You Suck Sir

The latest Robin's Egg Book: hilarious exchanges between an English teacher and his students that bridge the gap between the generations.

In this emotionally powerful, funny debut, Cricket Cherpin needs to figure out what to do with his life before he turns 18. But life sucksNso why not just give up?

"Tired of watching the news, which is almost always bad? Frustrated at the deterioration of our society? Concerned about the world we will leave to our children? Think that the average person was a better person a generation or two ago? Politics won't solve the problem. It's now a game which goes round in circles, accomplishing little. Financial mismanagement is everywhere. Look at Greece, Spain and Italy. But also look at France and the United States. We're managing our governments like spoiled children. And it doesn't matter whether it's liberals or conservatives who are in charge. Both left and right are to blame because the problem is the system itself. "Why the World Sucks" outlines the issues and provides possible solutions. From a slightly eccentric point of view and with a little bit of humor." -- Back cover

As any reader of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading—about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor.com. Now this volumes presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series. Among Walton's many subjects here are the Zones of Thought novels of Vernor Vinge; the question of what genre readers mean by "mainstream"; the underappreciated SF adventures of C. J. Cherryh; the field's many approaches to time travel; the masterful science fiction of Samuel R. Delany; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children; the early Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin; and a Robert A. Heinlein novel you have most certainly never read. Over 130 essays in all, What Makes This Book So Great is an immensely readable, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one of our best writers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

First published by St. Martin's Press in 1986, Blackbird is a funny, moving, coming-of-age novel about growing up black and gay in southern California. The lead character, Johnnie Ray Rousseau, is a high school student upset over losing the lead role in the school staging of Romeo and Juliet. As if that weren't enough, his best friend has been beaten badly by his father, and his girlfriend is pressuring him to have sex for the first time. All the while, he's intrigued by Marshall MacNeill, whom he meets at an audition and is surely the sexiest man to walk God's green eartha "at least according to Johnnie Ray. This novel of adolescent awakening is as fresh and heartfelt as it was when first published. With an introduction by Michael Nava, who is best-known for his gay mystery novels featuring Henry Rios, five of which have won Lambda Literary Awards, including Goldenboy and Howtown. He lives in San Francisco.

Other Conundrums, copublished with Vancouver's Artspeak Gallery and the Kamloops Art Gallery, is an extraordinary collection of essays on Canadian artists of colour by Monika Kin Gagnon, one of Canada's most respected art writers and curators. The essays explore the history of cultural production in this country with an emphasis on race, cultural difference, and cultural hybridity. Using specific artists and exhibitions as a starting-point for Gagnon's discussions, these essays, and the artists she writes about, are firmly grounded in Canadian cultural events, artistic projects, and theoretical ideas concerning race and culture which have circulated in often disparate contexts for the last decade. The book makes a distinctively Canadian contribution to ongoing dialogues on issues of race and culture that have originated from artists, writers, and theorists from the US and Britain, and provides an important and relevatory context to the work of Canada's artists of colour. The book includes numerous colour and black and white images, and a foreword by award-winning writer Larissa Lai (When Fox Is a Thousand). Chapters include overviews of the work of such artists as Shani Mootoo, Paul Wong, Jamelie Hassan, and Dana Claxton. Other Conundrums is an essential snapshot of contemporary issues surrounding race and identity as revealed in visual art.

How can YOU help save our planet? This awesome and inspiring guide, written by McFly bassist and environmental activist Dougie Poynter, will show you how to get involved in the mission to cut out single-use plastic. Plastic is everywhere and it sucks. It fills up our oceans, endangers our wildlife and never goes away. So it's time to take action, find ways to cut down our plastic use and help protect our environment. Together we can make a difference! As a lifelong supporter of environmental causes and a key player in the campaign to ban microbeads in the UK, Dougie is always on the hunt for ways to reduce and replace plastic. This campaigning book, his first solo authored project, draws on his own experiences in the fight against plastic waste – the problems he's encountered and the solutions he's found. It covers the history of plastic, introduces us to some key campaigners and eco entrepreneurs and is full of top tips and infographics. The clear and easy steps in Plastic Sucks! You Can Make a Difference show us how we can all make small changes and become champions for our planet. Includes contributions from: - Adam Lowry, founder of Method - Amanda Keetley, founder of Less Plastic UK - Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen, founders of 5 Gyres - Blue Ollis - Dara McAnulty - Edwin Broni-Mensah, founder of GiveMeTap - Emily Penn - James Robson and Andy Bool, Sea Life and Sea Life Trust - Jonathon Porritt - Josh White and Perry Fielding, co-founders of CanO Water - Kate Arnell - Lauren St John - Lucy Woodall - Will Travers, president of Born Free

Reunions, racial and sexual tensions, extramarital affairs and cannibalistic, undead vegetarians: hell times infinity.