Known only as 'the goalie', the novel's narrator is always taking the blame. He's just been released from jail, having kept schtum during a drugs bust at his local pub. The goalie is a sucker for a good story, he lives and breathes them, is forever telling stories to himself and anyone who'll listen. He returns to his hometown broke, falling in love with Regi, a barmaid. On a trip together to Spain, to hook up with his shady mates, Regi realises that this obsession with storytelling has its downsides, the goalie all too ready to believe the yarns his so-called friends spin. Naw Much of a Talker is a charming, hilarious tour through the goalie's anecdotes. Storytelling is his way of avoiding problems and conflict, his crowning achievement and tragic flaw. Regi concludes that it isn't a woman the goalie needs, but an audience. Inspired by a six month residency in Glasgow, Pedro Lenz harnesses his considerable powers as a performer and oral storyteller in this powerful and unforgettable celebration of the rhythms and musicality of the spoken word.

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

"A celebration of the acclaimed television and radio news program Democracy Now! and the extraordinary movements and heroes who have moved our democracy forward. In 1996 Amy Goodman began hosting a show on Pacifica Radio called Democracy Now! to focus on the issues and movements that are too often ignored by the corporate media. Today Democracy Now! is the largest public media collaboration in the US, broadcasting on over 1,400 public television and radio stations around the world, with millions accessing it online at DemocracyNow.org. Now Amy, along with her journalist brother, David, and co-author Denis Moynihan, share stories of the heroes -- the whistleblowers, the organizers, the protesters -- who have brought about remarkable change. This important book looks back over the past two decades of Democracy Now! and the powerful movements and charismatic leaders who are re-shaping our world. Goodman takes the reader along as she goes to where the silence is, bringing out voices from the streets of Ferguson to Staten Island, Wall Street, South Carolina to East Timor -- and other places where people are rising up to demand justice. Democracy Now! is the modern day underground railroad of information, bringing stories from the grassroots to a global audience."--

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A memoir as fierce, freewheeling, and passionate as her music." --O, the Oprah magazine A memoir by the celebrated singer-songwriter and social activist Ani DiFranco In her new memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream, Ani DiFranco recounts her early life from a place of hard-won wisdom, combining personal expression, the power of music, feminism, political activism, storytelling, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and much more into an inspiring whole. In these frank, honest, passionate, and often funny pages is the tale of one woman's eventful and radical journey to the age of thirty. Ani's coming of age story is defined by her ethos of fierce independence--from being an emancipated minor sleeping in a Buffalo bus station, to unwaveringly building a career through appearances at small clubs and festivals, to releasing her first album at the age of 18, to consciously rejecting the mainstream recording industry and creating her own label, Righteous Babe Records. In these pages, as in life, she never hesitates to question established rules and expectations, maintaining a level of artistic integrity that has inspired and challenged more than a few. Ani continues to be a major touring and recording artist as well as a celebrated activist and feminist, standing as living proof that you can overcome all personal and societal obstacles to be who you are and to follow your dreams.

In SPLIT, Billy Ray Dean-The Butcher of Boulder County-faced off with another vicious murderer in a game of 'who's the better killer'. In SPLIT II, Billy is back! This time, forced against his will into the role of savior, he must contend with The Nexus, a terrifying and seductive alien intelligence. The entity, a parasite similar to the Queen in a nest of wasps, gave birth to a mutant strain that showed signs of independent thought. Billy, a carrier of the virus, by virtue of his unique bloodline, has suppressed the forceful voice of the hive. The last member of his family, he alone has reaped the benefits of belonging to the Nexus without actually being a part of it. Now, The Nexus has gathered her champions and is preparing to tip the world into darkness. Both sides are vying to win Billy's service, who must enlist the support of some unlikely allies in order to survive. In the end, Billy must shoot, cut and plow over a host of enemies in order to reach a forgotten, blood soaked mountaintop. There, the fate of the world will be decided on the edge of a hunting knife.

This revised edition of Deborah Tannen's first discourse analysis book, Conversational Style--first published in 1984--presents an approach to analyzing conversation that later became the hallmark and foundation of her extensive body of work in discourse analysis, including the monograph Talking Voices, as well as her well-known popular books You Just Don't Understand, That's Not What I Meant!, and Talking from 9 to 5, among others. Carefully examining the discourse of six speakers over the course of a two-and-a-half hour Thanksgiving dinner conversation, Tannen analyzes the features that make up the speakers' conversational styles, and in particular how aspects of what she calls a 'high-involvement style' have a positive effect when used with others who share the style, but a negative effect with those whose styles differ. This revised edition includes a new preface and an afterword in which Tannen discusses the book's place in the evolution of her work. Conversational Style is written in an accessible and non-technical style that should appeal to scholars and students of discourse analysis (in fields like linguistics, anthropology, communication, sociology, and psychology) as well as general readers fascinated by Tannen's popular work. This book is an ideal text for use in introductory classes in linguistics and discourse analysis.

Talking at Trena's is an ethnography conducted in a bar in an African American, middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's southside. May's work focuses on how the mostly black, working- and middle-class patrons of Trena's talk about race, work, class, women, relationships, the media, and life in general. May recognizes tavern talk as a form of social play and symbolic performace within the tavern, as well as an indication of the social problems African Americans confront on a daily basis. Following a long tradition of research on informal gathering places, May's work reveals, though close description and analysis of ethnographic data, how African Americans come to understand the racial dynamics of American society which impact their jobs, entertainment—particularly television programs—and their social interactions with peers, employers, and others. Talking at Trena's provides a window into the laughs, complaints, experiences, and strategies which Trena's regulars share for managing daily life outside the safety and comfort of the tavern.

Are there two people more diametrically opposite than a conservative, evangelical minister and his progressive thinking, liberal daughter? Dr. Hollis explains how she escaped the cult culture of the Free Will Baptist Doctrine and battled the martinets that were her father and mother. Despite the well-intended beatings designed to "beat the hell out" she shares humorous family moments and the love of laughter that contributed to her survival. During this de-programming journey, Dr. Hollis describes what she has learned about the "dyke culture" and explains why belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible - where donkeys talk to their masters, babies are smashed against rocks, and approval is given for slaves to be beaten within one inch of their lives - is so dangerous. Join Dr. Hollis as she takes you on a journey to find out why dykes hate weddings and why Christians everywhere seem to be disobeying the teachings of Jesus.

Aira is at it again yall. The ex-school teacher is now happily married and a full-time mother. She and Adam has provided love and security for their family in the big house nestled between trees on the land he had always dreamed of owning. Is there a such thing as happily ever after? Or is it more realistic to take it day by day? They wanted it all and went after it, and Aira's journal became thick with her ideas, poems and stories of The Mayfield's and their big crazy family. Still grounded in traditions, her friendship with Mercedes and Debra, she describes in her special way the detail of their lives, and the bond that helps them all through the changes and adversity we all journey through each day. They are wild, loyal and generous just like the people you know.