Editor Tonya Bolden makes no bones about it: "It's no secret. This book is about girl build-up." Accordingly, the pieces collected in 33 Things Every Girl Should Know have the spicy flavor of rabble-rousing. But instead of a radical call to arms, readers will find more of a call to self-esteem, self-respect, and a summons to keep their eyes on a bright future. Subtitled "Stories, Songs, Poems, and Smart Talk by 33 Extraordinary Women," this collection offers young women first-hand advice from such diverse luminaries as Lynda Barry, Sandra Cisneros, Johnetta Cole, Alice Hoffman, Lauren Hutton, M. E. Kerr, Rebecca Lobo, Natalie Merchant, Faith Ringgold, Tabitha Soren, Vera Wang, Wendy Wasserstein, and Sigourney Weaver. These grown-up girls hearken from many realms and backgrounds, with widely varying experiences and skills, but all join their voices here to offer insight, advice, and a surprising expanse of common ground.

From a fiercely funny comic strip about mean girls, to a moving essay about living with spina bifida, to a forensic discussion of why it's not a crime for girls to love science, these stories reflect and encourage female wit, wisdom, and perseverance. Most of all, the essential 33 things display the infinite range of options for girls, and will inspire young women to pursue the pathways paving their dreams.

Discover the Goddess Within You

Myths are fascinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realize that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others. Esteemed Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen brings the Greek pantheon to life as our inner archetypes and applies the power of myth to our personal lives. Once we understand the natural progression from myth to archetype to personal psychology, and realize that positive gifts and negative tendencies are qualities associated with a particular goddess within, we gain powerful insights.

Depending on which goddess is more active within, one woman might be more committed to achieving professional success, while another more fulfilled as a wife and mother. Twenty years after its first publication, Goddesses in Everywoman continues to be deeply relevant, and with this twentieth-anniversary edition, this classic volume will continue to be celebrated.

The author tells of his experiences after he darkened his skin and traveled through the South in order to find out how it feels to be black.

Ideal for the jaunt or the journey, Gutsy Women is a complete guide for the traveling woman. Now in a larger format with a striking design, it offers fresh ideas on how to travel safely and comfortably, within a budget, on one's own or with others. Written by an award-winning travel writer, it's useful for novice and experienced travelers alike, informing them how to combat loneliness, thwart unwelcome advances, and avoid getting ripped off. A resource section and informative sidebars make this a perfect travel companion.

This book brings together more than fifty contemporary voices: women like Pam Houston, Gretel Ehrlich, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, and Robyn Davidson tell their wide-ranging tales and share their humor and courage.

This treasury marks Paddington's 40th year in America, with a comprehensive collection of Sir Michael Bond's beloved stories. Peggy Fortnum's line drawings have been watercolored by her step-granddaughter Caroline Nuttall-Smith, who was not yet born when the books were first published. Since the Browns first discovered him at London's Paddington Station wearing a tag that read "Please look after this bear," Paddington's popularity has grown and his books have sold 25 million copies worldwide in 22 languages. The enduring appeal of this small bear from Darkest Peru ensures that he will be discovered by generations to come. Those well versed in Paddington's antics know that he does tend to make ordinary occasions more exciting. While readers of all ages may laugh as he bumbles from one near disaster to another, it is always a relief to find a happy ending.

Science tells us what is. Technology tells us what can be. But neither can tell us what ought to be.

As a science and technology journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jay Bookman has witnessed some of the most remarkable and exciting advances in human history-supercomputers, cyborgs, genetic engineering. Like the rest of us, though, he has also watched as ever-more sophisticated tools intended to make our lives easier and less stressful have often done the opposite. The problem, he says, lies not in our tools, but in ourselves.
In Caught in the Current, Bookman and four friends embark on their annual rafting trip down the Deschutes River in central Oregon. Leaving cell phones, pagers, and laptops behind, they float for 60 miles through stark desert canyons, whitewater rapids and some of the best trout-fishing in America. But this is also a journey of another sort, an exploration of the many ways in which technology has altered how human beings experience each other and the world around them.

We live today in the most connected society in history, and yet our sense of isolation has never been more acute. We communicate megabytes of data, but somehow knowledge or wisdom still escape us. The cell phone is our tool, our servant, but it is also a barbaric interloper that we have not yet dared to tame.

In his finely tuned prose, Bookman contrasts the rhythm of life on the Deschutes with the increasingly fragmented and chaotic pace of our electronic age and reveals how the momentum of technology often breaks the flow of life. Our time is segmented into tasks to be completed; our personal interactions often take place behind a flashing cursor; our focus is "faster," not "better." Transfixed by the marvels of technology, we've overlooked its profound impact on our community.

Neither a technophobe nor Luddite, Bookman accepts that technological change is inevitable and desirable. But in Caught in the Current, he also warns that we should not become passive subjects of that change, allowing ourselves to be tossed like helpless driftwood in the current.

Her memories, even more than her recipes, will charm readers in food writer Sharon Boorstin's delicious memoir, Let Us Eat Cake. The book is the result of Boorstin's discovery of a 30-year-old notebook containing long-forgotten recipes. As she explains, "Each recipe brought back memories of the woman who gave it to me, of the occasion when we made and enjoyed the dish, and of the friendship we shared." By linking her memories of food, family, and friendship, Boorstin creates a charming hybrid of autobiography and sociology. Readers join her to feast at her parents' dinner table (Dad's fresh salmon loaf, Grandma's cheese blintzes), order the signature "Canlis" salad at Seattle's special birthday-dinner restaurant, cook a college friend's Tandoori chicken, and decorate cakes with her daughter, Julia.

Boorstin's work and friendships as a food writer have given her some names to drop and recipes to boot: Wolfgang Puck's matzo, Julia Child boiling lobsters in a laundry tub, Nell Newman offering papa Paul's angel food cake recipe. Engaging descriptions and vintage photos of family and friends flag several decades of social change—from the "patent leather shoes let boys look up your dress" warning of the '50s to the PalmPilots and tooth whitening of the turn of the 21st century. But Boorstin is at her best in relating funny and touching descriptions of meals with beloved friends. Her vivid portraits will remind readers of their own fond memories of food and friendship. —Barbara Mackoff

The title, Baby Owner’s Manual, suggests the promise and the problem of this cheeky and comprehensive guide written by a pediatrician and his son. First-time parents who are not offended by the observation that "babies, unlike other appliances, lack instruction manuals," will find a rich resource of facts and advice. The book is divided into seven categories of "operating instructions" including home installation, feeding and power supply, sleep mode, maintenance, development, and safety. Complete with witty schematic drawings and charts, the authors answer hundreds of questions about breastfeeding, bed, bath, and beyond. While most manuals focus on tender loving care, the authors chose to focus on baby as technology. The result is a highly useful—almost too cool—reference book. Because every parent knows that babies are messier and more rewarding than this approach imagines. —Barbara Mackoff

Step aside Iron John—and pass the coleslaw. Welcome to the world of patio cuisine, where foods from the '50s meet the discerning tastes of the '90s. From Buzzomatic Coffee Coolers to Charred Cowboy Steak, Patio Daddy-O brings back all the fun, spirit, and nostalgia of outdoor cooking with new twists on classic fare. 75 color photos.

Thousands of things you didn't think you needed to know-and probably don't.

All you never needed to know, and couldn't be bothered to ask.

One person's useless information could prove invaluable to someone else. Then again, maybe not. But to The Useless Information Society, any fact that passes its gasp-inducing, "not-a-lot-of-people-know- that" test merits inclusion in this fascinating but ultimately useless book.

Did you know...
- That fish scales are used to make lipstick?
- Why organized crime accounts for ten percent of the United States's annual income?
- The name of the first CD pressed in the U.S.?
- The shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar?
- How much Elvis weighed at the time of his death?
- What the suits in a deck of cards represent?
- How many Quarter Pounders can be made from one cow?
- How interesting useless information can be?

The Book of Useless Information answers these teasers and will captivate readers with the joy of pursuing pointless knowledge.

Most people only dream of having the life Daniel B. Botkin has led. He has studied whales and elephants, tramped over high mountain passes and through rainforests, worked with NASA, and spent substantial time walking in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark and Henry David Thoreau. In this delightful narrative, Botkin does for the natural world what Richard Feynman did for physics and Oliver Sacks for human behavior.

Whether rebuilding an old mill in New Hampshire while ruminating on notions of "progress," researching the most weight-efficient high-protein food source for space travel, or working in a radioactive forest on an early Cold War research project, Botkin's adventures illuminate the complex and ever-changing relationship between human beings and their environment.

Strange Encounters is the most personal and accessible work in Daniel Botkin's long career as a writer. His most influential book, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century, helped change the way citizens, governments, and corporations view environmental issues, bringing the concept of "sustainability" to center stage. Botkin is the coauthor of one of the most widely adopted textbooks on environmental science.

A Cook's Tour is the written record of Anthony Bourdain's travels around the world in his search for the perfect meal. All too conscious of the state of his 44-year-old knees after a working life standing at restaurant stoves, but with the unlooked-for jackpot of Kitchen Confidential as collateral, Mr. Bourdain evidently concluded he needed a bit more wind under his wings.

The idea of "perfect meal" in this context is to be taken to mean not necessarily the most upscale, chi-chi, three-star dining experience, but the ideal combination of food, atmosphere, and company. This would take in fishing villages in Vietnam, bars in Cambodia, and Tuareg camps in Morocco (roasted sheep's testicle, as it happens); it would stretch to smoked fish and sauna in the frozen Russian countryside and the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. It would mean exquisitely refined kaiseki rituals in Japan after yakitori with drunken salarymen. Deep-fried Mars Bars in Glasgow and Gordon Ramsay in London. The still-beating heart of a cobra in Saigon. Drink. Danger. Guns. All with a TV crew in tow for the accompanying series—22 episodes of video gold, we are assured, featuring many don't-try-this-at-home shots of the author in gastric distress or crawling into yet another storm drain at four in the morning.

You are unlikely to lay your hands on a more hectically, strenuously entertaining book for some time. Our hero eats and swashbuckles round the globe with perfect-pitch attitude and liberal use of judiciously placed profanities. Bourdain can write. His timing is great. He is very funny and is under no illusions whatsoever about himself or anyone else. But most of all, he is a chef who got himself out of his kitchen and found, all over the world, people who understand that eating well is the foundation of harmonious living. —Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk