"Through the Reading Glass explores the practices and protocols that surrounded women's reading in eighteenth-century France. Looking at texts as various as fairy tales, memoirs, historical romances, short stories, love letters, novels, and the pages of the new female periodical press. Suellen Diaconoff shows how a reading culture, one in which books, sex, and acts of reading were richly and evocatively intertwined, was constructed for and by women. Diaconoff proposes that the underlying discourse of virture found in womens's work was both an empowering strategy, intended to create new kinds of responsible and not merely responsive readers, and an integral part of the conviction that domestic reading does not have to be trivial.

Why a hiking book for Boomers? Because Boomers are a savvy lot and they know that one size does not fit all. While they may be up for adventure and eager to challenge themselves, they wisely want to know what they are getting into before taking the leap. That's exactly what you'll get in this lively and informative hiking book, appropriate for both novice and experienced hiker. Organized into five "Boomer Rating" categories according to the level of challenge, the 75 hikes of this book begin with an honest assessment of the physical demands (and pleasures) of a hike, then give you all the advance trail "intel" necessary to make your day in the woods memorable. Drawing upon first-hand experience, the authors-who didn't start hiking until into their fifth and sixth decades-are eager to encourage others in the upper-age bracket to enjoy the great benefits of hiking. To entice you out, they include a full spectrum of hikes from easy rambles to dozens of peaks, giving you a wealth of helpful and practical advice about the trails, along with entertaining and informative anecdotes about wildlife, trail lore, Maine history, and tips for dealing with creaky joints and cranky knees.

Beginning in the 1980s and gathering force in the last decade of the twentieth century, Moroccan women writers have become the latest group of Middle Eastern women to break their silence by writing both fiction and non-fiction. The Myth of the Silent Woman examines representative French-language texts from Moroccan women writers. Suellen Diaconoff situates these works in a discourse of social justice and reform, arguing that they contribute to the emerging national debate on democracy and help to create new public spaces of discourse and participation.

In novels and short stories, essays and memoirs, including one powerful text by a dissident and former political prisoner, these authors contest hegemonic systems of thought and practice, reappraise traditional spaces and limits, shatter taboos and transgress borders. In so doing, they profoundly undermine easy assumptions about Arab women, feminism, and democracy, while boldly challenging the stereotype of the silent woman.