Book picks similar to
Clarity: A Memoir by Diana Estill
memoir
non-fiction
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Traveling While Married
Mary-Lou Weisman - 2003
Truth is, travel can make or break a relationship. Just negotiating when to leave for the airport can be tricky: she insists on arriving hours ahead of flight time, he likes the excitement of a photo finish. But as Mary-Lou Weisman sees it, "The inevitable rage with which we begin each trip only helps us to better appreciate the good times that lie ahead." Or maybe not. When people have jet lag, can't speak the language, figure out the money, or maintain intestinal regularity, they get cranky. And since they don't know anybody else in Kyoto to take it out on, they take it out on each other. Alas, couples therapy is rarely available on vacation, which is why we need this hilarious and truthful take on travel and togetherness. Using her own misadventures--from honeymoon through Elderhostel--Weisman exposes all the gender landmines: Destinations: He wants to outrun molten lava down a volcano, she prefers raking gravel in a Buddhist monastery. Motivations: She longs for a change of scenery, he hopes for a change of self. Preparations: She keeps a file of required sights, he won't be bullied by travel guides. Accommodations: She divides every hotel room in half so he'll know on which side of the bed to throw his wet towel. Inclinations: She shops a country, he eats it. This is the real skinny on what happens when Mars and Venus hit the road. With a sly wink, a comic nod, and just the right amount of optimism, Weisman shows us that despite the shortcomings of one's beloved, harmonious travel is possible.
Midwife: A Calling
Peggy Vincent - 2015
When Peggy Vincent first found herself holding a naked baby in her bare hands as a student nurse in 1962, she never dreamed the path her life would take as a result of that accidental catch. Countless births followed. Hippies, lawyers, teenagers, welfare moms, marijuana growers, smugglers, spiritualists, Orthodox Jews, neurologists, Christian Scientists, Muslims, the rich and the poor...this list scratches only the surface of her diverse clientele. Told with warmth, humor, and sincerity, these tales will resonate with all those who remain as enchanted as Peggy by the unique art of giving birth.
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood
Jennifer Traig - 2004
The result is a book so relentlessly funny and frank, it's totally refreshing.
Unwanted: The true story of a new life grown from love, loss and the ultimate betrayal
Suz Evasdaughter - 2020
Confused, little Suz begins to blame herself for her mother's death. Her father eventually brings them back, but instead of finding a safe haven to rebuild their family, Suz finds herself plunged into a life of misery at the mercy of an uncaring and brutal stepmother.Unwanted tells the story of Suz's struggle to escape from her broken home and leave her fractured past behind her. But lurking in the shadows is a dark family secret...
'She Is Evil!': Madness And Murder In Memphis
Judith A. Yates - 2017
She is evil!” Ejaz Ahmad was handsome, charismatic, and a self-made businessman. He arrived in the United States from Pakistan determined to fulfill his mother’s dying wish: to come to America, complete his education, and make his mark in the world. Settling in Memphis, Tennessee, Ejaz became owner of several businesses, father to a handsome boy, and a devout Muslim. The only thing missing in his life was a wife, someone special to protect, honor, and love. Leah Ward was a pretty girl, but a prison parolee with a history of drug charges, petty crime, and a questionable past. She led a flotsam life, drifting from town to city to state. When she was introduced to Ejaz Ahmad, she believed she had found the ultimate answer: a place to live, someone to take care of her, and money to spend. But what began idyllic soon became abusive and then dangerous for Ejaz. His friends and family warned him. And in May of 2003 Ejaz paid the ultimate price when family members found his mutilated body in a shed. SHE IS EVIL is a story of trust, abuse, religion, and murder. Of a kind man who tried to help a troubled woman and became the victim of abuse and, eventually, a heinous murder. About The Author:Criminologist Judith A. Yates is the award-winning author of “When Nashville Bled” and “The Devil You Know” and Editor of True Crime: Case Files Magazine. She has appeared on numerous talk shows and has lectured, conducted training, and made guest speaking appearances across the United States. After a lifetime of working in law enforcement, Ms. Yates lives in Kentucky. Brought to you by WildBlue Press: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildbluepress/ Twitter: @wildbluepress https://twitter.com/wildbluepress Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/wildbluepress/ Instagram: @wildblue_press https://www.instagram.com/wildblue_pr... Website: wildbluepress.com Email: promos@wildbluepress.com Interested Authors: https://wildbluepress.com/about-us/fo... Join our newsletter http://wbp.bz/newsletter for book announcements, deals and contests
Hazard: A Sister's Flight from Family and a Broken Boy
Margaret Combs - 2017
Margaret Combs shows how her Southern Baptist family coped with the lived reality of autism in an era of ignorance and shame, the 1950s through the 1970s, and shares her own tragedy and anguish of being torn between helping her brother and yearning for her own life. Like many siblings of disabled children, young Margaret drives herself to excel in order to make up for her family’s sorrow and ultimately flees her family for what she hopes is a “normal” life.Hazard is also a story of indelible bonds between siblings: the one between Combs and her sister, and the deep and rueful one she has with her disabled brother; how he and she were buddies; and how fervently she wanted to make him whole. Initially fueled by a wish that her brother had never been born, the author eventually arrives in a deeper place of gratitude for this same brother, whom she loves and who loves her in return.
RV There Yet?
Travis Casey - 2019
Fiction has to make sense.—Mark TwainAfter selling their Minnesota home, Travis and Wendy plan an elaborate departure from the United States before repatriating themselves to the UK. Buying a second-hand RV, visiting states unknown, and selling the campervan after reaching Florida seems like the perfect exit. So they pack their lives and blind Shih Tzu into a once-luxurious thirty-one-foot RV and hit the open road.As they roll through the Midwest, heading for the Deep South, they soon discover “RV” doesn't mean “Reliable Vehicle.” Historical sites give way to repair shops and the excitement of the once-in-a-lifetime trip quickly turns into apprehension of what mishap will be around the next corner. With the wheels literally coming off the wagon, bogus repairs, temperatures rising inside the RV and under the hood, sleeping in junkyards, and being laughed at by the Mississippi police, the once-happy couple just want the nightmare to end so they can return to England. But the Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles has the final say as to when they can leave.Of course it's a true story. You couldn't make it up.
You vs You: 12 Ways to Kick Your Own Ass and Win
Todd Cahill - 2019
People invite problems into their lives through poor choices, apathy, indecision, arrogance, anxiety, selfishness, and other traits they would rather not discuss but must be addressed. In this valuable book, Cahill shares what he has learned about these battles that either keep people from success and significance or usher them to victory. As a life coach and leadership trainer, he has taught thousands of people these lessons, and many of them are now experiencing a level of personal achievement, relational abundance, and financial freedom they never thought possible. People often self-sabotage if they’re not mindful, wise, and willing. Cahill reinforces the idea that readers can choose today to fight against who they once were (or are) and become who they are made to be. You vs You is about that choice and the challenging, rewarding quest that ensues.
The Replacement Chronicles
Harper Swan - 2016
Two Lives… separated by millennia but nevertheless linked irrevocably. What possible link could Mark Hayek, an introverted twenty-first century research scientist, have to Raven, a young healer who lived during the late Pleistocene? It has everything to do with an injured Neanderthal man taken captive by Raven’s band while he and his brothers were hunting bison. After Raven heals the captive, he leaves for his tribe, and she tries to forget him as she struggles to remain within the band. But it’s not possible to stay when several band members make her life with the group untenable. Seeking the Neanderthal man she’d helped and facing her fear of being alone on the dangerous steppes, she begins crossing that grassy land—but a woman like Raven isn’t destined to be by herself for long. In the future, Mark Hayek is forced into making his own journey when his uncle dies in the Levant. His travels place him firmly in the footsteps of his Neanderthal and Early Modern Human ancestors, crossing the same ancient lands as he struggles against the fate a wayward kinsman has imposed. He’s been made a pawn in a cruel game, but when he encounters a woman being held prisoner in a cave, he seeks a way to save her. Help arrives for the pair, flowing from an unexpected, ancient source, igniting a struggle deep within Mark to accept that the illogical as well as the logical make up existence. Peoples come and go, one group replacing another over time, and echoes from ancient events have always affected the future, but Mark and Raven discover that in certain environments echoes are able to bounce back and forth, blurring their origins.
In Our Blood: A Jake Hawksworth Thriller
William J. Goyette - 2018
Nearly thirty years ago, Detective Jake Hawksworth and best-selling author Drew McCauley were brought together by a horrific crime. Jake, still reeling from the unsolved hit-and-run death of his wife, and Drew will be reunited once again when a crime from Drew's novel-in-the-making becomes a devastating reality. Is the kidnapping of Drew's son somehow linked to the murder Jake is investigating? Was Jake's wife's death really an accident? And could the person who has haunted both men for decades be responsible for these seemingly unrelated events? As Jake races to protect Drew's family, they find themselves on a collision course with fate - derailed by a series of breakneck twists and turns that culminates at an isolated, snow-ravaged house. It is here that long-buried secrets are unearthed and Jake realizes, to his horror, that his hunches are not always right. That the keys to solving his wife's death and a heinous, decades-old crime have been under his nose all along.
Answering Why: Unleashing Passion, Purpose, and Performance in Younger Generations
Mark C. Perna - 2018
From the urgent skills gap crisis to the proven strategies to inspire our youngest generations, Answering Why addresses the burning questions faced by educators, employers, and parents everywhere. Author, CEO, and generational expert Mark C. Perna shares his wide experience and profound success as both a single dad and performance consultant for education and workforce development across North America. Readers will be empowered to:• Embrace the branch-creak crisis moments of life • Make meaningful, productive connections with the Why Generation (anyone under 40 today) • Bring relevance, self-discovery, and passion to the learning process The Why Generation is asking a serious question, and it’s time to answer it. This book will help awaken the incredible potential of young people everywhere and spur them to increased performance on all fronts, so they can make a bigger difference—which is exactly what they want.
Naked: Stripped by a Man and Hurricane Katrina
Julie Freed - 2014
Alone raising an infant in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Julie is surrounded by the rubble of her life - stripped bare by love and loss. Suddenly a single mother, Freed's prose captures the love and adoration for her daughter, the indomitable spirit of her New England family, and her father's unwavering devotion. Touching ties survive even the most powerful surge Mother Nature delivers. This debut memoir candidly reveals intimate details of one woman's shattered dreams as well as humanity's power, resilience, and goodness. Unflinchingly honest, Naked is a remarkable true story of hope, family, and love in a southern coastal Mississippi town.
If Nuns Were Wives: A Handbook on Marriage from the Perspective of a Nun
Shani Chen - 2018
Formerly aspiring nun, Shani Chen, is now married with two children, but still enjoys learning alongside the nuns. In an unconventional way of delivering relationship advice, Chen takes her reader on a journey into the monastery—transcending dogma and religion—and makes the role of the American wife the new holy temple for relationships.
Stay With Me, Rhys: The heartbreaking story of Rhys Jones, by his mother. As seen on ITV’s new documentary Police Tapes
Mel Jones - 2018
‘Please stay with me. I love you.’
There was still no expression in his eyes. I was talking and talking to him, desperate to let him know I was there, but there was no flicker in his face. In hindsight, it was like he’d already gone.
It's a Wednesday evening in Liverpool in the summer holidays, and Melanie is expecting her Everton-mad eleven-year-old son back from football practice very soon. She turns on Coronation Street and sets about stripping the wallpaper off the walls in the lounge, which is long-overdue a makeover. Suddenly she receives a frantic knock at the door. Rhys has been shot on his way home.From that fateful day when Melanie cradled her child as he lay dying, repeating to him ‘Stay with Me, Rhys’, to the day in court when his killers were finally sent down, this is a story of a family in trauma, of a community united behind them and of how a notorious local gang who terrorised the neighbourhood was brought to justice.In 2017, more than 7 million people watched the drama unfold in the highly-acclaimed ITV series Little Boy Blue. And now Melanie Jones tells the family's unbelievable story for the first time.Melanie, her husband Steve and Rhys’s brother Owen have been through unimaginable pain. The grief doesn’t go away, but the strength they’ve found within it is an inspiration.
Apotheosis Now: Rabbit Hole to the Beyond
Yanhao Huang - 2021
Because externally, we are always trying to control what is “not me,” and internally, we always get perplexed trying to figure out whether our actions came from our “higher” or “lower” self. As Albert Einstein said: “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”This book will help you to understand:Why we have internal conflictsHow does our ego trap us in undesirable circumstancesHow do our beliefs limit usWhy thought-based teachings (Law of Attraction), or self-improvement advice don’t workHow do we really get what we wantWhy is happiness so rare for usWho we are reallyWhat is the nature of existenceWhat is the meaning of lifeHow do we know if there is a GodWhat is the process of spiritual enlightenmentMany of us are starting to become tired of this game of life. We have been comparing and striving all our life. But no matter how much success we have achieved—we are still hollow and still have found nothing fulfilling. We don’t even know if happiness exists because it is no longer a living thing in our experience—it has become dead, as we only know it as a concept or memory.We have sought self-help advice, philosophies, and religious teachings to transform ourselves but have not gotten anywhere. We have made some superficial improvements—like adopting a new mindset—but our core remains the same. We are still competitive, still fearful, and we get disturbed all the time.The problem with all attempts at self-improvement is that we do not address the fundamental problem, which is: who is the “you” who needs to be improved? We do not see that the one who is making the improvement is the same one who needs to be improved. The more we try to improve, the more conflict we introduce, within and without. The more knowledge we stuff in our heads, the more we become trapped in a conceptual prison of reality. Inevitably, the more confused we get in life.The book guides the reader out of their distorted beliefs to experience reality beyond the mind. When the deeper intelligence is allowed to flourish without our mind's interference, then the game of life becomes effortless.