The Mitford sisters were the great wits and beauties of their time. Immoderate in their passions for ideas and people, they counted among their diverse friends Adolf Hitler and Queen Elizabeth II, Cecil Beaton and President Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh and Givenchy. The Mitfords offers an unparalleled look at these privileged siblings through their own unabashed correspondence. Spanning the twentieth century, the magically vivid letters of the legendary Mitfords constitute a superb social and historical chronicle and an intimate portrait of the stormy but enduring relationships between six beautiful, gifted, and radically different women.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1881.

Deborah Walsh is a talented university student who is growing tired of the gossip that goes on behind her back. Born with a limp, a curved chin, a crooked nose, and a hunchback, Deborah is all too familiar with exclusion and discrimination due to her physical abnormalities. As she attempts to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Deborah cannot help but wonder if she will ever be accepted for who she is on the inside, not the outside. Deborah's father raises honey bees as a hobby. Deborah's sister, Ruth, has her own set of struggles with her husband, Travis, who has left her and her children to fend for themselves. Their unusual family dynamics become even more complex when Deborah intervenes in an attempt to arrange a reconciliation between Ruth and Travis, all while continuing to seek fulfillment in her own life. As Deborah and her family members each tackle life-changing challenges, a real honey bee observes and commentates, offering a new perspective on human beings. The Honey Bee shares the tale of one woman's quest to carve out a new future for herself, despite the many hurdles that stand in her way.

Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes's brother has returned from Hong Kong with a comfortable fortune and a new bride and is planning to build a house on land he's inherited. Because they want a house as much like an Elizabethan mansion as its "mod cons" will allow, they ask Penny's lover, Ringan Laine, to work on it as a consultant. Ringan is not only a noted musician but also a designer and architect well versed in the first Elizabeth's colorful period. The house is to be on the Isle of Dogs, and Penny's brother, his new wife, and Penny herself are delighted with the site. Ringan, however, comes away feeling very uncomfortable. A few weeks later, in London on business, he goes back alone, hoping to clear up any misgivings he has about the place. But this visit is even worse than the first. He hears women's voices, frightening and full of passion, coming from the air around him. That evening, Ringan is sleeping in Penny's flat; she has taken her theater troupe to Italy. A late-night phone call from Penny reveals to them both that they had an identical dream. In it, two young women on the Isle of Dogs are fighting. One is begging the other not to drown her. Their speech and their clothes put them firmly in the reign of Henry VIII. Once more, Penny and Ringan are being visited by tragic spirits from their country's past. This is the fourth in Deborah Grabien's gripping and unusual Haunted Ballad series. Her stories pair two sophisticated and very likable people whose lives are invaded by tortured souls from England's history. With each encounter, Penny and Ringan are forced to find a way to lay a long-suffering ghost to rest.

Uncovers the origins of midlife anxiety in Victorian print culture.

What I hoped would be my great adventure has become more exciting than even I could have imagined, Sydney Blanchett ponders as she stands outside the magnificent abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy France. I joked that while I studied the history and architecture of the monastery, I would solve the Mont’s many ancient unsolved mysteries. How could I have known I’d be helping to solve a real-life mystery, one that’s complicated and possibly life-threatening? After a murder occurs on the Mont, Sydney, along with the monks and nuns who inhabit the monastery; her professor, Armand Toussaint; and a police inspecteur, Marcel Caron; set out to identify the killer. As they uncover clues, Sydney faces terrifying encounters that could make her the next person to be murdered on the Mont. From beginning to end, Ann Port’s ninth novel, Murder on the Mont, is a page-turner that challenges the reader to figure out “who done it.”

This is a book of sermons about several courageous women in the Bible, which I have identified from the Old and New Testament scriptures. I developed or created these sermons because of the bold example from my Mother, Elizabeth Murphy-Clayton. As a single parent, this courageous woman raised nine children: five sons and four daughters. Her five sons all served honorably in the United States Armed Forces. Furthermore, these sermons about female biblical characters reflect my mother’s personality. While I created sermons about Deborah, Esther, Rahab, Ruth, and Hannah, as are five courageous women of the Old Testament, I also developed five homilies about five women in the New Testament. These brave women are (1) Mary, the Mother of Jesus; (2) Mary Magdalene; (3) Mary of Bethany; (4) Priscilla; and (5) Lydia in the New Testament. These sermons are essentially a male perspective about women who continue to serve as valuable and impeccable role models for how women today, especially African American women, can serve as courageous examples to achieve excellence in various fields of endeavor. The content provided here falls primarily into homiletic womanist studies, with some relevance to African-American philosophy, religion, cultural studies, etc.