All day long Vanessa read about eighteen-year-olds whose impish flouting of convention ('I shall not perform my needlepoint, Mama!') led them straight into the arms of dashing rakes ('You have heard rumors, Minerva, of my way with the fair sex...')." Wickedly funny, worldly wise, Alisa Kwitney displays extraordinary sureness and emotional wisdom in her first novel. She's a contender.

In a single moment, an entire career reputation can be sealed and a franchise’s history cemented thanks to a last-second, game-winning finish, and this book chronicles 50 of the most memorable finishes in Boston sports. Vibrant four-color photos, statistics, quotes, and stories offer fresh details on some of the most famous events in Boston sports history, including Carlton Fisk’s Fenway Moment, “Havlicek Stole the Ball!,” Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary in Miami, and the Red Sox’s Greatest Comeback Ever. For those sports fans too young to have seen these famous moments or for those who wish to relive them over and over again, this encyclopedia of sporting greatness is a must-have for all passionate Boston fans.

Over 100 illustrations and glamour/nude beauties, women winning is the subject here; flame wars, sex, battle for female bodybuilding, crimes & women bandits, female aggression; the males are going infertile and extinct, geneticists Jones and Sykes prove, the Y is getting to be a wasteland. Women knock out polygamists, Scientist discovers the living Amazons, Pankhurst's early female terrorism, all symptoms that Matriarchy is coming, get ready! William Bond and Thomas Andrews help Rasa Von Werder gather the hard facts. 'It's Not Over Till the Fat Lady Sings' is another blockbuster from Rasa Von Werder, a quick follow up to the successful 'Can Female Power Save the Planet.' most amazing, the bodybuilding- Progenitor development of Kellie Everts from age 19 to today, lifting weights in the nude to recent silky see-thru camisoles and boots, the progress of 'love Goddess' doesn't quit.

Historicizing Fat in Anglo-American Culture, edited by Elena Levy-Navarro, is the first collection of essays to offer a historical consideration of fat bodies in Anglophone culture. The interdisciplinary essays cover periods from the medieval to the contemporary, mapping out a new terrain for historical consideration. These essays question many of the commonplace assumptions that circulate around the category of fat: that fat exists as a natural and transhistorical category; that a premodern period existed which universally celebrated fat and knew no fatphobia; and that the thin, youthful body, as the presumptively beautiful and healthy one, should be the norm by which to judge other bodies. The essays begin with a consideration of the interrelationship between the rise of weight-watching and the rise of the novel. The essays that follow consider such wide-ranging figures as the fat child's body as a contested site in post-Blair U.K. and in Lord of the Flies; H. G. Wells; Wilkie Collins's subversively performative Fosco; Ben Jonson; the voluptuous Lillian Russell; Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis; the opera diva; and the fat feminist activists of recent San Francisco. In developing their histories in a self-conscious way that addresses the pervasive fatphobia of the present-day Anglophone culture, Historicizing Fat suggests ways in which scholarship and criticism in the humanities can address, resist, and counteract the assumptions of late modern culture.

David W. Barber has delighted readers all around the world with the quirky definitions of Accidentals on Purpose: A Musician's Dictionary, the irreverent history of Bach, Beethoven and the Boys, a hilariously offbeat history of dance and ballet in Tutus, Tights and Tiptoes and a host of other internationally bestselling books of musical humor. With When the Fat Lady Sings, the popular author and musical humorist turns his attention to what Dr. Johnson called that "exotick and irrational entertainment," the world of opera. Here are stories of love and lust, jealousy, intrigue, murder and tragic death - and that's just the stuff happening off stage, in the composers' personal lives. Wait till you read about the opera plots. Informal yet informative, witty yet wise, this book will both enlighten and entertain you. As always, Dave Donald has provided witty and clever cartoons that perfectly complement the text. This completely revised and expanded edition includes new material and an index, to make it easier for readers to find all their favorite references. "This is a very humorous book, but at the same time it tells it like it is, or was. David's not really fabricating anything, he just manages to give you the gist of the history while leaving out all the boring bits." - Maureen Forrester

Americans have a gift for coining proverbs. "A picture is worth a thousand words" was not, as you might imagine, the product of ancient Chinese wisdom -- it was actually minted by advertising executive Fred Barnard in a 1921 advertisement for Printer's Ink magazine. After all, Americans are first and foremost a practical people and proverbs can be loosely defined as pithy statements that are generally accepted as true and useful. The next logical step would be to gather all of this wisdom together for a truly American celebration of shrewd advice.A Dictionary of American Proverbs is the first major collection of proverbs in the English language based on oral sources rather than written ones. Listed alphabetically according to their most significant key word, it features over 15,000 entries including uniquely American proverbs that have never before been recorded, as well as thousands of traditional proverbs that have found their way into American speech from classical, biblical, British, continental European, and American literature. Based on the fieldwork conducted over thirty years by the American Dialect Society, this volume is complete with historical references to the earliest written sources, and supplies variants and recorded geographical distribution after each proverb.Many surprised await the reader in this vast treasure trove of wit and wisdom. Collected here are nuggets of popular wisdom on all aspects of American life: weather, agriculture, travel, money, business, food, neighbors, friends, manners, government, politics, law, health, education, religion, music, song, and dance. And, to further enhance browsing pleasure, the editors have provided a detailed guide to the use of the work. While it's true that many of our best known proverbs have been supplied by the ever-present "Anonymous," many more can be attributed to some very famous Americans, like Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, J. Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Alva Edison, Abigail Adams, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name but a few offered in this fascinating collection.Who wouldn't want to know the origin of "the opera ain't over till the fat lady sings?" This uniquely American proverb and many more are gathered together in A Dictionary of American Proverbs. A great resource for students and scholars of literature, psychology, folklore, linguistics, anthropology, and cultural history, this endlessly intriguing volume is also a delightful companion for anyone with an interest in American culture.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.