Best of
Womens-Studies
2016
Giddy Up, Eunice: Because Women Need Each Other
Sophie Hudson - 2016
The reality, though, is that we have far more in common than we realize, and since Scripture shows us the blessing of friendships across generations, it’s high time we step out of our same-age, same-stage silos. Life is so much better that way. Sophie Hudson, in the delightfully quirky Southern style her readers have come to know and love, sends out a rallying cry for women everywhere to open our eyes and see the people God has put in our lives—whether they’re behind us, beside us, or in front of us. It is such a gift to love one another, walk with one another, and soak up the blessings that flow across all generations. Saddle up, sister. This is going to be fun.
The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting from Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child
Paula S. Fass - 2016
Renowned historian Paula Fass shows how, since the beginning of the American republic, independence, self-definition, and individual success have informed Americans' attitudes toward children. But as parents today hover over every detail of their children's lives, are the qualities that once made American childhood special still desired or possible? Placing the experiences of children and parents against the backdrop of social, political, and cultural shifts, Fass challenges Americans to reconnect with the beliefs that set the American understanding of childhood apart from the rest of the world.Fass examines how freer relationships between American children and parents transformed the national culture, altered generational relationships among immigrants, helped create a new science of child development, and promoted a revolution in modern schooling. She looks at the childhoods of icons including Margaret Mead and Ulysses S. Grant--who, as an eleven-year-old, was in charge of his father's fields and explored his rural Ohio countryside. Fass also features less well-known children like ten-year-old Rose Cohen, who worked in the drudgery of nineteenth-century factories. Bringing readers into the present, Fass argues that current American conditions and policies have made adolescence socially irrelevant and altered children's road to maturity, while parental oversight threatens children's competence and initiative.Showing how American parenting has been firmly linked to historical changes, The End of American Childhood considers what implications this might hold for the nation's future.
Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity
Alexis Pauline Gumbs - 2016
In this poetic work inspired by Hortense Spillers, Gumbs offers an alternative approach to Black feminist literary criticism, historiography, and the interactive practice of relating to the words of Black feminist thinkers. Gumbs not only speaks to the spiritual, bodily, and otherworldly experience of Black women but also allows readers to imagine new possibilities for poetry as a portal for understanding and deepening feminist theory.
Women's Wellness Wisdom: What Every Woman Needs To Know
Libby Weaver - 2016
We can often feel betrayed by our bodies, and feel as though we have no control over our thoughts, leaving us feeling like we’re grasping for air while trying to meet everyone else’s expectations. It doesn’t have to be this way.This book will help you to understand the “why” behind some of your common frustrations – from the weight you can’t shift, to why you feel trapped on the “stress express”, or why you find it so difficult to say “no” to some people.Libby embraces a holistic approach by treating the root cause of an ailment. Her extensive knowledge of how the body works makes her a “one-stop shop” in achieving and maintaining ultimate health and well being." – Deborra-lee and Hugh Jackman
Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
C. Nicole Mason - 2016
In these professional settings, my personal experiences with hunger, poverty, and episodic homelessness, often go undetected. I had worked hard to learn the rules and disguise my beginning in life...So begins Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, a story of reconciliation, constrained choices and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful, but volatile16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school where she excelled.By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds. The first, a cocoon of familiarity where street smarts, toughness and the ability to survive won the day. The other, foreign and unfamiliar with its own set of rules, not designed for her success. In her Advanced Placement classes and outside of her neighborhood, she felt unwelcomed and judged because of the way she talked, dressed and wore her hair.After moving to Las Vegas to live with her paternal grandmother, she worked nights at a food court in one of the Mega Casinos while finishing school. Having figured out the college application process by eavesdropping on the few white kids in her predominantly Black and Latino school along with the help of a long ago high school counselor, Mason eventually boarded a plane for Howard University, alone and with $200 in her pocket.While showing us her own path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape and exposes the presumption harbored by many—that the poor don't help themselves enough.
Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100
Max Dashu - 2016
She shows that old ethnic names for “witch” signify wise-woman, prophetess, diviner, healer, and dreamer.
Sharing the Work: What My Family and Career Taught Me about Breaking Through (and Holding the Door Open for Others)
Myra Strober - 2016
You will learn that finding allies is crucial, blending families after divorce is possible, and that there is neither a good time nor a bad time to have children. Both women and men will find a friend in these pages."--Gloria SteinemMyra Strober became a feminist on the Bay Bridge, heading toward San Francisco. It is 1970. She has just been told by the chairman of Berkeley's economics department that she can never get tenure. Driving home afterward, wondering if she got something out of the freezer for her family's dinner, she realizes the truth: she is being denied a regular faculty position because she is a mother. Flooded with anger, she also finds her life's work: to study and fight sexism, in the workplace, in academia, and at home.Strober's generous memoir captures the spirit of a revolution lived fully, from her Brooklyn childhood (and her shock at age twelve when she's banished to the women's balcony at shul) to her groundbreaking Stanford seminar on women and work. Strober's interest in women and work began when she saw her mother's frustration at the limitations of her position as a secretary. Her consciousness of the unfairness of the usual distribution of household chores came when she unsuccessfully asked her husband for help with housework. Later, when a group of conservative white male professors sputtered at the idea of government-subsidized child care, Strober made the case for its economic benefits.In the 1970s, the term "sexual harassment" had not yet been coined. Occupational segregation, quantifying the value of work in the home, and the cost of discrimination were new ideas. Strober was a pioneer, helping to create a new academic field and founding institutions to establish it. But she wasn't alone: she benefited from the women's movement, institutional change, and new federal regulations that banned sex discrimination. She continues the work today and invites us to join her.
Waveform: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women
Marcia AldrichBich Minh Nguyen - 2016
Historically, women have been instrumental in moving the essay to center stage, and Waveform continues this rich tradition, further expanding the dynamic genre s boundaries and testing its edges. With thirty essays by thirty distinguished and diverse women writers, this carefully constructed anthology incorporates works ranging from the traditional to the experimental.Waveform champions the diversity of women s approaches to the structure ofthe essay today a site of invention and innovation, with experiments in collage, fragments, segmentation, braids, triptychs, and diptychs. Focused on these explorations of form, Waveform is not wed to a fixed theme or even to women s experiences per se. It is not driven by subject matter but highlights the writers interaction with all manner of subject and circumstance through style, voice, tone, and structure.This anthology presents some of the women who are shaping the essay today, mapping an ever-changing landscape. It is designed to place essays recently written by women such as Roxane Gay, Cheryl Strayed, Margo Jefferson, Jaquira Diaz, and Eula Biss into the hands of those who have been waiting patiently for something they could equally claim as their own.Contributors: Marcia Aldrich, Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Chelsea Biondolillo, Eula Biss, Barrie Jean Borich, Joy Castro, Meghan Daum, Jaquira Diaz, Laurie Lynn Drummond, Patricia Foster, Roxane Gay, Leslie Jamison, Margo Jefferson, Sonja Livingston, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Brenda Miller, Michele Morano, Kyoko Mori, Bich Minh Nguyen, Adriana Paramo, Jericho Parms, Torrey Peters, Kristen Radtke, Wendy Rawlings, Cheryl Strayed, Dana Tommasino, Sarah Valentine, Neela Vaswani, Nicole Walker, Amy Wright"
Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History
Molly Schiot - 2016
These women paved the way for Serena Williams, Carli Lloyd, and Lindsey Vonn, yet few today know who they are. Slowly but surely, the account gained a following, and the result is Game Changers, a beautifully illustrated collection of these trailblazers’ rarely-before-seen photos and stories.Featuring icons Althea Gibson and Wyomia Tyus, complete unknowns Trudy Beck and Conchita Cintron, policymaker Margaret Dunkle, sportswriter Lisa Olson, and many more, Game Changers gives these “founding mothers” the attention and recognition they deserve, and features critical conversations between past and present gamechangers—including former US Women’s National Soccer Team captain Abby Wambach and SportsCenter anchor Cari Champion—about what it means to be a woman on and off the field. Inspiring, empowering, and unforgettable, Game Changers is the perfect gift for anyone who has a love of the game.
I Have Devoted My Life to the Clitoris
Elizabeth Hall - 2016
She was particularly struck by Laqueur’s bold assertion: “More words have been shed, I suspect, about the clitoris, than about any other organ, or at least, any organ its size.” How was it possible that Hall had been reading compulsively for years and never once stumbled upon this trove of prose devoted to the clit? If Lacquer’s claim was correct, where were all these “words”? And more: what did size have to do with it? Hall set out to find all that had been written about the clit past and present. As she soon discovered, the history of the clitoris is no ordinary tale; rather, its history is marked by the act of forgetting.ADVANCED PRAISE In her marvelously researched and sculpted essay/memoir, Elizabeth Hall convinces me that clitoral stimulation is my birthright, a supreme act reaching back to the origins of sensation, connecting me to all my animal sisters: artist, poet, hyena, dolphin. What a thrilling world Hall constructs, her bulleted points rat-tat-tatting the patriarchy, strobing with pleasure. — Dodie Bellamy, author of When the Sick Rule the World and Cunt Norton The unfolding of relationships between, among many other details, Freud, terra cotta cunts, hyenas, anatomists, and Acker, mixed with a certain slant of light on a windowsill and a leg thrown open invite us into this intricately structured catalogue of clit. “I started with a question: what does the body want? And ended with: it wants.” The investigation does not stop there. Elizabeth Hall’s prose builds quietly into a denouement that is as cerebral and corporeal as it is bawdy and beautiful. — Wendy C. Ortiz, author of Excavation: A Memoir and Hollywood Notebook “I am never bored by a body,” says Elizabeth Hall, in this gorgeous little book about a gorgeous little organ. Hall’s restless unearthing of the clitoris’s hidden history mines discourses as varied as sexology, plastic surgery, literature and feminism to produce an eye-opening compendium, stitched together with wit, lyricism and desire. In this spirited collection of telling details and revelatory insights, the “tender button” finally gets its due. — Janet Sarbanes, author of People of the Pancake and Army of One “God this book is glorious. I’m so grateful to Elizabeth Hall for her devotion–scholarly and bodily– alive in this rigorous, lyrical exploration of a most under-written organ. In this far-ranging meditation and investigation, Hall moves elegantly from Marie Bonaparte to the female hyena to contemporary heroes like Kathy Acker and Holly Hughes, asking over and over again: what is it to have a body? How do we read our way into and through that body? Hall shows us how, in dizzying, thrilling detail; you will learn and laugh and wonder why it took you so long to find this book. ” — Suzanne Scanlon, author of Her 37th Year, An Index and Promising Young Women
Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music
Anna Beer - 2016
Why do we still not hear masterpieces such as Hensel’s piano work "The Year," Caccini’s arias and Boulanger’s setting of Psalm 130?A long-overdue celebration of neglected virtuosos, Sounds and Sweet Airs presents a complex and inspirational picture of artistic endeavour and achievement that deserves to be part of our cultural heritage.The featured composers are: Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Marianna Martines, Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Elizabeth Maconchy.
Ladies Night at the Dreamland
Sonja Livingston - 2016
In this lyrical collection, Sonja Livingston weaves together strands of research and imagination to conjure figures from history, literature, legend, and personal memory. The result is a series of essays that highlight lives as varied, troubled, and spirited as America itself.Harnessing the power of language, Livingston breathes life into subjects who led extraordinary lives--as rule-breakers, victims, or those whose differences made them cultural curiosities--bringing together those who slipped through the world largely unseen with those whose images were fleeting or faulty so that they, too, remained relatively obscure. Included are Alice Mitchell, a Memphis society girl who murdered her female lover in 1892; Maria Spelterini, who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1876; May Fielding, a "white slave girl" buried in a Victorian cemetery; Valaida Snow, a Harlem Renaissance trumpeter; a child exhibited as Darwin's Missing Link; the sculptors' model Audrey Munson; a Crowwarrior; victims of a 1970s serial killer; the Fox Sisters; and many more.
Tattoo
Jenna Cosgrove - 2016
"You judge me when you look at me because of the tattoos that cover my body—but that’s only because you don’t understand what they mean....... My mother named me Mercy, after the nuns who raised her, but my life has been anything but merciful. The path I’ve traveled has been long and winding, full of heartbreak and violence, but also rare moments of beauty. My story starts in Savannah, the day I found my mother’s body after she’d chased two bottles of sleeping pills with a bottle of home-made moonshine. It’s the story of my unhinged stepfather, a devastating fire, and how I ended up on the run, wanted for murder. It tells of my obsessive search for my birth father that I clung to like a life raft as I drifted—from the bright lights of a shady traveling carnival, where I was given my first tattoo by my older lover; to a biker gang falling apart at the seams, where I met the man who would torment me for years to come. From the cream of high society in California, to the lonely beaches of Mexico where I finally found a type of peace—just not the one I expected. You judge me because my tattoos make me look strange, dangerous. But there’s more to them than that. To understand the way I look, you need to know where I came from. To understand me, you need to know my story…" ________________________________________________ Described as “too raunchy for teens”, TATTOO is the debut YA novel by Jenna Cosgrove. Set in the early 60s, TATTOO follows the journey of Mercy Daniels - teenage fugitive - and the search for her birth father that takes her from Savannah to San Francisco to Mexico, and takes her innocence along the way.
Bull: And Other Stories
Kathy Anderson - 2016
The debut collection of short stories by Kathy Anderson. Darkly funny, these stories explore gender, sexuality, and family dynamics.
Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works
Jay Newton-Small - 2016
Additionally, in 2016, single women will be one of the most pivotal voting groups heading into the general election, being courted by both Democrats and Republicans.At the centennial of the first woman elected to Congress (which was three years before women legally earned the right to vote), their presence and influence in Washington has reached a tipping point that affects not only the inner workings of the Federal Government, but also directly influences how Americans live and work.Never before have women been represented in such great numbers in the Supreme Court, both chambers of Congress, and in the West Wing. In
Broad Influence
, Jay Newton-Small, one of the nation's most deeply respected and sourced journalists takes readers through the corridors of Washington D.C., the offices and hallways of Capital Hill and everywhere else conversations and deals are happening to demonstrate how women are reaching across the aisles, coalescing, and affecting lasting change.With deep, exclusive and behind-closed-doors reporting and interviews, including conversations with Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Mikulski, Kirsten Gillibrand, Valerie Jarrett, Sarah Palin, Kelly Ayotte, Cathy McMorris Rogers and dozens of other former and current senators, representatives, senior White House staffers, governors and cabinet members,
Broad Influence
is an insightful look at how women are transforming government, politics, and the workforce, and how they are using that power shift to effect change throughout America.
Jailbreaking the Goddess: A Radical Revisioning of Feminist Spirituality
Lasara Firefox Allen - 2016
Where the maiden, mother, crone archetypal system is tied to female biology and physical stages of life, the fivefold model liberates the female experience from the shackles of the reproductive model.In a woman's lifetime, she will go through several different cycles of beginnings, potential, creation, mastery, and wisdom. This fivefold model is not an adaption of the threefold. It is a new system that embraces the powerful, fluid nature of the lived experience of women today.Join Lasara Firefox Allen as she explores the nature of the five archetypes; gives examples of what areas of life each might preside over; lists goddesses that fit within each archetype; suggests ways to begin building relationship with the different archetypes; and provides simple rituals for recognition, transition, and invocation.
Women in Black History: Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience
Tricia Williams Jackson - 2016
Now young readers can discover their exciting true stories in this eye-opening collection.From well-known figures like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks to women rarely found in any history book, Women in Black History explores the lives of writers, athletes, singers, activists, and educators who have made an indelible mark on our country and our culture. Perfect for kids, but also for adults who like to read about important figures and unsung heroes, this collection will delight, surprise, and challenge readers.
Rogue Archives: Digital Cultural Memory and Media Fandom
Abigail De Kosnik - 2016
But with the rise of digital networked media, a multitude of self-designated archivists—fans, pirates, hackers—have become practitioners of cultural preservation on the Internet. These nonprofessional archivists have democratized cultural memory, building freely accessible online archives of whatever content they consider suitable for digital preservation. In Rogue Archives, Abigail De Kosnik examines the practice of archiving in the transition from print to digital media, looking in particular at Internet fan fiction archives.De Kosnik explains that media users today regard all of mass culture as an archive, from which they can redeploy content for their own creations. Hence, “remix culture” and fan fiction are core genres of digital cultural production. De Kosnik explores, among other things, the anticanonical archiving styles of Internet preservationists; the volunteer labor of online archiving; how fan archives serve women and queer users as cultural resources; archivists' efforts to attract racially and sexually diverse content; and how digital archives adhere to the logics of performance more than the logics of print. She also considers the similarities and differences among free culture, free software, and fan communities, and uses digital humanities tools to quantify and visualize the size, user base, and rate of growth of several online fan archives.
Only the Road / Solo el Camino: Eight Decades of Cuban Poetry
Margaret Randall - 2016
It is distinguished by its stylistic breadth and the diversity of its contributors, who come from throughout Cuba and its diaspora and include luminaries, lesser-known voices, and several Afro-Cuban and LGBTQ poets. Nearly half of the poets in the collection are women. Only the Road paints a full and dynamic picture of modern Cuban life and poetry, highlighting their unique features and idiosyncrasies, the changes across generations, and the ebbs and flows between repression and freedom following the Revolution. Poet Margaret Randall, who translated each poem, contributes extensive biographical notes for each poet and a historical introduction to twentieth-century Cuban poetry.
One Bead at a Time
Beverly Little Thunder - 2016
Transcribed and edited by two-spirit Metis writer Sharron Proulx-Turner, Little Thunder's narrative is told verbatim, her melodious voice and keen sense of humour almost audible overtop of the text on the page. Early in her story, Little Thunder recounts a dream from her early adulthood, "I stared at these lily pads for the longest time and I decided that there was one part of the pond that had lots of lily pads and no frogs. I said, 'I want to go there because there's lots of lily pads but no frogs and I like creating community.'" And create community she does. Little Thunder established the first and today, the only all-women's Sundance in the world, securing a land base in the Green Mountains of Vermont for future generations of Indigenous women's ceremony. She was active in the A.I.M. movement and she continues to practice and promote political and spiritual awareness for Indigenous women around the world. A truly remarkable visionary.
Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do All the Good You Can
Cynthia Levinson - 2016
Growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, Hillary was inspired by the philosophy of John Wesley, who urged his followers to "do all the good you can." Rising to prominence in 1992 as the First Lady of the United States, Hillary captured the world's attention with her bold ideas and political forcefulness.From her time at Wellesley to her life at the White House and beyond, Hillary has been at the forefront of huge change—and despite setbacks and political scandals, she has worked for good in the world.Acclaimed author Cynthia Levinson creates a compelling and personal portrait of Hillary's historic journey from her childhood to her service as secretary of state and beyond. Includes a timeline of Hillary Rodham Clinton's life and an eight-page photo insert."This extensively researched and comprehensive biography tells us more of the woman who is that public figure, from some of her inspirations (like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Birmingham protests) and the impact of her religious faith on her commitment to service" (Brightly.com).
Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life
Wendy Garling - 2016
In this retelling of the ancient legends of the women in the Buddha’s intimate circle, lesser-known stories from Sanskrit and Pali sources are for the first time woven into an illuminating, coherent narrative that follows his life from his birth to his parinirvana or death. Interspersed with original insights, fresh interpretations, and bold challenges to the status quo, the stories are both entertaining and thought-provoking—some may even appear controversial. Focusing first on laywomen from the time before the Buddha’s enlightenment—his birth mother and stepmother, his co-wives, and members of his harem when he was known as Prince Siddhartha—then moving on to the Buddha’s first female disciples, early nuns, and to female patrons, Wendy Garling invites us to open our minds to a new understanding of their roles.
Parenting to a Degree: How Family Matters for College Women's Success
Laura T. Hamilton - 2016
But do involved parents really damage their children and burden universities? In this book, sociologist Laura T. Hamilton illuminates the lives of young women and their families to ask just what role parents play during the crucial college years. Hamilton vividly captures the parenting approaches of mothers and fathers from all walks of life—from a CFO for a Fortune 500 company to a waitress at a roadside diner. As she shows, parents are guided by different visions of the ideal college experience, built around classed notions of women’s work/family plans and the ideal age to “grow up.” Some are intensively involved and hold adulthood at bay to cultivate specific traits: professional helicopters, for instance, help develop the skills and credentials that will advance their daughters’ careers, while pink helicopters emphasize appearance, charm, and social ties in the hopes that women will secure a wealthy mate. In sharp contrast, bystander parents—whose influence is often limited by economic concerns—are relegated to the sidelines of their daughter’s lives. Finally, paramedic parents—who can come from a wide range of class backgrounds—sit in the middle, intervening in emergencies but otherwise valuing self-sufficiency above all. Analyzing the effects of each of these approaches with clarity and depth, Hamilton ultimately argues that successfully navigating many colleges and universities without involved parents is nearly impossible, and that schools themselves are increasingly dependent on active parents for a wide array of tasks, with intended and unintended consequences. Altogether, Parenting to a Degree offers an incisive look into the new—and sometimes problematic—relationship between students, parents, and universities.
Quotes From Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run With The Wolves: Great Non-Fiction Books Quotation Series
University Scholastic Press - 2016
On the New York Times’ best seller list for 145 weeks, Estes’ book is a call to action for women all over the world to embrace the Wild Woman archetype she says lives in every woman. Within these pages, University Scholastic Press, internationally renowned publisher of textbooks, quote books, study guides and creative nonfiction novels, carefully curates hundreds of quotes from Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ work. Learn what Estes says about shedding secrets, the need for solitude, delighting in sexuality and living your best wild woman life in
Quotes From Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With The Wolves
by University Scholastic Press.
Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times
Stacy Alaimo - 2016
Including such divergent topics as landscape art, ocean ecologies, and plastic activism, Alaimo explores our environmental predicaments to better understand feminist occupations of transcorporeal subjectivity.She puts scientists, activists, artists, writers, and theorists in conversation, revealing that the state of the planet in the twenty-first century has radically transformed ethics, politics, and what it means to be human. Ultimately, Exposed calls for an environmental stance in which, rather than operating from an externalized perspective, we think, feel, and act as the very stuff of the world.
Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema
Melody BridgesKevin Brownlow - 2016
Early pioneers, such as Alice Guy Blaché, directed hundreds of films, invented techniques, ran businesses and set up distribution but with the rise of the male-dominated studio system, their significant contribution to the dawn of the movies has long been forgotten.With chapters on the writers, directors, producers, stars, film editors, designers and camera women of the silent era this book acknowledges and celebrates the many talented women who were significantly involved in the rise of the industry and explains why the coming of the talkies and big business led to the inequality which exists today.Melody Bridges studied English and Drama at Cambridge University and has written, acted and directed for theatre before working in TV where she developed, wrote, produced and directed two television series. In addition to contributing to Celluloid Ceiling, she writes a weekly page for a newspaper, and is artistic director of Worthing’s WOW Festival. In 2014, she was a Finalist as Influential Woman of the Year at the NatWest Venus Awards. She has recently given a TEDx talk.Cheryl Robson is a producer/director of several short independent films, most recently Rock n Roll Island. She worked at the BBC for several years and then taught filmmaking at the University of Westminster, before setting up a theatre company. She also created a publishing company where she has edited over fifty books and published over 150 international writers. As a writer, she has won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition and as an editor, she worked with Gabrielle Kelly to publish Celluloid Ceiling: women film directors breaking through, the first global overview of women film directors. She also received a Special Jury Prize for Peace with author Robin Soans, for The Arab-Israeli Cookbook.
Stagecoach Mary
Jess Nevins - 2016
The first female African-American mail carrier, she began work for the mail service at age 60, and twenty years later she was still head-butting men who'd try to keep her from drinking at her favorite saloon. STAGECOACH MARY is a Weird West collection featuring Mary Fields, and contains eight stories of her lesser-known adventures on the Montana frontier, involving ghosts, legendary beasts, the Devil, town-wide madnesses, phantom airships, supernatural threats, magic-spawned blizzards, and the rescue of innocent men framed by an uncaring legal system. Full of adventure, horror, and new twists on old stories, STAGECOACH MARY is sure to be of interest to those who like their Westerns weird and off-beat and to those in search of adventurous frontier fiction.
Something to Prove: A biography of Ann Lowe America's Forgotten Designer
Julia Smith - 2016
Kennedy would be a lifetime achievement. For Ann Lowe, it became a statement. The iconic gown would become the most photographed wedding gown in American history proving that (in Ann’s own words), “a Negro can become a major dress designer.” Years earlier, as the sun rose on the morning of Ann’s birth, no one in the small town of Clayton, Alabama could have dreamed of the heights she would achieve for she was born a squirming, scrawny, little black girl in the Jim Crow South, but from an early age she recognized her dreams. Her path would not be easy, and any success she might have was certain to be achieved only with steadfast effort and fortitude on her part. Armed with a great inner strength and natural talent, she rose above all obstacles and forged her own future. When she designed and produced Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding dress, very few knew her name. No one but her staff knew of the disaster that preceded the delivery of that now-historic wedding dress to the home of the bride. Even fewer knew that she was the granddaughter of a former slave. Even today, few know her story.
Wild West Women: Fifty Lives That Shaped the Frontier
Erin Turner - 2016
These fifty stories cover the Western experience from Kansas City to Sacramento and the Yukon to the Texas Gulf.
Never Done: A History of Women's Work in Media Production
Erin Hill - 2016
Yet, from its inception, the American film industry relied on the labor of thousands more women, workers whose vital contributions often went unrecognized. Never Done introduces generations of women who worked behind the scenes in the film industry—from the employees’ wives who hand-colored the Edison Company’s films frame-by-frame, to the female immigrants who toiled in MGM’s backrooms to produce beautifully beaded and embroidered costumes. Challenging the dismissive characterization of these women as merely menial workers, media historian Erin Hill shows how their labor was essential to the industry and required considerable technical and interpersonal skills. Sketching a history of how Hollywood came to define certain occupations as lower-paid “women’s work,” or “feminized labor,” Hill also reveals how enterprising women eventually gained a foothold in more prestigious divisions like casting and publicity. Poring through rare archives and integrating the firsthand accounts of women employed in the film industry, the book gives a voice to women whose work was indispensable yet largely invisible. As it traces this long history of women in Hollywood, Never Done reveals the persistence of sexist assumptions that, even today, leave women in the media industry underpraised and underpaid. For more information: http://erinhill.squarespace.com
Sexual Assault: The Ultimate Teen Guide
Olivia Ghafoerkhan - 2016
Sexual assault has become an all-too-common occurrence among young adults. An assault can cause physical injuries, STDs and STIs, post-traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, and other re-experiencing symptoms. It can lead to poor academic performance, substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, and even suicide. Research has also shown that victims of sexual abuse are more likely to confide in friends than in adults, but those friends may not be-equipped to help. In Sexual Assault: The Ultimate Teen Guide, Olivia Ghafoerkhan describes the various ways sexual violence can be perpetrated, discusses myths many teens believe about the subject, and outlines how young adults can get the help they need to begin the healing process. Topics covered include -date rape -abusive relationships -incest -breaking the silence -victim blaming -support -healing An invaluable resource for young people, Sexual Assault: The Ultimate Teen Guide aims to give victims and their friends the courage to report such crimes, advice on where to find help, and hope that life can return to some sense of normalcy after such a horrific experience.
