Anita de la Torre never questioned her freedom living in the Dominican Republic. But by her 12th birthday in 1960, most of her relatives have emigrated to the United States, her Tío Toni has disappeared without a trace, and the government’s secret police terrorize her remaining family because of their suspected opposition of el Trujillo’s dictatorship. Using the strength and courage of her family, Anita must overcome her fears and fly to freedom, leaving all that she once knew behind. From renowned author Julia Alvarez comes an unforgettable story about adolescence, perseverance, and one girl’s struggle to be free.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, internationally bestselling author and literary icon Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies is "beautiful, heartbreaking and alive ... a lyrical work of historical fiction based on the story of the Mirabal sisters, revolutionary heroes who had opposed and fought against Trujillo." (Concepción de León, New York Times) Alvarez’s new novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is coming April 2, 2024. Pre-order now! It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters--Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé--speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression. "Alvarez helped blaze the trail for Latina authors to break into the literary mainstream, with novels like In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents winning praise from critics and gracing best-seller lists across the Americas."—Francisco Cantú, The New York Times Book Review "This Julia Alvarez classic is a must-read for anyone of Latinx descent." —Popsugar.com "A gorgeous and sensitive novel . . . A compelling story of courage, patriotism and familial devotion." —People "Shimmering . . . Valuable and necessary." —Los Angeles Times "A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time.” —St. Petersburg Times "Alvarez does a remarkable job illustrating the ruinous effect the 30-year dictatorship had on the Dominican Republic and the very real human cost it entailed."—Cosmopolitan.com
June is physically and emotionally abused by her stepmother, and the only person June feels safe telling is her friend Blister, but when a shocking tragedy occurs June finds herself trapped, potentially forever.
In 1990 I had several experiences that inspired me to document my nightly dream journeys. I had recently learned about lucid dreaming and after having my first fully lucid dream I became an instant devotee to the art and practice of conscious dreaming. Like others who have had a taste of waking awareness in a dream, it was an eye opening experience that reinvigorated and reinvented the way I perceived the world. After I filled several dream journals with my oneironautic expeditions, I was inspired to take key themes and experiences from my journals and weave a narrative to tie them together in the form of a storybook, The Butterfly Paradox was written and illustrated over the course of 20 years. It is my hope that in sharing these experiences, others will resonate with the motifs that unite us at the most sublime levels. Over the years of connecting with other dreamers, I have learned that we all share archetypal themes that surface in our dreaming minds. We subconsciously dress these archetypal forms into varied costumes and set pieces for the theatrical productions of our dreams. In dreams E=MC2; Emotions take on Mass giving the dreaming landscape its beauty and terror at the Speed of Thought. It's a magical place where one is free the ride the whims of the mind. So, take a step behind the curtain and enjoy a backstage pass to the storehouse of consciousness-a plunge into the Alayan Sea.The Butterfly Paradox is a haunting yet whimsical fable about a child's extraordinary adventure to a place where one's state of mind creates one's reality. Aaron Goodnight, a boy whose parents are separated, finds his way to the strange bubble world of Port Utolea where he befriends an enchanting girl named Leela Watermoon. She invites him to the Royal Butterfly Festival but things do not go as planned. Together they encounter several frightening obstacles and must learn that the path to transformation is through the very things they fear the most.
A vividly illustrated celebration of butterflies that discusses their presence in art and culture throughout the ages and examines their symbolism and the related beliefs of a wide variety of peoples.
“Sometimes ideas change the world. This astonishing, miraculous, shattering, inspiring book captures the origins and the arc of the movement for sex equality. It’s a book whose time has come—always, but perhaps now more than ever.” —Cass Sunstein, coauthor of Nudge Under certain conditions, small simple actions can produce large and complex “butterfly effects.” Butterfly Politics shows how Catharine A. MacKinnon turned discrimination law into an effective tool against sexual abuse—grounding and predicting the worldwide #MeToo movement—and proposes concrete steps that could have further butterfly effects on women’s rights. Thirty years after she won the U.S. Supreme Court case establishing sexual harassment as illegal, this timely collection of her previously unpublished interventions on consent, rape, and the politics of gender equality captures in action the creative and transformative activism of an icon. “MacKinnon adapts a concept from chaos theory in which the tiny motion of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a tornado half a world away. Under the right conditions, she posits, small actions can produce major social transformations.” —New York Times “MacKinnon [is] radical, passionate, incorruptible and a beautiful literary stylist... Butterfly Politics is a devastating salvo fired in the gender wars... This book has a single overriding aim: to effect global change in the pursuit of equality.” —The Australian “Sexual Harassment of Working Women was a revelation. It showed how this anti-discrimination law—Title VII—could be used as a tool... It was the beginning of a field that didn’t exist until then.” —U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
A "Hand Up" for Women Stuck in the Toxic Love Rut Do romantic relationships leave you miserable and confused? Are you tired of getting into a relationship and as soon as the initial buzz is gone you get that sinking feeling that whispers, what am I doing? Did the new wear off as soon as the wedding bells rang? Experts say that we gravitate toward relationships within a ten-point spread of our own IQ. Likewise, in the realm of soul-health, we also attract those with whom we are most emotionally compatible. That can be a good thing, or a bad thing - it depends on how much baggage we carry around! What if there was a way to diagnose your soul-health and create a plan for improvement so you could enjoy more satisfying romantic relationships? Complete with an online Soul-Health Profile that will help you assess your own soul-health and identify areas of weaknesses, Love Junkies is just that - an action plan and detailed guide to help you eliminate toxic behaviors that jeopardize your soul health and keep you stuck in unhealthy relationships. You'll learn how to change your habits and heal your soul and most importantly, break the toxic relationship cycle! FOREWORD: By Shannon Ethridge, bestselling author of the Every Woman's Battle books with Steve Arterburn, and The Sexually Confident Woman.
After facing a vicious drug cartel in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly sanctuary, Juan Pablo and his best friend Rocio risk everything and try to escape the cartel’s henchmen—determined to pursue them at all costs—by following the butterflies’ migration all the way to California. Juan Pablo lives in El Rosario, Mexico’s butterfly sanctuary, where millions of winged creatures gather together in one magical place. It is his home, his life. He loves his music, the butterflies, and his grandmother, who has fallen fatally ill—which is why he can’t leave, even when a nefarious drug cartel overtakes the town. But the threat of the cartel becomes ever more menacing, finally endangering the life of his best friend Rocio, the girl he loves. In a heroic act of desperation to save her, Juan Pablo poisons eight members of the cartel. Together, Juan Pablo and Rocio flee, following the instructions his grandmother gave before she took her last breath: Follow the migration of the butterflies, where someone will be waiting for you. But are they following the wings of freedom? Or death?
"Gema, the Curious Butterfly" is a story about friendship, freedom and love. Her grandmother gifted her a book that will guide her through a journey of self awareness, transformation and spiritual growth. More than anything, Gema wants to learn the true meaning of love. To be able to achieve her dream, she needs to polish her heart and make it shine like a diamond. Enjoy the FUN artistic activities with your kids! Create Gema's mask and sing along Gema's song while instilling these important values for their life.
