Most Popular Books by Mary Beth

An unseen view of the heart of the tech world from acclaimed photographer Mary Beth Meehan and Silicon Valley culture expert Fred Turner. "Meehan''s photos dissolve distances between people. . . . [This] is a book of images that speaks to the human toll exacted by the relentless economy." — Christian Science Monitor It''s hard to imagine a place more central to American mythology today than Silicon Valley. To outsiders, the region glitters with the promise of extraordinary wealth and innovation. But behind this image lies another Silicon Valley, one segregated by race, class, and nationality in complex and contradictory ways. Its beautiful landscape lies atop underground streams of pollutants left behind by decades of technological innovation, and while its billionaires live in compounds, surrounded by redwood trees and security fences, its service workers live in their cars. With arresting photography and intimate stories, Seeing Silicon Valley makes this hidden world visible. Instead of young entrepreneurs striving for efficiency in minimalist corporate campuses, we see portraits of struggle—families displaced by an impossible real estate market, workers striving for a living wage, and communities harmed by environmental degradation. If the fate of Silicon Valley is the fate of America—as so many of its boosters claim—then this book gives us an unvarnished look into the future. "In uber-rich Silicon Valley, [Meehan''s] camera captures those struggling to survive." — Washington Post "Meehan focuses her lens on the forgotten faces behind the myths and the marketing. . . . From Brockton to Providence, from small-town Georgia to Silicon Valley, photographer Mary Beth Meehan is challenging communities to see themselves in new ways, spurring discussions about race and inequality, the economy and the environment." — Boston Globe "It is a Silicon Valley rarely described and never shown that photographer Mary Beth Meehan sought to document. . . . Without descending into pathos, she reveals the striking contrasts between the world of start-ups and that in which their employees live. . . . But underneath, Meehan also depicts another, more subtle dissonance—between the way Silicon Valley sees itself, and the way it really is." — Le Monde (France)

From a junkie addicted to methamphetamines to a federal judge, Mary Beth O’Connor’s memoir shares her inspiring journey from rock bottom to resilience as she forged a personal path to recovery from trauma and addiction. Silver Award, 2023 Nonfiction Book Awards Searing, unsettling, and ultimately triumphant, Judge O''Connor''s debut memoir takes readers on a wild ride through the rock-bottom underbelly of intravenous drug addiction to the hallowed halls of justice where she rose to the pinnacle of success as a federal judge. With wit and unabashed honesty, O’Connor shares her remarkable three-phase journey: the abuse and trauma that drove her to teenage drug use, the chaos that ensued from her addiction; and how she developed a personalized secular recovery plan that led to twenty-nine years of sobriety. Her story proves any addict can recover and anyone can build a productive and happy life, no matter how low the bottom or how deep the pain. Within a week of being born, O’Connor was dropped off at a convent. When she was brought into her home, her mother focused on her own needs and desires, ignoring her young child. When she was nine, her stepfather kicked her in the stomach for spilling milk, beat her when she didn’t clean a plate to his satisfaction, and molested her when she was twelve. A few months later, with her first sip of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine, her life changed. She felt euphoric and relaxed. So she got drunk as often as possible, adding pot, then pills, then acid. At sixteen, she found her drug of choice--methamphetamine. With her first snort, she experienced true joy for the first time. When this high was no longer sufficient, she turned to the needle and shot up. During the next sixteen years, she descended into a severe meth addiction, working her way down the corporate ladder, destroying relationships, and shattering her physical and emotional well-being. At thirty-two, she entered rehab, where she was ordered to submit to the 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. As an atheist, turning her will and her life over to a higher power was not an option, and she refused to agree she was powerless. Told to comply or fail, she bravely created a new path that combined ideas from multiple programs and even incorporated some AA concepts. Clean and sober now for more nearly three decades, she is proof that anyone can find their sober self, their best self, no matter how far they have fallen. Along with her inspiring story, she offers a comprehensive checklist of questions for readers to ask themselves as they take the brave steps toward recovery, offering a powerful blueprint for personal change.

In Separated by Their Sex, Mary Beth Norton offers a bold genealogy that shows how gender came to determine the right of access to the Anglo-American public sphere by the middle of the eighteenth century. Earlier, high-status men and women alike had been recognized as appropriate political actors, as exemplified during and after Bacon''s Rebellion by the actions of—and reactions to—Lady Frances Berkeley, wife of Virginia''s governor. By contrast, when the first ordinary English women to claim a political voice directed group petitions to Parliament during the Civil War of the 1640s, men relentlessly criticized and parodied their efforts. Even so, as late as 1690 Anglo-American women''s political interests and opinions were publicly acknowledged. Norton traces the profound shift in attitudes toward women’s participation in public affairs to the age’s cultural arbiters, including John Dunton, editor of the Athenian Mercury, a popular 1690s periodical that promoted women’s links to husband, family, and household. Fittingly, Dunton was the first author known to apply the word "private" to women and their domestic lives. Subsequently, the immensely influential authors Richard Steele and Joseph Addison (in the Tatler and the Spectator) advanced the notion that women’s participation in politics—even in political dialogues—was absurd. They and many imitators on both sides of the Atlantic argued that women should confine themselves to home and family, a position that American women themselves had adopted by the 1760s. Colonial women incorporated the novel ideas into their self-conceptions; during such "private" activities as sitting around a table drinking tea, they worked to define their own lives. On the cusp of the American Revolution, Norton concludes, a newly gendered public-private division was firmly in place.

In this pioneering study of the ways in which the first settlers defined the power, prerogatives, and responsibilities of the sexes, one of our most incisive historians opens a window onto the world of Colonial America. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents, Mary Beth Norton tells the story of the Pinion clan, whose two-generation record of theft, adultery, and infanticide may have made them our first dysfunctional family. She reopens the case of Mistress Ann Hibbens, whose church excommunicated her for arguing that God had told husbands to listen to their wives. And here is the enigma of Thomas, or Thomasine Hall, who lived comfortably as both a man and a woman in 17th century Virginia. Wonderfully erudite and vastly readable, Founding Mothers & Fathers reveals both the philosophical assumptions and intimate domestic arrangements of our colonial ancestors in all their rigor, strangeness, and unruly passion. "An important, imaginative book. Norton destroys our nostalgic image of a ''golden age'' of family life and re-creates a more complex past whose assumptions and anxieties are still with us."--Raleigh News and Observer

Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study. In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees—including the main accusers of witches—had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony’s leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God’s people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft “victims” described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting her net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, Norton sheds new light on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in our history.

From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical "long year" of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period when colonists traditionally loyal to King George III began their discordant “discussions” that led them to their acceptance of the inevitability of war against the British Empire. Drawing extensively on pamphlets, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Norton reconstructs colonial political discourse as it took place throughout 1774. Late in the year, conservatives mounted a vigorous campaign criticizing the First Continental Congress. But by then it was too late. In early 1775, colonial governors informed officials in London that they were unable to thwart the increasing power of local committees and their allied provincial congresses. Although the Declaration of Independence would not be formally adopted until July 1776, Americans had in effect “declared independence ” even before the outbreak of war in April 1775 by obeying the decrees of the provincial governments they had elected rather than colonial officials appointed by the king. Norton captures the tension and drama of this pivotal year and foundational moment in American history and brings it to life as no other historian has done before.

SOON TO BE A MAJOR BBC AMERICA SERIES, STARRING ELISABETH MOSS Typhoid Mary: a selfish monster, or a hounded innocent? They called her Typhoid Mary. They believed she was sick, that she was passing typhoid fever from her hands to the food that she served. They said she should have known. But Mary wasn''t sick. She hadn''t done anything wrong. She wasn''t arrested right away. There were warnings. Requests. And when she was finally taken, she did not go quietly. Branded a murderer and condemned by press and public alike, Mary continued to fight for her freedom, no matter the cost... Fever casts a brilliant light over the life of a figure once described as ''the most dangerous woman in America'', and Mary Beth Keane''s fictional account is as fiercely compelling as Typhoid Mary herself.

Malcolm Gephardt, handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success but struggles to stay afloat. His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future. “A quick and impactful read that will stay with you long after you finish it” (theSkimm), The Half Moon takes place over the course of one week when Malcolm learns shocking news about Jess, a patron of the bar goes missing, and a blizzard hits the town of Gillam, trapping everyone in place. With a deft eye and generous spirit, Mary Beth Keane explores the disappointments and unexpected consolations of midlife, the many forms forgiveness can take, the complicated intimacy of small-town living, and what it means to be a family.

From the author of The Christmas Cookie Club, a collection of delicious cookie recipes and a guide on how to start your very own Christmas Cookie Club. The Christmas Cookie Cookbook is the perfect holiday present or year-round companion for new and seasoned bakers alike. Packed with tips, anecdotes, and tons of recipes, this cookbook is a must-have for anyone looking for a new holiday tradition or simply a fresh way to spread holiday cheer throughout the year. For almost twenty years, Ann Pearlman and a dozen of her friends have been in a Christmas Cookie Club founded by Marybeth Bayer. Every year at the same time, they gather at her house to exchange cookies, wine, and laughs. Now, with The Christmas Cookie Cookbook, Ann shows readers how to start a club of their own. The recipes and the inspiration are all here in one complete guide for cookie club hopefuls. With a diverse selection of not only Christmas cookies, but Chanukah and Ramadan cookies too, there’s a treat in here for everyone!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The Tonight Show Summer Reads Pick * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by People, Vogue, Parade, NPR, and Elle “One of the most unpretentiously profound books I’ve read in a long time…modestly magnificent.” —Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air “A beautiful novel, bursting at the seams with empathy.” –Elle How much can a family forgive? A profoundly moving novel about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come. Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next 40 years. Luminous, heartbreaking, and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes reveals the way childhood memories change when viewed from the distance of adulthood—villains lose their menace and those who appeared innocent seem less so. Kate and Peter’s love story, while haunted by echoes from the past, is marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

"Revised to reflect today''s healthier diet, this new edition explains how to : plan ahead, spend less time at the supermarket, cut down on prep time, group similar kitchen tasks together to get them all done at once, make kitchen clean-up more manageable, and use the freezer, the computer, and your head to create a month full of delicious meals."--Back cover.

Heal mind, body, and soul with this collection of self-care rituals and tips. Never has the idea of mindfully checking in with ourselves and creating a “whole body” health—health that is more than simply the absence of illness—been so appealing. In this guide to self-care, wellness and beauty educator Mary Beth Janssen reveals how introspection, ritual, and love can help cure existential woes. She profiles a wide range of activities and exercises, including: Karma Cleanse: How to cultivate/give lovingkindness, compassion, and forgiveness in yourself, and then pay it forward. Intention, meditation, and breathwork techniques: Exercises for calm and centered living. Emotional Housecleaning: How to deal with unprocessed emotions “stuck” within yourself. Setting Healthy Boundaries: Check-in exercises for relationships that will help you reevaluate and build your support network. Tips for nourishing yourself, deep sleep, and beauty rituals to celebrate your body.

This book represents social history on a grand scale, imaginatively conceived and massively researched. Norton brilliantly portrays a dramatic transformation of women''s private lives in the wake of the Revolution. First published in 1980 and recently out of print, Liberty''s Daughters is widely considered a landmark book on the history of American women and on the Revolution itself.

Abridgement of: Nursing diagnosis handbook / [edited by] Betty J. Ackley, Gail B. Ladwig, Mary Beth Flynn Makic. Eleventh edition. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier, [2017].

Detailed and timely information on accommodations, restaurants, and local attractions highlight these updated travel guides, which feature all-new covers, a two-color interior design, symbols to indicate budget options, must-see ratings, multi-day itineraries, Smart Travel Tips, helpful bulleted maps, tips on transportation, guidelines for shopping excursions, and other valuable features. Original.

Mary Beth Bonacci has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people across the country and around the world-about friendship, about relationships, about marriage, about God''s plan for sexuality, and about finding real, honest love. And they speak back to her. They ask her questions-about sex, about dating, about healing after a shattered relationship, about marriage, about their struggles to live love. In this newly updated and expanded edition of Real Love, Mary Beth shares those questions-and her answers-in an even more comprehensive guide which addresses the details of the very real struggle we all face in trying to live real love in a world gone mad. Through these questions and her answers, Mary Beth offers a comprehensive catechesis of the Church''s teaching in the areas of marriage and human sexuality. She tackles the toughest issues-premarital sex, contraception, divorce, homosexuality, internet pornography and others. She gives practical advice on living the Church''s teachings. And throughout it all, she demonstrates that living respect for God''s gift of sexuality is the way-the only way-to find real, honest love.

This is the true story of a young girl who grew up in unfair circumstances as a child throughout her early adulthood. She had to go through billions of heartbreaks to find out who she really was and where she belonged in life. She''s dealt with more than most would ever have to deal with in a life time. She learned to love and to live again and again. Her story is filled with hope and heartache, with dreams and desires, and with love and loss.