This novel by C.S. Hagen is both an unexpected love story in a time and place of great violence and prejudice and a stirring tale of a man running from his past who challenges the British opium monopoly in China known as the Combination. Saltwater Girl is set during the Boxer Rebellion (1900) - an anti-imperialist struggle waged by North China's commoners clinging to ancient mystic beliefs against a decadent Qing Dynasty and foreign aggression. Set in colorful strokes against a broad historical canvas including the Western nations vying for China's treasures, one man - James Innocent - disguised as a Lutheran reverend and AWOL from the US First Marine Corps, delves deeply into the opium trade in an attempt to destroy the Combination's powerful consortium. From inside the port city Tientsin (Tianjin) where foreigners and Celestials (locals) are divided into two parts, two wars emerge - the war against opium and the war against aggression. The Reverend not only finds his own life in danger , but struggles against falling for a Saltwater Girl - a river prostitute - who he believes may be his only friend. Filled with sensual imagery amidst breathtaking devastation and beauty, the Saltwater Girl is a rare look into colonial and Chinese history, the clash of cultures and the ravages the opium trade brought to the Asian masses.

A Best Book of 2020: Open Letters Review "Andrews’s writing is transportingly voluptuous, conjuring tastes and smells and sounds like her literary godmother, Edna O’Brien . . . What makes her novel sing is its universal themes: how a young woman tries to make sense of her world, and how she grows up." –Penelope Green, The New York Times Book Review This “luminous” (TheObserver) feminist coming-of-age novel captures in sensuous, blistering prose the richness and imperfection of the bond between a daughter and her mother It begins with our bodies . . . Safe together in the violet dark and yet already there are spaces beginning to open between us. From that first immaculate, fluid connection, through the ups and downs of a working-class childhood in northern England, the one constant in Lucy’s life has been her mother: comforting and mysterious, ferociously loving, tirelessly devoted, as much a part of Lucy as her own skin. Her mother's lessons in womanhood shape Lucy’s appreciation for desire, her sense of duty as a caretaker, her hunger for a better, perhaps reckless life. At university in glamorous London, Lucy’s background sets her apart. And then she is finished, graduated, adrift. She escapes to a tiny house in Donegal left empty by her grandfather, a place where her mother once found happiness. There she will take a lover, live inside art and the past, and track back through her memories and her mother’s stories to make sense of her place in the world. In “a stunning new voice in British literary fiction” (The Independent) that lays bare our raw, dark selves, Jessica Andrews’s debut honors the richness and imperfection of the bond between a daughter and her mother. Intricately woven in lyrical vignettes, Saltwater is a novel of becoming-- a woman, an artist-- and of finding a way forward by looking back.

Sex, gender and sexuality have played an important role in shaping the culture of surfing and are central themes in the study of sport and movement cultures. Rooted in a rich precolonial history, surfing has undergone a modern transformation shaped by visual culture, commodification, sportization, mediatization and globalization, arguably all linked to sex, gender and sexuality. Using the physical culture of surfing as its focus, this international collection discusses the complex relationships between surfing, sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies. This book crosses new theoretical, empirical and methodological boundaries by exploring themes and issues such as indigenous histories, exploitation, the marginalized, race, ethnicity, disability, counter cultures, transgressions and queering. Offering original insights into surfing’s symbolism, postcolonialism, patriocolonial whiteness and heteronormativity, its chapters are connected by a collective aspiration to document sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies as they are shaped by surfing and, importantly, as they re-shape the many, possibly previously unknown, worlds of surfing. Surfing, Sex, Genders and Sexualities is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport or gender and sexuality studies.

When Matthew's dad gets in trouble, he makes trouble for everyone else too. But with Dad in jail, Matthew and his mom have a chance to put their pieces back together. Mom makes plans for a summer down the coast, fixing up Grandpa's old place in an effort to make ends meet. The beach, the swirling rockpools, and the vast ocean offer new perspective and promise for Matthew as he strikes up a friendship with Bill, an old local who recognizes a fellow 'Saltwater Boy.' Bill shows Matthew how to find pippis and catch fish (and even make a few dollars from it). Bill becomes the paternal figure that Dad isn't—wise and patient—but Bill isn't welcomed in town, and Matthew begins to witness old rivalries and buried truths resurface. Then Dad gets out on parole, and his recklessness puts everything, and everyone, at risk. Heartfelt and poignant, this captivating coming-of-age story navigates the difficult terrain of fractured families, the lies that break, and the ties that bind.

For years, from her home on a hill outside Nashville, River Jordan felt a call to travel to the mystical Isle of Iona, off the coast of Scotland--the island that gave birth to Celtic Christianity. In The Ancient Way she invites us to leave the sacred space of our homes and our lives and join her on this pilgrimage. With the help of friends and the kindness of strangers, Jordan winds her way across green mountains to late-night ferries, across islands and down one-way roads led by the light of Iona and a trust in God. Along the way she explores ancient Celtic Christian practices such as cherishing creation, trusting spiritual friendship, offering hospitality, creative imagination, and honoring community--carrying them home with her to infuse her daily life. This is an intimate story of imagination, of personal transformation, of stillness and prayer. It's also a quirky, thoughtful guide for cultivating divine connection and creativity as we embark on our own wild adventures, chasing after the mystery that calls us all.

Filling an important gap in the literary world, The Richard Peabody Reader is a wide-ranging selection of this great writer's poetry and prose. As a publisher, Peabody's steadfast dedication to that which is new, challenging, innovative, and dynamic has won him a wide reputation among writers whose work he has championed. This volume demonstrates those same values, embodied in nearly four decades of fiercely smart, sophisticated, and often very funny writing. From his first collection of poems, I'm in Love with the Morton Salt Girl, to his most recent collection of short stories, Blue Suburban Skies, Peabody has established and developed a thoroughly unique voice, both warm and piercing, to deliver content that ranges from the hilarious, as in the short story "Flea Wars," to the bittersweet, as in the poem "The Other Man is Always French," to the elegiac, as in the poem in "Civil War Pieta," to the absurd, as in the rollicking farce of the short story, "Bad Day at Ikea." Peabody's aesthetic is all-embracing—strands of punk, beat, experimental, feminist, and political protest literary influences blend with the purely romantic to create a body of work that is both profound and pleasing.

This anthology brings together twenty-eight lively and readable short stories by nineteenth-century women writers, including gothic tales to romances, detective fiction and ghost stories. Containing short fiction by well-known authors such as: * Maria Edgeworth * Mary Shelley * Elizabeth Gaskell * Margaret Oliphant Nineteenth-Century Short Stories by Women also includes: * a scholarly introduction * biographies for each of the authors * full explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading * a critical commentary, publication details and historical context * a full and wide-ranging bibliography The bibliography of resources and further reading will enable those interested in pursuing research on any author or topic to do so with ease, and a thematic index will enable teachers to select material best suited to their courses.

An honest look at the messiness of life when you are forced to live the life you didn't imagine. Salt Water and Honey is a story about pregnancy loss and childlessness that doesn't end with a baby. It's told from the messy middle, allowing space for the tension between faith and loss to remain rather than trying to neaten it up with solutions and reasons. Lizzie has experienced the pain of multiple miscarriages and writes honestly about her struggle and fight to find God in her suffering. She is honest about the low points and the pain, but she also shares her journey as she comes to understand that her true identity is not defined by motherhood but by being a child of God. Lizzie's story provides a safe space to remind people that they're not alone, it's okay to grieve and their story matters. Covering many universal truths such as unanswered prayer, grief, disappointment, vulnerability and faith in crisis this book is actually for anyone who has lost their dream and is struggling to understand that their story still has meaning and purpose even when life looks nothing like they hoped it would.

The love of a lifetime—two weeks at a time. Reliving the same summer romance at an annual timeshare turns first love into first hate. Evie Turner and Adam Pierce start off with the perfect summer romance, but when they reunite five years later, he acts like she is wet sand on the bottom of his expensive shoes. Hurt and embarrassed, Evie dedicates her two weeks at the timeshare each year to making him regret his decision. Throughout their young adult years, she tortures him—in a bikini. After his words sting like jellyfish, she wants him on his knees, begging for forgiveness. Begging for her. The girl in love with love. The boy who watches mob movies to remind himself that trust means betrayal. A clock of two weeks ticks away until they spend another three hundred and fifty-one days trying to forget each other. Until next year. As the passion between them rises with the summer temperature, Evie can’t help but feel his embraces are like a sunset: beautiful and temporary. Above all, Evie must not forget one very important lesson: If he is hot, he can burn you. Better get the aloe. *Though this book begins in young adulthood, it transitions with summer time-jumps until the characters are new adults in college. As a new adult romance novel, the story contains mature situations and sexual scenes. It is recommended that readers be over the age of 18. Praise for TIMESHARE BOYFRIEND & M. K. Hale "Full of charm, wit, and utterly loveable characters, Timeshare Boyfriend proves that M. K. Hale is a romance writer on the rise." —LEISA RAYVEN, International Bestselling author of Bad Romeo "Banter on point! Seriously, I'm still in a bit of stunned disbelief!" —RACHEL VAN DYKEN, Bestselling Author

College students, human and nonhuman, raised together on the same planet, search for the origins of civilization in the Galaxy and find old magic and a vast, implacable conspiracy. Can they forge bonds of friendship and understanding among themselves strong enough to stand against greed, lust for power, and absolute domination of a hundred planets? If not, then why does the enemy fear them?