Losing your religion is harder than it looks ... From devout ten-year-old performing the part of Jesus in a primary school play to blaspheming, undergraduate atheist, Monica Dux and her attitude to the Catholic Church changed profoundly over a decade. Eventually, she calmed down and was just 'lapsed'. Then, on a family trip to Rome, her young daughter expressed a desire to be baptised. Monica found herself re-examining her own childhood and how Catholicism had shaped her. Was it really out of her system or was it in her blood for life? In Lapsed, Monica sets out to find the answer. Her investigations lead her to test a miracle cure in Lourdes and visit the grave of a headless Saint who claimed to be married to Christ (and wore a wedding ring made of his foreskin to prove it). She speaks to canon lawyers, abuse survivors and even a nun who insists that the Virgin Mary starts her car every morning. With wry humour and razor-sharp observations, Lapsed is the story of one woman's attempt to exorcise her religious upbringing, and to answer the question, is Catholicism like a blood group and, if so, is it possible to get a total transfusion? 'Enlightening, forensic and laugh-out-loud funny' -- JANE CARO 'A frank, funny and heartfelt exorcism of our need to believe in a man in the sky' -- SHAUN MICALLEF
Pregnancy is natural, healthy and fun, right? Sure it is, if you're lucky. For others, it's an adventure in physical discomfort, unachievable ideals, kooky classes and meddling experts. When Monica Dux found herself pregnant with her first child, she was dismayed to find she belonged firmly in the second category. For her, pregnancy could only be described as a medium-level catastrophe. So, three years later and about to birth her second child, Monica went on a quest: to figure out what's really going on when we incubate. Monica explores the aspects of baby-making that we all want to talk about, but which are too embarrassing, unsettling or downright confronting. She also looks at the powerful forces that shape women's experiences of being pregnant in the west, the exploitative industries, and the medical and physical realities behind it all. Along the way, she fends off sadistic maternal health nurses, attempts to expand then contract her vagina, and struggles to keep her baby's placenta off her hippy brother's lunch menu.
What the hell happened? In The Great Feminist Denial the authors talk with women—feminists and non-feminists, young and old, famous and not famous, child-free and with child—and use their responses as a starting point from which to refocus the key debates. Dux and Simic argue that, ultimately, feminism is still necessary for everyday life. Even the most cursory glimpse at the social and cultural landscape suggests an urgent need for a politics that identifies inequalities, differences and strengths specific to women as a sex. The Great Feminist Denial puts an ailing feminist past to rest, and proposes a way forward that offers young women of today a new way of calling themselves feminists.
The mythology of motherhood is often reduced to cliché. But how do we articulate the complex internal conflicts, the exhilaration and the absurdity of this transformation? Mothermorphosis is a collection of essays on the experience as told by some of Australia's most talented writers and storytellers. In these stories we read about the yearning for a child, the private and public expressions of love, identity in the face of motherhood, gratitude, pride, celebration and loss. Ultimately we learn that there is no one version of this epic story, no one tale that could ever speak for all, and no one way of encapsulating the experience. However, in reading other women's experiences, the hard bits, the ridiculous bits, we can only become more compassionate, not just to other mothers but hopefully to ourselves.
This book is about four different things The first thing is when I started going to school I drank my first cup of coffee before I went to school I even took coffee with me to school and kept it in my locker. The second thing is when my sisters graduate from high school and we all go on a trip together The third thing is I said a lot of funny things when I was a kid. The fourth thing is all my health problems that I listed in the book The fifth thing is my family and what all we did together
What the hell happened? In The Great Feminist Denial the authors talk with women—feminists and non-feminists, young and old, famous and not famous, child-free and with child—and use their responses as a starting point from which to refocus the key debates. Dux and Simic argue that, ultimately, feminism is still necessary for everyday life. Even the most cursory glimpse at the social and cultural landscape suggests an urgent need for a politics that identifies inequalities, differences and strengths specific to women as a sex. The Great Feminist Denial puts an ailing feminist past to rest, and proposes a way forward that offers young women of today a new way of calling themselves feminists.
This book investigates one of the major issues that runs through the history of Italian Judaism in the aftermath of emancipation: the correlation between integration, seen as the acquisition of citizenship and culture without renouncing Jewish identity, and assimilation, intended as an open refusal of Judaism of any participation in the community. On account of that correlation, identity has become one of the crucial problems in the history of the Italian Jewish community. This volume aims to discuss the setting of construction and formation--the family-- and focuses on women's experiences, specifically. Indeed, women were called through emancipation to ensure the continuity of Jewish religious and cultural heritage. It speaks to the growing interest for Women's and Gender Studies in Italy, and for the research on women's organizations which testify to the strong presence of Jewish women in the emancipation movement. These women formed a sisterhood that fought to obtain rights that were until then only accorded to men, and they were deeply socially engaged in such a way that was crucial to the overall process of the integration of Jews into Italian society.
The Duke and the Stars explores science and medicine as studied and practiced in fifteenth-century Italy, including how astrology was taught in relation to astronomy. It illustrates how the “predictive art” of astrology was often a critical, secretive source of information for Italian Renaissance rulers, particularly in times of crisis.
This commentary on a part of book 5 of Lucan's 'historical epic' poem De Bello Civili aims to provide the reader with as thorough an analysis as possible of literary and historical points of interest within the text and so to facilitate a fuller understanding and appreciation of one of the most important episodes in the poem, Julius Caesar's failed attempt to cross the Adriatic in the midst of a great storm. It examines how the episode contributes to the long tradition of epic storm narratives dating back to Homer and also how it contributes to the wider themes of the poem as a whole, in particular to Lucan's portrayal of Caesar. A line-by-line commentary is combined with longer notes summarizing issues of particular importance. Such issues include: the influence of Roman love-poetry in the depiction of the relationship between Caesar and his men, Lucan's use of Virgil's Nisus and Euryalus episode, and the tradition of theoxeny narratives lying behind the scene at the home of the fisherman Amyclas which allows us to view Caesar as 'playing the part' of a traditional god or hero. Throughout, Lucan's engagement with the works of Homer, Virgil (particularly the Aeneid but also the Georgics), Ovid and Seneca, and the ways in which the lack of a traditional divine machinery in his poem is compensated for are considered.
Since the seventeenth century, the café, or coffee house, in Europe has been the key gathering place of innovators and mavericks – the writers, artists, philosophers and political figures who formed influential affiliations and gave birth to revolutionary movements that still affect our lives today. It was the type of establishment ideally suited for this role. Unlike the tavern, pub or bar, where one’s senses grow ever duller from alcohol, one can sit for hours in a café with like-minded companions, consuming the coffee that sharpens wits and conversations. No wonder so many new ideas were generated in the legendary cafés of Paris and Vienna, Rome and Venice, Prague, Budapest and other major European cities. In her latest book, Monica Porter leads the reader on an entertaining waltz through six centuries, nine European countries (plus America) and a wealth of historic episodes featuring some of the most intriguing and noteworthy people who ever lived. As she reveals, playing its vital part in all their stories – at times in the background, at times front and centre – is that enticing venue: the café. The twelve venerable establishments of the book’s title – the oldest dating from 1686, the newest from 1911 – are all still in existence. And so, after learning about their fascinating historical associations, readers can experience these places for themselves, which makes the volume an ideal companion for history buffs, travellers and café-lovers alike.
A sexy new adventure-packed romance with a paranormal twist-from the award-winning author. Archeologist Emma Zale sees the past when she touches relics. It's how she uncovered evidence of an ancient order of assassins-the Sicari. When a sinfully dark stranger shows up on her Chicago doorstep demanding an artifact she doesn't have, he drags her into a world where telekinesis and empaths-someone who can sense the emotions of others- are the norm. Now someone wants her dead, and her only hope of survival is an assassin who's every bit as dangerous to her body as he is to her heart.
Read Monica Burns's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community. The past and present collide in a thrilling new paranormal romance from the author of Assassin's Honor. The half-angel, half-demon face that telepathic Lysander sees in the mirror is a reminder of the monster he must keep hidden to avoid expulsion from an order of assassins. His dreams of ancient Rome hint at a destiny with a woman he loves, but can never have. When the gifted healer Phaedra travels to Rome in search of a legendary artifact, she works alongside a man who once rejected her love and healing touch. But her dreams of Ancient Rome tell of an irreversible and possibly dangerous future. For the distant past and present are about to collide-with the one man she is destined to love.
This book is based on different experiences Monica Victorian AKA Mo Nichole, the model, has dealt with in life. It is not a full biography, but it does give a look into the life of Monica and the hardships and experiences that she has overcome and been through. It is also an inspirational book that will hopefully help others overcome issues in their lives.
This book attempts to provide a more positive assessment of Lucretius' aims and methodology by considering the poet's attitude to myth, and the role which it plays in the De Rerum Natura, against the background of earlier and contemporary views.
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