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These poems are stories of what life looks like, and what people say.Esther Cohen looks and listens, and then she writes life down.

We all tell lies. But Jewish lies are a little bit different. Here's an example: It doesn't matter if you read this. The Jewish people speak many languages. There's English, of course, and Hebrew, and let's not forget Yiddish and Ladino. But the language Jews have mastered is saying one thing and meaning another. And after a while, everyone understands the real meaning of the "lie." Esther Cohen has been listening all her life. She's written down what she's heard, and the result is this small book with a big punch: the first ever list of these subtle (sort of), sly (very), and hilarious Jewish "lies." New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast is a master interpreter of lies herself--bringing this particular set to life in her inimitably quirky style. Don't Mind Me is a unique compilation of all-too-familiar phrases guaranteed to make you smile. For anyone who's ever been on the receiving end of one of these lies, this is one book that rings absolutely true.

Serving as both driver and tour guide, Cohen introduces us to a memorable cast of imperfect, identifiable villagers: loudmouths, late-in-life lovers, jilted spouses, settled seniors poised to jump off the diving board into the bracing waters of risk.

"A tiny, fabulous book of poems, a distinctive quiet, humorous voice, about getting older. And who isn’t getting older? Sensible and yet original, nothing sentimental or smarmy, this is great great poetry couched in a ‘who, me?’ way. Esther Cohen has a brand new fan in me. I am going to buy a zillion copies of this, the perfect gift. Takes 2 0 minutes to read, if that, yet I know it will keep me company for years and years. I’d put it between Allen Ginsberg and a book of Rumi maybe. They’re tiny prayers, numbered. Here’s Twenty Nine: “The truth is I’ve had a hard time with forgiveness. Revenge is easier. Last year I read four forgiveness books, talked to a few serious Christians and Jews even a Buddhist a Hindu a Sikh and an agnostic. I don’t intuitively turn the other cheek, and don’t know how. And I’m talking about pettiness, not wars or larger wrongs. I’d like to learn, and thought one way might be to say the word three times each day: forgive forgive forgive Amen" - Janet, Goodreads

Poetry. Women's Studies. BREAKFAST WITH ALLEN GINSBERG is a collection of fifty poems, some very funny and others very personal and poignant, written by the author of GOD IS A TREE AND OTHER MIDDLE-AGE PRAYERS (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2008) and The Book Doctor (fiction). Cohen has several poems about writing, but most of them are about her friends and family, about daily observations of life both in New York City and in a small village in the Catskills. These poems will make a reader smile, sometimes laugh, almost always reflect on his or her own daily existence and human interactions.

Cohen invites readers to accompany her on a personal trip through Mexico, where she falls in love with three rich and magical places: Oaxaca, Mexico City, and San Miguel. Taxi drivers, rug weavers, jewelry makers, and new friends populate her poems with stories of their lives in Mexico.

This book provides an integral, readable account of changing attitudes toward pain in late medieval Europe. Since pain itself cannot be known, the book looks at pain by chronicling what people wrote about it, and what they did with and about that.

Poetry. Esther Cohen writes with humor and joy and lots of energy. You can't help but smile when you encounter her delightful images. In her title poem, for example, you learn that she once wrote a poem and "'God Is a Tree' was the title. / Louis Savitsky didn't like it./ He asked why / I had the chutzpah / to believe I knew. / A few years later, Louis's daughter / became a Scientologist." It is those seemingly unrelated comments, presented with a straight "face," that startle and amuse as they challenge one's thinking. These poems have a definite Jewish tone to them, but certainly one doesn't need to be Jewish in order to appreciate them.

The book is an analysis of the cultural and social functions of law, legal processes and legal rituals in late medieval Northern France. It is centered around a time and a place in which European law underwent some major transformations, from a plethora of local oral customs to a fairly coherent system of national, written customary law. In this process, law and legal procedures came to reflect a great variety of cultural traditions, ranging from popular perceptions of animals and the human body to learned ideas of Roman jurisprudence. Drawing upon wide-ranging sources: judicial, legal, literary and historical, Cohen analyzes the various influences upon the shaping of law as a cultural manifestation and its application as an actual system of justice.

Everyone wants to write a book. Arlette Rosen knows this and earns her living helping strangers with their book ideas: books about Derrida and dieting, books of psychic exercises, a compendium of Alzheimer's jokes, and of course, an infinite number of books about love. Enter Harbinger Singh: a tax lawyer still in love with his ex–wife and set on revenge, who believes he can win her back by writing a book. All he needs is help with the actual writing. The lives of Arlette and Harbinger intertwine in unexpected ways as they meander along a path filled with writing, sex, movies, love, music, and continual revelation. Cohen has crafted a modern–day romance and a hilarious, knowing look at the troublesome process of bringing a book into the world—for readers and struggling writers everywhere.