Book picks similar to
In Shadow and Strength by Beth Louise


psychological
writing
a-good-read
children

A Wolf at the Table


Augusten Burroughs - 2008
    He buried it and told me I must never tell. It was the only thing we’d ever done together as father and son, and I promised not to tell. But unlike most dreams, the memory of this one never left me. And sometimes…I wasn’t altogether sure about one thing: was it just a dream?”When Augusten Burroughs was small, his father was a shadowy presence in his life: a form on the stairs, a cough from the basement, a silent figure smoking a cigarette in the dark. As Augusten grew older, something sinister within his father began to unfurl.  Something dark and secretive that could not be named. Betrayal after shocking betrayal ensued, and Augusten’s childhood was over. The kind of father he wanted didn’t exist for him. This father was distant, aloof, uninterested…And then the “games” began.With "A Wolf at the Table", Augusten Burroughs makes a quantum leap into untapped emotional terrain: the radical pendulum swing between love and hate, the unspeakably terrifying relationship between father and son. Told with scorching honesty and penetrating insight, it is a story for anyone who has ever longed for unconditional love from a parent. Though harrowing and brutal, "A Wolf at the Table" will ultimately leave you buoyed with the profound joy of simply being alive. It’s a memoir of stunning psychological cruelty and the redemptive power of hope.

Cascade


Claudia Hall Christian - 2010
    As peace settles on the Castle, darkness looms on the horizon and the pain of former lives threatens to destroy the here and now. Delphie, Jill, Jacob, Sandy, Aden and their loved ones come face to face with their worst demons. But this is Denver Cereal. It takes more than a school brawl, a shooting, prison, a vicious beating or even a death to destroy the love and loyalty that unites this extended family of choice. In Cascade, the beloved Denver Cereal characters return. Pooling their skills and abilities, they confront the past before it overwhelms their present. Cascade is the third installment of the Denver Cereal. An Internet sensation, Denver Cereal is a serial fiction grounded in Uptown Denver, Colorado. DenverCereal.com - Crunchy, sweet and always addicting, you deserve a little Denver Cereal in your life.

The Mobster's Rose: A BWWM Mafia Romance


J.R. Wylder - 2021
    

Illustrated Biography of William Shakespeare ("Popular Life Stories")


Manju Gupta - 2014
    He has left behind nearly a million words of text, but his life is still a mystery. This book is an engaging introduction to a subject that students will certainly encounter many times throughout their education—and their lives. Lucid language and dramatic illustrations re-create the Bard's world of kings and queens, fairies and potions, and bloody beheadings. It imparts an amazing amount of vivid, interesting material about place, period and background of Shakespeare. This sweeping account is a biography, a history, and a retelling of some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays—all in one approachable volume. Salient Features: • Shakespeare's Early Life • Life as Playwright and Actor • Theatre Companies • Style of Presentation • Last Years of Life • England of Shakespeare's Days • Drama in Shakespeare's Days • Shakespeare's Greatness as a Poet • Shakespeare's Influence • Works of Shakespeare in detail • Principal Facts of Shakespeare's Life

Until We All Come Home: A Harrowing Journey, a Mother's Courage, a Race to Freedom


Kim De Blecourt - 2012
    Nothing, however, could have prepared de Blecourt for the twisted nightmare she would endure. During her year-long struggle to extricate her newly adopted little boy from that post-Soviet country's corrupt social service and judicial systems, de Blecourt was insulted, physically assaulted, and arrested. Worse, her months of loneliness, worry, and fear drove her to the brink of spiritual despair. But God had no intention of abandoning de Blecourt or her family. Her amazing story-culminating in a spine-chilling race to freedom-offers dramatic proof that God's light shines on even in the deepest darkness.

I'm 13 Years Old And I Changed The World


D.K. Brantley - 2018
    He's got to find a cure. That’s right—Adam's 13 years old, and he's about to change the world.From the Publisher: The follow-up to D.K. Brantley’s I’m 12 Years Old And I Saved The World, this book tackles the difficult topics of childhood cancer, dealing with death, and battling addiction. I’m 13 Years Old And I Changed The World is an open admission that bad things happen to good people. And while you often can’t fix the bad situation, you can make it better if you’re willing to be a friend.We hope this book comforts those who are dealing with childhood cancer, death, or addiction and increases empathy for all.

Ours: The Promises Between Us


Angela Christina Archer - 2021
    

Satan's Garden


Kit Lyman - 2014
    It chronicles their experiences in parallel over the course of six years, unfolding the independent challenges they face while struggling to survive worlds apart from each other. This book club pick inspires readers to see that love, friendship, and faith can survive in spite of the most terrible circumstances.Dani and Keely imagined that life was more magical than others believed. If they had to be summed up, their one plus one would equal three. Together, they became something greater. It was twin sisters against the world. But the world had different plans. The man followed them to their secret tree house that unusually warm day in September. He only came for one, there and gone in the blink of an eye. Satan’s Garden takes you on the six-year journey of two sisters who learn what it means to survive. It’s a story of resiliency, hope, and above all, a bond that cannot be taken away. It teaches us how quickly life can change and yet how much of it we can change ourselves.

Lovely Things in Ugly Places


Mattie Montgomery - 2016
    In Lovely Things in Ugly Places, he invites us to come with him as he revisits the moments in his ministry (some incredible, some hilarious, and some tragic), that shaped him most substantially. Known for his bold and fearless proclamation of the Gospel, Montgomery writes with vulnerability and transparency, beckoning the Body of Christ into a radical lifestyle of love. He challenges his readers to lay down the labels we use to identify people, and to see them (and ourselves) as God does, reminding us that if we are willing to look, we too will find Lovely Things in Ugly Places.

Meant To Be


Walter Anderson - 2003
    With the publication of this affecting memoir, he reveals the truth about his life and tells the inspirational story of his rags-to-riches career.Anderson grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Mount Vernon, New York, the youngest child of an alcoholic, abusive father. He escaped his situation by quitting high school at sixteen to join the Marines. Four years later, while on leave to attend his father's funeral, he stuns his mother with a question that has inexplicably haunted him since he was a small boy: Was the man who had so tormented him in his childhood his real father? Her answer: Walter was born of a wartime love affair between his Protestant mother and the Jewish man she loved. His mother swears him to secrecy, and he honors their pact for nearly thirty-five years, and then one day he meets an unknown brother -- another son of his real father -- who has lived a similar, nearly parallel life. Their secret, in ways large and small, defines the course of his life. Meant To Be is a love story, a journey of self-discovery and spiritual reckoning, and a provocative challenge to commonly held notions about the role of heredity in our lives. Passionately told and deeply moving, Anderson's memoir is the mesmerizing story that he was always meant to tell.

Happiness Simplified: Free Version: Why are we so unhappy? Happiness is a serious problem


German Muhlenberg - 2017
    No it doesn't, sorry to dissapoint you. But I promise if you keep reading you will get something better... And no, you are not going to get two ice creams.Happiness is a widely discussed topic, and still it is quite disconcerting. In fact, many sociological studies show that most people have no idea what it is that makes them happy.According to a poll taken by psychiatrist Robert Waldinger about what the most important goals were in life for today's young people, 80% of the respondents said 'being a millionaire.' And not only that, half of them also wanted to be famous. So we work hard to get those things but, are they actually the most important in life for our happiness? In addition. for a long time, it was also said that positive thinking was the key to happiness. Well, sorry to dissapoint again but it is not.As the entrepreneur Nat Ware afirms: The first step to being happy is to understand why we can often become unhappy. There is no magic pill for true happiness, at least nothing that will last in the long run. Happiness is an emotional process that can be learned if we understand the primary factors that determine it. Giving you a better understanding of happiness will actually help you to make yourself happier, but this undoubtedly requires a lot of work, effort and determination.

Coming Round the Mountain


Ruskin Bond - 2019
    

I'll Give You Something to Cry About: A memoir of a daughter's struggle to survive a mother with paranoia, schizophrenia, and manic depression


Elizabeth Acker - 2016
    Elizabeth is forced to become estranged from her father and struggles alone to create hope and meaning for her life while serving her mother like a slave. This book is a true account of a daughter's struggle to survive a mother with paranoia, schizophrenia, and manic depression.

Rainbow Diner: a memoir


Astrid Arlen - 2019
    Mother saved black widow spiders and the homeless. Brother Benny was Astrid’s immutable compass. He kept a straight face, his eyes glazed. All Benny wanted was to stay in one place.With all hell breaking loose, will Astrid and her beloved little brother navigate the ’70s and ’80s and survive childhood?

We Ain't Go No Drink, Pa


Hilda Kemp - 2015
    Too little money. An abusive father too drunk to notice his family is starving. This is the true story of a little girl's struggle to survive against the odds in the slums of 1920s south-east London.'We ain't got no drink, Pa.'I trembled as I spoke. Then somewhere inside me I found the anger, the courage to answer him back.'We don't have no grog cos you drank it all!'I knew he was going for me tonight, so I reckoned I might as well go down fighting after all.Growing up in the slums of 1920s and 30s Bermondsey, Hilda Kemp's childhood was one of chaos and fear. Every day was battleground, a fight to survive and a fight to be safe.For Hilda knew what it was to grow up in desperate poverty: to have to scratch around for a penny to buy bread; to feel the seeping cold of a foggy docklands night with only a thin blanket to cover her; to share her filthy mattress with her brothers and sisters, fighting for space while huddling to keep warm. She knew what it was to feel hunger - not the impatient growl of a tummy that has missed a meal; proper hunger, the type that aches in your soul as much as your belly.The eldest of five children, Hilda was the daughter of a hard drinker and hard hitter as well. A casual dockworker by day, a bare-knuckle fighter by night and a lousy drunk to boot, her pa honed his fists down the Old Kent Road and Blackfriars, and it was Hilda or her ma who bore the brunt of them at home.This is the powerful and moving memoir of Hilda's childhood growing up in dark, filthy, crime-ridden Bermondsey; a place where you knew your neighbours, where you kept your eyes down and your ears shut as defence against the gangs at war in the streets. It's a time when days were spent running wild down the docklands, jumping onto barges and stealing coal, racing through the dank back-streets of east London like water rats, dodging the milk cart or the rag-and-bone man.And out of this bleak landscape emerges a brave, resilient young girl whose life is a testament to the power of love and good humour. Moving, dazzling and sombre by turns, once opened this brilliant, seductive book will not let you rest.