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Behind Closed Doors: Her Father's House and Other Stories of Sicily
by Maria MessinaTen stories of impoverished Sicilian women in the early 20th century—&“honed, polished, devastatingly direct . . . verismo at its unsentimental best&” (Kirkus Reviews). The Sicilian writer Maria Messina&’s captivating and brutal stories of the women of her home island are presented in a &“lyrical and immediate&” English translation by Elise Magistro (Publishers Weekly). Messina, who died in 1944, was the foremost female practitioner of verismo—the Italian literary realism pioneered by fellow Sicilian Giovanni Verga. Published between 1908 and 1928, Messina&’s fiction represents the massive Sicilian immigration to America occurring at that time. The individuals in these stories are caught between the traditions they respect and a desire to move beyond them. Women are shuttered in their houses, virtual servants to their families, left behind while working men immigrate to the United States in fortune-seeking droves. A cultural album that captures the lives of peasant, working-class, and middle-class women, &“Messina&’s words will leave their mark. Their power makes them impossible to forget&” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure
by Tristan Taormino, Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Constance Penley and Mireille Miller-Young&“This thrilling anthology brings together scholars, producers, and fans of feminist pornography to define an emerging movement of gender and sexual visionaries.&” —Lisa Duggan The Feminist Porn Book brings together for the first time writings by feminists in the adult industry and research by feminist porn scholars. This book investigates not only how feminists understand pornography, but also how feminists do porn—that is, direct, act in, produce, and consume one of the world&’s most lucrative and growing industries. With original contributions by Susie Bright, Candida Royalle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley, Buck Angel, Lynn Comella, Jane Ward, Ariane Cruz, Kevin Heffernan, and more, The Feminist Porn Book updates the arguments of the porn wars of the 1980s, which sharply divided the women&’s movement, and identifies pornography as a form of expression and labor in which women and racial and sexual minorities produce power and pleasure. &“Besides being extremely thought-provoking, this must-read collection is accessible to all readers, and the topic inherently makes it engaging and fun.&” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
The Chinese Garden: A Novel
by Rosemary ManningA &“very intelligent, sensitive, and compelling&” novel of adolescent rebellion and sexual awakening at a girls&’ boarding school (Anthony Burgess). Set in a repressive British girls&’ boarding school in the late 1920s—where not only sexuality but femininity is squashed—Rosemary Manning&’s &“wonderful&” 1962 novel is the coming-of-age story of sixteen-year-old Rachel, a sensitive, bright, and innocent student (The Guardian). Rachel finds refuge from the Spartan conditions, strict regime, fierce discipline, and formidable headmistress at Bampfield in a secret garden. She also finds friendship there, with a rebellious girl named Margaret. As Margaret has her mind expanded by a scandalous tome entitled The Well of Loneliness, she engages in a bold, forbidden act—the ultimate transgression at Bampfield—and Rachel is drawn into the turmoil. Confronted with the persecution of her friend and troubled by a growing awareness of her own sensuality, Rachel faces an impossible choice that drives her to desperate measures. Selected as one of the Top 10 Lesbian Books by the Guardian, &“Rosemary Manning&’s unjustly forgotten novel is a deft depiction of innocence and the forces of hypocrisy, paranoia, and self-hatred that betray innocence&” (Lillian Faderman, author of Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers).
Bedelia (Femmes Fatales)
by Vera Caspary&“You must read Bedelia&”, the seductive black-widow thriller by the author of the classic film noir, Laura (The New York Times). Charlie Horst has returned with his new bride, Bedelia, to his family home in Connecticut. Indulgently infatuated, Charlie is the luckiest man alive. What&’s not to love about Bedelia? She&’s gorgeous and complacent. She&’s also a gracious and ideal party host—luscious and decorative in blue velvet. And in public, she plays the part of worshipful wife to perfection. In private, even more so. Who can blame Charlie for overlooking her little deceptions? Or for not paying any mind to her contradictory claims about her past? When Charlie falls ill due to a freak poisoning, Charlie knows that Bedelia will be right his side, watching him closely. But who&’s watching Bedelia? &“Vera Caspary wrote thrillers—but not like any other author of her time, male or female. Her specialty was a specific type that she pioneered—the psycho thriller&” (Huffington Post) and this &“sinister entertainment&” (The New Yorker), is Caspary at &“her most chilling&” (SistersinCrime.com). Filmed in 1946, and starring Margaret Lockwood, it&’s &“a tour de force of psychological suspense . . . Desperate Housewives meets Double Indemnity in Bedelia&” (Liahna Armstrong, President Emeritus, Popular Culture Association).
The Crown Maple Guide to Maple Syrup: How to Tap and Cook with Nature's Original Sweetener
by Robb Turner Jessica CarboneSixty-five sweet and savory recipes, plus tons of tips, trivia, and photos! This is the ultimate guide to maple syrup, with sixty-five recipes, instructions on tapping and evaporating, and an overview of the fascinating history of maple syrup in the United States. Not just a cookbook, it offers a comprehensive look into the world of maple syrup, complete with archival images and tutorials on the process. With recipes for maple-pecan sticky buns, maple-glazed duck, maple lemon bars, and much more, this beautifully illustrated guide comes from the producers of Crown Maple, a leading organic maple syrup—carried by gourmet food markets and used in many of the world&’s best kitchens, including NoMad, Eleven Madison Park, Bouchon, Lincoln, and more.
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, volume 12 number 1 (January 2025)
by Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource EconomistsThis is volume 12 issue 1 of Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. As an official research journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, JAERE publishes papers that are devoted to environmental and natural resource issues. The journal's principal mission is to provide a forum for the scholarly exchange of ideas in the intersection of human behavior and the natural environment. Focusing on original, full-length research papers that offer substantial new insights for scholars of environmental and resource economics, JAERE presents a range of articles that are relevant for public policy, using approaches that are theoretical, empirical, or both.
The Library Quarterly, volume 95 number 1 (January 2025)
by The Library QuarterlyThis is volume 95 issue 1 of The Library Quarterly. The Library Quarterly (LQ) embraces a wide array of original research perspectives, approaches, and quantitative, qualitative, evaluative, analytic, and mixed methodology to assess the role of libraries in communities and in society. Through unique and innovative content that positions libraries at the nexus of information, community, and policy, LQ publishes cutting-edge articles, essays, editorials, and reviews that inform, enable, equalize, and lead. Across these areas, all content in the journal ties to contemporary issues impacting libraries and librarianship.
Vertigo: A Memoir (The\cross-cultural Memoir Ser.)
by Louise DeSalvoA scholar&’s memoir of growing up and the powerful forces that shaped her as a woman and a writer; &“her story will inspire all women&” (Library Journal). In this honest and outspoken reflection on her childhood, Louise DeSalvo explores the many ways literature saved her, both emotionally and practically. Born to Italian immigrants during World War II, DeSalvo takes readers back to the emotional chaos of her 1950s girlhood in New Jersey, growing up with her authoritative, distant father, her depressed mother, and a sister who later committed suicide. Reading and research were an anchor to her then, and widened her choices about her future in ways that weren&’t otherwise available to girls of that era. A Virginia Woolf scholar, DeSalvo wrote a ground-breaking study on the impact of childhood sexual abuse on the reclusive writer. Here, she mines her own early days—and her adolescent obsession with Hitchcock&’s Vertigo—in an attempt to give her own life&’s path &“some shape, some order.&” Publisher&’s Weekly said, &“Her clarity of insight and expression make this [memoir] an impressive achievement,&” and the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed, &“DeSalvo has one of the most refreshing feminist voices around.&”
Dearest Anne: A Tale of Impossible Love (Jewish Women Writers Ser.)
by Judith KatzirAn Israeli girl&’s coming of age is told through a diary addressed to Anne Frank in this powerful novel—&“a temple of love to the imaginary&” (Time Out Israel). Love is both the question and the answer in this lyrical novel by one of Israel&’s bestselling authors. Returning to her hometown as an adult, Rivi Shenhar discovers a collection of her old diaries—impassioned, plaintive journals she addressed to Anne Frank while growing up in Israel in the 1970s. Reading them takes her back to the isolated, lonely girl she was, living alone with a distant mother, but also to the love affair that changed her life. When her young literature teacher provides an outlet for Rivi&’s frustrations, she never imagines that she will fall in love—or that such a turbulent, forbidden relationship could last so long, or become so intimate and erotically charged. Rivi&’s transformation from awkward child to confident woman—and writer—is deftly handled, in &“metaphoric language that is amazingly sensuous and precise&” (Globes).
40 Days of Dating: An Experiment
by Jessica Walsh Timothy Goodman&“What would happen if Harry met Sally in the age of Tinder and Snapchat? . . . A field guide to Millennial dating in New York City&” (New York Daily News). When New York–based graphic designers and long-time friends Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh found themselves single at the same time, they decided to try an experiment. The old adage says that it takes forty days to change a habit—could the same be said for love? So they agreed to date each other for forty days, record their experiences in questionnaires, photographs, videos, texts, and artworks, and post the material on a website they would create for this purpose. What began as a small experiment between two friends became an Internet sensation, drawing five million unique (and obsessed) visitors from around the globe to their site and their story. 40 Days of Dating: An Experiment is a beautifully designed, expanded look at the experiment and the results, including a great deal of material that never made it onto the site, such as who they were as friends and individuals before the forty days and who they have become since.
Kissing the Sword: A Prison Memoir
by Shahrnush ParsipurA moving account of life as a political prisoner in post-revolutionary Iran from the acclaimed Iranian author of Women Without Men. Shahrnush Parsipur was a successful writer and television producer in her native Iran until the Revolution of 1979. Soon after seizing control, the Islamist government began detaining its citizens—and Parsipur found herself incarcerated without charges. Kissing the Sword captures the surreal experience of serving time as a political prisoner and witnessing the systematic elimination of opposition to fundamentalist power. It is a harrowing narrative filled with both horror and humor: nights blasted by machine gun fire as detainees are summarily executed, days spent debating prison officials on whether the Quran demands that women be covered. Parsipur, one of modern Iran&’s great literary voices, mines her painful life experiences to deliver an urgent call for the most basic of human rights: the freedom of expression. &“Parsipur makes a stylishly original contribution to modern feminist literature.&” —Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis &“Stands as a powerful testament to not only the devastations of an era, but to the integrity and courage of an extraordinary woman.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Parsipur&’s memoir is a powerful tale of a writer&’s struggle to survive the worst cases of atrocities and injustice with grace and compassion. A terribly dark but truly illuminating narrative; Parsipur forces the reader to question human nature and resilience.&” —Shirin Neshat, artist
Bamboo Shoots After the Rain: Contemporary Stories by Women Writers of Taiwan
by Ann C. Carver, Sung-sheng Yvonne ChangA short story collection hailed as a &“welcome and valuable addition to our growing knowledge about the inner lives and literary talents of Chinese women&” (Amy Ling, author of Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry). This remarkable anthology introduces the short fiction of fourteen writers, major figures in the literary movements of three generations, who represent a range of class, ethnic, and political perspectives. It is filled with unexpected gems such as Lin Hai-yin&’s story of a woman suffering under the feudal system of Old China, and Chiang Hsiao-yun&’s optimistic solutions to problems of the elderly in rapidly changing 1980s Taiwan. And in between, a dozen rich stories of aristocrats, comrades, wives, concubines, children, mothers, sexuality, female initiation, rape, and the tensions between traditional and modern life. &“This is not western feminism with an Asian accent&”, says Bloomsbury Review, &“but a description of one culture&’s reality. . . . The woman protagonists survive both despite and because of their existence in a changing Taiwan.&”
Oyster: A Gastronomic History (with Recipes)
by Drew Smith&“Rich in history, lore, recipes, fascinating images—in short, a delicious book from start to finish&” (Sandy Ingber, Grand Central Oyster Bar). Tracing the oyster&’s role in cooking, art, literature, and politics from the dawn of time to present day, this unique book reveals how oysters have sustained communities financially and ecologically, and have loomed surprisingly large in legend and history. Using the oyster as the central theme, Smith has organized the book around time periods and geographical locations, looking at the oyster&’s influence through colorful anecdotes, eye-opening scientific facts, and a wide array of visuals. The book also includes fifty recipes—traditional country dishes and contemporary examples from some of the best restaurants in the world. Renowned French chef Raymond Blanc calls Oyster &“a brilliant crusade for the oyster that shows how food has shaped our history, art, literature, lawmaking, culture, and of course, love-making and cuisine.&”
Walden x 40: Essays on Thoreau
by Robert B. RayProvocative and illuminating essays on Thoreau&’s masterwork, shedding new light on its enduring inspiration and philosophical depth. In 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved from his parents&’ house in Concord, Massachusetts, to a one-room cabin he built himself on the land of his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. He described his time there, just over two years, as an experiment in &“living deliberately.&” His daily journal entries became the source material for Walden, a masterful meditation on the virtues of simplicity, self-sufficiency, and man&’s relationship to nature. In Walden x 40, Robert B. Ray adopts Thoreau&’s compositional method to explore some of the questions posed in Walden. Drawing connections to the works of poets and philosophers from Wordsworth to Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and Breton, Ray derives the inspiration for his 40 brief essays by exploring the pages of Walden in the same way Thoreau explored his own life—deliberately.
American Fathers: A Tale of Intrigue, Inspiration, and the Entrepreneurial Spirit
by Ron Schutz Laura BakerAn inspirational modern-day fable about finding success, happiness and the American dream both in business and in life. A smart and level-headed recent college graduate, Sasha thinks he has a good grip on life—until everything goes haywire. His ideal family is shattered when his mom leaves and his dad re-marries. Even more unsettling, Sasha is forced to question his own identity when he starts receiving mysterious messages from a Russian agent claiming to be his biological father. Determined to make his own way, Sasha boldly starts his own business as his enigmatic new father-figure mentors him in the ways of capitalism, personal finance, and starting a new business based on an innovative idea. Follow Sasha on his spiritual journey to his own path among friends who are from different faiths. This fast-moving tale spins an unfolding mystery while offering practical tools for life and businesses.
Girl with Death Mask (Blue Light Books)
by Jennifer GivhanThe prize-winning poet &“crafts a clear-eyed narrative of Latina womanhood in this lovely collection ripe with longing, hope, and broken faith&” (Publishers Weekly). Winner of the Pleiades Editors&’ Prize and Miller Williams Poetry Prize, poet Jennifer Givhan now explores the path from girlhood to womanhood through love, tequila, sex, first periods, late nights, abuse, and heartache. She describes a journey brimming with transformative magic that heals even as it shatters. In four rich movements of poems, Givhan profiles the suffering and the love of a Latina girl who enters motherhood while coming to terms with sexual trauma. Her daughter is a touchstone of healing as she seeks to unravel her own emotions and protect the next generation of women. Givhan uses changing poetic forms to expose what it means to mature in a female body swirling with tenderness, violence, and potential in an uncertain world.
Dear Ashley: A Father's Reflections and Letters to His Daughter on Life, Love and Hope
by Don BlackwellIn this soul-stirring book, a parent offers support, advice, and honest self-examination as his child recovers from a life-threatening eating disorder. Events wholly beyond our control can sometimes abruptly and profoundly interrupt our life journeys and the journeys of those we love. Often, in the face of great physical or emotional trauma, we become paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. Several years ago, one of those events drove Don Blackwell&’s daughter to death&’s doorstep. Thanks to her courage in the midst of suffering, Don realized that such events can also serve as opportunities for reflection and growth. Taking a step back from the heartbreak of the moment and reflecting on the matters of the heart that surround those events, they can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves, of those we love and of the human condition. Dear Ashley is a collection of personal reflections like these, and the intimate father/daughter letters used to convey them—shared in the hope that the unique perspective they offer will provide guidance, understanding, and healing when life&’s challenges inevitably come knocking on your door.
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont: Unlikely Champion of Women's Rights
by Sylvia D. HoffertA fascinating biography of the New York socialite who played a surprising role in the fight for suffrage. Born in the middle of the nineteenth century, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. She married two millionaires, and pressured her daughter to wed an aristocrat. This resolve to get her own way regardless of the consequences stood her in good stead when she joined the American woman suffrage movement in 1909. Thereafter, she used her wealth, her administrative expertise, and her social celebrity to help convince Congress to pass the 19th Amendment and then to persuade the exhausted leaders of the National Woman&’s Party to initiate a worldwide equal rights campaign. In this book, Sylvia D. Hoffert argues that Belmont was a feminist visionary and that her financial support was crucial to the success of the suffrage and equal rights movements. She also shows how Belmont&’s activism, and the money she used to support it, enriches our understanding of the personal dynamics of the American woman&’s rights movement. Drawing upon and analyzing Belmont&’s own memoirs, she illustrates how this determined woman went about the complex and collaborative process of creating her public self. &“Engaging . . . Highly recommended.&” —Choice
Reply All: Stories (Break Away Bks.)
by Robin HemleyA &“touching and funny&” story collection full of &“sympathetic characters who are deeply flawed but just as deeply human&”(Booklist). Reply All, the third volume of award-winning and widely anthologized short stories by Robin Hemley, takes a humorous, edgy, and frank look at the human art of deception and self-deception. A father accepts, without question, the many duplicate saint relics that appear in front of his cave every day; a translator tricks Magellan by falsely translating a local chief&’s words of welcome; an apple salesman a long way from home thinks he&’s fallen in love; a search committee believes in its own righteous nobility when it hires a minority writer; a cheating couple broadcasts a not-so-secret affair to an entire listserv; a talk show host interviews the dead and hopes to learn their secrets. Humans fool themselves in infinite ways, and these stories illustrate this sad fact in excruciating detail, knowing commiseration, and blushing recognition. &“Laugh-out-loud funny and achingly sad and deeply in touch with the profound humanity underneath the increasingly bizarre surface of our culture.&” —Robert Olen Butler, author of Good Scent from a Strange Mountai
The Glimpse Traveler (Break Away Bks.)
by Marianne BoruchA stunning, poetic memoir &“that will transport readers to a time when a nation&’s youth searched for meaning against the backdrop of the Vietnam War&” (Publishers Weekly). When she joins a pair of hitchhikers on a trip to California, a young Midwestern woman embarks on a journey of memory, beauty, and realization. This true story, set in 1971, recounts a fateful, nine-day trip into the American counterculture that begins on a whim and quickly becomes a mission to unravel a tragic mystery. The narrator&’s path leads her to Berkeley, San Francisco, Mill Valley, Big Sur, and finally to an abandoned resort motel that has become a down-on-its-luck commune in the desert of southern Colorado. The Glimpse Traveler describes with wry humor and deep feeling what it was like to witness a peculiar and impossibly rich time. &“A perceptive, engaging, intimate chronicle of the early 1970s, the road-weary hippie hitchhikers, the anti-war sentiment, the dope-induced haze. Boruch . . . captures this very specific, significant time and place with exquisite clarity and lyric detail and description.&” —Dinty Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire
Step Up!: How to Win More and Lose Less in Business!
by Daniel GrissomA real-world business guide to getting ahead of the competition—and staying there: &“I recommend you read this book!&” (Tim Armstrong, president, advertising & commerce, Google). Making it big in business today means never staying satisfied with things as they are. You must always look to the future. After all, it&’s a guarantee that your competition has stepped up, so why wouldn&’t you? In Step Up! Daniel Grissom explains the six vital steps to business success. He identifies critical challenges facing sellers—and the streetwise strategies for overcoming them. He shows you how to work smarter, not harder, and even includes a collection of &“classic quotes&” from other leaders in the field of excellence. The rich content of this unique guide is the result of many years of research, interviews and personal experience. So, the advice is not mere theory . . . it&’s the real deal on results! Are you ready to kick your company to the next level? Then get ready to Step Up!
Virginia Woolf & Music
by Adriana Varga&“A truly comprehensive, multi-perspective, and up-to-date survey of the undeniable role of music in Woolf &’s life and writings&” (Music and Letters). Through Virginia Woolf's diaries, letters, fiction, and the testimony of her contemporaries, this fascinating volume explores the inspiration and influences of music—from classical through mid-twentieth century—on the preeminent Modernist author of Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One&’s Own, and other masterful compositions. In a letter to violinist Elizabeth Trevelyan, Woolf revealed: &“I always think of my books as music before I write them.&” In a journal entry she compared herself to an &“improviser with [my] hands rambling over the piano.&“ Approaching the author&’s career from a unique perspective, Virginia Woolf and Music examines her musical background; music in her fiction and her own critical writings on the subject; its importance in the Bloomsbury milieu; and its role within the larger framework of aesthetics, politics, gender studies, language, and Modernism. Illuminating the rich nature of Woolf's works, these essays from scores of literary and music scholars are &“a fascinating and important contribution to scholarship about Virginia Woolf, music, and interdisciplinary art&” (Music Reference Services Quarterly).
The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History
by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, EditorsA &“well-reasoned and timely&” (Booklist) essay collection interrogates the Lost Cause myth in Civil War historiography. Was the Confederacy doomed from the start in its struggle against the superior might of the Union? Did its forces fight heroically against all odds for the cause of states&’ rights? In reality, these suggestions are an elaborate and intentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and the war itself. Unfortunately, skillful propagandists have been so successful in promoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own. Misrepresenting the war&’s true origins and its actual course, the myth of the Lost Cause distorts our national memory. In The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying ways in which it falsifies history—creating a volume that makes a significant contribution to Civil War historiography. &“The Lost Cause . . . is a tangible and influential phenomenon in American culture and this book provides an excellent source for anyone seeking to explore its various dimensions.&” —Southern Historian
It Was Never About the Ketchup!: The Life and Leadership Secrets of H. J. Heinz
by Steve LentzThe inspiring life of the visionary food mogul whose last name has become synonymous with America&’s favorite condiment. In a world that has become increasingly complex, complicated and impersonal, it is easy to feel that each of our individual lives is relatively insignificant. But nothing could be further from the truth. Every life is unique! Each of us is created with the potential to make this world a better place because of our presence in it! The life of H. J. Heinz can inspire each of us to live a life that makes a difference. What makes his life so inspiring to me is his love for the common—the common place, the common man, today&’s common tasks and work. H. J. Heinz built an empire by doing common things uncommonly well! In the process, he left his mark in this world and left a legacy—a fortune—for generations to come. But his focus was never on his fortune. It never was about the ketchup!
Catapulted: How Great Leaders Succeed Beyond Their Experience
by Dave JenningsReach beyond your own personal experience and knowledge and rise faster and farther with this &“engaging and practical&” leadership guide (Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Being an effective leader means making decisions. But many of those decisions may pertain to situations or information you aren&’t be familiar with. What is a leader to do then? You have to make choices about the future for yourself, your team, and your organization. You need to get your team aligned in the same direction while building key relationships both internally and externally. And, you have to do all this while you maintain your sanity among competing demands. Leadership expert Dave Jennings doesn&’t ask you to change your leadership skill set. He invites you to change your mind set about how you approach life when you are in over your head—sometimes way over your head. Catapulted is a &“great read&” that will provide you with the tools to succeed in situations that go beyond your comfort zone. Get ready to fly (Gary Bowen, chief financial officer, OGIO International).