Shameless

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Raw, intimate, and timely—a no-holds-barred celebration of our bodies that flies in the face of antiquated ideas about sex and gender. “A triumph.”—Glennon Doyle • “One of the most important, life-changing books I’ve ever read.”—Rachel Held Evans, author of Searching for Sunday and Inspired Negative messages about sex come from all corners of society: from the church, from the media, from our own families. As a result, countless people have suffered pain, guilt, and judgment. In this instant bestseller, Nadia Bolz-Weber unleashes her critical eye and her vulnerable yet hopeful soul on the harmful conversations about sex that have fed our shame. Bolz-Weber offers no simple amendments or polite compromises. Instead, this modern-day reverend calls for an inclusivity that empowers us to be loyal to people and, perhaps most important, ourselves. “Christianity is not a program for avoiding mistakes,” she writes. “It is a faith of the guilty.” With an alternative understanding of Scripture passages that have been weaponized against Christians for decades, Bolz-Weber reminds us that sexual flourishing can and should be for all genders, all bodies, and all humans. She shares stories, poetry, and Scripture that wage war on perpetual anxiety around sex by celebrating sexuality in all its forms and recognizing it for the gift that it is. If you’ve been mistreated, confused, angered, and/or wounded by shaming sexual messages, this one is for you.

Are you plagued with memories of past failures? Do you ever feel like everything that goes badly is your fault? Do words like worthless and unacceptable describe how you feel about yourself? You’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with these same thoughts, including people who might surprise you. These thoughts and feelings cause people to put on a variety of masks to cover up the dark and hidden places inside that they are terrified others may see. This book seeks to shed light on shame—the shadowy force that has controlled people’s thoughts, actions, and lives for centuries. Comedian and pastor Steve Geyer will take you on a personal and poignant journey as he peels back his own mask and shares insights, life lessons, and a few well-timed laughs along the way. Reading Shameless will help you reader feel the weight of shame less and less. “Steve, I’m sitting in a questionable carwash in a less than desirable neighborhood and reading your book for the third time. The ‘ugly cry’ that happened with the first two readings has surfaced again and is scaring my fellow patrons. Thank you for your candor and transparency.” —Cameron Winton, Pastor of Discipleship Woodlawn United Methodist Church, Panama City, FL

In 2011, Showtime premiered Shameless, a comedy-drama about the audacious behaviors of the Gallaghers, a white, working-class family living in Chicago’s South Side. In 2020, the series headed into the production of its eleventh and final season, making it the longest-running original scripted program in Showtime’s history. Shameless explores topics such as poverty, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, and mental illness. The series has been credited with “reinventing working-class TV” and for humanizing groups that are typically “othered” or simply laughed at. However, others have critiqued the show for relying on and promoting stereotypes, and for the cavalier ways in which it portrays controversial social issues like rape and abortion. Shameless Sociology: Critical Perspectives on a Popular Television Series offers a critical eye toward topics such as gentrification, pregnancy and abortion, racial and gender inequality, and homophobia, and illustrates the ways in which Shameless sometimes confronts and topples stereotypes, yet, at other times, serves to reinforce and perpetuate them. Given the broad appeal of the show and the diverse topics it covers, this book will appeal to the general public, as well as researchers of media, culture, and social inequalities, and undergraduate and graduate students at institutions of higher education.

The figure of the dog is a paradox. As in so many cultures, past and present, the dog in ancient Greece was seen as the animal closest to humans, even as it elicited from them the most negative representations. Still a loaded term today, the word bitch not only signified shamelessness and a lack of self-control but was also exclusively figured as female. Woman and dogs in the Greek imagination were intimately intertwined, and in this careful, engaging analysis, Cristiana Franco explores the ancients' complex relationship with both. By analyzing the relationship between humans and dogs as depicted in a vast array of myths, proverbs, spontaneous metaphors, and comic jokes, Franco in particular shows how the symbolic overlap between dog and woman provided the conceptual tools to maintain feminine subordination. Intended for general readers as well as scholars, Shameless extends the boundaries of classics and anthropology, forming a model of the sensitive work that can be done to illuminate how deeply animals are imbricated in human history. The English translation has been revised and expanded from the original Italian edition, and it includes a new methodological appendix by the author that points the way toward future work in the emerging field of human-animal studies.

Lady Elizabeth, the youngest and most headstrong of the three Banning sisters, has been engaged three times, and has most scandalously broken off all three engagements. Neil Severin is a wicked rogue, black of heart and black of reputation. A man of no morals, devoid of compassion, he is a government-sanctioned assassin. When circumstances most unexpectedly throw the two together, Beth's life is in danger and Neil finds himself in the unexpected role of hero, racing to save her before it's too late.

In the late 1960s, at the age of eighteen and living far from home amidst the thriving counterculture of Ottawa, Marilyn Churley got pregnant. Like thousands of other women of the time she kept the event a secret. Faced with few options, she gave the baby up for adoption. Over twenty years later, as the Ontario NDP government’s minister responsible for all birth, death, and adoption records, including those of her own child, Churley found herself in a surprising and powerful position – fully engaged in the long and difficult battle to reform adoption disclosure laws and find her son. Both a personal and political story, Shameless is a powerful memoir about a mother’s struggle with loss, love, secrets, and lies – and an adoption system shrouded in shame.

Wondering if you're a true carnivore? Looking for a great recipe for Rattlesnake Chili? Read this book: a fast, funny, and enlightening celebration of the immense joys of flesh—consuming it, that is. The average American consumes 218.3 pounds of meat every year. But concerns about mad cow disease, industrial feedlot practices, and self-righteous vegetarians have made the carnivorous lifestyle somewhat déclassé. Now, Scott Gold issues a red-blooded call to arms for the meat-adoring masses to rise up, speak out, and reclaim their pride. The Shameless Carnivore explores the complexities surrounding the choice to eat meat as well as its myriad pleasures. Delving into everything from ethical issues to dietary, anthropological, and medical findings, Gold answers such probing questions as: Can staying carnivorous be more healthful than going vegetarian? What’s behind the “tastes like chicken” phenomenon? And, of course, What qualities should you look for in a butcher? The author also chronicles his attempt to become the "ultimate carnivore" by eating 31 different meats in 31 days (as well as every cut and organ of a cow) He includes tasty recipes and describes his experiences hunting squirrels in Louisiana attending the annual testicle festival, and even spending an entire, painstaking week as a vegetarian. From the "critter dinners" he relished as a child to his adult forays into exotic game and adventures in the kitchen, Gold writes with an infectious enthusiasm that might just inspire you to serve a little llama or rattlesnake at your next dinner party. This is the definitive book for meat lovers.

Five years ago, Jane helped presidential candidate’s daughter Lindsay after an unspeakable crime. Now it’s Jane who stands accused, caught at the heart of a presidential candidate’s scandal that threatens her very life. As people in her life turn up dead, she swears she’s innocent, but forces around her continue to make her look like the betrayer — and possibly, the murderer. Can her bodyguard, Silas, save her? Better yet — can he trust her as the two fight an attraction that could put them both in danger? Or is Jane not who she seems? ~~~~ The Shameless Series Boxed Set takes A Shameless Little Con, A Shameless Little Lie, and A Shameless Little Bet and gives you the entire trilogy in one pulse-pounding read. Get the audiobook, narrated by Virginia Rose and Aaron Shedlock, as well and give your imagination a wild ride!