Bringing Up Geeks

Bringing Up Geeks
Author: Marybeth Hicks
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2008-07-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1440630240

A breakthrough parenting book that redefines the meaning of 'geek' and inspires parents to free themselves and their kids from the 'culture of cool.' In a world of superficial values, peer pressure, and out-of-control consumerism, the world needs more GEEKS: Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids. Today's 'culture of cool' has changed the way kids grow up. Rather than enjoying innocent childhoods while developing strong, authentic characters, today's kids can become cynical 'even jaded' as they absorb the dangerous messages and harmful influences of a dominant popular culture that encourages materialism, high-risk behaviors, and a state of pseudo-adulthood. Author and mother of four Marybeth Hicks suggests an alternative: bringing up geeks. In this groundbreaking book, she shows parents how they can help their children gain the enthusiasm to pursue their passions, not just the latest fashions; the confidence to resist peer pressure and destructive behaviors; the love of learning that helps them excel at school and in life; and the maturity to value family as well as friends, as well as make good moral decisions. With a foundation like that, kids will grow up to be the coolest adults.

Getting a Life

Getting a Life
Author: Benjamin Woo
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages:
Release: 2018-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0773552960

"Comic book superheroes, fantasy kingdoms, and futuristic starships have become inescapable features of today's pop-culture landscape, and the people we used to deride as "nerds" or "geeks" have ridden their popularity and visibility to mainstream recognition. It seems it's finally hip to be square. Yet these conventionalized representations of geek culture typically ignore the real people who have invested time and resources to make it what it is. Getting a Life recentres our understanding of geek culture on the everyday lives of its participants, drawing on fieldwork in comic book shops, game stores, and conventions, including in-depth interviews with ordinary members of the overlapping communities of fans and enthusiasts. Benjamin Woo shows how geek culture is a set of interconnected social practices that are associated with popular media. He argues that typical depictions of mass-mediated entertainment as something that isolates and pacifies its audiences are flawed because they do not account for the conversations, relationships, communities, and identities that are created by engaging with the products of mass culture. Getting a Life combines engaging interview material with lucid interpretation and a clear, interdisciplinary framework. The volume is both an accessible introduction to this contemporary subculture and an exploration of the ethical possibilities of a life lived with media.

How to Write a Book Proposal

How to Write a Book Proposal
Author: Jody Rein
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2017-09-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1440348219

THE ESSENTIAL RESOURCE FOR SELLING YOUR BOOK If you want to publish a book, you must present it to agents and publishers with a knock-your-socks-off proposal. Whether you're seeking a traditional press to publish your self-published book or trying to win over an agent for your graphic novel, memoir, or nonfiction title, you need an irresistible proposal. The better your proposal, the better the editor, publisher, and deal you will get. Nailing your proposal requires an understanding of how publishers work and how to brand yourself, build a platform, and structure your book. You'll learn it all in this breezy top-to-bottom revision of the classic 100,000-copy best-seller. Inside How to Write a Book Proposal 5th Edition, you will find: • Examples of successful proposals that earned six-figure deals • Guidance from agents, publishers, and writers • Ways to customize your proposal • Strategies for proposals in the Digital Age • Effective structures for narrative writers • A list of the "Top Ten Proposal Killers" This sassy, thorough guide from industry professionals Jody Rein and Michael Larsen will become your go-to for advice about publishing.

Bébé Day by Day

Bébé Day by Day
Author: Pamela Druckerman
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2013-02-12
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1101616997

À la carte wisdom from the international bestseller Bringing up Bébé In BRINGING UP BÉBÉ, journalist and mother Pamela Druckerman investigated a society of good sleepers, gourmet eaters, and mostly calm parents. She set out to learn how the French achieve all this, while telling the story of her own young family in Paris. BÉBÉ DAY BY DAY distills the lessons of BRINGING UP BÉBÉ into an easy-to-read guide for parents and caregivers. How do you teach your child patience? How do you get him to like broccoli? How do you encourage your baby to sleep through the night? How can you have a child and still have a life? Alongside these time-tested lessons of French parenting are favorite recipes straight from the menus of the Parisian crèche and winsome drawings by acclaimed French illustrator Margaux Motin. Witty, pithy and brimming with common sense, BÉBÉ DAY BY DAY offers a mix of practical tips and guiding principles, to help parents find their own way.

Chaos & the Geek

Chaos & the Geek
Author: Elizabeth Stevens
Publisher: Kinky Siren
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2020-01-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1925928160

Amber How do you politely refuse when the only guy to star in any of your dirty fantasies has just offered to put you up for the foreseeable future and your brother’s just accepted like you were in fact still thirteen and couldn’t make decisions for yourself? You don’t. And, you end up with a roommate who wears a very good elegant mask over the rough and tumble, bad boy core I remember far too well. Only, it’s ten years later and I’m even nerdier than I used to be. It’s ten years later and I couldn’t look worse. It’s ten years later and I can’t keep one guy. It’s ten years later and my brother still teases me mercilessly in front of him. It’s ten years later and Kit somehow looks even better than the guy I spent my formative years crushing on. So, there’s not only the issue that he’s my older brother’s best friend, but also a sex-god this virgin can barely talk to. But that certainly never stopped me from drooling over him and it wouldn’t stop me now. He’s so far out of my league, I wouldn’t even clean in his league. Except, there might just be a smouldering heat in Kit’s eyes that suggests he’s not quite as out of my league as I thought. Just maybe, this geek is about to get a whole lot of chaos. Kit When I find out about my best mate’s little sister’s situation, the offer is out of my mouth before I can stop it; Hawk’s like a brother to me even if Amber’s never looked twice at me. I could never tell if she was scared of me or hated me. But the deal is done. She’s going to bring her bedraggled self upstairs to my penthouse and live with me for as long as she needs. I see the pain she hides away, I see the lack of confidence despite how smart she is, how good. If there’s something I’ve learned, it’s that confidence makes all the difference. So, it becomes my mission to help Amber find her confidence. But I find more than confidence in her and suddenly I’m seeing my best mate’s little sister completely differently. I’ve never known what to say to her. She’s always been good and studious and sweet. She’s always been so far out of my league I wouldn’t even carry bags in that league. Her face is a mask that tells me nothing in between the sparse words that come out of her mouth. Except, there might be something in the way she smiles at me that gives me hope I’m not as far out of her league as I thought. It might just be time that this chaos gets a little geek. Please be aware that this story is set in Australia and therefore uses Australian English spelling and syntax.

Raising Cubby

Raising Cubby
Author: John Elder Robison
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2013-03-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0385670370

The slyly funny, sweetly moving memoir of an unconventional dad’s relationship with his equally offbeat son—complete with fast cars, tall tales, homemade explosives, and a whole lot of fun and trouble . Misfit, truant, delinquent. John Robison was never a model child, and he wasn’t a model dad either. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of forty, he approached fatherhood as a series of logic puzzles and practical jokes. When his son, Cubby, asked, “Where did I come from?” John said he’d bought him at the Kid Store and that the salesman had cheated him by promising Cubby would “do all chores.” He read electrical engineering manuals to Cubby at bedtime. He told Cubby that wizards turned children into stone when they misbehaved. Still, John got the basics right. He made sure Cubby never drank diesel fuel at the automobile repair shop he owns. And he gave him a life of adventure: By the time Cubby was ten, he’d steered a Coast Guard cutter, driven a freight locomotive, and run an antique Rolls Royce into a fence. The one thing John couldn’t figure out was what to do when school authorities decided that Cubby was dumb and stubborn—the very same thing he had been told as a child. Did Cubby have Asperger’s too? The answer was unclear. One thing was clear, though: By the time he turned seventeen, Cubby had become a brilliant chemist—smart enough to make military-grade explosives and bring state and federal agents calling. Afterward, with Cubby facing up to sixty years in prison, both father and son were forced to take stock of their lives, finally coming to terms with being “on the spectrum” as both a challenge and a unique gift. By turns tender, suspenseful, and hilarious, this is more than just the story of raising Cubby. It’s the story of a father and son who grow up together.

Tiny But Mighty

Tiny But Mighty
Author: Hannah Shaw
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Pets
ISBN: 1524744069

*A New York Times Bestseller* #1 National Bestseller Indie Bestseller From Kitten Lady, the professional kitten rescuer, humane educator, animal advocate, and owner of the popular Instagram @kittenxlady comes the definitive book on saving the most vulnerable—and adorable—feline population: newborn kittens. Hannah Shaw, better known as Kitten Lady, has dedicated her life to saving the tiniest felines, but one doesn't have to be a professional kitten rescuer to change—and save—lives. In Tiny but Mighty, Hannah not only outlines the dangers newborn kittens face and how she combats them, but how you can help every step of the way, from fighting feline overpopulation on the streets to fostering unweaned kittens, from combating illness to combating compassion fatigue, from finding a vet to finding the purrfect forever home. Filled with information on animal welfare, instructional guides, and personal rescue stories of kittens like Chloe, Tidbit, Hank, and Badger—not to mention hundreds of adorable kitten photos—Tiny but Mighty is the must-have kitten book for cat lovers, current-and-future rescuers, foster parents, activists, and advocates.

Pennyroyal Academy

Pennyroyal Academy
Author: M. A. Larson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2016-03-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0142427144

“Comparison to the Harry Potter series seems inevitable . . . It is a breathtakingly exciting novel.”—The New York Times A girl from the forest arrives in a bustling kingdom with no name and no idea why she is there, only to find herself at the center of a world at war. She enlists at Pennyroyal Academy, where princesses and knights are trained to battle the two great menaces of the day: witches and dragons. There, given the name “Evie,” she must endure a harsh training regimen under the steel glare of her Fairy Drillsergeant, while also navigating an entirely new world of friends and enemies. As Evie learns what it truly means to be a princess, she realizes surprising things about herself and her family, about human compassion and inhuman cruelty. And with the witch forces moving nearer, she discovers that the war between princesses and witches is much more personal than she could ever have imagined. Set in Grimm’s fairytale world and ideal for non-princesses and princess fans alike, M.A. Larson’s Pennyroyal Academy masterfully combines adventure, humor, and magical mischief. “No one rescues Pennyroyal princesses; they rescue themselves.”—Reese Witherspoon

Geekomancy

Geekomancy
Author: Michael R. Underwood
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1451698135

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire the Slayer in this original urban fantasy ebook about Geekomancers—humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture. Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comic shop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter. When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props. Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

Going Geek

Going Geek
Author: Charlotte Huang
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0553539450

A girl returns to her exclusive east coast boarding school and finds that she's no longer one of the cool kids on campus in this second novel from the author of For the Record. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Skylar Hoffman’s senior year at her preppy East Coast boarding school should have been perfect: amazing boyfriend the coolest friends the most desirable dorm But it’s far from it. To her dismay, Skylar’s not going to rule senior year because she’s stuck in Abbot House, a tiny dorm known for, well, nothing. Living with a group of strangers everyone thinks is lame is bad enough. Worse is that Skylar wasn’t exactly truthful about how she spent summer break in Los Angeles—and her little white lie is causing her once rock-solid romance to crumble fast. And when it turns out that Skylar’s best friend is the one responsible for having her booted from Lincoln? It’s an all-out war. Stepping out of her comfort zone never felt so scary—or necessary. But everything is different now. Including, maybe, Skylar herself . . . *** "A love letter--brimming with heart, soul, and wit--to everyone who's ever felt left behind . . . perfect for fans of Stephanie Perkins and Rainbow Rowell." --Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King