Author: Casey Parks Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0593081102 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 369
Book Description
Part memoir, part sweeping journalistic saga: As Casey Parks follows the mystery of a stranger's past, she is forced to reckon with her own sexuality, her fraught Southern identity, her tortured yet loving relationship with her mother, and the complicated role of faith in her life. "Most moving is Parks’s depiction of a queer lineage, her assertion of an ancestry of outcasts, a tapestry of fellow misfits into which the marginalized will always, for better or worse, fit." —The New York Times Book Review When Casey Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. "I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man," and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him. Diary of a Misfit is the story of Parks's life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins, the small-town country singer from grandmother’s youth, all the while confronting ghosts of her own. For ten years, Parks traveled back to rural Louisiana and knocked on strangers’ doors, dug through nursing home records, and doggedly searched for Roy’s own diaries, trying to uncover what Roy was like as a person—what he felt; what he thought; and how he grappled with his sense of otherness. With an enormous heart and an unstinting sense of vulnerability, Parks writes about finding oneself through someone else’s story, and about forging connections across the gulfs that divide us.
Author: Phuc Tran Publisher: Flatiron Books ISBN: 1250194725 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
For anyone who has ever felt like they don't belong, Sigh, Gone shares an irreverent, funny, and moving tale of displacement and assimilation woven together with poignant themes from beloved works of classic literature. In 1975, during the fall of Saigon, Phuc Tran immigrates to America along with his family. By sheer chance they land in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a small town where the Trans struggle to assimilate into their new life. In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, and teenage rebellion, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents. Appealing to fans of coming-of-age memoirs such as Fresh Off the Boat, Running with Scissors, or tales of assimilation like Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Displaced and The Refugees, Sigh, Gone explores one man’s bewildering experiences of abuse, racism, and tragedy and reveals redemption and connection in books and punk rock. Against the hairspray-and-synthesizer backdrop of the ‘80s, he finds solace and kinship in the wisdom of classic literature, and in the subculture of punk rock, he finds affirmation and echoes of his disaffection. In his journey for self-discovery Tran ultimately finds refuge and inspiration in the art that shapes—and ultimately saves—him.
Author: Lidia Yuknavitch Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501120069 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 160
Book Description
The author explores the status of being a misfit as something to be embraced, and social misfits as being individuals of value who have a place in society, in a work that encourages people who have had difficulty finding their way to pursue their goals.
Author: Joseph P. Folger Publisher: Atmosphere Press ISBN: 9781639880706 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 280
Book Description
Why would the keynote speaker at a national mediation conference need a full-time security guard? Kent Foxe, an aspiring mediator and executive coach, finds out why when he turns to his mentor, Adam Maurie, for professional advice. Maurie believes mediators must have "a human soul that is comfortable being with difficult, emotional conflict." That requirement, Kent soon realizes, is highly controversial. After unsuccessfully mediating a violent gang dispute, Kent develops grave doubts about his abilities. His search for his professional soul haunts him as he deals with challenging conflicts, and several profound events put him at a critical crossroads personally and professionally. Does he dare make the changes that will surely cast him as an unwelcome misfit in his own profession? Can he defend his unpopular beliefs about what good practice is? And will he refuse the support of misguided stakeholders? Memoir of a Misfit Mediator by Joe Folger raises the critical issues anyone must face if they intervene in the lives of others.
Author: Donna Gaines Publisher: Rutgers University Press ISBN: 9780813540542 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 422
Book Description
Gaines is a self-described "bourbon-guzzling, pill-popping, penis-addicted, workaholic, tattooed Jew" with a Ph.D. and a pistol permit. "A Misfit's Manifesto" is about living with the contradictions. This is how she did it, and found God in all the unlikely places--like Ramones songs.
Author: Cheryl Peck Publisher: 5 Spot ISBN: 0446507091 Category : Humor Languages : en Pages : 211
Book Description
The author of Fat Girls and Lawn Chairsis back with a funny and poignant new collection of personal stories about growing up a misfit. A collection of stories for anyone who shuddered at the idea of senior prom, Revenge of the Paste Eaters is about the way the experiences of childhood stay with us and shape us into adults. Cheryl Peck applies her signature wit to more personal stories and reflections-about hurting people and getting hurt, about discovering who you are and who you want to be, about feeling "not good enough," and about being bigger-physically and mentally-than many of the people surrounding you. This is a wickedly funny view of what it's like to be a middle-aged woman in middle-America, and what really happened to the kids who were different.
Author: Michaela Coel Publisher: Henry Holt and Company ISBN: 1250843456 Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 74
Book Description
From the brilliant mind of Michaela Coel, creator and star of I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum and a Royal Society of Literature fellow, comes a passionate and inspired declaration against fitting in. When invited to deliver the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Michaela Coel touched a lot of people with her striking revelations about race, class and gender, but the person most significantly impacted was Coel herself. Building on her celebrated speech, Misfits immerses readers in her vision through powerful allegory and deeply personal anecdotes—from her coming of age in London public housing to her discovery of theater and her love for storytelling. And she tells of her reckoning with trauma and metamorphosis into a champion for herself, inclusivity, and radical honesty. With inspiring insight and wit, Coel lays bare her journey so far and invites us to reflect on our own. By embracing our differences, she says, we can transform our lives. An artist to her core, Coel holds up the path of the creative as an emblem of our need to regard one another with care and respect—and transparency. Misfits is a triumphant call for honesty, empathy and inclusion. Championing “misfits” everywhere, this timely, necessary book is a rousing coming-to-power manifesto dedicated to anyone who has ever worried about fitting in.
Author: M. K. McDaniel Publisher: ISBN: 9781952146121 Category : Languages : en Pages : 470
Book Description
Placed on a ventilator for lung failure in 1999, M.K. McDaniel fought for her life in a drug-induced coma for three weeks. Misfit In Hell To Heaven Expat is based on a story of M.K.'s experiences before, during, and after a Dark Near-Death Experience. Her family waited and prayed, totally unaware of the horrors M.K. was bravely facing and miserably enduring in a seemingly eternal hell, culminating in her eventual glimpse of heaven and chat with her deceased fiancé. But M.K. still had work to do on Earth. During her lengthy recovery, as M.K. reflected on the purpose of her experiences in the Afterlife, she recalled the tribulations of her family ancestors and their courage to survive. If they could overcome their overwhelming obstacles, then so could she. As memories of former earthly hellish traumas surfaced and seemed to parallel her actual hell experiences, M.K. sought out others with the same story. She eventually found solace, hope, and understanding at the International Association of Near-Death Studies meetings in Seattle. IANDS offered insights, camaraderie, and joy she had nearly forgotten to be possible in this life. Uplifting, humorous, chilling, and engrossing, Misfit In Hell To Heaven Expat takes the reader by the hand to safely explore our human and otherworldly selves. Its gentle message will help the reader find their way along the bumpy, earthly road to eternity.
Author: Neil Patrick Harris Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing ISBN: 1743585349 Category : Juvenile Fiction Languages : en Pages : 206
Book Description
The first in a funny and magical new children's books series from Emmy award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris. ‘I read this book with excitement, delight, and the increasing suspicion that it was going to make me disappear.' Lemony Snicket, author of the bestselling series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions This book contains a BIG SECRET. Read on if you dare … Do you believe in magic? Carter doesn’t. He knows magic tricks are just that – tricks. And as a street magician he’s also pretty good at them. But then Carter runs away from his conman uncle and he finds himself alone and in danger from dastardly carnival ringleader, B.B. Bosso. He could really use some magic now … A chance encounter with the mysterious Mr Dante Vernon leads Carter to a magic shop, where he teams up with five other like-minded kids and the MAGIC MISFITS are born! Can the gang use their magical talents to save the day and stop B.B. stealing a priceless diamond? And now for the BIG SECRET … inside this book you will find a treasure trove of tips, codes and stage tricks that will help YOU join the Magic Misfits and make some magic of your own. (BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE.) Perfect for children aged 8 to 12 years old and fans of Lemony Snicket, David Walliams … and magic!
Author: Casey Parks
Author: Phuc Tran
Author: Lidia Yuknavitch
Author: Diana Morita Cole
Author: Joseph P. Folger
Author: Donna Gaines
Author: Cheryl Peck
Author: Michaela Coel
Author: M. K. McDaniel
Author: Neil Patrick Harris