New Releases by Mary Jane

In 1816, twelve-year-old Mem''s new home in the wilderness of western New York is disrupted when the birth of another baby sends her mother into "spells" that disconnect her from reality.

This helpful and user-friendly book provides a practical guide to the physical and emotional well-being during the premenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal years. Based on the experience of a woman gynecologist who has been in practice for 20 years, the book presents thorough, unbiased answers to the questions women ask about this crucial time in their lives.

Based on more than 30-years of research and drawing on both public and private archives, this biography of the great Italian composer is unprecedented in its unraveling of the facts and legends of his life and in portraying the man and his times. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"In its hard headed, richly documented concreteness, it is worth a thousand polemics." -- New York Times, from a review of the first edition "The Curse deserves a place in every women''s studies library collection." -- Sharon Golub, editor of Lifting the curse of Menstruation "A stimulating and useful book, both for the scholarly and the general reader." -- Paula A. Treichler, co-author of A Feminist Dictionary

"What am I writing? A historical tale of 300 years ago, simply for the love of it." Mark Twain''s "tale" became his first historical novel, The Prince and the Pauper, published in 1881. Intricately plotted, it was intended to have the feel of history even though it was only the stuff of legend. In sixteenth-century England, young Prince Edward (son of Henry VIII) and Tom Canty, a pauper boy who looks exactly like him, are suddenly forced to change places. The prince endures "rags & hardships" while the pauper suffers the "horrible miseries of princedom." Mark Twain called his book a "tale for young people of all ages," and it has become a classic of American literature. The first edition in 1881 was fully illustrated by Frank Merrill, John Harley, and L. S. Ipsen. The boys in these illustrations, Mark Twain said, "look and dress exactly as I used to see them cast in my mind. . . . It is a vast pleasure to see them cast in the flesh, so to speak." This Mark Twain Library edition exactly reproduces the text of the California scholarly edition, including all of the 192 illustrations that so pleased the author.