Book picks similar to
Motherhood Missed: Stories from Women Who Are Childless By Circumstance by Lois Tonkin
netgalley
childfree
nonfiction
memoir
A Sister's Shame (A Maggie Hartley Foster Carer Story)
Maggie Hartley - 2021
Perfect for fans of Cathy Glass and Casey Watson.Foster carer Maggie Hartley is used to all manner of children arriving on her doorstep, but nothing can prepare her for sisters Billy and Bo when they arrive at her home. It is clear from the moment she sets eyes on them four-year-old Bo and seven-year-old Billy have clearly been subjected to unimaginable neglect, and it takes all of Maggie's skills as a foster carer to try to connect with the volatile little girls, who seem far younger than their years. Over time, the little girls slowly emerge from their shells, and Maggie begins the difficult task of trying to gain their trust. But as time goes on, it becomes clear that there is something much darker going on, something that will call into question everything Maggie has ever learned in all her years as a foster carer...
All the Available Light: A Marilyn Monroe Reader
Yona Zeldis McDonough - 2002
This thought-provoking and wide-ranging collection of essays examines the undiminished incandescence of Marilyn Monroe -- the impact she has had on our culture, the evolution of her legend since her death, and what she tells us now about our lives and times -- and includes previously unpublished work from some of America's best writers, such as: Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Elliot Dark, Albert Mobilo, Marge Piercy, Lore Segal, Lisa Shea, and many more. From her troubled family beginnings to the infamous $13 million auction held at Christie's in New York City, All the Available Light paints an unforgettable portrait of Marilyn as you've never seen her before. This extremely rare cover photo was taken c. 1954, on the set of The Seven Year Itch.
Tales from the Hilltop: A Summer in the other South of France
Tony Lewis - 2013
Pedalling along curvaceous country lanes or freewheeling through valleys and vineyards – earning your supper in this sleepy corner of France is nothing short of a privilege.Tony and Ludmilla have landed a job with a specialist cycling and walking holiday company in the South of France … but that’s not something we can hold against them for too long!They head off to the mediaeval marvel of Cordes-sur-Ciel in the Tarn – a region so achingly beautiful and laden with history and mystery they have to pinch themselves to be sure such a place really does exist.When their cyclists turn up for a week’s pedal-powered adventure they will need a reliable back-up service when they puncture a tyre or come face to jowl with a ‘devil dog’ intent on devouring their panniers. And when their walkers take the wrong trail and find themselves humming Bonnie Tyler’s ’70s hit ‘Lost in France’, they too will need a timely rescue. Well, that’s the theory …
Just a Few Bumps
Emily L. Nash - 2020
Tackling the job with skills picked up along the way and enough Redbull to sink a battleship. The stories are real. The patients are real, and the emotions are real. Things I would tell my former student-self: You are going to laugh. You are going to cry. You are going to be scared. You are going to want to quit. You will have PTSD. You are going to see death. But hold on, you got this. It's just a few bumps.
Off Script
Marci Ien - 2020
As a Black female news anchor and, later, the first Black woman in Canada to co-host a national morning show, Marci felt the pressure to stay “on script”—with little room for error. She had to be great. She had to show, every day, that she deserved to be there.When her career veered sharply away from the news, Marci embraced her new role “off script.” With a greater opportunity to speak her mind on the air, Marci now bravely shares experiences from her own life with viewers and pursues more ways to make a difference in her community.In Off Script, Marci shares personal milestones, tales of resilience and kindness, dramatic moments from her career as a journalist and insights from the many unforgettable people that she’s met and interviewed. Living off script means having the courage to speak up, trust your voice and follow your own formula for what matters most.
Living Brave: Lessons from Hurt, Lighting the Way to Hope
Shannon Dingle - 2021
Then, in July 2019, Shannon’s husband was tragically killed by a rogue wave while the family was on vacation. The grief of the aftermath of losing her love and life partner sits at the heart of Living Brave, where Shannon’s searing, raw prose, illustrates what it looks like to take brave steps on the other side of unimaginable loss.Through each challenge, she reveals the ways she learned to walk through them to the other side, and find courage even through the darkest moments. Living Brave gives women permission to wrestle with difficult topics, to use their voice, to take a stand for justice, to honor the wisdom of their bodies, and to enact change from a place of strong faith.
Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life from Behind the Plate
Ken Kaiser - 2003
From the first day he hit a minor league catcher with a pool table to the fateful day baseball called him out on a strike, Kaiser was one of the game's most popular and colorful characters. And in this autobiography-written with the co-author of Ron Luciano's classic bestseller The Umpire Strikes Back - Kaiser brings to life his wild adventures from the pro wrestling arena to the baseball diamond.This is the hysterically true story of four decades of baseball as lived and loved on the playing field, from Ted Williams and Billy Martin to Derek Jeter and Mark McGwire, from one-eyed umpires to space-age technology. And as he did throughout his long and sometimes controversial career, the larger-than-his-chest-protector Kaiser called 'em as he saw 'em.
What We Talk About When We Talk about Rape
Sohaila Abdulali - 2018
Indignant at the silence on the issue in India, she wrote an article for an Indian women’s magazine questioning how we perceive rape and rape victims. Thirty years later her story went viral in the wake of the 2012 fatal gang rape in Delhi and the global outcry that followed. In 2013, Abdulali published an op-ed in the New York Times called “After Being Raped, I Was Wounded; My Honor Wasn’t” that was widely circulated. Now, as the #metoo and #timesup movements blow open the topic of sexual assault and rape, What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is a brilliant and entirely original contribution to our understanding.Drawing on her own experience, her research, her work with hundreds of survivors as the head of a rape crisis center in Boston, and three decades of grappling with the issue as a feminist intellectual and writer, Abdulali examines the contemporary discourse about rape and rape culture, questioning our assumptions and asking how we want to raise the next generation. She interviews survivors whose moving personal stories of hard-won strength, humor, and wisdom collectively tell the larger story of how societies may begin to heal.Abdulali also explores what we don’t say. Is rape always a life-defining event? Does rape always symbolize something? Is rape worse than death? Is rape related to desire? Who gets raped? Is rape inevitable? Is one rape worse than another? How does one recover a sense of safety and joy? How do we raise sons? Is a world without rape possible? Both deeply personal and meticulously researched, What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is a rallying cry and required reading for us all.
The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature
Sue Stuart-Smith - 2020
But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it. The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self. Stuart-Smith’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather’s return from World War I to Freud’s obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives.
A Trip of One’s Own
Kate Wills - 2021
Luckily, her job as a travel journalist offered her the perfect opportunity to escape from it all. But this time, her restless jet-setting felt different. She felt more alone than ever before, particularly against a backdrop of never-ending hen dos, weddings and baby showers.So she began to search history for female travellers to inspire her. From a 4th-century nun to a sailor in disguise; from an opium-addicted author, to a globe-girdling cyclist, Kate retraces these incredible journeys on a quest to discover what her desire to be on the move is really about. And when Covid-19 grounds all her travel plans, she discovers that happiness can surprise you in unexpected places.We've all dreamed of leaving it all behind and striding off into the sunset to somewhere hotter, happier and quieter. Perhaps we've even got a little way down the road, before the logistics, the doubts and the ties that bind have caused us to turn back.
A Conspiracy of Crowns: The True Story of the Duke of Windsor and the Murder of Sir Harry Oakes
Alfred de Marigny - 1990
Its portrayal of the Duke of Windsor as a Nazi sympathizer--who would stop at nothing to hide it--is sure to make headlines. Black-and-white photographs.
Truth Imagined
Eric Hoffer - 1983
At eighteen, fate would take his remaining family, sending him on the road with three hundred dollars and into the life of a Depression Era migrant worker, but his appetite for knowledge--history, science, mankind--remained and became the basis for his insights on human nature. Filled with timeless aphorisms and entertaining stories, Truth Imagined tracks Hoffer's years on the road, which served as the breeding ground for his most fertile thoughts.
Sunset: On the Passing of Those We Love
S. Michael Wilcox - 2011
Although at the time he was not intending that it would ever be published, he gradually came to recognize our “sacred covenant to share our burdens, our mourning, our comforts, and our witnesses.” The lessons he offers in this thoughtful and sensitive book are more than a chronicle of his own journey; they are important reminders to all of us to cherish every day we have with the people we love, to treasure the gift of our mortality, and to turn to the Lord in all our trials.
Rolling with the Punchlines: A Memoir
Urzila Carlson - 2020
Urzila talks candidly about her childhood with a great family, apart from her abusive dad, and about growing up in South Africa. She shares crazy but true tales about her OE, her move to New Zealand, coming out, getting married and having children, and her life in comedy. This is a great listen from one of our most loved and most popular comedians.
Flamin' Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive
Richard Montanez - 2021
Richard Monta�ez is a man who made a science out of walking through closed doors, and his success story is an empowerment manual for anyone stuck in a dead-end job or facing a system stacked against them. Having taken a job mopping floors at Frito-Lay's California factory to support his family, Monta�ez took his future into his own hands and created the world's hottest snack food: Flamin' Hot Cheetos. This bold move not only disrupted the food industry with some much-needed spice, but also shook up a corporate culture in which everyone stayed in their lane. When a top food scientist at Frito-Lay sent out a memo telling sales and marketing to kill the new product before it made it to the store shelves--jealous that someone with no formal education beyond the sixth grade could do his job--Monta�ez was forced to go rogue once again to save his idea. Through creative thinking, community building, and a few powerful mindset shifts, he outsmarted the naysayers who tried to get in his way. Flamin' Hot proves that you can break out of your career rut and that your present circumstances don't have to dictate your future.