This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a celebrated filmmaker and activist and his conservative Mormon mother built bridges across today’s great divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal. • Adapted as an HBO documentary now streaming on HBO Max. “A beautifully written, utterly compelling account of growing up poor and gay with a thrice married, physically disabled, deeply religious Mormon mother, and the imprint this irrepressible woman made on the character of Dustin Lance Black.” —Jon Krakauer, bestselling author of Missoula and Under the Banner of Heaven Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California’s anti–gay marriage Proposition 8, but as an LGBTQ activist he has unlikely origins—a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. There he was raised by a single mother who, as a survivor of childhood polio, endured brutal surgeries as well as braces and crutches for life. Despite the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages, she imbued Lance with her inner strength and irrepressible optimism. When Lance came out to his mother at age twenty-one, she initially derided his sexuality as a sinful choice. It may seem like theirs was a house destined to be divided—and at times it was. But in the end, they did not let their differences define them or the relationship that had inspired two remarkable lives. This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a mother and son built bridges across great cultural divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal.

FEATURES OF THE TEXAS ALMANAC 2014–2015 • Sketches of eight historic ranches of Texas by Texana writer Mike Cox. • Article on the Texas art and artists by Houston businessman and art collector J.P. Bryan, who has amassed the world’s largest Texana collection. • Coverage of the 2012 elections, redistricting, and the 2012 Texas Olympic medalists. • An update on Major League Baseball in Texas. • Lists of sports champions — high school, college, and professional. MAJOR SECTIONS UPDATED FOR EACH EDITION • The Environment, including geology, plant life, wildlife, rivers, and lakes. • Weather highlights of the previous two years, plus a list of destructive weather dating from 1766. • Two-year Astronomical Calendar that shows moon phases, times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, eclipses, and meteor showers. • Recreation, with details on state and national parks and forests, landmarks, and fairs and festivals. • Sports, including lists of high school football and basketball champions, professional sports teams, Texas Olympians, and Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductees. • Counties section, with detailed county maps and profiles for Texas’s 254 counties. • Population figures from the 2010 US Census and State Data Center estimates as of 2012. • Comprehensive list of Texas Cities and Towns. • Politics, Elections, and information on Federal, State, and Local Governments. • Culture and the Arts, including a list of civic and religious Holidays. • Religion census of 2010 by denomination and adherents; breakdown on metro areas and counties. • Health and Science, with charts of vital statistics. • Education, including a complete list of colleges and universities, and UIL results. • Business and Transportation, with an expanded section on Oil and Gas. • Agriculture, including data on production of crops, fruits, vegetables, livestock, and dairy. • Obituaries of notable Texans. • Pronunciation Guide to Texas town and county names.

The 4th volume of this comprehensive work features hundreds of serial killers from Sacramento to Soviet Russia—plus numerous unsolved cases. The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is the most complete reference guide on the subject, featuring more than 1,600 entries about the lives and crimes of serial killers from around the world. Defined by the FBI as a person who murders three or more people with a hiatus of weeks or months between murders, the serial killer has presented unique and terrifying challenges to have walked among us since the dawn of time—a fact this extensive record makes chillingly clear. The series concludes with Volume Four, T-Z. Entries include the Terminator Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko; Trailside Killer David Joseph Carpenter; Vampire of Sacramento Richard Trenton Chase; and the Voroshilovgrad Maniac Zaven Almazyan; plus the unsolved cases of the Adelaide Child Murders; the Axeman of New Orleans; the Chillicothe Killer; the Dead Women of Juarez; the Korea Frog Boy Murders; and the Volga Maniac.

Complete Atlas of the World, 3rd Edition is now fully revised and updated to reflect the latest changes in world geography, including the annexation of Crimea and the new nation of South Sudan. Bringing each featured landscape to life with detailed terrain models and color schemes and offering maps of unsurpassed quality, this atlas features four sections: a world overview, the main atlas, fact files on all the countries of the world, and an easy-to-reference index of all 100,000 place names. All maps enjoy a full double-page spread, with continents broken down into 330 carefully selected maps, including 100 city plans. You will also find a stimulating series of global thematic maps that explore Earth's place in the universe, its physical forms and processes, the living world, and the human condition. From Antarctica to Zambia, discover the Earth continent-by-continent with Complete Atlas of the World, 3rd Edition.

The second edition of this outstanding reference provides a solid foundation for the study of green building and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). It explains many of the important tenets of green building while providing strategies for implementation and specific case studies designed to broaden your knowledge of green building. Green Building and LEED Core Concepts is an excellent resource in preparing for the Green Building Certification Institute's (GBCI) LEED Green Associate exam. When paired with the USGBC LEED Green Associate Study Guide it provides a powerful combination for exam preparation. A money-saving, value package of these two outstanding publications is also available!