A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year From the National Book Award winner, a masterful history of the decade whose conflicts shattered America’s postwar order and divide us still. On July 4, 1961, the rising middle-class families of a Chicago neighborhood gathered before their flag-bedecked houses, a confident vision of the American Dream. That vision was shattered over the following decade, its inequities at home and arrogance abroad challenged by powerful civil rights and antiwar movements. Assassinations, social violence, and the blowback of a “silent majority” shredded the American fabric. Covering the late 1950s through the early 1970s, The Shattering focuses on the period’s fierce conflicts over race, sex, and war. The civil rights movement develops from the grassroots activism of Montgomery and the sit-ins, through the violence of Birmingham and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the frustrations of King’s Chicago campaign, a rising Black nationalism, and the Nixon-era politics of busing and the Supreme Court. The Vietnam war unfolds as Cold War policy, high-stakes politics buffeted by powerful popular movements, and searing in-country experience. Americans’ challenges to government regulation of sexuality yield landmark decisions on privacy rights, gay rights, contraception, and abortion. Kevin Boyle captures the inspiring and brutal events of this passionate time with a remarkable empathy that restores the humanity of those making this history. Often they are everyday people like Elizabeth Eckford, enduring a hostile crowd outside her newly integrated high school in Little Rock, or Estelle Griswold, welcoming her arrest for dispensing birth control information in a Connecticut town. Political leaders also emerge in revealing detail: we track Richard Nixon’s inheritances from Eisenhower and his debt to George Wallace, who forged a message of racism mixed with blue-collar grievance that Nixon imported into Republicanism. The Shattering illuminates currents that still run through our politics. It is a history for our times.

Seventeen-year-old Keri likes to plan for every possibility. She knows what to do if you break an arm, or get caught in an earthquake or fire. But she wasn't prepared for her brother's suicide, and his death has left her shattered with grief. When her childhood friend Janna tells her it was murder, not suicide, Keri wants to believe her. After all, Janna's brother died under similar circumstances years ago, and Janna insists a visiting tourist, Sione, who also lost a brother to apparent suicide that year, has helped her find some answers. As the three dig deeper, disturbing facts begin to pile up: one boy killed every year; all older brothers; all had spent New Year's Eve in the idyllic town of Summerton. But when their search for the serial killer takes an unexpected turn, suspicion is cast on those they trust the most. As secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?

When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.

It was through control of the shattering of wild seeds that humans first domesticated plants. Now control over those very plants threatens to shatter the world's food supply, as loss of genetic diversity sets the stage for widespread hunger. Large-scale agriculture has come to favor uniformity in food crops. More than 7,000 U.S. apple varieties once grew in American orchards; 6,000 of them are no longer available. Every broccoli variety offered through seed catalogs in 1900 has now disappeared. As the international genetics supply industry absorbs seed companies—with nearly one thousand takeovers since 1970—this trend toward uniformity seems likely to continue; and as third world agriculture is brought in line with international business interests, the gene pools of humanity's most basic foods are threatened. The consequences are more than culinary. Without the genetic diversity from which farmers traditionally breed for resistance to diseases, crops are more susceptible to the spread of pestilence. Tragedies like the Irish Potato Famine may be thought of today as ancient history; yet the U.S. corn blight of 1970 shows that technologically based agribusiness is a breeding ground for disaster. Shattering reviews the development of genetic diversity over 10,000 years of human agriculture, then exposes its loss in our lifetime at the hands of political and economic forces. The possibility of crisis is real; this book shows that it may not be too late to avert it.

In the fifth book in this series, the war between an evil group led by Soren's brother, Kludd, and the owls of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree rages on.In the midst of war, Eglantine unwittingly becomes a spy for Kludd, leader of the Pure Ones (a group of evil owls). She is brainwashed by an owl sent by the Pure Ones to infiltrate the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Her odd behavior eventually attracts attention, and Soren and his friends vow to find out what's wrong with Eglantine. They ultimately learn what happened and help her reverse the effects of the brainwashing. Kludd continues to battle against the Guardians of Ga'Hoole for control of their tree. In the end, Kludd and his forces are defeated. But his conflict with Soren is not yet over.

Reaching back over a century of struggle, liberation, and gutsy play, Shattering the Glass is a sweeping chronicle of women's basketball in the United States. Offering vivid portraits of forgotten heroes and contemporary stars, Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford provide a broad perspective on the history of the sport, exploring its close relationship to concepts of womanhood, race, and sexuality, and to efforts to expand women's rights. Extensively illustrated and drawing on original interviews with players, coaches, administrators, and broadcasters, Shattering the Glass presents a moving, gritty view of the game on and off the court. It is both an insightful history and an empowering story of the generations of women who have shaped women's basketball.

In The Shattering of the Self: Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern Texts, Cynthia Marshall reconceptualizes the place and function of violence in Renaissance literature. During the Renaissance an emerging concept of the autonomous self within art, politics, religion, commerce, and other areas existed in tandem with an established, popular sense of the self as fluid, unstable, and volatile. Marshall examines an early modern fascination with erotically charged violence to show how texts of various kinds allowed temporary release from an individualism that was constraining. Scenes such as Gloucester's blinding and Cordelia's death in King Lear or the dismemberment and sexual violence depicted in Titus Andronicus allowed audience members not only a release but a "shattering"—as opposed to an affirmation—of the self. Marshall draws upon close readings of Shakespearean plays, Petrarchan sonnets, John Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs, and John Ford's The Broken Heart to successfully address questions of subjectivity, psychoanalytic theory, and identity via a cultural response to art. Timely in its offering of an account that is both historically and psychoanalytically informed, The Shattering of the Self argues for a renewed attention to the place of fantasy in this literature and will be of interest to scholars working in Renaissance and early modern studies, literary theory, gender studies, and film theory. -- Tzachi Zamir

"In this exciting and groundbreaking motivational book you will learn about: The Three Deceptions - Three lies that prevent you from experiencing any chance of success. Learn to recognize these deceptions and replace them with healthy beliefs about yourself and your world. The Seven Powers - Seven incredible resources that can be used to create tremendous success in your life. Stop waiting for someone to create your success for you and start accessing these incredible tools for amazing achievement. The Five Deadly Enemies - Five subtle and cunning enemies that work tirelessly for your ruin. These foes are constantly at work within your life to destroy you. Unmask these traitors and defend yourself against their treachery. Written by a former fairy-tale thinker, Shattering the Glass Slipper passionately argues for the reader's release from a seemingly innocuous, yet tyrannical philosophy. Through the use of imagery and allegory, it empowers the reader with a pragmatic, alternative perspective while doing so with all the charm, simplicity, and attraction of a fairy tale"--Amazon.com

A paranormal encounter with a psychic relative convinced Jessica of a spiritual reality outside the bounds of her Christian upbringing, projecting her on an intense quest for spiritual truth. As the mysterious realm of energies and meditation opened before her, she expanded her practice by seeking in-depth training at a Buddhist Center in California, a meditation retreat in South America, and an ashram in India.After a decade of passionately pursuing spirituality, she had become a certified yoga teacher and a master level Reiki practitioner. Jessica then moved forward with their dream to share these teachings with others, but strange things began to occur. Before her business plan for an instruction center was completed, a terrifying and profound spiritual encounter shattered not only Jessica's goals, but the very lens through which she viewed the world. Truth was finally discovered in the one place she had refuse to look.

"It's a powerful memoir of a mother's undying love, faith, family, challenges, and the profound human spirit." --Joan Marineau, Licensed Mental Health Counselor One phone call shatters Marcie's life--her son Hunter had suffered a psychotic episode that landed him in a mental hospital thousands of miles away. But even after he's home and seemingly on the road to recovery, the voices in his head direct him to kill his parents and throw himself in front of a moving vehicle. It seems more than Marcie can bear, but by the grace of God, she and her family usher Hunter, and each other, through his psychotic breaks and the dire aftermath. But every day is a balancing act, one in which they never know which side they'll land. Written from her mother's heart, Marcie doesn't sugarcoat the effects of drug abuse and mental illness, tackling head on the shame and seclusion that accompanies the life-changing diagnoses. Infused with grace and mercy, Shattering offers hope to those who face challenges that seem insurmountable.