Valerie Bernowski'a bumpy road to self-discovery is paved with a cynical sense of humor, a longing for love, and a struggle to find faith. Will Valerie realize that in order to move forward, she needs to let go of the pain of the past and the fear of her future?

From New York Times Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub, writing as Wendy Markham. Previously published as Slightly Settled. The do’s and don’ts of the Office Party… After getting out of a dead-end relationship, Tracey Spadolini is determined to live life on her own terms. She’ll party, flirt with whoever she wants, and make out with a few strangers along the way. Maybe even purchase that sexy new scarlet dress she didn’t feel confident enough to wear before. After all, this is the new Tracey, and with the support of her friends she can do just about anything. But at her company’s annual Christmas party, Tracey meets what could be the man of her dreams. The only problem? He’s her boss’ roommate, and she’s aiming for a promotion. Then her ex walks back into her life, and a friend who could be something more finally makes his move. As her life spirals out of control, it’s time for Tracey to decide if she’s ready to risk her heart again. The Slightly Series by Wendy Markham Book One: So Not Single Book Two: Confessions of a One-Night Stand Book Three: Did Someone Say Fiancée? Book Four: Happily Ever After All Book Five: What Happens in Suburbia

All autobiographers are unreliable narrators. Yet what a writer chooses to misrepresent is as telling -- perhaps even more so -- as what really happened. Timothy Adams believes that autobiography is an attempt to reconcile one's life with one's self, and he argues in this book that autobiography should not be taken as historically accurate but as metaphorically authentic. Adams focuses on five modern American writers whose autobiographies are particularly complex because of apparent lies that permeate them. In examining their stories, Adams shows that lying in autobiography, especially literary autobiography, is not simply inevitable. Rather it is often a deliberate, highly strategic decision on the author's part. Throughout his analysis, Adams's standard is not literal accuracy but personal authenticity. He attempts to resolve some of the paradoxes of recent autobiographical theory by looking at the classic question of design and truth in autobiography from the underside -- with a focus on lying rather than truth. Originally published in 1990. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

What do 'bimbo,' 'glitch,' 'savvy,' and 'shtick' all have in common? They are all expressions used in informal American English that have been taken from other languages. This pioneering book provides a comprehensive description of borrowings in informal American English, based on a large database of citations from thousands of contemporary sources, including the press, film, and TV. It presents the United States as a linguistic 'melting pot,' with words from a diverse range of languages now frequently appearing in the lexicon. It examines these borrowings from various perspectives, including discussions of terms, donors, types, changes, functions, and themes. It also features an alphabetical glossary of 1,200 representative expressions, defined and illustrated by 5,500 usage examples, providing an insightful and practical resource for readers. Combining scholarship with readability, this book is a fascinating storehouse of information for students and researchers in linguistics as well as anyone interested in lexical variation in contemporary English.

Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores: key issues of definition and of methodology religious encounters with popular culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood This Companion will serve as an enjoyable and informative resource for students and a stimulus to future scholarly work.