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Alumnae/i Publications

GMU's Nonfiction Universe is proud of the many publications from our Alumni. This page showcases the latest releases and offerings from our talented graduates. This month the Nonfiction Universe offers the publications from Alumni Mark Rais and Caroline Kettlewell.

 


From Alumnus Mark Rais is Linux for the Rest of Us, a single source for beginner Linux information and tips that makes learning Linux easy and fun. At the author's request Eagle Nest Press is donating the proceeds to charity.

All proceeds from this book, after taxes and printing costs, will be donated to assist the poor.
A few of the latest book reviews:

“It won't be the last Linux book you own, but consider making it your first.” - review by Sean Tierney, Linux Journal.

“Tells you things even those who try to market Linux to the novices keep forgetting to mention ” - review by Konstantin Klein, Linux.com.

 

From Alumna Caroline Kettlewell's is her novel Skin Games. In Skin Game, Kettlewell writes about her history as a "cutter," one of what is estimated to be, in the U.S. alone, as many as two to three million self-injurers-people who deliberately cut, burn, or otherwise injure themselves for the relief of overwhelming psychological distress.
"People ask me why, after keeping my history of self-injury a secret for so long, I chose to reveal it in such a very public way," says Caroline Kettlewell, about her memoir of self-injury, Skin Game.
"There isn't one specific answer to that question. In part, I wanted to write the book because I believed that my own experience would provide me a means of exploring certain questions or themes that interest me as a writer. Questions about identity, about how you define your 'self,' how you become that person you call your self, about whether you can even ever say who is the true self, given that we all play different roles in different contexts. Also, I am interested in the way that even those closest to us have secret, inner lives we know nothing about. What do we reveal, what do we conceal, and how do those choices about revealing and concealing shape our lives?
"I also wanted to write the book because there is a great deal of misunderstanding about self-injury, about what it is and what it isn't. I wanted readers to understand that even apparently 'normal' people might be self-injurers-that it could be your sister, your best friend, and your child. I wanted to try to dispel some myths and misconceptions: that self-injury constitutes a suicidal gesture; that self-injurers are by definition severely emotionally disturbed; that they are necessarily the product of terrible, abusive environments; that they are, by the verdict of too many in the counseling/therapeutic community, 'incurable.'
"When the book first came out, I was terribly apprehensive about what the response would be among friends, co-workers, family-none of whom had known about my history of self-injury. I was surprised and relieved to find that people responded very positively. Many have told me that the emotional struggles I write about resonated deeply with their own experiences. Beyond the specifics of my particular circumstances, Skin Game is really a coming-of-age story, and in that context I think it covers often painfully familiar ground for many readers."