Faking It

The writers of CollegeHumor.com share irreverent advice on how to navigate the peaks and valleys of today's sexual, financial, and social arenas, from bluffing one's way through an on-the-job conversation to using buzzwords to impress cultural circles.

From Out of the Binders co-founder Lux Alptraum, a controversial look at women, sex, and lying-why myths about women's deceit persist, how they came to be, and ultimately why we must trust women When we talk about sex, we talk about women as mysterious, deceptive, and - above all - untrustworthy. Women lie about orgasms. Women lie about being virgins. Women lie about who got them pregnant, about whether they were raped, about how many people they've had sex with and what sort of experiences they've had - the list goes on and on. Over and over we're reminded that, on dates, in relationships, and especially in the bedroom, women just aren't telling the truth. But where does this assumption come from' Are women actually lying about sex, or does society just think we are' In Faking It, Lux Alptraum tackles the topic of seemingly dishonest women; investigating whether women actually lie, and what social situations might encourage deceptions both great and small. Using her experience as a sex educator and former CEO of Fleshbot (the foremost blog on sexuality), first-hand interviews with sexuality experts and everyday women, Alptraum raises important questions: are lying women all that common - or is the idea of the dishonest woman a symptom of male paranoia' Are women trying to please men, or just avoid their anger' And what affect does all this dishonesty - whether real or imagined - have on women's self-images, social status, and safety' Through it all, Alptraum posits that even if women are lying, we're doing it for very good reason-to protect ourselves ("My boyfriend will be here any minute," to a creep who won't go away, for one), and in situations where society has given us no other choice.

This book offers the first major study of mock-documentary. The authors examine the relatively new form along with the association between factual codes and conventions, and the discourses which underpin the genre. The analysis includes detailed explorations of Woody Allen's Zelig, Peter Greenaway's The Falls, the Beatles' spoof The Rutles as well as Bob Roberts, This is Spinal Tap, and Man Bites Dog.

"A wholesome, slow-burn romance that will warm your heart...This is a Hallmark movie in book form." - USA Today bestselling author Helen Hoang What happens when your love life becomes the talk of the town? As birthdays go, this year’s for radio producer Everly Dean hit rock-bottom. Worse than the “tonsillectomy birthday.” Worse than the birthday her parents decided to split (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant? Even clichés sting. But this is Everly’s year! She won’t let her anxiety hold her back. She’ll pitch her podcast idea to her boss. There’s just one problem. Her boss, Chris, is very cute. (Of course). Also, he's extremely distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)? And, Stacey the DJ didn’t mute the mic during Everly’s rant about Simon the Snake (syn: Cheating Ex). That’s three problems. Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachelorette-style, fans are voting (Reminder: never leave house again), and her interest in Chris might be a two-way street. It’s a lot for a woman who could gold medal in people-avoidance. She’s going to have to fake it ‘till she makes it to get through all of this. Perhaps she’ll make a list: The Ten Rules for Faking It. Because sometimes making the rules can find you happiness when you least expect it. “Once you start reading, you won’t be able to put it down.” - Lyssa Kay Adams, author of The Bromance Book Club

“I have never laughed out loud at a book so much in my life.” Reader review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Meet Hannah Thompson: wife, mother, teacher and... secret erotica author?

After breaking off her engagement, thirty-something Andi Cutrone yields New England to her ex and flees home to Long Island. There, she devotes her time to teaching in the writing program at Brooklyn University and over analyzing her past failed relationships. But then she meets Devin, a male escort whose client list seems to include at least half of the accomplished women she knows. He is handsome, charismatic, and absolutely out of her league, but she can't deny he has a certain ... something. And so Andi makes him a proposition: if he will teach her to shed her sexual inhibitions, she will teach him to be a writer. He agrees, and together they embark upon an intense partnership that proves to be every bit as instructive as it is arousing. For in the midst of lessons in rhetorical theory and foreplay, Andi and Devin delve into deeper questions about truth, beauty, and self, stripping away the emotional walls each has built up.--From back cover.

Musicians strive to “keep it real”; listeners condemn “fakes”; ... but does great music really need to be authentic? Did Elvis sing from the heart, or was he just acting? Were the Sex Pistols more real than disco? Why do so many musicians base their approach on being authentic, and why do music buffs fall for it every time? By investigating this obsession in the last century through the stories of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jimmie Rodgers, Donna Summer, Leadbelly, Neil Young, Moby, and others, Faking It rethinks what makes popular music work. Along the way, the authors discuss the segregation of music in the South, investigate the predominance of self-absorption in modern pop, reassess the rebellious ridiculousness of rockabilly and disco, and delineate how the quest for authenticity has not only made some music great and some music terrible but also shaped in a fundamental way the development of popular music in our time.

This book is about the intrusive fear that we may not be what we appear to be, or worse, that we may be only what we appear to be and nothing more. It is concerned with the worry of being exposed as frauds in our profession, cads in our love lives, as less than virtuously motivated actors when we are being agreeable, charitable, or decent. Why do we so often mistrust the motives of our own deeds, thinking them fake, though the beneficiary of them gives us full credit? Much of this book deals with that self-tormenting self-consciousness. It is about roles and identity, discussing our engagement in the roles we play, our doubts about our identities amidst this flux of roles, and thus about anxieties of authenticity.