Book picks similar to
Dogs on The Beach by Lara Jo Regan


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Swing


Ashleigh Renard - 2021
    Feeling disconnected, unappreciated, and like we are doing it all have become hallmarks of modern marriage and parenthood.Swing is helping individuals flip the switch from depleted to filled up in partnership, parenting, and career while inspiring couples to raise the bar for intimacy and communication inside and outside of the bedroom.Hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful, Renard takes "doing it all" to a level she never intended, and shares (and bares) it all so you can get your life back on track before you go off the deep end.Waiting in line to use the bathroom in a fancy New York City sex club is just like waiting to use the bathroom anywhere else. Well, anywhere else that people walk around half-naked. And anywhere else that you must send in a headshot and a full-body photo before being added to the invite list. Besides those things, it’s like waiting in line for the bathroom anywhere else. Married for ten years and with three children, Ashleigh and her husband, Manny, are at a sex club, not because they feel there is anything wrong with their marriage, rather they are looking for some relief from the non-stop work and no-nonsense routine they have maintained since meeting right out of college. Their marriage is rock solid. They are masterful tag-team parents and never fight. Their toddlers grow their own vegetables and use coasters. They are hard-core adulting, but everyone deserves a little break sometimes, don’t they? From sex clubs to invite-only parties to dating apps for couples, they rapidly realize they’ve made a slight miscalculation, underestimating the complexities of the lifestyle and overestimating the strength of their marriage. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and hopeful, what will they do when they realize it’s more than a matter of gathering some people and having some sex?

The Collagen Diet: A 28-Day Plan for Sustained Weight Loss, Glowing Skin, Great Gut Health, and a Younger You


Josh Axe - 2019
    Josh Axe, bestselling author of Keto Diet and Eat Dirt, explains how to lose weight, prevent disease, improve your digestion, and renew your youth by taking advantage of dietary collagen.Today, interest in dietary collagen is growing at an astounding rate, and with good reason. The benefits of a collagen-rich diet are remarkable, ranging from better weight control to enhanced digestion, clearer skin, reduced inflammation, and improved immune function. Dietary collagen provides a unique blend of amino acids and other compounds, making it critical for everyone, including infants, young children, the elderly, athletes, pregnant women, new mothers, and adult men and women. Simply put: When we don't get enough of the beneficial compounds found in collagen-rich foods, we experience more injuries, chronic aches and pain, digestive issues, and other symptoms associated with aging. And most people don't get enough. Collagen is the missing ingredient that can help all of us live longer, healthier, more vital lives.In The Collagen Diet, Dr. Axe describes how collagen helps maintain the structure and integrity of almost every part of the body. You'll learn how your skin, hair, nails, bones, disks, joints, ligaments, tendons, arterial walls, and gastrointestinal tract all depend on the consumption of collagen-rich foods. Featuring a twenty-eight-day meal plan, seventy mouthwatering recipes, and specific advice for supporting your body's collagen production with exercise and lifestyle interventions, The Collagen Diet provides everything you need to take advantage of this overlooked cornerstone of modern health.

Saving Sadie: How a Dog That No One Wanted Inspired the World


Joal Derse Dauer - 2017
    With three "fur babies" already at home, Joal wasn't looking to adopt another dog. But there was something special about Sadie, a shepherd mix who had been shot in the head and in the back and left for dead in the hills of Kentucky after giving birth. One gaze into those sorrowful eyes and Joal vowed to do everything possible to get the pitiful creature walking again. The first three vets offered little hope for Sadie and two even recommended euthanasia. But with patience, hope, and plenty of love, Joal noticed a change in her canine companion. And somewhere along the difficult journey, she discovered that sweet Sadie had transformed her life in ways she never could have imagined. Now, media darlings Joal and Sadie are spreading their message of compassion, acceptance, and kindness around the world. Joyous and inspiring, Saving Sadie is a triumphant story about the power of unconditional love and second chances--for humans and animals alike.

Live Free: Exceed Your Highest Expectations


DeVon Franklin - 2021
    How? Think about your life. How much of the sadness you feel derives from what you think should have happened—than with what actually happened?Think about your career. How much of the discontent you feel comes from your belief about where you’d be at this point–than with the progress you’ve actually made?Think about your relationships. How much of your dissatisfaction with friends, family, significant others, or spouses has to do with your unspoken presumptions—than with the people themselves?Having so many expectations is distorting your perspective, decreasing your happiness and disrupting your joy. You can live a life of true freedom, greater peace and less stress: release as many expectations as possible.This, DeVon Franklin argues, is the secret to a better life now.In a culture obsessed with more, Live Free is a bold counterintuitive book that can start a cultural revolution, Franklin contends. Everyone struggles with unnecessary expectations. But once you learn to let go of them, you can set the stage for the life you’ve always wanted.

The Lady Whose Mouth I Set on Fire: True Tales from the ER


Dr. McAnonymousDr. McAnonymous - 2021
    They are first-hand accounts told by an old, tired physician who has survived three decades in this odd, but exciting world of life and death. They are heartwarming, heart-wrenching, hilarious or fascinating. This book is for anyone interested in the inner belly of the Human Being. There is much to be learned and felt here. Beware, this book is not for everyone, and you may begin laughing at inappropriate times—or even develop nightmares.

The Places Left Unfilled


M.C. Cauley - 2020
    But when her close friendship with an older neighbor begins to attract suspicion, and connecting with her birth father isn’t at all how she imagined it would be, Morgan’s long-held hope begins to dwindle. That is, until, at the age of fourteen, Morgan meets Bill – her forty-five-year-old martial arts instructor.At first a teacher and father figure who Morgan can confide in, Bill soon reveals that his interest in her isn’t entirely paternal. Despite her initial fear, Morgan craves the attention Bill is more than willing to lavish upon her, resulting in a several-months-long affair that will alter the course of both of their lives.Spanning four years of Cauley’s adolescence, The Places Left Unfilled explores in harrowing detail the circumstances that may lead a child to find solace in their sexual abuse. Told with immediacy and remarkable candor, Cauley’s gripping narrative will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.

No. 204 is Going Home: A True Story of Love, Survival, and Motherhood


Marie Lindstrom - 2021
    She’d never hear him again if she didn’t survive the tragedy…Marie Lindstrom was ready to take on the world. After months of research poured into planning a birthday trip to remember, the mother of two beamed with happiness as they touched down in Thailand. And she was positive they were bound for a trek full of lasting memories… until the tsunami wave hit.Terrified by the prospect of losing all she held dear, Marie struggled to keep her head above water after being swept underground and enshrouded in darkness. But even after the catastrophe passed and she embraced what remained, the guilt accompanying her survival proved staggering.Would the soul-wrenching pain tear her apart or be miraculously transformative?No. 204 is Going Home is a heart-shaking memoir about the unbreakable strength of motherhood. If you like honest depictions of disaster, raw emotional transformations, and moving accounts of healing, then you’ll love Marie Lindstrom’s sail through calamity.Buy No. 204 is Going Home to stare into the maw of real-life terror today!

Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family


Melissa Shapiro - 2021
     One of the most anxious dogs Melissa had ever encountered, the traumatized Piglet weighed under two pounds upon his welcome into the Shapiro household—which included Melissa’s husband Warren and their three college-aged kids, plus six other rescued dogs. After weeks of reassurance, and lots of love, Piglet connected, gained confidence, and his extraordinary spirit emerged. Melissa soon forged a powerful bond with Piglet, allowing the two to communicate without sound or visual cues. Two months later, when the day arrived to say good-bye to the now dashing, six-pound pink boy dog with the larger than life spirit, Melissa faced a heart-wrenching decision. Could she hand him over to someone willing to give Piglet the full-time attention he required or could she adapt her schedule and her household to make a permanent place for him in her life and work? Of course, the answer was simple: love would find a way.

Hot Guys and Baby Animals


Audrey Khuner - 2011
    Shirtless guys and puppy dog eyes take over with this collection of Hot Guys and Baby Animals by Audrey Khuner and Carolyn Newman.Hot Guys and Baby Animals features photos of gorgeous guys and their fuzzy friends, along with tongue-in-cheek captions detailing the likes and dislikes of each guy and baby animal. Let the "ohs" and "ahs" begin as male models play with puppies, snuggle kittens, nuzzle lambs, and even coo at a few chicks (baby chickens, that is). Perhaps the Sundance Channel says it best in its review of the California calendar that started it all: "Hot guys + baby animals = genius."

The Blue Day Book: A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up


Bradley Trevor Greive - 2000
    No one who has lips will be able to read it without smiling; it s guaranteed. The fact is, we all have our bad days -- they are an intrinsic part of being human. As prescribed by The Blue Day Book in its delightful photo and text messages, the solution is to see each incident in perspective, recognize that our feelings of failure and loss are not unique, and acknowledge the absurdities of our existence, and glory in the potential we all have. In less than one hundred sentences, The Blue Day Book conveys this message with great compassion and humor. Its vehicle is charming black-and-white photographs of animals that are strangely human and completely free of judgment or pretension. The humble marriage of easy text and beautiful images takes us through the entire evolution of a blue day -- examines what it feels like, what causes it, and how to get over it.

Soccerwomen: The Icons, Rebels, Stars, and Trailblazers Who Transformed the Beautiful Game


Gemma Clarke - 2019
    Women's soccer has come a long way. The first organized games on record -- which took place three hundred years ago in the Scottish Highlands -- were exhibition matches, where single women played against married women while available men looked on, seeking a potential mate. Today, champions like Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Brazil's Marta and China's Sun Wen, have inspired girls around the world to pick up the beautiful game for love of the sport. Inevitably, given the hardships and discrimination they face, women who play soccer professionally are so much more than elite athletes. They are survivors, campaigners, political advocates, feminists, LGBTQ activists, working moms, staunch opponents of racial discrimination and inspirational role models for many. Based on original interviews with over 50 current and former players and coaches, this book celebrates these remarkable women and their achievements against all odds.

Take the Leap: Change Your Career, Change Your Life


Sara Bliss - 2019
    “If you are ready to go for the life and the job you really want, Take the Leap is the go-to book for anyone making a career change” (Bobbi Brown).Take the Leap features inspiration and advice from game changers, rule breakers, and side hustlers who once stood where you are now, wondering if they should take a risk. They went from production assistant to million-dollar screenplay writer; attorney to surf instructor; mom to DJ; hairdresser to firefighter; real estate agent to award-winning chef. Do you want to go for that career you’ve always dreamed about? Launch a new company? Become a tech mogul? Live a life of adventure? Save the world? You’ll find wisdom from successful mentors like creative visionary and writer Simon Doonan, entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran, NFL player turned artist/activist Aaron Maybin, and wellness and beauty guru Bobbi Brown. Whether you watch Shark Tank religiously and think I could have thought of that, or harbor daydreams about traveling the globe in style, your wildest career dream is represented in this empowering guidebook. Take the Leap serves as the reminder we all need: don’t settle—go after whatever it is that you truly want.

We Carry Kevan: Six Friends. Three Countries. No Wheelchair.


Kevan Chandler - 2019
    Kevan is just one of the guys. It's impossible to know him and not become a little more excited about life. He is an inspiring man permeated by joy, unafraid of sorrow, full of vitality and life! His sense of humor is infectious and so is his story.He grew up, he says, at "belt-buckle level" and stayed there until Kevan's beloved posse decided to leave his wheelchair at the Atlanta airport, board a plane for France, and have his friends carry him around Europe to accomplish their dream to see the world together! Kevan's beloved posse traveled to Paris, England, and Ireland where, in the climax of their adventure, they scale 600 feet up to the 1,400-year-old monastic fortress of Skellig Michael.In We Carry Kevan the reader sits with Kevan, one head-level above everyone else for the first time in his life and enjoys camaraderie unlike anything most people ever experience. Along the way they encounter the curiosity and beauty of strangers, the human family disarmed by grace, and the constant love of God so rich and beautiful in the company of good friends. We Carry Kevan displays the profound power of friendship and self-sacrifice.

The Dogist: Photographic Encounters with 1,000 Dogs


Elias Weiss Friedman - 2015
    Whether because of the look in a dog’s eyes, its innate beauty, or even the clothes its owner has dressed it in, the photos will make you ooh and aah, laugh, and fall in love. Photographed by Elias Weiss Friedman, aka The Dogist, every portrait in the book tells a story and explores the dog’s distinct character and spirit. Themed sections include Puppies, Cones of Shame, Working Dogs, and Dogs in Fancy Outfits, giving every dog lover something to pore over.

The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill


Bradford M. Smith - 2016
    That is what troubles animal-phobic, robotics engineer Smith who just got married. He learns that his bride’s dream is to have a farm where there are lots of animals and she can rescue ex-race horses to retrain and find them new homes. But according to a Meyers-Briggs Personality Test that they took for fun, their marriage is doomed. There is only one problem: the newlyweds took the test after the wedding. Whether Smith is chasing a cow named Pork Chop through the woods with a rope, getting locked in a tack room by the family pony, being snubbed by his wife’s dog, or unsuccessfully trying to modernize their barn using the latest technology, the odds are stacked against him. It seems like everything with four legs is out to get him. Will the animals win, forcing Smith to admit defeat, or will he fight to keep his family and the farm together? Enjoy the true, warm, and frequently hilarious stories of Smith’s journey along the bumpy road from his urban robotics lab to a new life on a rural Virginia farm.