Splendid Seniors

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young." So said W. Somerset Maugham, one of the 52 people whose achievements after age 65 are featured in Splendid Seniors: Great Lives, Great Deeds. The inspiring ensemble includes Mary Baker Eddy, who was 86 when she founded the Christian Science Monitor; Alexander Graham Bell, who received a patent for his work on a hydrofoil boat at age 75; Benjamin Disraeli, who became prime minister of England for the second time when he was 70; and Susan B. Anthony, who was past 80 when she founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Splendid Seniors reminds us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit. "From Mother Teresa to Alexander Graham Bell, Albert Einstein, Charles de Gaulle, Pablo Picasso, Grandma Moses and many more, Splendid Seniors offers true tales of inspirational deeds as well as memorable quotes from each individual profiled," says Midwest Book Review. "A source of inspiration for seniors everywhere, and proof that greatness, creativity, passion, and intelligence can bloom their brightest with age and experience."

Robertson on Library Security and Disaster Planning presents a collection of highly-cited, author published articles on security and disaster planning for libraries. The book represents the only place where these articles are compiled, making it a go-to volume for practitioners. It includes topics covering all aspects of preparation and response, along with articles drawn from library journals, including Feliciter, Canadian Insurance, Disaster Recovery Journal, and Canadian Bookseller. The book represents a wealth of the author's experience and expertise garnered during a distinguished career working with significant institutions on both their current security problems and their plans for future security. Offers a unique and valuable collection of the author's articles on library security and disaster planning Accompanies, and complements, Disaster Planning for Libraries, a second title by the author Presents a range of security and disaster planning topics in an accessible, narrative style Represents the only resource that contains such a broad range of security and disaster planning topics

Explores the practical and psychological aspects of caring for aging parents through lifestyle choices while creating a safe environment, bolstering mental activity, and promoting physical and spiritual well-being.

Embryo adoptions, stem cells capable of transforming into any cell in the human body, intra- and inter-species organ transplantation—these and other biomedical advances have unsettled ideas of what it means to be human, of when life begins and ends. In the first study to consider the cultural impact of the medical transformation of the entire human life span, Susan Merrill Squier argues that fiction—particularly science fiction—serves as a space where worries about ethically and socially charged scientific procedures are worked through. Indeed, she demonstrates that in many instances fiction has anticipated and paved the way for far-reaching biomedical changes. Squier uses the anthropological concept of liminality—the state of being on the threshold of change, no longer one thing yet not quite another—to explore how, from the early twentieth century forward, fiction and science together have altered not only the concept of the human being but the contours of human life. Drawing on archival materials of twentieth-century biology; little-known works of fiction and science fiction; and twentieth- and twenty-first century U.S. and U.K. government reports by the National Institutes of Health, the Parliamentary Advisory Group on the Ethics of Xenotransplantation, and the President’s Council on Bioethics, she examines a number of biomedical changes as each was portrayed by scientists, social scientists, and authors of fiction and poetry. Among the scientific developments she considers are the cultured cell, the hybrid embryo, the engineered intrauterine fetus, the child treated with human growth hormone, the process of organ transplantation, and the elderly person rejuvenated by hormone replacement therapy or other artificial means. Squier shows that in the midst of new phenomena such as these, literature helps us imagine new ways of living. It allows us to reflect on the possibilities and perils of our liminal lives.

A collection of poems chronicling the author's recovery from a brain damaging car accident, with a list of journaling therapy writing prompts and other resources she found helpful in transcending trauma. "Shattering, haunting, humbling and ultimately triumphant, this poetic memoir takes us deep into a damaged brain and the courageous crawl back to a reclaimed life," says Kathleen Adams, LPC, director of the Center for Journal Therapy & Therapeutic Writing Institute. "Language, once lost, returns to shimmer on the page, each poem and altar to the angel's promise that in trauma there is transformation. This collection will surely provide hope, identification, and voice for those who struggle with TBI, and those who love and serve them. It is a brilliant and urgently needed addition to the literature in therapeutic writing."

Maria Fama's poetry takes us into the hearts and souls of animals -- domesticated, feral, captive, free.Her poems challenge the notion that animals are on this planet solely for humans to use and exploit. Instead, the poems recognize the individuality of each animal with the view that animals are, as the naturalist Henry Beston saw them, "other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

In the 1480s, twin sister healers in a remote village in the mountainous Barbagia region of Sardinia encounter a heretic-obsessed Spanish priest. Antonio Albóndiga is sent to Sardinia after mishaps in his homeland, and is eventually banished to the village of Orune. Half the villagers—including Sarda and Shardana—follow a pre-Christian religion, while the other half observe a makeshift version of Catholicism and paganism. Hate holds the priest's heart hostage, and he scorns Sarda and Shardana's adherence to ancient ways. Despite their suspicions, the healers and their village attempt not only to accept the stranger but to transform him.

It's a king-sized case for a queen-sized sleuth! In the third Josephine Fuller mystery, Jo is working undercover at a women's skills center when she spots an old acquaintance. Jo last saw Teddy in Kathmandu when her photographer husband ran off with Teddy's mountain-climbing wife, leaving the spouses to commiserate. Now Teddy has a new problem—his latest girlfriend is missing. Jo agrees to track her down, and the trail leads straight to his estranged wife, murdered with a climbing axe. Jo suddenly finds herself a major suspect in the death of the woman who broke up her marriage. Add to that Jo's already muddled love life, an apartment filled with haunting memories, and suspects ranging from the victim's lesbian vegetarian sister to her fading film star mother, her politician stepfather and her mooching father, and Jo's got her hands full.