In an era of global warming, war, escalating expenses, declining income, and drugs and violence in schools, many mothers feel they have little control over their families or their worlds. Nora Murphy eloquently demonstrates that many women do control one tiny thing: their next stitch. While tracing the frustrations and joys of knitting a sweater for her son through the course of one cold, dark Minnesota winter, Murphy eloquently brings to life the traditions and cultures of women from many backgrounds, including Hmong, American Indian, Mexican, African, and Irish. Murphy’s personal stories — about her struggles to understand esoteric knitting patterns, her help from the shaman of the knit shop, and her challenges sticking with an often vexing project — will appeal to knitters as well as everyone else who has labored to create something from scratch.

Fabric of Time, Book Three. Emily Sundberg has her life all planned--a respectable job as a teacher and a suitable husband. But does God have a better plan for her?

This globe-spanning history of sewing and embroidery, culture and protest, is “an astonishing feat . . . richly textured and moving” (The Sunday Times, UK). In 1970s Argentina, mothers marched in headscarves embroidered with the names of their “disappeared” children. In Tudor, England, when Mary, Queen of Scots, was under house arrest, her needlework carried her messages to the outside world. From the political propaganda of the Bayeux Tapestry, World War I soldiers coping with PTSD, and the maps sewn by schoolgirls in the New World, to the AIDS quilt, Hmong story clothes, and pink pussyhats, women and men have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances. Threads of Life is a chronicle of identity, memory, power, and politics told through the stories of needlework. Clare Hunter, master of the craft, threads her own narrative as she takes us over centuries and across continents—from medieval France to contemporary Mexico and the United States, and from a POW camp in Singapore to a family attic in Scotland—to celebrate the universal beauty and power of sewing.

The Time Traveler's Almanac is the largest and most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century's worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations. This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu's "Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers"). In fact, this book is like a time machine of its very own, covering millions of years of Earth's history from the age of the dinosaurs through to strange and fascinating futures, spanning the ages from the beginning of time to its very end. The Time Traveler's Almanac is the ultimate anthology for the time traveler in your life.

"First there was the master conjurer adept at musicals, farces, opera and Shakespeare. Then there was the philosopher-king ... who has devoted his energies to a quest for a theatre that was simple in form and rich in meaning." - Michael Billington The theatre's greatest contemporary director tells the story of his life.Peter Brook was the modern stage's greatest inventor. For over 50 years he held audiences spellbound with his critically acclaimed productions. This is his account of his life. Born in 1925 in London, at 21 Brook became the enfant terrible of British theatre, directing major post-war productions of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, opera at Covent Garden and new plays in London's West End. He even made films. In 1964 he produced Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade for the RSC and his whole approach to theatre became radicalised. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Brook began exploring the roots of non-Western theatre which once again changed his view of what theatre could be for actors and audiences. His journey took him to Paris where he founded a company at the Bouffes du Nord theatre. Brook's biography charts all the stages of his aesthetic and spiritual journey, and touches on all parts of a career that has been widely reported but never previously talked about from his personal perspective.

Mathilde escapes war-torn Sofarende and reunites with Megs and the other children who are working for the army to retake Sofarende from the enemy, but Mathilde must come to terms with her past treasonous actions and determine what she must do in order to prove her friendship to Megs.

Director Peter Brook reveals the myriad sources driving his lifelong passion for finding the most expressive way to tell a story. Over the years we watch his metamorphosis from traditionalist to radical innovator, witnessing his expanding field of vision and sense of dramatic possibility. For fifty years, Peter Brook’s opera, stage, and film productions have held audiences spellbound. His visionary directing has created some of the most influential productions in contemporary theater. Now at the pinnacle of his career, Brook has given us his memoir, a luminous, inspiring work in which he reflects on his artistic fortunes, his idols and teachers, his philosophical path and personal journey. In this autobiography, the man The New York Times has called “the English-speaking world’s most eminent director” and The London Times has named “theater’s living legend” reveals the myriad sources behind his lifelong passion to find the most expressive way of telling a story. Whether in India’s epic “Mahabharata” or a stage adaptation of Oliver Sak’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, South Africa’s ”Woza Albert” or “The Cherry Orchard,” Brook’s unique blend of practicality and vision creates unforgettable experiences for audiences worldwide.

A nineteenth century Spanish seamstress flees her village for Morocco in a novel with “a magical realist aspect . . . An epic sweep and a richness of characterization” (The Independent). They say Frasquita is a healer with occult powers; that perhaps she is even a sorceress. Indeed, she has a remarkable gift, one that has been passed down to the women in her family for generations. From mere rags, she can create gowns and other garments so magnificent, so alive, that they mask any defect or deformity. They bestow a blinding beauty on whoever wears them. But Frasquita’s gift makes others in her small Andalusian village jealous. And when her gambling husband brings misfortune on their family, Frasquita travels across southern Spain and into Africa with her five children in tow. Her exile becomes a quest for a better life, and a way to free her daughters from the fate of her family of sorcerers. “Like the beautiful frescoes of García Márquez, this novel is a marvelous and lyrical fairytale bursting with colorful characters” —La Revue Littéraire Des Copines

Can they find a way to stitch their suffering into hope and embrace an uncertain future? Tally Smucker's quiet life of reading and quilting hides her sorrow over her mother's declining health and the lack of a fulfilling future for herself. When her daily life is shaken by her free-spirited neighbor Danielle--who grew up Plain but joined the Army at eighteen--Tally's instinct is to distance herself. Yet she finds she can't turn away when Danielle's brother, Kenan, specifically asks for her help. She invites Danielle to visit Plain Patterns quilt shop with her, where the story of the plight of a WWI soldier and the girl he left behind resonates with both Tally and Danielle, but for different reasons. When Tally's mother suffers a setback at the same time Danielle's PTSD becomes unmanageable, it seems Tally's efforts to aid them only make things worse. Can the soldier's story, along with the care of Kenan, help Tally accept the hope that waits just around the corner? From the talented pen of Leslie Gould comes a moving tale of restoration and renewed hope within the Amish community.

Collaboration between the Suzhou Embroidery Research Institute and Robert Glenn Ketchum. Photographs by Ketchum were recreated as pieces of embroidery by SERI.