The Boy Between: A Mother and Son’s Journey From a World Gone Grey


Josiah Hartley - 2020
    But then her son came to her with a real one…Josiah was nineteen with the world at his feet when things changed. Without warning, the new university student’s mental health deteriorated to the point that he planned his own death. His mother, bestselling author Amanda Prowse, found herself grappling for ways to help him, with no clear sense of where that could be found. This is the book they wish had been there for them during those dark times.Josiah’s situation is not unusual: the statistics on student mental health are terrifying. And he was not the only one suffering; his family was also hijacked by his illness, watching him struggle and fearing the day he might succeed in taking his life.In this book, Josiah and Amanda hope to give a voice to those who suffer, and to show them that help can be found. It is Josiah’s raw, at times bleak, sometimes humorous, but always honest account of what it is like to live with depression. It is Amanda’s heart-rending account of her pain at watching him suffer, speaking from the heart about a mother’s love for her child.For anyone with depression and anyone who loves someone with depression, Amanda and Josiah have a clear message—you are not alone, and there is hope.

Disaster Falls: A Family Story


Stephane Gerson - 2017
    That same night, as darkness fell, Stéphane huddled in a tent with his wife, Alison, and their older son, Julian, trying to understand what seemed inconceivable. “It’s just the three of us now,” Alison said over the sounds of a light rain and, nearby, the rushing river. “We cannot do it alone. We have to stick together.”Disaster Falls chronicles the aftermath of that day and their shared determination to stay true to Alison’s resolution. Gerson captures the different ways of grieving that threatened to isolate each of them in their post-Owen worlds and then, with beautiful specificity, shows how he and Alison preserved and reconfigured their marriage from within. Blending family history (including the “good death” of his father, which offers a very different perspective on mortality) and the natural history of the river, he provides an expansive, unflinching meditation on loss, our responsibilities toward our children, and the stories we tell ourselves in the wake of traumatic events.Slowly, inexorably, Gerson writes his way back to Owen, straight to the singularity that cleaved his life into before and after, creating a portrait of grief iridescent in its fullness, and unexpectedly consoling.

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be A-holes: Unfiltered Advice on How to Raise Awesome Kids


Karen Alpert - 2021
    From the creator of Baby Sideburns and I Heart My Little A-Holes (and the creator of two kids who once were little a-holes but are slowly turning into awesome human beings), Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be A-Holes is a hilariously honest parenting guide written by a regular mom who doesn’t always know WTF she’s doing. Just like you. Featuring side-splittingly funny pictures, stories, and chapters like:You Are Not Your Kiddo's Servant​Picasso's Mom Didn't Tell Him to Draw the Eyes in the Right PlaceSticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Words Will Cost Thousands in TherapyIf They Say "I Hate You," Then You're Probably Doing It RightMamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be A-Holes will make you laugh, cry, laugh until you cry, and feel like you’re having coffee (and a little sumpin' in it) with a best friend who has some of the answers to THE hardest job on earth: parenting. And maybe, just maybe, it might help you get the a-hole out of your kids* *not a guarantee

Crown Noble


Bianca Phipps - 2020
    Phipps ruminates on the ways we are shaped as humans. Is it nature or nurture? Is it fate or a happen chance? What teaches us to love our generational inheritance, no matter how harmful? Phipps takes us to the most intimate parts of family matters in hopes of underantdatning conflict as a means of overcoming.

The 4 Year Olympian: From First Stroke to Olympic Medallist


Jeremiah F. Brown - 2018
    But while juggling the demands of a long-term relationship, fatherhood, mortgage payments, and a nine-to-five banking career, he feels something is missing. A new goal captures his imagination: What would it take to become an Olympian?Guided by a polarizing coach, Brown and his teammates plumb the depths of physical and mental exertion in pursuit of a singular goal. The 4 Year Olympian is a story of courage, perseverance, and overcoming self-doubt, told from the perspective of an unlikely competitor.

Meet Me in the In-Between: A Memoir


Bella Pollen - 2017
    Restlessly crossing back and forth between the boundaries of family and freedom, England and America, home and away, she has sought but generally failed to contain an adventurous spirit within the confines of conventional living. When she awakes one morning stymied by an existential panic, Pollen grudgingly concludes that in order to move forward, she needs to take a good look at her past. In Meet Me in the In-Between, Pollen takes us on the illuminating journey of a life, from her privileged, unorthodox childhood in Upper Manhattan through early marriage to a son of an alluring Mafioso, to the dusty border towns of Mexico where she falls in with a crowd of Pink Floyd-loving smugglers. Throughout all, Bella grapples intently with relationships, motherhood, career ups and downs, and a pathological fear of being boxed in. Interwoven with exquisite passages of graphic memoir, this is a tender, funny, and deeply honest story of one woman's quest to keep looking for the extraordinary in an ordinary life. With patented mix of humor and pain, novelist Bella Pollen takes a dead-on look at what it means to be a smart, reasonably sane woman navigating the modern world.

The Grim Reaper: The Life and Career of a Reluctant Warrior


Stu Grimson - 2019
    They all grew up dreaming of skating in the big league as stars. Then one day, a coach tells them the only way to make it is to drop the gloves. And every guy says the same thing: I'll do whatever it takes to play in the NHL.Not Stu Grimson, though. When he was offered a contract to patrol the ice for the Calgary Flames, he said no thanks, and went to university instead. And that's the way Grimson has approached his career and his life: on his own terms. He stared down the toughest players on the planet for seventeen years, while working on his first university degree. He retired on his own terms, and went on to practice law, including a stint as in-house counsel for the NHLPA.This has put him in a unique position when it comes to commenting on the game. He's seen it from the trenches, and he's seen it from the courtroom. This puts him in the eye of the storm surrounding fighting and concussions. And he handles that the way he does everything: on his own terms. When Don Cherry called him out on televison, it was the seemingly indominable Cherry who backed down. Hockey fans will be fascinated by his data-driven defence of fighting.But in the end, this is not a book about fighting and locker-room stories. It's the story of a young man who ultimately took on the toughest role in pro sports and came out the other side. Where many others have not.

Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir


Greg Larson - 2021
    As the new clubhouse attendant for the Aberdeen IronBirds, a Minor League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, Larson assumed he’d entered a familiar world. He thought wrong. He quickly discovered the bizarre rituals of life in the Minors: fights between players, teammates quitting in the middle of the games, doomed relationships, and a negligent parent organization. All the while, Larson, fresh out of college, harbored a secret wish. Despite the team’s struggles and his own lack of baseball talent, he yearned to join the exclusive fraternity of professional ballplayers.   Instead, Larson fell deeper into his madcap venture as the scheming clubbie. He moved into the clubhouse equipment closet, his headquarters to swing deals involving memorabilia, booze, and loads of cash. By his second season, Larson had transformed into a deceptive, dip-spitting veteran, now fully part of a system that exploited players he considered friends. Like most Minor Leaguers, the gravitational pull of baseball was still too strong for Larson—even if chasing his private dream might cost him his girlfriend, his future, and, ultimately, his love of the game. That is, until an unlikely shot at a championship gives Larson and the IronBirds one final swing at redemption.Clubbie is a hilarious behind-the-scenes tale of two seasons in the mysterious world of Minor League Baseball. With cinematic detail and a colorful cast of characters, Larson spins an unforgettable true story for baseball fans and nonfans alike. An unflinching look at the harsh experience of professional sports, Clubbie will be a touchstone in baseball literature for years to come.

Tales from Another Mother Runner: Triumphs, Trials, Tips, and Tricks from the Road


Sarah Bowen Shea - 2015
    I run to make my own history." —Nicki, another mother runnerEvery mother runner has a tale to tell. A story about how she realized, fifteen years after being told that she’s best being a bookworm, that there is an athlete inside her. Or the one about how she, fifty pounds overweight and depressed, finally found the courage—and time—to lace up her running shoes. Or maybe it’s about setting a seemingly impossible goal—going under two hours in the half-marathon—and then methodically running that goal down and tearing up across the finish line. Or it might be an account of friendship: she was new to town, was having a hard time making friends, was asked to join a group run, and now she's got four BRFs (best running friends) who are her allies, her cheerleaders, her reality checks. Maybe it's just a simple story of the beauty of starting the day off with an endorphin rush. Or, sadly, it could be about how, through the guidance of a thoughtful running friend, she found the space and rhythm to process being raped—and regained her strength and sense of self through every footstep.In Mother Runners, elite runners Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea share not only their own stories of personal triumph on the pavement but also the inspiring stories of many members of the vibrant mother runner community they've built on their popular site, Run Like a Mother. While the common theme is running, the variations that happen through the miles are as endless as the miles themselves: losing weight, gaining confidence, finding yourself, connecting with friends, expecting more, setting goals, dealing with disappointment, figuring out how to train efficiently, clearing your head, reconnecting with your memories, building a better you. Whether you've run more marathons than you can remember, or you're just getting started, you'll find the inspiration you need to get out there, keep pushing, and run like a mother.

Own Your Anxiety: 99 Simple Ways to Channel Your Secret Edge


Julian Brass - 2019
    These tools, which are the foundation of his Own Anxiety method lead, to a redefined relationship with anxiety, taking it from negative and debilitative to positive and facilitative. Rather than trying to fight it, Brass encourages readers to consider anxiety a gift. Personal, personable, and highly motivating, the book offers practical lessons to overcome the effects of anxiety by owning it in three key areas of body, mind and soul.Combining medical research from the West and holistic philosophies from the East, the tips offer daily doses of inspiration. From guidance on how to schedule smarter to reduce stress, how to say no more often, and how to rein in the use of social media to advice about spreading love and playing more often, the book makes owning anxiety both accessible and fun. Warm, enthusiastic, and at times irreverent, Brass offers stories from his own life and shows from personal experience how to conquer anxiety. He is a coach of superlative positivity, encouraging readers to find the resources within to master anxiety toward a more fulfilling and healthier lifestyle.

The Fixed Stars


Molly Wizenberg - 2020
    Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irredeemably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we’d like to believe.   Like many of us, Wizenberg had long understood sexual orientation as a stable part of ourselves: we’re “born this way.” Suddenly she realized that her story was more complicated. Who was she, she wondered, if something at her very core could change so radically? The Fixed Stars is a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family. In honest and searing prose, Wizenberg forges a new path: through the murk of separation and divorce, coming out to family and friends, learning to co-parent a young child, and realizing a new vision of love. The result is a frank and moving story about letting go of rigid definitions and ideals that no longer fit, and learning instead who we really are.

Family Medical History: Unknown/Adopted: How One Inquiry Led to Many Unexpected Discoveries


Nancy Kacirek Feldman - 2014
    They would ask her about her family’s health history, and she would hear the doctor’s familiar sigh after she answered, “I don’t know, I’m adopted.”Being perfectly happy with the loving family she had, Feldman never took an interest in finding her biological parents until diagnosed with a disease that she passed on to her son. Suddenly, Nancy’s lack of family history was affecting someone else.Writing to the Nebraska Children’s Home Society for help, the adoption agency assigned Nancy’s case to Rebecca Crofoot. This began a 17-year journey between the two women who were determined to find information about a family that might not know, or want to know, Nancy existed.Family Medical History: Unknown/Adopted is a heart-warming story of personal, medical, genealogical and emotional discovery.

Winging It!: Parenting in the Middle of Life!


Alex Jones - 2018
    Most of us co-parent or fly solo in the true sense of the word, relying solely on our partners and/or friends when more often than not, extended family are too far away to help on a regular basis. Our parents could look to their parents for the usual guidance and extra support, but our situation is new, modern and unique. We are winging it!This book isn't a guide or a parenting manual - it's more of a support group for parents who are having their children in their thirties and forties to get together, to celebrate, share experiences, laugh and find joy in what is still the biggest life changing experience any of us will ever go through. It's the book I looked for when I was pregnant, that spoke to me as a working parent and that I couldn't find so I've had a go at writing one myself.Featuring:- Expert advice from Zita West, Clemmie Hooper, Dr Sarah Jarvis, Mother Pukka, Zoe Williams, Selfish Mother and more. - Hilarious and heart-warming anecdotes plus tips and tricks from parents winging it too.We're re-writing the rule book and winging it, but we are winging it together!Love,Alex

Raising A Thief


Paul Podolsky - 2020
    

Michelle's Story: One Woman's Escape from a Lifetime of Abuse


Shelley Chase - 2012
    Her first husband, and then her second husband end up abusing her also. Later on, both her surviving children were abused, one by her ex husband, another by a trusted boyfriend. Michelle finally manages to free herself from this cycle of abuse. This is her true story of her escape. It is Michelle's hope that her story will encourage others who are trapped in abuse to seek freedom.