An outspoken commentator on Malaysia's social and political affairs, Marina Mahathir takes on the issues, ideas and institutions of the day in her latest book, Telling it Straight. She highlights unpalatable truths, derides tired old ways and challenges the status quo. She asks the questions that need to be asked - and is unafraid of proposing solutions. In Telling it Straight, she touches on subjects as diverse as human trafficking, the underclass, flashmobs, Islamic law enforcement, corruption and plain idiocy. She defends the rights of the discriminated, and makes clear her stand for individual integrity and her respect for diversity and dissent. Marina's fortnightly column has been published in The Star newspaper for more than 20 years. Telling it Straight contains the best of her columns published from 2003 to 2012 as well as the original versions of several pieces that were banned, spiked or censored. Her columns are presented thematically, many of them with specially written introductions that provide context to the issues with which they deal. The book also includes a foreword by renowned political scientist and historian Dr Farish Noor. Indispensable to every Malaysian and everyone who wants to know Malaysia, Telling it Straight is a lively exploration into the nation's psyche and a common sense manifesto for a better future.

Anthony Albanese has been at the heart of Labor politics in Australia for a decade. For the previous decade he persistently worked to ensure that the Labor left was a vital part of all ALP activities. This is his story. The turbulent years of federal politics with a deeply personal dimension, this is the whole story of Anthony Albanese and the remarkable mother, Maryanne, who raised him. Anthony learned his political craft among the tough men and women of NSW Labor, inheriting his mother's devotion to social justice, the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the party his family had served for three generations. ALBANESE- Telling it Straight reveals what shaped the bloke they call 'Albo', his climb through politics by playing hard, fast and sometimes loose and how as he and his colleagues wrestled with Labor's future, he discovered his own past. Now with additional material.

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One of NPR's Best Books of the Year “Straight’s memoir is a lyric social history of her multiracial clan in Riverside that explores the bonds of love and survival that bind them, with a particular emphasis on the women’s stories . . . The aftereffect of all these disparate stories juxtaposed in a single epic is remarkable. Its resonance lingers for days after reading.” —San Francisco Chronicle In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self–proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, close–knit Sims family, Straight—and eventually her three daughters—heard for decades the stories of Dwayne’s female ancestors. Some women escaped violence in post–slavery Tennessee, some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi, and some fled abusive men. Straight’s mother–in–law, Alberta Sims, is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susan’s family, too, reflects the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward—from Switzerland, Canada, and the Colorado Rockies to California. A Pakistani word, biraderi, is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clan—those who become your family. An entire community helped raise her daughters. Of her three girls, now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry, Straight writes, “The daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival.” “Certain books give off the sense that you won’t want them to end, so splendid the writing, so lyrical the stories. Such is the case with Southern California novelist Susan Straight’s new memoir, In the Country of Women . . . Her vibrant pages are filled with people of churned–together blood culled from scattered immigrants and native peoples, indomitable women and their babies. Yet they never succumb . . . Straight gives us permission to remember what went before with passion and attachment.” ––Los Angeles Times

Navigating Differences: Friendships Between Gay and Straight Men is a one-of-a-kind cross-sexual study that shows you how today’s gay and straight men build, maintain, and foster true friendships. In this activist, participatory study, you’ll get a day-in-the-life look at 44 pairs of cross-sexual men’s friendships and see what helps them negotiate the terrain of their emotional, sexual, psychological, and social differences in today’s climate of often publicly defended homophobia and heterosexism. Navigating Differences succeeds in bringing the true picture of cross-sexual men’s relationships to you, regardless of your personal orientation or political affiliation. You’ll find information--straight from the lives of the study’s participants--that shows you how different sexual orientations impact the way men spend time together, maintain friendships, cope with sexual struggles, and open good communication channels. Most importantly, you’ll get detailed facts and feedback concerning: hegemonic masculinity embracing, struggling with, and ignoring differences group demographic characteristics embeddedness and emotional communication outness in-groups, out-groups, and reference groups Hearsay and prejudice might claim to know what gay and straight men think of each other, but Navigating Differences replaces rumors with research and shows you what really keeps gay and straight men in lasting friendships in all arenas of life. You’ll learn firsthand what it takes to overcome differences and what it means to turn difference into meaningful relationships.