Why is someone who just defended her doctoral dissertation still wasting her time at her childhood home, two months after her mother's funeral, making coq au vin and osso buco? Olivia Tschetter, the youngest of four high-achieving South Dakotan siblings, is not returning to "normal"--or to graduate school-- quickly enough to suit her family. She wants only to bury herself in her mother's kitchen, finding solace in their shared passion for cooking.
Threatened with grief counseling, Olivia accepts a temporary position at the local Meals on Wheels, where she stumbles upon some unfinished business from her mother's past--and a dark family secret. Startling announcements from two siblings also challenge the family's status quo. The last thing she needs is a deepening romantic interest in a close but platonic (she thought) friend.
But while Olivia's mother is gone, her memory and spirit continue to engage Olivia, who finds herself daring to speak when she would never have spoken before. Told with humor and compassion, "Starting from Scratch "explores the shifting of family dynamics in the wake of shattering loss and the healing power of cooking.

Sustainability offers a vision for business and society that benefits Earth. Yet sustainability is often taught in abstract and disconnected ways. With the Yellowstone River Valley of Montana as its setting, this book introduces readers to sustainability issues, theory, and science. It addresses business profitability, physical environment processes, wildlife, public policies, and American Indian rights. It stresses practical understandings of sustainability via detailed attention to the people of the valley. The case sets the stage for data gathering, analyses, and decision making. Readers will recognize similar concerns in other watersheds and understand sustainability anew.

• Are boys more active and aggressive?

• Do girls talk earlier?

• Do boys have a harder time separating from their mothers?

• Do girls have the edge in learning to read and write?

• Why do boys and girls like different toys?

In A Field Guide to Boys and Girls, Susan Gilbert pulls together all the latest research on gender development into a resource for parents of children from birth to adolescence. In talking to a variety of educators, psychologists, and behavioral pediatricians, Gilbert concludes that there are natural differences between boys and girls.

If parents nurture the areas that may be slower to develop, such as math skills in girls and language skills in boys, they will help their children deal with gender challenges as they grow up.

By combining groundbreaking inquiry with easy-to-use advice, A Field Guide to Boys and Girls helps parents bring out the best in each child.