They don’t have to share allowances, inheritances, or their parents’ attention. But when they get into trouble, they can’t just blame their imaginary friends. In Only Child, twenty-one acclaimed writers tell the truth about life without siblings—the bliss of solitude, the ache of loneliness, and everything in between.In this unprecedented collection, writers like Judith Thurman, Kathryn Harrison, John Hodgman, and Peter Ho Davies reflect on the single, transforming episode that defined each of them as an only child. For some it came while lurking around the edges of a friend’s boisterous family, longing to be part of the chaos. For others, it came in sterile hospital halls, while single-handedly caring for a parent with cancer. They write about the parents who raised them, from the devoted to the dismissive. They describe what it’s like to be an only child of divorce, an only because of the death of a sibling, an only who reveled in it or an only who didn’t. In candid, poignant, and often hilarious essays, these authors—including the children of Erica Jong, Alice Walker, and Phyllis Rose—explore a lifetime of onliness. As adults searching for partners, they are faced with the unique challenge of trying to turn a longtime trio into a quartet. In deciding whether to give junior a sib, they weigh the benefits of producing the friend they never had against the fear that they will not know how to divide their love and attention among multiples. As they watch their parents age, they come face-to-face with the onus of being their family’s sole historian.Whether you’re an only child curious about how your experiences compare to others’, the partner or spouse of an only, a parent pondering whether to stop at one, or someone with siblings who’s always wondered how the other half lives, Only Child offers a look behind the scenes and into the hearts of twenty-one smart and sensitive writers as they reveal the truth about growing up—and being a grown-up—solo.

    Now a pioneering practitioner of women’s health care shows why willpower doesn’t work in the long run and, finally, gives you a solution that does.Marcelle Pick, co-founder of Women to Women—one of the first clinics in the country devoted to providing health care for women by women—draws upon decades of experience, her patients’ and her own, to solve the mystery of the stubborn weight gain. Explaining the science of the body with uncommon clarity, she describes the complex web of connections—between organs and systems, hormones and other biochemicals—that keep your physiology in balance and your metabolism functioning well. Because when it isn’t, your body reacts by packing on protection in the form of pounds that won’t budge, an excess that can be so harmful and intractable that Pick has named it “toxic weight.” Bringing your body back into Core Balance is the only way to heal your metabolism, soothe your body, and lose the weight for good.The Core Balance Diet is a breakthrough plan designed to restore your body’s equilibrium and return you to a healthy, sustainable weight. With her engaging style, Pick explains six common biochemical imbalances—digestive, hormonal, adrenal, neurotransmitter, inflammation, and detoxification—and helps you determine which is affecting you most. In the first two weeks, she teaches the simple lifestyle changes and smart nutrition choices that will show you how to tune into your body and identify your fundamental obstacles to weight loss. Then Pick guides you through a customized two-week program geared to restoring your Core Balance and shedding those toxic pounds once and for all. Far from depriving yourself on this program, you’ll eat—often and well—enjoying delicious recipes made from whole foods that give your body the support it needs to heal. At the same time, you’ll start to explore underlying issues and emotional patterns that may be getting in your way, as Pick connects self-care with self-knowledge to show you the way to lasting wellness.By picking up this book, you’re about to toss out the old way of thinking about yourself and your weight. The Core Balance Diet heralds a whole new chapter in weight loss, proving how easy it is to work with your body and the right foods—not against them—to rid yourself of weight and unhealthy habits for good. Within a month, you’ll be on your way to a lean, fit, and balanced body that is ready to support you—and look great—for  the rest of your life.

    Lawyer Billy Strobe believes in the law-but always seems to be on the wrong side of it-in this "powerful [and] satisfying" (Publishers Weekly) suspense novel from the author of The Alternate.

    It opens a window onto the Catholic faith and will open the minds of believers and skeptics alike.” --Peggy NoonanThe Catholic Church may be the most controversial institution in the world. Some find its teachings inexplicable, puzzling, even cruel. In this incisive new work, George Weigel suggests that we look at Catholicism and its controversies from “inside” the convictions that make those controversies not only possible, but necessary. The truths of Catholicism then come into clearer focus as affirmations and celebrations of human life and human love, even as they challenge us to imagine a daring future for humanity and for ourselves.Is Jesus uniquely the savior of the world? Is the moral life about rules or about happiness? Doesn’t suffering contradict the biblical claim that God is good? How does the Catholic Church think about other Christians and about other great world religions? In an engaging, accessible style, George Weigel leads us into the truth of Catholicism: the truth about a love that creates a vast, liberating terrain on which to live a fully human life.

    Focusing on the epic love affair between a former amateur musician—who happens to be a bootlegger, mercenary, and killer—and a shebeen queen, this South African love story traces the couple's lives and loves through the interweaving of history and memory in the tradition of village storytellers.

    Full color.

    A forensic anthropologist's life becomes a living nightmare when her father is found shot. In her search for the reasons why, she must unwillingly come face to face with her mysterious past. Now instead of finding answers, she finds herself stalked in a maze of passion, lies, betrayal and death where no one can be trusted.

    When it becomes known that Mr. Nicholas, the eccentric owner of the local hardware store, is somehow involved with reindeer, toys, and children, the town becomes more and more suspicious that this man is more than just a clerk on Main Street.JB, a clever, open ten-year-old boy with Down syndrome, is able to figure out the secret from the first time Mr. Nicholas gives him a chocolate deer wrapped in gold foil. JB’s father and mother, both cynical and on the brink of divorce, follow the adventures of JB as he flies on the back of a reindeer, feeds Mister Rogers’s fish, and defines what can be forgotten by those who are too busy to remember the magic of Christmas, cuckoo-clocks, and love.

    One will learn communion's origin deepen his relationship with God and be challenged in discipleship.

    

    Beautifully illustrated and based on the well-known hymn, this book will be read again and again.

    This workbook was designed to provide the inspiring opportunity to experience the same exciting experiences of success with your children and transform them to a truly GREAT child.

    I was feeling so elated that I told the moon I had a special request. I explained that this life had been so full of pain for me that I didn't think I could do it all again. So I asked her if in my next life she could make sure that I found the plant medicine as soon as possible. Her reply floored me. She typed, 'Gerry, that's a request about next time, but it's the same one you used last time.'" Plant medicine? The moon typing? It probably seems incomprehensible. Gerard Armond Powell was a rags-to-riches success story—a member of the 1 percent—but also an extremely unhappy person with multiple addictions. On a fast track to destroying every relationship that ever mattered to him and considering suicide, he was looking for a miracle, a way out. He found it in the form of plant medicine and a shaman who introduced him to the truth of his life, and laid the groundwork for a psycho-spiritual journey that would lead him to reconnect with his soul, heal his addictions, and, finally, achieve a lasting sense of peace and happiness. This experience changed Powell, and convinced him to share the universal truths he learned with as many people as he could, which he does at the acclaimed Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, and now with readers in Sh*t the Moon Said. This mesmerizing story gives readers a blueprint to chart their own course to happiness. The first step is to learn who they really are and the possibilities of what they can still become. Second, they have to achieve a reconnection with their souls. And third, they must heal their hearts. Sh*t the Moon Said provides us with an irreverent way of highlighting our shared unconscious wisdom and its life-changing potential. Powell's candid tale and unlikely journey will help inspire readers to know themselves better, and to find the path to their own greatest redemption.

    Contains The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus and Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder, New Edition.

    Author Biography: Dr. Kevin Leman is an internationally known psychologist, humorist, and bestselling author of The Birth Order Book and Making Children Mind without Losing Yours. He is former consulting psychologist for Good Morning America and a frequent guest on The View, The Early Show, and Focus on the Family. He and his wife, Sande, live in Tucson, Arizona. They have five children and two grandchildren.