Futureface (Adapted for Young Readers)

Futureface (Adapted for Young Readers)
Author: Alex Wagner
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1984896644

For anyone who is interested in genealogy and DNA profiling, this is the story of a journalist who travels the world to solve the mystery of her ancestry, facing questions about American identity and what it means to belong. Now adapted for young readers from the acclaimed adult memoir. Who are my people? Where am I from? With a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a "futureface"--an example of what the mixed-race future of America would look like. Her father's ancestors immigrated to the United States from Ireland and Luxembourg. Her mother fled Burma--now Myanmar--with her family in the 1960s. When Alex learns that her ancestry might be more mysterious than she believed, she becomes obsessed with learning everything there is to know about her ethnic and racial history. Her journey takes her from Burma to Luxembourg, from birth records written on banana leaves to high-tech genetic labs and online ancestry profiles. Through a blend of history, science, and sociology, Alex tries to solve the mysteries of her family and what it means to be American. What makes us think of certain people as "us" and others as "them"? In a time of conflict over who we are as a country, she tries to find the story where we all belong. Praise for the adult edition of Futureface "A thoughtful, beautiful meditation on what makes us who we are." --Barack Obama "Smart, timely, and moving." --Eddie Huang, bestselling author of Fresh Off the Boat "A rich and revealing memoir." --The New York Times

Futureface

Futureface
Author: Alex Wagner
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0812987500

From the host of MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight, “a rich and revealing memoir” (The New York Times) about her travels around the globe to solve the mystery of her ancestry, confronting the question at the heart of the American experience of immigration, race, and identity: Who are my people? “A thoughtful, beautiful meditation on what makes us who we are . . . and the values and ideals that bind us together as Americans.”—Barack Obama The daughter of a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a “futureface”—an avatar of a mixed-race future when all races would merge into a brown singularity. But when one family mystery leads to another, Wagner’s post-racial ideals fray as she becomes obsessed with the specifics of her own family’s racial and ethnic history. Drawn into the wild world of ancestry, she embarks upon a quest around the world—and into her own DNA—to answer the ultimate questions of who she really is and where she belongs. The journey takes her from Burma to Luxembourg, from ruined colonial capitals with records written on banana leaves to Mormon databases, genetic labs, and the rest of the twenty-first-century genealogy complex. But soon she begins to grapple with a deeper question: Does it matter? Is our enduring obsession with blood and land, race and identity, worth all the trouble it’s caused us? Wagner weaves together fascinating history, genetic science, and sociology but is really after deeper stuff than her own ancestry: in a time of conflict over who we are as a country, she tries to find the story where we all belong. Praise for Futureface “Smart, searching . . . Meditating on our ancestors, as Wagner’s own story shows, can suggest better ways of being ourselves.”—Maud Newton, The New York Times Book Review “Sincere and instructive . . . This timely reflection on American identity, with a bonus exposé of DNA ancestry testing, deserves a wide audience.”—Library Journal “The narrative is part Mary Roach–style participation-heavy research, part family history, and part exploration of existential loneliness. . . . The journey is worth taking.”—Kirkus Reviews “[A] ruminative exploration of ethnicity and identity . . . Wagner’s odyssey is an effective riposte to anti-immigrant politics.”—Publishers Weekly

Your Future Face

Your Future Face
Author: Dennis Gross
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2005-12-27
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1440649529

“Heavy makeup and face-lifts are out, and perfect, glowing skin is in. But with all the products out there, what’s a girl to do? Dr. Gross is amazing and he has the answer.” —Plum Sykes, author of Bergdorf Blondes In Your Future Face, Dr. Dennis Gross, one of the country’s leading dermatologists, and founder of M.D. Skincare, which can be found in stores such as Sephora, Nordstrom, and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as in spas across the country, provides the essential guide to radiant skin. Dr. Gross’s “Skin Lifecycle Quiz” assesses the reader’s skin “level” and pinpoints how and when her skin will age. He then outlines a customized antiaging plan while offering invaluable advice and information, including: * How to boost collagen and elastin production naturally * The key ingredients to look for in products * When and how to use Botox safely * When to take action with high-tech resurfacing methods * What to consider before having plastic surgery * Nutritional tips, and much more

The Improbable Cat

The Improbable Cat
Author: Allan Ahlberg
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2009-04-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0307531821

It all begins when David’s family takes in a stray kitten. At least that’s what the creature appears to be. But David and his faithful dog, Billy, immediately sense something terribly amiss. Then indeed “something crazy—impossible—horrific” happens. . . .

The Beautiful Struggle

The Beautiful Struggle
Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2009-01-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0385527462

An exceptional father-son story from the National Book Award–winning author of Between the World and Me about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us. Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence—and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack—and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free. Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets. The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father’s steadfast efforts—assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present—to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond. Praise for The Beautiful Struggle “I grew up in a Maryland that lay years, miles and worlds away from the one whose summers and sorrows Ta-Nehisi Coates evokes in this memoir with such tenderness and science; and the greatest proof of the power of this work is the way that, reading it, I felt that time, distance and barriers of race and class meant nothing. That in telling his story he was telling my own story, for me.”—Michael Chabon, bestselling author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay “Ta-Nehisi Coates is the young James Joyce of the hip hop generation.”—Walter Mosley

The Dragons and the Snakes

The Dragons and the Snakes
Author: David Kilcullen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2020-02-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190265701

Just a few years ago, people spoke of the US as a hyperpower-a titan stalking the world stage with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, newly-appointed CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had "slain a large dragon" by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, they now faced a "bewildering variety of poisonous snakes." In The Dragons and the Snakes, the eminent soldier-scholar David Kilcullen asks how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Applying a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation, he explains what happened to the "snakes"-non-state threats including terrorists and guerrillas-and the "dragons"-state-based competitors such as Russia and China. He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly-defined form of warfare since the Cold War has created a fitness landscape that forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. Within the world's contemporary conflict zones, Kilcullen argues, state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon systems once only available to governments. A counterintuitive look at this new, vastly more complex environment, The Dragons and the Snakes will not only reshape our understanding of the West's enemies' capabilities, but will also show how we can respond given the increasing limits on US power.

Wings #1

Wings #1
Author: Jason Lethcoe
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2009-02-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101162775

When Edward?s mother dies, his aunt sends him to a school for troubled youths. There, Edward develops an itch in his back that he can?t scratch, and when he gets angry it seems like he can move things with his mind. When the itch erupts into a set of wings, an evil teacher tries to cut them off. Edward is rescued by Mr. Spines, who reveals that Edward is a Guardian, a magical being who guards and guides souls in the Woodbine, a stopover between life and death. Edward will now have to battle the most evil force in the Woodbine, the Jackal, and his army of fallen Guardians. They have destroyed the bridges that lead to the afterlife, trapping countless souls. Edward is unprepared for so much responsibility and he runs away and becomes lost in the Woodbine. There he must find his own voice and learn to master his powers as he is pulled from side to side by magical forces he is only beginning to understand.

The Crowd

The Crowd
Author: Gustave Le Bon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 680
Release: 1897
Genre: Crowds
ISBN:

Iran at War

Iran at War
Author: Kaveh Farrokh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780962401

Following on from his award-winning book on the history of ancient Persia, Kaveh Farrokh goes on to examine Iran's wartime history from the Safavid dynasty of the 16th and 17th century through to the 1979 Revolution and beyond. He shows how the early military successes were followed by centuries of defeat as the external influences of nations like Russia and Britain began to shape the internal history of Iran, before unraveling the complex, violent 20th century military history of the country, which encompasses two world wars, regional movements, foreign intervention, anti-government revolts, conflicts on the Soviet border, a revolution and an eight-year war with Iraq. Illustrated with contemporary illustrations and photographs this book provides an unparalleled investigation into the bloody martial history of Iran.