examination of the women who either perpetuate or rebel against the privileged class. Adele Newson-Horst Morgan State University Sophia Kingshill. Mermaids. Toller Fratrum, UK. Little Toller Books (Dufour Editions, distr.). 2016 (©2015). 148 pages. For many children in Western culture, the first introduction to mermaids is via Disney ’s cheerful cinematic adaptation of The Little Mermaid or depictions derived therefrom . But even a little exploration reveals that the original story as told by Hans Christian Andersen (not to mention earlier variations) was far darker. In fact, mermaid mythology has an ancient, complex, and haunting history. As a folkloric figure, the mermaid continues to hold a powerful sway, though we are often at a loss to explain why. Sophia Kingshill explains that “it’s always a risk to meet a mermaid.” Beginning with an intriguing and recent mermaid depiction in Madrid, Kinghill explores the background and many incarnations of the mermaid myth around the world, accompanied with gorgeous photos of paintings, sculptures, and engravings. The mermaid has been everything from temptress to wicked monster to healer to soulless creature yearning for immortality. At times she has been described as part serpent, fish, vapor, or bird; in some instances, she transforms completely into a seal or porpoise. The author carefully compares and describes the various incarnations and relatives of the mermaid, including the siren. Tellingly , the mermaid often represents wild freedom and independence, perhaps indicating why, after thousands of years, she continues to speak to land dwellers, and why she has a distinct feminist appeal. As Kingshill points out, “Never does she elect to stay on shore.” In the chapter “Mermaid Wives and Other Folklore,” Kingshill navigates several stories that describe a beautiful woman marrying a human man, often after he has stolen an object from her, only for her to return to the sea years later. Whether the reader is a fan of art history , folklore, feminist history, or mermaids specifically, Mermaids offers an engrossing but accessible study accompanied by photos of art from all over the globe, spanning centuries. One of the most powerful pieces included is Evelyn de Morgan’s Sea Maidens (1886), depicting a “marine sisterhood as mutually supportive, neither coy nor menacing.” Mermaids is a fast read but one worth revisiting many times. Erin Elise Lofties Norman, Oklahoma Marsha MacDowell, Mary Worrall, Lynne Swanson & Beth Donaldson. Quilts and Human Rights. Lincoln. University of Nebraska Press. 2016. 210 pages. In this lushly illustrated exhibition catalog , Michigan State University Museum curators Marsha MacDowell, Mary Worrall, Lynne Swanson, and collections assistant Beth Donaldson piece together a history of human rights–related quilt making, quilters’ narratives, and analysis of contemporary textiles. The authors survey quilting history in Europe and the United States, noting textiles made in support of abolition, temperance, women ’s suffrage, and civil rights alongside more recent quilts responding to incarceration and violence. Particularly poignant are quilts stitched by indigenous hands that adopted the textile techniques of their subjugators to comment on their own loss of rights, including the gutwrenchingly beautiful (but too briefly discussed) Queen Lili’uokalani’s Quilt, made by the Hawaiian monarch during her imprisonment in 1895. Although the authors claim to offer a global history, Hanadi Al-Samman Anxiety of Erasure: Trauma, Authorship, and the Diaspora in Arab Women’s Writings Syracuse University Press This volume examines how Arab women exiled by war or oppression have used writing to transform their dislocation into creative power. Al-Samman examines the writing of six women from the past fifty years to discover the threads that draws their work into communication with one another. Together, they address the paradoxical states that arise from being forced, as a woman, from one’s homeland. Zahia Rahmani France, Story of a Childhood Trans. Lara Vergnaud Yale University Press Equal parts novel and memoir, France, Story of a Childhood takes an unflinching look at the complex relationship between France and Algeria and, more specifically, at the fates of those Algerians who fought on behalf of France during the Algerian War. Rahmani doesn’t limit her observations to her own personal history as she poses difficult questions about assimilation and the culpability of children for the “sins”of their fathers. Nota Bene WORLDLIT...