"Comedy alongside heartache, these stories croon honky-tonk ballads after closing-time. They wade in loss but keep scanning for a Coast Guard rescue... copter. Astute about the nuances of sliding social class, the stories are tough, direct, grimly funny .... The writing is adult: it acknowledges how much has been lost already. But the tone remains fresh with sweet (or bruising) sensation. Every character comes rigged with a crazed belief-as the title suggests-that Luck is still somehow bound this way-after an unexpected delay in another time-zone .... The tales are set in trailer suburbia. But their actions seem played out across the Wal-Mart parking lot's only clover-covered median. Sexual relief can be found, but out near the dumpsters of a closed strip-mall steak house .... The writer's steadying empathy and talent for doom, drive the characters toward reckless chance-takings. This creates a tender suspense as hard to shake as the stories' betraying faith in Luck itself." Allan Gurganus, Citation for Runner Up in The Grace Paley Prize Competition.

In 1995, popular anxieties about black masculinity became evident in public reactions to the conclusion of the OJ Simpson trial and the Million Man... March on Washington. The nation's divided response to the OJ verdict, together with the controversy surrounding Louis Farrakhan's call to black men to come together for a "day of atonement" brought issues of race and gender to the forefront of national debate. In his timely and incisive book Are We Not Men?, Phillip Brian Harper explores issues of race and representation and shows that ideas about black masculinity have always played a troubled role both in the formation of African-American identity and in the mass media at large. What is at stake when a picture of OJ Simpson is darkened on the cover of Time magazine? Why is AIDS still seen as a white gay disease when a quarter of deaths from AIDS from 1981-1991 were among black males? Using examples from a variety of cultural contexts, ranging from sports and pop music to literature and television, Harper investigates these questions in an effort to show the ways in which narrow definitions of black manhood have failed to acknowledge real differences within the African-American community--to grave social and political effect. He examines recent phenomena, such as reactions to ABC anchorman Max Robinson's AIDS-related death and Magic Johnson's HIV status, as well as the homophobia and chauvinism of the Black Arts movement of the '60s and '70s, the construction of black "crossover" identity from Motown and Diana Ross to Run-DMC and MTV and the way that "street" authenticity is incorporated into Michael Jackson's choreography. He unravels the gender politics behind the "passing" novels of the Harlem Renaissance, scrutinizes black masculinity as seen through the eyes of the white protagonist of the 1961 autobiographical narrative Black Like Me and explores early representations of African Americans on television shows like "Julia" and "Room 222." Upholding the recent success of drag performer RuPaul, who demonstrates the limits of traditional notions of black masculinity by openly defying them, Harper suggests that popular culture is able to transcend its own representations and points to a future in which "black male" is no longer a homogenizing term. An original, far-reaching and ultimately humane work of cultural criticism, Harper's book argues convincingly that there are no innocent texts, and forces us to reexamine the culture that surrounds us. Are We Not Men? will find a wide audience among those interested in American and African-American cultural studies, gender studies and gay/lesbian studies.

What binds together Jews of Israel and the United States? Amid the hope and frustration generated by the Middle East peace process, the meaning of... Jewish statehood is more vigorously contested than ever before. A secular democratic Israel, responsive to Western liberal values, is prepared to make peace with the Palestinians by sacrificing its own historic homeland. But a covenantal Israel, which draws its Jewish identity from divine promise and the biblical narrative, refuses to surrender to modern imperatives. As the very nature of Jewish statehood has become ever more polarized, American Jewish life has been profoundly affected by this fateful Zionist contradiction.In Are We One? Jerold S. Auerbach presents a surprising new interpretationof this contemporary Jewish dilemma. The modern Jewish impulse to embrace Western values, he writes, exacts a terrible price. He offers a critical reassessment of Zionism, a challenging analysis of the sources of the identification of American Jews with Israel—and a gloomy prognosis of the future of Jewish life, both in Israel and the United States.In a ringing indictment that is sure to spark controversy, he states that the eagerness of secular Israelis to import American culture reflects their sweeping rejection of Jewish and Zionist values. Indeed, the diminishing number of Israelis who actually remain faithful to Jewish religious and historical imperatives are denigrated as fundamentalist zealots by Israeli and American Jews alike. Present-day Israel now exhibits such Jewish self-loathing, he states, that it has depleted its own ability to inspire world Jewry.In a groundbreaking book that draws upon original historical analysis and extensive personal experience in Israel, Auerbach invites readers to consider the debilitating consequences of an adulterated Jewish identity in Israel and in the United States for the very future of Judaism.

"Granta" magazine has published some of the best writing about family relationships in the English language. Over the years, its writers have dealt with... the most difficult, the most important and the most personal relationships of their lives. Granta Books' publication, in 1993, of Blake Morrison's "When Did You Last See Your Father" heralded the huge rise in popularity of the literary memoir, and since then, Granta has carried pieces of non-fiction and fiction about the family from writers including Doris Lessing, Jane Anne Phillips, Hanif Kureishi, Jackie Kay, Helen Simpson, Linda Grant, Orhan Pamuk, Graham Swift, Ian Jack, Justine Picardie, Edmund White, Joy Williams, John McGahern, Jon McGregor, Paul Theroux, A.L. Kennedy, Siri Hustvedt and David Goldblatt. "The New Granta Book of the Family" collects together a stunning variety of pieces about every member of the family.

The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic.Today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the... empire that took its place. Depending on who’s doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action or a dire warning of imminent collapse. In Are We Rome? the esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of bribery in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization. Murphy persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside -- two things that must be changed if we are to avoid Rome’s fate.

As project management techniques becomes ubiquitous in the workplace, more and more people find themselves challenged by bureaucracy, unruly team... members, and irrational customers. This compelling (and sometimes humorous) book follows the day-to-day trials and tribulations of a team working to commercialize an innovative new product. The team faces commonplace issues such as corporate leadership and strategy; impacts on sales and marketing; finance; operations; design; production and the supply chain. Presented in diary format to make for an engaging read, each chapter ends with a lesson on what could have improved the team's performance, focusing on the four 'Ps" of project management: processes, people, parts, and phenomena. Sneak a peek in this diary to discover the Good, the Bad, and the Utterly Random concerning one of the most essential, unpredictable and unsung responsibilities in business.

When TV celebrity Dinah Shore sang "See the USA in your Chevrolet," 1950s America took her to heart. Every summer, parents piled the kids in the back... seat, threw the luggage in the trunk, and took to the open highway. Chronicling this innately American ritual, Susan Rugh presents a cultural history of the American middle-class family vacation from 1945 to 1973, tracing its evolution from the establishment of this summer tradition to its decline. The first in-depth look at post-World War II family travel, Rugh's study recounts how postwar prosperity and mass consumption--abetted by paid vacation leave, car ownership, and the new interstate highway system--forged the ritual of the family road trip and how that ritual became entwined with what it meant to be an American. With each car a safe haven from the Cold War, vacations became a means of strengthening family bonds and educating children in parental values, national heritage, and citizenship. Rugh's history looks closely at specific types of trips, from adventures in the Wild West to camping vacations in national parks to summers at Catskill resorts. It also highlights changing patterns of family life, such as the relationship between work and play, the increase in the number of working women, and the generation gap of the sixties. Distinctively, Rugh also plumbs NAACP archives and travel guides marketed specifically to blacks to examine the racial boundaries of road trips in light of segregated public accommodations that forced many black families to sleep in cars--a humiliation that helped spark the civil rights struggle. In addition, she explains how the experience of family camping predisposed baby boomers toward a strong environmental consciousness. Until the 1970s recession ended three decades of prosperity and the traditional nuclear family began to splinter, these family vacations were securely woven into the fabric of American life. Rugh's book allows readers to relive those wondrous wanderings across the American landscape and to better understand how they helped define an essential aspect of American culture. Notwithstanding the rueful memories of discomforts and squabbles in a crowded car, those were magical times for many of the nation's families. This book is part of the CultureAmerica series.

More than half a century after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights defined what a human being is and is entitled to, Catharine MacKinnon asks:... Are women human yet? If women were regarded as human, would they be sold into sexual slavery worldwide; veiled, silenced, and imprisoned in homes; bred, and worked as menials for little or no pay; stoned for sex outside marriage or burned within it; mutilated genitally, impoverished economically, and mired in illiteracy--all as a matter of course and without effective recourse? The cutting edge is where law and culture hurts, which is where MacKinnon operates in these essays on the transnational status and treatment of women. Taking her gendered critique of the state to the international plane, ranging widely intellectually and concretely, she exposes the consequences and significance of the systematic maltreatment of women and its systemic condonation. And she points toward fresh ways--social, legal, and political--of targeting its toxic orthodoxies. MacKinnon takes us inside the workings of nation-states, where the oppression of women defines community life and distributes power in society and government. She takes us to Bosnia-Herzogovina for a harrowing look at how the wholesale rape and murder of women and girls there was an act of genocide, not a side effect of war. She takes us into the heart of the international law of conflict to ask--and reveal--why the international community can rally against terrorists' violence, but not against violence against women. A critique of the transnational status quo that also envisions the transforming possibilities of human rights, this bracing book makes us look as never before at an ongoing war too long undeclared.

Conversations take place in every early childhood classroom—between teachers and children, and among children. Are You Listening? asks teachers to... examine these conversations and their impact on children’s learning.Often, teachers use conversations to impart information to children instead of really listening to children and allowing them to make their own decisions. Grounded in child-centered, relationship-based theory, this book covers topics such as how to create an environment that supports quality conversations, how to encourage conversations that support learning and development, and how to work with children with limited language capabilities.

We're going in. One more time. And this time we're facing some pretty mean programs—Cynicism, Obfuscation, and Postmodernist Despair—plus the usual... obnoxious bunch of totally ruthless Agents, who always insist on conformity or Deletion. And just in case you were hoping to make it back, they've reconfigured the culture so there are hardly any phone booths left.We're gonna need guns. Lots of guns. And an endless supply of logic, humor, disobedience, defiance, and argumentative tenacity.The surviving members of the old crew are still on board, along with some new recruits, freshly located, unplugged, and debugged. Are you with us?You've already made the choice. Now you have to understand WHY you made it.

From the best-selling author of Fun Home, Time magazine’s No. 1 Book of the Year, a brilliantly told graphic memoir of Alison Bechdel becoming the... artist her mother wanted to be.Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven. Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel’s own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother—to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.

Are You Prepared to Teach Reading? will help students prepare for state certification examinations on reading instruction and self-regulate their own... learning about teaching reading.   This book has been adapted from the RICA supplement, a test-prep booklet created for students in the California teacher prep program who must pass the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment.  Chapters in the book provide brief reviews of the components of reading instruction.  Added to this national version of the book are discussions addressing fluency and English Language Learners.  Case studies and thoughtful, diverse multicultural classroom scenarios allow readers to assess themselves with multiple choice decision-making questions, asking what readers know about reading practice.  The book will be useful for all students who want to self-assess their fundamental knowledge of reading instruction, adequately prepare for their own state reading certification exams, or assess their core knowledge of literacy instruction if they are engaged in alternative certification programs.

"You don’t want the book to end; it glows with compassion and you want more, more because you know this is a fine wine of a life, richer as it... ages."—Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s AshesOne of nine children born into a penniless North Dublin family, Nuala O’Faolain was saved from a harrowing childhood by her love of books and reading. Though she ultimately became one of Ireland’s best-known columnists, her professional success did little to ease her loneliness and longing for a deep connection to the world. Are You Somebody? distills her experiences into a wisdom that can only come from an obstinate refusal to shrink from life.This commemorative edition of her landmark memoir celebrates O’Faolain’s remarkable life and work with a new foreword from Frank McCourt as well as additional archival materials. Strikingly vivid and starkly emotional, Are You Somebody? is, like O’Faolain herself, a singular example of courage, honesty, and bold living.

Updated for new and experienced principals, this resource provides personal stories, practical advice, a new chapter on career fulfillment, and study... guides for professional development.