I arrived at San Diego State University (then State College ) in 1969 and so was "present at the creation" and watched the events described in Joyce Nower's The Sister Chronicles unfold. Nower examines and evokes the creation of the first Women's Studies program in the nation with a remarkable intertextual weaving of prose and rather formal verse ... And so the reconstruction of history to include "her story" began, and you will find the triumphs and setbacks, the exhilaration and disappointment, the hope and the struggle of those days powerfully recalled on these pages. Nower even has the audacity to turn bureaucratic academic procedures into poetry. -Fred Moramarco, poet and editor of Poetry International [The] Sister Chronicles (sharp title) about the formation of the first women's studies in the USA ... is entirely original. The prose is nicely paced, but it's the poetry that charms this reader, with its lyrical, musical voice, its mix of sassy, down home, traditional and erudite, witty and playful voices ("Dido Did It"), the somber beauty of "On the Path to Athena Proneia," "The Danaids" .... The poems connect smoothly to the narration. The poems that reflect the physical world in San Diego, birds, flora, the back country of the hunter-those "Sloan Canyon Songs"-are strong ... I like the witty rhymes ... The "Meditation on the Maelstrom" seems an excellent last poem and lands on an affirming note ....I am grateful to know about the mystic, pagan, fourth-century BC mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria. These sonnets, with their no-nonsense earthy language ... delighted me. "Jericho Again and Again" sets a philosophical mode into motion. After the fires, the blood of "Hypatia...," it offers a quieter tone. I especially like #7 "Childhood's Globe of Light," the pleasure of the rhymed couplets. -Colette Inez, poet (The Woman Who Loved Worms, Alive and Taking Names) Writing in the tradition of the Iliad and Odyssey, Joyce Nower charts the stormy waters of the Sixties. Her luminous poetry breaks over the shoals of the past, bringing calm at last. The Sister Chronicles is a tour de force of history and literature. -Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, historian (All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the 1960s)

Just like snowflakes, no two sisters are alike, but together, they can share the perfect snow day. Siblings, snow-bunnies, and fans of the Frozen movies will all find something to love in Snow Sisters! When snowflakes fall, two sisters react in different ways. One is excited and the other is wary. The first sister spends the morning outdoors, playing until she's all tuckered out. Meanwhile, the second sister stays indoors, becoming ever more curious about the drifts outside. Soon, they switch places, and spend the second half of the day retracing each other's footsteps. But each sister puts her own unique spin on activities like sledding, baking and building. The simple mirrored text is spare and lovely, and each spread is split to show what each sister is doing independently--until at last they come together in the sweet, satisfying conclusion. LeUyen Pham's Big Sister, Little Sister meets Kate Messner's Over and Under the Snow. "Chock-full of ideas for fun on a snowy day . . . A nice addition to sibling shelves that shows that fun can also be had apart." --Kirkus Reviews

Now in paperback, this collection of bold and scathingly beautiful feminist poems imagines what comes after our current age of environmental destruction, racism, sexism, and divisive politics. Informed as much by Brenda Shaughnessy's worst fears as a mother as they are by her superb craft as a poet, the poems in The Octopus Museum blaze forth from her pen: in these pages, we see that what was once a generalized fear for our children is now hyper-reasonable, specific, and multiple: school shootings, nuclear attack, loss of health care, a polluted planet. As Shaughnessy conjures our potential future, she movingly (and often with humor) envisions an age where cephalopods might rule over humankind, a fate she suggests we may just deserve after destroying their oceans. These heartbreaking, terrified poems are the battle cry of a woman who is fighting for the survival of the world she loves, and a stirring exhibition of who we are as a civilization.

A funny book that makes you cry. A sad book that makes you laugh. A book about two sisters and their family that makes you wish you were part of it--and grateful that you are not. In short, this book is one surprise after another. The only thing that is not a surprise is that Vera B. Williams has created a wholly unforgettable, absolutely wonderful portrait of Amber, Essie, and their world. Open the book. You will never be the same again.