This standalone novella in the smart, snarky, and action-packed Heroine Complex series follows personal superhero trainer Lucy Valdez and friends Aveda Jupiter and Bea and Evie Tanaka as they combat a new supernatural threat. Lucy Valdez is many things: fight trainer/bodyguard to superheroines, fabulous vintage fashion plate, undisputed karaoke queen at local joint, The Gutter. She is also one of the toughest fighters in all of San Francisco without superpowers. So why can't she seem to confess her feelings to her longtime crush Rose Rorick, head of the San Francisco Police Department's Demon Unit? Well.... actually, she knows why. She's afraid Rose won't like the real Lucy, the Lucy underneath all the fabulous bravado. (She is still fabulous underneath that bravado--just in a different way.) When a mysterious new karaoke star rises up at The Gutter and eclipses her, Lucy finds her confidence further shaken--and when strange, seemingly supernatural happenings threaten both this new star and The Gutter's very existence, she must rise to the challenge and investigate alongside Rose. Will Lucy be able to vanquish the demonic threat to her beloved karaoke haven, confess her true feelings to Rose, and reclaim her karaoke throne?

From life and literature come the heroines of this volume. The essays demonstrate that women can fit the role of hero as defined by Joseph Campbell: "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder, fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won, the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." Contributors to this volume cover a wide range of heroic women.

This compelling book destroys the derogatory images of single mothers that too often prevail in the media and in politics by creating a rich, moving, multidimensional picture of who these women really are. Ruth Sidel interviewed mothers from diverse races, ethnicities, religions, and social classes who became single through divorce, separation, widowhood, or who never married; none had planned to raise children on their own. Weaving together these women’s voices with an accessible, cutting-edge sociological and political analysis of single motherhood today, Unsung Heroines introduces a resilient, resourceful, and courageous population of women committed to their families, holding fast to quintessential American values, and creating positive new lives for themselves and their children. What emerges from this penetrating study is a clear message about what all families—two-parent as well as single parent—must have to succeed: decent jobs at a living wage, comprehensive health care, and preschool and after-school care. In a final chapter, Sidel gives a broad political-economic analysis that provides historical background on the way American social policy has evolved and compares the situation in the U.S. to the social policies and ideologies of other countries.

“The embrace of women’s sports sometimes feels almost like a political act...Molly Schiot’s Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History is so valuable.” —The Wall Street Journal “A thoughtful, exhaustively researched, and long-overdue tribute to the women who have paved the way for the likes of Serena Williams, Abby Wambach, Simone Biles, and more.” —espnW Based on the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, a celebration of the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the twentieth century that features rarely seen photos and new interviews with past and present game changers including Abby Wambach and Cari Champion. Two years ago, filmmaker Molly Schiot began the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, posting a photo each day of a female athlete who had changed the face of sports around the globe in the pre-Title IX age. These women paved the way for Serena Williams, Carli Lloyd, and Lindsey Vonn, yet few today know who they are. Slowly but surely, the account gained a following, and the result is Game Changers, a beautifully illustrated collection of these trailblazers’ rarely-before-seen photos and stories. Featuring icons Althea Gibson and Wyomia Tyus, complete unknowns Trudy Beck and Conchita Cintron, policymaker Margaret Dunkle, sportswriter Lisa Olson, and many more, Game Changers gives these “founding mothers” the attention and recognition they deserve, and features critical conversations between past and present gamechangers—including former US Women’s National Soccer Team captain Abby Wambach and SportsCenter anchor Cari Champion—about what it means to be a woman on and off the field. Inspiring, empowering, and unforgettable, Game Changers is the perfect gift for anyone who has a love of the game.

Powerful lumber interests stood in the way of the first campaigns to save the redwood trees of Humboldt County, California, but they were boldly opposed and pushed back. This history of the early 1900s recalls the Progressive Era crusades of women and men who prevailed against great odds, protecting the best of California’s northern redwood forests. This book tells the forgotten, dramatic story of early 20th-century Californians and other Americans who were the first group to preserve an important span of California’s northern redwood forests, a story never told before in one place. Numerous books have been published about battles to save the redwoods, particularly during the California redwood wars of the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. But no book exclusively details the first fights during the 1920s and 1930s and portrays the significant role of women. By successfully fending off the logging industry, they paved the way for the modern environmental movement. The book, incorporating archived material that highlights for the first time the prominent role of women, covers the most formative period of early efforts to save the redwoods, the 21 years from 1913 through 1934. The story recounts a colorful moment in time when a paradigm firmly shifted toward preservation and a new generation of native Californians successfully faced down Eastern lumber interests over destruction of their beautiful, ancient forests. The storyline follows a trajectory of initial failure and ridicule, then limited successes, and the determination that overcame the entrenched intransigence of lumber interests. Finally, a historic rush of stunning preservation victories established Humboldt Redwoods State Park as the largest expanse of surviving old-growth redwoods on earth. This book offers a definitive account of a pivotal moment in environmentalism and a new explanation of how forceful, determined people a century ago preserved the great California redwood forests that are now enjoyed by millions of visitors from every corner of earth. This book tells the forgotten, dramatic story of early 20th-century Californians and other Americans who were the first group to preserve an important span of California’s northern redwood forests, a story never told before in one place. By successfully fending off the logging industry, they paved the way for the modern environmental movement. The book, incorporating archived material that highlights for the first time the prominent role of women, covers the most formative period of early efforts to save the redwoods, the 21 years from 1913 through 1934. The story recounts a colorful moment in time when a paradigm firmly shifted toward preservation and a new generation of native Californians successfully faced down Eastern lumber interests over destruction of their beautiful, ancient forests. The storyline follows a trajectory of initial failure and ridicule, then limited successes, and the determination that overcame the entrenched intransigence of lumber interests. Finally, a historic rush of stunning preservation victories established Humboldt Redwoods State Park as the largest expanse of surviving old-growth redwoods on earth. This book offers a definitive account of a pivotal moment in environmentalism and a new explanation of how forceful, determined people a century ago preserved the great California redwood forests that are now enjoyed by millions of visitors from every corner of earth.

Provides portraits and cameos of over sixty women who were influential in the Civil Rights Movement, and argues that the political activity of women has been the driving force in major reform movements throughout history.