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Crybaby Butch
by Judith FrankDrawing on her experience as an adult literacy tutor, Judith Frank's first novel traces the difficult and sometimes hilarious connection between two butches of different generations - a middle-class, thirty-something adult literacy teacher and her older, working-class student. With a disparate group of adult learners as the backdrop, Frank examines, with warmth and wit, the relationship between education and gender, class, and racial identity.
What You Should Know about Politics... But Don't: A Nonpartisan Guide to the Issues
by Jessamyn ConradThe author presents a voter's guide to the major national issues and debates being contested within mainstream two-party politics in the United States. She offers chapters on elections, the economy, foreign policy, the military, health care, energy, the environment, civil liberties, culture wars, socioeconomic policy, homeland security, education, and trade. Each chapter provides brief background before attending to current debates. Breadth of coverage is emphasized over depth and, with the exception of some footnotes, no guides to further reading are provided. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
If Only: How to Turn Regret into Opportunity
by Neal J. RoeseIf you spend a lot of time thinking about "what might have been," you're not alone. In If Only, Neal Roese, Ph.D., one of the world's top scientists studying regret, shows us that thoughts about what might have been are practically unavoidable. In fact, they are produced spontaneously by the brain with a very practical goal--to guide us toward improvement. But the same thoughts can bring the pain of regret. Is it worth the pain to get the improvement? Or should you live life with no regrets? Luckily, it's not a package deal. The surprising message of If Only is that we can manage our regret style to maximize the gain and minimize the pain. In an entertaining and upbeat book that weds lively science writing to practical self-help, Dr. Roese mines the research and shares simple strategies for managing your life to make the most of regret. You'll learn: *Don't Over-react.You may react to a regrettable situation by taking many fewer chances. Don't. This only ensures that you will miss out on new opportunities. *Think Downward. Consider the downward alternatives. How could a bad situation have gone even worse? This makes you feel appreciative of what you have. *Do It. If you decide to do something and it turns out badly, research shows that it probably won't haunt you down the road. (You'll reframe the failure and move on.) But you will regret the things left undone. *Regrets are Opportunities Knocking. Our brains produce the most "if only" thoughts about things in our lives that we can still change. So consider regret as a signal flashing: It's not too late! If Only also shows that "if only" thinking plays a huge role across our lives, from how best to buy, to why we enjoy movies, how juries decide, and the way we choose someone to love. If Only opens a new window into the way our minds work and offers clear lessons for living more happily with the past. "Fifteen years of research have been combined into a list of the top four biggest regrets of the average American: * not getting more education * career regrets * regrets in love * not spending enough time with kids The list is essentially a summary of the biggest traps, pitfalls, and mistakes into which people like you might blunder. Look over the list and try to identify areas of your life that represent the greatest vulnerability to future regret. And act now to avoid regret later." --from If Only.
Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload
by Mark HurstMore than a quick fix or another "how-to" guide, the book offers an entirely new way of attaining productivity that users at any level of expertise can put into action right away. This is "bit literacy," a method for working more productively in the digital age, with less stress.
The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco
by Joshua GamsonA journey back through the music, madness, and unparalleled freedom of an era of change--the '70s--as told through the life of ultra-fabulous superstar Sylvester. Imagine a pied piper singing in a dazzling falsetto, wearing glittering sequins, and leading the young people of the nation to San Francisco and on to liberation where nothing was straight-laced or old-fashioned. And everyone, finally, was welcome to come as themselves. This is not a fairy tale. This was real, mighty real, and disco sensation Sylvester was the piper. Joshua Gamson--a Yale-trained pop culture expert--uses him, a boy who would be fabulous, to lead us through the story of the '70s when a new era of change liberated us from conformity and boredom. Gamson captures the exuberant life, feeling, energy, and fun of a generation's wonderful, magical waking up-from the parties to the dancing and music. The story begins with a little black boy who started with nothing but a really big voice. We follow him from the Gospel chorus to the glory days in the Castro where a generation shook off its shame as Sylvester sang and began his rise as part of a now-notorious theatrical troupe called the Cockettes. Celebrity, sociology, and music history mingle and merge around this endlessly entertaining story of a singer who embodied the freedom, spirit, and flamboyance of a golden moment in American culture.
Painted Moon
by Karin Kallmaker"...a delicious romance with just a hint of intrigue...an uncommonly realistic romance, one that surmounts class, race, and closets". -- Small Press Magazine
Risk
by Elana DykewomonRisk is a beautifully told story that spans the years from the mid-eighties to the post-9/11 world. Carol is an idealistic, Berkeley-educated, Jewish lesbian living in Oakland, California. Downwardly mobile, the Berkeley grad makes her living by tutoring high school students. Through Carol's life, Dykewomon explores the changing times and values in America.
The Teahouse Fire
by Ellis AveryA sweeping debut novel drawn from a history shrouded in secrets about two women--one American, one Japanese--whose fates become entwined in the rapidly changing world of late-nineteenth-century Japan. When nine-year-old Aurelia Bernard takes shelter in Kyoto's beautiful and mysterious Baishian teahouse after a fire one night in 1866, she is unaware of the building's purpose. She has just fled the only family she's ever known: after her French immigrant mother died of cholera in New York, her abusive missionary uncle brought her along on his assignment to Christianize Japan. She finds in Baishian a place that will open up entirely new worlds to her and bring her a new family. It is there that she discovers the woman who will come to define the next several decades of her life, Shin Yukako, daughter of Kyoto's most important tea master and one of the first women to openly practice the sacred ceremony known as the Way of Tea. For hundreds of years, Japan's warriors and well-off men would gather in tatami-floored structures-- teahouses--to participate in an event that was equal parts ritual dance and sacramental meal. Women were rarely welcome, and often expressly forbidden. But in the late nineteenth century, Japan opened its doors to the West for the first time, and the seeds of drastic changes that would shake all of Japanese society, even this most civilized of arts, were planted. Taking her for the abandoned daughter of a prostitute rather than a foreigner, the Shin family renames Aurelia "Urako" and adopts her as Yukako's attendant and surrogate younger sister. Yukako provides Aurelia with generosity, wisdom, and protection as she navigates a culture that is not accepting of outsiders. From her privileged position at Yukako's side, Aurelia aids in Yukako's crusade to preserve the tea ceremony as it starts to fall out of favor under pressure of intense Westernization. And Aurelia herself is embraced and rejected as modernizing Japan embraces and rejects an era of radical change. An utterly absorbing story told in an enchanting and unforgettable voice, The Teahouse Fire is a lively, provocative, and lushly detailed historical novel of epic scope and compulsive readability.
Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
by Joan RoughgardenA celebration of the enormous diversity of genders and sexuality found in animals and among human cultures. Roughgarden explores how and why this range of bodies and behaviors evolved and exposes how biology, medicine, anthropology and Christianity have obstructed the recognition and acceptance of this diversity.
The Mandrake Broom
by Jess WellsLesbian-themed novel set during the 15th century--"the burning times."
The Front Runner
by Patricia Nell WarrenBilly Sive is the most exciting thing to happen to U.S. sports in years. He is a champion long-distance runner, idol of American youth and best Olympic runner. Billy Sive is young, proud and gay and he doesn't care who knows it... In this riveting breakthrough novel of homosexual love in the sports world; a bestseller that has won coast-to-coast acclaim as a love story as moving as any ever written... as a candid look into the psychological and physical experience of the new gay world...as a joyous, painful, touching and triumphal novel of love. The first honest popular novel about homosexual love.
The Truth Can Get You Killed
by Mark Richard ZubroThe last thing that Chicago Police Detective Paul Turner wants to do on New Year's Day is investigate a murder. But when the body is that of a conservative, homophobic judge and it is found outside a popular gay nightclub, the task takes on a new urgency for him. Now Turner must unravel the threads connecting the unlikely victim to his unsuspected murder scene-and look for answers in the most unusual places.
Grief
by Andrew Holleran"Reeling from the recent death of his invalid mother, an exhausted, lonely professor comes to our nation's capital to escape his previous life." "What he finds there - in his handsome, solitary landlord; in the city's somber mood and sepulchral architecture; and in the strange and impassioned letters and journals of Mary Todd Lincoln - shows him unexpected truths about America and loss. As he seeks to engage with the living world around him - a challenging student, the mother of a dead friend, even his landlord's neglected dog - he comes to realize that his relationship to his grief is very different than he had thought." "In Grief, Holleran summons voices from the past that eerily echo and speak to our own troubled times. It is a masterwork by one of America's singular voices, a writer who is beloved for his depth of feeling, his humor, the elegance of his prose, and his unflinching honesty."--BOOK JACKET.
Slow Blind Drive
by Gwen O'TooleSlow Blind Drive is a conversation with the dead. A letter to an unlikely muse and a testament to the resilience of unconditional love. All at once haunting and horrific, erotic and endearing, this is the story of what it means to grow up a girl, to find solace in addiction, to have everything and give it away. It's a raw and sentimental account that follows a childhood friendship as it thrives and suffers through an intimate love, drug addiction, mental illness and betrayal. This is a story whose characters stay with you long after you've turned the last pages.
A Day Too Long (Helen Black Mysteries #9)
by Pat WelchNinth installment in the Helen Black mystery series. Helen finds a dead body and the police think she's the murderer.
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
by Margaret A. Hogan C. James Taylor(from Forward: J. Ellis)My two favorite Sceanes of John and Abigail Adams come from their retirement years at Quincy. In the first John is out in the fields working alongside his hired hands, swinging the scythe as he murmurs curses under his breath against Tom Paine and Alexander Hamilton. Abigail is duly recording his murmurings, seconding his denunciations, noting that Thomas Jefferson should also be added to the rogues' gallery. In the second scene, Abigail has descended to the basement of the Quincy house to shell peas. John accompanies her, bringing along a copy of Descartes to read to her while she prepares dinner. It is the combination of pungency and intimacy embodied in these two Sceanes that gives the correspondence between John and Abigail such enduring significance, though a few other factors contribute to the ultimate impact. They happened to be living through the most tumultuous and consequential chapter in America's birth as a nation, when the core values were declared and the abiding institutions created. They happened to be centrally involved in these declarations and creations. They happened to preserve about 1,160 letters between them, recording their thoughts and feelings with uncommon candor. (Martha Washington destroyed all but three of the letters she and George exchanged.) And both of them happened to be, each in their own distinctive ways, prose stylists of equally uncommon felicity. If you want to understand how the American republic was improvised on the run, this is a seminal source. If you want to understand how a husband and wife can sustain their love over a lifetime of struggle and
A Time to Cast Away (Helen Black Mysteries #10)
by Pat WelchFormer cop Helen Black returns home from prison only to find dull temp jobs. She meets Alice one night at a local bar. Shortly after their brief encounter, she stops by Alice's apartment, only to find the woman dead and herself on the hot seat.
Fallen From Grace (Helen Black Mysteries #6)
by Pat WelchWhen Leslie Merrick falls to her death from a window, the verdict is suicide. But Helen Black discovers the corporation she worked for is rife with tensions and treacheries. Could she have fallen accidentally?Or is Helen being set up to take the fall?
Matters of Principle: An Insider's Account of America's Rejection of Robert Bork's Nomination to the Supreme Court
by Mark GitensteinDetails the rejection of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court and the fight to protect unenumerated rights.
Hardball for Women: Winning at the Game of Business
by Pat Heim Susan K. GolantFrom the book: "The majority of women in the business world today are oblivious to the fact that they are standing on a playing field while a game is being played around them. Until you realize that business is conducted as a sport, you'll never move ahead and you'll never win" --PAT HEIM Exploring from the ground up how boys and girls are taught to behave, author Pat Heim uses her extensive experience in the business world and a wide variety of research to show you how your behavior is interpreted to determine whether you are strong or weak, clear or vague, ambitious or passive, and, ultimately, promotable or not. Then she shows you how to understand the game of business and how to build on that understanding to succeed in your career. You'll master the following skills: How to lead men, and how to lead women. How to turn criticism and praise to your advantage. How to display confidence and power even when you feel frightened and powerless. How to be on either end of an attack during a business meeting and still remain cordial later. How to offer help so you're not seen as obstructionist. How to take risks. (continued from front flap) How to distinguish between the male and female version of a "team player." How to work with people you don't like. How to hide your vulnerability. The goal of Hardball for Women is to let you act rather than react, to help you see the rules that men play by and use them to meet your own goals, to make you feel comfortable, even exhilarated, with playing the competitive game. This book will give you the strategies that have worked to bring success in business.
Still Waters (Helen Black Mysteries #2)
by Pat WelchAn unsettling new case for Helen Black. Helen and Frieda are at a luxury lakeside resort for a weekend that will, hopefully, mark a new beginning. A weekend to heal the growing rift between them. The discovery of the battered body of a news reporter on the sandy beach changes everything. Because the victim is an old friend of Helen's, the weekend suddenly turns into a murder investigation and a new case for Private Investigator Helen Black. Does the story the reporter was working on hold the key? Or is her death an ex-lover's revenge? And what of the attractive, frightened Maria and her link with the enigmatic priest, Father John? Seemingly everyone has secrets. The apparently successful resort is in financial trouble. The hotel guests have their own frictions and deceptions. The angelic beauty of the owner's daughter masks dark needs...and is a new element to threaten the fragile relationship between Helen and Frieda.
The South Beach Diet Taste of Summer Cookbook
by Arthur AgatstonFrom the book: What better way to maintain your South Beach Diet lifestyle than with a cookbook that celebrates the freshest, healthiest foods of summer? In this new addition to the South Beach Diet cookbook collection, leading cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston brings you 150 fast and flavorful recipes that capture the casual essence of Miami Beach and other warm climates around the world. Whichever phase of the diet you're on, you'll find ideas for breezy breakfasts; crisp salads and light summer sandwiches; innovative grilling ideas for meats, poultry, fish, and shellfish; tempting vegetarian entrees; refreshing desserts; and cooling summer drinks. But this is far more than a single-season cookbook. Grilling, whether done outdoors or in, is a year-round pastime, and many of the recipes in this book can easily be adapted to what's best in the garden or the market at any time of year. Among the delicious dishes included are Greet-the-Sun Breakfast Pizzas, Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho, Classic Lobster Rolls, Farmers' Market Pasta Salad, Mediterranean Chicken Burgers, Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Peach-Lime Salsa, Spicy Grilled Sweet Potato Fries, Chocolate-Cherry Truffles, South Beach Diet Tiramisu, Iced Pom-Mojito Spritzers--and plenty more. Other books by this author are available from bookshare.
The World At My Fingertips
by Karsten OhnstadKarsten Ohnstad shares his journey into blindness with warmth and humor.
Open House (Helen Black Mysteries #4)
by Pat WelchTo most people, a call in the middle of the night means family trouble. But Helen Black's family disowned her years ago. But the call is indeed from Helen's family. Great Aunt Ruth has passed on, and, inexplicably, left Helen her house. And so Helen journeys from Berkeley, from partner Frieda, to return to her roots in Mississippi. To look once more into the face of the father who repudiated her. Into the face of the woman who was her childhood sweetheart and is now a cop. But Helen finds far more than she could ever imagine. A dying grandfather, and small town secrets, one of them contained in the very house that is now hers. She finds murder, and submerged intrigue that harkens all the way back to a deeply stained period of history in the American south.