Stare In The Darkness

Critiquing the true impact of hip-hop culture on politics.

Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows, despite the changes politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making of critical social spaces.

Guts, the Black Swordsman, goes from the frying pan to the fire as he must enter the mating chamber in the horrifying lair of trolls to rescue his love, Casca, and the Lady Farnese from the loathsome attentions of the hideous beasts. But while even an army of trolls cannot stand against Guts's boundless fury, the mightiest of warriors is no match for a demon lord. And so when Slan of the Godhand manifests from the entrails of slain trolls and takes Guts into her deadly embrace, Guts discovers he may not only be fighting for his life, but for his very soul!

What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?Ever wondered why Snow White's mother wanted her to have lips red as blood? Why the Evil Queen really wanted to have her heart? Whose voice it was in the queen's mirror? Did you ever wonder if the original Brothers Grimm fairy tales were different, or if the story was real and happened in a certain period in history?From Bestselling author Cameron Jace (The Grimm Diaries Prequels amazon.com/dp/B00AA4JIWC) comes the first book of a dazzling new fantasy series that questions everything you knew about fairy tales. SNOW WHITE SORROW (Book #1 in The Grimm Diaries where fairy tale characters expose the truth about fairy tales) presents the coming of age epic story of a special 15 year old boy who lives in the town of Snoring. Loki Blackstar is learning how to become a Dreamhunter, a special talent to kill dark creatures by entering their dreams. He has no no memory of his past; his best friend is a car that talks and sings to him, his mother is a ghost who tries her best to be scary, and his guardian is a happy pipe-smoking teacher called Charmwill Glimmer--who claims to be friends with Santa Claus.Loki is told he is a half-angel who was banned for falling in love with a human girl by roaming the world of Minikins where ordinary people live. The only way to regain back his memory is to kill a 15 year old vampire girl that lives in a mysterious castle called the Schloss in a crazy island that resides on the back of a whale called Sorrow.They say the vampire girl is Snow White. The real Snow White...She is described as darkly beautiful, terrifyingly enchanting, and wickedly lovely. She kills ruthlessly, and doesn't spare anyone. Loki will have to confront her to learn who he really is and the truth about the real fairy tales that the Brothers Grimm kept from us.In their first confrontation, Snow White whispers TWO WORDS in Loki ears while gripping him by the throat that will change both their lives forever.Warning: these Grimm Diaries are like poisoned apples. Once you taste them, you will never see fairy tales in the same light again.Snow White Sorrow - 125'000 words

Written in Irv Yalom's inimitable story-telling style, Staring at the Sun is a profoundly encouraging approach to the universal issue of mortality. In this magisterial opus, capping a lifetime of work and personal experience, Dr. Yalom helps us recognize that the fear of death is at the heart of much of our anxiety. Such recognition is often catalyzed by an "awakening experience"—a dream, or loss (the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job or home), illness, trauma, or aging. Once we confront our own mortality, Dr. Yalom writes, we are inspired to rearrange our priorities, communicate more deeply with those we love, appreciate more keenly the beauty of life, and increase our willingness to take the risks necessary for personal fulfillment.

In The Mind’s Eye, Oliver Sacks tells the stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and abilities: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, the sense of sight. For all of these people, the challenge is to adapt to a radically new way of being in the world. There is Lilian, a concert pianist who becomes unable to read music and is eventually unable even to recognize everyday objects, and Sue, a neurobiologist who has never seen in three dimensions, until she suddenly acquires stereoscopic vision in her fifties. There is Pat, who reinvents herself as a loving grandmother and active member of her community, despite the fact that she has aphasia and cannot utter a sentence, and Howard, a prolific novelist who must find a way to continue his life as a writer even after a stroke destroys his ability to read. And there is Dr. Sacks himself, who tells the story of his own eye cancer and the bizarre and disconcerting effects of losing vision to one side. Sacks explores some very strange paradoxes—people who can see perfectly well but cannot recognize their own children, and blind people who become hyper-visual or who navigate by “tongue vision.” He also considers more fundamental questions: How do we see? How do we think? How important is internal imagery—or vision, for that matter? Why is it that, although writing is only five thousand years old, humans have a universal, seemingly innate, potential for reading? The Mind’s Eye is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation. And it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to see with another person’s eyes, or another person’s mind.