This book is from the perspective of someone who was belittled for her weight, stuttering, and learning disability. This book is from my gut on a level that I thought would never surface after being stifled for so long. It's a look at how I managed to emerge as a successful teacher and human being regardless of what others thought of me and how they treated me. The title "scapegoat" has followed me since a very young age. It was made to be okay to treat me badly; not anymore. This book is a representation and a guide to let people know that they do not bring you down without you lifting your way up and out from their influences, and words of negativity. I am doing this my way on my own terms without permission from anyone uninhibitedly.

"Cracked Shell Whole Yolk" is a collection of life events from the mind of a woman who survives domestic violence. Margo Viola escapes her abuser through the only avenue available "Death". After cheating death herself, she in turn had crossed the line and committed the sin of having another person's life taken. Cracked Shell Whole Yolk depicts the trials and tribulations of Margo's entire life path, coupled with her overwhelming desire to make right what she had wronged. Margo shows an innate ability to overcome adversity. Margo's life story proves that there are desperate changes needed in our Judicial System to narrow the brood spectrum of disparity, while handling Domestic Violence cases. Margo uses her bitter life experience as a tool for self-betterement and a guide to help others. She displays how one woman picked up her life, with heightened clarity and determination. Her strives marked the truth by living proof, of how one individual can make a difference. Margo's Memoir prompts society to take a cold hard look at the true dynamics of Domestic Violence, and how it plagues our community, thus erodes our family core. Cracked Shell/Whole Yolk is a thrilling adventure of a woman's life that soars at each turn of the page. Her experience touches all of us as a collective whole. Margo truly emerges from a "Cracked Shell" into a fully rounded "Whole Yolk"!

An African folklore about the story of the greedy Tortoise/ Turtle. Before now the Tortoise has always had a very beautiful and smooth shell. Discover through this African folklore, how the Tortoise cracked his shell and ever since it's has remained cracked.

When the party was over, everyone left, and the tortoise has no means of going home. The tortoise jumped from the sky and landed on hard rocks on the earth and shattered his shell. He became so sick and spent so many months behind the rocks. Although he got better, his shell became cracked and patchy. This is why the tortoises shell is patchy.

“Iced is a powerhouse. . . . Ray Shell writes beautifully. The story is heartbreaking. I kept putting it down and picking it up again—it won’t let me go.”—Maya Angelou A timeless tale of one man’s decline into the depths of addiction that is at both a shocking study of the addict’s life, and a deeply compelling and often uplifting tale of human love and loss. First published at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic thirty years ago, Ray Shell’s “powerhouse” (Maya Angelou) of a novel is as timely and relevant today as it was in 1994. It is the story of Cornelius Washington, a young upper-middle-class Black man blessed with burning talent and ambition, who enjoys experimenting with drugs—a dangerous pastime that gradually becomes a destructive addiction. Now a middle-aged crackhead, Cornelius ponders his life and the choices that have led him here. Written as a series of immersive stream of consciousness diary entries, Iced captures the despair and dashed dreams of a man caught between the harsh realities of his present and the adventures and upheavals of his past—a youth marked by a host of characters both intriguing and terrifying. A complicated man both compelling and maddening, sympathetic and defiant, Cornelius tries desperately to break free from his addiction, a struggle that ends in defeat time and time again. Despite the thought loops that lead to his bad choices, this painfully realistic character elicits hope for his survival, even though he will likely meet a devastating end. Resonant and haunting, illuminating and heartbreaking, Iced paints a portait of being Black in America, and the ways in which marginalized communities are targeted and ignored, left to suffer the consequences of policies made by powerful people ignorant and uncaring of their lives. It is a novel that transcends time, offering a glimpse of the past that is present in our lives today.

Cast out of the refrigerator because of a small crack, Eggbert sets out into the world, using his talent for painting to try to blend in. Eventually he realizes that cracks are everywhere and reminds us all that our flaws are perfectly natural.