Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost. Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents-also talented musicians-who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City. Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures-from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk-and her new job affords her entry into a world of privilege and gives her a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik's charismatic owner, and the two strike up a friendship that hazily veers into more. All the while, our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister. A piercing, darkly funny debut, Natural Beauty explores questions of consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity-and leaves readers with a shocking and unsettling truth.
Huaping Xiong Boeken



Focused on the practical applications of Cloud VR, this book draws from Huawei iLab's extensive experience in the field. It is designed to be accessible and informative, making it ideal for a diverse audience including VR vendors, technology enthusiasts, carriers, network providers, cloud service companies, universities, and research institutions. The content aims to bridge technical knowledge with real-world implementation, catering to both industry professionals and academic researchers.
Multimodal Brain Image Analysis
Third International Workshop, MBIA 2013, Held in Conjunction with MICCAI 2013, Nagoya, Japan, September 22, 2013, Proceedings
- 260bladzijden
- 10 uur lezen
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Multimodal Brain Image Analysis, MBIA 2013, held in Nagoya, Japan, on September 22, 2013 in conjunction with the 16th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI. The 24 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 35 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on analysis, methodologies, algorithms, software systems, validation approaches, benchmark datasets, neuroscience and clinical applications.