Intersections

With a trail of shattered dreams and devastating betrayal behind her, the ever-imaginative Rose Thompson faces an unknown future. Thanks to the help of her irrepressible grandmother and her many new Tinkers Well friends, she picks up the pieces to discover her own strengths and a true vision - one that will face many trials on its journey to fruition. Abe, former Muslim turned Christ follower, embarks on his own shaky path, which challenges not only his new faith, but his closest relationships as well. And a ghost from the past leaves Tim Ludlow and his mother Marilyn walking a fine line between doubt and hope in the redemptive power of God's forgiveness. Throw in an epic storm, some surprising twists, a burgeoning romance, and the hilarious antics of Granny Gert and her old school chum Aletha, who are as nosy and conniving as they are kind and generous, and Rose can't help but find more adventure than even she could imagine! Linda Edmister draws on her own unique background to create characters and situations as diverse and compelling as they are relatable and endearing. Guaranteed to inspire laughter and tears, these fictional beings, who have now become friends, also examine current events in the light of God's truth. Just as they support one another in confronting the turmoil of this age, may they bring clarity to all those who follow their story.

The honeymoon is over, and newlyweds Tim and Rose Ludlow settle into the fun, yet haphazard, process of learning to live as husband and wife. Their friend Abe Yousef still aches for his estranged family even as he looks forward with joy to his own upcoming nuptials, and Derek Warner must adjust to his role as "the last living bachelor." Life goes on. But the arrival of an embezzler's gorgeous wife and timid aunt stirs the peaceful waters of Tinkers Well. Into the building maelstrom steps a retired Jewish couple who longs for friendships amid the inhabitants of their new community, and things begin to happen. Not the least of these is the project nearest to the heart of a reformed New York land developer, though he is still doubtful of its success. Add a life-and-death caper for Granny Gert and Aletha, and it's time, once more, for readers to fasten their seat belts and enjoy the ride! Bringing humor and compassionate insight to such diverse issues as family separation and anti-Semitism, Linda Edmister once more presents the reader with thoughtful consideration of complex topics. She delves into the fascinating ties between Christian practices and Jewish traditions while introducing new characters as appealing as they are imperfect. This third installment of the Intersections series will leave readers eager for more.

The meaning and significance of the institution of marriage has engendered angry and boisterous battles across the United States. While the efforts of lesbians and gay men to make marriage accessible to same-sex couples have seen increasing success, these initiatives have sparked a backlash as campaigns are waged to "protect" heterosexual marriage in America. Less in the public eye is government legislation that embraces the idea of marriage promotion as a necessary societal good. In this timely and extensive study of marriage politics, Melanie Heath uncovers broad cultural anxieties that fuel on-the-ground practices to reinforce a boundary of heterosexual marriage, questioning why marriage has become an issue of pervasive national preoccupation and anxiety, and explores the impact of policies that seek to reinstitutionalize heterosexual marriage in American society. From marriage workshops for the general public to relationship classes for welfare recipients to marriage education in high school classrooms, One Marriage Under God documents in meticulous detail the inner workings of ideologies of gender and heterosexuality in the practice of marriage promotion to fortify a concept of "one marriage," an Anglo-American ideal of Christian, heterosexual monogamy.

Itineraries of Expertise contends that experts and expertise played fundamental roles in the Latin American Cold War. While traditional Cold War histories of the region have examined diplomatic, intelligence, and military operations and more recent studies have probed the cultural dimensions of the conflict, the experts who constitute the focus of this volume escaped these categories. Although they often portrayed themselves as removed from politics, their work contributed to the key geopolitical agendas of the day. The paths traveled by the experts in this volume not only traversed Latin America and connected Latin America to the Global North, they also stretch traditional chronologies of the Latin American Cold War to show how local experts in the early twentieth century laid the foundation for post–World War II development projects, and how Cold War knowledge of science, technology, and the environment continues to impact our world today. These essays unite environmental history and the history of science and technology to argue for the importance of expertise in the Latin American Cold War.

Sexual beliefs, behaviors and identities are interwoven throughout our lives, from childhood to old age. An edited collection of original empirical contributions united through its use of a distinctive, cutting-edge theoretical framework, Sex for Life critically examines sexuality across the entire lifespan. Rooted in diverse disciplines and employing a wide range of research methods, the chapters explore the sexual and social transitions that typically map to broad life stages, as well as key age-graded physiological transitions, such as puberty and menopause, while drawing on the latest developments in gender, sexuality, and life course studies. Sex for Life explores a wide variety of topics, including puberty, sexual initiation, coming out, sexual assault, marriage/life partnering, disability onset, immigration, divorce, menopause, and widowhood, always attending to the social locations – including gender, race, ethnicity, and social class – that shape, and are shaped by, sexuality. The empirical work collected in Sex for Life ultimately speaks to important public policy issues, such as sex education, aging societies, and the increasing politicization of scientific research. Accessibly written, the contributions capture the interplay between individual lives and the ever-changing social-historical context, facilitating new insight not only into people's sexual lives, but also into ways of studying them, ultimately providing a fresh, new perspective on sexuality.

A lyrical and meticulously researched mapping of the ways in which diverse societies have shaped female same-sex sexuality across time and geograhy From the ancient poet Sappho to tombois in contemporary Indonesia, women throughout history and around the globe have desired, loved, and had sex with other women. In beautiful prose, Sapphistries tells their stories, capturing the multitude of ways that diverse societies have shaped female same-sex sexuality across time and place. Leila J. Rupp reveals how, from the time of the very earliest societies, the possibility of love between women has been known, even when it is feared, ignored, or denied. We hear women in the sex-segregated spaces of convents and harems whispering words of love. We see women beginning to find each other on the streets of London and Amsterdam, in the aristocratic circles of Paris, in the factories of Shanghai. We find women's desire and love for women meeting the light of day as Japanese schoolgirls fall in love, and lesbian bars and clubs spread from 1920s Berlin to 1950s Buffalo. And we encounter a world of difference in the twenty-first century, as transnational concepts and lesbian identities meet local understandings of how two women might love each other. Giving voice to words from the mouths and pens of women, and from men's prohibitions, reports, literature, art, imaginings, pornography, and court cases, Rupp also creatively employs fiction to imagine possibilities when there is no historical evidence. Sapphistries combines lyrical narrative with meticulous historical research, providing an eminently readable and uniquely sweeping story of desire, love, and sex between women around the globe from the beginning of time to the present.