Throughout Doug Luffborough's young life, he found himself torn between two masters: the selfish and the spiritual. As one of four hardworking children born to a loving and hardworking-albeit disadvantaged-mother, Doug faced learning challenges, hunger, and homelessness, giving in to the temptations of drinking and gang life in order to survive. At the peak of his struggles, Doug recognized that an education would help pull him out of this cycle-for good. Watch Me Rise is a memoir of hope, determination, and eventually a graduate degree from Harvard-and all from someone who was told he was not "college material." "In this book, Doug Luffborough invites readers to share a remarkable and ultimately heartening journey. Prepare to experience a range of emotions as you read this book, including rage, shame, and humiliation as a precursor to compassion, pride, and joy. It is an account of growth and development, the result of which is the emergence of a good man. It is a book worth reading not just because of how it makes you feel, but also because of how it makes you want to be." -George Reed, PhD, Associate Dean, School of Leadership and Education Sciences, University of San Diego "From the moment Doug walks into a room, you can feel his energy and the strength of spirit that he exudes-it is captivating. He is the real deal. Present and action oriented, Doug possesses the ability to remain conscious of his past while not allowing it to define who he is as a person. His openness and honesty invite you in from the moment you meet him. Doug not only survived but also thrived, despite the obstacles that he encountered. Doug's willingness to share his vulnerabilities on a visceral level is one of the qualities that allow him to break down barriers and relate to others in a compassionate and genuine manner. His enthusiastic, caring, charismatic approach was contagious, and it is readily apparent that Doug is a man who holds high standards for himself and, in doing so, motivates others to aspire to be better. Doug not only epitomizes effective leadership, but he also transcends it." -Maria Olson, Former Resident Director, Office of Residential Life, Northeastern University "A message of hope, hard work, dedication, and never-ending faith ... For our youth today, and for those of us who work to guide and support them, Doug Luffborough's story provides both inspiration and wisdom. Doug's powerful ability to engage an audience-whether on stage, in a boardroom, or in text-is fully displayed as he shows us that anything is possible, and dreams do come true if you work hard and keep the faith!" -Kevin E. Baird, Chairman, Global Center for College and Career Readiness "Doug is the quintessential leader. To have arrived at the level of personal and professional success that he has achieved, given the myriad of obstacles that he had to overcome, makes him a true role model. Others who aspire to create better lives for themselves and their families, as Doug did, can look to him for inspiration. Doug has had the resiliency to persevere, build skills, and then use his innate talents to create positive change both close to home, as well in the greater community. In my thirty-four years of helping countless individuals realize their personal promise, Doug's story is the one that continues to inspire me. His is the success story at which we all marvel." -Pamela Boisvert, CEO, Massachusetts Education & Career Opportunities, Inc. (MassEDCO)

A look at the revolution in game live streaming and esports broadcasting Every day thousands of people broadcast their gaming live to audiences over the internet using popular sites such as Twitch, which reaches more than one hundred million viewers a month. In these new platforms for interactive entertainment, big esports events featuring digital game competitors live stream globally, and audiences can interact with broadcasters—and each other—through chat in real time. What are the ramifications of this exploding online industry? Taking readers inside home studios and backstage at large esports events, Watch Me Play investigates the rise of game live streaming and how it is poised to alter how we understand media and audiences. Through extensive interviews and immersion in this gaming scene, T. L. Taylor delves into the inner workings of the live streaming platform Twitch. From branding to business practices, she shows the pleasures and work involved in this broadcasting activity, as well as the management and governance of game live streaming and its hosting communities. At a time when gaming is being reinvented through social media, the potential of an ever-growing audience is transforming user-generated content and alternative distribution methods. These changes will challenge the meaning of ownership and intellectual property and open the way to new forms of creativity. The first book to explore the online phenomenon Twitch and live streaming games, Watch Me Play offers a vibrant look at the melding of private play and public entertainment.

"This stunning book is the story I've been waiting for my whole life; where girls rise up to claim their space with joy and power.” --Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Speak "An extraordinary story of two indomitable spirits." --Brendan Kiely, New York Times bestselling co-author of All American Boys and Tradition "Timely, thought-provoking, and powerful." --Julie Murphy, New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin' Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Renée Watson teams up with poet Ellen Hagan in this YA feminist anthem about raising your voice. Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard. These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists. Acclaim for Piecing Me Together 2018 Newbery Honor Book 2018 Coretta Scott King Author Award 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Young Adult Finalist "Timely and timeless." --Jacqueline Woodson, award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming "Watson, with rhythm and style, somehow gets at . . . the life-changing power of voice and opportunity." --Jason Reynolds, NYT-bestselling author of Long Way Down "Brilliant." --John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars * “Teeming with compassion and insight." --Publishers Weekly, starred review * "A timely, nuanced, and unforgettable story about the power of art, community, and friendship." --Kirkus , starred review * "A nuanced meditation on race, privilege, and intersectionality." --SLJ, starred review

God Smiled On Me is a personal memoir that sheds light on the many struggles one can face and also overcome through faith, perseverance and God's grace.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as “an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject.” WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD IN HISTORY NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY JENNIFER SZALAI, THE NEW YORK TIMES NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Economist • The New York Times Book Review • BBC History Magazine • Mother Jones • Kirkus Reviews The Talmud says: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel’s DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively. In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman—praised by David Remnick as “arguably [Israel’s] best investigative reporter”—offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions. Bergman has gained the exceedingly rare cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government, including Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as high-level figures in the country’s military and intelligence services: the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Mossad (the world’s most feared intelligence agency), Caesarea (a “Mossad within the Mossad” that carries out attacks on the highest-value targets), and the Shin Bet (an internal security service that implemented the largest targeted assassination campaign ever, in order to stop what had once appeared to be unstoppable: suicide terrorism). Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel’s targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the entire world. “A remarkable feat of fearless and responsible reporting . . . important, timely, and informative.”—John le Carré

From Ashima Shiraishi, one of the world's youngest and most skilled climbers, comes a true story of strength and perseverance--in rock climbing and in life. To a rock climber, a boulder is called a "problem," and you solve it by climbing to the top. There are twists and turns, falls and scrapes, and obstacles that seem insurmountable until you learn to see the possibilities within them. And then there is the moment of triumph, when there's nothing above you but sky and nothing below but a goal achieved. Ashima Shiraishi draws on her experience as a world-class climber in this story that challenges readers to tackle the problems in their own lives and rise to greater heights than they would have ever thought possible.

Rise Sister Rise is a call to arms for our sacred feminine to rise up, tell the truth, and lead. From Rebecca Campbell, a writer, mystic, devotional creative, and visionary who supports hundreds of thousands of people to connect with their soul and weave the sacred back into their everyday life. It is for those who agreed at soul level to be here at this stage in history to lead this global shift that the mystics of all of the ages have predicted: the return of the mother and the rise of the feminine. Rebecca says: Rise for you, rise for me, when you rise first you rise for She. Many of us have spent much of our working lives “making it” in a man’s world, leaning on patriarchal methods of survival in order to succeed, dulling down our intuition, and ignoring the fierce power of the feminine. We have ignored the cycles of the feminine in order to survive in a patriarchal linear system—but now the world has changed. Here Are Some of the Chapters in Rise, Sister Rise: Part I – Rebecca’s Story · The Unbinding · The Wise Women · Work Baby · Shakti Rising · Returning to Avalon · Tools for Your Rising Part II – Birthing A New Age · We Were Made for These Times · Shakti Always Rises · The Holy Grail is Within You Part III – Remembering Our Cyclic Nature · You Are Spirit Earthed · You'll Find Your True Nature in Nature · When Whispers Turn into Shouts Part IV – Unbinding the Wise, Wild Woman · The Suppression of the Female Voice · The Mystic Always Rises · Finding Mary · The Return of the Magdalenes Part V – Redefining Sisterhood · The Reunion · The Ones Who Came Before Us · When Women Circle · Your Constellation of Sisters · Calling in Your Sisters Part VI – Doing the Work · What Is Rising in You? · Rising Feminine Archetypes · New World Rising Birthed by You · Let the Universe Use You · Be a Clear Channel · A Prayer for Times of Remembering · It's Not Your Job to Save the World · Keep on Rising “I’m a super-fan of Rebecca Campbell . . . Rebecca guides her reader to step into their authentic power so that they can live and lead at their highest potential.” —Gabrielle Bernstein, New York Times bestselling author of Miracles Now Rise Sister Rise is a transmission that calls the innate divine feminine wisdom to rise. It is about healing the insecurities, the fears, and the inherited patterns that stop people from trusting the Shakti (power) and wisdom (intuition) that effortlessly flows through them. It's about recognizing all of the ways we have been keeping ourselves contained and restrained in effort to dim to fit into a certain archetype. It’s about co-creating a whole new archetype—someone who does not keep themself small in order to make others feel more comfortable. Full of activations, spiritual tools, calls to action, contemplative questions, rituals, and confrontational exercises, this inspirational book teaches that it is safe to let Shakti rise, safe to trust your intuition, and safe to take leaps of faith—because in healing ourselves we are healing the world. “You have an ancient wisdom within you that is waiting for you to remember, hear, and heed it. These Rise Sister Rise calls to action have been carefully designed to assist you in reclaiming your voice, unbinding your power, unlocking your wisdom, unleashing your true nature, and aligning yourselves with the sacred flow of all of Life.” Rise Sister Rise. Love, Rebecca x

This book contains a resiliency of the human spirit. Cecile Katricia has bounced back from much. The poems reflect the good times and the not so good times. Her final message is one of hope.

Maya Angelou’s unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Thus begins “Phenomenal Woman,” just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou’s third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh—and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it. “It is true poetry she is writing,” M.F.K. Fisher has observed, “not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes.”

Plus-sized sixteen-year-old Maisie Martin never thought she had the figure to compete in a beauty pageant, but this vacation is about to change everything. Maisie has spent most of her life hiding her body from everyone: her gorgeous best friend, her pageant-winning sister, and definitely her longtime crush. Never one to jump in the water, Maisie is planning on taking it easy while her friends chill at the beach. But then her BFF starts flirting with the boy she's always loved, her older sister comes home and steals the spotlight, and Maisie has found herself pushed aside like usual. Except now, she's had enough. After forging new friendships, Maisie takes the deep dive and enters the local Miss Teen Queen. Now, with all eyes on her, can Maisie prove she has a place in the spotlight? This contemporary young adult novel is as relatable as it is charming and Maisie's realistic journey towards confidence and self-love will draw readers in as she learns how to celebrate all of herself.