Since the early decades of the eighteenth century, European, and especially British, thinkers were preoccupied with questions of taste. Whether Americans believed that taste was innate—and therefore a marker of breeding and station—or acquired—and thus the product of application and study—all could appreciate that taste was grounded in, demonstrated through, and confirmed by reading, writing, and looking. It was widely believed that shared aesthetic sensibilities connected like-minded indi...

In 1500, as many as 99 out of 100 English women may have been illiterate, and girls of all social backgrounds were the objects of purposeful efforts to restrict their access to full literacy. Three centuries later, more than half of all English and Anglo-American women could read, and the female reader was emerging as a cultural ideal and a market force. While scholars have written extensively about women's reading in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and about women's writing in the ...

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month they bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our May Issue contains: Original Fiction by James Patrick Kelly ("Soulcatcher"), Andy Dudak ("Tachy Psyche") and E. Catherine Tobler ("(R + D) / I = M"). Classic stories by Liz Williams ("The Banquet of the Lords of Night") and ...

This book analyzes several components of democratization and party competition in West Africa focusing on Senegal – a country with one of the longest histories of multiparty elections. It does so in service of examining the origins and consequences of the proliferation of political parties, a trend that has taken hold in Senegal and a variety of other African countries. The author uses novel sources of data to illuminate the economic and political roots of party functions and trajectories ...

Christy Huddleston left home at 19 to teach school in the Smokey Mountains. There she came to know and love the wild mountain people with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, their yearning for beauty and truth. Christy found her faith severely challenged in these primitive surroundings; and, confronted with two young men of unique strength and needs, she found her own growing yearnings challenged by love.

When museum painter Theodora Speer reluctantly attends a fundraiser gala, she hardly expects to meet a famous and dashing patron—let alone be kidnapped by him and forced to help steal Egyptian artifacts. Then the police arrive, and the patron kills himself to avoid capture . . . leaving nothing but dust behind.Naturally, the police don’t believe Theo’s story, and Theo herself isn’t sure what really happened—especially when the patron shows up again, looking younger and healthier th...

The Hamamatsu Deaf Killer: Seisaku Nakamura and Wartime Japan's Systemic FailuresIn 1938, a fourteen-year-old deaf boy named Seisaku Nakamura began a four-year killing spree that would claim at least nine lives in wartime Japan, including members of his own family. This meticulously researched historical true crime narrative examines how a mathematically gifted student at a school for the deaf transformed into a serial killer, revealing the catastrophic convergence of disability st...

“Disability is not our worst-case scenario – our worst-case scenario would be its annihilation.” This is the starting point for this powerful collection of writing by and about Catherine Frazee, disability activist, Officer of the Order of Canada, and poetic scholar of justice.For Frazee, disability is not something to be dreaded or overcome but a force to be reckoned with – a prism of insight and experience that refracts new light upon our fundamental ideals of justice, beauty, an...

This recording has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.Lisa’s grandfather is turning 100, and her family is gathering from across the country to celebrate at Grandpa Joe’s home—a sprawling apricot orchard in southern California. The orchard is both the heart of their fami...

Marigold learns about disables with the help of friends with compassion

One convenient download. One bargain price. Get all May 2009 Harlequin Presents with one click!Alphas heroes, exotic locales, heart-wrenching drama--these romance from Harlequin Presents have it all! Treat yourself with all eight new books in this bundle: The Sicilian Boss's Mistress by Penny Jordan, Valentino's Love-Child by Lucy Monroe, Virgin Bought and Paid For by Robyn Donald, The Ruthless Billionaire's Virgin by Susan Stephens, The Gree...

Since the early decades of the eighteenth century, European, and especially British, thinkers were preoccupied with questions of taste. Whether Americans believed that taste was innate—and therefore a marker of breeding and station—or acquired—and thus the product of application and study—all could appreciate that taste was grounded in, demonstrated through, and confirmed by reading, writing, and looking. It was widely believed that shared aesthetic sensibilities connected like-minded indi...