The Botanical Illustrator's Handbook takes a closer look at how to accurately portray the riches of the botanical world. It tackles and explains many of the difficulties that artists encounter so they can extend and expand their choice of subject matter. Written by a respected artist and drawing on her wealth of experience, it offers new insights and a fresh approach to the wonders of botanical illustration. Topics covered include: advice on the labelling and quality of paper, and choice of pencils, paints and brushes; techniques for the mixing and handling of greens; chapters on magnification, managing detail and using scale bars; and finally, instructions for using perspective techniques, and painting complex structures such as pine cones and umbellifers, and tricky details such as hairs.

This richly diverse exploration of female artists and self-portraits is a brilliant and poignant demonstration of originality in works of haunting variety. The two earliest self-portraits come from 12th-century illuminated manuscripts in which nuns gaze at us across eight centuries. In 16th-century Italy, Sofonisba Anguissola paints one of the longest series of self-portraits, spanning adolescence to old age. In 17th-century Holland, Judith Leyster shows herself at the easel as a relaxed, self-assured professional. In the 18th century, artists from Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun to Angelica Kauffman express both passion for their craft and the idea of femininity; and in the 19th the salons and art schools at last open their doors to a host of talented women artists, including Berthe Morisot, ushering in a new and resonant self-confidence. The modern period demolishes taboos: Alice Neel painting herself nude at eighty, Frida Kahlo rendering physical pain, Cindy Sherman exploring identity, Marlene Dumas dispensing with all boundaries. The full verve of Frances Borzello's enthralling text, and the hypnotic intensity of the accompanying self-portraits, is revealed to the full in this inspiring book.

From the time The Big Penis Book was published, readers anticipated The Big Book of Pussy. Granted, perhaps not the same readers, but the seed had been planted and the calls and letters began flowing in. Once they had that long-awaited book, some found themselves overwhelmed by the variety and abundance, as well as the sheer size of the book. As one reviewer wrote, "let's give credit to Amazon for...the strength of its packaging. Who wants a 2-ton pussy book being 'exposed' for the mailman...?" For those who worry that there can be too much of a good thing, we've made a pared down, "best of" edition of The Big Book of Pussy, a petite little kitten of a book that puts those in-your-face photos in proper perspective. Now you can follow the evolution of genital exposure with ease, through 100 years of photos with one thing in common: the exhibitionistic pleasure with which the models present their feminine pulchritude. And with over 150 photos-36 new to this book-of the pet we love to pet, no bothersome text to interrupt the flow, all in a package that won't stress the mailman's back, we just may have produced the perfect self-gifter of the year.

Award-winning illustrator Gabriel Campanario first introduced his approach to drawing in "The Art of Urban Sketching," a showcase of more than 500 sketches and drawing tips shared by more than 100 urban sketchers around the world. Now, he drills down into specific challenges of making sketches on location, rain or shine, quickly or slowly, and the most suitable techniques for every situation, in "The Urban Sketching Handbook" series.

It's easy to overlook that ample variety of characters that walk the streets everyday. From neighbors, dog walkers and shoppers to dancers and joggers, the people that move through the cities and towns are fascinating subjects to study and sketch. In "The Urban Sketching Handbook: People and Motion" Gabriel lays out keys to help make the experience of drawing humans and movements fun and rewarding. Using composition, depth, scale, contrast, line and creativity, sketching out citizens and the way they move has never been more inspirational and entertaining. This guide will help you to develop your own creative approach, no matter what your skill level may be today. As much as "The Urban Sketching Handbook: People and Motion" may inspire you to draw more individuals, it can also help to increase your appreciation of the folks around you. Drawing our postal workers, shopkeeps and neighbors, is a great way to show your appreciation and creativity.

About Red Social Red Social by Alejandro Garcia-Lemos and Cynthia Boiter is a visual and literary art book that evolved from a 2012 art exhibition of work by Garcia-Lemos at the Goodall Gallery at Columbia College in Columbia, SC. The title of the book and exhibition, Red Social, translates to Social Network in Garcia-Lemos's native Spanish. As he approached this body of work, which is made up of 24 unique portraits, Garcia-Lemos who is a native of Bogota, Colombia, focused on relationship-building and the community of fellow artists and arts lovers he had become enmeshed in in his new home of Columbia, SC. The sitters for each portrait, almost all of whom were close members of his newly formed community, were asked to bring symbolic icons for their sitting and many went so far as to collaborate on their specific portraits. (Several fellow-artists made actual artistic contributions to their portraits.) "The creative space that opened during these sessions provided an atmosphere of candor which mimicked that of the therapist," the artist says. "I came to realize the importance of a comfort level between the artist and subject and I chose people who have been supportive of me and are truly friends and family." Once the series was complete and had been exhibited, Garcia-Lemos hoped to continue in the collaborative spirit so he approached local writer and editor, Cynthia Boiter. It was his idea to have Boiter create short fictional stories about the characters in the portraits-whether she was personally familiar with the characters or not-based on nothing but the title of the portrait and the various icons represented. Boiter says that, "Many of the friends about whom I wrote had to become strangers before they could become subjects about whose inner lives-their worries, fantasies, and insecurities-I could write. But as unconnected as these stories are to the portrait models who inspired them, they are still real stories, I'm sure, that belong to someone else out there." The result is a fascinating reverse-process of illustration. Based upon Garcia-Lemos's paintings, Boiter uses fiction to illustrate the portrait subjects. Each piece of short fiction-few are over 250 words in length-tells the tale of a unique individual with subject matters ranging from love to loss to issues of gender roles, new roles, and throwing off the roles society attempts to impose upon all of us.

The hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark was heavily influenced by Pauline theology and/or epistles was widespread in the nineteenth century, but fell out of favour for much of the twentieth century. In the last twenty years or so, however, this view has begun to attract renewed support, especially in English language scholarship. This major and important collection of essays by an international team of scholars seeks to move the discussion forward in a number of significant ways - tracing the history of the hypothesis from the nineteenth century to the modern day, searching for historical connections between these two early Christians, analysing and comparing the theology and christology of the Pauline epistles and the Gospel of Mark, and assessing their reception in later Christian texts. This major volume will be welcomed by those who are interested in the possible influence of the apostle to the Gentiles on the earliest Gospel.

"What has Jesus Christ to do with English literature?" ask David Lyle Jeffrey and Gregory Maillet in this insightful survey. First and foremost, they reply, many of the world's best authors of literature in English were formed--for better or worse--by the Christian tradition. Then too, many of the most recognized aesthetic literary forms derive from biblical exemplars. And finally, many great works of literature demand of readers evaluative judgments of the good, the true and the beautiful that can only rightly be understood within a Christian worldview. In this book Jeffrey and Maillet offer a feast of theoretical and practical discernment. After an examination of literature and truth, theological aesthetics, and the literary character of the Bible, they turn to a brief survey of literature from medieval times to the present, highlighting distinctively Christian themes and judgments. In a concluding chapter they suggest a path for budding literary critics through the current state of literary studies. Here is a must-read for all who are interested in a Christian perspective on literary studies. The Christian Worldview Integration Series, edited by J. P. Moreland and Francis J. Beckwith, seeks to promote a robust personal and conceptual integration of Christian faith and learning, with textbooks focused on disciplines such as education, psychology, literature, politics, science, communications, biology, philosophy, and history.

Conflict has been an inescapable facet of religion from its very beginnings. This volume offers insight into the mechanisms at play in the centuries from the Jesus-movement's first attempts to define itself over and against Judaism to the beginnings of Islam. Profiling research by scholars of the Centre for Early Christian Studies at Australian Catholic University, the essays document inter- and intra-religious conflict from a variety of angles. Topics relevant to the early centuries range from religious conflict between different parts of the Christian canon, types of conflict, the origins of conflict, strategies for winning, for conflict resolution, and the emergence of a language of conflict. For the fourth to seventh centuries case studies from Asia Minor, Syria, Constantinople, Gaul, Arabia and Egypt are presented. The volume closes with examinations of the Christian and Jewish response to Islam, and of Islam's response to Christianity. Given the political and religious tensions in the world today, this volume is well positioned to find relevance and meaning in societies still grappling with the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.