Bryn Mawr Authors

Studies of seals and sealing practices have traditionally investigated aspects of social, political, economic, and ideological systems in ancient societies throughout the Old World. Previously, scholarship has focused on description and documentation, chronology and dynastic histories, administrative function, iconography, and style. More recent studies have emphasized context, production and use, and increasingly, identity, gender, and the social lives of seals, their users, and the artisans who produced them. Using several methodological and theoretical perspectives, this volume presents up-to-date research on seals that is comparative in scope and focus. The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach advances our understanding of the significance of an important class of material culture of the ancient world. The volume will serve as an essential resource for scholars, students, and others interested in glyptic studies, seal production and use, and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Ancient South Asia and the Aegean during the 4th-2nd Millennia BCE.

Tales of the Romanov Empire was short listed for the Goethe Book Awards for Late Historical Fiction! It was also Long listed for the Historical Fiction Company's Book of the Year Awards.

"Tales of the Romanov Empire is an impressive historical epic novel that chronicles slightly over 300 years of Russian history in short vignette chapters... Anolic's prose is polished, elaborate, and gorgeously descriptive overall.... Tales of the Romanov Empire is a bold, innovative project that compellingly overviews more obscure history, like manipulative bride shows, alongside more well-known material like Russia's dealings with Napoleon. Anolic also has a real knack for imaginative reveals and inserting surprisingly timely elements into the narrative." -The BookLife Prize

"Each tale, or vignette, is done in a clever way, with rich, enticing prose which sweeps a reader into the effluent and sometimes turbulent world of Russian nobility... This book is very educational, giving slices of the Romanov's lives and leading a reader by the hand through time without the passage of time feeling jarring or unsatisfying as each story closes and a new one begins. Rather, you are intrigued to do a little research on your own to look further into the different episodes, and Ms Anolic's skill as a researcher shines forth in the way she combines the history with the storytelling with such ease. Along with some wonderful scene setting... for this enjoyable read, Ms. Anolic's book takes us on a wintry journey into the Russian past and soul." -The Historical Fiction Book Company's review

Stories you've never heard about the Romanovs....

Tales of the Romanov Empire is a novel in short stories that examines one of history's most successful dynasties. The Romanovs were Russia's absolute monarchs from 1613 until 1917. Yet, beyond the glittering wealth and tragic love story of Nicholas and Alexandra, much of the dynasty remains shrouded in mystery.

Tales of The Romanov Empire sheds light on the Romanovs' unknown figures, from the election of Mikhail Feodorovich, the first Romanov tsar, to the bride shows that were staged to help Tsar Alexei find a wife. Grand Duke Konstantin, the Romanovs' famous poet, comes to life as he and his favorite cousin, Grand Duke Sergei, examine their ideals and their sexuality in a world that is hostile to them. All the while, as the empire's Jews struggle amidst the Romanovs' pogroms, many make the decision to flee to the freedom of the United States- these stories in particular are based on the author's own family history.

This novel contains stories of war, stories of personal gifts and choices bent to an autocratic ideal. In their telling, the vast human cost of absolute power- on both the oppressors and on the oppressed- becomes clear.

Boards of directors are sitting ducks. Shareholders complain and even attack, management manipulates, and individual board members have little power, able to act only as part of the board as a whole. Governance issues are front and center, yet there is often little understanding, even among board members, of the key role that they play. Written in an accessible and human voice, The Governance Revolution: What Every Board Member Needs to Know, NOW! provides information and context essential to anyone seeking to understand how corporations and their stewards-the board of directors-can and should function in the volatile world we inhabit. Deborah Hicks Midanek offers useful insight into what board members of corporations actually do, the current standards for board members and why they exist. She includes a timely discussion of how clarity of purpose can improve board and director effectiveness. Informed by her long experience serving public, private, and family owned corporate boards as well as those of charitable, and government organizations, she provides essential context regarding the evolution of board practice as well as candid discussion of the issues involved in the relentless effort to improve corporate governance processes. Focused mainly on the dominant public corporation, she also explores the special challenges of serving private and family owned as well as nonprofit and public agency boards. Written by a seasoned board member, and liberally laced with stories and cases illustrating the tricky issues directors wrestle with, this book is the essential common-sense companion for anyone working with a board, serving on a board, or wanting to do so. Directors, aspiring directors, investors, and students of corporate behavior will benefit from this highly readable description of the cloistered boardroom. For a Roundtable discussion in Financier Worldwide Magazine featuring Deborah Hicks Midanek please click here https: //www.financierworldwide.com/roundtable-risks-facing-directors-officers-aug18#.W1BqQdVKiUk

This gripping and darkly funny memoir "is a testament to the undeniable, indestructible love between a mother and a daughter" (Isaac Mizrahi).

Liz Scheier's mother was a news junkie, a hilarious storyteller, a fast-talking charmer you couldn't look away from, a single mother whose devotion crossed the line into obsession, and--when in the grips of the mental illness that plagued her--a masterful liar. On an otherwise uneventful afternoon when Scheier was eighteen, her mother sauntered into the room and dropped two bombshells. First, that she had been married for most of the previous two decades to a man Liz had never heard of and, second, that the man she had claimed was Liz's dead father was entirely fictional. She'd made him up--his name, the stories, everything.

Those big lies were the start, but not the end; it had taken dozens of smaller lies to support them, and by the time she was done she had built a fairy-tale, half-true life for the two of them. Judith Scheier's charm was more than matched by her eccentricity, and Liz had always known there was something wrong in their home. After all, other mothers didn't raise a child single-handedly with no visible source of income, or hide their children behind fake Social Security numbers, or host giant parties in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment only to throw raging tantrums when the door closed behind the guests.

Now, decades later, armed with clues to her father's identity--and as her mother's worsening dementia reveals truths she never intended to share--Liz attempts to uncover the real answers to the mysteries underpinning her childhood. Trying to construct a "normal" life out of decidedly abnormal roots, she navigates her own circuitous path to adulthood: a bizarre breakup, an unexpected romance, and the birth of her son and daughter. Along the way, Liz wrestles with questions of what we owe our parents even when they fail us, and of how to share her mother's hilarity, limitless love, and creativity with children--without passing down the trauma of her mental illness. Never Simple is the story of enduring the legacy of a hard-to-love parent with compassion, humor, and, ultimately, self-preservation.