Mabel doesn't want to go to sleep while Mama and Papa are having a dance party downstairs.

In the distance, the ominous rumblings of thunder can be heard while a dark drizzle begins to fall on a dreary summer afternoon that makes no sunny pretenses about what is coming. Albert is at Professor Charles' house for a high-energy physics lesson when a friend bearing a high-energy piece of bad news bursts through the doorway. The news relates to the murder of a dear friend a week ago and what Albert saw on that foggy night, "There was a ghostly figure wielding a sword in a rowboat near the scene of the riverbank killing."Prof Charles quickly states, "Albert, there is a sword in a diabolically haunted mansion not far from here. The mansion was owned by a rich man who was so sinister that many considered him to be the Devil incarnate, and he was referred to as 'The Sovereign of Sin.' Upon his death, several morbidly evil spirits hastily escaped to various rooms of the mansion. In one of those rooms is a knight with a sword. But the mansion is confusing in its construction, and those brave enough to have entered it while being stalked by rattling chains cannot agree on where the room is."Albert's girlfriend, Molly, has just arrived. Molly's mother, Mabel, is a revered teacher, and she often helps Albert by telling him her "Lessons of Life": "Sometimes ideas that have become part of our entrenched assumptions need to be looked at again. Reexamine all your assumptions, even those you find irrefutable, and relook at clues you have been unable to fit into any assumption. Perhaps that will lead you in new directions."The news of a sword accessible to the murderer gives Albert and Molly a new clue to follow. Molly considers finding the killer their higher calling, and Albert follows clues with the enthusiasm and perspicacity of Sherlock Holmes. They start their journey with trepidation. The densely tree-surrounded path to the haunted mansion begins surreally serene given that its destination is the home of The Sovereign of Sin. Only the storm clouds and the heavy mist add a subtle version of reality, which precedes the more demanding version that occurs when a huge lightning strike hits nearby.The closer Albert and Molly get to the haunted mansion, the more the path takes on the threatening encompassment of their goal. The trees and thick overgrowth turn into strangely evil forms as they become darkly shadowed and more impenetrable, and the sky fills with ghost-shaped, black rain clouds that close in on Molly and Albert and move and morph and forebode the fast-approaching, ill-omened night.Then another massive lightning strike with its bone-rattling thunder shakes Molly and Albert's nerves raw."Did you see that?" exclaims Albert terrifyingly as he points up to a spot in one of the trees ahead of them."See what?" asks Molly worriedly."During the lightning, up in that tree I saw something staring at us," anxiously responds Albert. "It was the form of a ghost, which looked to me like one of the morbidly wicked spirits that The Sovereign of Sin turned into upon his death."As they slowly walk past the tree, each stares up at the spot; then another lightning flash occurs, and instantaneously both their expressions turn ghostly fear-stricken. They run past the tree.Albert exclaims, "So you saw The Sovereign of Sin's malevolent spirit?""No," cries Molly. "I saw the Grim Reaper reaching out to grab me!""Great ghouls!" declares Albert. "Aren't we two, with our spine-chilling imaginations, going to have fun in the haunted mansion!"Albert and Molly have many grand adventures in store for them as they follow clues to a killer lurking near the rich waters of the grand ol' river and its lush surrounding forest. The Legend of Mighty Mabel is the story of a summer of wonderful joy, great adventures, scary fun, fun for the sake of fun, and a bit of romance. And it is the story of the bravery, the love, and the "Lessons of Life" of Mighty Mabel.

Social dance was ubiquitous in interwar Britain. The social mingling and expression made possible through non-theatrical participatory dancing in couples and groups inspired heated commentary, both vociferous and subtle. By drawing attention to the ways social dance accrued meaning in interwar Britain, Rishona Zimring redefines and brings needed attention to a phenomenon that has been overshadowed by other developments in the history of dance. Social dance, Zimring argues, haunted the interwar imagination, as illustrated in trends such as folk revivalism and the rise of therapeutic dance education. She brings to light the powerful figurative importance of popular music and dance both in the aftermath of war, and during Britain’s entrance into cosmopolitan modernity and the modernization of gender relations. Analyzing paintings, films, memoirs, a ballet production, and archival documents, in addition to writings by Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Vivienne Eliot, and T.S. Eliot, to name just a few, Zimring provides crucial insights into the experience, observation, and representation of social dance during a time of cultural transition and recuperation. Social dance was pivotal in the construction of modern British society as well as the aesthetics of some of the period’s most prominent intellectuals.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Meet Maddie and Mabel, two spunky sisters who navigate their relationship with humor and heart. Maddie is the big sister. Mabel is the little sister. But who is actually in charge? Mabel, who never stops asking questions? Or Maddie, who can be bossy and demanding? Readers will see that being in charge might not be as important as working together. The first book in this early chapter book series introduces two relatable characters who make mistakes as they learn important life lessons. Friendship between siblings can often be a heart-warming work in progress. Through joyful storytelling and story-sharing, Maddie and Mabel exemplify the best of what these young years can offer us: imagination, joy, play, forgiveness, and family. In a way that's accessible for new readers and enjoyable for anyone who has also made mistakes and made amends with their own sibling, Maddie and Mabel endears, entertains, and delights.

A study based on detailed conversations with nine terminally ill people and their caretakers, focusing on how participants lived their daily lives, understood their illnesses, coped with pain and other symptoms, and searched for meaning or spiritual growth in the last months of life. The authors believe that informal caregiving by relatives and close friends is an enormous and often invisible resource that deserves close public attention. They identify how families, professionals and communities can respond to challenges of terminal illness such as palliative care, quality of life, financial hardship, grief, and communications with medical personnel. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

She was "the most peculiar common denominator that society, literature, art and radical revolutionaries ever found in New York and Europe." So claimed a Chicago newspaper reporter in the 1920s of Mabel Dodge Luhan, who attracted leading literary and intellectual figures to her circle for over four decades. Not only was she mistress of a grand salon, an American Madame de Stael, she was also a leading symbol of the New Woman: sexually emancipated, self-determining, and in control of her destiny. In many ways, her life is the story of America's emergence from the Victorian age. Lois Rudnick has written a unique and definitive biography that examines all aspects of Mabel Dodge Luhan's real and imagined lives, drawing on fictional portraits of Mabel, including those by D. H. Lawrence, Carl Van Vechten, and Gertrude Stein, as well as on Mabel's own voluminous memoirs, letters, and fiction. Rudnick not only assesses Mabel as muse to men of genius but also considers her seriously as a writer, activist, and spirit of the age. This biography will appeal not just to cultural historians but to any woman who has loved and lived with men who are artists and rebels. Both as a liberated woman and as a legend, Mabel Dodge Luhan embodies the cultural forces that shaped modern America.