Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In nine strikingly perceptive stories set miles and decades apart, Laura Furman mines the intricate, elusive lives of mothers and daughters-and of women who long for someone to nurture. Meet Rachel, a young girl desperate for her mother's unbridled attention, knowing that soon she'll have to face the world alone; Marian, a celebrated novelist who betrays the one person willing to take care of her as she is dying-her unclaimed "daughter"; and Dinah, a childless widow uplifted by the abandoned, century-old diaries of Mary Ann, a mother of eleven.

The Mother Who Stayed is an homage to the timeless, primal bond between mother and child and a testament that the relationships we can't define can be just as poignant, memorable, and inspiring as those determined by blood. Tender and insightful, Furman's stories also bravely confront darker realities of separation and regret, death and infidelity-even murder. Her vividly imagined characters and chiseled prose close the gap between generations of women as they share their wisdom almost in chorus: Although our lives will end, we must cherish the sanctity of each day and say, as did Mary Ann ages ago, "I done what I could."

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• Units and Conversion Tables
• Perspective
• The Origin of Renewable Energy Flows
• The Individual Energy Sources
• The Energy Conversion Processes
• Energy Transmission and Storage
• Energy Supply Systems
• Socio-Economic Assessment of Energy Supply Systems
• Winding Up
• References
• Subject Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

S/orensen (Roskilde Univ., Denmark) offers a book with a broader than normal potential readership. The subject is clearly very important in view of humankind's geopolitical and cultural problems in supplying the huge quantities of fuel needed to power our civilization. Since fossil fuels and nuclear sources are both finite and dangerous, the role of alternatives becomes more attractive. The author is an authority who writes with clarity and precision in this new edition to a book first published in 1979. Although primarily aimed at engineering students, any layperson with a need to learn the basic vocabulary and technical limitations of the various energy proposals would benefit greatly. Most important, the author is not an advocate for any particular technology. All alternatives to conventional fuels have pluses and minuses, which are clearly spelled out. The topics include solar, wind, ocean waves, tide and river flow, and geothermal flow energy sources; biological conversions; energy conversions; energy transmission and storage; and socioeconomic assessments of energy supply systems. Bibliographies; indexes; charts; graphs; tables. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. J. C. Comer; emeritus, Northern Illinois University