The Cankered Rose and Esther's Revenge begins the author's dramatic journey of adopting his teenage daughter with severe attachment issues in Seattle. The heartbreak of then seeing Cordelia "stolen" by the efforts of his former wife and the child-welfare legal complex in Los Angeles, alongside that of the trauma of being denied during efforts to reunify with her are each foreshadowed here. Issues surrounding adoption trauma, parenting children with reactive attachment disorder, and the author's own struggles with Asperger's syndrome will be his constant companions on this perilous journey of adopting, losing, and then trying to reunite with his beloved daughter. In this and subsequent volumes, the author will also be questioning the ability of the child-welfare legal complex and the Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court to understand the nature of damaged child attachment or the therapeutic parenting needed to heal children with "special needs." Ultimately, each would be as responsible for "failing Cordelia" as the breaking of the violent waves for the shattering movement of the rocks on the beach.

Climbing the Broken Judicial Ladder continues the author’s journey of exploring the heartbreak and loss of first adopting Cordelia with severe reactive attachment disorder (RAD) in Washington state and then of nearly losing her to the draconian and confused child welfare legal complex in Los Angeles. In this third volume of his Denied! Failing Cordelia trilogy, Cambridge climbs the broken California judicial ladder from the California Court of Appeals (Second Appellate District) based in Los Angeles to the California Supreme Court. Cambridge concludes that in appeals relating to dependency cases, the ladder is broken for parents seeking to advocate for themselves and for the true best interests of their children. Policies relating to child welfare are flawed, Cambridge argues, because of the preemptive and prejudicial response to the issues raised during the detention of children. As with his two earlier books, Cambridge explores issues connected with how best to parent his adopted daughter and advocate for her needs in the context of a dependency case. Cordelia’s reactive attachment disorder would surface throughout the judicial struggle as would the author’s own struggles with Asperger syndrome. Each would feed negatively into the overall trauma and drama of the author’s unrelenting quest to reunite his “forever family.” Cambridge believes that dependency proceedings are ill-equipped on many levels to elicit a proper understanding of RAD or of the therapeutic parenting needed to address it. Cambridge believes that adoptive parents of children with special needs need to be understood by more sympathetic social workers and by therapists trained in attachment disorders. Cambridge’s persistent efforts to reunite his “forever family” would leave him increasingly isolated as he climbs the judicial ladder. Based on his experiences, Cambridge explores areas for reform in Los Angeles dependency proceedings and evokes Shakespeare’s King Lear by arguing that social workers need to “see better” and that the Los Angeles Juvenile Dependency Court needs to encourage a broader understanding of the issues raised through more effective legal advocacy from assigned dependency lawyers. Cambridge argues that parents should be allowed to address the court directly. Cambridge also relates how he and his daughter have found many positive and healthy ways to heal in the years since their dependency case ended. Much trauma could have been avoided if those around them had “seen better” and had recognized the value in their dramatic and loving adoption journey.

“Meeting” Anne Frank: An Anthology captures the stories of some twenty of us who have walked with Anne Frank and her sister Margot as kindred spirits over the course of the many decades that have elapsed since both girls died from typhus and Nazi cruelty in Bergen-Belsen in 1945. None writing here actually “met” or knew Anne personally, but we have “talked” to her and “journeyed” with her kindred spirit. Anne Frank unites us at a time when so much of the world is riven by the familiar and divisive themes of partisan politics, anti-Semitism, and prejudice. You will, though, be meeting those who did know Anne’s “most adorable father” Otto, and they have kindly shared their vivid stories in this volume. You will be seeing how we cherish not just the loving father-daughter relationship that has come to mean so much for many of us, but also the inspiration of Anne’s patient mother Edith and her “ladylike” older sister Margot. Several of Anne’s surviving school friends also appear in the journeys undertaken by a number of my contributors. In the years since she died in 1945, Anne Frank has become variously the sister, mother, wife, daughter, girlfriend, or best friend to each of us writing for this anthology and to many in the wider world. We honor the happy and tragic story of Anne’s brief life and recognize the existence of, at least, “two Annes” in both her sense of fun and mischief and in her growing self-awareness while in hiding. Anne was only a child while she lived freely at Merwedeplein 37 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and barely a teenager when she died in a Nazi concentration camp for the simple “crime” of being Jewish. Anne wanted to “go on living after [her] death” in February or March 1945, and I hope we have honored her lasting wish in this work.

Whether on the seashore or on the trails between clumps of Haworth heather, let us walk with Anne Brontë and listen to her discussing the kind of truth “that always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.” Join us in our academic and personal celebratory reflections on “gentle” Anne’s “core of steel,” sense of family duty, and enduring courage. Anne was the most underrated and least known of the three Brontë sisters for the better part of a century after she died in May 1849. Walking with Anne Brontë adds gravitas and personality to the growing chorus of academic and other voices honoring the youngest Brontë sibling’s inspirational life and literary legacy.

Whether on the seashore or on the trails between clumps of Haworth heather, let us walk with Anne Brontë and listen to her discussing the kind of truth that “always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.” Please join us in our academic and personal celebratory reflections on “gentle” Anne’s inner “core of steel,” her strong sense of family duty, and her enduring courage. Anne was the most underrated and least understood of the famous Brontë sisters for the better part of a century after she died in May 1849. Walking with Anne Brontë adds gravitas and personality to the growing chorus of academic and other voices now honoring the youngest Brontë sibling’s inspirational life and literary legacy.

Can there be a virtue in vengeance? Can revenge do ethical work? Can revenge be the obligation of women? This wide-ranging literary study looks at Shakespeare's women and finds bold answers to questions such as these. A surprising number of Shakespeare's female characters respond to moral outrages by expressing a strong desire for vengeance. This book's analysis of these characters and their circumstances offers incisive critical perceptions of feminine anger, ethics, and agency and challenges our assumptions about the role of gender in revenge. In this provocative book, Marguerite A. Tassi counters longstanding critical opinions on revenge: that it is the sole province of men in Western literature and culture, that it is a barbaric, morally depraved, irrational instinct, and that it is antithetical to justice. Countless examples have been mined from Shakespeare's dramas to reveal women's profound concerns with revenge and justice, honor and shame, crime and punishment. In placing the critical focus on avenging women, this book significantly redresses a gender imbalance in scholarly treatments of revenge, particularly in early modern literature.

A #1 New York Times Bestseller! The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel. Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has always loved; she has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie; and she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade. But the truth is far grimmer. Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save her reputation, while James remains in love with the Grace Blackthorn. Cortana burns her when she touches it. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace. Now Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she is attempting to raise the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he himself may be the killer they seek.

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