After defying the school bully on the last day of school, Marvin and his friends stumble into summer, moving from one hilariously improbable situation to the next: accidentally setting a fire, causing a blackout, ruining a wedding, and creating chaos during the final basketball game of the summer season. It seems as if nothing can ever go right for Marvin, until he finally begins a friendship with a new African-American girl in town. The problem is, not all of his friends approve.

In this book, Megan Cassidy-Welch challenges the notion that using memories of war to articulate and communicate collective identity is exclusively a modern phenomenon. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade explores how and why remembering war came to be culturally meaningful during the early thirteenth century.By the 1200s, discourses of crusading were deeply steeped in the language of memory: crusaders understood themselves to be acting in remembrance of Christ...

There are a few remaining wild places in Texas, notes author and nature educator Michael A. Smith, and exposure to these locales—from the high deserts and mountains of the Big Bend to the prairies and grasslands across the center of the state and the Piney Woods and Big Thicket of East Texas—can be restorative, both emotionally and physically. In this thoughtful tour of Texas ecoregions, Smith—also a licensed psychological associate—weaves perceptive prose, prompts, and meditations with ev...

This edited volume offers an accessible avenue for improving health and well-being by demonstrating the power of narrative in advocating for yourself, your family, and your community. Leading scholars of health communication draw on a variety of perspectives, theories, and methodologies and incorporate their own personal experiences of narratives to demonstrate the compelling reasons why narratives should be studied and applied in a wide range of health contexts. Each cha...

This book explores how rural gender relations are changing in a globalising world that fundamentally impacts on the structure of agricultural life in rural areas and urban-rural relations. It analyses the development of rural gender relations in specific places around the world and looks into the effects of the increasing connectivity and mobility of people across places. The themes covered are: gender and mobility, gender and agriculture, Gender and rural politics, rurality and Gender ide...

Christmas Magic by Anne Kane: Tali hopes the Christmas Magic of the Sugarplum Ball is strong enough to get Jax into her bed.Blitzened by Elizabeth Jewell: Christmas Eve rolls around, Nick gets a yen to kindle some holiday spirit in his human boyfriend’s heartEmmy’s Wish by Ayla Ruse: Will this little Elf get the huge (male) present she wants?Santa’s Treat by Camille Anthony: Plum’s been a very good girl, and the treat she wants is Santa.Christmas Stalkings b...

“The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes is a page-turning peek inside the glamour and brutality of life as a pop star. Sloan takes us on a wild ride through the world of music video shoots, expensive hotels, and arena tours—showing us the darkness that threatens just below the surface.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and The Six“I didn't know I was waiting for a smart, literary writer to craft a n...

A collection of the year's best fiction, poetry, and personal essays, featuring thirty-seven recipients of the Olive Woolley Burt and Typewriter Awards: Linda Allison, Alice M. Batzel, Joseph A. Batzel, Lauryn Christopher, Emily Robyn Clark, Megan Condie, Vince Font, Gina G, Alexis Hansen, Jo Lynne Harline, Danielle Harward, Amanda Hill, Lorraine Jeffery, Rachelle Knapp, L. S. Kunz, Caryn Larrinaga, C. H. Lindsay, Terra Luft, Inna V. Lyon, Wm David Mallery, Paula Murcia, Eve Oeme, John M. ...

Uncover the secrets to starting your day on the right foot with morning routines that will bring you energy and vitality, eliminate stress and set you on the path to a productive day!It has been proven time and time again that how you wake up each morning sets the frame for the rest of the day, but many people wake up disoriented, constantly reacting to outside influences like morning alarms, and needing stimulants to fully "wake up".But it does...

Remembering the Crusades and Crusading examines the diverse contexts in which crusading was memorialised and commemorated in the medieval world and beyond. The collection not only shows how the crusades were commemorated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but also considers the longer-term remembrance of the crusades into the modern era.This collection is divided into three sections, the first of which deals with the textual, material and visual sources used to remem...

Crusading was a religious movement involving papal authorization, the incentive of remission of sins, pious motivation on behalf of the individual, and the justification of holy war. Much recent historiography in this area has focused on resolving the questions of what a crusade was, and why people went on them. But crusading became a cultural and social phenomenon that changed across time and geographical space. In turn, crusading was shaped by the ways specific crusades and their partici...