Eating Disorders Essay -- essays research papers fc

Dietary problems      One of the most predominant issue among the young people of this time is dietary issues. While some disregard it and don’t think it is a difficult dietary issues ought to be given genuine thought. This is on the grounds that the mental implication of dietary issues will in general have enduring impacts through the span of the adolescents’ life.      An dietary problem is any of different mental issue, for example, anorexia nervosa or bulimia, which includes deficient or exorbitant food consumption. They are a quiet pestilence and an exceedingly negative reaction to an error of one’s job on the planet. Young people with dietary issues are generally persuaded they’re monstrous, useless, and unskilled. While some neglect it and don’t think it is a difficult it ought to be given genuine thought on the grounds that the mental repercussions of such a turmoil has enduring impacts through the span of the young people life. While dietary problems are a major issue there are two particular types of dietary issues. One is anorexia and the other is bulimia.      Anorexia nervosa is described without anyone else starvation to keep away from stoutness. This is otherwise called the starvation disorder or the dieter’s illness. Insights show that 95% of all anorexics are ladies found basically in upper-white collar class homes running from ages 12 to 18. (Maloney, 81). An individual managing this kind of turmoil is as a rule, making progress toward flawlessness has low confidence, and now and then feels they don’t have the right to eat.      Anorexia normally begins when they or another person feels that the anorexic needs to lose some weight. They feel great when they begin losing the weight since they believe they have reached and gained ground on their objective. Tragically, this causes physical harm and some of the time even passing. Measurements have assessed 10% will in the end pass on. (Patterson, 31). Despite the fact that as a youthful most stop eating so much junk food and surrender it in about up to 14 days, anorexics don’t. On the off chance that one is experiencing this they have signs and manifestations, for example, perceptible weight reduction, over the top working out, odd dietary patterns, feeling cold, dressing in loose garments, unpredictable monthly cycle, a continuous sentiment of weakness, depression, insufficiency, and powerlessness.      There is nobody single purpose behind anorexia, or how it goes unnoticed, yet there are a few clarifications. One is that the perso... ...e without appropriate treatment and affirmation. Individuals should be taught about the infection and that the alleged 'style' looks aren’t so truly after all in actuality looks unfortunate. What happened to the solid curvatious Marilyn Monroe look? Presently there is the unattractive look of bones standing out of skin. Youthful youngsters need to resemble the acclaimed ones. Individuals that are taken a gander at as good examples are constrained yet on the off chance that they were to all agitator against this and consider a big motivator for they maybe things would change to the manner in which they used to be, or surprisingly better. This is a genuine issue that individuals should be taught about. The illness will win and numerous young ladies will endure a lot of their lives on the off chance that it is left disregarded. Works Cited Abraham, Suzanne, and Derek Llewellyn-Jones Eating      Disorders: the realities. Oxford New      York: Oxford      University Press, 1997. Claude-Pierre, Peggy The Secret Language of Eating      Disorders. New York: Times      Books 1997. Maloney, Michael, and Rachel Kranz Straight discussion about  â â â â eating issue. New York:      Facts on File, 1991. Patterson, Charles Eating Disorders. Austin tex: Raintree      Steck-Vaughn, 1995.

School Drop Out Rates Essay Example

School Drop Out Rates Essay Probably the best blessing to have been gave to the offspring of our country is the contribution of evenhanded scholastic education.â It is by methods for the instruction introduced that we as people can create and propel the essential aptitudes to lead profitable and prosperous lives.â by and large, while many may think back fortunately at the information picked up all through our school years, the equivalent may not be said for everybody, as dropout rates keep on assuming an emotional job in today’s society.â â So what are dropout rates and how are they critical to the individual dropout as well as to society as well?â Throughout the accompanying we will address these inquiries just as examine different techniques for estimation, the legitimacy of those estimations, minority and ethnic gatherings influenced and potential arrangements with respect to this vital issue.If â€Å"knowledge is power†, at that point for what reason would one select to refute such an exceptional blessing?  Though school for specific understudies can without a doubt be troublesome, awkward and exhausting now and again, the outcomes rendered from freeing themselves of this learning procedure can be undeniably all the more overpowering in the long run.â Low paying occupations, absence of education and personal satisfaction issues are just a couple of such consequences.â Furthermore, singular dropouts are by all account not the only ones to experience the ill effects of these effects.â Communities with higher dropout rates will in general have more prominent rates of occupants gathering open help, charge income misfortunes and raised wrongdoing rates.â For example, it is accepted that dropouts are 3.5 occasions bound to carry out crimes.â That being stated, 75% of jail prisoners have not moved on from a secondary school program. This thusly scorns more prominent jail costs. Furthermore, considers have indicated that illicit medication use may increment among secondary school dropouts. (Smink, J., Drew, S. Duckenfield, M., 2006)Sadly, youngsters may likewise get themselves casualties in the instructive push and pull as they become inclined to rehashing the pattern of their folks. (Smink, J., Drew, S. Duckenfield, M., 2006)â As kids, we increased a lot of information by what we saw and what we â€Å"believed† to be correct.â On that note, on the off chance that guardians don't take their own instruction, or scarcity in that department, genuinely, at that point it makes sense with regards to what bearing their kids will take?â Yet, to talk about sick impacts may not be enough.â â In request to at any rate fathom the greatness of this progressing issue and its social implications, overseeing elements must have the option to measurably assess data that introduces itself as a way to create solutions.â Dropout rates may serve this very purpose.Since the 1970’s dropout rates have slowly diminished, yet issues of i nstructive deserting remain.â The accumulation of information used to contemplate dropout rates can be a promising device in deciding school execution as well as be useful in disentangling trends.â â By examining these rates, the advancement of extraordinary administrations committed to the decrease and avoidance of dropouts from state to state can be initiated.â It is vital to specify that accessible administrations originate from banded together endeavors, for example, legislative and network organizations just as through business.â â â â€Å"Students by and large are considered to have dropped out when they leave school, don't move, don't graduate and don't come back to class in the following year.†Ã¢ Methods of deciding dropout rates fluctuate, in any case, dependant upon the inquiry to be replied, for example, explicit age gatherings, yearly rates or joined evaluation levels over a time of time.â Some of the most noted rate structures are Longitudinal, Attr ition, Annual and Status Rates.â (Creech, 2000)Longitudinal Rates are helpful in deciding â€Å"the level of ninth graders who don't graduate in five years†.â Using division (No. of dropouts/No. of unique class individuals) this rate is effortlessly created and offers the understudy a more prominent timeframe to acquire their secondary school certificate.â However, because of constrained accessibility of fundamental data like that of the genuine number of school moves, the rates may not be entirely accurate.â For this explanation, Longitudinal Rates are mostly projections of yearly rates.â (Creech, 2000)Similarly, Attrition Rates are dictated by ninth grade rates yet don't take into consideration the extra (fifth) year and like Longitudinal Rates certain vital data might be missing to precisely show up at genuine percentages.â These rates are processed by deduction and division strategies utilizing the quantity of ninth grade understudies selected four years earli er short the all out number of graduating understudies and afterward separating by the ninth grade enlistment numbers.â (Creech, 2000)â While hard to comprehend, the accompanying model may serve to explain any confusion.â If we had 450 absolute understudies joined up with ninth grade and after four years just 350 graduated, it is evident we would have 100 understudies who might considered dropouts.â If we at that point take those 100 understudies and gap it by the 450 understudies at first enlisted our Attrition Rate would bring about 22.2% dropout rate covering that four-year time of time.School execution rates are the essential objective of Annual Dropout Rates which looks at enlistment for the long stretches of May and June to those of the accompanying September.â Although generally speaking dropout rates from year to year are effectively controlled by this strategy, state minor departure from grade levels included showcase no uniformity.â subsequently, state-to-state examinations are not feasible.â Another weakness of dissecting just the quantity of dropouts for that given year is lower rate rates that may not illustrate the real problem.â For example normal rates accumulated over a time of four years may not compare to yearly rates.â Lower rates can likewise be credited to the evaluation level varieties, as states remembering seventh and eighth grade understudies for their last percentage.â Typically, understudies of more youthful age bunches don't dropout of school until a lot later when limitations are lifted.â In this sense, underestimation appears to be unavoidable. (Creech, 2000)Status Rates are amassed through U.S Census Bureau Population Surveys and are utilized to decide dropout rates among explicit age gatherings and are the most advantageous or exact rates for correlation of state-to-state percentages.â For instance, Status Rates may report the level of 16 through multi year-olds who have not graduated secondary school an d who are not enrolled.â (Creech, 2000)â According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2001) â€Å"in October 1999, there were 3.8 million 16-24-year-olds were not taken a crack at a secondary school program and who had not finished high school†, paying little mind to when they went to school.â Consequently, 11.2% of 16 through 24-year-old dropouts in the United States fell inside this category.â â Through such rates the general dropout issue existing inside our populace is uncovered. Status Rates can significantly help in the advancement of building up extra instruction and preparing intended to help affect dropouts to all the more promptly take part inside the nation’s economy just as lead progressively gainful lives.The NCES additionally processes yearly Event Rate Statistics.â â These rates incorporate, ages 15 through 24-year-olds in levels 10-12 who have dropped out in the year going before the information assortment and is a signif icant measure regarding the viability of educator’s capacity to keep understudies enrolled.â It is imperative to make reference to that with the factual figurings for Event Rates, understudies are seen as having finished a secondary school program whether through customary class work or by accepting their accreditation by means of interchange means, for example, a GED. It is assessed that while in the course of the most recent 25 years Event Dropout Rates have vacillated, a general abatement has been recorded from 6.1% in 1972 to 5.0% in 1999.â â â Event Status Rates (1999) likewise decided â€Å"5 out of each 100 youthful grown-ups who were taken on secondary school in October 1998 were no longer in school and had not effectively finished high school†.â Event rates are gathered through Current Population Surveys (CPS). Such overviews take into account computations to be resolved dependent on attributes, for example, ethnicity, sex, area of residency and pay level.â For example, the NCES has assembled information in 1999 that upheld the way that understudies of families in the least 20% of family salaries had a five times higher probability of dropping out of school.â Which minority bunches by and large are bound to dropout of school can likewise be resolved through Event Rates.â (NCES, 2001)According to determined rates Hispanics make up most of school dropouts among minority and ethnic groups.â As Creech (2000) calls attention to, insights set out by the NCES, confirmed that 38% of Hispanic understudies had dropped out of school in 1998, though, just 17% of dark understudies were evaluated to have dropped out inside that predefined year.â Figures, for example, these might be to a great extent because of language hindrances of understudies brought into the world abroad or living with families where English is utilized basically as a second language.â â Overall dark and Hispanic understudies were 2-3 times bound to drop out of school than white students.â Other social impacts that may add to higherâ drop out rates are pregnancy, conduct issues and confidence issues.â In request to battle these issues, uncommon projects for bunches like youngster guardians and those whose first language isn't English must be instituted.â (Creech, 2000)Yet, even with the mass measures of specialized data offered concerning the different techniques and counts of dropout rates, we are left with th

Riot Roundup The Best Books We Read In December 2018

Riot Roundup The Best Books We Read In December 2018 Wondering which were the best books our contributors read in the last month of 2018? If so, lucky day to you, because we asked and Rioters told us what they read and loved in December. We have food memoirs, short essays, poetic YA, literary fiction, a hug to your soul and so much more! Theres old, and new, and not even published yet. And if you want to share your favorite read from December pop into our comments and tell usâ€"were always here to talk about more books! The Adults by Caroline Hulse The awkwardness of two ex-spouses spending the holidays (of all things!) with their daughter (and her snarky imaginary rabbit friend), and respective new partners is so palpable in this book that readers will have a hard time keeping a straight face. This compelling debut provides just the right amount of comic relief in its portrayal of tense family gatherings, capping off with a side of a whodunit mystery when one of them gets injured, which unspools as more of their issues surface. Hulse managed to craft terribly flawed characters who are, in fact, so likable and relatable in their issues that it’s hard to look away from the holes they keep digging themselves into. The irony of the title will not be lost on readers. â€"Kamrun Nesa After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey I really loved the characters in After the Winterâ€"they are complicated and sometimes incredibly unlikable, but also richly drawn and fascinating, even when it’s difficult to be in their minds. The story follows Cecilia as she tries to find a place for herself in Paris, and Claudio as he broods over his life in New York City. We know their paths are going to converge somehow, and watching it happen is thoroughly absorbing. Nettel’s evocation of Paris is particularly memorable. â€"Rebecca Hussey The Art of Escaping by Erin Callahan This book reminded me why I love the YA genre so much. It has explorations about who you are, pain, the realities of growing up, and a spectrum of parents. “Girl Scout,” aka Mattie, gets into escapology during a summer when her best friend has gone to a specialized school and the guidance counselor has hinted that Mattie needs extracurriculars to pad her college applications. She decides to bang on the door of Miyu, the daughter of a famous escapologist, and ask for training. Miyu eventually agrees, on the condition that Mattie runs errands for her, does the training without question, and performs. On stage. Unfortunately, the day that Mattie does a death-defying escape, a high school jock named Will spots her at the show. Just as she’s worried that he’ll out her on social media, before she can even tell her best friend Stella, he responds with a secret of his own. And that starts a strange friendship, as well as making Mattie an interesting college candidate. The book is ver y open about how growing up is hard, and how we have to own our mistakes. â€"Priya Sridhar Becoming by Michelle Obama By this point I’m sure Becoming has already flooded your timelines and dashboards. I mean, the memoir sold more copies in 2018 than any other book in the U.S and it’s well deserved. Becoming is everything I hoped it would be and more. Not only do we get a glimpse of Ms. Obama’s life inside the White House, but majority of the books focuses on her life before becoming First Lady. What I loved about this book is that she doesn’t shy away from anything: she told the world about the doubts she had with her career, her troubles with getting pregnant, troubles in her marriage, and how she reacted to the “bullies” talking about her appearance. She even took a few jabs at Donald Trump. Her story moved me, especially as a young, black woman living in America. Not to mention that the writing is breathtaking. Becoming made me fall in love with Michelle Obama all over again. â€"Yaasmeen Piper The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty Michael W. Twitty is a food historian who went on a journey to learn about the food of his enslaved ancestors in the southern U.S., deemed his “Southern Discomfort” project. In this book, he explores the history of southern cuisine, particularly the roles slavery, African roots, and Native American culture played in its development. Food is more than just sustenance; it’s personal and political history, it’s ancestry, it’s inherited trauma and grief. Twitty’s exploration of his own family history and the history of the food we eat will forever change your perspective on soul food. â€"Susie Dumond Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness by Melissa Dahl This book is a gift for anyone who’s ever found themselves saying, “Ugh, why am I so awkward?” which is to say me and all of my friends. Dahl examines awkwardness and cringe as social and psychological concepts. In the name of research, she put herself into a number of potentially embarrassing situations, such as auditioning for Mortified (a comedy show in which people read from their middle school diaries) and attending a weekend training event called “Unlearning Racism” (which teaches participants how to have those important, if uncomfortable conversations about race and privilege). Cringeworthy is a fun and #relevant read, but I also learned a lot from Dahl’s analysis. She talks about the “irreconcilable gap” between how we see ourselves and how others see us, explains how awkwardness can often be a sign that we’ve reached our “growing edge,” and discusses how empathy can either be a force that leads to contempt or compassion. In the end, Cringeworthy makes t he case that we should feel empoweredâ€"rather than paralyzedâ€"by our awkwardness, an insight I was grateful to hear. â€"Emily Polson The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (Berkley, Feb. 19, 2019) I wasn’t sure if I would like this book when I started because it’s told from multiple viewpoints; each section has a different narratorâ€"but it turns out that I don’t think there’s any other way to tell this story. I finished this in two days because I just kept wanting to read more. When Althea and Proctor Butler, prominent members of a community, are arrested, Althea’s sisters Viola and Lillian are shocked. The community is furious, and the family is disgraced. The two sisters pair up to take care of Althea and Proctor’s daughters, and the story of what happened slowly unfolds from each person’s point of view. Past, present, and future keep bumping up against each other as each person tries to navigate the current events and what it means to be family, forgive, forget, and rebuild. There are so many layers to this gorgeous story, and I kept wanting even more about each character, each time the POV switched. I haven’t read a book like this in a long time. â€"Jaime Herndon Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas This is a short book that packs a punch. In a series of short essays, Vargas, an activist and journalist who came to the U.S. from the Philippines as a child, delves into the everyday struggles, fears, triumphs, injustices, and ordinary specifics of living as undocumented person in the U.S. Though the essays range widely, covering both personal experience and larger political movements and happenings, my favorites were the essays where he simply talks about what it feels like to be an undocumented person. What it’s like trying to get a job or a driver’s license, to get on a fight, report a story as a journalist, or drive to a border town. Vargas’s writing is clear, eloquent, and full of anger and heart. This is a must-read in today’s America. â€"Laura Sackton Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry Family Matters is somehow both piercingly specific (as a story of a Parsi family living in Mumbai and straddling different financial categories) and universally relatable (for its themes of duty, aging, and the complexities of family dynamics). It’s beautifully written, and moving without any unearned sentimentality. â€"Christine Ro Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom It’s hard to prepare yourself for the experience that is Fierce Femmes, but I knew this going in. After all, the title is epic, and the pastel cover is littered with high heels, mermaid tails, daggers, and even swarms of bees. It just screams, “THIS IS UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WILL EVER READ.” And it was. Not your typical coming-of-age story, the narrator is a young Asian trans girl who also happens to be a pathological liar with a taste for blood and violence. The plot, which follows her journey to find both a true home and a true family, is filled with flourishes of magical realism that somehow seem real. And the lyricism of the language had me transfixed. I’m not making any sense. But that’s okay. It’s something that must be read to be understood. â€"Steph Auteri Less by Andrew Sean Greer I’d picked this book up so many times in bookshops and almost bought it, so I was glad when my book club chose it and gave me an excuse to take the plunge. It doesn’t sound like much on paperâ€"minor novelist gets his heart broken, decides to travel far away to avoid the person who broke itâ€"and in the hands of a lesser writer, it could have been insufferable. But Greer is not a lesser writer. Greer’s character is thoroughly flawed but somehow endearing, and the author’s observations on human nature, love, the literary world, and the joys and challenges of travel are conveyed in wonderful but unpretentious prose. Highly recommend! â€"Claire Handscombe Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through The Science And Culture Of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes I wish this book had existed during my pregnancy, but even though I’m a mom with a one-year-old, I found this so interesting and learned so much. It’s a mix of pop science and memoir. Each chapter follows a specific aspect of pregnancy and the first yearâ€"miscarriage, placentas, labor, breastfeeding, etc.â€"and Garbes tells her personal story of these aspects and gives researched, scientific details about what’s actually going on. You know, all that stuff nobody bothers to tell pregnant parents. I plan to throw this at all expecting parents in the future. But even if you’re not an expecting parent or even ever plan to be, there are lots of super interesting bodily facts in this book that if you like health pop science, you’ll find fascinating. â€"Margaret Kingsbury Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney On New Year’s Eve in 1984, Lillian Boxfish takes a walk through New York City, heading to a party. Along the way, she meets all kinds of people, treating them with grace, curiosity, and kindness. Passing landmarks of her 85 years of life, she muses about how she came to be where she is. She reminisces about her time as the highest-paid advertising woman, and the marriage and motherhood and divorce that derailed her career. She remembers her breakdown and the walks through gardens she was permitted while she recovered. She’s a pistol. When I picked this up for the Read Harder challenge, I was planning on just cruising through to meet a challenge. But this book is so good. I can’t stop thinking about it, and how I want to be Lillian Boxfish when I grow up. â€"Ashley Holstrom Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng I adored Ng’s first book, Everything I Never Told You, and was really excited for this one to come out. Yet, I let it sit on my bookshelf for over a year. I finally picked it up this month and was not disappointed. A searing character driven story of family, identity, and motherhood, Little Fires Everywhere had me glued to the page. The omniscient narrator explores the little mysteries of who these characters really are and where they come from while we guess who really set those little fires everywhere. This one definitely made my top ten reads of the year. â€"Beth O’Brien The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya, translated by Asa Yoneda I loved this collection of quirky and wonderful stories by Yukiko Motoya and translated by Asa Yoneda. Winner of the Akutagawa Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, Motoya is a magicianâ€"she takes mundane, daily life and just twists it into strange and fantastic tales. In these stories, a newlywed notices that her husband’s features are sneakily sliding around his face to match hers, umbrellas are more than they seem, women are challenging their boyfriends to duels, and you might want to reconsider dating the girl next door. I’d recommend this collection to fans of Hiromi Kawakami and Carmen Maria Machado. â€"Pierce Alquist New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay by Caitlin Kunkel, Brooke Preston, Fiona Taylor and Carrie Wittmer I have been pushing this book on people like I wrote the thing! Based on a viral McSweeney’s piece of the same name, its a collection of quick one to two page satirical musings on what turns us feminists onâ€"you know, stuff like equal pay, respect, autonomy over our bodies. It is chock full ogems: one bit about Tom Hardy delivering a fridge full of free La Croix wearing a t-shirt that says WILD FEMINIST, another about meeting a guy on Tinder whose invents a serum to make RBG immortal. My favorite though? Ed Sheeran releases a new single called Im in Love with Your Body of Work, about Agatha Christie. It sells nine million copies (more than there are people on the earth). So much yes. â€"Vanessa Diaz The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday, July 16, 2019) Get ready for Whitehead to break your heart again with this slim but powerful novel about two boys who are sent to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Whitehead once again deftly lays open a dark chapter in American history for all to see, and we are better for it. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But, Liberty, I still haven’t recovered from The Underground Railroad!” Me either! And that’s a good thing! It shows you what an amazing writer Whitehead is, to be able to put words together that keep you feeling feels long after you’ve turned the last page. I promise this one will do that very thing too. And you still have seven months to prepare. â€"Liberty Hardy Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming Alan Cumming expertly played King James on Doctor Who a few weeks ago, leading me to rewatch my beloved Tin Man, to binge his new show Instinct, and finally to where these things always lead me: looking up audiobooks. I came across Not My Father’s Son on Scribd and listened to the whole book in one sitting. The book alternates between Cumming’s childhood experiences with violence and abuse and his present-day involvement filming the show Who Do You Think You Are? with the hope of solving the family mystery of his maternal grandfather’s disappearance. Cumming’s narration is beautiful and honest. I was particularly moved by his remembrance of a moment he spent communing with his grandmother’s spirit after her passing. â€"Dana Lee Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon (Simon Pulse, January 15, 2019) I’ve admittedly been a bit of a reading slump lately and this snapped me out of it with the force of a hurricane. Sophie and Peter are neighbors and best friends, so when Peter needs a kidney transplant, Sophie doesn’t even hesitate to volunteer. Secretly, she hopes that this will only bring them closer together and just *maybe* he’ll see her as more than a friend. People, I SOBBED. Friends-to-lovers romances are my absolute favorite, throw in Peter’s growing attraction to a cute boy in a band, the fact that Sophie is a dancer, and Solomon’s beautiful writing…it all makes for an amazing sophomore release. Any book that makes snot stream down my face deserves all the stars. â€"Kate Krug The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo I listened to this book in a single morning. I don’t typically read on audiobook, as I find myself too easily distracted, but hearing the author’s words exactly as she intended them was a magical experience. And this book is phenomenal! I don’t know when I’ve rooted so hard for a protagonist (okay, probably the last book I read). I will be making an effort to incorporate more audiobooks and more poetry to my 2019 reading, starting with Ibi Zobois  Pride,  also read by Acevedo. â€"Annika Barranti Klein The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith I’m likely one of the last people in the world to read this book, especially after the Todd Haynes adaptation Carol was released in 2015. But you know, better late than never. If you’ve somehow been living under a rock and have no idea what this novel is about, The Price of Salt is a semi-autobiographical novel set in the 1950s about a young woman who falls in love with an elegant but troubled older woman. Highsmith is a gifted writer who I admire most for her descriptive language that gives you an entryway into the psyche of her characters. This novel does an amazing job, too, of exploring gender and the ways in which many men incorrectly assume ownership over women (looking at you, Richard). I feel like this is an issue most women are acutely aware of in their everyday lives, but Highsmith illustrates the problem perfectly. â€"Emily Martin The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre It’s a nonfiction book that unfolds like a thriller. The book tells the story of one of the most important spies of the Cold War, Oleg Gordievsky. He rose through the ranks of the Soviet Union’s fearsome security service, the KGB, to become its most senior spy in London. Only he was a double agent who recruited by MI6, the British secret service. The book tells one of the greatest Cold War espionage stories in nail-biting pace, giving you a fly on the wall view of how it all unfolded. â€"Kareem Shaheen So Lucky by Nicola Griffith Perhaps unbelievably, this was my first Nicola Griffith book. It certainly won’t be my last. This short, autobiographical novel was not quite what I expected. I thought it was going to be a lot more speculative (as I had it in my mind Griffith was mainly an SF writer) than it actually was. Its actually mostly a realist, visceral tale of a womans first year after being diagnosed with MS, specifically focused as a character study of the protagonist Mara. I loved how full of anger she wasâ€"at having MS, at the casually ableist world she abruptly collides with, at violence against people with disabilities and/or womenâ€"and how Griffith obviously wasnt concerned with making her likable. Her relationships with the women in her life felt very real to me, both her (ex-)wife she has just got divorced from but is still close with (how lesbian!) and her old friend who shes had sexual chemistry with for years. So Lucky is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. â€"Casey Stepaniuk There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon (Simon Pulse, May 14, 2019) I will read anything Menon writes, since she’s consistently brought delightful girls fighting for themselves into my life. If you’ve already met Dimple and Twinkle and love Menon’s previous books, this is worth your pre-buy dollars. This time around we get to know Sweetie Nair, a track star who finds herself secretly dating Ashish Patelâ€"yes, Rishi’s younger brother from When Dimple Met Rishi! It’s only a secret from Sweetie’s parents, though, since her mother forbade them dating because she thinks Sweetie needs to be protected until she’s no longer fat. Sweetie knows there is nothing wrong with her body but doesn’t know how to challenge her mother or make her realize it. Until now, when she ventures into her first rebellion by secretly dating Ashish. But with his own baggage will this young love even have a chance? I love having girls I root for, great friendships, and getting to see bilingual families and their customs and traditions. Anytime your soul needs a hug, pick up a Sandhya Menon novel. â€"Jamie Canavés