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Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the "Powerless" Woman Who Took On Washington
by Patricia Miller“I’ll take my share of the blame. I only ask that he take his.”In Bringing Down the Colonel, the journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man—and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality—to trial. And, surprisingly, she won.Pollard and the married Colonel Breckinridge began their decade-long affair when she was just a teenager. After the death of his wife, Breckinridge asked for Pollard’s hand—and then broke off the engagement to marry another woman. But Pollard struck back, suing Breckinridge for breach of promise in a shockingly public trial. With premarital sex considered irredeemably ruinous for a woman, Pollard was asserting the unthinkable: that the sexual morality of men and women should be judged equally. Nearly 125 years after the Breckinridge-Pollard scandal, America is still obsessed with women’s sexual morality. And in the age of Donald Trump and Harvey Weinstein, we’ve witnessed fraught public reckonings with a type of sexual exploitation unnervingly similar to that experienced by Pollard. Using newspaper articles, personal journals, previously unpublished autobiographies, and letters, Bringing Down the Colonel tells the story of one of the earliest women to publicly fight back.
Abroad: A Novel
by Katie CrouchNot since Donna Tartt's The Secret History has a novel this intoxicating captured the headiness and dark temptations of university life. The old Etruscan city of Grifonia swarms with year-abroad students—thousands of them from all over. Ostensibly, they've come to study. But really they are here to reinvent themselves, to shuck their identities and buck constraints far from the watchful eyes of parents and others who know them too well. There's a reason Henry James's young ladies went to Europe with chaperones. Today's young ladies don't. In Abroad, the bestselling novelist Katie Crouch—whose Girls in Trucks brilliantly portrayed the cruelties of postcollege New York life on a Southern girl trying to make her way—tears a story from international headlines and transforms it into a page-turning parable of modern girlhood, full of longing and reckless behavior. As the heroine (and the reader) of Abroad will soon discover, Grifonia is a city filled with dangerous secrets of many kinds: ancient, eternal, infernal. "Prepare to have your heart broken while laughing out loud at this breathtaking, scathingly sardonic novel," wrote People magazine's reviewer about Crouch's Men and Dogs. "From her opening line. . . Crouch grabs you and never lets go." In Abroad, Crouch's mesmerizing talents are again on full display.
48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister
by Joyce Carol OatesA CrimeReads, AARP, Los Angeles Magazine and Dayton Daily News "Most Anticipated" Release In the newest literary thriller from celebrated author Joyce Carol Oates, a woman mysteriously vanishes, leaving her sister behind to tally up the clues and discover her fate. What has become of Marguerite Fulmer? On an otherwise average day in Upstate New York, the young woman left her family home, never to return. No note was left, no explanation; just a messy bedroom and her sister Gigi, driven to dig through the meager clues and discover the truth behind her disappearance. As the investigation unfolds, every subtle bit of evidence becomes a potential clue. The silk Dior slip dress, left in a heap on the floor; the impression of Ferragamo boots outside in the dirt, a trail of footsteps that abruptly ends before it leaves the yard. And as Gigi trails the detectives, she finds previously unknown troubles in the life of her perfect, gorgeous, much-loved sister?troubles that at times seem to reflect her own. Bit by bit, like ripping the petals off a flower blossom, a dark truth is revealed. And subtly, but with the unbearable suspense at which Joyce Carol Oates excels, clues mount and bring to light the fate of the missing beauty.
Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens
by Muhammad H. ZamanAward-winning Boston University educator and researcher Muhammad H. Zaman provides a chilling look at the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explaining how we got here and what we must do to address this growing global health crisis.In September 2016, a woman in Nevada became the first known case in the U.S. of a person who died of an infection resistant to every antibiotic available. Her death is the worst nightmare of infectious disease doctors and public health professionals. While bacteria live within us and are essential for our health, some strains can kill us. As bacteria continue to mutate, becoming increasingly resistant to known antibiotics, we are likely to face a public health crisis of unimaginable proportions. “It will be like the great plague of the middle ages, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the AIDS crisis of the 1990s, and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 all combined into a single threat,” Muhammad H. Zaman warns.The Biography of Resistance is Zaman’s riveting and timely look at why and how microbes are becoming superbugs. It is a story of science and evolution that looks to history, culture, attitudes and our own individual choices and collective human behavior. Following the trail of resistant bacteria from previously uncontacted tribes in the Amazon to the isolated islands in the Arctic, from the urban slums of Karachi to the wilderness of the Australian outback, Zaman examines the myriad factors contributing to this unfolding health crisis—including war, greed, natural disasters, and germophobia—to the culprits driving it: pharmaceutical companies, farmers, industrialists, doctors, governments, and ordinary people, all whose choices are pushing us closer to catastrophe.Joining the ranks of acclaimed works like Microbe Hunters, The Emperor of All Maladies, and Spillover, A Biography of Resistance is a riveting and chilling tale from a natural storyteller on the front lines, and a clarion call to address the biggest public health threat of our time.
Interviewing Matisse, or The Woman Who Died Standing Up: A Novel
by Lily TuckLily, Molly, and Inez are women of a certain age, of a certain bearing, of a certain class. Late one dire night, Molly telephones from Connecticut to catch Lily up with the news: Inez's corpse -- near-naked but wearing boots -- has been discovered propped up "like a broom" in a corner of her Soho loft. It is an occasion ripe for an all-night heart-to-heart conversation, bouncing deliriously from one evasion to the next -- until the pair of talk-crazy, talk-weary women have successfully diverted themselves with all the wonderfully vagrant stuff of life . . . with everything, in fact, except grief.
A Place to Stand: A Practical Guide to Christianity in Changing Times
by Elton Trueblood“A concise summarization” of the noted American theologian’s thoughts on Christianity and faith (Kirkus Reviews).A Place to Stand is addressed to those who recognize the need for a strong stand from which to operate in the confusion of contemporary thought. Ours has become an age, says Trueblood, in which people simply do not know what to think. Trueblood is convinced that there is an objective truth about everything.Here, Trueblood explains what Christians believe and why, exploring through each chapter rational Christianity, a center of certitude, the living God, the reality of prayer, and the life everlasting. He is convinced that part of the weakness of the Christian movement in this age has been the relative lack of emphasis upon belief. However good and important service to humanity is, it loses its motivating power when the sustaining beliefs are allowed to wither.A Place to Stand is a classic text that shows it is possible, without contradiction or confusion, to hold a Christian position which is both evangelical and rational.
A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays
by A. J. LieblingA Neutral Corner collects fifteen previously unpublished boxing pieces written by legendary sportswriter A.J. Liebling between 1952 and 1963.Demonstrating A.J. Liebling's abiding passion for the "sweet science" of boxing, A Neutral Corner brings together previously unpublished material. Antic, clear-eyed, and wildly entertaining, these essays showcase a The New Yorker journalist at the top of his form. Here one relives the high drama of the classic Patterson-Johansson championship bout of 1959, and Liebling's early prescient portrayal of Cassius Clay's style as a boxer and a poet is not to be missed.Liebling always finds the human story that makes these essays appealing to aficionados of boxing and prose alike. Alive with a true fan's reverence for the sport, yet balanced by a true skeptic's disdain for sentiment, A Neutral Corner is an American treasure.
Like Mother, Like Son: The Shocking True Story
by William G. FlanaganWilliam Flanagan's Like Mother, Like Son recounts the sensational true case of handsome young playboy Jed Ardito, who strangled his beautiful Brooklyn girlfriend to death in an erotic frenzy. But this true crime story gets even stranger: seventeen years earlier, Ardito's mother Frances Victoria Ardito had her own illicit lover murdered.
The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction
by Scott R. StroudThe story of how the Indian reformer Bhimrao Ambedkar reimagined John Dewey’s pragmatism. In The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, Scott R. Stroud delivers a comprehensive exploration of the influence of John Dewey’s pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Republic of India’s constitution. Stroud traces Ambedkar’s development in Dewey’s Columbia University classes in 1913–1916 through his final years in 1950s India when he rewrote the story of Buddhism. Stroud examines pragmatism’s influence not only on the philosophical ideas underpinning Ambedkar’s fight against caste oppression but also how his persuasive techniques drew on pragmatism’s commitment to reconstruction and meliorism. At the same time, Stroud is careful to point out the ways that Ambedkar pushed back against Dewey’s paradigm and developed his own approach to challenges in India. The result is a nuanced study of one of the most important figures in Indian history.
Hope, Trust, and Forgiveness: Essays in Finitude
by John T. LysakerA new ethics of human finitude developed through three experimental essays. As ethical beings, we strive for lives that are meaningful and praiseworthy. But we are finite. We do not know, so we hope. We need, so we trust. We err, so we forgive. In this book, philosopher John T. Lysaker draws our attention to the ways in which these three capacities—hope, trust, and forgiveness—contend with human limits. Each experience is vital to human flourishing, yet each also poses significant personal and institutional challenges as well as opportunities for growth. Hope, Trust, and Forgiveness explores these challenges and opportunities and proposes ways to best meet them. In so doing, Lysaker experiments with the essay as a form and advances an improvisational perfectionism to deepen and expand our ethical horizons.
Can You Say a Few Words?: How To Prepare And Deliver A Speech For Any Special Occasion
by Joan Detz-Your alma mater asks you to say a few words at an upcoming fundraising dinner-You've won an employee award and will have to give a short acceptance speech at the ceremony-Your parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and you'd like to make a toast at their partyEveryone's counting on you to sound polished, to be prepared, to speak with savvy-in short, to give a speech that's as memorable as the occasion itself.Don't dread these invitations to speak. Instead, learn to prepare clear, concise, and engaging speeches that will live up to your audience's expectations and match the mood of the occasion.Award-winning corporate speechwriter Joan Detz offers solid advice for tackling this nerve-racking task-with pointers, tips, and trade secrets that will help you make the most of every speaking opportunity.Clearly written and fun to read, this invaluable guide provides all the practical advice and encouragement you need to deliver a winning speech.
Is It a Choice?: Answers to Three Hundred of the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Gay and Lesbian People
by Eric MarcusThe answers to all the questions you've ever had about sexual orientation but were afraid to ask. Eric Marcus provides insightful, no-nonsense answers to hundreds of the most commonly asked questions about same-sex orientation. Offering frank and accepting insight on everything you've always wanted-and needed-to know about same-gender relationships, coming out, family roles, politics, and much more, including: How do you know if you're gay or lesbian?What should you do if your child is gay or lesbian?Do gay parents raise gay children?What does the Bible say about homosexuality?
Runaway: Notes on the Myths that Made Me
by Erin KeaneExamining her mother&’s youth as a runaway, the editor-in-chief of Salon analyzes how pop culture treats men&’s stories versus women&’s stories. In 1970, Erin Keane&’s mother ran away from home for the first time. She was thirteen years old. Over the next several years, and under two assumed identities, she hitchhiked her way across America, experiencing freedom, hardship, and tragedy. At fifteen, she met a man in New York City and married him. He was thirty-six. Through a deft balance of journalistic digging, cultural criticism, and poetic reimagining, Keane pieces together the true story of her mother&’s teenage years, questioning almost everything she&’s been told about her parents and their relationship. Along the way, she also considers how pop culture has kept similar narratives alive in her. At stake are some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves: What&’s true? What gets remembered? Who gets to tell the stories that make us who we are? Whether it&’s talking about painful family history, #MeToo, Star Wars, true crime forensics, or Gilmore Girls, Runaway is an unforgettable look at all the different ways the stories we tell—both personal and pop cultural—create us. Praise for RunawayNamed a Best Book of the Year by NPR &“Keane provides a lyrical, sharp feminist analysis of her family&’s history.&” —Kirkus Reviews
The Museum of Final Journeys: A Novella
by Anita DesaiDisappointed by his professional and social position, an entitled and officious junior civil servant imagines that his life will change when a mysterious old man promises to lead him to a museum filled with priceless treasures.
Kant & Phenomenology
by Tom RockmorePhenomenology, together with Marxism, pragmatism, and analytic philosophy, dominated philosophy in the twentieth century—and Edmund Husserl is usually thought to have been the first to develop the concept. His views influenced a variety of important later thinkers, such as Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, who eventually turned phenomenology away from questions of knowledge. But here Tom Rockmore argues for a return to phenomenology’s origins in epistemology, and he does so by locating its roots in the work of Immanuel Kant.Kant and Phenomenology traces the formulation of Kant’s phenomenological approach back to the second edition of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In response to various criticisms of the first edition, Kant more forcefully put forth a constructivist theory of knowledge. This shift in Kant’s thinking challenged the representational approach to epistemology, and it is this turn, Rockmore contends, that makes Kant the first great phenomenologist. He then follows this phenomenological line through the work of Kant’s idealist successors, Fichte and Hegel. Steeped in the sources and literature it examines, Kant and Phenomenology persuasively reshapes our conception of both of its main subjects.
One Wild Night: A One And Only Texas Novel (The One and Only Texas Novels #3)
by Melissa CutlerA Texas cowgirl can’t resist a sexy fling with a country music star in this contemporary Western romance.Rebellious cowgirl Skye Martinez is about to take the reins of the family business at Briscoe Ranch Resort. It’s time to settle down and get serious about her future . . . right after one last night of fun with a handsome stranger. But when a midnight horseback ride turns into a red-hot weekend with one of country music’s biggest stars, Skye’s world is rocked beyond her wildest dreams . . .After riding his bad boy image to the top of the country music charts, Gentry Wells is desperate to escape his stifling pop star persona. Skye is a sexy distraction he can’t resist, but while she breathes new life into his music, he’s a major threat to her career. Now, with their hearts and futures on the line, Gentry needs to convince Skye to that their joyride has the staying power to go the distance . . .
The Preppy Murder Trial
by Bryna TaubmanBryna Taubman's The Preppy Murder Trial recreates firsthand the case of Robert Chambers--more sensational than any novel. Taubman follows the 16-month headline-making investigation to the jarring plea bargain that ended a trial marred by accusations of foul play, sexism, and a crumbling jury. Intricate and fascinating, this true crime account explores every facet of Chambers's case--from the real human drama to the questions left unanswered about his strangling of an 18-year-old girl in Central Park.
Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives
by Randi ZuckerbergWith Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives, new media pioneer Randi Zuckerberg offers an entertaining and essential guide to understanding how technology and social media influence and inform our lives online and off.Zuckerberg has been on the frontline of the social media movement since Facebook’s early days and her following six years as a marketing executive for the company. Her part memoir, part how-to manual addresses issues of privacy, online presence, networking, etiquette, and the future of social change.
A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers
by Michael HolroydA Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction book of 2011A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction title for 2011On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello sits the Villa Cimbrone, a place of fantasy and make-believe. The characters that move through Michael Holroyd's new book are destined never to meet, yet the Villa Cimbrone unites them all.A Book of Secrets is a treasure trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements, and family mysteries. With grace and tender imagination, Holroyd brings a company of unknown women into the light. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; to Eve Fairfax, a muse of Auguste Rodin; to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West—these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world.Also on the margins is the elusive biographer, who on occasion turns an appraising eye upon himself as part of his investigations in the maze of biography. In A Book of Secrets, Holroyd gives voice to fragile human connections and the mystery of place.
Berryman's Shakespeare: Essays, Letters, and Other Writings
by John BerrymanEdited by John HaffendenWith a Preface by Robert GirouxJohn Berryman, one of America's most talented modern poets, was winner of the Pulitzer Prize for 77 Dream Songs and the National Book Award for His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. He gained a reputation as an innovator whose bold literary adventures were tempered by exacting discipline. Berryman was also an active, prolific, and perceptive critic whose own experience as a major poet served to his advantage. Berryman was a protégé of Mark Van Doren, the great Shakespearean scholar, and the Bard's work remained one of his most abiding passions--he would devote a lifetime to writing about it. His voluminous writings on the subject have now been collected and edited by John Haffenden.
Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith
by Benjamin L. CoreyThe creator of the popular Formerly Fundie blog on Patheos explains how the "American Christianity" we are currently taught is actually a fear-saturated distortion of biblical faith.Benjamin L. Corey thought he was suffering a crisis of faith, but it turned out to be a spiritual awakening. Corey became aware that the constant fear of hell and judgment that defined his Christian faith was out of sync with the idea that God acts from love, and promises to deliver us from fear. In the wake of this realization came newfound insights—from reading the Bible to re-examining American life and the church's role in the wider world. Corey learned that what he had been taught was a distorted version of Christianity that was not only untrue but caused real spiritual harm.He also discovered that he wasn’t alone. Many Christians are yearning to distinguish between the Christianity that has become a rigid American civil religion and the authentic Christian faith embodied in Jesus. As he recounts his own spiritual journey, Corey offers a powerful and inspiring message of hope for every Christian increasingly frustrated with the church today. Do not be discouraged, he assures them. You do not need to give up your faith; you can rediscover the reality of a vibrant Christianity that delivers us from fear and inspires and guides us all today.
Christmas at Two Love Lane (Two Love Lane Ser. #1)
by Kieran KramerThe best gift of all is the one you share with someone else. . . From the moment he strode through the iron gate and into the offices of Two Love Lane on a crisp December day, it was obvious that Deacon Banks was something different. He wasn’t a Charleston native, not with that adorable Yankee accent. And unlike the usual client at the elegant matchmaking agency, he had no interest in finding a woman to marry—just a few no-strings dates while he was in town. Macy Frost takes her professional services very seriously—how could she not, when she’s rumored to be a direct descendant of Cupid? Tech entrepreneur Deacon says he’s just trying to make his social-climbing aunt happy by being seen out and about with a few prominent beauties, but Macy insists she can make her client fall in love…for real. And Deacon can’t help but think she might be right. As charming as the palmetto trees and magnificent harbor may be, it’s the beautiful, breath-of-fresh-air Macy who’s become Deacon’s favorite part of the scenery. But can the hopelessly romantic Southern belle stop trying to fix him up and just let Cupid do his work on her own heart?
Vortex (Cutter Cay #3)
by Cherry AdairThe thrid book in Cherry Adair's Cutter Cay series plunges into a Vortex of high-sea adventure and romance, where a long-lost treasure is a deadly lure—and love is the most dangerous current of all…SWEPT AWAYSearching for a sunken ship off the coast of Peru, treasure hunter Logan Cutter manages to pull a very different kind of prize from the sea—beautiful gallery owner Daniela Rosada. Dani claims she was thrown overboard by ruthless pirates and begs for his protection. But Logan is no stranger to a woman's lies, and something about her story doesn't add up.IN TOO DEEPWith her knowledge of Peruvian artifacts, Dani offers to help Logan translate an ancient map that will lead them to a shipwrecked treasure—and into a carefully laid trap. But the closer they get, the deeper she falls for him, not realizing that Logan is hiding a secret of his own. By the time she learns the truth about his boat, his brothers—and his blood feud with pirates—it's too late. By falling in love, they've set a course for disaster…"Thrilling and hazardous! When you add in the sensuous sizzle, you have the full Adair package." —Romantic Times on Undertow
An Echo of Death: A Tom And Scott Mystery (Tom & Scott Mysteries #5)
by Mark Richard ZubroTom Mason and his lover, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter, go on the run when they find an ex-teammate and friend of Scott's murdered in their apartment. With the killers now on their trail, with the death of Scott's friend still a mystery, and with the discovery that they are on the police department's list of murder suspects, Tom and Scott are forced into a dangerous game of hide-and-seek to solve the murder and to ensure their own survival."Readers have both campy humor and an action-filled plot to keep them entertained. Highly recommended for all fiction collections - this one's a good read in every sense of the term!" - Booklist
Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution
by Linda HirshmanIn the vein of Taylor Branch’s classic Parting of the Waters, Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit Linda Hirshman delivers the enthralling, groundbreaking story of the gay rights movement, revealing how a dedicated and resourceful minority changed America forever.When the modern struggle for gay rights erupted in the summer of 1969, forty-nine states outlawed sex between people of the same gender. Four decades later, in 2011, New York legalized gay marriage and the armed services stopped enforcing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Successful social movements are always extraordinary, but these advances seem like something of a miracle.Linda Hirshman recounts the long roads that led to these victories, detailing the remarkable and revolutionary story of the movement that has blurred rigid gender lines, altered the shared culture, and broadened our definitions of family. Written in vivid prose, at once emotional and erudite, Victory is an utterly vibrant work of reportage and eyewitness accounts and demonstrates how, in a matter of decades, a focused group of activists forged a classic campaign for cultural change that will serve as a model for all future political movements.“Remarkable for its emotional punch as for its historical insight.”—New York Times Book Review