The idea for this book began with David Lavery’s 2007 column for flowtv.org. “The Crying Game: Why Television Brings Us to Tears” asked us to consider that “age-old mystery”: tears. The respondents to David’s initial survey—Michele Byers among them—didn’t agree on anything ... Some cried more over film, some television, some books; some felt their tears to be a release, others to be a manipulation. They did agree, however, as did the readers who responded to the column, that crying over stories, and even “things,” is something that is a shared and familiar cultural practice. This book was born from that moment of recognition. On the Verge of Tears is not the first book to think about crying. Tom Lutz’s Crying: The Natural & Cultural History of Tears, Judith Kay Nelson’s Seeing Through Tears: Crying and Attachment, Peter Schwenger’s The Tears of Things: Melancholy and Physical Objects, and Henry Jenkins’ The Wow Climax: Tracing the Emotional Impact of Popular Culture also offer forays into this familiar, if not always entirely comfortable, emotional space. This book differs markedly from each of these others, however. As a collection of essay by diverse hands, its point of view is multi-vocal. It is not a history of tears (as is Lutz’s superb book); nor is its approach psychological/sociological (as is Nelson’s). It does not limit itself to very contemporary popular culture (as does Jenkins’ book) or material culture (as does Schwenger’s study). What On the Verge of Tears offers are personal, cultural, and political ruminations on the tears we shed in our daily engagements with the world and its artifacts. The essays found within are often deeply personal, but also have broad implications for everyday life. The authors included here contemplate how and why art, music, film, literature, theatre, theory, and material artifacts make us weep. They consider the risks of tears in public and private spaces; the way tears implicate us in tragedy, comedy, and horror. On the Verge of Tears does not offer a unified theory of crying, but, instead, invites us to imagine tears as a multi-vocal language we can all, in some manner, understand.

Contemplating how and why art, music, film, literature, theatre, theory and material artifacts make us weep, this collection of essays considers the ways in which tears implicate us in tragedy, comedy and horror.

When the Devil comes a-calling, Grandy isn't surprised. He's a damned soul—or so he thinks. When the urge comes over him, he kills without pity or remorse. But the Devil isn't after his soul. Not just yet. He hires Grandy to infiltrate a cult which is planning to open a Portal to another dimension. The Old Gods await. It's a jurisdictional issue. The Devil can't go where he isn't invited. But Grandy can.

In 1244, the brilliant poet Rumi and the wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz met and immediately fell into a deep spiritual connection. The Glance taps a major, yet little explored theme in Rumi's poetry-the mystical experience that occurs in the meeting of the eyes of the lover and the beloved, parent and child, friend and soul mate. Coleman Barks's new translations of these powerful and complex poems capture Rumi's range from the ethereal to the everyday. They reveal the unique place of human desire, love, and ecstasy, where there exists not just the union of two souls, but the crux of the universe. Here is a new kind of love lyric for our time-one of longing, connection, and wholeness.

Karina Winkler loves her job at a men's haberdashery in Aachen, Germany. When she assists a handsome WWI German soldier with a purchase, she never dreams that her brief encounter would lead to a date and spellbinding romance. When they fall head over heels in love, Karina discovers that Derek von Kampler is a baron and heir to Castle Royale. On leave, recovering from an injury, Derek invites Karina to the castle to meet his father, Baron von Kampler, and his aristocratic family. Despite feeling intimidated by the obvious disapproval of the Baroness and Fredericka, Derek's tempestuous sister, Karina accepts Derek's marriage proposal. Sadly, their time together is brief due to Derek's orders to report back to his regiment. Karina suddenly finds herself a newlywed and left alone to face the hatred of her husband's family. When tragedy strikes, Karina finds an ally in Nana, Derek's long-ago governess. Grief-stricken, Karina agonizes over revealing a shocking secret, but she never realizes how this revelation will put her life and those she loves in mortal danger. When threats are made on her life, Karina desperately prays for God's protection as she searches for an answer to her dilemma. Trapped in postwar occupied Germany, Karina prays for a miracle that will allow her to survive and protect those entrusted to her loving care.

From Back Cover: Live and Remember is one of the most important works of Russian literature of the post-Stalin, pre-glasnost era. First published in Russian in 1974, it was immediately hailed by Soviet critics as a superb-if atypical-example of war literature and a moving depiction of the degradation and ultimate damnation of a frontline deserter-although it did provoke controversy for its sympathetic portrayal of the deserter's wife. But the novel has also attracted the attention of both Western and Soviet critics for it masterly psychological portrait of two characters caught in a hopeless situation. The novel tells the story of a Siberian peasant who makes a tragic miscalculation by deserting in the last year of the war, and the loyal wife who embraces his fate as her own. Rasputin examines the doomed relationship of these characters, sharply evoking the ties that bind individuals to their land, their community, their family. More than commentary on the nature of Soviet power or on the conduct of the war, Live and Remember is simultaneously a timeless tale with universal appeal and a very Russian story.