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Sewing Happiness: A Year of Simple Projects for Living Well
by Sanae IshidaTwenty simple sewing projects are tied together with a thread of memoir that tells the story of how sewing brought Sanae Ishida profound happiness. Each seasonal project, specially designed to promote health, creativity, relationships and more, provides gentle inspiration to live your best life. When Ishida was diagnosed with a chronic illness and lost her corporate job, she thought her life was over. But these challenges ended up being the best thing that ever happened to her because they forced her to take stock of her life and focus on the important things, and enabled her to rediscover sewing--her true passion. Inspired to succeed at just one thing, Ishida vowed to sew all of her daughter's clothes (and most of her own) for one year. Sewing Happiness includes 20 projects plus variations (including Japanese-inspired home goods and children's and women's clothing) organized by season, and stitched together with Ishida's charming personal story.
Sewing Stories: Harriet Powers' Journey from Slave to Artist
by Barbara HerkertHarriet Powers learned to sew and quilt as a young slave girl on a Georgia plantation. She lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and eventually owned a cotton farm with her family, all the while relying on her skills with the needle to clothe and feed her children. Later she began making pictorial quilts, using each square to illustrate Bible stories and local legends. She exhibited her quilts at local cotton fairs, and though she never traveled outside of Georgia, her quilts are now priceless examples of African American folk art. Barbara Herkert's lyrical narrative and Vanessa Newton's patchwork illustrations bring this important artist to life in a moving picture-book biography.
Sex Bomb: The Life and Loves of an Asian Babe
by Sadia AzmatFor fans of Everything I Know About Love, Wrong Knickers and The Right Sort of Girl this is the incredibly honest and brilliantly raunchy memoir you don't want to miss.'Thoughtful, occasionally shocking and consistently hilarous: Sex Bomb is an absolute must read.' JAMES FELTON'A hilarious, courageous and compelling read that explores the complicated relationship between culture, religion, identity and sexuality within the British Asian community. A must read for those who have lived it, and for those who haven't.' ANITA BHAGWANDAS__________Sadia is a comedian who loves sex. She is also a hijab-wearing Muslim woman. The two are in a lifelong relationship, but it's complicated.Sadia Azmat has many different sides to her, she is the good Muslim sister and the loud and proud comedian, she is the quiet and loving friend and the horny and outspoken one. So why does everyone put her in a box and expect her to choose between one or the other?In a life of ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, Sadia has learnt the hard way that she can embrace her sexuality and be a proud British-Indian Muslim. From discovering her sexual identity after seeing a copy of Asian Babes on the shelf in the corner shop to rejecting an arranged marriage and feeling distanced from her culture; from her experience dating white and Asian men to her tumultuous relationship with her headscarf, Sadia is unafraid to spill the honest truth. Sadia finds the funny in every experience she has and this book explodes with personality, warmth and joy. This book is for anyone who has ever felt different or alone; allow this book to fill you up and propel you forward, because we all deserve to feel like a Sex Bomb.__________'Sex Bomb is so hilarious, raw and poignant. I couldn't put it down!' JENA FRIEDMAN'Sex Bomb is a privilege and a joy to read, and everybody you've ever met should read it.' ANNE T. DONAHUE
Sex Bomb: The Life and Loves of an Asian Babe
by Sadia AzmatFor fans of Everything I Know About Love, Wrong Knickers and The Right Sort of Girl this is the incredibly honest and brilliantly raunchy memoir you don't want to miss.'Thoughtful, occasionally shocking and consistently hilarous: Sex Bomb is an absolute must read.' JAMES FELTON'A hilarious, courageous and compelling read that explores the complicated relationship between culture, religion, identity and sexuality within the British Asian community. A must read for those who have lived it, and for those who haven't.' ANITA BHAGWANDAS__________Sadia is a comedian who loves sex. She is also a hijab-wearing Muslim woman. The two are in a lifelong relationship, but it's complicated.Sadia Azmat has many different sides to her, she is the good Muslim sister and the loud and proud comedian, she is the quiet and loving friend and the horny and outspoken one. So why does everyone put her in a box and expect her to choose between one or the other?In a life of ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, Sadia has learnt the hard way that she can embrace her sexuality and be a proud British-Indian Muslim. From discovering her sexual identity after seeing a copy of Asian Babes on the shelf in the corner shop to rejecting an arranged marriage and feeling distanced from her culture; from her experience dating white and Asian men to her tumultuous relationship with her headscarf, Sadia is unafraid to spill the honest truth. Sadia finds the funny in every experience she has and this book explodes with personality, warmth and joy. This book is for anyone who has ever felt different or alone; allow this book to fill you up and propel you forward, because we all deserve to feel like a Sex Bomb.__________'Sex Bomb is so hilarious, raw and poignant. I couldn't put it down!' JENA FRIEDMAN'Sex Bomb is a privilege and a joy to read, and everybody you've ever met should read it.' ANNE T. DONAHUE
Sex Bomb: a 'hilarious, raw and poignant' memoir
by Sadia AzmatThe entertaining, hilarious and conversation-shifting memoir about sex and life from the comedian, podcast host and writer, Sadia Azmat.Sadia is a comedian who loves sex. She is also a hijab-wearing Muslim woman. The two are in a lifelong relationship, but it's complicated.For fans of Everything I Know About Love, Wrong Knickers and The Right Sort of Girl this is the sidesplittingly funny and brilliantly raunchy memoir you don't want to miss.Sadia Azmat has many different sides to her, she is the good Muslim sister and the loud and proud comedian, she is the quiet and loving friend and the horny and outspoken one. So why does everyone put her in a box and expect her to choose between one or the other?In a life of ups and downs, swings and roundabouts, Sadia has learnt the hard way that she can embrace her sexuality and be a proud British-Indian Muslim. From discovering her sexual identity after seeing a copy of Asian Babes on the shelf in the corner shop to rejecting an arranged marriage and feeling distanced from her culture; from her experience dating white and Asian men to her tumultuous relationship with her headscarf, Sadia is unafraid to spill the honest truth. Sadia finds the funny in every experience she has and this book explodes with personality, warmth and joy. This audiobook is for anyone who has ever felt different or alone; allow this audiobook to fill you up and propel you forward, because we all deserve to feel like a Sex Bomb.(P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Sex Changes: A Memoir of Marriage, Gender, and Moving On
by Christine BenvenutoWhat do you do when the other woman is your husband? A wife's memoir of her husband's sex changeChristine Benvenuto had been married for more than twenty years—with three young children—when her husband turned to her one night in bed and said "I'm thinking constantly about my gender." He was unhappy in his body and wanted to become a woman.Part memoir, part voyeur's look into a marriage, Sex Changes is a journey through the end of a marriage and out the other side. We see a woman, desperate to save her family and shelter her children, discover a well of strength and resilience she never knew she had. We learn what to tell the neighbors when your husband starts wearing heels with his shirts and ties. We see a woman open herself to a group of friends who travel with her through her darkest times, provide light and levity throughout—and who offer the opportunity to learn how to give as well as receive the love and support of true friendship. When she lost her husband to skirts and hormones, life made Chris a better woman. Sex Changes is the story of what one woman discovered about herself in the midst of the conflagration of her family. Fiercely funny, self-lacerating, and not entirely politically correct, Sex Changes is a journey of love and anguish told with hilarity, heartbreak and a lot of soul searching. It is about the mysteries in every marriage, the secrets we chose to keep, and the freedom that the truth can bring.
Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult
by Faith JonesNamed a Best Book of 2021 by Newsweek and a Most Anticipated by People, TIME, USA Today, Real Simple, Glamour, Nylon, Bustle, Purewow, Shondaland, and more!Educated meets The Vow in this story of liberation and self-empowerment—an inspiring and stranger-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.Faith Jones was raised to be part a religious army preparing for the End Times. Growing up on an isolated farm in Macau, she prayed for hours every day and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the founder of the Children of God. Tens of thousands of members strong, the cult followers looked to Faith’s grandfather as their guiding light. As such, Faith was celebrated as special and then punished doubly to remind her that she was not.Over decades, the Children of God grew into an international organization that became notorious for its alarming sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. But with indomitable grit, Faith survived, creating a world of her own—pilfering books and teaching herself high school curriculum. Finally, at age twenty-three, thirsting for knowledge and freedom, she broke away, leaving behind everything she knew to forge her own path in America.A complicated family story mixed with a hauntingly intimate coming-of-age narrative, Faith Jones’ extraordinary memoir reflects our societal norms of oppression and abuse while providing a unique lens to explore spiritual manipulation and our rights in our bodies. Honest, eye-opening, uplifting, and intensely affecting, Sex Cult Nun brings to life a hidden world that’s hypnotically alien yet unexpectedly relatable.
Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story
by Mark MatousekGripping and elegantly written (Armistead Maupin), Sex Death Enlightenment is not a story of easy conversion but a compelling account of a gay man facing his demons, surrendering to an experience of holiness that is very much out of this world (Out Magazine). A brave, beautiful and brilliantly observed work. --Publishers Weekly, starred review.
Sex Lives of the Presidents: From Washington to Clinton
by Nigel CawthorneIt didn't start with Clinton, or even Kennedy. Ever since the Father of our Country was sworn in over 200 years ago, the White House has seen its share of oversexed, adulterous, philandering presidents. From Washington's countless bed partners to Jefferson's illegitimate children, Kennedy's notorious womanizing to Clinton's unstoppable libido, find out the surprising and sometimes bizarre sexual practices of all the men in the Oval Office.
Sex Money Kiss: Family Jewels
by Gene SimmonsThe legendary rocker Gene Simmons has a message—or two—for you: Don't live a boring life! Being rich is better than being poor! Exhibiting an abiding faith in self and an ability to think outside the traditional parameters of ethics, religion, rituals and social mores, rock legend and KISS founding member Simmons offers his no holds barred life philosophy. In this revealing and funny guide, Simmons recounts his rise from an immigrant boy who did not speak English until his teens and paid for college buying and selling old comic books, to his music, recording, acting, and publishing successes. Not only does Gene outline how he achieved both money and happiness, he tells listeners how they can, too!
Sex Money Murder: A Story Of Crack, Blood, And Betrayal
by Jonathan GreenNominated for an Edgar Award “Exceptionally authentic.”—Jill Leovy, The New York Times Book Review In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Bronx had one of the country’s highest per capita homicide rates. As crack cocaine use surged, dealers claimed territory through intimidation and murder, while families were fractured by crime and incarceration. Chronicling the rise and fall of Sex Money Murder, one of the era’s most notorious gangs, reporter Jonathan Green creates a visceral and devastating portrait of a New York City borough and the dedicated detectives and prosecutors struggling to stem the tide of violence. Drawing on years of research and extraordinary access to gang leaders, law enforcement, and federal prosecutors, Green delivers an engrossing work of gritty urban reportage. Magisterial in its scope, Sex Money Murder offers a unique perspective on the violence raging in modern-day America and the battle to end it.
Sex Object: A Memoir
by Jessica ValentiNew York Times Bestseller - An NPR Best Book of the Year“Sharp and prescient… The appeal of Valenti’s memoir lies in her ability to trace objectification through her own life, and to trace what was for a long time her own obliviousness to it…Sex Object is an antidote to the fun and flirty feminism of selfies and self-help.” — New RepublicAuthor and Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a darkly funny and bracing memoir, Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes from the every day to the existential. Sex Object explores the painful, funny, embarrassing, and sometimes illegal moments that shaped Valenti’s adolescence and young adulthood in New York City, revealing a much shakier inner life than the confident persona she has cultivated as one of the most recognizable feminists of her generation. In the tradition of writers like Joan Didion and Mary Karr, this literary memoir is sure to shock those already familiar with Valenti’s work and enthrall those who are just finding it.
Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeanette Howard Foster
by Joanne PassetA stunning biography of the long-neglected, firebrand author of the obible of lesbian literature, OCO Jeannette Howard Foster"
Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
by Marge Piercy“A resonant tale of public and private lives during a time of staggering societal shifts. . . . This is a big American story. . . . deeply felt.” —Boston GlobePost–Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison—as her story interweaves with those of some of the epoch's most notorious figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony; sexual freedom activist Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president; and Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, whose censorship laws are still on the books.In the tradition of her bestselling World War II epic Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy once again re-creates a turbulent period in American history and explores changing attitudes in a land of sacrifice, suffering, promise, and reward.“Piercy powerfully dramatizes the early feminists’ zeal and the high stakes of the gender wars it set in motion, and offers a wealth of period detail.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review“In this mesmerizing, sexy, and forthright historical novel, [Piercy] portrays heroic women determined to control every aspect of their lives, from birth control to finances. . . . spectacularly engrossing and truly moving.” —Booklist“Fascinating and all too relevant. . . . Piercy has a gift or conjuring the texture of an historical era.” —Washington Post
Sex and Rage: A Novel
by Eve BabitzNATIONAL BESTSELLERAn NPR Best Book of 2017A Bellatrist Book Club Pick for July 2017The Paris Review Staff Pick1 of 12 Great New Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer (The Huffington Post)1 of 9 Books to Read This Summer (W and Elle)1 of 10 Titles to Pick Up Now (O Magazine)1 of 6 Smarter—But Not Quite Guilt–Free—Beach Reads (VICE)"This novel is studded with sharp observations . . . Babitz’s talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures." —The New York Times Book ReviewThe popular rediscovery of Eve Babitz continues with this very special reissue of her novel, originally published in 1979, about a dreamy young girl moving between the planets of Los Angeles and New York City. We first meet Jacaranda in Los Angeles. She’s a beach bum, a part–time painter of surfboards, sun–kissed and beautiful. Jacaranda has an on–again, off–again relationship with a married man and glitters among the city’s pretty creatures, blithely drinking White Ladies with any number of tycoons, unattached and unworried in the pleasurable mania of California. Yet she lacks a purpose—so at twenty–eight, jobless, she moves to New York to start a new life and career, eager to make it big in the world of New York City. Sex and Rage delights in its sensuous, dreamlike narrative and its spontaneous embrace of fate, and work, and of certain meetings and chances. Jacaranda moves beyond the tango of sex and rage into the open challenge of a defined and more fulfilling expressive life. Sex and Rage further solidifies Eve Babitz's place as a singularly important voice in Los Angeles literature—haunting, alluring, and alive.
Sex and Shopping: An Autobiography
by Judith KrantzDear Reader, As I was about to start my eleventh novel, I abruptly realized that I was making a huge mistake. On the verge of launching into the imagined world of a twenty-eight-year-old, I felt an intense need to tell another story, the story of a woman I know through and through...a woman with more wealth of experience, a woman who's seen more real glamour, known more fascinating people, lived in a world of more sophistication, and arrived at more hard-won maturity than that twenty-eight-year-old could hope for---in short, my own story. I've tried to remain as unknowable as possible, the better to let my heroines hold the stage, but now I was ready to tell the truth about myself, with no holding back. I've had a different life from that of the majority of women of my generation and background. While I seemed like another "nice Jewish girl," underneath that convenient cover I'd traveled my own, inner-directed path and had many a spicy and secret adventure. I grew up in a complicated tangle of privilege, family problems, and tormented teenaged sexuality. After a riotous education at Wellesley, my life was turned upside down by a glorious year in Paris, marked by an intense but ill-starred romance. I spent the next half-decade in New York, sowing lighthearted wild oats until I finally met my true love, to whom I've been married for forty-six years.When I was fifty I had an utterly unexpected, almost unbelievable success as a number-one bestselling novelist that has continued for book after book. Challenging, lucky, exciting, and often devastatingly askew, my life seems to have been lived under a wild and antic star.I've had as much amazing fun as my heroines, and here's the book to prove it. Judith Krantz
Sex and the City of God: A Memoir of Love and Longing
by Carolyn WeberWhen Carolyn Weber moved to Oxford University to study, she didn't expect to find God there. But she did. As she grappled with her newest and most important relationship, she also found that there was another invitation: to think bigger about love. In this book we follow Weber through courtship and into marriage and parenthood. Now a literature professor, Weber reflects on her relationship with a sometimes-absent father and how that has shaped her. Through her personal story, as well as spiritual, theological, and literary reflection, Sex and the City of God explores what life looks like when we choose to love God first.
Sex and the River Styx
by Edward HoaglandCalled the best essayist of his time by luminaries like Philip Roth, John Updike and Edward Abbey, Edward Hoagland brings readers his ultimate collection. In Sex and the River Styx, the author's sharp eye and intense curiosity shine through in essays that span his childhood exploring the woods in his rural Connecticut, his days as a circus worker, and his travels the world over in his later years. Here, we meet Hoagland at his best: traveling to Kampala to meet a family he'd been helping support only to find a divide far greater than he could have ever imagined; reflecting on aging, love, and sex in a deeply personal, often surprising way; and bringing us the wonder of wild places, alongside the disparity of losing them, and always with a twist that brings the genre of nature writing to vastly new heights. His keen dissection of social realities and the human spirit will both startle and lure readers as they meet African matriarchs, Tibetan yak herders, circus aerialists, and the strippers who entertained college boys in 1950s Boston. Says Howard Frank Mosher in his foreword, the self-described rhapsodist, "could fairly be considered our last, great transcendentalist. "
Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic
by Haley Swanson Eliza SmithOne of Bustle's Best Books of MayA feminist anthology inspired by legendary Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl, featuring twenty-four new essays on the triumphs and heartbreaks of modern singlehood from acclaimed and bestselling authors, including Kristen Arnett, Morgan Parker, Evette Dionne, and Melissa Febos.Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl sent shockwaves through the United States, selling more than two million copies in three weeks. Helen’s message was radical for its time: marriage wasn’t essential for women to lead rich, fulfilling lives.Now, in these critical, wry, and expansive essays, twenty-four writers reconsider Helen’s advice and how it applies to their own paths, fielding topics that she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—conceive of in 1962: contraception and abortion (an omission demanded by her publisher), queer and trans womanhood, polyamory, celibacy, interracial dating, bodies of all kinds, consent, sex work, IVF, and the pop culture that both saves and fails us.Eliza Smith and Haley Swanson’s revisionist anthology honors Brown’s irreverent spirit while also validating our modern experiences of singlehood, encouraging us all to reclaim joy where it’s so often been denied.
Sex in the Museum: My Unlikely Career at New York's Most Provocative Museum
by Sarah ForbesSarah Forbes was in graduate school when she stumbled upon a museum dedicated to . . . sex. The anthropology student hesitated when her boyfriend suggested she apply for a job, but apply she did, and it wasn’t long before a part-time position at New York’s MUSEUM OF SEX lead to a gig as the museum's curator. That was over twelve years ago. Now Sarah—a married mother of two—proudly sports her title as Curator of Sex. In SEX IN THE MUSEUM, Sarah invites readers to travel from suburban garages where men and women build sex machines, to factories that make sex toys, to labyrinthine archives of erotica collectors. Escorting us in to the hidden world of sex, illuminating the never-talked-about communities and eccentricities of our sexual subcultures, and telling her own personal story of a decade at The Museum of Sex, Sarah asks readers to grapple with the same questions she did: when it comes to sex, what is good, bad, deviant, normal? Do such terms even apply? If everyone has sexual secrets, is it possible to really know another person and be known by them? And importantly, in our hyper-sexualized world, is it still possible to fall in love?
Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History
by Ben MezrichThad Roberts, a fellow in a prestigious NASA program had an idea--a romantic, albeit crazy, idea. He wanted to give his girlfriend the moon. Literally. Thad convinced his girlfriend and another female accomplice, both NASA interns, to break into an impregnable laboratory at NASA--past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways--and help him steal the most precious objects in the world: the moon rocks. But what does one do with an item so valuable that it's illegal even to own? And was Thad Roberts--undeniably gifted, picked for one of the most competitive scientific posts imaginable, a possible astronaut--really what he seemed? Mezrich has pored over thousands of pages of court records, FBI transcripts, and NASA documents and has interviewed most of the participants in the crime to reconstruct this Ocean's Eleven-style heist, a madcap story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride.
Sex vs. Survival: The Life and Ideas of Sabina Spielrein
by John Launer&“An impressively researched, documented, and readable biography&” of a woman who played a key role in the history of psychology (Library Journal, starred review). Who was Sabina Spielrein? She is probably best known for her notorious affair with Carl Jung, which was dramatized in the film A Dangerous Method, starring Keira Knightley. Yet her life story is much more compelling than just one famous relationship. Spielrein overcame family and psychological abuse to become a profoundly original thinker in her own right. Sex vs. Survival is the first biography to put her life and ideas at the center of the story and examine Spielrein&’s key role in the development of psychoanalysis. Drawing on fresh research into Spielrein&’s diaries, papers, and correspondence, John Launer shows how Spielrein&’s overlooked ideas―rejected by Freud and Jung but substantially vindicated by later developments in psychology and evolutionary biology—may represent the last and most important stage in the rediscovery of an extraordinary life. &“An invaluable resource for understanding Spielrein&’s significance, her progressive thinking, and her groundbreaking contributions to the history of psychoanalysis.&” —Publishers Weekly &“By the end of Launer&’s account, there&’s no mistaking what the founding fathers of analysis did to this particular founding mother—and probably to many other women. At least this biography offers Spielrein some retrospective justice.&” —Jewish Book World
Sex with Shakespeare: Here's Much to Do with Pain, but More with Love
by Jillian KeenanA provocative, moving, kinky, and often absurdly funny memoir about Shakespeare, love, obsession, and spankingWhen it came to understanding love, a teenage Jillian Keenan had nothing to guide her—until a production of The Tempest sent Shakespeare’s language flowing through her blood for the first time. In Sex with Shakespeare, she tells the story of how the Bard’s plays helped her embrace her unusual sexual identity and find a love story of her own.Four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, Keenan’s smart and passionate memoir brings new life to his work. With fourteen of his plays as a springboard, she explores the many facets of love and sexuality—from desire and communication to fetish and fantasy. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Keenan unmasks Helena as a sexual masochist—like Jillian herself. In Macbeth, she examines criminalized sexual identities and the dark side of “privacy.” The Taming of the Shrew goes inside the secret world of bondage, domination, and sadomasochism, while King Lear exposes the ill-fated king as a possible sexual predator. Moving through the canon, Keenan makes it abundantly clear that literature is a conversation. In Sex with Shakespeare, words are love.As Keenan wanders the world in search of connection, from desert dictatorships to urban islands to disputed territories, Shakespeare goes with her —and provokes complex, surprising, and wildly important conversations about sexuality, consent, and the secrets that simmer beneath our surfaces.
Sex with a Brain Injury: On Concussion and Recovery
by Annie LiontasWinner of the Stonewall Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award This powerful and deeply personal memoir in essays &“reflects on history, philosophy, and love while living with head trauma&” (The New York Times Book Review). &“An infuriatingly gorgeous, important book.&” —Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties * &“A riveting book about embodiment, pain, identity, and intimacy…this book is a stunning achievement.&” —Melissa Febos, author of GirlhoodAfter suffering multiple concussions in her thirties, Annie Liontas shares what it means to be one of the &“walking wounded&” in Sex with a Brain Injury. Facing her fear, her rage, her physical suffering, and the effects of head trauma on her marriage and other relationships, Liontas is forced to reckon with her own queer mother&’s battle with addiction and finds echoes in their pain. Liontas weaves history, philosophy, and personal accounts to interrogate and expand representations of mental health, ability, and disability—particularly in relation to women and the LGBT community. She uncovers the surprising legacy of brain injury, examining its role in culture, the criminal justice system, and through historical figures like Henry VIII and Harriet Tubman. Through Liontas&’s sharp, affecting prose, we can imagine this kind of pain, and having to claw one&’s way back to a new normal. The hidden gift of injury, Liontas writes, is the ability to connect with others. For the millions of people who have suffered from concussions and for those who have endeavored to support loved ones through the painful and often baffling experience of head trauma, this intimate memoir of a profound affliction and resilience…stands as testimony to love and patience&” (Kirkus Reviews).
Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks (New Material Histories of Music)
by David YearsleyAt one time a star in her own right as a singer, Anna Magdalena (1701–60) would go on to become, through her marriage to the older Johann Sebastian Bach, history’s most famous musical wife and mother. The two musical notebooks belonging to her continue to live on, beloved by millions of pianists young and old. Yet the pedagogical utility of this music—long associated with the sound of children practicing and mothers listening—has encouraged a rosy and one-sided view of Anna Magdalena as a model of German feminine domesticity. Sex, Death, and Minuets offers the first in-depth study of these notebooks and their owner, reanimating Anna Magdalena as a multifaceted historical subject—at once pious and bawdy, spirited and tragic. In these pages, we follow Magdalena from young and flamboyant performer to bereft and impoverished widow—and visit along the way the coffee house, the raucous wedding feast, and the family home. David Yearsley explores the notebooks’ more idiosyncratic entries—like its charming ditties on illicit love and searching ruminations on mortality—against the backdrop of the social practices and concerns that women shared in eighteenth-century Lutheran Germany, from status in marriage and widowhood, to fulfilling professional and domestic roles, money, fashion, intimacy and sex, and the ever-present sickness and death of children and spouses. What emerges is a humane portrait of a musician who embraced the sensuality of song and the uplift of the keyboard, a sometimes ribald wife and oft-bereaved mother who used her cherished musical notebooks for piety and play, humor and devotion—for living and for dying.