Book picks similar to
Rescuing Ruby by Linny Saunders
genuine-religion
adoption
family-read-alouds
You're Doing a Great Job!: 100 Ways You're Winning at Parenting
Biz Ellis - 2017
Authors and co-hosts of the popular comedy podcast One Bad Mother, Biz Ellis and Theresa Thorn, know firsthand that raising kids is tough. They also know that, most likely, parents are winning more than they’re failing. This book reminds parents that it’s okay to have a low bar. Celebrate what did happen, not what didn’t, including gems such as: Did you get up this morning? Great! You’re doing an awesome job!Your kid fell asleep? Even if it was just for two hours, that’s amazing. Good job!Has your kid eaten? That’s probably your doing, so yeah, you’re a winner! The perfect gift for the growing family, You Are Doing a Great Job! is the much-needed reminder to screw all expectations and advice. It belongs on the shelf next to Go the Fu*k to Sleep and Let’s Panic About Babies. Or better yet, tear out the pages and hang them up.
Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe
Lori Jakiela - 2015
She told Lori, “We all have two lives and we carry the maps of those lives with us. Our left hands mark the lives we’re born with. Our right hands mark the lives we make for ourselves.”Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe is a book about mapping those lives – the lives we are born with and the lives we are allowed – and lucky enough – to make for ourselves.Belief is part adoption narrative and part meditation on family, motherhood, nature vs. nurture, and what it means to make our own authentic human connections. It extends the possibilities of creative nonfiction at a time when many people are talking about what exactly truth-in-memoir means. The book’s patchwork form mirrors the fragmented experience of being an adoptee confronting — and trying to heal — her roots.Belief is the story of one woman’s search for her birth mother coupled with the parallel story of her own motherhood and her own re-making. It’s about what it means to be a mother, what it’s like to have two very different blood connections, and what it means to form a family.Belief is about searching for roots and what that means, exactly. It’s about finding a balance between the families we’re born into and the ones we make ourselves.
We Were Gonna Have a Baby, But We Had an Angel Instead
Pat Schwiebert - 2003
A new book from the author of "When Hello Means Goodbye." Created especially for children who are suffering the loss of their families pregnancy.
The Basement Quilt
Ann Hazelwood - 2012
Anne decides to learn to quilt to help her aunt, and in the process learns family secrets. Then she uncovers a mysterious presence in her mother's basement, or does she? Anne learns about love, too, in various forms. She and the members of the Colebridge community go through some big life changes. Are their decisions wise or does trouble lie ahead? The Basement Quilt is not just the title of this first novel in a series; the basement quilt itself is a character. You'll want to meet other quilt 'characters' throughout the series.
Shadow Baby
Margaret Forster - 1996
She grows up in comfort and security in Scotland, the only child of doting parents. But there are, as she discovers, unanswered questions about her past. The two girls have only one thing in common: both were abandoned as babies by their mothers. Different times, different circumstances, but these two girls grow up sharing the same obsession. Each sets out to stalk and then haunt her natural mother. Both mothers dread disclosure; both daughters seek emotional compensation and, ultimately, revenge.
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self
David M. Brodzinsky - 1992
A major work, filled with astute analysis and moving truths.
Adult Children of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Breaking the Ties That Bind
Amy J.L. Baker - 2007
This book examines the impact of PAS on adults and offers strategies and hope for dealing with the long-term effects.
My Boy, Their Son (Kindle Single)
Mariah MacCarthy - 2019
But that doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier. From the hit true storytelling podcast RISK! comes a beautiful and heart-aching memoir of a mother’s love.Mariah MacCarthy was a financially strapped playwright in Queens with two roommates. Nothing about that situation said Let’s add a baby to this. Nine months later, having Leo adopted by two gay dads was the most loving solution possible. All Mariah fears now is becoming a stranger. But as four lives are irrevocably changed, Mariah discovers that embracing the moment of farewell is just the beginning of a family story, by turns joyous and devastating.
Bad Faith
Annie Jocoby - 2017
Her former client, John Robinson, who she walked on a technicality, went on to kill again. John's second victim was a young, vibrant mother of two. After suffering with the devastating guilt about the evil that she unleashed back onto the street, Harper retreats to her old haunt, a bar called Charlie Hooper's, as she confronts her old demons.Before she has a chance to completely drown her sorrows, Harper is called to defend Heather Morrison, a transgendered youth who is accused of killing her mother in cold blood. Heather insists that it was self-defense; Harper has her doubts.As Harper gets further into investigation of the case, she discovers an evil beyond anything that she knew was possible. Her investigation of a church leads her to a Reverend who preaches hatred from the pulpit and possibly more.Harper gets closer to the truth, yet further away from proving anything in a court of law. Her case seems to be sinking, and nothing can possibly save it.
Love Love
Sung J. Woo - 2015
She’s divorced, she’s broke, and her dreams of being a painter have fallen by the wayside. Her co-worker Roger might be a member of the Yakuza gang, but he’s also the only person who’s asked her on a date in the last year.Meanwhile, her bother Kevin, an former professional tennis player, has decided to donate a kidney to their ailing father — until it turns out that he’s not a genetic match. His father reluctantly tells him he was adopted, but the only information Kevin is given about his birth parents is a nude picture of his birth mother. Ultimately Kevin’s quest to learn the truth about his biological parents takes him across lines he never thought he’d cross: from tony Princeton to San Francisco’s seedy Tenderloin district, from the squeaky clean tennis court to the gritty adult film industry.Told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Judy and Kevin, Love Love is a story about two people figuring out how to live, how to love, and how to be their best selves amidst the chaos of their lives.
Keeping Your Child in Mind: Overcoming Defiance, Tantrums, and Other Everyday Behavior Problems by Seeing the World through Your Child's Eyes
Claudia M. Gold - 2011
For a young child, it is the most important of all experiences because it allows the child's mind and sense of self to grow. In the midst of the perennial concerns parents bring to Dr. Claudia Gold, she shows the magical effect of seeing a problem from their child's point of view. Most parenting books teach parents what to do to solve behavior problems, but Dr. Gold shows parents how to be with a child. Crises are defused when children feel truly heard and validated; this is how they learn to understand, and, eventually, control themselves. Dr. Gold's insightful guide uses new research in developmental psychology and vivid stories from her practice to show parents how to keep a child in mind and deepen this central relationship in their lives.
The Strongest Girl in the World
Sally Gardner - 2001
Josie becomes famous, and Mr Two Suit sweeps in with a contract and swoops the whole family off to New York. How Josie copes with fame and fortune, and with the loss of it when she wakes up one day to find she can't do her trick any more, makes a story of enormous charm, with a tiny, modest and sensible heroine you have to cheer for. Entrancing drawings on every page make this a really special book.
Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches
Russell D. Moore - 2009
Moore does not shy away from this call in Adopted for Life, a popular-level, practical manifesto for Christians to adopt children and to help equip other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who want children-or who want more children. It is about an entire culture within evangelicalism, a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.Moore, who adopted two boys from Russia and has spoken widely on the subject, writes for couples considering adoption, families who have adopted children, and pastors who wish to encourage adoption.
One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World
Julie Ferwerda - 2009
If we want our children to take part in the powerful purpose and unique mission God has designed for them, we've got to take responsibility for raising our kids as disciples of Christ. - Josh McDowell, Author and Speaker Is the world going to change your children...or are your children going to change the world? Right here, right now, God is calling your family to join a mighty movement - one that bridges age, social status, cultures, nationalities, and languages. If you're ready to help your kids live out God's dreams... If you need inspiration for what's possible through your family... If you want your family to go down in His-tory... Accept the mission...and leave a mark for eternity. All proceeds from this book are designated for international orphan ministries.
The Russian Word for Snow: A True Story of Adoption
Janis Cooke Newman - 2001
He was 10 months old and naked, lying on a metal changing table while a woman in a white lab coat and a babushka tried to make him smile for the camera.Four months later, the Newmans traveled to Moscow to get their son. Russia was facing its first democratic election, and the front-runner was an anti-American Communist who they feared would block adoptions.For nearly a month, the Newmans spent every day at the orphanage with the child they'd named Alex, waiting for his adoption to be approved. As Russia struggled with internal conflict, the metro line they used was bombed, and another night, the man who was to sign their papers was injured in a car-bombing.Finally, when the Newmans had begun to consider kidnapping, their adoption coordinator, through the fog of a hangover, made the call: Alex was theirs.Written with a keen sense of humor, The Russian Word for Snow is a clear-eyed look at the experience of making a family through adoption.