Böcker av Amy Stanley

We live at a time in history where information is literally at our fingertips and social media gives us instant access to anyone and anything. How do we sort out the facts? How can we recognize truth and respond appropriately to those around us? "Sagacity" is a quirky little old-fashioned word that is packed with meaning. It's like a giant gumball that seems to get bigger the longer you chew on it.In this book, the author breaks down the word into five definitions:¿ Quickness of Perception¿ Soundness in Judgement¿ Foresight into a Situation¿ Operating in Astuteness and Sharpness¿ Having Insight, Wisdom, Profoundness, Thoughtfulness, and DiscernmentAlong with each definition, Stanley gives practical insight and strategies to become sagacious. Each chapter ends by highlighting two historical figures-one from the Bible and one from another point in history-who embody each particular aspect of sagacity. The reader will be encouraged and inspired by sagacious individuals such as the prophet Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Corrie ten Boom and Sacagawea.Growing sagacity is vital to unscrambling the vast array of messages and sound bites we are bombarded with each day. The reader will gain insight and be challenged to cultivate a sagacious life that treats others with grace and glorifies God.

* Nominated for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award * Finalist for the 2021 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography * A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edothe city that would become Tokyoand a portrait of a great city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West.The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother's. But after three divorcesand a temperament much too strong-willed for her family's approvalshe ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry's fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno's life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese cultureand a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions. Immersive and fascinating, Stranger in the Shogun's City is a revelatory work of history, layered with rich detail and delivered with beautiful prose, about the life of a woman, a city, and a culture.

This book traces the social history of early modern Japan's sex trade, from its beginnings in seventeenth-century cities to its apotheosis in the nineteenth-century countryside. Drawing on legal codes, diaries, town registers, petitions, and criminal records, it describes how the work of "e;selling women"e; transformed communities across the archipelago. By focusing on the social implications of prostitutes' economic behavior, this study offers a new understanding of how and why women who work in the sex trade are marginalized. It also demonstrates how the patriarchal order of the early modern state was undermined by the emergence of the market economy, which changed the places of women in their households and the realm at large.