Abuse, deceit, treachery, economic hardship, troubled or unsuccessful relationships, feeling overwhelmed by life's mishaps and the like all spell pain. Oftentimes we want to talk to someone. Pain leads to depression which can cause one to sink so low that they lose the will to go on. It would be a tremendous help to so many if only they could be validated, understood and given comfort, new insight and direction. May the comfort that the pages of this book have to offer serve to heal your soul to the point where you gain clear thinking and new strength to move on in life!
Only recently has the enormous literary output of women writers of the Ming and Qing periods (1368-1911) been rediscovered. Through these valuable texts, we apprehend in ways not possible earlier the complexity of women’s experiences in the inner quarters and their varied responses to challenges facing state and society. Writing in many genres, women engaged with topics as varied as war, travel, illness, love, friendship, female heroism, and religion. Drawing on a library of newly digitized resources, this volume's eleven chapters describe, analyze, and theorize these materials. They question previous assumptions about women’s lives and abilities, open up new critical space in Chinese literary history and offer new perspectives on China’s culture and society. “This volume rewrites the history of Chinese women’s literature by taking a truly inter-disciplinary (instead of merely multi-disciplinary) approach. In so doing, it ends up illuminating the centrality of writing women to the social, political, and intellectual lives of the Chinese empire from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.” Prof. Dorothy Ko, Barnard College, Columbia University, author of Cinderella's Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding (California, 2005).
What would you give to sit down with some of the most influential youth workers in the country? Not just the big names but those individuals who have proven time after time that they have a passion for reaching teens today that is pushing the limits of traditional youth ministry? In Pushing the Limits, veteran youth workers Mike Calhoun and Mel Walker have collected some of the best writing from youth pastors and leaders in churches big and small around the country who are doing what it takes to tap into the true potential of youth ministry. They give you the opportunity to find out what these youth leaders are doing that is making an impact and put it to work in your own ministry.
"Mary Beck’s collection of legends from Tlingit and Haida folklore provides an excellent look at not only the mythology but the value and culture of these Southeast Alaska Natives." - Jan O’Meara Homer News Over uncounted generations the Tlingits and Haidas of Southeast Alaska developed a spoken literature as robust and distinctive as their unique graphic art style, and passed it from the old to the young to ensure the continuity of their culture. Even today when the people gather, now under lamplight rather than the flickering glow from the central fire pit, the ancient myths and legends are told and retold, and they still reinforce the unity of the lineage, and clan and the culture. "Mary Beck opens this collection of legends by setting the tradition scene: ‘…It will be a time of feasting, singing, and dancing, of honoring lineages and of telling ancestral stories.’ In this small, beautifully produced volume, enhanced by the wonderful illustrations by Nancy DeWitt, Becks tells nine traditional ancient myths and legends from the oral literature that are authentic for one group or another from this region, including Fog Woman, Volcano Woman, Bear Mother and The Boy Who Fed Eagles." - Bill Hunt Anchorage Daily News
Who are the hottest Japanese video game and animation heroes and heroines? This is a most up-to-date collection of 100 prominent character designers of video games and animation created in 2010 and 2011. No other book collects as many professional works as this book. For game and animation fans, this book allows a comprehensive look at a variety of characters from a range of video game titles, as well as the work of character designers. Designers featured in this book include Shigenori Soejima, Suzuhito Yasuda, Mel Kishida, redjuice, Masayoshi Tanaka, Makoto Tsuchibayashi, aokiume, Takahiro Kishida, Eiji Kaneda, and more. Interviews with Shigenori Soejima ("Catherine," "Persona 3," and "Persona 4") and Eiji Kaneda ("Rezel Cross") make this the definitive book on Japanese video game design.
The romance novel has the strange distinction of being the most popular but least respected of literary genres. While it remains consistently dominant in bookstores and on best-seller lists, it is also widely dismissed by the critical community. Scholars have alleged that romance novels help create subservient readers, who are largely women, by confining heroines to stories that ignore issues other than love and marriage. Pamela Regis argues that such critical studies fail to take into consideration the personal choice of readers, offer any true definition of the romance novel, or discuss the nature and scope of the genre. Presenting the counterclaim that the romance novel does not enslave women but, on the contrary, is about celebrating freedom and joy, Regis offers a definition that provides critics with an expanded vocabulary for discussing a genre that is both classic and contemporary, sexy and entertaining. Taking the stance that the popular romance novel is a work of literature with a brilliant pedigree, Regis asserts that it is also a very old, stable form. She traces the literary history of the romance novel from canonical works such as Richardson's Pamela through Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Brontë's Jane Eyre, and E. M. Hull's The Sheik, and then turns to more contemporary works such as the novels of Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Janet Dailey, Jayne Ann Krentz, and Nora Roberts.
