My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us
Jessica Mills

Publisher's Comments
Jessica Mills is a touring musician, artist, activist, writer, teacher, and mother of two. Disappointed by run-of-the-mill parenting books that didn't speak to her experience, she set out to write a book tackling the issues faced by a new generation of moms and dads. The result is a parenting guide like no other. Written with humor, extensive research, and much trial and error, My Mother Wears Combat Boots delivers sound advice for parents of all stripes. Amid stories of bringing kids (and grandparents) to women's rights demonstrations, taking baby on tour with her band, and organizing cooperative childcare, Jessica gives detailed nuts-and-bolts information about weaning, cloth vs. disposable diapers, the psychological effects of co-sleeping, and even how to get free infant gear. This book provides a clever, hip, and entertaining mix of advice, anecdotes, political analysis, and factual sidebars that will help parents as they navigate the first years of their child's life.

Life on the Refrigerator Door
Alice Kuipers

Publisher's Comments
Claire and her mother are running out of time, but they don't know it. Not yet. Claire is wrapped up with the difficulties of her bourgeoning adulthood—boys, school, friends, identity; Claire's mother, a single mom, is rushed off her feet both at work and at home. They rarely find themselves in the same room at the same time, and it often seems that the only thing they can count on are notes to each other on the refrigerator door. When home is threatened by a crisis, their relationship experiences a momentous change. Forced to reevaluate the delicate balance between their personal lives and their bond as mother and daughter, Claire and her mother find new love and devotion for one another deeper than anything they had ever imagined.

Life on the Refrigerator Door is a glimpse into the lives of mothers and daughters everywhere. In this deeply touching novel told through a series of notes written from a loving mother and her devoted fifteen-year-old daughter, debut author Alice Kuipers deftly captures the impenetrable fabric that connects mothers and daughters throughout the world. Moving and rich with emotion, Life on the Refrigerator Door delivers universal lessons about love in a wonderfully simple and poignant narrative.

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad
Frances Moore Lappé

Publisher's Comments
Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity & Courage in a World Gone Mad is a little book with a big message. Frances Moore Lappé — author of fifteen books, including three-million copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet — distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappé leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers’ basic sanity – their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today’s crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism.

Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappé, it is the power of "frame" — our core assumptions about how the world works — that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving our planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappé uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide.

She writes: "My book's intent is to enable us to see what is happening all around us but is still invisible to most of us. It is about people in all walks of life who are penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation — and courage."

Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary
Monica Nolan

Publisher's Comments
High school cheerleader Lois Lenz is torn between make-out sessions with her best friend and a future that includes the local junior college and marriage. Then her new guidance counselor sets her up with a job at a mysterious Bay City ad agency. In Monica Nolan's send-up of 1950s lesbian pulp novels — there's even evil reefer! — Lois discovers lesbian secrets and Communist conspiracies. Will Lois succeed as a secretary and find true love? Or will Communists destroy her chances for happiness? Nolan squeezes her kicky premise for plenty of juice, leaving the pulp in Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary, deliciously intact.