Long before selling secondhand belongings on Ebay and Craigslist was the rage, a preteen Chitoka Webb sold what others saw as junk to the residents of her neighborhood and made a profit. At the age of thirteen, she talked her way into a job as the youngest checker at a local grocery store. Without a college degree, through tenacity, grit, and a healthy dose of faith in herself, Chitoka became the owner of several businesses before the age of thirty. In Something Inside of Me, Chitoka Webb shares her poignant, funny, and inspiring life story, from her humble beginnings in the Nashville housing projects to her rise as the CEO of several companies. Through stories of the many struggles she faced, from poverty to racism to the loss of her vision, Chitoka demonstrates the amazing human ability to triumph over extreme adversity through willpower, faith, and a constant love for oneself.

In the last twenty years, gay literature has earned a place at the American and British literary tables, spawning its own constellation of important writers and winning a dedicated audience. No one, though, until Philip Gambone, has attempted to offer a collective portrait of our most important gay fiction writers. This selection of interviews attempts just that and is notable both for the depth of Gambone's probing conversations and for the sheer range of important authors included. Allen Barnett Christopher Bram Peter Cameron Bernard Cooper Dennis Cooper Michael Cunningham Brad Gooch Joseph Hansen Scott Heim Andrew Holleran Alan Hollinghurst Brian Keith Jackson Randall Kenan David Leavitt Michael Lowenthal Paul Monette Michael Nava David Plante John Preston Lev Raphael Edmund White

In 1922, Mildred Pitts Walter was born in DeRidder, Louisiana, to a log cutter and a midwife/beautician. She became the first member of her family to go to college, graduating in 1940. Walter moved to California, where she worked as an elementary school teacher. After being encouraged by a publisher to write books for and about African American children, Walter went on to become a pioneer of African American children's literature. Most notably, she wrote Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, which bent preconceptions with tales of black cowboys and men doing “women’s work.” She was also a contributing book reviewer to the Los Angeles Times. In Something Inside So Strong: Life in Pursuit of Choice, Courage, and Change, Walter recollects major touchstones in her life. The autobiography, divided into three parts, “Choice,” “Courage,” and “Change,” covers Walter’s life beginning with her childhood in the 1920s and moving to the present day. In “Choice,” Walter describes growing up in a deeply segregated Louisiana and includes memories of school, rural home life, World War II, and participating in neighborhood activities like hog killing and church revivals. “Courage” documents her adjustment to living away from family, her experiences teaching in Los Angeles, and her extensive work with her husband for the Los Angeles chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality. The final section, “Change,” shows how Walter’s writing and activism merged, detailing her work as an education consultant and as an advocate for nonviolent resistance to racism. It also reveals how her world travels expanded her personal inquiry into Christianity and African spirituality. Something Inside So Strong is one woman’s journey to self-discovery.

An intimate yet frank biography of Gore Vidal, one of the most accomplished, visible and controversial American novelists and cultural figures of the past century. The product of thirty years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini's biography probes behind the glittering surface of Vidal's colourful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well - a virtual Who's Who of the American Century, from Eleanor Roosevelt on down. The life of Gore Vidal was an amazingly full one; a life of colourful incident, famous people and lasting achievements that calls out for careful evocation and examination. Through Jay Parini's eyes and words comes an accessible, entertaining story that puts the life and times of one of the great American figures of the post-war era into context, that introduces the author to a generation who didn't know him before and looks behind-the-scenes at the man and his work in frank ways never possible before his death. Parini, provided with unique access to Vidal's life and his papers, excavates buried skeletons, but never loses sight of his deep respect for Vidal and his astounding gifts.

Layla Kingston has a tricky problem. She doesn't let anyone toy with her guarded emotions-but she still longs for love. But when her boss, the irresistible millionaire Ashton Miller, tries to break through her walls, he finds it a bit difficult. Because, let's face it, everyone knows blending your professional and personal lives can be messy. Then in walks Alex Ryder. He offers her romance, a simple life, and coaxes Layla gently from her shell-but something's...missing. Maybe after years of disappointment and heartache at the hands of those she dared to trust, true love just isn't in the cards anymore...

Celebrate feelings in all their shapes and sizes in this New York Times bestselling picture book from the Growing Hearts series! Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings! Some make us feel as light as a balloon, others as heavy as an elephant. In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how they feel physically, inside, with language that is lyrical but also direct to empower readers to practice articulating and identifying their own emotions. With whimsical illustrations and an irresistible die-cut heart that extends through each spread, this gorgeously packaged and unique feelings book is sure to become a storytime favorite.