"A mother recounts how the birth of Andrew with Down syndrome, and the loss to cancer of a second baby, start a family's journey through the maze of parenthood. With the support of his loving family, Andrew mastered the skills of life and became a contributing member of society."--

Two generations ago, young men and women with only a high-school degree would have entered the plentiful industrial occupations which then sustained the middle-class ideal of a male-breadwinner family. Such jobs have all but vanished over the past forty years, and in their absence ever-growing numbers of young adults now hold precarious, low-paid jobs with few fringe benefits. Facing such insecure economic prospects, less-educated young adults are increasingly forgoing marriage and are having children within unstable cohabiting relationships. This has created a large marriage gap between them and their more affluent, college-educated peers. In Labor’s Love Lost, noted sociologist Andrew Cherlin offers a new historical assessment of the rise and fall of working-class families in America, demonstrating how momentous social and economic transformations have contributed to the collapse of this once-stable social class and what this seismic cultural shift means for the nation’s future. Drawing from more than a hundred years of census data, Cherlin documents how today’s marriage gap mirrors that of the Gilded Age of the late-nineteenth century, a time of high inequality much like our own. Cherlin demonstrates that the widespread prosperity of working-class families in the mid-twentieth century, when both income inequality and the marriage gap were low, is the true outlier in the history of the American family. In fact, changes in the economy, culture, and family formation in recent decades have been so great that Cherlin suggests that the working-class family pattern has largely disappeared. Labor's Love Lost shows that the primary problem of the fall of the working-class family from its mid-twentieth century peak is not that the male-breadwinner family has declined, but that nothing stable has replaced it. The breakdown of a stable family structure has serious consequences for low-income families, particularly for children, many of whom underperform in school, thereby reducing their future employment prospects and perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of economic disadvantage. To address this disparity, Cherlin recommends policies to foster educational opportunities for children and adolescents from disadvantaged families. He also stresses the need for labor market interventions, such as subsidizing low wages through tax credits and raising the minimum wage. Labor's Love Lost provides a compelling analysis of the historical dynamics and ramifications of the growing number of young adults disconnected from steady, decent-paying jobs and from marriage. Cherlin’s investigation of today’s “would-be working class” shines a much-needed spotlight on the struggling middle of our society in today’s new Gilded Age.

An illustrated guide to the power of touch introduces readers to proven techniques for triggering desire and for enhancing ones physical pleasure with just a touch.

Alexander's Lovers reveals the personality of Alexander the Great through the mirror of the lives of those with whom he pursued romantic relationships, including his friend Hephaistion, his queen Roxane, his mistress Barsine & Bagoas the Eunuch. Did you know that Alexander got the idea of adopting Persian dress from a book he read in his youth? Had you realised that Alexander's pursuit of divine honours was part of his emulation of Achilles, that Bagoas undertook a diplomatic mission or that Hephaistion's diplomacy kept Athens from joining a Spartan rebellion? Are you aware that Aetion's painting of Alexander's marriage depicted Hephaistion & Bagoas as well as Roxane and really depicted the King's passions? Which girl was betrothed to Alexander's son? Would it surprise you that Alexander's mourning for Hephaistion was conducted according to models from Homer and Euripides? If you would like to get to know Alexander on a more personal level, then you need to read this book. Second edition, revised & updated.

From a #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator comes a picture book to celebrate and remember the days we spent inside—the joys and the hardships, the bravery and the resilience, but most of all the love. This book, inspired by kids who found ways to stay connected to the people they love during the pandemic, is about what an imaginative, curious and loving little girl did when her world was turned inside out. The girl played inside, she learned inside, she waited inside. She talked on the phone to her Nan inside. Her days and nights were all inside, and she would think about what she missed outside--the running, cheering, splashing, hugging, and of course her Nan. Finally, when the girl could go outside, she was happy to be there--to hug her Nan, see her friends, and even climb a tree. But she had changed inside, and she knew she would always remember the small things and the big things that made that time special. Here is a picture book that will help young children remember, process, and resolve the feelings they had during the pandemic. Includes prompts to help readers make their own inside story book.

When three of Andrew Marin's friends came out to him in the span of three months, he was confronted head-on with the question of how to reconcile his friends with his faith. Love Is an Orientation is the result of years of wrestling with this issue. In the book, Marin speaks out with compassion and conviction, elevating the conversation between Christianity and the GLBT community so that the focus is moved from genetics to gospel, where it really belongs.

How do you fall back in love? This was the underlying problem of one in four couples seeking help from relationship therapist Andrew G. Marshall. They described their problem as: 'I love you but I'm not in love with you'. Noticing how widespread the phenomenon had become, he decided to look more closely. Why were these relationships becoming defined more by companionship than by passion, and why was companionship no longer enough? From his research Andrew has devised his own unique programme. By looking at how a couple communicate, argue, share love, take responsibility, give and learn he offers in seven steps a reassuring and empowering map for how two individuals can better understand themselves, strengthen their bond and recover that lost magic.