Second Skin

Beauty is only skin deep. Popularity goes much deeper. . . . Appearances can be deceiving. Sam Klein’s found that out firsthand. All she wanted was to be popular. But sometimes what we want is the absolute worst thing for us. Sam discovers that Kylie, It-girl of Woodlawn High, owes her popular status not to her expensive clothes, highlighted hair, and spot on the cheerleading squad but to a magical second skin. Nobody can actually see it—but they can feel it. And if you’re wearing the skin, you feel incredible. Invincible. Popularity is yours. So Sam stole the skin from Kylie. Now she’s the most popular girl at school, while Kylie’s social life takes a serious hit. Sam can barely recognize herself. Her old geek clique is history—but are her new friends really people she can count on? The skin is clinging tighter to her each day . . . can Sam get it off before it’s too late?

"What does a black burlesque star have to do with some of the most enduring and passionate ideas in modern aesthetic theory? Josephine Baker emerges in this untold story as a principal figure in the drama behind the making of Euro-American Modernism. Instead of seeing her nude performances as a Primitivist given, Cheng argues that Baker's skin was central to debates about and desire for "pure surface" that crystalized at the convergence of modern art, architecture, machinery, and philosophy. Taking the reader across the Atlantic - through real stages and imagined houses; banana plantations and ocean lines; metallic bodies and radiant cities-this study tracks the ardent and protean conversa-tion between the making of a Modernist style and the staging of a new black visuality. In this account, Baker and the Modernists known to have adored and objectified her in fact share a common dream: the fantasy of remaking and wearing the skin of the other"--

"John Hawkes is an extraordinary writer. I have always admired his books. They should be more widely read."--Saul Bellow

An action novel featuring Nicholas Linnear, an Anglo-Japanese hero. He heads an international company which has developed a new cellular phone that can transmit the speaker's picture and which the Japanese underworld tries to steal. By the author of The Ninja.

Jess Morgan's life has always been chaotic. When a startling new reality cannot be denied, it's clear that everything she believed about herself is a lie. She is linked to a world where humans-'hot-bloods'-are disposable entertainment. Life on a rundown estate-her single mum's alcoholism and violent boyfriend-become the least of Jess's worries.

Almost from the moment of our birth, clothing acts as our second skin, yet we rarely consider where our clothes come from, or the effects they might have on the environment. This beautifully photographed is about easily achievable ways to care for the planet by living a little simpler regarding cloth and clothing. Get a handle on how cloth consumption affects nature on a larger scale. Look at what textiles are really made from, and examine their properties with an emphasis on those derived from natural sources. In no time you'll have the tools to make informed choices regarding clothing--including deciding how much clothing a person really needs. Second Skin also covers how to mend and maintain clothing, re-purpose fashion, dye clothing, and when all else fails, what it takes to patch, piece, and felt.

This book examines the power of autobiographical narrative in interpreting transsexuality. Focusing on the union of body and narrative, the author conveys how transsexuality has been moulded by autobiographical acts.

When Jay heads to the university’s learning center for help with his math class, he doesn’t expect his tutor to be tall, dark, and handsome. But Roswell is all that and more, and their instant connection over cult movies, books, and TV shows quickly evolves into dating. That’s when things get tricky. Roswell might claim he doesn’t have issues with Jay being trans, but when he’s constantly insisting they “take it slow,” Jay’s not so sure. He’s been hurt before, and he's not going to let it happen again. But then Roswell reveals that he, too, has a few secrets under his skin.

But it would be unfair to the reader to reveal what happens when a gang of professional crooks gets wind of the scheme and moves to muscle in on this bettors' dream of a long-odds situation. Worked out with all the meticulous detail, terror, and suspense of a nightmare, the tale is, on one level, comparable to a Graham Greene thriller; on another, it explores a group of people, their relationships fears, and loves. For as Leslie A. Fiedler says in his introduction, "John Hawkes.. . makes terror rather than love the center of his work, knowing all the while, of course, that there can be no terror without the hope for love and love's defeat . . . ."