In recent decades, popular culture - from television and film to newspapers, magazines, and best-selling fiction - has focused an enormous amount of attention on mothers. Through feminist, psychoanalytic, sociological, literary, and cultural studies perspectives, the twenty chapters in this book examine an array of current and relevant contemporary topics related to maternal identities such as working, stay-at-home, ambivalent, absent, good, bad, single, teen, elder, celebrity, and lesbian mothers; and issues such as the mommy wars, self-care, pregnancy, abortion, contraception, infanticide, adoption, sex and sexuality, breastfeeding, post-partum depression, fertility, genetics, and reproductive technologies. Contributors from Canada, the United States, Britain, and Australia engage critically and theoretically with stereotypes perpetuated by popular culture media, and chart some of the provocative and liberating ways that we can use and interpret this media to encourage and promote alternative and transformative maternal readings, identities, and practices. Mediating Moms looks at mothers as imaged by and in the media; how mothers mediate or negotiate these images according to their historical, corporeal, and lived personhoods; and how scholars mediate the popular and academic discourses of motherhood as a way of registering, strengthening, and alleviating the tensions between representation and reality. Mediating Moms engages critically with stereotypes perpetuated by popular culture, while mapping some of the provocative and liberating ways that mothers can use the media to transform and reaffirm their identities. Contributors include Jennifer Bell (Alberta), H. Louise Davis (Miami), Irene Gammel (Ryerson), Nicola Goc (Tasmania), Fiona Joy Green (Winnipeg), Latham Hunter (Mohawk), Joanne Ella Johnson, Hosu Kim (Staten Island), Beth O'Connor (Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing), Debra Langan (Wilfrid Laurier), Sally Mennill (British Columbia), Stuart J. Murray (Ryerson), Kathryn Pallister (Red Deer), Maud Perrier (Bristol), Lenora Perry (Texas), Dominique Russell, Jocelyn Stitt (Minnesota), Stephanie Wardrop (Western New England), Imelda Whelehan (Tasmania).

A powerful female, pre-adolescent, consumer demographic has emerged in tandem with girls becoming more visible in popular culture since the 1990s. Yet the cultural anxiety that this has caused has received scant academic attention. In Tweenhood, Melanie Kennedy rectifies this and examines mainstream, pre-adolescent girls' films, television programmes and celebrities from 2004 onwards, including A Cinderella Story (2004), Hannah Montana (2006) and Camp Rock (2008). Her book forges a dialogue between post-feminism, film and television, celebrity and most importantly; the figure of the tween. Kennedy examines how these media texts, which are so key to tween culture, address and construct their target audience by helping them to 'choose' an appropriately feminine identity. Tweenhood then, she argues, is transient and a discursive construct whose unpacking highlights the deification of celebrity and femininity within its culture.

This volume of essays provides a critical foray into the methods used to construct narratives which foreground antiheroines, a trope which has become increasingly popular within literary media, film, and television. Antiheroine characters engage constructions of motherhood, womanhood, femininity, and selfhood as mediated by the structures that socially prescribe boundaries of gender, sex, and sexuality. Within this collection, scholars of literary, cultural, media, and gender studies address the complications of representing agency, autonomy, and self-determination within narrative texts complicated by age, class, race, sexuality, and a spectrum of privilege that reflects the complexities of scripting women on and off screen, within and beyond the page. This collection offers perspectives on the alternate narratives engendered through the motivations, actions, and agendas of the antiheroine, while engaging with the discourses of how such narratives are employed both as potentially feminist interventions and critiques of access, hierarchy, and power.

To fifty thousand readers, Catherine Newman is the beloved author of “Bringing Up Ben & Birdy,” a weekly column on babycenter.com. Now in the delightfully candid, outlandishly funny Waiting for Birdy, Newman charts the year she anticipated the birth of her second child while also coping with the realities of raising a toddler. As she navigates life with her existentially curious and heartbreakingly sweet three-year-old, and her doozy of a pregnancy, she lends her irresistibly unique voice to the secret thoughts and fears of parents everywhere. Filled with quirky warmth and razor-sharp wit, Waiting for Birdy captures the universal wonder, terror, humor, and tenderness of raising a family. On the web: http://www.babycenter.com, http://www.parentcenter.com

Although Woody AllenÕs films have received extensive attention from scholars and critics, no book has focused exclusively on Jewishness in his work, particularly that of the late 1990s and beyond. In this anthology, a distinguished group of contributorsÑwhose work is richly contextualized in the fields of literature, philosophy, film, theater, and comedyÑexamine the schlemiel, Allen and women, the Jewish take on the Òmorality of murder,Ó AllenÕs take on Hebrew scripture and Greek tragedy, his stage work, his cinematic treatment of food and dining, and what happens to ÒJew YorkÓ when Woody takes his films out of New York City. Considered together, these essays delineate the intellectual, artistic, and moral development of one of cinemaÕs most durable and controversial directors.

This revealing work looks at representations of motherhood from a wide range of pop culture sources to explore larger questions about the image and self-image of mothers in the United States. How has the popularity of Gilmore Girls influenced perspectives on teenage pregnancies? How did the mother-in-law assume such monstrous proportions? Did the Republicans' view of motherhood—and their continual hectoring of Hillary Clinton for putting ambition ahead of family—cost them the 2008 election? Mommy Angst: Motherhood in American Popular Culture considers questions like these as it probes our country's views on mothers, and how those views shape—and are shaped by—the habitually oversimplified portrayals of mothers in pop culture, politics, and the media. Mommy Angst gets at the heart of America's anxious ambivalence toward mothers—whether sanctifying them, vilifying them, or praising the ideal of motherhood while thoroughly undervaluing the complexities of their lives and their contributions to family and society. To highlight the many sides of motherhood, the collection contrasts the lives of a diverse range of real moms with their pop culture representations, including Jewish mothers, Cuban mothers, teenage mothers, mothers with disabilities, working versus stay-at-home moms, and more.

A coroner must find a killer out to make a point in this hard-boiled mystery by the USA Today–bestselling author of Dead Even. Every fall, hunting season in Sorenson, Wisconsin, leads to some accidental injuries. Deputy coroner Mattie Winston just hopes the hunters don’t bring any more business to her office. But somebody seems to have declared open season on land developers. One real estate developer who’s recently come to town has been found dead in the woods with an arrow through his neck. Now it’s up to Mattie to get to the bottom of the killing. That might be easier if she wasn’t also hunting for Detective Hurley’s teenage daughter, Emily, who has suddenly disappeared. With a homicidal William Tell out on the loose, Mattie is desperate to find Emily before the killer notches another arrow . . . “[Ryan] presents subtle but nonstop humor throughout her books.”—Kings River Life Magazine Praise for Annelise Ryan and her Mattie Winston series “Ryan shows growing skill at mixing humor with CSI-style crime.”—Publishers Weekly “The forensic details will interest Patricia Cornwell readers . . .while the often slapstick humor and the blossoming romance between Mattie and Hurley will draw Evanovich fans.”—Booklist

Today, women are assuming greater roles within the workplace and men are assuming greater roles within the home. Both spheres have to be seen as a place where males and females are competent. Gersick suggests that women have to let go of the traditional identities related to social role, family, and work. Both men and women have to step into new identities and develop new roles. Will the home look different and the workplace be a different environment? Absolutely, men will do their work in their way within the family and home, while women will clarify their identity within the workplace. Helgessen and Johnson (2010) describe the “female vision” which views the world differently than men. Women also bring a unique perspective to the workplace. This book encourages us to explore, embrace and celebrate these new identities within the workplace and the family.

What should be a cozy cottage weekend for Ellie and Neil Patterson turns nightmarish after a friendly encounter with their new neighbour leads to their violent kidnapping. Insisting he’s Ellie’s soulmate, the stranger gives her three chances to say his name.

Some scars are skin-deep… Others run deeper Widowed rancher and gruff single dad Finn McAfee hides behind his scars. That is, until city gal Kendall Monroe arrives, determined to learn everything about ranching. But while Kendall definitely doesn’t fit in, her infectious energy seems to touch the lives of everyone she meets—including Finn and his little girl. Now everything Finn cherishes could be unraveled by the one thing he thought he’d lost forever: love. From Harlequin Heartwarming: Wholesome stories of love, compassion and belonging. The Mountain Monroes Book 1: Kissed by the Country Doc Book 2: Snowed in with the Single Dad Book 3: Rescued by the Perfect Cowboy Book 4: Lassoed by the Would-Be Rancher Book 5: Enchanted by the Rodeo Queen Book 6: Charmed by the Cook's Kids Book 7: The Littlest Cowgirls Book 8: Caught by the Cowboy Dad Book 9: A Cowgirl's Secret Book 10: The Cowboy Meets His Match Book 11: Healing the Rancher Book 12: A Cowboy Thanksgiving