Full AspenCat Catalog

This book uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty and the powerful and the dispossessed. In it the author challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks. He begins with the real story of what happened...

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

In Women Rowing North, Mary Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face. "If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully," Pipher writes,...

Adoptive parents can be bewildered or apprehensive and find themselves struggling in ways they hadn't anticipated. Marion Crook gently takes adoptive parents through the process of adoption from childhood to adulthood, helping to demystify the experience with compassion and reassurance. Meticulously researched but refreshingly free of academic jargon, this book will enlighten and empower adoptive parents and those who work with adopted children alike....

An animal behaviorist draws on case studies and the latest scientific research to discuss the truth about a dog's emotional life, its implications for the human-canine bond, and its impact on dog training.

"No stranger to starting over, following a very public divorce and months of staying home on weekends in sweats with her chihuahua and a box of pizza, Tamsen decided it was time to re-enter the daunting world of being single. She immediately realized she was back in the game as one of a growing group of women: the New Single. After hearing from so many women in a similar situation, Tamsen made it her mission to show these self-sufficient, empowered...

"From an Olympic medalist runner and the record-holder in the women's marathon and half-marathon, a lyrical, inspirational memoir on how harnessing the power of the mind can unlock hidden potential Deena Kastor was a star youth runner with tremendous promise, yet her career almost ended after college. Her competitive method--run as hard as possible, all the time--brought her to the brink of burnout and fostered a frustration and negativity that threatened...

"Drawing upon extensive recent historical studies regarding death, funerals, and mourning during the Civil War era as well as primary sources, The Black Heavens provides a realistic view of Lincoln as he encountered death. Avoiding the sentimentalization and excessive psychoanalyzing that has characterized much of the historical (and fictional) writing on the subject, this book carefully situates Lincoln within the social, cultural, and political...

What is it really like to go to war? For millennia, only warriors could really answer that question. Now, a new PBS documentary takes viewers inside the experience of battle and reveals the soldier's experiences as never before. It helps viewers make sense of this paradox and get to the heart of what it is like to be a soldier in times of war.