hope, love, and support. Translator/editor Siems provides a powerful and lyrical introductory essay that sets the stage for the letters that follow.