Murder, mayhem, and a goddess with control issues—just another day in my paranormal paradise. Welcome to Ricketts, the town where the weird, the wild, and the wicked come out to play. I’m Vi, your not-so-average supernatural liaison. Things were going pretty smoothly until the local priest met a grisly end, and now everyone’s pointing fingers at me. With the goddess Artemis trying to play puppeteer with my body, a vampire friend whose blood I’m trying really hard not to thirst for, and a new deputy hell-bent on seeing me in cuffs, I’ve got a lot on my plate. And oh, let’s not forget the monster hunters who’ve heard there’s a new Vânători in town and are itching for a showdown. Armed only with my wits, unreliable magic from the goddess, and my trusty hellhound, Ramble, I’ve got to clear my name and figure out who’s behind these gruesome murders before I end up in jail—or worse. In a town where the bizarre is an everyday occurrence, I Know You Are But What Am I? is a thrilling paranormal mystery set in a world where the only thing more unpredictable than the monsters is Vi herself.

Kleptomaniacs, convicts, roof-walkers and homicidal hippies: here are children and adults, men and women, all struggling to define themselves. The stories in I know you are but what am I? are like snow domes - perfect little self-contained worlds that you can hold in your hand, turn upside down, shake until meaning settles in a hundred different ways. Young Misha learns about the complexities of grownup love when his mother is bitten by a stingray. Oldrick must come to terms with his ex-girlfriend's new lover and a belligerent barista in the midst of a smelly garbage strike. Bus-bound Marion, in love with a married man, finds solace in conversation with a convict and home-schooled Rational gets a tutor and learns that his 'hunker in the bunker' family isn't quite what he thought it was. 'Heather Birrell's sentences conjure worlds. These stories scintillate. Smart, sharp, alluring, they're full of the chance encounters, mysteries, missed connections and unexpected tenderness of contemporary life.' - Catherine Bush

How Pee-wee and his playhouse help us reimagine our relationships to technology I Know You Are, but What Am I? explores the cultural legacy of Pee-wee Herman, the cult television star of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. This children’s show—that was also for adults—ran on network TV from 1986 to 1990 and starred comedian Paul Reubens as Herman, a queer man-boy whose playhouse, the set for the show, was tricked out with a profusion of animate computational toys and technologies. Cait McKinney shows how three defining scenes from the show inform, and even foretell and challenge, our present moment: the playhouse as an alternative precursor to networked smart homes that foregrounds caring and ethical relationships between humans and technologies; a reparative retelling of Reubens’s career-wrecking 1991 arrest for indecent exposure inside a Florida adult film theater as part of an AIDS-phobic, antigay sting operation; and worn-out, Talking Pee-wee dolls and their broken afterlives on eBay and YouTube. McKinney looks at how queer people who were children in the 1980s remember and relate to Pee-wee now, showing that the moral panic about sexuality, gender, and children from the past can help us refute anti-trans and anti-queer political movements organized today.

When Trump became president, much of the country was repelled by what they saw as the vulgar spectacle of his ascent, a perversion of the highest office in the land. In his bold, innovative book, Political Perversion, rhetorician Joshua Gunn argues that this “mean-spirited turn” in American politics (of which Trump is the paragon) is best understood as a structural perversion in our common culture, on a continuum with infantile and “gotcha” forms of entertainment meant to engender provocation and sadistic enjoyment. Drawing on insights from critical theory, media ecology, and psychoanalysis, Gunn argues that perverse rhetorics dominate not only the political sphere but also our daily interactions with others, in person and online. From sexting to campaign rhetoric, Gunn advances a new way to interpret our contemporary political context that explains why so many of us have difficulty deciphering the appeal of aberrant public figures. In this book, Trump is only the tip of a sinister, rapidly growing iceberg, one to which we ourselves unwittingly contribute on a daily basis.

Candid, outspoken, laugh-out-loud funny essays from the much-loved Samantha Bee, the Most Senior Correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart . Critics have called her “sweet, adorable, and vicious.” But there is so much more to be said about Samantha Bee. For one, she’s Canadian. Whatever that means. And now, she opens up for the very first time about her checkered Canadian past. With charming candor, she admits to her Lennie from Of Mice and Men–style love of baby animals, her teenage crime spree as one-half of a car-thieving couple (Bonnie and Clyde in Bermuda shorts and braces), and the fact that strangers seem compelled to show her their genitals. She also details her intriguing career history, which includes stints working in a frame store, at a penis clinic, and as a Japanese anime character in a touring children’s show. Samantha delves into all these topics and many more in this thoroughly hilarious, unabashedly frank collection of personal essays. Whether detailing the creepiness that ensues when strangers assume that your mom is your lesbian lover, or recalling her girlhood crush on Jesus (who looked like Kris Kristofferson and sang like Kenny Loggins), Samantha turns the spotlight on her own imperfect yet highly entertaining life as relentlessly as she skewers hapless interview subjects on The Daily Show. She shares her unique point of view on a variety of subjects as wide ranging as her deep affinity for old people, to her hatred of hot ham. It’s all here, in irresistible prose that will leave you in stitches and eager for more.

What does it mean for a partner if the person they love changes their sex?With a refreshing voice of raw honesty and vulnerability, Ali Sands journaled her search for identity as her partner physically transitioned from female to male. Beginning with the awareness that her partner is transgender, through hormone therapy and multiple surgeries, Ali and her partner experienced many physical and emotional changes.In this courageous and gripping memoir, Ali shares her experiences as she navigates her partner's transition. Holding strong to her love for her partner and her belief in her own truths, Ali persevered through family rejection and found that chosen family supported her journey. She also grew an enduring love and power found in committing to an ever- changing relationship.A poignant and searching account of a brave woman who almost lost her own identity even as she helped the love of her life establish his. -Ira Wood, The Lowdown, WOMR-FMSands' story is...[an] unflinching view into the rollercoaster of a rapidly changing relationship. Sands spares no detail, from weekly testosterone injections to reconstructive surgeries to her own emotional challenges as [her partner] begins to navigate the world as a man. -Sofia Starmack, Journalist, Provincetown BannerHers is a lesson for all of us who are lucky enough to look back at love and its evolution with our partners. A skilled storyteller, Ali has the ability to tell an intimate personal tale in a way that has global relevance. -Ian Edwards, Producer, TEDx Provincetown

In the stories of Mad Hope, Heather Birrell finds the heart of her characters and lets them lead us into worlds both unrecognizable and alarming. We think we know these people but discover we don't—they are more alive, more real, and more complex than we first imagined. A high school science teacher is forced to re-examine the role he played in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania after a student makes a shocking request. The uncertainty, anxiety, and anticipation of pregnancy are examined through an online chat group. Parenting is viewed from the perspective of a gay man caring for his friend and her adopted son. A tragic plane crash becomes the basis for a meditation on motherhood and its discontents. Birrell uses precise, inventive language to capture the beautiful mess of being human—and more than lives up to her Journey Prize accolades. Her characters come to greet us, undo us, make us yearn, and make us smile. Heather Birrell is the author of the story collection I know you are but what am I? Her work has been honored with the prestigious Journey Prize for short fiction and the Edna Staebler Award for creative nonfiction.