Shannon Miller

A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts is the ultimate collection for curious minds who love to discover unexpected facts at every turn. This playful, engaging collection of intriguing information is perfect for dipping into at a moment's notice. With a mix of history, science, pop culture, and quirky trivia, A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts delivers an eye-popping array of little-known information that will make readers think, cringe, and marvel at the oddities of the world. This book features fascinating lists, unusual facts, and the kind of trivia readers will love. Every page offers something new: from secret government programs and forgotten world-changing inventions to biological mysteries and natural events that defy the laws of science. And scattered throughout are special word origin notes, shedding light on the often surprising histories of everyday words and expressions. Topics covered include: - Arts & Media - History - Language & Literature - Science & Innovation - Geography & Nature - Pop Culture & Creativity - Mysteries & Curiosities - Guides & How Tos Whether they're in need of a brief mental escape during a break or seeking to impress friends with their knowledge of bizarre facts, A Miscellany of Weird and Wonderful Facts has something for everyone--the perfect companion for those who love discovering something new and fascinating (and weird) with each flip of the page.

It's Not About Perfect is inspirational memoir of the most decorated gymnast in American history, her recovery from cancer, and her miracle pregnancy." When the odds were against me, I was always at my best." When she retired at age 19, Shannon Miller did so as one of the most recognizable gymnasts in the country. The winner of seven Olympic medals and the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in U. S. history, Shannon tells a story of surviving and thriving. A shy, rambunctious girl raised in Oklahoma, Shannon fell in love with gymnastics at a young age and fought her way to the top. In 1992 she won five Olympic medals after breaking her elbow in a training accident just months prior to the Games. Then, in 1996, a doctor advised her to retire immediately or face dire consequences if she chose to compete on her injured wrist. Undeterred, Shannon endured the pain and led her team, the "Magnificent Seven," to the first Olympic team gold medal for the United States in gymnastics. She followed up as the first American to win gold on the balance beam. Equally intense, heroic and gratifying is the story of her brutal but successful battle with ovarian cancer, a disease from which fewer than fifty percent survive. Relying on her faith and hard-learned perseverance, Shannon battled through surgery and major chemotherapy to emerge on the other side with a miracle baby girl. Her story of trial, triumph and life after cancer reminds us all that its life's bumps and bruises that reveal our character. From early on in her career, Shannon knew that life wasn't about perfection. In this incredible and inspirational tale, Shannon speaks out so as to be seen and heard by thousands as a beacon of hope.

The narrative of the Garden of Eden infused seventeenth-century political thought no less than it reflected attitudes toward the relationship between the sexes. Within the contemporary debate over political legitimacy, theorists who supported or questioned the monarchy turned explicitly to the narrative of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve to articulate their theories of governmental authority. Engaging this foundational relationship between gendered interpersonal and governmental organization, Shannon Miller turns to a body of texts produced in England that replot the story of the Garden. She sets a series of writings by women into conversation with the period's most important poetic rendering of the Fall, Milton's Paradise Lost, to illustrate how significant gender was to accounts of social and political organization, and to demonstrate how the Garden narrative plots the role of gender. Her multidirectional and multilayered conversation between numerous seventeenth-century women-such as Aemilia Lanyer, Rachel Speght, Lucy Hutchinson, Margaret Cavendish, and Mary Chudleigh-and Milton's Genesis epic crystallizes the interplay between the narrative of the Fall, the organization of political structures, and the extent to which both were shaped by cultural debates over the role of women.

Got guilt? If you, or anyone you know, suffers from guilt then this book is a "Must Read"! What are the different types of guilt, why do I suffer from guilt and how can I rid myself of guilt forever? Find the answers to these questions and more as the author illustrates each point using experiences from actual clients to guide you through the gift, the curse, the cure and the method. Get started on your way to freedom from guilt forever.

In the closing decades of the sixteenth century, England attempted its first colonial expansion into the New World through planned settlements in Ireland, Newfoundland, Virginia, and Guiana. All of these colonial efforts were unsuccessful. Yet these projects were a significant cultural force in early modern England. Influenced by recent work in postcolonial theory and cultural studies, Shannon Miller's Invested with Meaning examines the documentary and material remains of these vanished colonies to explore the multiple influences of the Irish and New World encounters on English culture. Miller contends that the projects sponsored by the Raleigh circle were inextricably bound to the economic and social transformations of English systems, including the transition from a feudal-based economy to an emergent capitalism, the redefinition of the patron-client relationship, and challenges to the categories of gentry and merchant. These social and economic transitions shaped the goals of the colonization projects and dictated the ways in which the writers and artists of these enterprises could frame the New World and its people; influenced by the changes in England, their construction of the New World both reflected and helped to constitute a sense of English national identity.