A beautiful pearl necklace has passed from mother to daughter for seven generations on each daughter's wedding day.

"No matter how wise a mother's advice is, we listen to our peers." At least that's writer Naomi Wolf's take on the differences between her generation of feminists -- the third wave -- and the feminists who came before her and developed in the late '60s and '70s -- the second wave. In Not My Mother's Sister, Astrid Henry agrees with Wolf that this has been the case with American feminism, but says there are problems inherent in drawing generational lines. Henry begins by examining texts written by women in the second wave, and illustrates how that generation identified with, yet also disassociated itself from, its feminist "foremothers." Younger feminists now claim the movement as their own by distancing themselves from the past. By focusing on feminism's debates about sexuality, they are able to reject the so-called victim feminism of Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin. Rejecting the orthodoxies of the second wave, younger feminists celebrate a woman's right to pleasure. Henry asserts, however, that by ignoring diverse older voices, the new generation has oversimplified generational conflict and has underestimated the contributions of earlier feminists to women's rights. They have focused on issues relating to personal identity at the expense of collective political action. Just as writers like Wolf, Katie Roiphe, and Rene Denfeld celebrate a "new" feminist (hetero)sexuality posited in generational terms, queer and lesbian feminists of the third wave similarly distance themselves from those who came before. Henry shows how 1970s lesbian feminism is represented in ways that are remarkably similar to the puritanical portrait of feminism offered by straight third-wavers. She concludes by examining the central role played by feminists of color in the development of third-wave feminism. Indeed, the term "third wave" itself was coined by Rebecca Walker, daughter of Alice Walker. Not My Mother's Sister is an important contribution to the exchange of ideas among feminists of all ages and persuasions.

A Pearl Necklace is the compelling true story of Mi Xue's struggles and victories strung together throughout life, weaving sorrows and joys, fear and faith to create a beautiful Masterpiece of inspiration that shines like a precious jewel even throughout the darkest times. As a first generation Chinese American, Mi Xue strives to counter alienation with achievement only to discover the inadequacy of her own self-sufficiency to overcome the challenges of her failing marriage. She begins a lifelong search for a purpose and power greater than herself to transform the trials of marriage, three children in three and a half years, an autistic firstborn, job losses, dysfunctional codependency, family-career tug-of-wars, and over twenty relocations in three continents. Mi Xue reaches beyond the depths of her Chinese roots and the heights of the American dream to find her most profound identity and fulfillment beyond herself, connecting you with the lost wanderer yearning to return home in each of us.

Single mom Danalee Jackson owns the Blue Note—a successful Alaskan jazz bar. She also manages a failing float-plane business while raising her son. When the bar is flagged for code violations, Dana is certain she has no time for romance. Burned-out after finishing his father's legacy project--the multimillion-dollar Grove Marketplace--Mark Moretti is ready for a summer-long fishing trip. But a canceled flight stranded him in Ketchikan, where he lands at the Blue Note. One look at the exotically beautiful Dana and Mark offers to do the construction work required to clear the code violations. Mutual attraction sparks into flame, but Dana's fierce independence threatens to bring everything to a screeching halt. Previously titled: All That You Are REVIEWS: "Beautiful characters, beautiful setting." ~Publishers Weekly FROM THE HEART SERIES, in order Kiss So Sweet Come Kiss Me Kiss Me Now SINGLE MOMS, SECOND CHANCES, in order Girls Night Lucy Gets Her Life Back Pink Moon TO PROTECT AND SERVE, HEROES IN UNIFORM, in order An Igniting Attraction An Arresting Attraction

Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’s wildly original debut novel, Getting Mother’s Body, follows pregnant, unmarried Billy Beede and her down-and-out family in 1960s Texas as they search for the storied jewels buried—or were they?—with Billy’s fast-running, six-years-dead mother, Willa Mae. Getting Mother’s Body is a true spiritual successor to the work of writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker—but when it comes to bringing hard-luck characters to ingenious, uproarious life, Suzan-Lori Parks shares the stage with no one.