Recent advances in medical technology mean that there are currently an extraordinary array of health care choices available to the public. In this import book, Dr. Savard, a doctor turned patient advocate, equips readers with the techniques for navigating the often confusing world of healthcare, enabling them to take control of their own health.

Michael Gill's lemons-to-lemonade memoir chronicled his transformative years working at Starbucks after losing his high-powered job, his marriage, and his health (he developed a brain tumor). In response to overwhelming requests from readers who wanted to know how they, too, could weather downturns, he has distilled his lessons into fifteen meaningful lessons, including: ·Leap...With Faith: Sometimes it pays to leap without looking and say yes without thinking (Gill accepted the Starbucks job immediately, on a whim). ·Let Yourself...Be Helped: Pride is even more paralyzing than fear. ·Look...with Respect at Every Individual You See: Gill was raised to avoid eye contact with those who were different, cloistered in a privileged world. Now he realizes the potential in all who cross his daily path. ·Lose...Your Watch (and Cell Phone and PDA!): Our obsession with productivity produces madness, not gladness. Offering living proof that extraordinary happiness is found in ordinary moments, How to Save Your Own Life provides empowering words and hope for anyone facing a reversal of fortune. True fortune, Gill discovered, lies not in fate but in discovering the innate capacity we all possess to rescue ourselves. Watch a Video

"Two silent stalkers -- heart diseases and stroke -- kill two of every five women, largely due to our speed-obsessed, stressed, unhealthy lifestyles. With [the five steps detailed in the book], you can evade these silent killers."--Page 4 of cover

This is the first collection of critical essays devoted to the writing of Dorothy Parker. Its four part organisation reflects a necessary shift away from her identity as primarily a humorist or Jazz Age literary celebrity.

Examining Margaret Atwood's work in the context of the complex history of the Bildungsroman, Ellen McWilliams explores how the genre has been appropriated by women writers in the second half of the twentieth century. She demonstrates that Atwood's early work - her own 'coming of age' fiction, including unpublished works as well as The Edible Woman, Surfacing, and Lady Oracle - both engages with and works against the paradigms of identity which are traditionally associated with the genre. Making extensive use of unpublished manuscripts in the Atwood Collection at the University of Toronto, McWilliams uncovers influences that shaped Atwood's fashioning of identity in her early novels, paying particular attention to Atwood's preoccupation with survival as a key symbol of Canadian literature, culture, and identity. She also considers the genre's afterlife on display in Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Moral Disorder, in which the formulations of selfhood and identity in Atwood's early fiction are revisited and developed. Atwood emerges as a writer who self-consciously invokes and then undercuts the traditions of the Bildungsroman, a turn that may be read as a means of at once interrogating and perpetuating the form. McWilliams's book furthers our understanding of subjectivity in Atwood's fiction and contributes to ongoing conversations about the role gender and cultural contexts play in reframing generic boundaries.

In Conversations with Erica Jong one of the most popular and controversial of contemporary writers has her say. She was already an established poet when she published Fear of Flying (1973), but the novel's sensational reception came to overshadow all her work. In interviews from 1973 to 2001, Jong relates the extra-ordinary experience she gained as a pioneer of sexual writing from a female point of view. With equal attention to the art of fiction and poetry, she yields her views on the literary scene and on the place of poetry in American society. Among the highlights of the book is Jong's account of the publication of Fear of Flying and its remarkable, best-seller rise. Cast into the role of spokesperson for feminism in the seventies, she has continued to represent her generation of women. In several conversations, she talks about the tensions within feminism over the decades. Jong's fame has been deeply branded by the notoriety associated with sex. She speaks for all women writers who have addressed sexual topics and who have suffered retaliation. She tells the story of the struggle to keep writing honestly when the public's perception of one's work has made one a target. She describes the difficulty of escaping categories created by the media and the critical community and the frustration of living in the shadow of one notorious best-seller. In Jong's writing, humor is a constant, and one of the pleasures of reading these conversations is her abundant wit. Conversations with Erica Jong reveals the writer to be funny, articulate, and passionately committed to her art. Charlotte Templin is the author of Feminism and the Politics of Literary Reputation: The Example of Erica Jong. Her work has appeared in American Studies, The Missouri Review, and Centennial Review.

“Join Heller on her quest to help save the world, one poet at a time.” — from the foreword by Susan G. Wooldridge Write a Poem, Save Your Life helps writers of all ages and experience levels navigate their way through all aspects of life. With writing prompts, tools, encouragement, and moving student examples, Meredith Heller gently guides us in the art of using poetry to figure out who we are and what matters to us and to heal the deeper issues many of us face, such as depression, addiction, health and body image issues, low self-esteem, trauma, gender and sexual identity issues, and home and family problems. Along the way, we learn that writing poems helps us believe in ourselves, make positive life choices, and find direction, purpose, and meaning.

I recommend Dr. Kindreds book to anyone who has the desire to gain a fuller, more tangible understanding of the words of Jesus Christ. The authors very personal account of his own experiences may give others a point of reference in their own lives. Lou Angora, Executive Producer, Morning Light Films As I was going through a terrible trial in my life, I remembered something that my mom had said to me when I was a teenager. She said, Read Matthew to live your life, read John to save your soul. That turned out to be the best advice I ever got! I started talking to other people, sharing this with them, and I was amazed to find that so few knew what Jesus said. This led me to write this book to tell everyone what Christ said about how to live your life and how to save your soul. He gave us a how to guide. His message is clear and concise and doesnt need a lot of interpretation. He says what He means, and He means what He says. It is pure truth!