"Come, sit by me," says Grandmother. "Take this chalk in your hand. Now draw a dot and concentrate all your energy into this one dot. It is the beginning and the end, the navel of the world." So Fawzia Al-Rawi describes her grandmother's first lesson about the ancient craft of Oriental dance. Grandmother's Secretsalways circles back to this grandmother and this young girl, echoing the circular movements of the dance itself. Al-Rawi has written a strikingly graceful and original book that blends personal memoir with the history and theory of the dance known in the West as "belly dancing." It is the story of a young Arab girl as she is initiated into womanhood. It is a history of the dance from the earliest times through the days of the Pharaohs, the Roman Empire, to the Arab world of the last three centuries. It is a personal investigation into the effects of the dance's movements on individual parts of the body and the whole psyche. It is a guide to the actual techniques of the dance for those who are inspired to put down the book and move. Al-Rawi conveys in this book not only the history and technique of grieving and mourning dances, pregnancy and birth dances, but the spirit of these age-old rituals, and their possibilities for healing and empowering women today.

"For thousands of years wild herbs and flowers formed the basis of natural cosmetics, natural remedies and natural preventives. Gradually these properties have lost their credence beside the magic synthetics of 'modern' medicine. Now, at last, we are beginning to take a new interest in what our grandmothers can teach us, and Jean Palaiseul has written a book which is a mine of information about the folk lore, history and modern application of over 150 herbs and flowers.For example, he tells us the Honeysuckle is rich in salycylic acid - the essential ingredient of aspirin - and an infusion of the flowers is a reliable help in bronchial complaint. Garlic, too, can prove an indispensible shield against winter colds, and the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed that it gave extra strength - the Pharaohs insisting that the pyramid builders ate a clove every day." -- Back cover.

WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION 2020 AWARD FOR BEST SINGLE SUBJECT COOKBOOK Learn how to make pasta like Italian nonnas do. Inspired by the hugely popular YouTube channel of the same name, Pasta Grannies is a wonderful collection of time-perfected Italian pasta recipes from the people who have spent a lifetime cooking for love, not a living: Italian grandmothers. “When you have good ingredients, you don’t have to worry about cooking. They do the work for you.” – Lucia, 85 Featuring easy and accessible recipes from all over Italy, you will be transported into the very heart of the Italian home to learn how to make great-tasting Italian food. Pasta styles range from pici – a type of hand-rolled spaghetti that is simple to make – to lumachelle della duchessa – tiny, ridged, cinnamon-scented tubes that take patience and dexterity. More than just a compendium of dishes, Pasta Grannies tells the extraordinary stories of these ordinary women and shows you that with the right know how, truly authentic Italian cooking is simple, beautiful and entirely achievable.

Secrets from Grandma's Kitchen is filled with well-loved, handed-down recipes shared by cooks across the country. Granny's Hotcakes and Eggs for a Crowd will bring 'em to the breakfast table in a hurry! Serve Summer Vegetable Soup and a basket of Corn Fritters for a simple and satisfying lunch. At dinnertime, your family will be delighted when you serve up comfort foods like Braised Swiss Steak, Grandma Ella's Chicken & Dumplings and Pork Chop-Potato Scallop, with Sharon's Freezer Slaw and Skillet-Fried Sweet Corn to round out the meal. Celebrating with friends? Secret-Recipe Shrimp Salad, Mama Meg's Stromboli, Gram's Chicken Dip and Anniversary Punch will make the get-together a big success. Of course, Grandma's desserts are not to be forgotten. Nanny's Chocolate Cupcakes, Gram's Whoopie Pies, Strawberry Shortcake Supreme and Anna Mae's No-Fail Peach Cobbler are just as good as you remember them, with an extra helping of nostalgia. Every recipe uses familiar ingredients, with easy directions and hints for success. You'll also find lots of tips for delicious cooking plus simple ideas for sharing food and fun with family & friends. So get ready to cook

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE 2018** 'A surprisingly touching account of hidden lives forced out of the shadows' Sunday Times One day in 1940 Rene Hargreaves walks out on her family and the city to take a position as a Land Girl at the remote Starlight farm. There she will live with and help lonely farmer Elsie Boston. At first Elsie and Rene are unsure of one another - strangers from different worlds. But over time they each come to depend on the other. They become inseparable. Until the day a visitor from Rene's past arrives and their careful, secluded life is thrown into confusion. Suddenly, all they have built together is threatened. What will they do to protect themselves? And are they prepared for the consequences? 'So lovely, gentle yet enthralling' Claire Fuller 'Quietly beautiful and brilliant. This is no bucolic idyll but an unfolding of a plot that constantly twists and turns and surprises. A truly wonderful, memorable novel' Judges of the Walter Scott Prize 2018

After an abrupt move across the country to San Francisco, sixteen-year-old Livvy is shocked to find that her mother has lied to her. Instead of looking for work at a bakery, her mom is taking care of Adelle, Livvy’s grandmother, who Livvy thought was long dead. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, Adelle shouts out startling details, mistakes her own name, and seems to relive moments that may have taken place in a concentration camp. When Livvy and her new friend Franklin D. find journal entries from the Holocaust in Adelle’s home, Livvy begins to suspect that her grandmother may have a shocking link to a notable figure -- Anne Frank.

Discovering her grandmother's journal three decades after her suicide, the author learns of Regina Klein's suffering during World War I, her pain after being orphaned, and her confusing immigrations from Poland to Vienna to Paris and to the United States.