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Commercial Banking in Transition: A Cross-Country Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions)
by Marco Bodellini Gabriella Gimigliano Dalvinder SinghThe book investigates commercial banking, covering the European framework, the Anglo-Saxon systems, and the Asian area in a comparative approach in trying to answer the following questions: Which is the commercial banking business model of the future? What do we expect a bank to be and to do in the new economic and social reality? How might banking supervision over commercial banks as well as market competition change? The book showcases how three factors or driving forces influence the future of commercial banking: i) fintech innovations (such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, algorithmic trading, machine learning and electronic payments, to name a few), ii) covid-19 measures, and iii) SDG policy priorities. Geared toward academics, scholars and students of banking and financial services, the book will explore how these three factors have different weight in the different legal contexts.Chapter 11 is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Governing Gender Equality Policy: Pathways in a Changing Nordic Welfare State (Gender and Politics)
by Anna Elomäki Hanna YlöstaloThis book analyses the effects of public governance reforms on gender equality policy in Finland. Recent economic crises, rising austerity and increasing opposition to gender equality have led to the defunding of gender equality bodies, and the side-lining of gender equality as a political goal. This policy backlash has taken place alongside transformations to the state and governance, that have changed the discourses, knowledge, actors, and practices of gender equality policy. This book contributes to these discussions by demonstrating the subtleties of the constantly changing governance reform agendas, their operation in practice, and how they intertwine with other elements of the gender equality policy backlash. It is based on more than 100 interviews with civil servants, politicians, non-governmental organisations, social partners, and think tanks, and a broad range of policy documents and media material. It will appeal to students and scholars of gender studies, public policy and governance.
Neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders
by Abdeslem El Idrissi Dan McCloskeyThis book brings together the exciting new findings that will bring us closer to a better understanding of the alterations of neuronal connectivity in autistic brains. This volume authoritatively covers the epidemiology, physiology, neurodevelopment, genetics, environmental influences, imaging studies, neuroanatomy, and neurochemistry of autism spectrum disorders. While the neurobiology of autism is still a long way from being understood, this book posits techniques, such as using brain imaging to find signatures in early days of life, that could help move the diagnosis and help identify neural pathways. Understanding these mechanisms opens the possibility to pharmacological, behavioral, and psychosocial therapeutic interventions. With contributions from the leading international autism researchers, Neurobiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders is the go-to reference for researchers and clinicians with an interest in understanding the underlying neurobiology of autism spectrum disorders.
Sui Generis Intellectual Property Protection: Comparison of EU and U.S. Regulatory Approaches (Perspectives in Law, Business and Innovation)
by Iana KazeevaThe standard forms of intellectual property protection, namely, copyright, patents, trademarks and trade secrets, have a long history and are well regulated in the legislative systems of most jurisdictions. However, there are specific kinds of subject matter that, due to their characteristics, cannot be adequately protected by these standard forms of intellectual property instruments. At the same time, these categories of subject matter require legal protection in order to ensure the balance between the public's access to these creations and the creators' rights. For these reasons, many jurisdictions introduce a special form of intellectual property protection, namely, sui generis regime, i.e., intellectual property legal regime “of its own kind”, designed to serve the specific needs of a particular subject matter. This book analyzes the intellectual property protection regimes in the EU and the U.S. available for three categories of subject matter that are often considered as requiring sui generis protection, namely, databases, designs and plant varieties. One of the main objectives is to evaluate whether the chosen subject matter in fact requires sui generis intellectual property protection and whether the introduced sui generis regimes have proved to be successful over time. The final chapter of this book analyses the perspectives of sui generis intellectual property protection for works generated by AI systems. This volume offers a comprehensive analysis of sui generis intellectual property rights and will be a key source for both scholars and practitioners with an interest in intellectual property law.
Radiology Illustrated: Pattern Approach for Lung Imaging (Radiology Illustrated)
by Kyung Soo Lee Joungho Han Man Pyo Chung Yeon Joo JeongThe purpose of this atlas is to illustrate how to achieve reliable diagnoses when confronted by the different abnormalities, or “disease patterns”, that may be visualized on CT scans of the chest. The task of pattern recognition has been greatly facilitated by the advent of high-technology CT such as helical and multidetector CT (MDCT) and dual-energy CT (DECT), and the focus of the book is very much on the role of state-of-the-art MDCT. A wide range of disease patterns and distributions are covered, with emphasis on the typical imaging characteristics of the various focal and diffuse lung diseases. In addition, clinical information relevant to differential diagnosis is provided and the underlying gross and microscopic pathology is depicted, permitting CT–pathology correlation. The entire information relevant to each disease pattern is also tabulated for ease of reference. This book will be an invaluable handy tool that will enable the reader to quickly and easily reach a diagnosis appropriate to the pattern of lung abnormality identified on CT scans. And in this second edition, some more signs and several new diseases and their pattern have been developed and updated. They will be provided with imaging, clinical relevance and CT-pathology correlation. Moreover, the chapters and disease patterns in their order of presentation shall be somewhat changed for readers’ easy legibility and understanding.
The Power of Self-Presentation: Spanish Speakers Constructing Digital Identity
by Carmen Maíz-ArévaloThis book follows a Goffmanian approach to self-presentation to focus on the different strategies Spanish users employ to construct their digital identity in profiles, biographies, pictures, and statuses on platforms such WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The author presents a functioning taxonomy of self-presentation strategies along the front-stage/back-stage continuum, including common strategies such as eudaimonic (or inspirational) messages and the use of humour. Special attention is paid to the effects of social variables such as the users' gender and age, and the perceived purposes of the different platforms (e.g. LinkedIn is often intended as a professional market for job hunting, whereas Facebook is rarely used in this context). The book will be of interest to students and scholars of Technologically Mediated Communication (traditionally known as Computer-Mediated Communication or CMC), media communication, internet pragmatics, digital discourse analysis, and related fields.
The U.S. Christian Right and Pro-Family Politics in 21st Century Africa
by Haley McEwenThis book will address and uncover the role of US Christian Right ‘pro-family’ groups in mobilizing counter-movements against LGBTIQ+ human rights, reproductive justice, and sexuality education in Africa, and will intervene in the tendency to exceptionalize Africa as a ‘homophobic continent’ following the surge in homophobic and transphobic legislation, hate speech, and violence in recent years. The author employs the lens of decoloniality in an intersectional manner to unpack the multiple forms of hierarchy and oppression that the concept of the nuclear family has historically worked to naturalize in the interests of capitalism, Christo-normativity, and a world system dominated and controlled by the global north. Proceeding from the historical geopolitical context informing nuclear family idealization, the analysis then presents a critical discussion of contemporary pro-family discourses, showing that pro-family narratives that universalize and politicize the notion of ‘family’ are not only constituting agendas that erode LGBTIQ+ and reproductive justice, but reinforce an international order that privileges Euro-American interests despite pro-family claims that their agendas are anti-imperialist. This book will be of interest to scholars in gender, sexuality, and queer studies; postcolonial studies; and international relations.
Understanding Gender and Diversity in Europe: Experiences of Migrant Single Mothers in Denmark
by Rubya MehdiThis book is a socio-legal interdisciplinary study on gender and diversity in multicultural societies of Europe. It uses secondary data to discuss the broad experiences of migrant single mothers/women in Europe. Second, it includes narratives of experiences across the life course of single Danish-Pakistani women, starting from their pre-migration background to their elderly lives. The author uses an analytical framework used of relational collectivism and individualism, the former referring to the understanding of oneself as connected and interdependent to the family, and the latter referring to values of independence, personal interest and achievements. She uses the term “mélange familism” to explain a new family type that combines both relational-collectivist and individualist elements. A major part of this work is its deliberation of mélange familism and processes of social and legal practices in the everyday lives of single mothers. Crucially, the book demonstrates that social and legal traditions are not static, but are a product of improvisation. It makes a significant contribution by providing an alternate picture of single women/mothers as against the stereotypical image of ‘passive, subordinate Muslim women’. It also contributes to gender and family studies by showing the increasing establishment of single-mother-headed households as a source of new possibilities; a new type or form of family construction, and not just the tragic residue of a broken two-parent family.
Pearl Millet in the 21st Century: Food-Nutrition-Climate resilience-Improved livelihoods
by Vilas A Tonapi Nepolean Thirunavukkarasu Sk Gupta Prakash I Gangashetty Op YadavThis book documents the global pearl millet research for achieving the sustainable development goals in the eve of International Year of Millets in 2023 by FAO. This book offers perspectives on the recent advances in the field of genomics, next-generation breeding approaches, hybrid development, crop production and protection technologies of pearl millets. Pearl millet is the world’s most important millet grown in the hot, semi-arid ecologies of Asia and Africa with versatile end uses. Of all the world’s cereals, pearl millet ranks the sixth most important crop after rice, wheat, maize, barley and sorghum. In the changing climatic condition, it can be pitched as strategic crop for food and nutritional security owing to its ability to survive in harsh ecologies and the higher micro-nutrients grain content. This books focuses on nutritional importance, climate resilience, seed systems, value-addition and market policies to enhance the genetic gain of pearl millets under marginal and favorable ecologies, and way forward for a food and nutrition secure world. It is a useful reading material for researchers and professionals working on small grains, millets and their cultivation and nutrition related aspects.
Book, Beast, and Crow
by Elizabeth ByrnePart The Hazel Wood, part Stranger Things, this spine-tingling, genre-bending novel from Elizabeth Byrne will leave readers breathless as they follow a group of teens who face catastrophic consequences after their friend gets bitten by the town’s most feared creature.Anna Kellogg has always felt different. Growing up in Hartwood, New Jersey—where frequent disappearances are attributed to an urban-legend-like beast that dwells in the walled-in swamp at the center of town—can have that effect on people. But for Anna, it’s more than that. Since she was a child, she’s been plagued by episodes where she sees things others can’t see. Feeling different is one thing, but actually being different is another. If it weren’t for her best friend, Olivia, Anna’s not sure where she’d fit in.But any hopes of having a normal senior year come to a halt when Olivia is attacked in the woods, bitten, and left for dead by a whirling cyclone of claws, fur, and teeth. Though Olivia survives, a sinister entity makes it clear that the mark had been set on Anna…and the miss has set in motion a catastrophic shift that will change Anna and her friends’ lives forever.
The Inheritance: A Novel
by Joanna GoodmanFrom the bestselling author of The Home for Unwanted Girls and The Forgotten Daughter comes a compulsively readable mother-daughter story in which two women who share a difficult past must come to together to claim the future they deserve.Arden Moore enjoyed an affluent life thanks to her husband’s high-paying job. But a year after his death, the 36-year-old is a grieving single mother deeply in debt and living paycheck to paycheck with her three children. Then an unexpected call from a well-known estate lawyer in New York offers a glimmer of hope. It is the beginning of a complex legal journey that could mean the difference between a life of abject poverty and unthinkable wealth thanks to her father, deceased billionaire Wallace Barclay.Thirty years before, Arden’s mother Virginia Bunt, a flirtatious love addict with a string of failed affairs, met Wallace, an encounter that transformed her life. When he died unexpectedly without a will, Virginia fought to secure a comfortable future for her and the secret unborn daughter she shared with Wallace. Yet despite her best efforts, society and the legal system prevented her from receiving the money that should rightfully have been hers. Now, though, with changes in the legal system and science, her daughter Arden may finally succeed in claiming the inheritance that has been long denied.Told from both Arden and Virginia’s viewpoints, straddling past and present, and moving from Toronto to New York City, The Inheritance is a poignant portrait of familial bonds, haunting pasts, the collateral damage of life choices, and the promise of hopeful futures as two venerable women fight for the life they deserve.
What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez \ Qué le pasó a Ruthy Ramírez (Sp. ed.)
by Claire JimenezLas Ramírez de Stanten Islan orbitan alrededor de la ausencia. Cuando Ruthy, a los trece años, desapareció sin dejar rastro después de un entrenamiento de atletismo, su familia quedó marcada y deshecha. Una noche, doce años después, Jessica, la hermana mayor, ve en la pantalla de su televisión a una mujer que aparece en Catfight, un reality show subido de tono. Se apresura a decírselo a Nina, su hermana menor. El pelo de esta mujer está teñido de rojo y se hace llamar Ruby, pero el lunar bajo su ojo izquierdo es reconocible al instante. ¿Podría ser Ruthy, después de todo este tiempo? Los años desde la desaparición de Ruthy no han sido fáciles para la familia Ramírez. Es el año 2008 y su madre, Dolores, todavía padece la pérdida; Jessica se las arregla entre su bebé recién nacido y su trabajo en el hospital; y Nina, después de cuatro exitosos años en la universidad y de no haber sido aceptada en la escuela de medicina, regresa a casa y se ve obligada a trabajar en el centro comercial doblando diminutas tangas en una tienda de lencería. Después de ver a la posible Ruthy en la pantalla, Jessica y Nina planean manejar hasta el lugar donde se filma el programa para buscar a su hermana perdida. Cuando Dolores descubre su plan, insisten en ir con ellas, junto con Irene, su mejor amiga. Lo que sigue es un viaje de familia y un reencuentro que forzará a las Ramírez a, por fin, enfrentar el pasado y mirar hacia el futuro, con o sin Ruthy en sus vidas. ¿Qué le pasó a Ruthy Ramírez? es un retrato de familia vívido, en toda su destrozada realidad, que explora los lazos de familia entre mujeres y los ciclos de generaciones de violencia, colonialismo, raza y silencio, llenos de sarcasmo, resentimiento, ternura y, por supuesto, amor. The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen-year-old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?The years since Ruthy's disappearance haven't been easy on the Ramirez family. It’s 2008, and their mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, Jessica juggles a newborn baby with her hospital job, and Nina, after four successful years at college, has returned home to medical school rejections and is forced to work in the mall folding tiny bedazzled thongs at the lingerie store.After seeing maybe-Ruthy on their screen, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed in search of their long-lost sister. When Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future—with or without Ruthy in it.What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love.
The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County: A Novel
by Claire SwinarskiArmed with a Crock-Pot and a pile of recipes, a grandmother, her granddaughter, and a mysterious young man work to bring a community together in this uplifting novel for readers of The Chicken Sisters.Esther Larson has been cooking for funerals in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for seventy years. Known locally as the “funeral ladies,” she and her cohort have worked hard to keep the mourners of Ellerie County fed—it is her firm belief that there is very little a warm casserole and a piece of cherry pie can’t fix. But, after falling for an internet scam that puts her home at risk, the proud Larson family matriarch is the one in need of help these days.Iris, Esther’s whip-smart Gen Z granddaughter, would do anything for her family and her community. As she watches her friends and family move out of their lakeside town onto bigger and better things, Iris wonders why she feels so left behind in the place she is desperate to make her home. But when Cooper Welsh shows up, she finally starts to feel like she’s found the missing piece of her puzzle. Cooper is dealing with becoming a legal guardian to his younger half-sister after his beloved stepmother dies. While their celebrity-chef father is focused on his booming career and top-ranked television show, Cooper is still hurting from a public tragedy he witnessed last year as a paramedic and finding it hard to cope. With Iris in the gorgeous Ellerie County, though, he hopes he might finally find the home he’s been looking for.It doesn’t seem like a community cookbook could possibly solve their problems, especially one where casseroles have their own section and cream of chicken soup mix is the most frequently used ingredient. But when you mix the can-do spirit of Midwestern grandmothers with the stubborn hope of a boy raised by food plus a dash of long-awaited forgiveness—things might just turn out okay.Includes Recipes
How to Walk into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away
by Emily P. FreemanIf life were a house, then every room holds a story. What do we do when a room we’re in is no longer a room where we belong?What do you do when you start to feel a shift and must decide if it’s time to make a change? When it comes to navigating big decisions about when to stay and go, how can we know for sure when the time is right? Though we enter and exit many rooms over the course of our life—jobs, relationships, communities, life stages—knowing how and when it’s time to leave is a decision that rarely has a clear answer.Podcast host, spiritual director, and bestselling author of The Next Right Thing, Emily P. Freeman offers guidance to help us recognize when it’s time to move on from situations that no longer fit, allowing us to find new spaces where we can flourish and grow.How to Walk Into a Room helps us begin to uncover the silent, nuanced, and hidden arrows for anyone asking questions like: How do I know if it’s time to move on? What if I stay and nothing changes? What if I leave and everything falls apart?Through thought-provoking questions, spiritual practices, and personal stories, How to Walk into a Room will help you to know and name the caution flags in your current spaces, discern the difference between true peace and discomfort avoidance, navigate endings even when there is no closure, find peace for when you feel ready but it isn’t time, and courage for when it’s time but you don’t feel ready. For anyone standing in a threshold, here’s a book to help discern the how, when, and what now of walking out of rooms and into new ones with peace, confidence, and a whole heart.
Un verano loco: One Crazy Summer (Spanish edition)
by Rita Williams-GarciaThe Spanish-language edition of the beloved Newbery Honor–winning novel about three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them, from award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia! Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California.But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother in Oakland, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers.Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award finalist.
The Romanov Brides: A Novel of the Last Tsarina and Her Sisters
by Clare McHughFrom the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse—the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia—and her sister, Princess Ella. Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history. They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia—and the Romanovs. Defying the Queen’s dire warnings, Ella weds the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge. Cultivated, aloof, and proud, Serge places his young wife on a pedestal for all to admire. Behind palace gates, Ella struggles to secure private happiness. Alix, whisked away to Russia for Ella’s wedding, meets and captivates Nicky—heir apparent to the Russian throne. While loving him deeply, Alix hears a call of conscience, urging her to walk away. Their fateful decisions to marry will lead to tragic consequences for not only themselves and their families, but for millions in Russia and around the globe. The Romanov Brides is a moving and fascinating portrait of two bold and spirited royal sisters, and brings to vivid life imperial Russia—a dazzling, decadent world on the brink of disappearing forever.
The Triumph of the Lions: A Novel (A Lions of Sicily Book #2)
by Stefania AuciThe basis for the Disney-produced series on Hulu The Lions of Sicily“A blazing epic of countless twists and turns.”—Le Figaro"A compelling combination of historical sweep and family drama" –Kirkus ReviewsFrom the author of the acclaimed The Florios of Sicily, a magnificent novel that explores the origins of one of Italy’s most powerful and notorious families, men and women whose ruthless ambition and caprice would chart the course of modern Italian history—a tale of grand historical dramas, exotic locales, political intrigue, and heartbreaking romance that rivals the bestselling works of Philippa Gregory, Jennifer Chiaverini, and Adriana Trigiani.Known as the Lions of Sicily, the Florios have officially arrived. Once rich only in ambition, the family has amassed a fortune that includes palaces, factories, ships, silks, and jewels. The city of Sicily admires them, honors them and, above all, fears them.Ignazio was destined to rule Casa Florio since birth, a fearless drive that pulses through his veins, pushing him to look beyond Sicily towards Rome, Europe and its courts, the naval domination of the Mediterranean, and eventually the purchase of the entire Archipelago of the Egadi to build his dazzling empire. But his heart is black as ice. To seize Casa Florio, he abandoned the love of his life—an act of treachery which still casts a dark shadow.Barely twenty, his son Ignazziddu stands to inherit all that his father has built. Yet he is nothing like Ignazio. A nervous young man, he does not want to be shackled to his infamous name, to sacrifice himself for the family. Despite his fears, he embraces Ignazio’s legacy, and must face a world that changes too quickly, agitated by new, violent, and uncontrollable forces. Ignazziddu eventually realizes that it’s not enough to have Florio blood to become the imposing force his grandfather and father were. What is it they had that he lacks?Beside father and son are two extraordinary women: Giovanna, Ignazio’s wife, hard and fragile as crystal, full of passion but hungry for love, and Franca, the wife of Ignazziddu, the most beautiful woman in Europe, whose golden existence is threatened by the blows of a cruel fate. It is these women who unforgettably animate The Triumph of the Lions.Bringing the Belle Epoque into stunning relief, Auci dives deeper into the exhilarating and terrible, glorious and tragic history of a family that, for decades, sat high above Italian society, and made the heart of an island and city beat.Translated from the Italian by Katherine Gregor and Howard Curtis
Organizing Color: Toward a Chromatics of the Social (Sensing Media: Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Cultures of Media)
by Timon BeyesWe live in a world that is saturated with color, but how should we make sense of color's force and capacities? This book develops a theory of color as fundamental medium of the social. Constructed as a montage of scenes from the past two hundred years, Organizing Color demonstrates how the interests of capital, management, governance, science, and the arts have wrestled with color's allure and flux. Beyes takes readers from Goethe's chocolate experiments in search of chromatic transformation to nineteenth-century Scottish cotton mills designed to modulate workers' moods and productivity, from the colonial production of Indigo in India to globalized categories of skin colorism and their disavowal. Tracing the consumption, control and excess of industrial and digital color, other chapters stage encounters with the literary chromatics of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow processing the machinery of the chemical industries, the red of political revolt in Godard's films, and the blur of education and critique in Steyerl's Adorno's Grey. Contributing to a more general reconsideration of aesthetic capitalism and the role of sensory media, this book seeks to pioneer a theory of social organization—a "chromatics of organizing"—that is attuned to the protean and world-making capacity of color.
Seductive Spirits: Deliverance, Demons, and Sexual Worldmaking in Ghanaian Pentecostalism (Spiritual Phenomena)
by Nathanael HomewoodPentecostalism, Africa's fastest-growing form of Christianity, has long been preoccupied with the business of banishing demons from human bodies. Among Ghanaian Pentecostals, deliverance is primary among the embodied, experiential gifts—a loud, messy, and noisy experience that ends only when the possessed body falls to the ground silent and docile, the evil spirits rendered powerless in the face of the holy spirit-wielding-prophets. And nowhere is Ghanaian Pentecostal obsession with demons more pronounced than with sexual demons. In this book, Nathanael Homewood examines the frequent and varied experiences of spirit possession and sex with demons that constitute a vital part of Pentecostal deliverance ministries, offering insight into these practices assembled from long-term ethnographic engagement with four churches in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Relying on the uniqueness of the Pentecostal sensorium, this book unravels how spirits and sexuality intimately combine to expand the definition of the body beyond its fleshy boundaries. Demons are a knowledge regime, one that shapes how Pentecostals think about, engage with, and construct the cosmos. Deliverance Pentecostals reiterate and tarry with the demonic, especially sexually, as a realm of invention whereby alternative ways of being, sensing, and having sex are dreamed, practiced, and performed. Ultimately, Homewood argues for a distinction between colonial demonization and decolonial demons, charting another path to understanding being, the body, and sexualities.
The Politics of Grace in Early Modern Literature
by Deni KasaThis book tells the story of how early modern poets used the theological concept of grace to reimagine their political communities. The Protestant belief that salvation was due to sola gratia, or grace alone, was originally meant to inspire religious reform. But, as Deni Kasa shows, poets of the period used grace to interrogate the most important political problems of their time, from empire and gender to civil war and poetic authority. Kasa examines how four writers—John Milton, Edmund Spenser, Aemilia Lanyer, and Abraham Cowley—used the promise of grace to develop idealized imagined communities, and not always egalitarian ones. Kasa analyzes the uses of grace to make new space for individual and collective agency in the period, but also to validate domination and inequality, with poets and the educated elite inserted as mediators between the gift of grace and the rest of the people. Offering a literary history of politics in a pre-secular age, Kasa shows that early modern poets mapped salvation onto the most important conflicts of their time in ways missed by literary critics and historians of political thought. Grace, Kasa demonstrates, was an important means of expression and a way to imagine impossible political ideals.
Becoming Madam Secretary
by Stephanie DrayShe took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it…New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins. Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.When she&’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell&’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he&’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she&’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR&’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she&’s willing to do—and what she&’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
American Flannel: How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home
by Steven Kurutz&“I can confidently say this will be one of my favorite books of 2024.&” —Stephen King, bestselling author (and onetime millworker)&“American Flannel is a wonderful book--surprising, entertaining, vivid and personal, but also enlightening on the largest questions of America's economic and social future.&” —James Fallows, co-author of Our Towns The little-engine-that-could story of how a band of scrappy entrepreneurs are reviving the enterprise of manufacturing clothing in the United States. For decades, clothing manufacture was a pillar of U.S. industry. But beginning in the 1980s, Americans went from wearing 70 percent domestic-made apparel to almost none. Even the very symbol of American freedom and style—blue jeans—got outsourced. With offshoring, the nation lost not only millions of jobs but also crucial expertise and artistry. Dismayed by shoddy imported &“fast fashion&”—and unable to stop dreaming of re-creating a favorite shirt from his youth—Bayard Winthrop set out to build a new company, American Giant, that would swim against this trend. New York Times reporter Steven Kurutz, in turn, began to follow Winthrop&’s journey. He discovered other trailblazers as well, from the &“Sock Queen of Alabama&” to a pair of father-son shoemakers and a men&’s style blogger who almost single-handedly drove a campaign to make &“Made in the USA&” cool. Eye-opening and inspiring, American Flannel is the story of how a band of visionaries and makers are building a new supply chain on the skeleton of the old and wedding old-fashioned craftsmanship to cutting-edge technology and design to revive an essential American dream.
A Grave Robbery (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery #9)
by Deanna RaybournVeronica and Stoker discover that not all fairy tales have happy endings, and some end in murder, in this latest historical mystery from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud&’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why? Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?
Headshot: A Novel
by Rita BullwinkelNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by The Washington Post, NYLON, Lit Hub, The Millions, The Rumpus, and moreA March 2024 IndieNext Pick&“Make room, American fiction, for a meaningful new voice.&” —Dwight Garner, New York Times Book Review&“As blazing and distinctive a performance as I&’ve beheld in a long while . . . I&’m amazed.&” —Jonathan LethemAn electrifying debut novel from an &“unusually gifted writer&” (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competitionAn unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family&’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitors&’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.
All Our Yesterdays: A Novel of Lady Macbeth
by Joel H. MorrisA propulsive and piercing debut, set ten years before the events of Shakespeare&’s historic play, about the ambition, power, and fate that define one of literature&’s most notorious figures: Lady Macbeth.Scotland, the 11th Century. Born in a noble household and granddaughter of a forgotten Scottish king, a young girl carries the guilt of her mother&’s death and the weight of an unknowable prophecy. When she is married, at fifteen, to the Mormaer of Moray, she experiences firsthand the violence of a sadistic husband and a kingdom constantly at war. To survive with her young son in a superstitious realm, she must rely on her own cunning and wit, especially when her husband&’s downfall inadvertently sets them free.Suspicious of the dark devices that may have led to his father&’s death, her son watches as his mother falls in love with the enigmatic thane Macbeth. Now a woman of stature, Lady Macbeth confronts a world of masculine power and secures the protection of her family. But the coronation of King Duncan and the political maneuvering of her cousin Macduff set her on a tragic course, one where her own success might mean embracing the very curse that haunts her and risking the child she loves.