A smorgasbord of entertainment and lessons awaits readers as author Joe Farrell releases through Xlibris a unique memoir. Confessions of a Catholic Schoolboy: Jesus Runs Away and Other Stories chronicles his journey as a student who enjoys a carefree life amid schools of rigid discipline and stern religious training. In the early sixties, being in a Catholic school means being compelled to always abide by the rules: pray earnestly when told to do so, study the lessons to answer questions correctly, a “yes” or “no” answer should always be followed by “Sister”, and never ever do anything that would upset or make the teachers mad. Through vivid narration, Confessions of a Catholic Schoolboy unveils the funny side that lurks behind the austere façade of Catholic Schools. It follows the author as he finds himself caught up in different mischief during grade school and to even more grave misbehaviors—including a police arrest—during high school and college. A baby boomer, Farrell’s life is one that is carved by the tumult of the fifties and sixties and the social and personal dramas that come along with it. His is an interesting wave of colors brightened by adventure, discipline, lessons learned, friendship, and love. Providing a good glimpse into the life of pure Catholic training, Confessions of a Catholic Schoolboy: Jesus Runs Away and Other Stories is a witty revelation of a schoolboy’s shenanigans and the ultimate inspiration one can get from them. This memoir of growing up in the 60’s is full of Farrell’s wit, humor, and irreverence yet it’s a touching and poignant story. A fun and enjoyable read.

Roger Williams stumbles through adolescence with the aid of a few friends and his love for the automobile. At the end of college he hits the road to the West Coast in a rolled and tucked, convertible Pontiac, along route 66, over the Sierras to Berkeley for graduate school in 1963. At Berkeley he meets Ginny Wyant a Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University. In the explosive environment of Berkeley in the 60s Roger and Ginny fall in love and move in together. In revolutionary times Roger and Ginny decide to drop out and join the gypsy life. Roger becomes a shade-tree mechanic for artists, musicians, and drug dealers. The parties, the concerts, the riots, the drugs, and the attempts to create a sustainable life outside the mad house of the Vietnam War culture that Roger and Ginny participate in are legendary. After a few years Ginny decides to return to school and complete her PhD in psychology. In 1970 Roger and Ginny have a daughter. The family sustains them through the brutal 70s. By the end of the seventies the war is over, the movement for social change is dead, and the move the to the political right begins. Roger and Ginny move into the next revolution in Silicon Valley. Ginny, who has gotten her degree, gets a job at a psychiatric ward. Roger and Ginny change gender roles. Roger becomes the President of the Mother's Club, rebuilds the house they have been able to buy, and has time to sum up the utopian 60s.

In Gregory Wolfe's collection, The New Religious Humanists, we find the work of a new group of religious intellectuals who have a compelling vision for cultural renewal. In his Introduction Wolfe argues that the only viable alternative to the tired debates between Left and Right comes from one of the oldest - and most relevant - strains of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The writers and topics gathered here offer a rich feast for the mind and heart, including moving personal narratives, meditations on the role of faith in public life, and reflections on environmentalism, abortion, biotechnology, and the arts.

Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a “minority student” who pays the cost of his social assimilation and academic success with a painful alienation — from his past, his parents, his culture — and so describes the high price of “making it” in middle-class America. Provocative in its positions on affirmative action and bilingual education, Hunger of Memory is a powerful political statement, a profound study of the importance of language ... and the moving, intimate portrait of a boy struggling to become a man.

Through reference to over six hundred scenes from film and television—as well as a diverse and cross-disciplinary academic bibliography—Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the role that masturbation serves within narratives while simultaneously mirroring our complicated relationship with the practice in real life and sparking discussions about a broad range of hot-button sexual subjects. From sitcoms to horror movies, teen comedies to erotic thrillers, autoeroticism is easily detected on screen. The portrayal, however, is not a simple one. Just as in real life a paradox exists where most of us masturbate and accept it as normal and natural, there simultaneously exists a silence about it; that we do it, but we don’t talk about it; that we enjoy it but we laugh about it. The screen reflects this conflicted relationship. It is there—hundreds and hundreds of times—but it is routinely whispered about, mocked and presented as a punchline, and is inevitably portrayed as controversial at the very least. Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the embarrassment and squeamishness, sexiness and inappropriateness of masturbation, showcasing and analyzing how our complex off screen relationship is mirrored in film and television.

A wry, no-holds-barred memoir of Nelson’s time controlling some of Chicago's most beautiful spots while facing some of its ugliest traditions. In 1987, the city of Chicago hired a former radical college chaplain to clean up rampant corruption on the waterfront. R. J. Nelson thought he was used to the darker side of the law—he had been followed by federal agents and wiretapped due to his antiwar stances in the sixties—but nothing could prepare him for the wretched bog that constituted the world of a Harbor Boss. Dirty Waters is the wry, no-holds-barred memoir of Nelson’s time controlling some of the city’s most beautiful spots while facing some of its ugliest traditions. Nelson takes us through Chicago's beloved “blue spaces” and deep into the city’s political morass, revealing the different moralities underlining three mayoral administrations and navigating the gritty mechanisms of the city’s political machine. Ultimately, Dirty Waters is a tale of morality, of what it takes to be a force for good in the world and what struggles come from trying to stay ethically afloat in a sea of corruption.

Informed by Erik Erikson's concept of the formation of ego identity, this book, which first appreared in 1961, is an analysis of the experiences of fifteen Chinese citizens and twenty-five Westerners who underwent "brainwashing" by the Communist Chinese government. Robert Lifton constructs these case histories through personal interviews and outlines a thematic pattern of death and rebirth, accompanied by feelings of guilt, that characterizes the process of "thought reform." In a new preface, Lifton addresses the implications of his model for the study of American religious cults.

For Anyone Who's Ever Been a Teenager Who's teenage years weren't terrible? Remember the scary older kids? The sadistic gym teacher? The smelly kid who sat next to you in science class? Your first fumbling kiss? That time you threw up in the cafeteria? Your first attempt at putting on a condom? The period that arrived unexpectedly? That awful fight with your parents? The first time you got drunk? That note you wrote that you shouldn't have written? The day you forgot to zip your fly? That monster zit? When, you wondered, would it all end? In When I Was a Loser, John McNally, author of the novel America's Report Card, assembles twenty-five original essays--often hilarious, sometimes tenderhearted, always evocative--about defining moments of high school loserdom. Brad Land, Julianna Baggott, Owen King, Johanna Edwards, and many more fresh, talented writers explore their own angst, humiliation, heartache, and other staples of teen life. These essays perfectly capture what it was like to be in high school: to experience so many things for the first time, to assert independence while desperately trying to fit in, to feel misunderstood and unable to articulate the wild swings between heartbreak, anger, and euphoria. One writer recalls how his grandmother helped him with his home perm in preparation for the Senior Class picture; another recounts her discovery, sometime after hitting puberty, of the power she held over boys and men, while at the same time she felt herself at their mercy; a third remembers the casual cruelties visited on him by the cooler kids, and the cruelties he, in turn, inflicted on kids below him on the social ladder. Utterly candid and compulsively readable, these essays conjure up and untangle those raw and formative years. The writers cringe and laugh at the teenagers they were, but at the same time, they honor their adolescence and the way it shaped their lives. Because, in truth, beneath the layers of adult respectability, we all still carry a little bit of our teenage selves around with us.

Provides a new perspective for thinking about and reading autobiographical writing