The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voiceâher truthâwas undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others.
The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journeyâand the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears's groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and loveâand the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.
Our Migrant Souls is a defining exploration of the Latino identity in the United States by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer HĂ©ctor Tobar. The term "Latino" is one of the most rapidly growing but loosely defined major race categories in the country.
Composed as a direct address to young people who identify or are classified as "Latino," this book stands as the first account of the historical and social forces shaping Latino identity. Tobar examines the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, decoding the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in contemporary America.
Our Migrant Souls gives voice to the frustrations and aspirations of young Latinos who have witnessed the transformation of Latinidad into negative stereotypes and have faced insult and division. Tobar shares his experiences as a journalist, novelist, mentor, leader, and educator, intertwining his personal narrative and his parents' migration from Guatemala with his journey across the country to uncover a narrative that is expansive, inspiring, and alive.
Provocative, fearless, and dizzyingly uncensored, Mandy Stadtmiller spills every secret she knows about dating, networking, comedy, celebrity, media, psychology, relationships, addiction, and the quest to find oneâs true nature. She takes readers behind the scenes (and name names) as she relays her utterly addictive journey.
Starting in 2005, Mandy picks up everything to move across the country to Manhattan, looking for a fresh start. She is newly divorced, thirty-years-old, with a dream job at the New York Post. She is ready to conquer the city, the industry, the world. But underneath the glitz and glamour, there is a darker side threatening to surface. The drug-fueled, never-ending party starts off as thrillingâŠbut grows ever-terrifying. Too many blackout nights and scary decisions begin to add up. As she searches for the truth behind the façade, Mandy realizes that falling in love wonât fix herâuntil she learns to accept herself first.
This is a true New York fairy tale brought to lifeâSex and the City on acid. Perfect for when âyou feel stuck in some way and wish to become unstuckâ (Caroline Kepnes), youâall soon see why Unwifeable is one of the most beloved memoirs of the year.
I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual is a hilarious and insightful collection of essays by Luvvie Ajayi, a comedian, activist, and popular culture blogger at AwesomelyLuvvie.com. This book dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives.
With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, Ajayi is a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. In her debut book, she serves up necessary advice for the masses, passing on lessons and side-eyes on life, social media, culture, and fame. From addressing those terrible friends we all have to serious discussions of race and media representation, this book is a manual for anyone looking to bring some "act right" into their lives.
With a lighthearted, razor-sharp wit and a unique perspective, I'm Judging You offers a road map for navigating the complexities of modern life, social media, and popular culture.
From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a lifeâand finding yourselfâin music.
Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one of the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity, she would discover both while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and mystery of a live performance.
With Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein and her bandmates rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They were cited as âAmericaâs best rock bandâ by legendary music critic Greil Marcus for their defiant, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and limitations, and redefined notions of gender in rock.
Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the eraâs flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years later. With deft, lucid prose, Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw, honest, and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer and an outsider, and ultimately finding oneâs true calling through hard work, courage, and the intoxicating power of rock and roll.
Buffy is unwillingly recruited by the demon Illyria and a mystical council to take down the Siphonâfor good. He is on the loose again, and a danger to all remnants of magic! Meanwhile, back home the loss of magic has begun to affect those closest to Buffy.
Collect issues #16-#20 of Season 9.
Fresh from his latest attempt to get Buffy to act on her feelings for him, Spike has fled to the dark side of the moon. His trip leads him to a group of dangerous demons and a rude awakening from his reverie, which in turn leads him on an unexpected adventure to . . . Sunnydale!
Collecting Buffy the Vampire Slayer: SpikeâA Dark Place #1â#5.
Angel's quest to resurrect Giles has brought an old friend to LondonâWillow! Tensions run high as these two confront the loss of Giles, but before blood can be shed, Willow has a proposition. She'll help Angel on his quest if he'll help her find magic. To do that, she'll need Connor to get them into Quor'toth, a hell dimension where magic runs deep.
This volume collects issues #11â#15 and ties into the events in Buffy Season 9. Christos Gage takes Willow to other worlds!
With the Scooby gang on the skids, Buffy finds herself increasingly alone. When faced with some tough decisions grounded in real world problems (i.e., not the slaying of pesky demons), Buffy is determined to make her own choices, but that doesn't mean she won't need a little handholding along the way.
Cue Spike, compelled to stand by his best friend in her moment of need. Together they'll tackle the increasing zompire population and a rogue Slayer out for blood. Collects Buffy Season 9 #6â#10; and âBuffy the Vampire Slayer: In Space No One Can Hear You Slay!â from Free Comic Book Day 2012.
The dark streets of London are increasingly dangerous as murderers, mystically devoid of emotion, begin to impact the lives of Angel and Faith. In unraveling this new mystery, the pair follow clues in the Watcher's Files to a demon from Giles's past and a "child" from Angel's. Then, Drusilla returns to her homeland and becomes the hot new vampire in the underground scene!
While Angel faces Dru, Faith must deal with issues that reawaken her inner turmoilâa visit from her deadbeat dad, who's looking for a favor, and a troubled Slayer hell bent on revenge.
Collects Angel & Faith #6â#10.
The Slayer legion is organized and encountering mega-obstacles, while Twilight's threatening reach continues to expand. Buffy and her Slayers travel to Tokyo to face a new kind of vampire with powers they've only witnessed in Dracula. Then, Willow and Buffy head to New York to investigate the secrets behind Buffy's scythe; ever full of the unexpected, Buffy is transported to a dystopian future where her first chance meeting is with Fray, future Slayer!
Collects Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #11â#20 and the Willow one-shot.
Season 8 ended with a bang that cut the world off from magicâculminating in another set of world-ending problems. Buffy has left her best friend, Willow, powerless, and brought an end to a millennia-long tradition of superpowered girls. By day, Buffy is a twenty-something waitress with no real direction, and even though magic is gone, sheâs still a vampire Slayer by night. Bigger problem? Vampires are becoming an epidemic . . . of zompires!
Collects Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 #1â#5.
Angel & Faith: Live Through This is a gripping tale set in the aftermath of events from Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8. The supernatural world is struggling with the loss of magic, and Angel, the fan-favorite antihero, has a lot to make up forâespecially after the murder of Buffy's trusted ally. Angel's quest for redemption leads him to believe he can make amends by reviving the dead.
Joining him in this quest is Faith, the rebel Slayer, who supports Angel's ambitious plan out of fierce loyalty, despite its apparent absurdity. Together, they face threats from the past, present, and potential future as they battle real and personal demons on the dark streets of London.
Written by comic scribe Christos Gage and beautifully illustrated by series artist Rebekah Isaacs, this volume also includes a one-shot starring the vampire Harmony, with art by Phil Noto.
This deluxe, oversized hardcover edition contains the first two arcs of Season 8, plus two one-shots. After the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayersânewly legionâhave gotten organized, but it's not long before new and old enemies begin popping up. Buffy, Xander, Willow, and a very different Dawn are introduced to the season's big bad, Twilight, and are only beginning to understand the incredible reach of this mysterious threat.
Meanwhile, rebel Slayer Faith teams up with Giles to handle a menace on the other side of the Atlantic. It's a dirty job, and Faith is just the girl to do it!
Collects Buffy: Season Eight #1-10, plus "Always Darkest" from MySpace Dark Horse Presents #24.
IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place.
The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to winâand confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
The season finale is here! At long last, the Big Bad stands revealed--Angel is back, and it's tearing the Scoobies apart, testing the limits of their friendship. But Twilight's unmasking is only the beginning, and Buffy must still face the ultimate betrayal.
Series creator Joss Whedon writes the final story arc of Buffy Season 8, taking his greatest characters to places only he can! Teamed with series artist Georges Jeanty, Joss reunites the dysfunctional gang of Buffy, Angel, and Spike, in the thick of it together for the first time since Season 3, and gives the Scoobies their gravest challenge ever, defending reality itself from the onslaught of demons.
It's the biggest Buffy finale ever! Collecting issues #36-40 of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight series. This volume also includes the spy-thriller Riley one-shot by Buffy series writer Jane Espenson and artist Karl Moline.
Buffy Summers and her Slayer army have suffered heavy losses throughout Season Eight and faced scores of threats new and old, but the one mystery connecting it all has been the identity of the Big BadâTwilight! In this penultimate volume of Season Eight, New York Times bestselling novelist and comics writer Brad Meltzer (The Book of Lies, Identity Crisis) joins series artist Georges Jeanty in beginning the buildup to the season finale in the storyline that finally reveals the identity of Twilight!
In the aftermath of the battle with Twilight's army, Buffy has developed a host of new powers, but when will the other shoe drop, and will it be a cute shoe, or an ugly one? Still reeling from the losses of war, Willow goes looking for missing allies and discovers a horrifying truth about several of the Slayer army's recent ordeals. Adding to the mayhem is the unexpected return of Angel, in his Season Eight debut!
This volume also features two stories from series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon! In the Willow one-shot, Whedon and Fray artist Karl Moline reveal for the first time what Buffy's witchy best friend was up to between Seasons Seven and Eight, with a mind-blowing cameo by a frequently requested character. And in "Turbulence," Joss spotlights the complicated relationship between Buffy and Xander with a conversation that changes it forever.
In his hilarious yet disturbing (because it's so true) book Creepiosity: A Hilarious Guide to the Unintentionally Creepy, comedy writer David Bickel presents readers with 100 of the most unsettling everyday things, such as grown men in Boy Scout uniforms, old ladies with really long hair, fish with people faces, lifelike baby dolls, and much more.
Bickel infuses each subject with comedic insight into what exactly makes it creepy and provides an appropriately hilarious photo to help illustrate his point.
And since not all creepiness is created equal, Bickel has invented an unnecessarily complex mathematical formula (or Creepiosity Index, if you will) to quantify each unsettling item's relative creepiness. (Band-Aids that were once affixed to someone's body but now aren't: 7.454.)
However, Bickel also acknowledges that creepiness, universal as it may be, is far from absolute. To that end, he invites readers to assign their own Creepiosity number to these and other curiosities via a companion Web site.
(For example, what's more disturbing, hairless cats or Dick Cheney smiling? You decide!)
Buffy Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat showcases the first retreat of the Slayer legion. Vampires have solid footing at the top of the totem, and Slayers have been crushed to the bottomâno one likes Buffy anymore, least of all the season's mysterious Big Bad, Twilight, who is hot on her magical trail.
With the world against Slayers, Buffy must find a way to return the status quo and keep her girls alive. Enter Oz, the only person/werewolf down with the suppression of magic, who can take the Slayer army off of Twilight's magic-specific radar. With Oz's assistance, the Slayers and Wiccans try to become "normal" through meditation and hard labor. However, not everyone sees the advantage of being magicless, particularly Willow, Giles, and Andrew. They might be right. Is a peaceful life for a Slayer even possible?
Oz appears in Buffy Season Eight and the volume collects issues #26-#30 of the ongoing series.
Julie Klausner's candid and funny debut I Don't Care About Your Band sheds light on the humiliations we endure to find loveâand the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage.
I Don't Care About Your Band posits that lately the worst guys to date are the ones who seem sensitive. It's the jerks in nice guy clothing, not the players in Ed Hardy, who break the hearts of modern girls who grew up in the shadow of feminism, thinking they could have everything, but end up compromising constantly.
The cowards, the kidults, the critics, and the contenders: these are the stars of Klausner's memoir about how hard it is to find a manâgood or otherwiseâwhen you're a cynical grown-up exiled in the dregs of Guyville.
Off the popularity of her New York Times Modern Love piece about getting the brush-off from an indie rock musician, I Don't Care About Your Band is marbled with the wry strains of Julie Klausner's precocious curmudgeonry and brimming with truths that anyone who's ever been on a date will relate to.
Klausner is an expert at landing herself waist-deep in crazy, time and time again, in part because her experience as a comedy writer (Best Week Ever, TV Funhouse on SNL) and sketch comedian from NYC's Upright Citizens Brigade fuels her philosophy of how any scene should unfold, which is, "What? That sounds crazy? Okay, I'll do it."
I Don't Care About Your Band charts a distinctly human journey of a strong-willed but vulnerable protagonist who loves men like it's her job, but who's done with guys who know more about love songs than love.
Klausner's is a new outlook on dating in a time of pop culture obsession, and she spent her 20's doing personal field research to back up her philosophies. This is the girl's version of High Fidelity. By turns explicit, funny and moving, Klausner's debut shows the evolution of a young woman who endured myriad encounters with the wrong guys, to emerge with real-world wisdom on matters of the heart.
Buffy's world goes awry when former-classmate-turned-vampire Harmony Kendall lands her own reality TV show, Harmony Bites, bolstering bloodsucking fiends in the mainstream. Humans line up to have their blood consumed, and Slayers, through a series of missteps, misfortunes, and anti-Slayer propaganda driven by the mysterious Twilight, are forced into hiding.
In Germany, Faith and Giles discover a town where Slayers retreat from a world that has turned against them, only to find themselves in the arms of something far worse. A rogue-Slayer faction displaces an entire Italian village, living up to their tarnished reputation as power-hungry thieves. And finally, with the help of a would-be demon lover, Dawn addresses her unfaltering insecurities.
Collects issues #21-#25 and the short stories "Harmony Bites" and "Vampy Cat Play Friend" from MySpace Dark Horse Presents!
Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films; top five Elvis Costello songs; top five episodes of Cheers.
Rob tries dating a singer, but maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think that life with kids, marriage, barbecues, and soft rock CDs might not be so bad.