Book picks similar to
The Lovely Haze of Baby Days by Lindsay Kellar-Madsen


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To the Moon and Back: A Childhood Under the Influence


Lisa Kohn - 2018
    As a child, she knew the ecstatic comfort of inclusion in a cult and as a teenager the torment of rebelling against it. As an adult, Lisa struggled to break free from the hold of abuse—battling her own addictions and inner-demons and searching her soul for a sense of self-worth. Told with spirited candor, TO THE MOON AND BACK reveals how one can leave behind such absurdity and horror and create a life of intention and joy. This is the fascinating tale of a story rarely told in its full complexity.

Postcards from a War


Vanita Oelschlager - 2009
    His grandfather, who was about the same age when his father left to serve in World War II, helps him understand why she has gone away. He shares with his grandson postcards and letters sent by his father from the Philippines. The grandfather and grandson collaborate on building a scrapbook that will include these, plus the letters and emails and other communications the boy will get from his mother. Postcards is intended for 4-8 year olds, ones who are old enough to understand that a parent in the military may have to go to a dangerous place, but maybe not why. It shows the important intergenerational bonding that families often experience during times of war.The postcards and letters in the book were received by the author from her father during World War II.

Saving Buddy: The heartwarming story of a very special rescue


Nicola Owst - 2019
    What she didn't know at the time was that this little dog would in turn save her. Monday morning, 27th April 2009. The sat nav told us we'd reached our destination. The rain was pelting down, the kind that feels as if buckets of water are being chucked at the windscreen.I'll never forget that day. The horror, fear and the uncertainty of what was to come are still etched on my memory. But I didn't know that in that moment, somewhere off the M1 in a place that seemed as unnerving as it was eerie, I would find something so precious that would change my life forever.That was the day I discovered my Buddy, abandoned in a crate, unable to move and so frail that he only had moments to live. He stopped me in my tracks, and without pausing to think I scooped him up and quickly ran from the scene. This was no place for people or animals.Slowly, as I learned to take care of this broken little dog, I began to realise with each new day that as I was saving him, he too was helping to free me from my past. This is the story of Buddy and me: a remarkable true story of survival, hope, and never giving up, no matter how hard life gets.

Between


Angie Abdou - 2014
    They are not coping well. In response to their looming domestic breakdown, Vero and Shane get live-in help with their sons―a woman from the Philippines named Ligaya (which means happiness), whom the boys call LiLi. Vero justifies LiLi's role in their home by insisting that she is part of their family, and she goes to great lengths in order to ease her conscience. But differences persist; Vero grapples with her overextended role as a mother and struggles to keep her marriage passionate, while LiLi silently bears the burden of a secret she left behind at home.Between offers readers an intriguing, searing portrait of two women from two different cultures. At the same time, it satirizes contemporary love, marriage, and parenthood by exposing the sense of entitlement and superiority at the heart of upper-middle-class North American existence through a ubiquitous presence in it: the foreign nanny. Angie Abdou comically and tragically tackles the issue of international nannies by providing a window on motherhood where it is tangled up with class, career, labour, and desire

Essex County, Vol. 1: Tales from the Farm


Jeff Lemire - 2007
    Their relationship grows increasingly strained and Lester befriends the town's gas station owner, and damaged former hockey star Jimmy Lebeuf. The two escape into a private fantasy world of super-heroes, alien invaders and good old-fashioned pond Hockey. Tales from the Farm is the first volume in a trilogy of graphic novels set in a fictionalized version of Lemire's hometown of Essex County, Ontario.

Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Expulsion


Tyler LeBlanc - 2020
    LeBlanc's discovery that he could trace his family all the way to the time of the Acadian Expulsion and beyond forms the basis of this compelling account of Le Grand D?rangement.Piecing together his family history through archival documents, Tyler LeBlanc tells the story of Joseph LeBlanc (his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather), Joseph's ten siblings, and their families. With descendants scattered across modern-day Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the LeBlancs provide a window into the diverse fates that awaited the Acadians when they were expelled from their homeland. Some escaped the deportation and were able to retreat into the wilderness. Others found their way back to Acadie. But many were exiled to Britain, France, or the future United States, where they faced suspicion and prejudice and struggled to settle into new lives.A unique biographical approach to the history of the Expulsion, Acadian Driftwood is a vivid insight into one family's experience of this traumatic event.

Roost


Ali Bryan - 2013
    Her ex, after all, has moved on to a new wardrobe, a new penchant for lattes--and worst of all, new adult friends. But in Claudia's house she's still finding bananas in the sock drawer and cigarettes taped to wrestling figures. Then Claudia receives the unexpected news that her mother has died.Shared through the hilarious, honest, and often poignant perspective of a single mother, Roost is the story of a woman learning about motherhood while grieving the loss of her own mother. And as she begins to mend, she's also learning that she might be able to accept her home--as it is.

The Gift Is in the Making: Anishinaabeg Stories


Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - 2013
    Readers are immersed in a world where all genders are respected, the tiniest being has influence in the world, and unconditional love binds families and communities to each other and to their homeland. Sprinkled with gentle humour and the Anishinaabe language, this collection speaks to children and adults alike, and reminds us of the timelessness of stories that touch the heart.The Gift Is in the Making is the second title in The Debwe Series. Created in the spirit of the Anishinaabe concept debwe (to speak the truth), The Debwe Series is a collection of exceptional Aboriginal writings from across Canada.

The Mother Keeper


Paula Scott - 2017
     Shawn Klein has it all. The beautiful girlfriend. The scholarship to play football at Vanderbilt after he graduates high school. At eighteen, he leads worship at his father’s prosperous megachurch. His life is perfect. So why isn’t he happy? Everything changes when Shawn’s parents bring Ellie into their home to care for her until she gives birth. It’s the life with a real family that Ellie has always dreamed about, and the kind of future Shawn never knew he wanted, until Ellie’s past threatens to destroy everything. Jenny McBride has lost her faith and her reason to live in a terrible accident in Colorado Springs, but meeting the pregnant teenager, Ellie just might turn things around. When Jenny arrives in Tennessee to adopt Ellie's baby, only one thing is certain. A baby will be born, along with a crime of passion, and a desperate struggle to bury the truth.

Hippie Chick: Coming of Age in the ’60s


Ilene English - 2019
    To save her from living alone with a difficult father, her older sister sends her a one-way plane ticket to leave New Jersey. Landing in San Francisco, she is thrust into a lifestyle way beyond what she is ready for, and that challenges all previous notions of how one behaves. It is 1963, and we are brought along as Ilene becomes immersed in the unfolding of the sixties during the earliest days of sexual freedom, psychedelic drugs, the jazz scene, and rock ’n’ roll. This is a deeply personal story of how one young woman manages to survive and even to thrive in the face of the whirlwind of experiences coming at her. It is filled with a rich tapestry of moments that run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous, and everything in between.

Broken Man on a Halifax Pier


Lesley Choyce - 2019
    Standing by the edge of Halifax Harbour on a foggy morning, contemplating his dismal future, his ritual of self-pity is interrupted with the appearance of the mysterious and beguiling Ramona Danforth. And so begins a most interesting relationship.On a whim, Charles asks Ramona to drive him to his childhood home, Stewart Harbour, a fishing village populated by rugged individualists far down Nova Scotia’s remote Eastern Shore. Charles left the Harbour immediately after graduating from high school and never looked back. And now that he's returned, the past starts catching up with him in ways he could never have imagined.

Elephant in the Sky


Heather A. Clark - 2014
    Clark, bestselling author of Chai Tea Sunday, tackles the subject of childhood mental illness and the impact it has on a close family.The story begins from nine-year-old Nate’s point of view, etching the details of an unbalanced mind struggling to make sense of rampant thought patterns and heightened paranoia. Enter Ashley, Nate's mother, and a hardworking advertising executive concerned that she’s not giving her family enough of her time — especially now that she senses something might be wrong with her son. As the story moves deftly back and forth between the two perspectives, the narrative converges to reveal one family's journey of discovery as they strive to find balance in their lives.Based on a true story, Elephant in the Sky articulates a complicated, real-life subject with grace, wisdom and sensitivity, and beautifully explores the distance a mother will go to protect her child.

Saving Abby


Steena Holmes - 2016
    After six years of trying to conceive, she and her husband, Josh, have finally accepted that she will never be pregnant with a child of their own.Yet once they give up hope, the couple gets the miracle they’ve been waiting for. For the first few months of her pregnancy, Claire and Josh are living on cloud nine. But when she begins to experience debilitating headaches, blurred vision, and even fainting spells, the soon-to-be mother goes to the doctor and receives a terrifying diagnosis. Since any treatment could put their unborn baby’s life at risk, the Turners must carefully weigh their limited options. And as her symptoms worsen, Claire will have to make an impossible decision: Save her own life, or save her child’s?USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Steena Holmes brings us an unforgettable story of one woman’s courage and love.

Never Swim Alone and This is a Play


Daniel MacIvor - 1997
    [MacIvor is a writer with an angular sense of humour and an uncommon knack for probing basic elements and truths of human behaviour." ?Vit Wagner, Toronto StarThis Is a Play is a hilarious postmodern romp through the interior lives of actors in a bad play."Ingenious, whimsical, a lyrical lunacy in the writing, This Is A Play is a theatre experience comedy you might associate with Tom Stoppard." ?Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Pretty Caged Bird


Kimberly Brown - 2021
    The lifestyle of the rich and wealthy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, at least not for Amina. She would gladly trade in her ball gowns, fancy dinners, and arranged marriage for a pair of sweats, movie nights with her best friend, and a man that she can love at her own free will. But having a mother as controlling as Winnie Coltrain proves that even the simplest of dreams don’t come true without a fight. Will she conform to what is expected of her, or does she fight for her right to live a life she chooses?Gray Porter is a hometown barber whose main concern in life is taking care of his mother and siblings. After his father dies tragically when he is sixteen, he takes it upon himself to fill his shoes. Years later, his mother is dating, and his siblings are almost grown, leaving Gray to finally live life for himself. When he falls for Amina, his world is turned upside down in more ways than one. Will the woman who became the love of his life be the reason he loses everything?