Kazuo Nakamoto's life in inner-city Tokyo is one of tea and tofu, of American TV and rock 'n' roll. Kazuo is nine. It is the mid-1960s, just after the Japan Olympics, and Kazuo dreams of being a track star. He hangs out with his buddies, goes to school, and helps with household chores. But Kazuo's world is changing. This bittersweet novel is a deft portrait of a year in a boy's life in a land and time far away, filled with universal concerns about fitting in, escaping the past (in this case World War II's lingering devastation), and growing up. J-Boys author Shogo Oketani is a writer and novelist who grew up in Tokyo in the mid-1960s.

In mid-1960s Tokyo, Japan, where the aftereffects of World War II are still felt, eight-year-old Kazuo lives an ordinary life, watching American television shows, listening to British rock music, and dreaming of one day seeing the world.

Foreword by Drake The successful Hip Hop mogul, boxing manager, and entrepreneur who has had a lasting impact on modern popular music reveals the foundation of his success--respect--and explains how to get it and how to give it. "I was taught that you must believe in something bigger than yourself in order to get something bigger than yourself." For decades, serial entrepreneur James Prince presided over Rap-A-Lot Records, one of the first and most successful independent rap labels. In this powerful memoir, told with the brutal, unapologetic honesty that defines him, Prince explains how he earned his reputation as one of the most respected men in Hip Hop and assesses his wins, his losses, and everything he's learned in between. Throughout his life, Prince has faced many adversaries. Whether battling the systemic cycle of poverty that shaped his youth, rival record label executives, greedy boxing promoters, or corrupt DEA agents, he has always emerged victorious. For Prince, it was about remaining true to his three principles of heart, loyalty, and commitment, and an unwavering faith in God. The Art & Science of Respect brings into focus a man who grew up in a place where survival is everything and hope just a concept; who outlived most of his childhood friends by age twenty-four; who raised seven children; who helped develop international superstars like Drake and world champion boxers like Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward; who rose to the heights of a cutthroat business that has consumed the souls of ambitious hustlers and talented artists alike. Throughout this raw memoir, Prince's love of family, music, boxing, and Houston's Fifth Ward-- "Texas' toughest, proudest, baddest ghetto" (Texas Monthly)--shines through. Yet one major lesson looms over all: Respect isn't given, it's earned. In recounting his compelling life story, Prince analyzes the art and science of earning respect--and giving respect--and shows how to apply these principles to your life.

Jeff O’Brien - bright, good-looking, and inching dangerously past thirty, is caught between two generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation X. He’s been with his partner, Lloyd, for seven years now, but when Lloyd announces that there’s no passion left between them, Jeff is sent into something of an existential frenzy. Desperate not to end up alone, Jeff haunts the dance floor and roadside rest stops, finding both the sordid and the sublime in anonymous encounters. But it’s love he’s after, so ultimately it’s his bittersweet romance in Provincetown with Eduardo, twenty-two and a vision of gorgeous, wide-eyed youth, that lingers in his mind and seems to hold the answers he seeks. This is a story of a man coming to terms with the accelerating ambiguity of his world, where men die young but old age is actively devalued. It is the story of gay life today, the life being led by thousands of men trying desperately to keep up, and to discover if anything really unites gay men other than desire. It is the story of how the truths of gay life are handed down from gay generation to gay generation. It is the story of what separates the men from the boys.

Introduction by Amal El-Mohtar Allosaurus Burgers 57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides We Are the Cloud Conspicuous Plumage Shattered Sidewalks of the Human Heart Shucked The Beasts We Want to Be Calved When Your Child Strays from God Things with Beards Ghosts of Home The Heat of Us: Notes Towards an Oral History Angel, Monster, Man Sun in an Empty Room

Explores the relationship of special intellectual ability to the role of males in American society and describes the impact of giftedness on boys' academic and social adjustment.