Both Hands Tied studies the working poor in the United States, focusing in particular on the relation between welfare and low-wage earnings among working mothers. Grounded in the experience of thirty-three women living in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, it tells the story of their struggle to balance child care and wage-earning in poorly paying and often state-funded jobs with inflexible schedules—and the moments when these jobs failed them and they turned to the state for additional aid. Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer here examine the situations of these women in light of the 1996 national Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and other like-minded reforms—laws that ended the entitlement to welfare for those in need and provided an incentive for them to return to work. Arguing that this reform came at a time of gendered change in the labor force and profound shifts in the responsibilities of family, firms, and the state, Both Hands Tied provides a stark but poignant portrait of how welfare reform afflicted poor, single-parent families, ultimately eroding the participants’ economic rights and affecting their ability to care for themselves and their children.

In this highly lyrical, imagistic debut, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo creates a nuanced narrative of life before, during, and after crossing the US/Mexico border. These poems explore the emotional fallout of immigration, the illusion of the American dream via the fallacy of the nuclear family, the latent anxieties of living in a queer brown undocumented body within a heteronormative marriage, and the ongoing search for belonging. Finding solace in the resignation to sheer possibility, these poems challenge us to question the potential ways in which two people can interact, love, give birth, and mourn—sometimes all at once.

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING ELDER RACES SERIES! Half-human and half-wyr, Pia Giovanni spent her life keeping a low profile among the wyrkind and avoiding the continuing conflict between them and their Dark Fae enemies. But after being blackmailed into stealing a coin from the hoard of a dragon, Pia finds herself targeted by one of the most powerful—and passionate—of the Elder races. As the most feared and respected of the wyrkind, Dragos Cuelebre cannot believe someone had the audacity to steal from him, much less succeed. And when he catches the thief, Dragos spares her life, claiming her as his own to further explore the desire they’ve ignited in each other. Pia knows she must repay Dragos for her trespass, but refuses to become his slave—although she cannot deny wanting him, body and soul...

Footbinding was common in China until the early twentieth century, when most Chinese were family farmers. Why did these families bind young girls' feet? And why did footbinding stop? In this groundbreaking work, Laurel Bossen and Hill Gates upend the popular view of footbinding as a status, or even sexual, symbol by showing that it was an undeniably effective way to get even very young girls to sit still and work with their hands. Interviews with 1,800 elderly women, many with bound feet, reveal the reality of girls' hand labor across the North China Plain, Northwest China, and Southwest China. As binding reshaped their feet, mothers disciplined girls to spin, weave, and do other handwork because many village families depended on selling such goods. When factories eliminated the economic value of handwork, footbinding died out. As the last generation of footbound women passes away, Bound Feet, Young Hands presents a data-driven examination of the social and economic aspects of this misunderstood custom.

Fans of angsty romance from Lauren Asher and Mia Sheridan will be hooked by this emotional novel following two broken souls connected by a dark, haunting past. My innocence was stolen when I was abducted at five years old. For eleven years I held on by clinging to childhood fairytales. I waited for a prince to someday save me and carry me off to a happily ever after. I had no idea my savior would come as a scarred recluse, covered in tattoos, who can't--or won't--speak a word. Nevertheless, the moment our eyes met I knew he was the one. My prince. With his bare hands, he killed the monster who kept me captive. But people have a way of distorting the truth when the hero looks like a villain. As it turns out, Tyler Grace is many things: A myth. An outcast. A nightmare. Haunted by tragedy, he lives secluded in the forest. Some say they see him ride through town at night--straddling a black motorcycle, his face covered by a skeletal mask. I've been warned to stay away, yet I can't stop thinking about him. I ache to hear his voice. And I want nothing more than to break through his walls. I know he's the only one who can break through mine. Do we dare dream of a love that once felt impossible to find? Or will only our horrible, twisted past tie us together?

The strongest bonds are the ones unseen... Businesswoman Skylar Ellison never intended to get tangled up with a sexy Wyoming cowboy-let alone conceive a baby with him in the parking lot of a honky-tonk. When it appears her baby daddy has taken off for greener pastures, Skylar pulls up her bootstraps and carries on alone. Rancher Kade McKay is knocked for a loop when he returns home after a year on the range and finds out he's the father of a three-month-old baby girl. When Skylar refuses to marry him, Kade grits his teeth, moves in and plays house by her rules to prove he's a man in for the long haul. Despite Skylar's insistence they are to remain strictly parenting partners for baby Eliza, their old passions flare hot as a prairie fire, spurring Kade to demand total sexual surrender from the headstrong woman. Skylar willingly submits her body to the hot-blooded cowboy, but she's hesitant to hand Kade the reins to her heart. Can Kade convince Skylar the wicked sex games aren't a temporary distraction? Or will he have to break out the ropes to show her he wants to be tied to her...forever?

Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy-tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.