Recommendations based on "The Devil Is a Southpaw A Novel"

AND THEN THERE WERE SHOTSEverybodyran,ducked,hid, tuckedthemselves tight.Pressed our lips to thepavement and prayedthe boom, followed bythe buzz of a bullet,didn't meet us.After Will's brother is shot in a gang crime, he knows the next steps. Don't cry. Don't snitch. Get revenge. So he gets in the lift with Shawn's gun, determined to follow The Rules. Only when the lift door opens, Buck walks in, Will's friend who died years ago. And Dani, who was shot years before that. As more people from his past arrive, Will has to ask himself if he really knows what he's doing.This haunting, lyrical, powerful verse novel will blow you away.

Random Family tells the American outlaw saga lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. With an immediacy made possible only after ten years of reporting, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses the reader in the mind-boggling intricacies of the little-known ghetto world. She charts the tumultuous cycle of the generations, as girls become mothers, mothers become grandmothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation.Two romances thread through Random Family: the sexually charismatic nineteen-year-old Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George, and fourteen-year-old Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar, an aspiring thug. Fleeing from family problems, the young couples try to outrun their destinies. Chauffeurs whisk them to getaways in the Poconos and to nightclubs. They cruise the streets in Lamborghinis and customized James Bond cars. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin, while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between life and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George's business activities; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty. Together, then apart, the teenagers make family where they find it. Girls look for excitement and find trouble; boys, searching for adventure, join crews and prison gangs. Coco moves upstate to dodge the hazards of the Bronx; Jessica seeks solace in romance. Both find that love is the only place to go.A gifted prose stylist and a profoundly compassionate observer, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc has slipped behind the cold statistics and sensationalism surrounding inner-city life and come back with a riveting, haunting, and true urban soap opera that reveals the clenched grip of the streets. Random Family is a compulsive read and an important journalistic achievement, sure to take its place beside the classics of the genre.

Australia, 1983Life is pretty tough right now for twelve-year-old Eli - what with his mute brother, a convicted murderer for a babysitter, a drug-dealing stepfather, an incarcerated mother and a long-lost father - surely it can't get any worse?Think again. He's about to fall in love, break into prison and cross paths with one of the most notorious criminals Brisbane has ever seen.A coming-of-age story like no other, Boy Swallows Universe is the most exhilarating novel you'll read all year.

THE #1 BLACKBOARD BESTSELLERMeet Jazmine Deems: she's twenty-six, steppin' out from under her overprotective preacher father, and determined to escape the streets of South Central and realize her dream of making it in the music business.Meet X-Man: he's embroiled in the violence of the streets, and seems destined for a life spent hangin' with his homies -- until his talent as a tapper attracts the attention of a big-lime record producer.Fate brings Jazmine and X-Man together as promising young stars for the same record company. They thrive on the excitement of their new careers and passionate love, until a power-hungry executive pits them against each other, jeopardizing both their musical careers and romantic future. Follow Jazmine and X-man as they discover that with the right mix of love and determination, it doesn't matter where you're from, it's where you're at.

Chris faced up to the fact that he was gay young man in spite of all the stories he read where he didn't fit the profile-his family wasn't loaded, he didn't drive an incredible road machine, and he was neither effeminate nor the super?jock. He didn't hate himself, and while he didn't exactly bolt out of the closet, he wasn't in a state of painful denial either. So, what did he want?Chris wanted love but that's tough to find. But that didn't matter anyway, because everything he heard and saw told him all gay men wanted was sex-and that he knew how to find.Looking for it one night he met Jamie Levesque, and with stars in his eyes he had to change his mind... The way Chris saw it, once he had a boyfriend, everything was going to be different. Just like in the stories, life with Jamie was going to be sunshine and lollipops forever-right?Uh?huh. Right.Read about it in a story that's told by Chris in his own words and in his own special way.

It's 1994 And Thanks To Section 28, There Can Be No Mention Of Gay Relationships In Schools. When A School Librarian Leads Jamie To A Disguised Novel In The Library That Reflects His Own Confused Feelings Towards Boys, He Sees He's Not The Only One Who Has Checked The Book Out. In The Margins Of The Pages, Jamie Learns That He's Not Alone.

From the award-winning author of George, the story of a boy named Rick who needs to explore his own identity apart from his jerk of a best friend. Rick's never questioned much. He's gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff's acted like a bully and a jerk. He's let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn't given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out. But now Rick's gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school's Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that ... understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones. As they did in their groundbreaking novel George, in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world ... and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be.

When you are raised to believe that the person you are is unacceptable, you hide. And you stay hidden. If you are X-Men and Dance Academy star Tim Pocock, you become an expert at hiding - until you can't anymore. Tim Pocock was a born performer. At ten, he took to the stage as a professional opera singer. At twenty-two, he launched his acting career in the blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine and went on to star in the beloved series Dance Academy. But Tim's biggest role was one he never auditioned for - the role he played at home as a devout, straight son. Raised in a conservative Catholic family and attending a school with links to Opus Dei, Tim always knew that being gay was out of the question. He was encouraged to become a priest and experienced gay conversion therapy to have his sexuality hypnotised out of him. After making a bid for freedom, Tim traversed the glitzy landscape of Los Angeles, navigated the pressures of the acting industry, and made chaotic forays into the gay dating scene - all while carrying immense trauma. With unflinching honesty, Tim reveals his journey toward healing and shows how we can set ourselves free. 'A brave and important memoir that captures the nuance and struggle of people trapped by the beliefs of their loved ones' IAN THORPE OAM

While reluctantly staying with her biological father, a member of a motorcycle club, sheltered seventeen-year-old Emily falls for the youth her father asked to protect her from a rival club with a score to settle.

It looked like every black kid in the school was going out for the team. And then me. Pale skin, long nose, sandy brown hair, and a cowlick that won't stay down. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't being the only white guy. Black kids play basketball. White kids wrestle. That's the way it is at Franklin High School and especially in Ray Wisniewski's neighborhood, the tight knit Polish-American town of Greenville, New Jersey. But Ray's got a passion for basketball, even after the varsity coach cuts him two years in a row. When a new coach comes on the scene, Ray's luck rebounds, but now he has to deal with Robert, the team's high scorer, a kid who hates Ray simply because he's white. As Ray fights to make his way onto the Franklin High Varsity, he finds that things are not as simple as he once thought--that a kind friend can be full of hate. A beautiful girl can be ugly inside. A well-intentioned coach can cause more harm than good. And prejudice can be defined in many ways in a world that isn't black-and-white.