If you were a graffiti writer in 1980s New York City, you wanted Martha Cooper to document your work-and she probably did. Cooper has spent decades immortalizing art that is often overlooked, and usually illegal. Her first book, 1984's Subway Art (a collaboration with Henry Chalfant), is affectionately referred to by graffiti artists as the "bible". To create Spray Nation, Cooper and editor Roger Gastman pored through hundreds of thousands of 35mm Kodachrome slides, painstakingly selecting and digitizing them. The photos range from obscure tags to portraits, action shots, walls, and painted subway cars. They are accompanied by heartfelt essays celebrating Cooper's drive, spirit, and singular vision. The images capture a gritty New York era that is gone forever. And although the original pieces (as well as many of their creators) have been lost, these powerful photos feel as immediate as a subway train thundering down the tracks.

In 1984, photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured the imagination of a generation with Subway Art, a groundbreaking book documenting the work of graffiti writers who illegally painted subway cars in New York City. The 2009 edition of the book is now available in a new, slightly reduced format. Henry Chalfant's images of the trains retain their impact, while Martha Cooper's narrative pictures tell the story. In the introductions, the authors recall how they gained entry to the New York graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s and describe the techniques that they used to photograph it. Afterwords report how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded, and chronicle the end of the subway graffiti scene in the late 1980s and its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. This is an essential book for all fans of graffiti, stunning photography and 1980s-cool.

Casting caution to the wind at the age of fifty, New York caterer and food writer Bonnie Lee Black decided to close her catering business and join the Peace Corps. Posted to the tiny town of Lastoursville in the thickly rainforested interior of Gabon, Central Africa, Bonnie taught health, nutrition, and cooking, in French, primarily to local African women and children. In the two years she served in Gabon, Bonnie developed her own healthy recipe for a purposeful life, made in equal measures of good food, safe shelter, meaningful work, and unexpected love. Like M.F.K. Fisher's classic, World War II-era book, How to Cook a Wolf, Bonnie's true stories comprise a lively, literary, present-day survival guide.

It is a transforming time for everyone involved when an aging adult begins to require more assistance and care from loved ones. Little by little, as elderly adults are asked to let go of things they have always done or cherished, caregivers attempt to fill their lives with love, warmth, and security-all while blindly navigating through an uncertain time.Martha Eischen has been there. Over the course of ten years, she was responsible for her mother's total care. In "Mothering Mother, " she shares not only her perspective, but also practical advice and valuable resources as she leads other caregivers-both novice and experienced-down a road of compassion and complete understanding. Martha shares a deeply emotional story as she details her mother's end-of-life journey and how she, in turn, learned how to provide personal care, partner with medical professionals, and deal with altered family dynamics. As she describes her life as a caregiver, she clearly identifies emotions, changes in roles, keys to keeping her mother active, and day-to-day care issues."Mothering Mother" is a loving, encouraging guidebook that will help caregivers everywhere fill the last days of a loved one's life with love, security, and fond memories.

Once, the spraycan "kings" of New York's subways astounded the world with their exuberant graffiti images. Now a new generation of artists has hit the streets and is decorating neighbourhood walls with memorials to the tragic and untimely deaths of friends and loved ones. "R.I.P." - assembling the very best of a vibrant street art wave - contains colour photographs of memorials from Harlem and the Lower East Side, the South Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as the moving stories behind them. The victims of shootings, accidents, arguments, police killings and drug-related turf wars may be gone, but thanks to these paintings they are not forgotten: for a violent and indifferent city has also spawned a rich urban art form. Martha Cooper's first book of photographs was "Subway Art" (with Henry Chalfant, Thames and Hudson, 1984).