How do women writers cope with changes and juggle the demands in their already full lives to make time for their lives as artists? In this anthology, noted female novelists, journalists, essayists, poets, and nonfiction writers address the old and new challenges of "doing it all" that face women writers as the twenty-first century approaches. With eloquence, sensitivity, and more than a touch of wry humor, Sleeping with One Eye Open relates positive stories from women who lead effective lives as artists, emphasizing how sources of inspiration, discipline, resourcefulness, and determination help them succeed despite the obstacle of "no time." The title essay, Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Woman Who Slept with One Eye Open," defines the collection. Cofer relates the ways in which a mythological story from her Puerto Rican culture gave her confidence and courage, encouraging her creative success and emphasizing the rewards of "women's power" and personal strength. Denise Levertov's "The Vital Necessity" urges poets to make time for daydreams--essential, empowering creative food. Tillie Olsen offers a frank discussion of the pressures of work and expectations that too often sap creative energy. Tess Gallagher connects her mother's creative gardening with her own inspiration as a poet and the need for growth in her writing. Marilyn Kallet's interview with Lucille Clifton relates the personal strength that helped Clifton raise six children and publish her first book at the same time. This affirming collection offers a wealth of writing advice, given through honest accounts of perseverance and accomplishment.

A child doesn't ask to be born; they are brought into the world by their parents. If they're lucky, that child is nurtured, fed, loved, and guided by their mother and father. They are given a home and shelter, an education, something to occupy them, and they are protected from the worst the world has to offer. This wasn't the case for Helen. Told even from an early age that she was a mistake, and forced to feel that she should apologise simply for existing, Helen was born to a mother who did not seem to want her. Her early life was a series of abuses, mental and physical, and a daily struggle to become something better than the model presented to her at home. What do you do when the one person who is supposed to be your loving guardian is instead your greatest persecutor? What can a child do? For Helen, there was only one option: endure. She survived years of her mother's abuse, and her father's neglect, and tried as well as she could to look after herself and her younger brother, Matthew. This is an affecting memoir about Helen's tumultuous childhood, a story about the rotten core that can lie behind an unsuspicious facade. For every picture-perfect family there may be a child next-door, barely surviving.

Packed with 64 engrossing tales of the extraordinary, each book combines actual articles from the Associated Press with exercises in reading comprehension and skill mastery. These books are divided into four sections: Vocabulary, Questions and Answers, Multiple Choice, and True or False.

As in previous books in this critically acclaimed series, Brynie polled hundreds of high school students across the country to find out what they wanted to know most about sleep and dreams. Using an accessible question-and-answer format, Brynie helps readers discover and learn facts about the physical, emotional, and social topics surrounding sleeping and dreaming, including how and why we sleep, sleep disorders, and sleep and the brain.

What is sleep? Why do we sleep? How much do we normally need, and what happens if you don't get enough sleep? Are we modern people with busy lives suffering stress from 'sleep debt'? This book is about all aspects of sleep. It's a subject that interests and worries a lot of people. In recent years, the nature of sleep, our sleeping patterns, how much sleep we need, and the dangers of lack of sleep have become increasingly important, as people work longer hours, styles of working have altered, and the separation between workplace and home has been eroded by the mobile phone and the Internet. From drowsiness at the wheel, to stress and insomnia, this is a subject that matters to people. Jim Horne gives an engaging account of what science has found out about sleep, and problems related to sleep - from snoring to sleep apnoea. He brings in brain physiology, psychology, medicine, and social factors. The book highlights recent research and Horne does not shy away from areas of controversy, for instance regarding the amount of sleep we actually need. As a result, it is likely to provoke lively debate among sleep researchers, as well as fascinating the general reader. As well as being richly informative about the nature of sleep, this book may just help you to get a good night's rest.

How birds have evolved and adapted to survive winter Birds in Winter is the first book devoted to the ecology and behavior of birds during this most challenging season. Birds remaining in regions with cold weather must cope with much shorter days to find food and shelter even as they need to avoid predators and stay warm through the long nights, while migrants to the tropics must fit into very different ecosystems and communities of resident birds. Roger Pasquier explores how winter affects birds’ lives all through the year, starting in late summer, when some begin caching food to retrieve months later and others form social groups lasting into the next spring. During winter some birds are already pairing up for the following breeding season, so health through the winter contributes to nesting success. Today, rapidly advancing technologies are enabling scientists to track individual birds through their daily and annual movements at home and across oceans and hemispheres, revealing new and unexpected information about their lives and interactions. But, as Birds in Winter shows, much is visible to any interested observer. Pasquier describes the season’s distinct conservation challenges for birds that winter where they have bred and for migrants to distant regions. Finally, global warming is altering the nature of winter itself. Whether birds that have evolved over millennia to survive this season can now adjust to a rapidly changing climate is a problem all people who enjoy watching them must consider. Filled with elegant line drawings by artist and illustrator Margaret La Farge, Birds in Winter describes how winter influences the lives of birds from the poles to the equator.

From the discovery of the fossil Archaeopteryx to more than 10,000 different documented species today, birds have become the second most diversified class of vertebrates on Earth. Birds have evolved extensively since they first emerged in prehistoric times--but that diversity could dwindle and even vanish unless we take steps to conserve their habitats, ensuring that they sustain their numbers and their variety. This natural history of birds starts in the distant past--going back to the Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene periods--in order to get a broader understanding of the birds that we see today. Chapters cover their lives, breeding, flight, migration and more, while also highlighting some especially unique bird fossils, such as the Pelagornis Sandersi, which had a wingspan of more than 20 feet. Also included are chapters on the loss of needed habitats, the current decline of native birds, and what can be done to reverse it.