In a compelling mix of literary narrative and ethnography, anthropologist Alma Gottlieb and writer Philip Graham continue the long journey of cultural engagement with the Beng people of Côte d’Ivoire that they first recounted in their award-winning memoir Parallel Worlds. Their commitment over the span of several decades has lent them a rare insight. Braiding their own stories with those of the villagers of Asagbé and Kosangbé, Gottlieb and Graham take turns recounting a host of unexpected dramas with these West African villages, prompting serious questions about the fraught nature of cultural contact. Through events such as a religious leader’s declaration that the authors’ six-year-old son, Nathaniel, is the reincarnation of a revered ancestor, or Graham’s late father being accepted into the Beng afterlife, or the increasing, sometimes dangerous madness of a villager, the authors are forced to reconcile their anthropological and literary gaze with the deepest parts of their personal lives. Along with these intimate dramas, they follow the Beng from times of peace through the times of tragedy that led to Côte d’Ivoire’s recent civil conflicts. From these and many other interweaving narratives—and with the combined strengths of an anthropologist and a literary writer—Braided Worlds examines the impact of postcolonialism, race, and global inequity at the same time that it chronicles a living, breathing village community where two very different worlds meet.

“Come find what you have lost...” Heeding this cryptic message from deep space, the crew of the starship Restoration journeys from Earth to a distant planet, hoping to find humanity’s lost genetic diversity. But with the human race on the verge of extinction from the twin horrors of plague and a mysterious scourge of dark matter, how can an alien world harbor any remedies for Earth’s declining populations? Worse, the Restoration arrives depleted: its captain is dead, its crew demoralized--except for an indomitable old woman whose power and wealth give her the privilege of naming the new captain. Anton Prados, a young, untested officer, will now preside over humanity’s first contact with an alien race. An alien race that, improbably, looks exactly like humans. Only, the Dassa possess highly unusual breeding habits--and a reproductive process that seems to be the nullification of all that is human. And they think much the same about humanity… From the Paperback edition.

When you get a message from deep space, should you answer? Earth has cause to believe that the universe is not a friendly place. But one woman, a singer well past her performance years, and seeking one last adventure, funds the mission that will accept an ambiguous invitation. . . to the stars. Bailey Shaw chooses the young and untested Anton Prados to lead the interplanetary expedition. But when they make first contact with the alien Dassa, she and Anton receive a troubling reception. The Dassa appear human. But they are badly altered humans, and the crew increasingly finds them disturbing, even revolting. And the Dassa in turn are appalled by them. As Bailey makes inroads with the commoners and Anton navigates the intrigues at court, the clash between the cultures escalates, bringing the crew, one by one, to the most difficult choice of their lives. To survive, they must unravel the mystery of the Dassa, and of human--and alien--existence.

Marge Piercy carries her portrait of the American experience back into the Fifties—that closed, repressive time in which forces for the upheavals of the Sixties ticked away underground. Spanning twenty years, and teeming with vivid characters, Braided Lives tells the powerful, unsentimental story of two young women coming of age. Jill, fiercely independent, dark, Jewish, an intellectual with Detroit street smarts, is a poet, curious, avid of life—a “professional student” and sometime thief. Donna, Jill’s cousin and closest friend, is blond, pretty, and alluring. Together, they grow and change at college in Ann Arbor, where the life of poets and painters contrasts sharply with the working-class neighborhood where Jill’s family lives. In Michigan, and afterward in New York City, the two women taste love and betrayal, friendship and pain, independence and fear as they reach a deepening understanding that to control their lives they must fight. And though their fates differ as widely as their personalities, both reflect the danger that sex posed at a time when abortions were illegal and an affair could destroy a woman’s life, making the outcome of a chance encounter or a night of love a matter of life and death. Braided Lives is an enduring portrait of the past that has led to our tenuous present. In her new introduction to this edition, Marge Piercy reflects on both the most autobiographical of her novels, and the ongoing battles to ensure the hard-fought victories of the Sixties and Seventies, particularly around sex and reproductive rights.

Return to the world of the Entire in the acclaimed second book of the epic series. Titus Quinn is back in the universe of the Entire with a new task: to enter and destroy the impregnable fortress of Ahnenhoon. The fortress, called the Repel, is replete with eons-long Tarig secrets and a most disturbing personal one for Quinn: a special prisoner resides there and will perish with the Repel. To reach Ahnenhoon, Quinn journeys across the Entire and down the River Nigh in the company of a subversive godwoman, a renegade Tarig lord, a mad navitar, and Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, who guides him with her wit and a deepening love. He is pursued by an assassin sent by his own daughter, Sydney, who counts the Entire as her home. Formerly a slave, she now has at her command a transforming and revolutionary power. Not only that, but Sydney has a strange ally, a person from earth who has her own plans for the Entire, enabled by a powerful machine sapient. Weighing into this dance of power are: A Tarig queen who once loved Quinn, the alien Paion, and a Hirrin servant of the Magisterium whose growing disaffection can bring down the whole house of cards. Newly re-issued, this series has been compared to Riverworld, Dune, and the writing of Stephen R. Donaldson and Dan Simmons. "Tangled motivations, complex characters, and intriguing world building will keep readers on the edges of their seats.” --Publishers Weekly Starred Review “One of the most imaginative creations in recent science fiction history.” --SF Site "[R]ivals Larry Niven's Ringworld and Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series for sheer invention, adventure, complexity, and sense of wonder. --Omnivoracious

The story of an exotic oriental world. The empire of Saramyr has relied on the secretive sect of Weavers for far too long. Now the Weavers, manipulating space and time through the Weave of existence, are plotting the overthrow of the families. Their motives twisted by the Witchstones they draw their power from. As the empire crumbles the disowned abbearant daughter of the empire and a few scattered rebels must find out the secret of the true nature of the witchstones and rescue the empire from depravity and the rule of demons. Chris Wooding has an unrivalled flair for Machiavellian plotting, explosive description and memorable young characters. This is the ideal first adult fantasy for his teenage fans.

Two sisters, Jeannie and Sarah, tell their separate yet tightly interwoven stories in alternating narrative poems. Each sister – Jeannie, who leaves Scotland during the Highland Clearances with her father, mother, and the younger children, and Sarah, who hides so she can stay behind with her grandmother – carries a length of the other's hair braided with her own. The braid binds them together when they are worlds apart and reminds them of who they used to be before they were evicted from the Western Isles, where their family had lived for many generations. The award-winning poet Helen Frost eloquently twists strand over strand of language, braiding the words at the edges of the poems to bring new poetic forms to life while intertwining the destinies of two young girls and the people who cross their paths in this unforgettable novel. An author's note describes the inventive poetic form in detail. The Braid is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.