The Fairest Among Women


Book Description

A second Israeli bestseller from Shifra Horn, The Fairest Among Women, tells the life story of Rosa, fabled to be the most beautiful woman in all Jerusalem. Rosa's life coincides with the fifty years of the state of Israel--she was born during the War of Independence in the 1940s and disappears on a cold winter night in the 1990s--and her absorbing tale is part history, part fairy tale, and part legend. The novel combines generational family stories with folklore and magical realism into a unique literary accomplishment.




Fairest


Book Description

Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction "Talusan sails past the conventions of trans and immigrant memoirs." --The New York Times Book Review "A ball of light hurled into the dark undertow of migration and survival." --Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous A singular, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir of a Filipino boy with albinism whose story travels from an immigrant childhood to Harvard to a gender transition and illuminates the illusions of race, disability, and gender Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a "sun child" from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Coping with the strain of parental neglect and the elusive promise of U.S. citizenship, Talusan found childhood comfort from her devoted grandmother, a grounding force as she was treated by others with special preference or public curiosity. As an immigrant to the United States, Talusan came to be perceived as white. An academic scholarship to Harvard provided access to elite circles of privilege but required Talusan to navigate through the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and her place within the gay community. She emerged as an artist and an activist questioning the boundaries of gender. Talusan realized she did not want to be confined to a prescribed role as a man, and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved. Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as Call Me By Your Name and Giovanni's Room. Her evocative reflections will shift our own perceptions of love, identity, gender, and the fairness of life.




Four Mothers


Book Description

Shifra Horn's beautifully imagined novel tells the story of five generations of women in one family against the backdrop of one hundred years in Jerusalem. The story begins with the birth of the family's first boy to Amal, the last generation. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother are overjoyed, because the birth of a healthy boy means that the curse against the women of the family has been broken. They tell Amal the story of those "foremothers": Mazal, the orphan, whose ill-fated marriage initiates the curse; her daughter Sara, whose golden hair is a symbol for her power to heal; Sara's daughter Pnina-Mazal, the unwanted child whose talent for knowing others' thoughts brings both joy and sorrow; and her daughter Geula, Amal's mother, whose sharp intellect is her gift and her burden.




Complete Works


Book Description




The Fairest of Them All


Book Description

What if Rapunzel was Snow White’s evil stepmother? Classic fairy tales collide in this imaginative retelling about the endurance of first love, the resentment of being left behind, and the impossibility of reliving the past. In this kingdom, only one fairy tale can end with happily ever after. In an enchanted forest, the maiden Rapunzel’s beautiful voice captivates a young prince hunting nearby. Overcome, he climbs her long golden hair to her tower and they spend an afternoon of passion together, but by nightfall, the prince must return to his kingdom…and his betrothed. After the prince becomes king, he weds his intended and the kingdom rejoices when a daughter named Snow White is born. Beyond the castle walls, Rapunzel waits in her crumbling tower, gathering news of her beloved from those who come to her seeking wisdom. She tries to mend her broken heart, but her love lingers, pulsing in the magic tendrils of her hair. The king, too, is haunted by his memories, and after his queen’s mysterious death, he is finally able to follow his heart into the darkness of the forest. But can Rapunzel trade the shadows of the forest for the bright light of the castle—and behave as the innocent beauty he remembers?




She Brought the Art of Women


Book Description

What would happen if the interpretation of Song of Solomon were to move beyond the layered traditions of rabbinic Judaism, the theological concerns of Christian communities, or even the Enlightenment ideals of a rigorously objective secular hermeneutic? This new reading by Janet Tyson provides a fascinating answer to that question. –Timothy Paul Erdel, Bethel University The Song of Solomon is an intimate, eyewitness account of the stormy marriage between the last King of Babylon, Nabonidus, and the Egyptian princess Nitocris II. It details the couple’s seven-year stay in Tayma, Arabia, during which time the king formulated his plan to reinstate a long-defunct female priesthood at Ur, in honour of the lunar deity, Sîn. The Song was written by a female scribe, during the exodus from Babylon in c.538 BCE; she is potentially recorded elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Her ‘song of praise’ tells of magic, blood rites, jealousy and rivalry, contraception, miscarriage, lies and curses. It bears all the signs of an act of vengeance, for it preserves the bitter resentment of a woman who lived in the shadow of the king’s most exotic wife. Topics of interest include: * A consistent pattern of applied Ishtar/Hathor mythology * Potential insight into the function of the God’s Hand * The use of Jewish gematria * Clear allusions to the esoteric rite known today as the Elixir Rubeus * Internal chronology that mirrors the reign of Nabonidus, including a lunar eclipse * Profound parallels between Nabonidus and King Solomon * Strong connections between Herodotus and the Song’s narrative * Potential identification of the Song’s author and date of composition * Other ancient legends revealing this same interpretation




Transactions of the National Council of Women of the United States


Book Description

The speeches and papers women gave at the National Council of Women in 1891 reflect the widespread concerns, activities, reforms, etc. of the 19th century women's movement.




Mirror, Mirror on the Wall


Book Description

Jason was 2-years old when we brought his brother, Dawson, home from the hospital. I had fallen in love with mothering my first child. "Honestly, how much tougher could rearing two children instead of one be?" I thought to myself as I lay the tightly wound bundle on the couch. Jason timidly tiptoed over to see the new baby. I pulled the receiving blanket back from Dawson's face as Jason stared in wonder at his little brother. "So far, so good," I whispered tentatively to my husband, Craig, as he hung back by the door. "This won't be so difficult," I said confidently as I tried to bolster my sagging self-assurance. "Lots of women have two babies in two years. We will be fine." Like hollow promises my words fell onto our hardwood floor. Neither Craig nor I believed a single word I had said. Sadly, we both knew better. Although I have now reared two sons and launched them off into the adult world, I have not forgotten how I, as a new mom, felt. I loved God with all of my heart. My single-minded desire was to train my boys in the Lord. Without question my goal was to see my boys reach an early decision for Christ and to live for Him all the days of their lives. However, my own insecurities surfaced; I struggled with feelings of inadequacy. I have never forgotten the anxiety of those early days of mothering as I fought to catch my breath and find my bearings. Life seemed to be spinning wildly out of control and sucking me into the vortex of its madness Those deeply imbedded memories of my greatest joy intermingled with fretfulness and fear compel me to write a Bible study geared toward mothers of children of all ages. Mothering is just plain tough. There, I said it. It is full of twists and turns, ups and downs, jubilation and tribulation, ecstasy and insanity. I am sure you can relate Moms are on-call 24-hours a day, with no sick leave and no vacation days. On some days rearing children is closely akin to herding cats. Dealing with sleep deprivation and a temperamental 2-year-old can push you to the edge. A stubborn school-aged child can strain your last nerve to the breaking point. A testy teen can make you crazy. What's a mom to do? My heart's desire is to stand alongside you and to point you to Jesus. He is the source of our help and our hope. Take a good, long look into the mirror of God's Word and see Jesus " Join Jean Stockdale for a look into the mirror of God's Word for timeless truths for training toddlers to teens. She will help you apply God's profound truths and make them practical in your life. As you become a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, she will help you look into God's mirror and see a work in progress for the glory of the Lord. As you work your way through this interactive study, God will work His truths into your life. "




A Short History of Women


Book Description




The Fairest of Them All


Book Description

“With her trademark brio and deep-tissue understanding, Maria Tatar opens the glass casket on this undying story, which retains its power to charm twenty-one times, and counting.” —Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked The story of the rivalry between a beautiful, innocent girl and her cruel and jealous mother has been endlessly repeated and refashioned all over the world. The Brothers Grimm gave this story the name by which we know it best, and in 1937 Walt Disney sweetened their somber version to make the first feature-length, animated fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Since then, the Disney film has become our cultural touchstone—the innocent heroine, her evil stepmother, the envy that divides them, and a romantic rescue from domestic drudgery and maternal persecution. But each culture has its own way of telling this story of jealousy and competition. An acclaimed folklorist, Maria Tatar brings to life a global melodrama of mother-daughter rivalries that play out in unforgettable variations across countries and cultures. “Fascinating...A strange, beguiling history of stories about beauty, jealousy, and maternal persecution.” —Wall Street Journal “Is the story of Snow White the cruelest, the deepest, the strangest, the most mythopoeic of them all?...Tatar trains a keen eye on the appeal of the bitter conflict between women at the heart of the tale...a feast of rich thoughts...An exciting and authoritative anthology from the wisest good fairy in the world of the fairy tale.” —Marina Warner “The inimitable Maria Tatar offers us a maze of mothers and daughters and within that glorious tangle an archetype with far more meaning than we imagine when we say ‘Snow White.’” —Honor Moore “Shocking yet familiar, these stories...retain the secret whisper of storytelling. This is a properly magical, erudite book.” —Literary Review