-
The Big Freeze: A Reporter's Personal Journey Into the World of Egg Freezing and the Quest to Control Our Fertility
A fascinating investigation into the lucrative, minimally regulated, fast-growing industry of egg freezing, from a young reporter on a personal journey into the world of cutting-edge reproductive medicine Ovaries. Most women have two; journalist Natalie Lampert has only one. Then, in her early twenties, she almost lost it, along with her ability to ever have biological children. Doctors urged her to freeze her eggs, and Lampert started asking questions. The Big Freeze is the story of Lampert's personal quest to investigate egg freezing, as well as the multibillion-dollar femtech industry, in order to decide the best way to preserve her own fertility. She attended flashy egg-freezing parties, visited high-priced fertility clinics, talked to dozens of women who froze their eggs, toured the facility in Italy where the technology was developed, and even attended a memorial service for thousands of accidentally destroyed embryos. What was once science fiction is now simply science: Fertility can be frozen in time. Between 2009 and 2021, nearly 100,000 women in the United States opted to freeze their eggs. Along with in vitro fertilization, egg freezing is touted as a way for women to "have it all" by conquering their biological clocks, in line with the global trend of delaying childbirth. A generation after the Pill, this revolutionary technology offers a new kind of freedom for women. But does egg freezing give women real agency or just the illusion of it? A personal and deeply researched guide to the pros, cons, and many facets of this wildly popular technology, The Big Freeze is a page-turning exploration of the quest to control fertility, with invaluable information that answers the questions women have been afraid to ask--or didn't know they should ask in the first place. -
Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality
What would it mean to queer contemplation? To disentangle contemplative spirituality from heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity, and instead engage with openness, curiosity, and a little weirdness?
The world of contemplative Christianity has yielded to the same voices for far too long, many of whom are from centuries before our time, with lives unlike our own, and often from experiences disconnected from marginalization, oppression, and what it feels like to be an outsider.
Cassidy Hall, an LGBTQIA+ Christian contemplative scholar and podcast host, takes us on a journey to queer the contemplative tradition.For Hall, queering is not solely about identifying as queer or applying queer theory; it is about what is gained by seeing things differently. "Queer," she says, "is the way I tilt my head to look at the world."
As queerness reawakened her own contemplative life, Hall discovered that queering and questioning the tradition allowed her to listen more closely to voices that are queer, marginalized, and oppressed--voices that have long existed but have often been overlooked or silenced. For Hall, that also meant moving differently into contemplation, into silence, into liminality and ritual. In showing us the way, she helps us envision what contemplative faith can look like, what spiritual spaces we can reclaim for welcome--and how queering contemplation, and lifting up queer contemplative voices, frees us to seek the infinite possibility of our own identity and engage our spiritual lives with open hearts and open hands.
Whether you're queer or want to queer your own perspectives, or whether you want to uncover the queerness and queer voices in the contemplative tradition--Hall throws open the doors of contemplative spirituality for all, bringing us to contemplation in very new, sometimes old, but always queer ways.
-
Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize
Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball's golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Georgia mountains, Mize emerged from the heart of Dixie as a Bunyonesque slugger, a quiet but sharp-witted man from a broken home who became a professional player at seventeen, embarking on an extended tour of the expansive St. Louis Cardinals Minor League system. Mize then spent fifteen seasons terrorizing Major League pitchers as a member of those Cardinals, the New York Giants of Mel Ott and Leo Durocher, and finally with the New York Yankees, who won a record five straight World Series with Mize as their ace in the hole--the best pinch hitter in the American League. Few hitters have combined such meticulous bat control with brute power the way Mize did. Mize was a line-drive hitter who rarely struck out and also hit for distance, to all fields, and usually for a high average. Nicknamed the Big Cat, "nobody had a better, smoother, easier swing than John," said Cardinals teammate Don Gutteridge. "It was picture perfect." Tabbed as a can't-miss Hall of Famer, then all but forgotten, Mize spent twenty-eight years waiting for the call from Cooperstown before he was finally inducted in 1981, delighting fans with his straightforward commentary and sly sense of humor during a memorable induction speech. From the backroads of the Minor Leagues to the sunny Caribbean, where he played alongside the best Black and Latin players as a twenty-one-year-old, and to the Major Leagues, where he became a ten-time All-Star, home run champion, and World Series hero, Mize forged a memorable trail along baseball's landscape. This is the first complete biography of the Big Cat.
-
Mina's Matchbox
From the award-winning, psychologically astute author of The Memory Police, here is a hypnotic, introspective novel about an affluent Japanese family navigating buried secrets, and their young house guest who uncovers them. In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Tomoko leaves her mother behind in Tokyo and boards a train alone for Ashiya, a coastal town in Japan, to stay with her aunt's family. Tomoko's aunt is an enigma and an outlier in her working-class family, and her magnificent home--and handsome, foreign husband, the president of a soft drink company--are symbols of that status. The seventeen rooms are filled with German-made furnishings; there are sprawling gardens, and even an old zoo where the family's pygmy hippopotamus resides. The family is just as beguiling as their mansion--Tomoko's dignified and devoted aunt, her German grandmother, and her dashing, charming uncle who confidently sits as the family's patriarch. At the center of the family is Tomoko's cousin Mina, a precocious, asthmatic girl of thirteen who draws Tomoko into an intoxicating world full of secret crushes and elaborate storytelling.
In this elegant jewel box of a book, Yoko Ogawa invites us to witness a powerful and formative interlude in Tomoko's life, which she looks back on briefly from adulthood at the novel's end. Behind the family's sophistication are complications that Tomoko struggles to understand--her uncle's mysterious absences, her German grandmother's experience of the second world war, her aunt's misery. Rich with the magic and mystery of youthful experience, Mina's Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time--and a striking depiction of a family on the edge of collapse. -
Sold outSupplication
"Astonishing." -Claudia Dey, author of Daughter. A hallucinatory horror novel set deeply in the consciousness of a woman exploring a changed and frightening world. Our protagonist comes to in a basement, tied to a chair, with a man looming over her. But someone has a knife. We follow her as she emerges from captivity into an unnamed, nightmarish city, seeking some meaning to her new reality. As figures emerge from the night, some offering sanctuary, and others judgement, she keeps moving, making her way through this fever dream of a narrative. SUPPLICATION is a haunting, embodied tale of alienation, fear, and the quest for respite.Sold out -
Explorations with Collage!: Merging Photographs, Paper, and Fiber
A digital collage technique layers together virtual images into a new piece of art, ready for mixed-media and collage makers to use as an eye-opening element. Artist and teacher Wen Redmond shows how by sharing 42 of her main techniques (and many variations) here.
- Makes incorporating digital techniques nonintimidating and exciting, thanks to Wen's engaging mantra of "The only limit is your imagination!"
- Step-by-step photos and instructions for each technique, plus demonstration projects
- Hundreds of images of Wen's artworks show options and ideas.
- The techniques can be added to mixed-media projects, fiber art, or photography.
- One-of-a-kind, innovative methods; for example, creatively converting black-and-white images, making borders using sneaky merging, applying words in ways ranging from stitched to easy silkscreen, creating medium lifts, embedding papers, and experimenting with more than a dozen types of transfer methods.
- Offers a realization new to many makers: combining color, text, and imagery in digital ways helps communicate feelings, memories, or an appreciation of our natural world.Sold out -
You're the Problem, It's You
The enemies-to-lovers queer Victorian romance follow-up to Don't Want You Like a Best Friend, in which a young lord and a second son clash, but find themselves thrust together again and again by their meddling cousins.
"That man is, without a doubt, the absolute most obnoxious...
Bobby Mason is sick of being second best: born the spare, never trusted with family responsibility, never expected to amount to much. He's hungry to contribute something that matters, while all around him his peers are squandering their political and financial power, coasting through life. Which is exactly why he can't stand the new Viscount Demeroven.
...insufferable...
James Demeroven, just come of age and into the Viscountcy, knows that he's a disappointment. Keeping his head down and never raising anyone's expectations is how he's survived life with his stepfather. To quiet, careful James, Bobby Mason is a blazing comet in his endless night, even more alive than he was at Oxford when James crushed on him from afar. But Mason is also brash and recklessly unapologetic, destined to shatter the fragile safety of James's world. Worst of all, he keeps rubbing James's failures in his face.
...hottest man to ever walk the ton."
They can barely get through a single conversation without tensions boiling over. Neither Bobby nor James has ever met a more intriguing, infuriating, infatuating man.
If only they could avoid each other entirely. Bad enough their (wonderful but determined) cousins Beth and Gwen keep conveniently setting up group outings. But when an extortionist starts targeting their families, threatening their reputations, Bobby and James must find a way to work together, without pushing each other's buttons (or tearing them off) in the process...
-
Kei X Yaku: Bound by Law 1
Opposite sides of the law flirt with danger--and each other--in a tangled web of political intrigue that is fraught with deception and secrets. A suspenseful mystery sure to get the heart racing in more ways than one, perfect for fans of No. 6 and Banana Fish! Ichiro, an agent with the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Security Bureau, receives orders to make contact with and closely surveil Shiro, a yakuza hotshot whose bed partners include a considerable amount of influential male politicians. The mission takes an unexpected turn when they realize they've both been pursuing the same cold case: the disappearance of Rion Nakaba, Ichiro's senior and Shiro's sister. Determined to uncover the truth, the two secretly team up under the guise of lovers to try and pick up her trail... -
Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape
Inspired by forests, trees, leaves, roots, and seeds, The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape invites readers to discover an unexpected and imaginative language to better read and write the natural world around us and reclaim our relationship with it. In this gorgeously illustrated and deeply thoughtful collection, Katie Holten gifts readers her tree alphabet and uses it to masterfully translate and illuminate beloved lost and new, original writing in praise of the natural world.With an introduction from Ross Gay, and featuring writings from over fifty contributors including Ursula K. Le Guin, Ada Limón, Robert Macfarlane, Zadie Smith, Radiohead, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, James Gleick, Elizabeth Kolbert, Plato, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Holten illustrates each selection with an abiding love and reverence for the magic of trees. She guides readers on a journey from creation myths and cave paintings to the death of a 3,500-year-old cypress tree, from Tree Clocks in Mongolia and forest fragments in the Amazon to the language of fossil poetry, unearthing a new way to see the natural beauty all around us and an urgent reminder of what could happen if we allow it to slip away.
The Language of Trees considers our relationship with literature and landscape, resulting in an astonishing fusion of storytelling and art and a deeply beautiful celebration of trees through the ages.
-
What the Bees See: A Honeybee's Eye View of the World
Discover the magical world of the honeybee with this deluxe book, featuring 70 stunning images shot with ultraviolet technology.
A comprehensive look into the amazing science of bees, this book collects mesmerizing ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence (UVIVF) photography of flowers and nature and offers fascinating research that explores every aspect of our relationship with honeybees. Learn about the history of beekeeping, current environmental impacts affecting bees, and the rise of bee products in medical and wellness spaces. As you travel through the world of bees, you'll discover a diverse range of flora showcased in a whole new light through the ultraviolet spectrum, from orchids and anemones to manuka and cactus blossoms. A gorgeous gift for environmentalists and photography fans alike, this in-depth book invites us to reimagine the world from a bee's point of view and better understand its importance to the future of all life on earth.
PHENOMENAL NATURE IMAGERY: Craig P. Burrows has been specializing in UVIVF photography for nearly a decade, and this book includes 70 incredible photos taken using this innovative technique. Burrow's luminescent images capture the magic of nature and showcase flowers glowing in otherworldly blues and teals, simulating how bees and other pollinators become attracted to the plants. GET THE BUZZ ABOUT BEES: In addition to the incredible UV photography, this book features engaging illustrations and infographics, archival and historical images, and original interviews with over forty of the world's leading experts on bees and bee products. Organized into three distinct sections on bee ecosystems, bee products and cultivation, and modern medical and wellness advances tied to bees, this in-depth book illuminates the extraordinary role the honeybee has played throughout history and will answer questions you didn't even know you had. SUSTAINABILITY GIFT BOOK: This deluxe photobook is a great gift for nature lovers, bee and beekeeping enthusiasts, and anyone who cares about environmental conservation and preservation. Add it to the shelf with books like the National Geographic Photo Ark series by Joel Sartore and DK's The Bee Book. Perfect for:- Bee, insect, and bug enthusiasts
- Nature lovers and environmental activists
- Flower and nature photography lovers
- People interested in learning about bee products used in medicine, wellness, and skincare
- People interested in UVIVF technology and innovative photography techniques
- Fans of nature documentaries like David Attenborough's Life In Color series
- Fans of Craig P. Burrows's research and photography
-
The Ultimate Guide for Gay Dads: Everything You Need to Know about LGBTQ Parenting But Are (Mostly) Afraid to Ask
Top LGBTQ parenting expert cover every aspect of fatherhood for gay men in this essential guide to growing your family in the post-DOMA era. Bestselling author Eric Rosswood is a major influencer on social media with over 100K followers on Twitter alone as well as thousands on other platforms. He is an in-demand authority and commentator on LGBTQ issues including civil rights as well as parenting and marriage and politics. The author has been featured in major media including the Toronto Star, Out Magazine, TimeOut New York, The Bay Area Reporter, Queerty, The Advocate, The Huffington Post, Boston Spirit and many regional LGBTQ press. An estimated two million American LBGTQ people would like to adopt with an estimated 65,000 adopted children are living with a gay parent. A LiveScience study undertaken by Massachusetts Clark University found that, "Gay parents tend to be more motivated, more committed on average because those chose to be parents because they chose to be parents." Abbie Goldberg, Psychologist CU. Gays With Kids blog is features advice, articles, tips and legal advice from the 50 of the top gay experts in parenting and relationships. -
Make It Count: My Fight to Become the First Transgender Olympic Runner
By turns harrowing and hopeful, MAKE IT COUNT is the inspiring story of the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA title, following her traditional upbringing in Jamaica, her fight to become a US citizen, and her efforts to achieve her Olympic dreams. CeCé Telfer is a warrior. The first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA championship, she has contended with transphobia on and off the track since childhood. Now, she stands at the crossroads of a national and international conversation about equity in sports, forced to advocate for her personhood and rights at every turn. After spending years training for the 2024 Olympics, Telfer has been sidelined and silenced more times than she can count. But she's never been good at taking no for an answer. MAKE IT COUNT is Telfer's raw and inspiring story. From coming of age in Jamaica, where she grew up hearing a constant barrage of slurs, to beginning her new life in Toronto and then New Hampshire, where she realized what running could offer her, to living in the backseat of her car while searching for a coach, to Mexico, where she trained for the US Trials, this book follows the arc of Telfer's Olympic dream. This is the story of running on what feels like the edge of a knife, of what it means to compete when you're not just an athlete but treated like a walking controversy. But it's also the story of resilience and athleticism, of a runner who found a clarity in her sport that otherwise eluded her--a sense of being simply alive on this earth, a human moving through space. Finally, herself.
-
Til Death Do Us Bard: A Heart-Warming Tale of Marriage, Magic, and Monster-Slaying
'An absolute bear-hug of a book!' SANGU MANDANNA, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Til Death Do Us Bard is a charming queer fantasy, perfect for fans of Legends and Lattes and Nettle and Bone. 'Cosy fantasy at its very best' READER REVIEW, 5 STARS Marriage isn't always sunshine and unicorns . . . sometimes it's monsters and necromancy.
It's been almost a year since Logan 'The Bear' Theaker hung up his axe and settled down with his sunshiny bard husband, Pie. But when Pie disappears, Logan is forced back into a world he thought he'd left behind. Logan quickly discovers that Pie has been blackmailed into stealing a powerful artifact capable of creating an undead army. With the help of an old adversary and a ghost from his past, Logan sets out to rescue his husband. But the further the quest takes him, the more secrets Logan uncovers. He'll need all his strength to rescue his husband - but can he save their marriage? THEMES AND TROPES! Fluffy D&D campaign, disability rep, grumpy sunshine, adventure, MM romance, found family, grumpy hero, safe and cared for, sharing the same room, skeletal dog, gay romance novel, happily ever after! 'THIS IS EVERYTHING!' ***** READER REVIEW 'Joyous, uplifting, heart warming' ***** READER REVIEW
'The romance, the adventure, the cast of characters. Every time I think about this book it puts a smile on my face' ****** READER REVIEW 'This book felt like a cozy game of D&D with a side of romance and I loved every minute of it!' ****** READER REVIEW 'I highly recommend this to anyone who likes cozy fantasy, D&D and/or Our Flag Means Death!' ****** READER REVIEW 'Sometimes you just find a book where you see the cover, find it intriguing, read the synopsis, find that even more intriguing and then you read the book and it's everything you wanted' ****** READER REVIEW -
Inkworld: The Color of Revenge (the Inkheart Series, Book #4)
Vengeance awaits in the follow up to the epic, award-winning, New York Times bestselling Inkheart trilogy by internationally acclaimed author Cornelia Funke.Five years have passed since the events of Inkdeath. At last, peace reigns in Ombra where Meggie, Mo, Dustfinger and all the other residents lead a happy, carefree life. But it has been a different story for Orpheus, who after fleeing to the north, has spent his days living a meager and deprived existence fueled only by his thirst for revenge against Dustfinger and all those who betrayed him.
Now Orpheus is willing to use any means necessary to take revenge. Even the darkest spell the ink world has to offer.
When Dustfinger's deepest fears come true, he'll have to figure out whether the words still obey him. Or is he the one who should be afraid of the pictures this time...
-
Who Is Bad Bunny?
Read about Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny and his incredible career in this book from Who HQ Now, the series featuring the trending topics and news makers of today. Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, is one of today's most popular artists. He made his start posting his music on Soundcloud, and in 2016, his song "Diles" got him signed to a major record label. Since then, Bad Bunny has performed at Coachella and collaborated with superstars like Cardi B, J Balvin, and Drake. Breaking language barriers, Bad Bunny is now one of the top streamed artists internationally on Spotify. Bad Bunny is just getting started with his music takeover, having won 3 Grammys and 10 Billboard Music Awards. Not only that, Bad Bunny is heavily involved in activism spaces and even wrestles professionally! Learn more about Bad Bunny and his diverse career in this illustrated biography for young readers. -
Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief
A practical, compassionate guide to sibling loss, with research, stories, and strategies for "forgotten mourners" as they move through the stages of grief towards finding meaning.
After her brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, Annie Sklaver Orenstein was heartbroken and unmoored. Standing in the grief section of her local bookstore, she searched for guides on how to work through her grief as a mourning sibling--and found nothing. More than 4 million American adults each year will lose a sibling, yet there isn't a modern resource guide available that speaks directly to this type of grief that at times can be overshadowed by grieving parents and spouses and made even more difficult by the complexities of sibling dynamics. In AlwaysaSibling, Annie uses her own story and those of others to create the empathic, thoughtful, practical resource that she sought. Divided into three sections: With, Without, and Within, it creates a framework that enables the reader to ground themselves in order to process and validate this often overlooked grief. Annie guides readers to capture the memories and emotions of life with their now deceased sibling, then moves to addressing the grieving process in detail as they navigate life without them. Ultimately, readers will find ways to experience their sibling's presence within themselves and acknowledge their legacy. With practical strategies rooted in proven grief processing techniques, trauma recovery, and psychoanalysis, Always A Sibling truly supports mourners through the unique experience of sibling loss.