Riane Eisler shows us how history has consistently promoted the link between sex and violence—and how we can sever this link and move to a politics of partnership rather than domination in all our relations.

Engage the chakras as a road map for self-discovery, harness the power of crystals, and practice self-love through erotic spirituality with Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure. Whether you’re new to crystals or experienced with crystal healing, Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure offers the essential information and techniques you need to get your energy flowing freely again. The flow of energy through our chakras (the energy centers of our bodies) is essential to our fundamental well-being and our ability to experience our lives fully. When chakras get blocked, the natural flow of energy is hindered, and we experience disconnection from our physical bodies. Crystal healing can release blockages and bring necessary attention to our whole being, while helping to heal physical or emotional trauma. Crystals have been used for centuries as a way to release and harmonize energy. Each crystal has its own unique qualities that are suited to specific kinds of blockages. When used properly, crystals can have a powerful and positive effect on our lives. This book features: A clear introduction to the body’s chakra system Guidance for determining if a chakra is blocked Essential information on crystals and how they work Specific techniques and practices for using crystals to embrace self-love and achieve greater intimacy and pleasure A comprehensive chart linking crystals to their chakras; zodiac elements; color energies; and physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits An annotated reading list of books, blogs, and websites to support you as you continue on the path of crystal healing Embrace the healing power of crystals and open yourself to greater well-being, intimacy, and sensual pleasure.

Spas have become self-care oases for millions of people living busy, hectic lives. And while your skin may be smoother when you leave, the relaxation response sparked by a visit to the spa is an equally invaluable gift. Pleasure Healing will help you give that gift to yourself every day by bringing relaxation and present-moment awareness into your life. As you incorporate mindfulness techniques including meditation, healing breath work, conscious movement, and other pleasure-healing rituals into your daily routine, you'll notice the spa ethos transforming your mindset, calming stress, and enriching your life.

Traces European encounters and use of tobacco and cacao and its eventual commodification into a major business from the earliest period through the seventeenth century.

Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident. The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.

Return to the world of the FBI’s Krewe of Hunters as they try to stop a resurrected evil from taking more lives, in book 3 of this thrilling series from New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham. The details of the crime scene are no coincidence. The body—a promising starlet—has been battered, bloodied and then discarded between two of Manhattan’s oldest graveyards. One look and Detective Jude Crosby recognizes the tableau: a re-creation of Jack the Ripper’s gruesome work. But he also sees something beyond the actions of a mere copycat. Something more dangerous…and unexplainable. As the city seethes with suspicion, Jude calls on Whitney Tremont, a member of the country’s preeminent paranormal investigating team, to put the speculation to rest. Yet when Whitney and Jude delve deeper, what they discover is more shocking than either could have predicted, and twice as sinister… Previously published in 2011

Now in paperback, a romantic love story by the great Brazilian writer Lóri, a primary school teacher, is isolated and nervous, comfortable with children but unable to connect to adults. When she meets Ulisses, a professor of philosophy, an opportunity opens: a chance to escape the shipwreck of introspection and embrace the love, including the sexual love, of a man. Her attempt, as Sheila Heti writes in her afterword, is not only “to love and to be loved,” but also “to be worthy of life itself.” Published in 1968, An Apprenticeship is Clarice Lispector’s attempt to reinvent herself following the exhausting effort of her metaphysical masterpiece The Passion According to G. H. Here, in this unconventional love story, she explores the ways in which people try to bridge the gaps between them, and the result, unusual in her work, surprised many readers and became a bestseller. Some appreciated its accessibility; others denounced it as sexist or superficial. To both admirers and critics, the olympian Clarice gave a typically elliptical answer: “I humanized myself,” she said. “The book reflects that.”