Can white moms and Black moms ever truly be friends? Not just mom friends, but like really real friends? And does it matter? “Utterly addictive . . . Through her sharp wit and dynamic anecdotal storytelling, Helena Andrews-Dyer shines a light on the cultural differences that separate Black and white mothers.”—Tia Williams, New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June Helena Andrews-Dyer lives in a “hot” Washington, D.C., neighborhood, which means picturesque row houses and plenty of gentrification. After having her first child, she joined the local mom group—“the Mamas”—and quickly realized that being one of the only Black mothers in the mix was a mixed bag. The racial, cultural, and socioeconomic differences were made clear almost immediately. But spending time in what she calls “the Polly Pocket world of postracial parenting” was a welcome reprieve. Then George Floyd happened. A man was murdered, a man who called out for his mama. And suddenly, the Mamas hit different. Though they were alike in some ways—they want their kids to be safe; they think their husbands are lazy; they work too much and feel guilty about it—Andrews-Dyer realized she had an entirely different set of problems that her neighborhood mom friends could never truly understand. In The Mamas, Andrews-Dyer chronicles the particular challenges she faces in a group where systemic racism can be solved with an Excel spreadsheet and where she, a Black, professional, Ivy League–educated mom, is overcompensating with every move. Andrews-Dyer grapples with her own inner tensions, like “Why do I never leave the house with the baby and without my wedding ring?” and “Why did every name we considered for our kids have to pass the résumé test?” Throw in a global pandemic and a nationwide movement for social justice, and Andrews-Dyer ultimately tries to find out if moms from different backgrounds can truly understand one another. With sharp wit and refreshing honesty, The Mamas explores the contradictions and community of motherhood—white and Black and everything—against the backdrop of the rapidly changing world.

After considering how the political and Church culture fostered the 'inculturation' of Catholic religious institutions, this ethnographic work documents the unfolding African expression of the Sisterhood among a group of women religious in the former-Zaire.

Doing Ethnography in the Wake of the Displacement of Transnational Sex Workers in Yokohama reflects on the politics, poetics, and ethics of remembering the lives of transnational migrant sex workers in postcolonial Japan. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the port city of Yokohama, the book focuses on the “water trade” in the Koganecho neighbourhood where exploitative and stigmatised labour took place, involving sexual services performed by migrant women. In recent years the city has sought to rebrand Koganecho, evicting transnational migrant sex workers who had been integral to postindustrial development and erasing their past presence. The author explores Yokohama’s memoryscapes in the aftermath of displacement through embodied knowledge, engaging her senses and ethics as a colonizer-researcher as she navigates the elusive past through traces that remain in the present. She examines the city’s built environment, official historical narratives, films, and photographic works. With few brothels and workers remaining, Yoshimizu fills the gap with her own interactions, encounters, and imaginings. Yoshimizu also writes through the imagery of water in ways that are informed by the local usage and imaginations—the ocean, flowing rivers, swamps, humidity, alcohol, the fluidity of relationships, and transient lives. The water also offers a way to sense the “ghost”, or the displaced lives and the effects of displacement, that, like humid air, stick to those who occupy or inhabit the site of displacement today. This interdisciplinary work makes a valuable contribution to sensory studies, memory studies, migration studies, and Asian studies.

“A beautifully spun, atmospheric story of magic that transcends the boundaries of time and the ties that bind.” ~ Casey L. Bond, author of When Wishes Bleed Through space and time, sisters entwined. Lost then found, souls remain bound. After facing a relentless foe, three sister witches are forced even further back through time to a place that holds just as much sorrow for them as it does joy. Returning to their origins in 1685, the trio races to save not only their mother from the clutches of their new enemy but also to secure the future they’ve worked for centuries to build. Avoiding their younger selves is a necessity that proves difficult, especially when one sister isn’t sure she wants to leave the past behind. Faced with love and loss, these witches are forced to endure the burning times again, and one wrong step could alter history and their future forever. A Witches of BlackBrook novel.

Serves up irreverent truths on women's favourite topics - beauty salons, shopping, men, cosmetic surgery, singles' bars, reproduction and more.

The fictional story of "Girl & Boy" takes place in a Midwest city in July of 1973. A heroin addict mother and a hot headed father leaves Junior without parents. He moves in with his father's mother. At the age of 17, he learns a lifelong lesson in a few years. With determination to succeed, he does it! With help and support of his girl and a strong willed uncle, he's wealthy before he's thirty years old. However, he has been through hell and back and recognizes love

From the mom behind Baby Sideburns and the NYT bestseller I Heart my Little A-Holes, a hilarious and matter-of-fact parenting guide to raising happy, kind, and resilient kids.

No one begins life as a mom. Before you have children, you are an amazing combination of friend, daughter, confidant, visionary, encourager, and thinker. You start out in life using your gifts and abilities in a surprising variety of settings. Then you have children and the role of mom–as wonderful as it is–seems to consume you. It’s easy to lose your identity when others see you as a mom and little else. What happened to the artist, the team-builder, the organizer, the entrepreneur, the leader–the person you’ve lost touch with? In Mama’s Got a Fake I.D., Caryn Dahlstrand Rivedeneira helps moms like you reclaim the person God made you to be. God still wants to use you in ways that let your gifts, passions, and personality shine. This inspiring and practical guide will show you how to break free from false guilt, learn a new language to express your true identity, and follow God’s lead in sharing who you really are. God wants you to discover who he made you to be–in your family and beyond. It’s time to reveal the woman who got hidden behind all that mom.

In Keeping Women and Children Last, Ruth Sidel shows how America, in its search for a post-Cold War enemy, has turned inward to target single mothers on welfare, and how politicians have scapegoated and stigmatized female-headed families both as a method of social control and to divert attention from the severe problems that Americans face. She reveals the real victims of poverty--the millions of children who suffer from societal neglect, inferior education, inadequate health care, hunger, and homelessness. In this new edition, focusing on the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Sidel reevaluates our social policy, assessing the impact of the "end of welfare as we know it" on America's poor, especially its women and children.

With the emergence of popular culture phenomena such as reality television, blogging, and social networking sites, it is important to examine the representation of Black women and the potential implications of those images, messages, and roles. Black Women and Popular Culture: The Conversation Continues provides such a comprehensive analysis. Using an array of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, this collection features cutting edge research from scholars interested in the relationship among media, society, perceptions, and Black women. The uniqueness of this book is that it serves as a compilation of “hot topics” including ABC’s Scandal, Beyoncé’s Visual Album, and Oprah’s Instagram page. Other themes have roots in reality television, film, and hip hop, as well as issues of gender politics, domestic violence, and colorism. The discussion also extends to the presentation and inclusion of Black women in advertising, print, and digital media.