Napalm in the heart

In Breaking the Curse, Alex DiFrancesco takes their own crushing experiences of assault, addiction, and transphobic violence as the starting point for a journey to self-reclamation. Reeling in the aftermath of a rape that played out as painfully in public as in private, DiFrancesco begins to pursue spirituality in earnest, searching for an ancestral connection to magic as a form of protection and pathway to transformation. Propelled by a knowledge of the spiritual role of the transgender person in society, Alex winds through Cleveland and Brooklyn and Philly-from rehab and pagan AA meetings and friends' spare mattresses to tarot readers and books about Italian witchcraft to daily ritual, prayer, altar-making, and folk tradition. In so doing, they begin to not only piece together a way to heal but also call into existence a life that finally feels worth living. Breaking the Curse weaves spells, blasphemous novenas, and personal memories Wilhelm von Tore is dying. As he looks back on his life he reflects on his upbringing in Dresden, his beloved grandmother and his medical career during the Second World War. But mostly he remembers his darling Luci, the great love of his life, his dark-haired beauty promised to him in a dream years before they met. Though only together for a few months in her first life, their love is written in the stars. Using scientific research compiled over decades, Wilhelm ensures that, for him and his beloved, death is only the beginning. But through the cracks in Wilhem's story there is another voice, that of Gabriela, and she will not let this version of events go unchallenged. She tells the story of her sister Luciana, fearless and full of life, and the madman who robbed her from her grave.

The international bestseller in which Grace learns that she can be anything she wants.

Milly loves going to story time at her local bookshop. But the shop is old and creaky, just like its owner, Mrs Minty, and one day Milly arrives to find it closed. What has happened to Mrs Minty and her irreplaceable bookshop? Yayoi Kusama is one of the most significant contemporary artists at work today. This extraordinary text tells the story of her life and remarkable career in her own words. A gut-wrenching page-turner about rebellion and trans rage following a teen who survives attempted murder and the ghosts who seek vengeance in the Appalachian mountains. The stories gathered here explore the vagaries of sexual desire, gender identity, and erotic attachment, revealing the surprising queerness of nineteenth-century American literature. An anthology of stories and poetry on the theme of change featuring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic writers for Young Adults. This memoir is the extraordinary story of how one woman, Masih Alinejad, an awe-inspiring journalist and activist from a small village in Iran, overcame enormous adversity to fight for what she truly believed and founded a major movement for women around the world with the simple removal of her hijab. It all started with a single photo, a bold statement on Masih's Facebook page: a woman standing proudly, her face bare, her beautiful, curly hair blowing in the wind. Her crime: simply removing her veil, or hijab, which is compulsory for women in Iran.

The follow-up to the sensational #1 Sunday Times bestseller Her Majesty's Royal Coven

All is not as it seems within the halls of Her Majesty's Royal Coven?

From a celebrated activist on the forefront of fighting for intersex representation and rights, this is a funny, thought-provoking collection of essays about owning your identity and living your truth. Two percent of the world's population is born intersex. Yet many people aren't even familiar with the word. Intersex individuals are born with both male and female reproductive organs, yet many are stripped of their identity at birth when a parent designates M or F on a birth certificate. Alicia Weigel is fighting back against the hate and fearmongering to protect the rights and lives of everyone. In this book, she boldly speaks out about working as a change agent in a state that actively attempts to pass legislation that would erase her existence, explores how we can reclaim bodily autonomy, and encourages us to amplify our voices to be heard.

A short novella based on the beloved characters from Alice Oseman's acclaimed debut novel Solitaire and graphic novel series Heartstopper - now a major Netflix series. From the author of the 2021 YA Book Prize winning Loveless.

Taking us from the awkwardness of middle school to the transcendence of a sex club, 'Sluts' presents an inspiringly diverse collection of writing - fiction and non-fiction, pro and con, philosophical and compulsive - exploring the eternally controversial word. Whether an insult or badge of honour, an identity or a state of mind, this book engages some of the hottest minds of the moment. The Invention of a Nation recounts the tortuous ordeal through which the Jews reacted to the challenge of modernity. While some contributed to the development of capitalism and put their talents at the service of European states, others threw themselves into revolutionary movements. Yet others imagined ways of 're-nationalising' Jews by transforming them into a nation. Thus the Jews were formidable experimenters who participated in causes with contradictory agendas: assimilation on the one hand and nationalism on the other. The Invention of a Nation provides a riveting history and an account of the various ideologies that make up Zionism, ranging from Marxist to National Religious Zionism and the far-right Abba Achimeir. 1917. Virginia Woolf arrives at Asheham, on the Sussex Downs, immobilized by nervous exhaustion and creative block. 1930. Feeling jittery about her writing career, Sylvia Townsend Warner spots a modest workman's cottage for sale on the Dorset coast. 1941. Rosamond Lehmann settles in a Berkshire village, seeking a lovers' retreat, a refuge from war, and a means of becoming 'a writer again'. 'Rural Hours' tells the story of three very different women, each of whom moved to the country and were forever changed by it. Coates is the essential chronicler of black America, and his first memoir is a small and beautiful epic of growing up in 1980s Baltimore Sip sweet libations worthy of the Gods with these Greek myth-inspired concoctions based on all your favorite Gods and Goddesses. Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her.

A call to end the Western museum

A handpicked crew of dykes board the Caledonian Sleeper bound for Glasgow. A couple wrestle with gender roles when their flat inventory includes a brand new baby. A young man's world expands with possibility in Barcelona, while lust mingles with faith and celebrity in verse. Curious and provocative, sometimes domestic, sometimes otherworldly, this collection of stories, poems and memoir provides a snapshot of Scotland's queer community and LGBTI+ writing scene, and captures the variety of experiences that bind our community together. Al-Ali remains a hero in the Arab world, in particular to the Palestinians, who say his name with the same tenderness with which they mention their great poets'
Joe Sacco, from the Introduction An orgasm will help you sleep and keep you looking younger, it doesn't cost money and isn't a scarce resource. So why is it that, like the pay gap, there is an 'orgasm gap' between women and men? The Hotbed Collective began life as a podcast with a mission 'to make life better one orgasm at a time'. Their debut book, 'More Orgasms Please', is an open, honest and at moments hilarious dive into all aspects of sex for women. It covers feminist porn, body image, menopause and much more. 1896. After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence's father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame - and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester. Intercepting her father's latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield's library is old and full of secrets - but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife. Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realises with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield's wife - which may hold the clue to her fate.

Hidden Lives is a powerful novel of friendship and loss, and staying true to who you are against the odds.

Learn about how climate change is affecting our world, explore the human impact and read about bright ideas for tackling climate breakdown. But above all, be inspired by young changemakers and discover all the different ways to take action. By day, shy hotel accountant Joe hides behind their desk and plays by the rules. By night, Joe takes to the stage as Misty Divine, an upcoming star of the London drag scene. But when Misty's mentor, Lady Lady, is found dead in her dressing room, Misty finds herself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Because Lady Lady was murdered - and as the only ones with access to her room, Misty and her fellow performers quickly become prime suspects. Heartbroken by the loss, and frustrated by the inaction of the police, Joe is determined to uncover the killer in their midst. But what can they, a mere hotel accountant, possibly do? This is a case for Misty Divine.

Declared a 'contemporary masterpiece' on its original publication in 2007, Sascha Aurora Akhtar's debut collection is a work of 'post-modern Gothic'. Its poems are concerned with mythology, meaning-making, the magical and mystical; a grimoire is a magic textbook or spellbook. Akhtar's writing skilfully blends archaic languages with contemporary slang, wordplay, and esoteric vocabularies to create a language of its own.

This study explores the Harlem Renaissance as a literary phenomenon fundamentally shaped by same-sex-interested men. The author focuses on Countze Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Richard Bruce Nugent and explores these writers' sexually dissident or gay literary voices.

In the tradition of the lectures of Roland Barthes, Anne Carson, and Jorge Luis Borges, Appendix Project collects 11 talks and essays written in the course of the year following the publication of Book of Mutter. Zambreno's most original and dazzling thinking and writing to date.

This isn't about abuse. It's about untethering. It's about the disconnect. When leaving isn't enough, when staying in your own body feels unsafe. This book is the grab-what-you-can-carry-and-run. It's all that we can't hold, and all that we can't carry. This book is about all that gets left behind. Most of all, this book is about healing. This book is written from the body. It's about writing your way back together again. This book is for anyone who ever got kicked out of their own body. Be that through sexual abuse, violence, trauma, illness, hospitalisation, sexuality, supressed sexuality, gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, addiction, substance abuse - it's time we all went home.

From sweltering sun to a wild snowstorm, wardens Grace and Tom must brave the elements to save the day in this thrilling final Griffin Gate adventure from bestseller Vashti Hardy.

It's the summer of 1982 and fourteen-year-old Swanna Swain is the only one left at camp. The place is a ghost town by the time her mother Val finally shows up six hours late - stoned and radiant - in a Ford pickup driven by Borislav, her new young Russian lover. Assuming she is headed home to her air-conditioned Upper West Side apartment, Swanna and her lovable younger brother Madding are instead dragged to Vermont - to an artist colony where kids are not welcome and they are forced to sleep in the back of the truck, while Val is cosy inside the house with the Russian. Then Swanna meets Dennis, a handsome married father of two, at a bowling alley, and, knowing a thing or two about seduction from Judy Blume, her best friend at camp, and her own parents' many affairs - she sets out to convince Dennis to help her.

Nikhil and Jay visit India in this third book in the sparkling Early Reader series about a British Asian family

Refreshingly candid and richly illustrated, this new edition of the 1960s classic, Soho Night & Day, is an authentic and very personal portrait of a special time and place. Candid shots of Soho legends like Muriel Belcher, Gaston Berlemont, Madame Floris and more. A hybrid of LGBTQ and Asian memoir and cultural commentary exploring the author's formative year as a young brown queer man. Living in the liminal space between time differences, here is a poet's world of emotions, as she navigates an unfamiliar landscape of in-betweenness and otherness - from her writing desk to a walk around the most mesmerising lake in Beijing - where words are always out of reach. Feyi is about to be given the chance to escape the city's blistering heat for a dream island holiday: poolside cocktails, beach sunsets and elaborate meals. And as the sun goes down on her old life, our heroine also might just be ready to open her heart to someone new. The only problem is, she's falling for the one man she absolutely can't have. Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of powerful magic - but is now little more than a decaying ruin. Priya is a maidservant, one of several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to attend Malini's chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, as long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides. But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya's true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers'. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother's, her grandmother's, and her little sister's. They have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. Drawing from the strength of these powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self love and empowerment. This powerful, poetic picture book will resonate with readers of all ages and is a celebration of. diversity."--Provided by publisher.