An arachnophobic woman plagued by nightmares about spiders since she was little attempts to feign a normal existence while working a mundane job. But no matter how hard she tries, eight-legged shadows lurk in the recesses of her mind, torturing her and sending her spiraling downward into the abyss of lunacy. When an encounter with a tarantula triggers a psychotic break, she lands in a halfway house inhabited by others whose broken psyches insinuate themselves into her slow climb out of hell. Bisecting these threads are the messages of Tarantula Woman, who enters through the cracks in her psyche to whisper wisdom and guide her through her own subconscious. As her history is recast, her housemates redefine the meaning of lucidity and Tarantula Woman continues to tease, push, and enlighten her. Hotel Tarantula is a story of extreme phobia as a young woman is forced to rely on the spidery voice inside her head for insight as she attempts to claw her way back to sanity.

Pattie Monk is a shy and indifferent sixteen-year-old, languishing in a dying town in the California Central Valley, when her brother, Steve, is killed in a drunken accident. Emotionally abandoned by her shattered parents, Pattie is left alone to struggle with her grief and her very place in the family. In the drought-scarred '80s, the local economy leans heavily on the Restola, a truck stop supercomplex on the other side of the Interstate. Into Pattie's life, by way of the Restola, comes Duane Baty, a burned-out, bankrupt trucker for whom she feels an unsettling attraction/repulsion. The sense of surrealism that invades her life overflows and colors the entire town, the Restola and the surrounding landscape in this vivid story of dreaminess and decay. Pattie's struggle to find something resembling herself is a classic story of the human need for identity and the desire to answer the question: what happened here?

Legend has it that the first waterfall was created when an angry sea god threw his trident into a cliff with such force that the cliff split open, spewing water like a volcanic eruption. Through the eyes of Nereid, daughter of this angry sea god, we witness the evolution of this primal waterfall into a powerful symbol of beauty, danger, and sacrifice. Through Nereid, we witness the stories of women and girls who commit suicide by waterfall, beginning with Nereid herself, and the waterfall otherworld into which they awaken. Unfolding in spiral rather than linear fashion, this bible of shifting realities and portals between life and death shines light and dark into a world never before imagined. An afterlife which is neither heaven or hell, it is as uncertain as it is beautiful. Intertwined with the tales of Nereid and others in her world is the commonality of the Waterfall, whose elemental/diselemental voice adds its own layers to Nereid's bible. When the Waterfall speaks, we taste the purity of the first waterfall, we catch the scent of primal element, we are enchanted by the face of magnificent beauty, and we feel the very heartbeat of water as we drown in the roar of the falls. From Nereid's lifetime of water, through the hidden pools and passages of her watery world, Waterfall Girls is but a small sampling of legends inspired by waterfalls, woven into the heartbreak of suicide.

The study of singers' art has emerged as a prominent area of inquiry within musicology in recent years. Female Singers on the French Stage, 1830-1848 shifts the focus from the artwork onstage to the labour that went on behind the scenes. Through extensive analysis of primary source documents, Kimberly White explores the profession of singing, operatic culture, and the representation of female performers on the French stage between 1830 and 1848, and reveals new perspectives on the social, economic, and cultural status of these women. The book attempts to reconstruct and clarify contemporary practices of the singer at work, including vocal training, debuts, rehearsals and performance schedules, touring, benefit concerts, and retirement, as well as the strategies utilized in publicity and image making. Dozens of case studies, many compiled from singers' correspondence and archival papers, shed light on the performers' successes and struggles at a time when Paris was the operatic centre of Europe.

An arachnophobic woman plagued by nightmares about spiders since she was little attempts to feign a normal existence while working a mundane job. But no matter how hard she tries, eight-legged shadows lurk in the recesses of her mind, torturing her and sending her spiraling downward into the abyss of lunacy. When an encounter with a tarantula triggers a psychotic break, she lands in a halfway house inhabited by others whose broken psyches insinuate themselves into her slow climb out of hell. Bisecting these threads are the messages of Tarantula Woman, who enters through the cracks in her psyche to whisper wisdom and guide her through her own subconscious. As her history is recast, her housemates redefine the meaning of lucidity and Tarantula Woman continues to tease, push, and enlighten her. Hotel Tarantula is a story of extreme phobia as a young woman is forced to rely on the spidery voice inside her head for insight as she attempts to claw her way back to sanity.

Pattie Monk is a shy and indifferent sixteen-year-old, languishing in a dying town in the California Central Valley, when her brother, Steve, is killed in a drunken accident. Emotionally abandoned by her shattered parents, Pattie is left alone to struggle with her grief and her very place in the family. In the drought-scarred '80s, the local economy leans heavily on the Restola, a truck stop supercomplex on the other side of the Interstate. Into Pattie's life, by way of the Restola, comes Duane Baty, a burned-out, bankrupt trucker for whom she feels an unsettling attraction/repulsion. The sense of surrealism that invades her life overflows and colors the entire town, the Restola and the surrounding landscape in this vivid story of dreaminess and decay. Pattie's struggle to find something resembling herself is a classic story of the human need for identity and the desire to answer the question: what happened here?