Search results for ""Author Fell"

Magic, adventure, and friendship collide in warm and funny novel about the power of self-acceptance to change the world. Jewel’s your average eighth grader. Awkward relationship with a cute boy, ex-BFFs with a popular girl, mom issues at home. You’ve read it all before. Except for one thing: Jewel has a unicorn horn on her head. (Okay, and one other thing, but it’s just too weird to mention here!) Jewel tries to stay invisible at school, looking forward to the day when she can finally leave her small town behind, making art with her fellow weirdos, and obsessively reading graphic novels with her best friends. But when she’s selected to represent her school at the regional French speaking competition, she decides she’s had enough of the shy life. The horn needs to come off. What happens when you have the ability to become the girl you’ve always wanted to be? When you don’t know your true self, how do you know your true friends? What happens when everything in your life—your biggest struggle, your greatest joy, and your dearest friends—all combine in one calamitous adventure? With a sparkle of magic, a treasure trove of true determination, and help from all her friends both real and invisible, Jewel just might survive this year with her heart—and her head—intact. THE ULTIMATE EMPATHY READ: The unicorn horn in this book is a perfect symbol for all the ways every young person feels strange, different, or unusual in any way. While readers’ specific situations may differ from Jewel’s, her struggle for self-acceptance will resonate with readers of all stripes, circumstances, and backgrounds. A RICH, FANTASTIC FANTASY: At the heart of this book is a rich, multi-layered fantasy adventure that will have all readers thinking twice about the stories they read, the friends they have, and the superpowers they may not even know they possess. IRRESISTIBLE MIDDLE SCHOOL DRAMA: Catty ex-friends, terrifyingly unapproachable boys, embarrassing dance proposals, inspirational teachers—this book has all the hallmarks of everyone’s favorite middle grade fare. UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS: Readers won’t want to leave this world behind! The main characters and the families in this book are real, warmly drawn, and endlessly relatable. Readers will return to the book just to live in the world for a little bit longer. RELATABLE FAMILY ISSUES: Jewel’s family deals with situations that will be very familiar to most readers: high hopes for the future, never having enough money, and the distance between what we want and what we have. The family dynamics are relatable, too: Jewel’s single mom works a low-paying job, and they live in an apartment with Jewel’s grandma. The warmth of this family despite their difficulties will stay with readers long after they close the cover. Perfect for: tweens, fans of unicorns, fantasy readers, parents, educators

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When Otto Ecroyd embarked on a voyage to sail a broken boat from Norway to France - and failed - he decided to do what any other hapless adventurer would do: cycle from Alaska to Mexico. But, as Otto says, he 'had never ridden further than across town.' So, with no experience, the wrong type of bike and with panniers overflowing with lentils, Otto pedals across vast American landscapes, cowers from juggernaut RVs, and all the while wonders when he will next meet a grizzly bear. En route, Otto's wit and self-deprecating charm ensure he wins many friends, from an array of regional characters, to a cosmopolitan mix of fellow long-distance cyclists, each with their own motivation for riding the hard miles. With some, he cycles leisurely in tandem; with others, in lungbusting sprints; and with others still, in bedraggled pelotons. But then, this is no grand depart from the daily grind to the upper echelons of sport, for Otto is not in it for the competition - just the adventure of a lifetime. Northbound and Down isn't Ranulph Fiennes crossing Antarctica, or 'The Man Who Cycled the World'. It's more entertaining than that. Three months in North America, 100km a day on a bike. The places, the people, the misadventures of the journey. Like a Bill Bryson book if Bill stayed out of the pub once in a while. The local wildlife in the northern frontier. The moose, the bears, the refugees from 'The Lower 48' states. The characters in cowboy country. People who defy any stereotype of heartland America, and those who definitely don't. Down the Pacific Coast, redwood forests, hippie surf towns, mansions and homeless camps. Californian plastic perfection and the weirdness of the American dream. The preparation for cycling 5,000 miles was questionable at best. The furthest Otto had ridden before landing in Anchorage was from London to Brighton. He rode through a golf course and along a motorway, did laps of Gatwick airport and rolled into Brighton two hours late, ready for bed. He learned how to fix a puncture from YouTube and discovered that not all Porsche drivers are dickheads. Otto's touring skills start from a low base. The steep learning curve and daily struggles with reality on the road bring humour to the book. The challenge and the shared experience with people along the way leads to a lasting sense of the rewards of adventure. Otto's motivations for embarking on this adventure were relatable ones. He was bored at work, too old to get wasted in every hostel in Latin America and too poor for a proper mid-life crisis. This is the story of a normal guy breaking out of the daily grind. Cheryl Strayed's 'Wild', but inspired by a struggle against a life on autopilot rather than a life collapsing. A whole middle class, middle career and middle fulfilled generation is in a similar position. They are searching for inspiration. Northbound and Down gives them a taste of this, without having to miss a mortgage payment. Northbound and Down is the everyman's take on breaking the everyday.

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Freedom Is an Endless Meeting offers vivid portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on meticulous research and more than one hundred interviews with activists, Francesca Polletta challenges the conventional wisdom that participatory democracy is worthy in purpose but unworkable in practice. Instead, she shows that social movements have often used bottom-up decision making as a powerful tool for political change.Polletta traces the history of democracy in early labor struggles and pre-World War II pacifism, in the civil rights, new left, and women's liberation movements of the sixties and seventies, and in today's faith-based organizing and anti-corporate globalization campaigns. In the process, she uncovers neglected sources of democratic inspiration—Depression-era labor educators and Mississippi voting registration workers, among them—as well as practical strategies of social protest. But Freedom Is an Endless Meeting also highlights the obstacles that arise when activists model their democracies after familiar nonpolitical relationships such as friendship, tutelage, and religious fellowship. Doing so has brought into their deliberations the trust, respect, and caring typical of those relationships. But it has also fostered values that run counter to democracy, such as exclusivity and an aversion to rules, and these have been the fault lines around which participatory democracies have often splintered. Indeed, Polletta attributes the fragility of the form less to its basic inefficiency or inequity than to the gaps between activists' democratic commitments and the cultural models on which they have depended to enact those commitments. The challenge, she concludes, is to forge new kinds of democratic relationships, ones that balance trust with accountability, respect with openness to disagreement, and caring with inclusiveness.For anyone concerned about the prospects for democracy in America, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting will offer abundant historical, theoretical, and practical insights. "This is an excellent study of activist politics in the United States over the past century. . . . Assiduously researched, impressively informed by a great number of thoughtful interviews with key members of American social movements, and deeply engaged with its subject matter, the book is likely to become a key text in the study of grass-roots democracy in America."—Kate Fullbrook, Times Literary Supplement"Polletta's portrayal challenges the common assumption that morality and strategy are incompatible, that those who aim at winning must compromise principle while those who insist on morality are destined to be ineffective. . . . Rather than dwell on trying to explain the decline of 60s movements, Polletta shows how participatory democracy has become the guiding framework for many of today's activists."—Richard Flacks, Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Freedom Is an Endless Meeting, Francesca Polletta has produced a remarkable work of historical sociology. . . . She provides the fullest theoretical work of historical sociology. . . . She provides the fullest theoretical picture of participatory democracy, rich with nuance, ambiguity, and irony, that this reviewer has yet seen. . . . This wise book should be studied closely by both academics and by social change activists."—Stewart Burns, Journal of American History

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***Unmissable, hilarious and kind, this is the first novel from Kathryn Wallace, who blogs as I Know, I Need to Stop Talking***"SAM! AVA! Get downstairs, NOW. Have you done your TEETH? HAIR? SHOES? Come on, come on, come on, we're going to be bastarding late again. No, I haven't seen Lego Optimus Prime, and nor do I give a shit about his whereabouts. Sam, will you stop winding your sister up and take this model of the Shard that I painstakingly sat up and created for you last night so that I wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. I mean, so that you wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. No, it doesn't smell of 'dirty wine'. Well, maybe it does a little bit. Look, Sam, I haven't got time to argue. Just hold your nose and get in the car, okay? AVA! TEETH! HAIR! SHOES!" Gemma is only just holding it together - she's a single parent, she's turning 40 and her seven-year-old daughter has drawn a cruelly accurate picture which locates Gemma's boobs somewhere around her knees. So when her new next-door neighbour, Becky, suggests that Gemma should start dating again, it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh in her face. But Becky is very persuasive and before long Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world. Not only that, but Gemma has to manage her attraction to her daughter's teacher, Tom, who has swapped his life in the City for teaching thirty six to seven year olds spelling, grammar, basic fractions - and why it's not ok to call your classmate a stinky poo-bum...It's going to be a long year - and one in which Gemma and Becky will learn a really crucial lesson: that in the end, being a good parent is just about being good enough.Readers love this hilarious, fast paced slice of family life:***** Utterly hysterical - NetGalley Reader***** Brilliant... Funny, touching and modern... just amazing - NetGalley Reader***** I have been a mum at the school gates and the observations in this book are spot on. I shall be recommending it to all the school mums I know - NetGalley Reader**** A perfect read to snort with laughter over whilst lying in a bath with a glass of bubbles (if you can get the kids to stay out of the bathroom for long enough)! - NetGalley Reader**** Kathryn Wallace has Absolutely Smashed It with this novel. I loved it and couldn't put it down... had me properly laughing out loud several times - NetGalley Reader**** This will make you giggle about life as a parent where we are all spinning plates of different sizes and at different speeds. I would recommend wholeheartedly to fellow friends who are also spinning their own plates! - NetGalley Reader***** A hilariously, honest, open, recognisable and highly relatable story - NetGalley Reader***** A light hearted but honest look at mummies, yummy mummies and can't quite manage everything mummies - NetGalley Reader

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Hogarth’s Britons explores how the English painter and graphic satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764) set out to define British nationhood and identity at a time of division at home and conflict abroad. With notions of community cohesion, good citizenship and patriotism, wrapped up in a unifying idea of British national character and spirit in all its variety, and set alongside the ongoing national debate on Britain’s past, present and future within European and World affairs, Hogarth and his art has never been more relevant.In the summer of 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ landed with his supporters, the ‘Jacobites’, in a remote corner of Scotland. This signalled the start of his audacious military campaign, with the backing of Britain’s global adversary France andduring a Europe-wide war, to topple the Hanoverian, Protestant monarch George II and restore the Catholic Stuarts, exiled in France and then Rome since 1688, to the throne. The country descended into turmoil, with regional, local and family loyalty for these rival royal dynasties severely tested, and opposing visions for the new nation of Great Britain – since the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 – laid bare. By early December the prince and his 6,000 troops arrived in Derby, just 120 miles and five days’ march from London. For both sides everything was at stake.From the 1720s, through the crises of the early 1740s, to the civil war called the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion or Rising, Prince Charles’s defeat at Culloden in April 1746 and beyond, Hogarth created some of the most iconic images in British and European art, including Marriage A-La-Mode, O the Roast Beef of Old England (The Gate of Calais) and The March of the Guards to Finchley. Through such vibrant scenes, rich in topical commentary, he conveyed a sense of external threat (real and imagined) from foreign powers and internal political, social and cultural upheaval. At the same time he offered his fellow Britons a confident, reassuring idea of the rights and liberties they enjoyed under King George and his government: a flawed status quo, as Hogarth would readily admit, yet certainly better, he would argue, than the regime that would replace it under the ‘popish’ Stuarts as client monarchs of the self-serving French king, Louis XV.With British society and politics in flux, and the Union between Scotland and England arguably more vulnerable now than at any moment since 1746, the themes explored in Hogarth’s Britons have profound resonance with our own time.

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The epidemic is running rampant. How do you tackle the ever growing spread of low engagement inside companies? How do you build a company, let alone a successful company, with employees that just don’t really care? With employees who seem to only care about paycheck? Has your company’s journey been worth it all this time? Architecting A Company of Owners provides wisdom-filled instruction on how business owners and corporate leaders can rebuild the foundation of their company in evolutionary, powerful, and easy-to-follow steps, creating a company no longer made up of employees, but of fellow owners. Daren Martin reveals the steps it takes to build a company and workplace culture where everyone at the company acts like an owner. When your entire team acts like owners, incredible growth can occur at your company resulting in high employee satisfaction and engagement, the ability to attract and retain top talent, increase productivity and profitability, resulting in a true enterprise company and so much more. Architecting a Company of Owners is Daren Martin’s follow up to his Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling book, A Company of Owners: Maximizing Employee Engagement. Walking you through the four C’s of crafting an epic culture including, Call it by the Right Name, Craft it, Caste it, and Cultivate it. This enthralling strategic business management manual will be the elite ingredient for all businesses who no longer settle to just survive, but decide to thrive. Elaborating on years of practical experience with companies ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to small business enterprise “mom-and-pop” establishments, Dr. Martin shows once again with a delicate and impressive balance of sting and composure that he is The Culture Architect— capable of introducing changes to your organization’s design that will ripple throughout your company’s profit margin. This book will wake you up to some uncomfortable truths about your organization’s behavior while providing the essential blueprints on how to rectify your organization’s culture and thus solidify your company’s foundation to the very core. The visual layout drives the message home with power and punch, making the counsel easy to grasp and implement for seasoned culture advocates as well as novices who want to transform their company culture from the ground up. This lightning quick read and visually appealing format make it easy to digest in a short amount of time while providing a lifetime of insights on crafting the right company culture for your organization. This book is full of edge, impact, humor, and lessons in and beyond the business world, guaranteed to jumpstart you and your company’s success. By the end of the read, you’ll wonder what you’ve been doing all this time and realize it’s time to level up and be an architect. An architect of a company of owners.

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To commemorate the journal’s quarter-century, this double issue consists of foundational pieces arranged in conversation with one another. Common Knowledge has opened lines of communication among schools of thought in the academy, as well as between the academy and the community of thoughtful people outside its walls, and the pages of the journal challenge the ways we think about scholarship and its relevance to humanity. Contributors to the issue include former presidents, prime ministers, and archbishops, along with winners of the Nobel Prize, Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, MacArthur Fellowship, International Balzan Prize, and Holberg International Prize. Contributors. M. H. Abrams, Edward Albee, Barry Allen, Wayne Andersen, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Marianna Birnbaum, Sir John Boardman, G. W. Bowersock, Aldo Buzzi, Caroline Walker Bynum, Anne Carson, William M. Chace, J. M. Coetzee, Cornelius Castoriadis, Stanley Cavell, Stuart Clark, Inga Clendinnen, Francis X. Clooney, Christopher Coker, Maria Conterno, Michael Cook, Lorraine Daston, Lydia Davis, Natalie Zemon Davis, Thibault De Meyer, Gunter Eich, Sir John H. Elliott, Caryl Emerson, Mikhail Epstein, Péter Esterházy, Roger Cardinal Etchegaray, Fang Lizhi, Paul Feyerabend, Michael Fried, Joseph Frank, Manfred Frank, Luis Garcia, Clifford Geertz, Carlo Ginzburg, Philip Gossett, Stephen Greenblatt, Thom Gunn, Jürgen Habermas, Ian Hacking, Václav Havel, Sir Edward Heath, Albert O. Hirschman, David Hollinger, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Miroslav Holub, Maya Jasanoff, Albert R. Jonsen, Stanley N. Katz, Hugh Kenner, Sir Anthony Kenny, Sir Frank Kermode, Jee Leong Koh, Joseph Leo Koerner, Yusef Komunyakaa, György Konrád, Bruce Krajewski, László Krasznahorkai, Anton O. Kris, Julia Kristeva, Bruno Latour, Ewa Lipska, Greil Marcus, Steven Marcus, Samuel Menashe, Adam Michnik, Jack Miles, Alexander Nehamas, Reviel Netz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jeffrey M. Perl, Marjorie Perloff, J. G. A. Pocock, W. V. Quine, Belle Randall, Nadja Reissland, Colin Richmond, Richard Rorty, Ingrid Rowland, Hanna Segal, Amartya Sen, Quentin Skinner, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, A. L. Snijders, Timothy Snyder, Susan Sontag, Isabelle Stengers, Wis?awa Szymborska, Miguel Tamen, G. Thomas Tanselle, Sir Keith Thomas, Stephen Toulmin, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Michiko Urita, Bas van Fraassen, Marina Vanzolini, Gianni Vattimo, Helen Vendler, Charlie Samua Veric, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Sir Bernard Williams, Lord (Rowan) Williams, H. R. Woudhuysen, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Santiago Zabala

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Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach chose a life of hardship and freedom in Texas rather than a life of comfort and influence in his native Germany, where he had lived his formative years within a framework of unconstitutional government. In 1845 the young liberal relinquished his hereditary German title, left behind his close family ties and his various intellectual and political associations, and arrived in Texas as John O. Meusebach, commissioner-general for the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants. His background enabled him to assume an enlightened leadership of fellow immigrants who were pouring in from Germany. Lacking adequate financial backing, he nevertheless led the settling of some five thousand people in a land that was largely occupied by Indians. Irene Marschall King presents the full sweep of Meusebach's vigorous life: Meusebach as the young liberal in Germany, as the colonizer in the 1840s, as a Texas senator and, later, an observer of the Civil War, and as a Texan who devoted his later years to bringing the Texas soil to fruition—all set against a background of the immigration movement and frontier life. "Freedom is not free; it is costly," Meusebach believed. In Texas he found for himself and others freedom worth the price he paid. Rich in historic detail, King's story recounts the founding of Fredericksburg, the crippling effect of the Mexican War upon the mass of immigrants huddled in illness on the coast, the signing of the Indian Treaty, which opened to settlement over three million acres of land, and the final collapse of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants. Also depicted is the colonists' influence on the land—the gardens and orchards of south central Texas, the "Easter Fires" that blaze on the hills surrounding Fredericksburg, the mixture of German custom with American necessity that created a unique culture. Throughout the narrative Mrs. King presents a fascinating cast of characters: the noble Prince Solms, who tries to establish a German military outpost in Texas; Henry Fisher, who attempts by devious methods to control the colonists and their land and finally incites a mob which tries to hang Meusebach; Philip Cappes, a special commissioner and Meusebach's assistant, who plots through intriguing correspondence with Count Castell, the executive secretary in Germany, to overthrow Meusebach; and the colorful and courageous Indian fighter and Texas Ranger, Colonel Jack Hays. Primarily, however, this is the story of a man who found strength in his family's motto, "Perseverance in Purpose," and gave of his energies to build Texas.

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In this moving account of the life, work, and ethics of four Jewish women intellectuals in the world of the Holocaust, Rachel Feldhay Brenner explores the ways in which these women sought to maintain their faith in humanity while aware of intensifying destruction. She argues that through their written responses of autobiographical self-assertion, Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Anne Frank, and Etty Hillesum resisted the Nazi terror in ways that defy its horrifying dehumanization.Personal identity crises engendered the intellectual-spiritual acts of autobiographical self-searching for each of these women. About to become a nun in 1933, Edith Stein embarked on her autobiography as a daughter of a Jewish family. Fleeing France and deportation in 1942, Simone Weil examined her inner struggle with faith and the Church in her "Spiritual Autobiography." Hiding for more than two years in the attic, Anne Frank poignantly confided in her diary about her efforts to become a better person. Having volunteered as a social worker in Westerbork, Etty Hillesum searched her soul for love in the reality of terror. In each case, autobiographical writing becomes an act of defiance that asserts humanity in a dehumanized/dehumanizing world.By focusing on the four women's accomplishments as intellectuals, writers, and thinkers, Brenner's account liberates them from other posthumous treatments that depict them as symbols of altruism, sanctity, and victimization. Her approach also elucidates the particular predicament of Western Jewish intellectuals who trusted the ideals of the Enlightenment and believed in human fellowship. While suffering the terror of physical annihilation decreed by the Final Solution, these Jews had to contend with their exclusion from the world that they considered theirs. On yet another level, this study of four extraordinary life stories contributes to a deeper understanding of the postwar development of ethical, theological, and feminist thought. In showing concern about a world that had ceased to care for them, Stein, Weil, Frank, and Hillesum demonstrated that the meaning of human existence consisted in the responsibility for the other, in the protection of the suffering God, in the primary value of relatedness through empathy. Arguing that their ethical tenets anticipated the thought of such postwar thinkers as Levinas, Fackenheim, Tillich, Arendt, and Nodding, Brenner proposes that the breakup of the humanist tradition of the Enlightenment in the Holocaust engendered the postwar exploration of humanist potential in self-givenness to the other.

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‘Absolutely loved this book from start to finish, I couldn’t put it down' ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader ReviewWhile the men are off fighting, the women keep the country moving…July 1914: Britain is in turmoil as WW1 begins to change the world. While the young men disappear off to foreign battlefields, the women left at home throw themselves into jobs meant for the boys.Hiding her privileged background and her suffragette past, Constance Copeland signs up to be a Clippie - collecting money and giving out tickets - on the trams in Staffordshire, despite her parents’ disapproval.Constance, now known as Connie, soon finds there is more to life than the wealth she was born into and she soon makes fast friends with lively fellow Clippies, Betty and Jean, as well as growing closer to the charming, gentle Inspector Robert Caldwell.But Connie is haunted by another secret; and if it comes out, it could destroy her new life.After war ends and the men return to take back their roles, will Connie find that she can return to her previous existence? Or has she been changed forever by seeing a new world through the tram windows?A captivating, lively, romantic saga set in WW1 that will engross fans of Johanna Bell and Jenny Holmes.Readers are loving Connie's story:‘Absolutely loved this book from start to finish, I couldn’t put it down…A great historical fiction read that has you wanting to finish the book to see how all their lives turn out. Loved it!’ ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader Review‘A wonderful WWI-era historical fiction novel that I truly, truly enjoyed…I look forward to what Ms. Johnson has in store for readers next.’ ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader Review‘Set around World War One, it shows the grit the women of the war had to endure…well written and enjoyable.’ ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader Review‘I enjoyed reading this book because I learned a lot about women during the first world war…There was sadness in the story but happiness and hope for the future. I do recommend that you read this book.’ ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader Review‘I thoroughly enjoyed this story that captured the war, suffragette movement, class and working on the trams. I became embroiled in Connie's life and couldn't wait to see what happened next.’ Reader Review‘A wonderful book and highly recommended.’ ☆☆☆☆☆ Reader Review‘Historical Fiction and General Fiction readers ought to pick up this charming book.’ Reader Review‘An appealing story, with well-drawn characters…To be with Connie on her journey makes a thoroughly satisfying read.’ Reader ReviewReaders love Lynn Johnson's captivating WW1 sagas: ‘an emotional, captivating read which is perfect for anyone who loves a good saga!’ Over The Rainbow Book BlogA poignant, emotional and heart-wrenching read…best read with a box of tissues handy’ Bookish Jottings‘This truly was a fabulous story from beginning to end and I struggled to put it down!... richly detailed, beautifully written and the storyline along with the characters was enthralling’ Rose is Reading‘heartwarmingand emotional...If you enjoy historical fiction, this is definitely a book to read!’ Jessica Belmont Book Reviews‘An excellent historical fiction that had me compulsively turning the pages.’ Books and Bookends‘Overall, I loved it. There were lots of moments that made me gasp and others that almost made me cry, and then there were those that made me smile and sigh.’ Jess Bookish Life‘Johnson has a Cookson flair…she does capture the heart and soul of her characters.’ Cheryl M-M Book Reviews

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**The Times and Sunday Times Books of the Year 2020****The Times Best Biography Audiobook of the Year 2021**'Vickers gives breathing, alarming life to a woman who puzzled and thrilled her contemporaries'SUNDAY TIMES 'Best Paperbacks of 2021''A continuously astonishing and ultimately moving account of a unique figure, the stuff of great literature' Simon Callow, SUNDAY TIMES'Gripping . . . jaw-dropping story, brilliantly told' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, THE TIMES'Mr. Vickers, with his sharp eye for detail, splendidly captures the drama of Gladys's life and the amazing cast of characters she encountered' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'This biography is truly wonderful - a masterclass in storytelling'SUNDAY TIMES'The most extraordinary, rackety life' William Boyd, DAILY TELEGRAPH'Richly anecdotal and oddly captivating' Miranda Seymour, FINANCIAL TIMES'At the end of the book the reader can only say, "Whew! What a story!"' Anne de Courcy, SPECTATOR'Hugo Vickers's life of Gladys Marlborough is an extraordinary and tragic story, with special resonance today' EVENING STANDARD*******************One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled and puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved.Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, Gladys emerged from a traumatic childhood - her father having shot her mother's lover dead when Gladys was only eleven - to captivate and inspire some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Epoque. Marcel Proust wrote of her, 'I never saw a girl with such beauty, such magnificent intelligence, such goodness and charm.' Berenson considered marrying her, Rodin and Monet befriended her, Boldini painted her and Epstein sculpted her. She inspired love from diverse Dukes and Princes, and the interest of women such as the Comtesse Greffulhe and Gertrude Stein.In 1921, when Gladys was forty, she achieved the wish she had held since the age of fourteen to marry the 9th Duke of Marlborough, then freshly divorced from fellow American Consuelo Vanderbilt. Gladys's circle now included Lady Ottoline Morrell, Lytton Strachey and Winston Churchill, who described her as 'a strange, glittering being'. But life at Blenheim was not a success: when the Duke evicted her in 1933, the only remaining signs of Gladys were two sphinxes bearing her features on the west terraces and mysterious blue eyes in the grand portico. She became a recluse, and the wax injections she'd had to straighten her nose when she was 22 had by now ravaged her beauty. Gladys was to spend her last years in the psycho-geriatric ward of a mental hospital, where she was discovered by a young Hugo Vickers.Intrigued and compelled to unmask the truth of her mysterious life, Vickers visited her over the course of two years, eventually publishing Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough, a biography of her life - and his first book - in 1979, two years after Gladys's death. Forty years on, Vickers has now completely rewritten and revised his original biography, updating it with previously unavailable material and drawing on his own personal research all over Europe and America. He once asked Gladys, 'Where is Gladys Deacon?' She answered him slowly, 'Gladys Deacon? . . . She never existed.' The Sphinx is a fascinating portrait of this elusive but brilliant woman who was at the centre of a now bygone era of wealth and privilege - and a tribute to one of the brightest stars of her age.

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Change is inevitable. This is the only constant in our lives. Yet, change is also something that we fear. We seek comfort in the familiar, in routines and in conventions. We are afraid of things that we don't know or we don’t understand. We fear change because we don’t know how change will affect us. Change, however, is necessary for progress. Sometimes, change happens naturally due to circumstances beyond our control, and sometimes we initiate change because we can or because we must. In 2020, we experienced the biggest change of our lifetimes. For a brief moment in history, the world came to a halt. Then, everything changed. Many things that we used to take for granted no longer applied. We experienced major disruptions to our daily lives. As if in some kind of perfect storm, so many things happened all at once – global pandemic, social inequalities, climate change, racial injustices, riots and unrests, gender struggles and rapid advances of new technologies. This book started to take shape in the midst of it all, and in a way, it is a time capsule of how we experienced the birth of what became known as the 'new normal'. Designers are the kind of people who thrive in times of change. In fact, it is their job to create change. The nature of their job is such that they have to take an existing situation and change it into a better, or a more preferred situation. Some do this by relying on their imagination and personal experiences, and some use evidence-based research to inform their work. Regardless of this, many share the belief that they can somehow make the world a better place – on a micro or a macro level. During this period of massive change, Gjoko Muratovski invited ten highly influential design figures – including iconic design leaders such as Carole Bilson, Karim Rashid, Bruce Mau, Steven Heller and Don Norman – to reflect on the state of things today. In return, each one of them shares a highly personal account on why change is good. The book also features a foreword written by the president of the World Design Organisation (WDO), Srini Srinisavan, and a conclusion by one of the greatest design philosophers of our time, Ken Friedman. By looking to the past and reflecting on the present, these designers project very personal images of the future that they would like to see. The conversations are very broad, and they cover highly diverse topics. From the effects of the pandemic, to issues of race and gender, notions of beauty, technology and industry, to global and local economies, politics, power, privilege and the importance of community. A 'must-read' for anyone interested in how designers and design can change the world. Gjoko Muratovski is a university executive, award-winning designer and innovation consultant working with leading organisations, Fortune 500 companies and governments from around the world, and a fellow of the Design Research Society.

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***Unmissable, hilarious and kind, this is the first novel from Kathryn Wallace, who blogs as I Know, I Need to Stop Talking***"SAM! AVA! Get downstairs, NOW. Have you done your TEETH? HAIR? SHOES? Come on, come on, come on, we're going to be bastarding late again. No, I haven't seen Lego Optimus Prime, and nor do I give a shit about his whereabouts. Sam, will you stop winding your sister up and take this model of the Shard that I painstakingly sat up and created for you last night so that I wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. I mean, so that you wouldn't be in trouble with your teacher. No, it doesn't smell of 'dirty wine'. Well, maybe it does a little bit. Look, Sam, I haven't got time to argue. Just hold your nose and get in the car, okay? AVA! TEETH! HAIR! SHOES!" Gemma is only just holding it together - she's a single parent, she's turning 40 and her seven-year-old daughter has drawn a cruelly accurate picture which locates Gemma's boobs somewhere around her knees. So when her new next-door neighbour, Becky, suggests that Gemma should start dating again, it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh in her face. But Becky is very persuasive and before long Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world. Not only that, but Gemma has to manage her attraction to her daughter's teacher, Tom, who has swapped his life in the City for teaching thirty six to seven year olds spelling, grammar, basic fractions - and why it's not ok to call your classmate a stinky poo-bum...It's going to be a long year - and one in which Gemma and Becky will learn a really crucial lesson: that in the end, being a good parent is just about being good enough.Readers love this hilarious, fast paced slice of family life:***** Utterly hysterical - NetGalley Reader***** Brilliant... Funny, touching and modern... just amazing - NetGalley Reader***** I have been a mum at the school gates and the observations in this book are spot on. I shall be recommending it to all the school mums I know - NetGalley Reader**** A perfect read to snort with laughter over whilst lying in a bath with a glass of bubbles (if you can get the kids to stay out of the bathroom for long enough)! - NetGalley Reader**** Kathryn Wallace has Absolutely Smashed It with this novel. I loved it and couldn't put it down... had me properly laughing out loud several times - NetGalley Reader**** This will make you giggle about life as a parent where we are all spinning plates of different sizes and at different speeds. I would recommend wholeheartedly to fellow friends who are also spinning their own plates! - NetGalley Reader***** A hilariously, honest, open, recognisable and highly relatable story - NetGalley Reader***** A light hearted but honest look at mummies, yummy mummies and can't quite manage everything mummies - NetGalley Reader

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Tom Smith used to be somebody. Now he's just another refugee, fleeing the smoking ruins of civilization. Well, maybe not just another refugee. Late of the Bank of the Americas where he used to be the global managing director for Security, Tom and his fellow survivors watched New York City burn. His plan to the save New York long enough to find a cure for the zombie virus hadn't survived the bloody scrimmage between angry cops, cunning gangsters, and rapacious City officials. Now only millions of infected humans, driven mad by the high infectious tailored rabies virus, inhabited the city. But Tom and some trusted allies were able to stay one step ahead and escaped offshore. Now they're holed up in a safe house in coastal Virginia and it's time to breakout. Between him and his objective, one of the bank's prepared evacuation camps in the Cumberland Valley, are hundreds of miles of clogged roads, burnt-out towns and howling mobs of infected humans who know only hunger. He must corral his motley team, complete with middle-schoolers, to navigate the treacherous landscape. And yet he feels his odds are good. But there's always someone smarter. And they like things just the way they are. Without a fat checkbook and the team of hired spec-ops mercenaries it used to bring, how will Tom Smith fend off entrepreneurial marauders, a brilliant sociopath or two and a kill-count hungry member of the E-4 mafia? And if he pulls it off, no one is sure how they will they re-start civilization. But Tom Smith has the spark of an idea. About Black Tide Rising: “. . . an entertaining batch of . . . action-packed tales. Certainly, fans of Ringo’s particular brand of action-adventure will be pleased.”—Booklist "This anthology broadens Ringo’s Black Tide world, serving up doses of humanity amid the ravenous afflicted. Comedy has a place in this harsh reality, and these stories stir adventure and emotion at a frantic clip throughout. Zombie fiction fans will be thrilled."—Library Journal About the Black Tide Rising Series: “Not only has Ringo found a mostly unexplored corner of the zombie landscape, he's using the zombie frame to tackle a broader theme: the collapse and rebirth of civilization. The zombie scenes are exciting, sure, but its the human story that keeps us involved. A fine series.”—Booklist About Under a Graveyard Sky: “Ringo combines humor and horror in this strong series debut, the thinking reader’s zombie novel.”—Publishers Weekly About John Ringo: “[Ringo’s work is] peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse.”—Library Journal “. . . Explosive. . . . fans. . .will appreciate Ringo’s lively narrative and flavorful characters.”—Publishers Weekly “. . .practically impossible not to read in one sitting . . . exceedingly impressive . . . executed with skill, verve, and wit.”—Booklist “Crackerjack storytelling.”—Starlog BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES: Under a Graveyard Sky To Sail a Darkling Sea Islands of Rage and Hope Strands of Sorrow Black Tide Rising The Valley of Shadows

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Featuring the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Belle is an enthralling adventure through three hundred years of art! Belle, a painted butterfly, has been quietly hovering over a beautiful white poppy in a seventeenth-century Dutch painting that has been her home for three hundred years. Suddenly and unexpectedly there is a sudden whoosh of air and she finds herself flying out of her picture into the void So begins the adventures of Belle, the red admiral butterfly in Jan Davidsz de Heem's Vase of Flowers. Accidentally dislodged, when her painting was being taken by museum staff to be examined by the Conservation Department, Belle and her sidekick Brimstone, a fellow butterfly who was ejected from the painting at the same time, must find their way back home. When their painting rolls into an elevator without them, their journey through the art museum begins. Because they are made of paint, they discover that they can blend into any of the other paintings in the museum, no matter what the subject or period. The characters travel through the museum galleries, morphing into and out of paintings by multiple artists and in many styles, while searching for their home painting. At the same time they must avoid becoming lunch for a painted bird in hot pursuit after being inadvertently released from another painting by an awkward bump from Brimstone! Belle and Brimstone tell their story as it happens with all the scary encounters and comic incidents that have them hiding out in unlikely places in the paintings they encounter. They dash and dart as the predatory bird flies after them, chasing them from room to room. Successful and safe in the end Brimstone is up for more adventures. Belle is not so sure! Maybe it will be safer if they stay put in their painting from now on. Can you find them? While the story is an adventure story written for young readers it will also enchant younger listeners. Featuring the collection of the National Gallery of Art, this tale is a fanciful romp through three hundred years of art history, inviting young people to delve into the world of art through the paintings of de Heem, Vermeer, Chardin, Goya, Rembrandt, Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, Mary Cassatt, Renoir, Monet, Tissot, Picasso, Derain, Marc, Matisse, Georgia O'keeffe, Rothko, Pollock, Lichtenstein and many others. As an added bonus Belle has taken the trouble to create Belle's Amazing, Astonishingly Magical Journal and illustrated it with her comments on each painting and ideas on where to hide when being chased! Let Belle and Brimstone be your guides and docents and mind out for that Bird! Mary Lee Corlett, an art historian and research associate at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., owes her love of art to her father, whose mechanical drawings and plans always seemed magical to her as a child, and to an inspired teacher who introduced her to the wonderful ideas and concepts that underlie all great art. As a child she drew and painted but later when, thinking she would like to teach art, she enrolled in college and attended studio art classes and studied education, she discovered that the art history classes were more exciting than her own studio work. Her first job after collecting her BA was as a teaching assistant in the Education department at the Cleveland Museum of Art, doing art projects in Mini-Masters classes of 4-5 year olds. She then moved to Washington and worked at the National Portrait Gallery before assuming her current position. She still draws and paints but her daughter has forsaken paint brush and easel for flute and music stand. They still visit the galleries together and walk through all the amazing, astonishing and magical rooms full of wonderful paintings and sculptures just to check that Belle and Brimstone are safe and sound! Phyllis Saroff is a professional artist who can't remember when she didn't draw pictures. Inspired in First Grade by an older girl drawing pictures for a story she had written Phyllis started to illustrate her own stories. Her father would bring home large stacks of used accordion-fold computer paper from his lab. It was printed on one side with his equations, and the other side was blank. The blank side was Phyllis' side. He let her leave her drawings all over the house, on the coffee table, the dining room table and the kitchen table. His daughter only had to get them out of the way to set the table for dinner. He thought each drawing was a masterpiece; each one greater than the last. He bought art supplies for every birthday and when she was eleven he bought her a small drafting table which she still uses in her studio. She now sells her paintings in galleries and illustrates books for a living and her 97 year-old father still thinks every one of her drawings is a masterpiece.

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A landmark work of bio-romanticism, Mephistos and Other Poems is the first completely new collection in five years from legendary Beat and SF Renaissance poet Michael McClure, reflecting his interests in mammal consciousness and ecological survival. The title sequence stems from McClure's ongoing "grafting" experiment, growing new poems from fragments of previously ones. "Some Fringes" is a series of haiku-like nature poems, while the seventeen-part "Rose Breaths" derives from the poet's practice of meditation. The freestanding poems grouped under the title "Being" pay homage to many of McClure's collaborators and fellow travelers like Bruce Conner, Terry Riley, and Dave Haselwood. The book climaxes with "Song Heavy," recounting McClure's recent encounter with a beached whale in Rockport, Massachusetts, and recalling his classic "For the Death of 100 Whales," which he read at the Six Gallery in 1955--the inaugural moment of American eco-poetics. Michael McClure is an award-winning American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving from Kansas to San Francisco as a young man, he was one of the five poets who participated in the Six Gallery reading that featured the public debut of Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem "Howl." A key figure of the Beat Generation, McClure is immortalized as Pat McLear in Jack Kerouac's novels The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. He also participated in the sixties counterculture alongside musicians like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. McClure remains active as a poet, essayist, and playwright and lives with his second wife, Amy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michael and I have been twisting the Dharma for twenty years now. He reads his poetry like a mad lion or a hummingbird or a soft evening tidal pool or a wild California thunderstorm...His words are of a new realm of love and joy and terror. What a pleasure to play with such a perceptive artist. It's always been my great joy to make music to his words."--Ray Manzarek [C]ertainly a genius in thought and writing it out ...McClure is one of the few contemporaries to have understood Kerouac as a literary poet--and learned some joyous classic invention therefrom ...Thus we have a McClure poet, a McClure natural philosopher, and a McClure prosateur and novelist. Hardly anyone in America with equal range and sharpness, liveness. What more?"--Allen Ginsberg Praise for Mephistos: In Mephistos we are again thrown into Michael McClure's lavish lair of forceful magic. Its actions are literal ones, handfuls of jewels disintegrate as a firewall rises to a solid prism. There is no poet more adept at calling forth the elements, only to fashion them later as eternal amulets for his readers. 'NEW MOON ((BLACK!)) /STAR CLOUDS/ HALOES/ Flashlight reflects/ into two small eyes.' You will find your body changed through the labyrinth these poems initiate."--Cedar Sigo "Close attention will be rewarded in kind. Keep Mephisto near at hand, read only a poem or two at a time, let the imagery possess you. It's okay, you can trust it. It's McClure: he'll never steer you wrong."--Robert Hunter, lyricist, poet, songwriter "He is such a sweet paradox! Like most of Shelley and the late poems of D.H. Lawrence, McClure turns the phenomenal world inside out, seeking Mind within mind."--Diane di Prima, poet "If you've enjoyed McClure's writings in the past, this volume ought to recapture your poetic heart and rekindle your imagination." --Jonah Raskin, New York Journal of Books "Mephistos is perhaps an open love letter to all of McClure's many fans who have followed him ever since he arrived in San Francisco from Kansas City more than half a century ago."--San Francisco Chronicle

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In Working Class Heroines acclaimed historian Kevin C. Kearns brings us the voices of the forgotten women of Dublin’s tenements. If it weren’t for his work the lives of these everyday heroines would be lost forever. Based on 30 years of research spent interviewing and recording the life stories of the working-class women of Dublin, it covers the squalid tenement days of the early 1900s, through the mid-century decades of ‘slumland’ block flats, and into the 1970s when deadly drugs infiltrated poor neighbourhoods, terrifying mothers and stealing away their children. What emerges is an intimate and poignant celebration of the mammies and grannies who held the fabric of family life in an environment of hardship and, often, cruelty. Through vivid tales of how they coped with grinding poverty, huge families, pitiless landlords, the oppressive Church, dictatorial priests, feckless and often abusive husbands, these remarkable women shine with astonishing dignity, wit, pride and a resilient spirit, despite their struggles. Working Class Heroines gives voice and pays tribute to the long silent, unsung heroines who were the indispensable caretakers of both family and community, and remains one of the most important Irish feminist documents of our times. “The ordinary woman has long been absent from our national narrative. I think we should be grateful that Working Class Heroines exists, and we can benefit now from listening to these voices.’ Ellen Coyne, The Sunday Times “Those of us who know and love Dublin owe Kearns a huge debt". Roddy Doyle Praise for Kevin Kearns’ other unique oral histories of Dublin The Legendary “Lugs” Branigan: Ireland’s Most Famed Garda ‘A revealing portrait not just of a passionate and dedicated public figure, but also of a society undergoing great and constant change.’ The Irish Independent Ireland’s Arctic Siege: The Big Freeze of 1947 This story might have come from some Polar Expedition. It is almost unbelievable that such conditions could exist in Ireland.’ The Irish Times The Bombing of Dublin’s North Strand, 1941: The Untold Story ‘What shines through is the courage and goodness of ordinary people, untrained for such catastrophe, in their attempts to save and help their fellow Dubliners.’ The Irish Times Dublin Tenement Life: An Oral History ‘Among the finest books ever written about Dublin.’ The Sunday Tribune ‘This is truly an admirable book, capturing echoes of a vanished world. It is only by reading this book that I was enabled to re-imagine the society which the respondents recalled to Kevin Kearns during what must have been many hundreds of hours of patient interviewing.’ The Irish Times ‘This book will long stand as the definitive social history of Ireland’s gulags, where the poor were herded together in conditions worse than animals and will hopefully serve as further inspiration to those who still campaign for decent housing for all our citizens.’ Joe Duffy ‘Those of us who know and love Dublin owe Kearns a huge debt.’ Roddy Doyle Dublin Voices: An Oral Folk History ‘This book is a goldmine of tiny details. The narrative voices that speak from every page of this book do so in an unfiltered language entirely their own.’ The Sunday Times

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PRAISE FOR Banking on Change "In this 140th Anniversary celebration book, The London Institute of Banking and Finance stick to their core function of educating us all, but especially aspirant bankers, on the role and concerns of (retail and commercial) banking in the UK. They have assembled a well-chosen group of practitioners from a range of professions to write clear and easily assimilable essays, no technical expertise required, on a wide variety of current banking issues. If you want to learn about the current practices and problems of UK retail banking, this book must be essential reading." —Charles Goodhart, emeritus professor of banking and finance at the London School of Economics "In this important book, a line from Bill Allen's contribution is key: 'Nobody can predict the ferocity of the gale of creative destruction' that faces the financial services sector. True; but if you read the many and varied contributions, you'll have a pretty good idea. Moreover, you'll understand how we (that is, bankers) got here – and what we should do to make the industry more competitive, fairer and more genuinely useful. It is a soup-to-nuts look at banking – from the early days of the Institute of Banking, through the go-go years of ifs, to a present and future that are likely to be dominated by technology. It is well-worth a long read." —Andrew Hilton, director, Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation "If you were to imagine what a book celebrating 140 years of financial knowledge might contain, you could not come up with a better selection than this. As well as a historic sweep – from no-tech to fintech, the decline of trust and the rise of competition – today's hot subjects are addressed, including sustainable investing, cultural diversity and digital identity. The cradle-to-grave nature of the industry is captured in pieces about financial education and pensions. And it's well written, setting the scene nicely for the next era." —Jane Fuller, Fellow of the Society of Investment Professionals Financial services are undergoing rapid, and potentially dramatic, change. What will happen in payments, in sustainable finance and in fintech? How can the industry boost financial inclusion and ensure that its workforce has the skills it needs to meet regulatory requirements and to compete with new entrants? Can trade finance rise to the challenge of underpinning global trade for all and help the developing world avoid "financial abandonment"? What do financial services need to do to protect our digital identities? Banking on Change provides insights by experts and influencers from across the financial services industry on these and other questions. Published to mark the 140th anniversary of The London Institute of Banking & Finance, this book is intended to be of lasting value to both students and professionals.

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The newly updated, abundantly illustrated Dermatology for Advanced Practice Clinicians: A Comprehensive Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment, 2nd Edition is your comprehensive, evidence-based guide to accurate and successful assessment, diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases. Focusing on the most common and most serious skin conditions, this expertly written guide offers essential dermatology knowledge for managing a broad range of conditions, while addressing all topics needed for certification exam study. With expert guidance on treating infections, lesions, wound care, inflammation, and more, this is the ideal foundation for both new and experienced advanced practice clinicians. Improve your diagnostic accuracy, dermatology knowledge and skills with evidence-based guidance for management: NEW and updated scientific evidence that supports correct diagnoses and treatment NEW organization – Sections and chapters grouped based on visual characteristics, anatomical location of condition, or by symptom or patient complaint More than 600 colorful, high-resolution photos that support prompt, accurate diagnoses Numerous charts, tables and detailed images followed by evidenced-based algorithms, pharmacologic management pearls, and NCAA guidelines for treatment of infections Practical support for everyday challenges – Clearly worded definitions and descriptions of common presentations Easy-to-follow format for those in primary care, but comprehensive enough for those in full-time dermatology Explains pathophysiology and patient management topics in easy-to-remember terms, including: Fundamentals - Structure and function of skin, exam approaches, morphology, dermatologic therapeutics, and photobiology, photoprotection and photodermatoses Skin Tumors - Pigmented lesions and melanoma, precancerous and nonmelanoma skin cancers, benign neoplasms Acne and related disorders Red and Scaly Disorders - Seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis, erythroderma, and others Infectious Skin Diseases - Superficial fungal and bacterial infections, viral infections, sexually transmitted disease, HIV and the skin Infestations, Stings and Bites Drugs, Hives and Angioedema - Adverse cutaneous drug reactions Inflammatory Skin Diseases – Treating blisters, inflammatory skin disease, vasculitis and purpura Specialized Skin Structures - Hair disorders; nail disorders; oral cavity, lips, gums, and tongue; genital dermatoses Childhood Skin Disorders Common Wound Care Procedures Chapter features include: Differential Diagnosis – Boxes featuring the most likely differential diagnoses Clinical Pearls – Highlighting key points from clinical experts on disease management, including pharmacology Skin Findings and Non-Skin Findings – Bullet points under Clinical Presentation Management and Patient Education – Bullet points containing prognosis and complications, patient education, follow-up, and referral and consultation topics About the Clinical Editors Margaret Bobonich, DNP, FNP-C, DCNP, FAANP, is Assistant Professor of the Department of Dermatology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, as well as Adjunct Faculty at Florida Atlantic University, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, and Director of the Dermatology Nurse Practitioner Residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center Cleveland, Ohio. Mary E. Nolen, ANP-BC, DCNP, is the founder of the Dermatology Nurse Practitioner Fellowship. She is currently Adjunct Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University, Lynn E. Connell School of Nursing in Boca Raton, Florida. Jeremy Honaker, PhD, MSN, FNP-C, CWOCN, DCNP, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Dermatology Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and is a nurse practitioner at University Hospitals of Cleveland Medical Center Department of Dermatology. Douglas DiRuggiero, DMSc, PA-C, is a certified physician’s assistant at the Skin Cancer & Cosmetic Dermatology Center in Rome, Georgia.

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Margery Kempe, a middle-class English housewife at the turn of the fifteenth century, was called to weep and to pray for her fellow Christians and to adopt an unconventional way of life. Separating herself from her husband and many children, she became a pilgrim travelling around England and as far away as Jerusalem. In old age, she dictated to scribes an autobiography that recounts her extraordinary intimacy with Christ as well as her intense, commotion-filled life. At first glance, she does not seem very saintly in character or disposition, and her spiritual experiences can easily appear to be extreme or egotistical. To appreciate and interpret Margery Kempe's life and spirituality properly, one must go beyond conventional categories of social and religious history. In Mystic and Pilgrim, Clarissa Atkinson does this from six perspectives: the character of Margery's autobiography, her mysticism and pilgrim way of life, her social and family environment, her relations with her church and its clergy, the tradition that shaped her piety, and the context of late medieval female sanctity. Margery's Book was shaped by the writings of famous holy women and by pressures on memory and motivation that come with age. The vocation that called Margery to mysticism and pilgrimage made her unusual, therefore open to suspicion. It required her to leave her husband and children, to dress in white (a color usually reserved for virgins), to go on pilgrimage as a way to participate in Christ's earthly life and death. It graced her with a conspicuous gift: tears she could not control or resist. Her domestic and social background (she came from a powerful merchant family) gave her the courage to persist in her strange vocation and unpopular way of life. She met scorn from most of her relatives, but found encouragement in Christ, the saints, and the representatives of the Church. During Margery's lifetime the Church displayed intense anxiety over the related issues of religious enthusiasm, discernment of spirits, and female visionaries. Yet many church officials, including Dame Julian of Norwich, advised Margery to accept what God sent her and judged her feelings to be "the work of the Holy Ghost." Having examined these aspects of Margery's life and piety, Atkinson goes on to make an original and significant contribution by explaining their specific spiritual context. It is in the tradition of affective piety and of late medieval female sanctity, she argues, that Margery's religious emotions and expressions can best be understood. From Anselm of Canterbury, through Francis of Assisi, to Nicolas Love, affective writers and preachers aimed to promote intense feelings. Principal among these were compassion and contrition. Margery incorporated these feelings in her own devotional life: identification with the human Christ, conspicuous humility inspired by Saint Francis, and "boistrous" emotion in sympathy with Mary grieving at the Cross. Against this background, the religious life of Margery Kempe seems neither aberrant nor even very unusual. Rather, it is her unique response to a tradition established by great saints. Among the saintly persons of late medieval Europe were many women: Catherine of Siena, Birgitta of Sweden, Joan of Arc, Julian of Norwich. They characteristically saw visions, communicated directly with God, found scribes or biographers who publicized their experiences. An increasing number of them were wives and mothers who struggled, like Margery, with the married state and eventually transcended it, becoming in effect "honorary" virgins through their holiness and by God's special favor. Traveling widely, speaking publicly, departing from traditional women's roles, these women were a new creation of the late Middle Ages.

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Margery Kempe, a middle-class English housewife at the turn of the fifteenth century, was called to weep and to pray for her fellow Christians and to adopt an unconventional way of life. Separating herself from her husband and many children, she became a pilgrim travelling around England and as far away as Jerusalem. In old age, she dictated to scribes an autobiography that recounts her extraordinary intimacy with Christ as well as her intense, commotion-filled life. At first glance, she does not seem very saintly in character or disposition, and her spiritual experiences can easily appear to be extreme or egotistical. To appreciate and interpret Margery Kempe's life and spirituality properly, one must go beyond conventional categories of social and religious history. In Mystic and Pilgrim, Clarissa Atkinson does this from six perspectives: the character of Margery's autobiography, her mysticism and pilgrim way of life, her social and family environment, her relations with her church and its clergy, the tradition that shaped her piety, and the context of late medieval female sanctity. Margery's Book was shaped by the writings of famous holy women and by pressures on memory and motivation that come with age. The vocation that called Margery to mysticism and pilgrimage made her unusual, therefore open to suspicion. It required her to leave her husband and children, to dress in white (a color usually reserved for virgins), to go on pilgrimage as a way to participate in Christ's earthly life and death. It graced her with a conspicuous gift: tears she could not control or resist. Her domestic and social background (she came from a powerful merchant family) gave her the courage to persist in her strange vocation and unpopular way of life. She met scorn from most of her relatives, but found encouragement in Christ, the saints, and the representatives of the Church. During Margery's lifetime the Church displayed intense anxiety over the related issues of religious enthusiasm, discernment of spirits, and female visionaries. Yet many church officials, including Dame Julian of Norwich, advised Margery to accept what God sent her and judged her feelings to be "the work of the Holy Ghost." Having examined these aspects of Margery's life and piety, Atkinson goes on to make an original and significant contribution by explaining their specific spiritual context. It is in the tradition of affective piety and of late medieval female sanctity, she argues, that Margery's religious emotions and expressions can best be understood. From Anselm of Canterbury, through Francis of Assisi, to Nicolas Love, affective writers and preachers aimed to promote intense feelings. Principal among these were compassion and contrition. Margery incorporated these feelings in her own devotional life: identification with the human Christ, conspicuous humility inspired by Saint Francis, and "boistrous" emotion in sympathy with Mary grieving at the Cross. Against this background, the religious life of Margery Kempe seems neither aberrant nor even very unusual. Rather, it is her unique response to a tradition established by great saints. Among the saintly persons of late medieval Europe were many women: Catherine of Siena, Birgitta of Sweden, Joan of Arc, Julian of Norwich. They characteristically saw visions, communicated directly with God, found scribes or biographers who publicized their experiences. An increasing number of them were wives and mothers who struggled, like Margery, with the married state and eventually transcended it, becoming in effect "honorary" virgins through their holiness and by God's special favor. Traveling widely, speaking publicly, departing from traditional women's roles, these women were a new creation of the late Middle Ages.

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Cutting-edge research by twenty-four international scholars on female power, agency, health, and literacy in ancient EgyptThere has been considerable scholarship in the last fifty years on the role of ancient Egyptian women in society. With their ability to work outside the home, inherit and dispense of property, initiate divorce, testify in court, and serve in local government, Egyptian women exercised more legal rights and economic independence than their counterparts throughout antiquity. Yet, their agency and autonomy are often downplayed, undermined, or outright ignored. In Women in Ancient Egypt twenty-four international scholars offer a corrective to this view by presenting the latest cutting-edge research on women and gender in ancient Egypt.Covering the entirety of Egyptian history, from earliest times to Late Antiquity, this volume commences with a thorough study of the earliest written evidence of Egyptian women, both royal and non-royal, before moving on to chapters that deal with various aspects of Egyptian queens, followed by studies on the legal status and economic roles of non-royal women and, finally, on women’s health and body adornment. Within this sweeping chronological range, each study is intensely focused on the evidence recovered from a particular site or a specific time-period. Rather than following a strictly chronological arrangement, the thematic organization of chapters enables readers to discern diachronic patterns of continuity and change within each group of women.· Clémentine Audouit, Paul Valery University, Montpellier, France· Anne Austin, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, USA· Mariam F. Ayad, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt· Romane Betbeze, Université de Genève, Switzerland, and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL, France· Anke Ilona Blöbaum, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany· Eva-Maria Engel, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany· Renate Fellinger, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK· Kathrin Gabler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland· Rahel Glanzmann, independent scholar, Basel, Switzerland. · Izold Guegan, Swansea University, UK, and Sorbonne University, Paris, France· Fayza Haikal, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt· Janet H. Johnson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Il, USA· Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of the Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland· Susan Anne Kelly, Macquarie University Sydney, Sydney, Australia· AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA· Suzanne Onstine, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA· José Ramón Pérez-Accino Picatoste, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain· Tara Sewell-Lasater, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA· Yasmin El Shazly, American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt· Reinert Skumsnes, Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway· Isabel Stünkel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA· Inmaculada Vivas Sainz, National Distance Education University), Madrid, Spain· Hana Vymazalová, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czeck Republic· Jacquelyn Williamson, George Mason University, Fairfax, Viriginia, USA· Annik Wüthrich, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, Austria

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In this issue, we remember the enormous contribution of Jim Bouton, pictured on the cover in a portrait by artist Gary Cieradkowski. Throughout baseball’s hidebound history, rebels and mavericks have emerged to challenge the status quo in the sport and the wider society, none more so than Bouton. His book Ball Four ultimately changed baseball, the sports media, and American literature. During his playing days, Bouton spoke out against the Vietnam War, South African apartheid, the exploitation of players by greedy owners, and the casual racism of the teams and his fellow players. When his baseball career ended, he continued to use his celebrity as a platform against social injustice. Fifty years after Ball Four’s publication and now two years after Bouton’s death, Robert Elias and Peter Dreier look back at the legacy. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: “When the Fans Didn’t Go Wild” by J. Furman Daniel, III & Elliott Fullmer While the circumstances of the 2020 MLB season were far from ideal, it did present a unique research opportunity. Home-field advantage has long been observed in all major team sports, including baseball. Over the past several decades, researchers have sought to explain this persistent phenomenon. While multiple explanations have been advanced, the most common centers on the effect of attending crowds. Cheering (or booing) fans, the argument goes, affect the performance of players or umpires, leading to advantages for the home team. Because the 2020 MLB season was played without crowds, we are able to test the impact of fans on game outcomes through this unique natural experiment. “Impact of the Varying Sac-Fly Rules on Batting Champs, 1931–2019” by Herm Krabbenhoft The back-and-forth character of the sacrifice fly rule (i.e., at-bat or no at-bat) over the course of the twentieth century has resulted in some interesting “What if?” situations. For instance, one of baseball’s oldest (and at-one-time highly revered) batting metrics is batting average, with the player with the highest batting average being regarded as the batting champion of his league. But which players would have won baseball’s batting crowns if the rule had been consistent? What if the current sacrifice fly rule had been in effect for the 1931–53 period? Who would have won the batting titles, then? “‘Country’ Base Ball in the Boom of 1866,” by Robert Tholkes As baseball spread throughout the United States after the Civil War, not every newspaper was supportive of the notion. “Violent exercise,” reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer, would lead to “the production of fevers and bowel diseases.” The Raleigh Daily Sentinel disapproved of Southerners spending time on amusements, noting that “Intellect, energy, frugality and hard labor will raise the South, and nothing else can.” And as incidents of Sunday ballplaying proliferated, stiff opposition was raised by the Sabbatarians and other religious groups, like the State Street Congregational Church of Brooklyn’s Missionary Society. The Society’s diatribe warned that the game had turned from “a reasonable exercise into a moral contagion…insidiously diffusing and infusing itself into the minds and brains of thousands upon thousands of our young American people, from thirty years of age downward to little children…exhibiting a reckless abandon and mad ecstasy.” Additional articles reexamine Hank Aaron’s home run record, the career of Al Kaline, and the uncanny walk-off prowess of Ryan Zimmerman. One study looks at whether the perception that PED use prolonged MLB careers is correct. The “fourth out rule” and the earliest use of uniform numbers in the minor leagues are also investigated, among 18 articles in all.

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