Until recently, the marquise Du Chatelet (1706-1749) was more remembered as the companion of Voltaire than as an intellectual in her own right. While much has been written about his extraordinary output during the years he spent in her company, her own work has often been overshadowed. This volume brings renewed attention to Du Chatelet's intellectual achievements, including her free translation of selections from Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the bees; her dissertation on the nature and propagation of fire for the 1738 prize competition of the Academie des sciences; the 1740 Institutions de physique and ensuing exchange with the perpetual secretary of the Academie, Dortous de Mairan; her two-volume exegesis of the Bible; the translation of and commentary on Isaac Newton's Principia; and her semi-autobiographical Discours sur le bonheur. It is a measure of the breadth of her interests that the contributions to this volume come from experts in a wide range of disciplines: comparative literature, art history, the history of mathematics and science, philosophy, the history of publishing and translation studies. Du Chatelet's partnership with Voltaire is reflected in a number of the essays; they borrowed from each other's writings, from the discussions they had together, and from their shared readings. Essays examine representations of her by her contemporaries and posterity that range from her inclusion in a German portrait gallery of learned men and women, to the scathing portrait in Francoise de Graffigny's correspondence, and nineteenth-century accounts coloured by conflicted views of the ancien regime. Other essays offer close readings of her work, and set her activities and writings in their intellectual and social contexts. Finally, they speculate on the ways in which she presented herself and what that might tell us about the challenges and possibilities facing an exceptional woman of rank and privilege in eighteenth-century society.

Harry Rosenberg grew up near the hottest place on Earth-Death Valley-in a very unusual dwelling: a red caboose. His father repaired bridges for the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, which hauled ore from remote mines. During the Depression, the Rosenbergs traveled from washout to washout across a fiery land prone, paradoxically, to devastating floods of the Amargosa and Mojave Rivers. No other place on Earth was better suited to forge a curious boy into a metallurgist who would spend his life unlocking the vast potential of a difficult, new metal-titanium. In Fire and Forge, author Kathleen L. Housley tells Rosenberg's life story-working as a miner, having a chance meeting with a geologist studying Death Valley, earning a PhD from Stanford, gaining patents for aerospace alloys, and founding a company that manufactures the purest titanium in the world. This biography captures the essence of a man whose work as a metallurgist left an impact on the world, but it also communicates Rosenberg's love for his roots. No matter how far he traveled, no matter the number of his successes, he never really left the Mojave Desert and the Amargosa River-it still flows through his veins.

This is not a story about death.

It is a story about one couple's journey of acceptance, love, and internal awakenings. Kelly and Joe met by chance, but were bound by fate. One morning in the summer of 2010, Kelly Boedigheimer, a thirty-nine year old man in good health, discovered what he thought was yet another ingrown hair on his chin. That was the first step on the life-changing journey he would share with Joe Peterson, his life partner since 1998.

Months later - following three surgical procedures, where each was more aggressive than the last - Kelly and Joe faced the inconceivable: Kelly was diagnosed with melanoma.

In early 2011, Kelly met with a team of specialists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Another surgery, this one more wide-ranging than the others, removed a section of skin from his chin and a portion of his cheek. A graft from his arm provided new skin for those areas. Highly concerned about this aggressive melanoma, doctor's proceeded quickly to save and protect Kelly.

Here, Joe lovingly and painfully recreates Kelly's final nine months through journal entries, e-mails, blog posts, texts, and more. Their relationship was tested as too many are; in this visit back to those days, Joe unfolds an inspiring telling of the power of love, optimism, and hope.

This is not a story about death. This is a story about love.

Sandra and Ray Hocking have worked hard their whole lives; in their sixties, they were simply looking forward to retirement. In an instant, however, their lives changed forever when Ray suffered a freak accident that caused him to be paralyzed. He needed around-the-clock care and couldn't even live in his own home.

Ray struggled to make progress at a rehabilitation facility before moving to a convalescent home, which became his permanent home. Although he had lost the ability to move like he once did, he continued to inspire everyone he met.

A constant advocate for her husband, Sandra did everything she couldto help him recover a life worth living. She liquidated assets, organized fundraisers for an accessible van, and researched grants. She determined what assistance her husband qualified for and what he didn't--and through it all, Ray kept a positive attitude.

Sandra spent some time being angry, but she sees every day with her husband and their family is a gift. She has already found out that it can all change in a "Split Second."

On a cloudless spring day nearly three years after Cal and Michele met, they stood before a preacher and Cal promised to love Michele and to give her everything. Soon after, they began an almost fairy-tale existence of wedded bliss, complete with a white picket fence, two cats in the yard, and a perfect family-including the baby girl Michele always wanted.

They had carefully planned and prepared for the arrival of their daughter, Lourdess, whose name means "miracles of healing." Although she entered the world perfect, the standard hearing test mandated by the state produced spirit-crushing results. To their shock and disbelief, their wonderful little angel had profound hearing loss.

"Daddy, Did You Hear That Bird?: The Miracles of Hearing," Family, and Love shares the touching story of how they got through the trials of having a deaf child, including the natural grieving process they experienced upon learning the news. Even though they wondered about her future, their strong personal relationship helped them overcome the stress that destroys some marriages burdened with caring for a special-needs child. The toughest tasks involved working with service systems and professionals who were guiding them through the process. Through it all, they had each other and the knowledge that God was there for them, always.

"Daddy, Did You Hear That Bird?" reminds us that love always trusts, hopes and perseveres but it never fails. As Cal and Michele yearned for a miracle, a striking and poignant series of events would reveal a miracle no one saw coming.