Bryn Mawr Authors

Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience

Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience
$24.95

by Nancy Sherman '73


 

How do we find calm in times of stress and uncertainty? How do we cope with sudden losses or find meaning in a world that can easily rob us of what we most value? Drawing on the wisdom of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and others, Nancy Sherman's Stoic Wisdom presents a compelling, modern Stoicism that teaches grit, resilience, and the importance of close relationships in addressing life's biggest and smallest challenges.

A renowned expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: They never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. We are at home in the world, they insisted, when we are connected to each other in cooperative efforts. We build resilience and goodness through our deepest relationships.

Bringing ancient ideas to bear on 21st century concerns--from workers facing stress and burnout to first responders in a pandemic, from soldiers on the battlefield to citizens fighting for racial justice--Sherman shows how Stoicism can help us fulfil the promise of our shared humanity.

In nine lessons that combine ancient pithy quotes and daily exercises with contemporary ethics and psychology, Stoic Wisdom is a field manual for the art of living well.

ISBN/SKU: 
9780197501832
Publication Date: 
May 11, 2021

Stressed Years of Their Lives

Stressed Years of Their Lives
$17.99

by B. Janet Hibbs BMC '84 - Ph.D.

June 2020 (paperback)


From two leading child and adolescent mental health experts comes a guide for the parents of every college and college-bound student who want to know what's normal mental health and behavior, what's not, and how to intervene before it's too late.

"The title says it all...Chock full of practical tools, resources and the wisdom that comes with years of experience, The Stressed Years of their Lives is destined to become a well-thumbed handbook to help families cope with this modern age of anxiety."
-- Brigid Schulte, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of Overwhelmed and director of the Better Life Lab at New America

All parenting is in preparation for letting go. However, the paradox of parenting is that the more we learn about late adolescent development and risk, the more frightened we become for our children, and the more we want to stay involved in their lives. This becomes particularly necessary, and also particularly challenging, in mid- to late adolescence, the years just before and after students head off to college. These years coincide with the emergence of many mood disorders and other mental health issues.

When family psychologist Dr. B. Janet Hibbs's own son came home from college mired in a dangerous depressive spiral, she turned to Dr. Anthony Rostain. Dr. Rostain has a secret superpower: he understands the arcane rules governing privacy and parental involvement in students' mental health care on college campuses, the same rules that sometimes hold parents back from getting good care for their kids. Now, these two doctors have combined their expertise to corral the crucial emotional skills and lessons that every parent and student can learn for a successful launch from home to college.

ISBN/SKU: 
9781250113146
Publication Date: 
June 16, 2020
Author: 
Publisher: 

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de Escritos Españolas - Vol I: De Al-Ándalus Hasta El Siglo XVII

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de Escritos Españolas - Vol I: De Al-Ándalus Hasta El Siglo XVII
$114.95

by Erika Sutherland BMC '86

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de escritoras españolas, Tomo I: De Al-Ándalus hasta el siglo XVIII presenta poesía, drama y prosa de autoras de la Edad Media, el Renacimiento/Barroco y el siglo XVIII. Cada sección tiene introducciones sociohistóricas que esbozan el contexto histórico, el contexto social y el contexto de la mujer para situar la literatura. Se incluyen notas a pie de página en español para facilitar la comprensión de los textos. Al final de cada selección literaria aparece una corta biografía general de la escritora. La sección medieval tiene versiones árabes y hebreas de los escritos originalmente publicados en esas lenguas. Esta presentación bilingüe continúa en tomo II de (Con)textos femeninos que tiene literatura de escritoras españolas del siglo XIX hasta la actualidad.
ISBN/SKU: 
9781433131622
Publication Date: 
December 19, 2019

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de Escritos Españolas - Vol II: El Siglo XIX Hasta La Actualidad

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de Escritos Españolas - Vol II: El Siglo XIX Hasta La Actualidad
$159.95

by Erika Sutherland BMC '86

(Con)textos femeninos: Antología de escritoras españolas, Tomo II: El siglo XIX hasta la actualidad presenta poesía, drama y prosa de autoras españolas del siglo XIX; el período desde la guerra hispano-americana hasta el fin de la guerra civil española (1898-1939); el período desde 1939 hasta la muerte del dictador Francisco Franco (1939-1975); y el período desde 1975 hasta la actualidad. Cada sección tiene introducciones sociohistóricas que esbozan el contexto histórico, el contexto social y el contexto de la mujer para situar la literatura. Se incluyen notas a pie de página en español para facilitar la comprensión de los textos. Al final de cada selección literaria aparece una corta biografía general de la escritora. Esta antología sirve como una continuación de tomo I de (Con)textos femeninos, que presenta literatura de escritoras españolas de la Edad Media hasta el siglo XVIII.

ISBN/SKU: 
9781433166976
Publication Date: 
December 23, 2019

Renegade Flight

Renegade Flight
$18.99

by Andrea Tang BMC '12

Aurora Rising meets Top Gun, with the addition of cybernetic dragons, in this is the witty, romantic, and electrifying sci-fi novel by Andrea Tang.

Viola Park's life is over.

She's gone from planning her future as a pilot-in-training to resigning herself to life on the ground. And it's all because she made one tiny, not-altogether-legal maneuver on the prestigious GAN Academy's entrance exam. It's bad enough that she didn't get into the Academy, but getting caught cheating? It's probably the worst thing Vi could imagine.

Still, there are perks that come with Vi's family legacy at the school, and when Vi learns that recent pilot disappearances have left the Academy desperate for recruits, she does what any good Park would do--uses her connections to wiggle her way back in. But instead of matriculating with the regular class of future Peacekeepers, Vi is forced to enter as a probationary student, which means she'll have to work twice as hard to prove herself worthy of a place in the cockpit of one of the legendary dragon mechs.

Lucky for Vi, the Academy has set up a combat tournament for all students, and the prize is a guaranteed spot in the Peacekeeper corps. Unlucky for Vi, she'll have to compete against her probie classmates, including Nicholas Lee, a mysterious boy prone to throwing Vi off her game. And as more Peacekeepers go missing, what starts out as a ploy to save her reputation turns into a fight for the future of Peacekeepers everywhere, and if Vi can't master her mech combat skills, she might not survive the battle.

In this standalone set fifteen years after Prudence Wu took flight in Rebelwing, a new generation of scrappy young pilots challenge corruption, competition, and more dangerous mechs than ever, as they redefine what it means to be a revolutionary.

ISBN/SKU: 
9781984835123
Publication Date: 
March 23, 2021
Author: 
Publisher: 

Brought to Life by the Voice

Brought to Life by the Voice
$34.95

by Amanda Weidman, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

To produce the song sequences that are central to Indian popular cinema, singers' voices are first recorded in the studio and then played back on the set to be lip-synced and danced to by actors and actresses as the visuals are filmed. Since the 1950s, playback singers have become revered celebrities in their own right. Brought to Life by the Voice explores the distinctive aesthetics and affective power generated by this division of labor between onscreen body and offscreen voice in South Indian Tamil cinema. In Amanda Weidman's historical and ethnographic account, playback is not just a cinematic technique, but a powerful and ubiquitous element of aural public culture that has shaped the complex dynamics of postcolonial gendered subjectivity, politicized ethnolinguistic identity, and neoliberal transformation in South India.

ISBN/SKU: 
9780520377066
Publication Date: 
June 15, 2021

Find Praise for January

Find Praise for January
$15.00

by Shirley Sullivan '63


 

The stark beauty of the winter tree is a strong metaphor for this collection of contemporary poems that explores the themes of aging, divorce, cancer, and loss with raw honesty; yet also celebrates the elegance and healing we find in the natural world.

ISBN/SKU: 
9781733988704
Publication Date: 
January 26, 2021
Publisher: 

Caped Countess

Caped Countess
$10.99

by Judith Tabron BMC '90

By day, Lady Donnatella is a duke's silly daughter.

So she can save London lives by night.

When she stumbles into something larger than a street fight, everything she's balancing may come crashing down...


It's another lonely season for Tella, dancing and gaming madly while keeping marriage away. She cannot tell her family or friends that her true self is the one battling danger in the city's dark streets. Nor will anyone guess; she's perfected her disguise. Then her night-time alter ego is seen - just when she can no longer count on her best friend, or her beloved great-uncle. And the resulting fuss in the newspapers isn't making any of this easier. Nor is the reporter who saw her.


Henry Fitzwilliam, third son of a marquess, left London society to serve in the wars, and won't go back. He's devoted his life to telling the stories Britain needs to hear, and perhaps this Caped Count falls into that category. He can't be sure until he gets much, much closer.


Tella can handle a fight, but tracking a murderer is higher stakes. She might need someone at her back. Fitz might be the worst choice - or he might be more perfect than either of them suspects.


A new kind of Regency romance, full of action, adventure, and forever love

ISBN/SKU: 
9781953984029
Publication Date: 
July 15, 2021
Author: 
Publisher: 

Choosing Life

Choosing Life
$16.99

by Leslie Sussar '73


 

In 1946, with the war over and Japan occupied, 2nd Lt. Herbert Sussan received a plum assignment. He would get to use his training as a cinematographer and join a Strategic Bombing Survey crew to record the results of the atomic bombings in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. From his first arrival in Nagasaki, he knew that something completely novel and appalling had happened and that he had to preserve a record of the results, especially the ongoing suffering of those affected by the bomb (known as hibakusha) even months later.
When the U.S. government decided that the gruesome footage would not be of interest to the American public and therefore classified it top secret, he spent decades arguing for its release. His last wish was that his ashes be scattered at ground zero in Hiroshima.
The author, his daughter, followed his footsteps in 1987, met survivors he had filmed more than 40 years before. And found that she met there a father she never really knew in life.
This book recounts Herbert Sussan's experiences (drawn directly from an oral history he left behind), his daughter's quest to understand what he saw in Japan, and the stories of some of the survivors with whose lives both father and daughter intersected. This nuclear legacy captures the ripples of the atomic bombing down through decades and generations.
The braided tale brings human scale and understanding to the horrors of nuclear war and the ongoing need for healing and peacemaking.

ISBN/SKU: 
9781098314538
Publication Date: 
September 10, 2020
Author: 
Publisher: 

Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones

Fire, Ice, and Physics: The Science of Game of Thrones
$17.95

by Rebecca Thompson BMC '01 

Exploring the science in George R. R. Martin's fantastical world, from the physics of an ice wall to the genetics of the Targaryens and Lannisters.

Game of Thrones is a fantasy that features a lot of made-up science--fabricated climatology (when is winter coming?), astronomy, metallurgy, chemistry, and biology. Most fans of George R. R. Martin's fantastical world accept it all as part of the magic. A trained scientist, watching the fake science in Game of Thrones, might think, "But how would it work?" In Fire, Ice, and Physics, Rebecca Thompson turns a scientist's eye on Game of Thrones, exploring, among other things, the science of an ice wall, the genetics of the Targaryen and Lannister families, and the biology of beheading. Thompson, a PhD in physics and an enthusiastic Game of Thrones fan, uses the fantasy science of the show as a gateway to some interesting real science, introducing GOT fandom to a new dimension of appreciation.

Thompson starts at the beginning, with winter, explaining seasons and the very elliptical orbit of the Earth that might cause winter to come (or not come). She tells us that ice can behave like ketchup, compares regular steel to Valyrian steel, explains that dragons are "bats, but with fire," and considers Targaryen inbreeding. Finally she offers scientific explanations of the various types of fatal justice meted out, including beheading, hanging, poisoning (reporting that the effects of "the Strangler," administered to Joffrey at the Purple Wedding, resemble the effects of strychnine), skull crushing, and burning at the stake.

Even the most faithful Game of Thrones fans will learn new and interesting things about the show from Thompson's entertaining and engaging account. Fire, Ice, and Physics is an essential companion for all future bingeing.

ISBN/SKU: 
9780262539616
Publication Date: 
November 10, 2020
Author: 
Publisher: