Using the occasion of her eightieth-birthday party toreflect on the past, Doris Grumbach delivers an enchanting memoirof the writers, friends, and loves who have accompanied her in mindand body through an extraordinary life of letters.

Everyone knows that rubbing a rabbit's foot will bring goodluck—but did you know this superstition was introduced to theUnited States by slaves from West Africa? Field Guide toLuck features the fascinating origins of the most popularcharms and signs—everything from crossed fingers and full moons tofour-leaf clovers and Friday the thirteenth. Each entry featuresinformation about the origins and cultural context of thesuperstition, with plenty of interesting trivia along the way. (Forthe record, Chinese fortune cookies were invented in SanFrancisco!) Also included are dozens of talismans and symbols from around theworld, including cows (India), money cats (Japan), akuaba dolls(Ghana), jade (China), and more. Best of all, Field Guide toLuck showcases many of these lucky charms with 48 pages offull-color illustrations—so you'll be sure to recognize themwherever you encounter them!

First developed as a short manual for students in a yearlongmeditation course, Presence Meditation offers a step-by-stepprogram for increasing self-awareness through simple but revelatoryexercises. The practice of presence meditation involves becomingpresent to whatever is going on and letting things be just as theyare. This awareness is characterized by open attention and neutralobservation, which increases the capacity to observe withoutjudging, enables transformation without forcing, and opens the wayto a more immediate sense of meaning and joy in life. AuthorJens-Erik Risom begins by describing the purpose of meditation andthe “four introductions” (rootedness, attention to breathing,fullness of feeling, and witness awareness), and then presents thegradual steps for achieving presence, deepening neutrality, openingto trust, sensing spaciousness, and more. There are many books about meditation on the market, from Westernauthors like Eckhart Tolle to Tibetan Buddhist teachers. But manypeople

Childhood polio left Leonard Kriegel without the use of hislegs. In Flying Solo, he writes in a lyrical, uncompromising voiceabout the interlaced themes of courage and masculinity against thebackdrop of loss. Tracing memories back to his coming of age in the1940s and 1950s, he portrays an interior life partly sustained bytraditional visions of manhood, partly raging at the impossibilityof fully living them out. Flying Solo is beautiful personal writingthat will change the way we think about manhood.

HOUSEKEEPING 101 Accidental Housewife (n): an individual who manages the householdunexpectedly, unintentionally, by default, or by chance, withminimal skills, a glass of wine, and little interest in masteringher/his domain. Once upon a time lived the 1950s housewife who joyfully followedher domestic duties. Today’s housewife is anything but traditional,yet some things never change: mounting laundry, accumulating dust,looming clutter, and the refrain, “What’s for dinner?” Now JulieEdelman, the go-to gal for entertaining and practical householdtips and trends, turns these mundane chores into fun and easytasks. Offering real life advice and simple solutions, Julie helpsyou ? tidy up with the faucet to floor facelift: a stress-free way toclean with minimum effort to achieve maximum effect, as you dancewith dust bunnies and indulge in a bit of pampering along theway ? conquer PMS (Pretty Manageable Stains): learn how to painlesslydeal with the most common stains using everyth

Are you worried about protecting your career in this toughmarket? Are you ready to get your dream job or that covetedpromotion? Are you eager to show the world everything you have to offer? If you answered yes, to any of those questions, this book is foryou! Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio see it all the time:women derailing their careers because they believe that if theyjust sit quietly and work hard, someone upstairs will recognizetheir contribution and deliver big rewards. However, intoday’s ultra-competitive workplace and tough economic climate ifyou want your dream job with your dream salary, and all theopportunities and fulfillment that come with it, you have to bearmed with the right strategies and big, bold moves. The Girls Guide to The Big Bold Moves For Career Success gives you everything you need to decide what you want out of yourwork life and create a plan to make it happen. Fromnegotiating a raise or a promotion to starting a new profession,finding your footing after a layoff, Fri

Unplanned pregnancies happen to women in every season of life:the newly married, the never-married, the empty-nester, theteenager, the overworked mother, the career woman. Yet we rarelytalk about how lonely and confusing this experience can be. In Surprise Child, Leslie Leyland Fields, whoexperienced two unplanned pregnancies in her forties, lyricallyweaves her own story with the stories of other women who understandthe isolation you face as expectations and plans are turned upsidedown to make room for a child. “Each year, more than three million women discover themselvespregnant–at a hard time, the wrong time, at a difficult place intheir lives. I am one of those women.…” Together, these women walk with you month-by-month through thephysical and emotional stages of pregnancy, voicing with startlinghonesty their own anxieties and struggles. Here you will find thecompanionship and hope you need to journey toward new life.