How looking beautiful has become a moral imperative in today's worldThe demand to be beautiful is increasingly important in today's visual and virtual culture. Rightly or wrongly, being perfect has become an ethical ideal to live by, and according to which we judge ourselves good or bad, a success or a failure. Perfect Me explores the changing nature of the beauty ideal, showing how it is more dominant, more demanding, and more global than ever before.Heather Widdows argues that our perception of the self is changing. More and more, we locate the self in the body--not just our actual, flawed bodies but our transforming and imagined ones. As this happens, we further embrace the beauty ideal. Nobody is firm enough, thin enough, smooth enough, or buff enough-not without significant effort and cosmetic intervention. And as more demanding practices become the norm, more will be required of us, and the beauty ideal will be harder and harder to resist.If you have ever felt the urge to "make the best of yourself" or worried that you were "letting yourself go," this book explains why. Perfect Me examines how the beauty ideal has come to define how we see ourselves and others and how we structure our daily practices-and how it enthralls us with promises of the good life that are dubious at best. Perfect Me demonstrates that we must first recognize the ethical nature of the beauty ideal if we are ever to address its harms.

All fifteen-year-old Katie Camilleri wants is the perfect first kiss from the perfect guy—and now he's just magically appeared in her bedroom, completely naked! When Katie and her best friend accidentally cook up a gorgeous teenage boy in the kitchen (seriously—he's like a long-lost Hemsworth brother), things are looking up for Katie and her plan to lock lips. But it turns out spontaneously creating a human being named Guy is slightly more complicated than Katie could have anticipated. Guy is wholly devoted to Katie but can't pin down why. Her high school classmates can't figure out what a hot guy like him is with her. And to make matters worse, her BFF isn't on board with this new romance. Plus, the longtime boy from next door is suddenly all kinds of moody. So is the "perfect" boy the right boy for Katie, after all? From the author of What I Like About Me comes a hilarious twist on the 1985 pop culture classic "Weird Science." Jenna Guillaume uses her signature humor and relatable voice to delight and also explore themes of body image, friendship, and supporting character asexuality.

Nearly three hundred brilliant thoughts or "pot shots" are presented with humorous illustrations on the themes of communication, time and change, pleasure, life, and other topics of human concern

Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.

Recover. Rinse. Repeat. Dana Bowman can’t escape the lure of perfectionism, trying to be a flawless wife, mother, and person in recovery. When Dana experiences a short-lived relapse during the Christmas holiday, she has the startling realization that recovery is more than just giving up alcohol. In this funny and revealing follow-up to her best-selling book Bottled, Dana reflects on how we live in a society of excess, always pushing ourselves to do and be better. However, it doesn’t take her long to realize that self-care and getting over herself is the key to happiness.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Inspired by her popular TED Talk, the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code urges women to embrace imperfection and live a bolder, more authentic life. “A timely message for women of all ages: Perfection isn’t just impossible but, worse, insidious.”—Angela Duckworth, bestselling author of Grit Imagine if you lived without the fear of not being good enough. If you didn’t care how your life looked on Instagram. If you could let go of the guilt and stop beating yourself up for making human mistakes. Imagine if, in every decision you faced, you took the bolder path? As women, too many of us feel crushed under the weight of our own expectations. We run ourselves ragged trying to please everyone, pass up opportunities that scare us, and avoid rejection at all costs. There’s a reason we act this way, Saujani says. As girls, we were taught to play it safe. Well-meaning parents and teachers praised us for being quiet and polite, urged us to be careful so we didn’t get hurt, and steered us to activities at which we could shine. As a result, we grew up to be women who are afraid to fail. It’s time to stop letting our fears drown out our dreams and narrow our world, along with our chance at happiness. By choosing bravery over perfection, we can find the power to claim our voice, to leave behind what makes us unhappy, and to go for the things we genuinely, passionately want. Perfection may set us on a path that feels safe, but bravery leads us to the one we’re authentically meant to follow. In Brave, Not Perfect,Saujani shares powerful insights and practices to help us let go of our need for perfection and make bravery a lifelong habit. By being brave, not perfect, we can all become the authors of our best and most joyful life.

Finalist, ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books The New York Times bestseller that has cemented Elie Mystal’s reputation as one of our sharpest and most acerbic legal minds “After reading Allow Me to Retort, I want Elie Mystal to explain everything I don’t understand—quantum astrophysics, the infield fly rule, why people think Bob Dylan is a good singer . . .” —Michael Harriot, The Root Allow Me to Retort is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them. Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past. Mystal brings his trademark humor, expertise, and rhetorical flair to explain concepts like substantive due process and the right for the LGBTQ community to buy a cake, and to arm readers with the knowledge to defend themselves against conservatives who want everybody to live under the yoke of eighteenth-century white men. The same tactics Mystal uses to defend the idea of a fair and equal society on MSNBC and CNN are in this book, for anybody who wants to deploy them on social media. You don’t need to be a legal scholar to understand your own rights. You don’t need to accept the “whites only” theory of equality pushed by conservative judges. You can read this book to understand that the Constitution is trash, but doesn’t have to be.

“Imperfect World … Perfect Me! is a step-by-step handbook to living the full life that is found only in Jesus Christ. In her transparency, Karen shares her testimony regarding some of her own personal struggles. She explains how she overcame the obstacles each situation presented by trusting God, applying His Word, and knowing her identity in Christ. “Karen covers everything from having a personal relationship with Jesus to marriage to self-esteem and gives encouraging truths from God’s Word that will move you from a mindset of defeat to a mindset of faith, all rooted in the promise of God.

From the beloved author of Because of Mr. Terupt comes the sequel to The Perfect Score, about a lovable group of students at Lake View Middle School and the rewards and challenges of seventh grade. These students are in for a year of secrets, discoveries, and kid power! GAVIN finally joins the football team--a dream come true!--but Coach Holmes refuses to play him for reasons that also threaten to tear Gavin's family apart. When RANDI attends an elite gymnastics camp, she uncovers a startling family connection. SCOTT starts researching an article for the school newspaper and stumbles right into a hornet's nest of lies. With his loser older brother, Brian, out of the house, TREVOR's life is loads better--until he realizes that only he can save Brian from getting into deep trouble. NATALIE's top goals: (1) find out why Mrs. Woods and Mrs. Magenta no longer speak to each other--a mission shared by all the kids--and (2) teach a certain someone an important life skill without anyone knowing. It's tough keeping secrets. And tougher still to deal with the fallout when secrets spill out.

“Perfection is exhausting at best, defeating at worst. In Breaking Up with Perfect, Amy is the trusted friend who comes to help us knock down our walls of fear to rebuild a more doable, sustainable, God-honoring life.” —Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author of The Best Yes and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries An inspiring and thought-provoking guide to help you abandon the pursuit of perfection and become comfortable and more confident in your own skin. We’ve all been in relationships that were bad for us...whether with a catty girlfriend, a selfish boyfriend, or a coworker who undermines our best efforts. But there is one relationship that steals the potential of all other relationships—including our relationship with ourselves and, ultimately, our relationship with God. And that’s our relationship with Perfect. Perfect is a bad friend. No matter what we do or say or give or bake or create...it’s never enough. Perfect always demands more, but it’s never satisfied. Never. Whether you are a “good girl,” who always tries to be what you think everyone else wants you to be, or a “never good enough” girl, who’s desperately hiding your past and shame behind attempts to measure up—this book will help you find the beautiful, loving, fulfilled woman God created you to be. Imperfections and all. Breaking Up with Perfect will help you: • Experience authenticity as the antidote for isolation • Trade the Lies of Perfection for the Truths of God’s Love • End the pursuit of perfection, so God can begin His powerful perfecting work in you After reading this book, you’ll be able to end the never-ending stress that chasing Perfect brings and live a life filled with joy, peace, and spiritual fulfillment.