Eglantine


Catherine Jinks - 2002
    In this deliciously spooky tale, Allie’s family is haunted by Eglantine Higgins, the ghost of a young girl who used to live in their house. After mysterious writings appear on the walls of Bethan’s room, Bethan moves in with his older sister, much to her dismay. Irritated by her younger brother, Allie becomes determined to get rid of the unwanted guest in Bethan’s room. This suspenseful tale combines mystery, cleverness, and a little bit of humor to create a frightfully fun ghost story for younger readers.

Fully Alive: A Biblical Vision of Gender That Frees Men and Women to Live Beyond Stereotypes


Larry Crabb - 2013
    Larry Crabb presents a biblically grounded understanding of gender uniqueness. His illustration of a bridge of connection shows how the two genders can relationally come together in God-revealing harmony as they celebrate their God-designed uniqueness. Readers will discover that God created male and female to relate in gender-specific ways to make a difference in others by displaying God's relational character. Crabb clearly shows men and women what it means to live fully alive as feminine women and masculine men.

Work with Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women in Business


Barbara Annis - 2013
    Barbara Annis, world-renowned expert on gender issues in the workplace, and John Gray, author of the number one relationship book of all time, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, team up to resolve the most stressful and confusing challenges facing men and women at work. Annis and Gray reveal, for the first time, survey results of over 100,000 in-depth interviews of men and women executives in over 60 Fortune 500 companies. Readers will discover the Eight Gender Blind Spots, the false assumptions and opinions men and women have of each other, and in many ways, believe of themselves. Through research, science, and stories, Annis and Gray expose the blind spots that cause our misunderstandings, miscommunications, mistrust, resentment, and frustrations at work. Readers will discover the biology and social influences that compel men and women to think and act as they do, and direct how they communicate, solve problems, make decisions, resolve conflict, lead others, and deal with stress, enabling them to achieve greater success and satisfaction in their professional and personal lives. Work With Me is the definitive work-life relational guide, filled with "ah-ha!" moments and discoveries that will remove the blind spots and enable men and women to work and succeed together.

Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature


Emma Donoghue - 2010
    Emma Donoghue brings to bear all her knowledge and grasp to examine how desire between women in English literature has been portrayed, from schoolgirls and vampires to runaway wives, from cross-dressing knights to contemporary murder stories. Donoghue looks at the work of those writers who have addressed the “unspeakable subject,” examining whether such desire between women is freakish or omnipresent, holy or evil, heartwarming or ridiculous as she excavates a long-obscured tradition of (inseparable) friendship between women, one that is surprisingly central to our cultural history.Donoghue writes about the half-dozen contrasting girl-girl plots that have been told and retold over the centuries, metamorphosing from generation to generation. What interests the author are the twists and turns of the plots themselves and how these stories have changed—or haven’t—over the centuries, rather than how they reflect their time and society. Donoghue explores the writing of Sade, Diderot, Balzac, Thomas Hardy, H. Rider Haggard, Elizabeth Bowen, and others and the ways in which the woman who desires women has been cast as not quite human, as ghost or vampire.She writes about the ever-present triangle, found in novels and plays from the last three centuries, in which a woman and man compete for the heroine’s love . . . about how—and why—same-sex attraction is surprisingly ubiquitous in crime fiction, from the work of Wilkie Collins and Dorothy L. Sayers to P. D. James.Finally, Donoghue looks at the plotline that has dominated writings about desire between women since the late nineteenth century: how a woman’s life is turned upside down by the realization that she desires another woman, whether she comes to terms with this discovery privately, “comes out of the closet,” or is publicly “outed.”She shows how this narrative pattern has remained popular and how it has taken many forms, in the works of George Moore, Radclyffe Hall, Patricia Highsmith, and Rita Mae Brown, from case-history-style stories and dramas, in and out of the courtroom, to schoolgirl love stories and rebellious picaresques. A revelation of a centuries-old literary tradition—brilliant, amusing, and until now, deliberately overlooked.

Women, Men and the Whole Damn Thing


David Leser - 2019
    The public reaction to the article was extraordinary and included hundreds of personal messages urging David to expand his story. David Leser explores his own psyche and role in the patriarchy, and how history has brought us to the #Metoo movement, and its eruptions of female anger worldwide. Where did we go wrong? How do we navigate relationships now? And where to from here?'An important read for anybody interested in a real dialogue and a real engagement on how to move forward in a #MeToo era. The fact that it is written by a man who is aware of his privileges and led by his curiosity for a genuine understanding makes it all the more important.'Zainab Salbi, author of Between Two Worlds and executive editor and host of #MeToo, Now What?'David Leser has written the book a man needed to write. He has a deep ethical understanding of discrimination against women. He cares about that injustice. But he also cares about how men themselves can be part of the solution. Compassionate, incisive and beautifully written.'Professor Catharine Lumby, academic, author and journalist'A brave plunge into deep waters: a tough, thorough, tender-even loving-book.'Robert Drewe, author of The Shark Net

Chaucer's Knight


Terry Jones - 1980
    Jones questions the accepted view of the Knight as a paragon of Christian chivalry, and argues that he is in fact no more than a professional mercenary who has spent his life in the service of petty despots and tyrants around the world. This edition includes astonishing new evidence from Jones, who argues that the character of the Knight was actually based on Sir John Hawkwood (d.1394), a marauding English freebooter and mercenary who pillaged his way across northern Italy during the 14th century, running protection rackets on the Italian Dukes and creating a vast fortune in the process.

The History of Science Fiction


Adam Roberts - 2005
    Concentrating on literary SF and (in the later chapters) cinema and TV, it also discusses the myriad forms this genre takes in the contemporary world, including a chapter on graphic novels, SF pop music, visual art and ufology. The author is ideally placed to write it: both an academic literary critic and also an acclaimed creative writer of science fiction, with five novels and many short stories to his credit. Written in lively, accessible prose, this study is specifically designed to bridge the worlds of academic criticism and the SF fandom.The History of Science Fiction argues that, even today, this flourishing cultural idiom is shaped by the forces that determined its rise to prominence in the 1600s: the dialogue between Protestant and Catholic worldviews, the emerging technologies of the industrial age, and the cultural anxieties and excitements of a rapidly changing world. Now available in paperback, it will be of interest to all students, researchers and fans of SF.

Gardening For Dummies


Michael MacCaskey - 1996
    At last, you don't need a green thumb to have the greenest lawn and the best garden on the block! With Gardening For Dummies at your side, you'll have all the tips, techniques, and suggestions to help you master the fundamentals of gardening and much more! This fun and friendly reference outlines everything you need to roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty, and begin to plant your own vegetable or flower garden in your backyard or in a container on your porch -- no matter what climate you live in!Filled with more than a hundred illustrations and 16 full color pages with 8 sample garden plans, this hands-on guide takes you on a visual journey through the world of gardening.Inside, you'll discover how to Plan a garden using the space you have available Determine which types of bulbs, trees, shrubs, and flowers to plant in your garden Find and buy the right gardening tools, soil, and other accessories Water, weed, prune, and fertilize your garden Prevent bugs, weeds, and diseases from making your garden sick Create a special garden with your own flair for food, flavor, and color

Hubert's Freaks: The Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus


Gregory Gibson - 2008
    From the moment he purchases a trunk containing the archive of Hubert’s Dime Museum and Flea Circus—a midcentury Times Square freak show frequented by Arbus—and discovers some intriguing photographs, he knows he’s on to something. Furthermore, he begins to suspect that what he’s found may add a pivotal chapter to what is now known about Arbus and the “old weird America,” in Greil Marcus’s phrase, that Hubert’s inhabited.Langmuir’s ensuing adventure, filled with bizarre coincidences, turns into a roller-coaster ride that takes him from memorabilia shows to the curator’s office at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Will the photos be authenticated? How will the Arbus estate react? most important, can Bob, who has seen more than a few promising deals head south, finally make his one big score?

Monsieur Proust's Library


Anka Muhlstein - 2012
    Two hundred of his creatures inhabit his fictional world, and sixty writers hover over them. These writers--among them various classical authors of the seventeenth century such as Mme de Sévigné the letter-writer, Racine the playwright, Saint-Simon the memoirist, and novelists and poets of the nineteenth century, including Balzac, Baudelaire and Dostoevsky--are not there for show; their works play an active role in the construction of In Search of Lost Time. A life without books was inconceivable for Proust. Not surprisingly, he made literary taste and reading habits a primary means of defining his characters. Everybody in the novel reads: servants and masters, children, parents and grandparents, artists and physicians, and even generals. Conversations at dinner tables and among friends are mostly literary. The more sophisticated characters find it natural to speak in quotations, and quoting from memory is much appreciated in the narrator's family--his grandmother, grandfather, and mother all excel at this pastime.Literature is omnipresent in Proust's work but takes many different forms. It may be straightforward when it comes to the books read by the narrator and other characters; it may be a tool used to define the personality of a personage, a clue to hidden traits of character, or a comical ploy when quotations are taken out of context or when turns of speech are directly inspired by classical writers.In this wonderfully entertaining book, scholar and biographer Anka Muhlstein, the author of Balzac's Omelette, draws out these themes in Proust's work and life, thus providing an indispensable introduction to his long and intricate novel.More Praise for Balzac's Omelette:"Original, delectable, and entirely readable." --Washington Post"Scholarly yet escapist . . . irresistible." --Daily Beast"Balzac's Omelette . . . is a charming and modest little book." --New York Review of Books

RHS Botany for Gardeners: The Art and Science of Gardening Explained & Explored


Geoff Hodge - 2013
    For easy navigation, the book is divided into thematic changes - covering everything from Plant Parts to Plant Pests - and further subdivided into useful headings, such as 'Seed Sowing' and 'Pruning'. In addition, feature spreads profile the remarkable individuals who have collected, studied and illustrated the plants that we grow today, and 'Botany in Action' boxes provide instantly accessible practical tips and advice.Aided by this book, every gardener - and every garden - will benefit from unlocking the wealth of information that lies within the intriguing world of botanical science.

The Wives: The Women Behind Russia's Literary Giants


Alexandra Popoff - 2012
    Popoff draws from the women’s autobiographical writings and other key Russian sources to reveal the women’s contributions to world literature and to tell about a collaborative tradition they established.

The Writer's Block: 786 Ideas To Jump-start Your Imagination


Jason Rekulak - 2001
    Next time you're stuck, just flip open The Writer's Block to any page to find an idea or exercise that will jump-start your imagination. Many of these assignments come straight from the creative writing classes of celebrated novelists like Ethan Canin, Richard Price, Toni Morrison, and Kurt Vonnegut: Joyce Carol Oates explains how she uses running to destroy writer's block. Elmore Leonard describes how he often finds ideas just by reading the newspaper. E. Annie Proulx discusses finding inspiration at garage sales. Isabel Allende tells why she always begins a new novel on January 8th. John Irving explains why he prefers to write the last sentence first. Fresh, fun, and irreverent, The Writer's Block also features advice from contemporary editors and literary agents, lessons from the awful novels of Joan Collins and Robert James Waller, a filmography of movies concerning writer's block (e.g., The Shining, Barton Fink), and countless other surprises. With this chunky little book at your side, you may never experience writer's block again!

Madame Bovary's Ovaries: A Darwinian Look at Literature


David Philip Barash - 2005
    Just like every animal from mites to monkeys, our day-to-day behavior has been shaped by millions of years of natural selection. So it should be no surprise to learn that the natural forces that drive animals in general and Homo sapiens in particular are clearly visible in the creatures of literature, from Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones all the way to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones. Seen through the lens of evolutionary biology, the witty repartee of Jane Austen’s courting couples, Othello’s tragic rage, the griping of Holden Caulfield, and the scandalous indiscretions of Madame Bovary herself all make a fresh and exciting kind of sense. The ways we fall in—and out—of love, stand by our friends, compete against our enemies, and squabble with our families have their roots in biological imperatives we share not only with other primates but with an amazing array of other creatures. The result is a new way to read, a novel approach to novels (and plays) that reveals how human nature underlies literature, from the great to the not-so-great.Using the cutting-edge ideas of contemporary Darwinism, the authors show how the heroes and heroines of our favorite stories have been molded as much by evolution as by the genius of their creators, revealing a gallery of characters from Agamemnon to Alexander Portnoy, who have more in common with birds, fish, and other mammals than we could ever have imagined.As engaging and informative as a good story, Madame Bovary’s Ovaries is both an accessible introduction to a fascinating area of science and a provocatively sideways look at our cherished literary heritage. Most of all, it shows in a delightfully enteraining way how science and literature shed light on each other.

Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball


Stephen Jay Gould - 2003
    Through the years, the renowned paleontologist published numerous essays on the sport; these have now been collected in a volume alive with the candor and insight that characterized all of Gould's writing. Here are his thoughts on the complexities of childhood streetball and the joys of opening day; tributes to Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and lesser-knowns such as deaf-mute centerfielder "Dummy" Hoy; and a frank admission of the contradictions inherent in being a lifelong Yankees fan with Red Sox season tickets. Gould also deftly applies the tools of evolutionary theory to the demise of the .400 hitter, the Abner Doubleday creation myth, and the improbability of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.This book is a delight, an essential addition to Gould's remarkable legacy, and a fitting tribute to his love for the game.