This Family Sucks Sincerely Yours Peter Frazier

Have you ever thought that maybe you didn't belong? Have you ever looked around at your family members and thought, there is no way I am related to these people? Both Peter Frazier and Trent Lockley thought this about the families they were born into. Two boys, the same age, miles apart. They are both from small Texas towns, born in the same hospital on the same day. However, their lives turned out to be nothing alike. The Frazier family is a large, lively bunch. The fact that they are close-knit and share every detail of their lives with each other always seemed a little strange to Peter. Although he loves every one of his six siblings and his overly affectionate parents, he couldn't help but feel out of place around them. Trent Lockley is an only child born to abusive parents and spent most of his life posing as a punching bag for the town drunks. As he grew into a young man, his anger grew with him. Trent got in a lot of trouble as an adolescent. He would start fights at school frequently, and once he grew up and got even bigger than his drug addict father, he started fights at home. It is the summer of 1996; the Frazier family is preparing for Peter's High School graduation, and Peter is a little nervous because he has yet to make any plans for his future. He always figured that once he turned eighteen, he would hit the road and never look back, but now that the day is here, he isn't so sure. The idea of leaving his family, mainly his baby sister Tallulah behind now scares him. Right before the two strangers turn eighteen, they cross paths. Trent has somehow managed to wiggle his way into the Fraziers life, and Peter becomes suspicious of this newcomer and starts to question everything about him. The rest of the Frazier family seem to be blinded by Trent's charm and simply adore him. A dark cloud is hovering over the once perfect household. At every turn, the Frazier family get nothing but devastating news. Peter is not sure what this Trent character is capable of, but everything has gone wrong since his arrival, so he must have something to do with it. Little by little, the truth is discovered, and Peter starts to realize that his family doesn't actually suck as much as he initially thought. (⊙_⊙;) Warning this book contains adult material and is only suitable for mature readers. Visit, WWW.LEIGHMHALL.COM for more information

Oh, the things we will do for our children. Pamela Bowman is a confident, strong, eye-catching woman, but she hasn't always been as secure in her skin as she is now. Growing up, she was neglected and unwanted by her family. After ending up a ward of the state and getting passed around from one foster home to another, Pam realized she had to fend for herself. No one was looking out for her but her. Once Pam was old enough, she decided to take control of her destiny; her life was going to be what she made out of it. After graduating from law school and finding the perfect husband, she felt that she had succeeded in this endeavor. The ideal life lay before her; everyone around her was eating out of the palm of her hand. Pamela, along with her husband Howard and their daughter Lucille have to relocate from their cushy home in Alabama to the harsh street of Chicago. Once there, Pam realized she was losing herself and needed to justify this immediately. She was no longer everyone's primary focus, and the lack of attention was seeping into her psyche. It wasn't until Pam's daughter, Lucille, reached eleven years old, the same age that Pam had been when her life was flipped upside down that she started to gain some motherly instincts. Pam had never felt the maternal force, the bond between mother and child that everyone talked about. However, once a threat showed its ugly face around Lucille, Pam became overwhelmed by a need to keep it away. Little did she know that the more she tried to take control, the more she lost it. If you always have high expectations in life, you will almost always be disappointed. Be careful who you think are weak links; they may end up destroying you in the end.

In this inspiring guide to successful leadership, New York Times bestselling author John C. Maxwell shares his tried and true principles for maximum personal growth. Are there tried and true principles that are always certain to help a person grow? John Maxwell says the answer is yes. He has been passionate about personal development for over fifty years, and for the first time, he teaches everything he has gleaned about what it takes to reach our potential. In the way that only he can communicate, John teaches . . . The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself The Law of Awareness: You Must Know Yourself to Grow Yourself The Law of Modeling: It's Hard to Improve When You Have No One But Yourself to Follow The Law of the Rubber Band: Growth Stops When You Lose the Tension Between Where You are and Where You Could Be The Law of Contribution: Developing Yourself Enables You to Develop Others This third book in John Maxwell's Laws series (following the 2-million seller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork) will help you become a lifelong learner whose potential keeps increasing and never gets "used up."

Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are widely represented throughout modern culture. They can be found in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts, but popular media or commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from the beliefs people hold about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Personal belief and cultural tradition on the one hand, and popular and commercial representation on the other, nevertheless continually feed each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists seek to broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from a variety of angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously, as they draw on contemporary scholarship that emphasizes both the basis of belief in experience (rather than mere fantasy) and the usefulness of ghost stories. They look closely at the narrative role of such lore in matters such as socialization and gender. And they unravel the complex mix of mass media, commodification, and popular culture that today puts old spirits into new contexts.

The ultimate book on the worldwide movement of hackers, pranksters, and activists collectively known as Anonymous—by the writer the Huffington Post says “knows all of Anonymous’ deepest, darkest secrets” “A work of anthropology that sometimes echoes a John le Carré novel.” —Wired Half a dozen years ago, anthropologist Gabriella Coleman set out to study the rise of this global phenomenon just as some of its members were turning to political protest and dangerous disruption (before Anonymous shot to fame as a key player in the battles over WikiLeaks, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street). She ended up becoming so closely connected to Anonymous that the tricky story of her inside–outside status as Anon confidante, interpreter, and erstwhile mouthpiece forms one of the themes of this witty and entirely engrossing book. The narrative brims with details unearthed from within a notoriously mysterious subculture, whose semi-legendary tricksters—such as Topiary, tflow, Anachaos, and Sabu—emerge as complex, diverse, politically and culturally sophisticated people. Propelled by years of chats and encounters with a multitude of hackers, including imprisoned activist Jeremy Hammond and the double agent who helped put him away, Hector Monsegur, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy is filled with insights into the meaning of digital activism and little understood facets of culture in the Internet age, including the history of “trolling,” the ethics and metaphysics of hacking, and the origins and manifold meanings of “the lulz.”

Freedom did not solve the problems of the Proctor family. Nor did money, recognition, or powerful supporters. As free blacks in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America, three generations of Proctor men were permanently handicapped by the social structures of their time and their place. They subscribed to the Western, middle-class value system that taught that hard work, personal rectitude, and maintenance of family life would lead to happiness and prosperity. But for them it did not -- no matter how hard they worked, how clever their plans, or how powerful their white patrons. The eldest, Antonio, born a Spanish slave, became a soldier for three nations and received government recognition for his daring and his skills as a translator. His son, George, an entrepreneur, achieved material success in the building trade but was so hampered by his status as a free black that he eventually lost not only his position in the community but his family. John, George's son, seized the opportunity proffered by Reconstruction and spent ten years in the Florida state legislature before segregation forced him to return to the life of a tradesman. Warner describes the Proctor men as "inarticulate." They left no personal papers and no indication of their attitudes toward their hardships. As a result, this work relies heavily on local government documents and oral history. Inference and intimation become vital tools in the search for the Proctors. In important ways the author has produced a case study of nontraditional methodology, and he suggests new ways of describing and analyzing inarticulate populations. The Proctors were not typical of the black population of their era and their location, yet the story of their lives broadens our knowledge of the black experience in America.

Tracy Brown's Single Black Female is a taut, edgy, deftly spun novel about four friends grappling with the dramatic twists and turns of life, love and what it means to “make it” in America. Ivy Donovan is a successful stylist, entrepreneur, and single mom who has been loyal to her sons’ father, Michael, who’s serving a lengthy prison sentence. But life has gotten lonely over the years, and Ivy wants more for herself. Michael, however, isn’t about to lose his family. Coco Norris is well-off, single, childless, and struggling with her allegiance to emotionally unavailable men. When she finds a man who seems like he can give her everything she has ever wanted, Coco soon discovers that she has taken on more than she can possibly handle. Deja Maddox is a real estate agent who is married to Bobby, a police sergeant with the NYPD. They have assimilated, looking down on anything that doesn’t fit their buttoned-up, polished life. But Deja isn’t as satisfied as she would like everyone to believe. When Deja’s past returns with a vengeance, she’s forced to face herself as her “perfect” life begins to crumble. Nikki Diamond is a savvy, self-made businesswoman and social media darling who lives large and with no regrets. She’s also Deja’s little sister and thinks her sister can have so much more than her ho-hum marriage. And Nikki is all too happy to lend a “helping” hand to make that happen. Things come to a head when Ivy’s youngest son, Kingston, is caught up in a polarizing encounter with the NYPD. Everyone must figure out where they stand, including Bobby, who suddenly has to decide if his “blue life” matters more to him than his Black life and the Black lives of those he loves. Single Black Female highlights the nuances of Black love, the often tested bonds of Black families, what it means to face the world as a Black man and the joy and pain of being a Black woman.