Book picks similar to
Beautiful Disaster by Robin Nadler


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Swaying


Lucinda Blanchard - 2015
    But you can't choose what you have... can you? Desire soon turns to obsession as Charlotte embarks on a difficult and controversial journey to sway the odds to have a girl. How far is she prepared to go, and at what cost?

Saint Anything Sneak Peek


Sarah Dessen
    When Peyton's increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world. When everyone else is so worried about Peyton, is she the only one concerned about the victim of the accident?Enter the Chathams, a warm, chaotic family who run a pizza parlor, play bluegrass on weekends, and pitch in to care for their mother, who has multiple sclerosis. Here Sydney experiences unquestioning acceptance. And here she meets Mac, gentle, watchful, and protective, who makes Sydney feel seen, really seen, for the first time.The uber-popular Sarah Dessen explores her signature themes of family, self-discovery, and change in her twelfth novel, sure to delight her legions of fans.

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!

Oxygen


Carol Cassella - 2008
    Dr. Marie Heaton is an anesthesiologist at the height of her profession. She has worked, lived and breathed her career since medical school, and she now practices at a top Seattle hospital. Marie has carefully constructed and constricted her life according to empirical truths, to the science and art of medicine. But when her tried-and-true formula suddenly deserts her during a routine surgery, she must explain the nightmarish operating room disaster and face the resulting malpractice suit. Marie's best friend, colleague and former lover, Dr. Joe Hillary, becomes her closest confidante as she twists through depositions, accusations and a remorseful preoccupation with the mother of the patient in question. As she struggles to salvage her career and reputation, Marie must face hard truths about the path she's chosen, the bridges she's burned and the colleagues and superiors she's mistaken for friends.A quieter crisis is simultaneously unfolding within Marie's family. Her aging father is losing his sight and approaching an awkward dependency on Marie and her sister, Lori. But Lori has taken a more traditional path than Marie and is busy raising a family. Although Marie has been estranged from her Texas roots for decades, the ultimate responsibility for their father's care is falling on her.As her carefully structured life begins to collapse, Marie confronts questions of love and betrayal, family bonds and the price of her own choices. Set against the natural splendor of Seattle, and inside the closed vaults of hospital operating rooms, Oxygen climaxes in a final twist that is as heartrending as it is redeeming.

Home is Where You Are


Tessa Marie - 2014
    Get good grades, get into a good college, be successful. Falling in love with a homeless boy? Not exactly on her list.Dean has a plan too. Survive. After a difficult childhood, he now lives on the streets doing everything he can to get by. When he meets Anna, he realizes he doesn't have to do everything alone.Slowly, Anna and Dean let each other in, blending their two worlds into one. But, when a series of events brings Dean’s world into perspective, he pushes Anna away, causing Anna to set out to bring Dean back to her. But her determination and faith in their future puts her on the tracks of danger. Can he be the one to bring her home?

Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe


Jo Watson Hackl - 2018
    Now Mama's run off, and Cricket thinks the room might be the answer to getting her to come back. If it exists. And if she can find it.Cricket's only clue is a coin from a grown-over ghost town in the woods. So with her daddy's old guidebook and a coat full of snacks stolen from the Cash 'n' Carry, Cricket runs away to find the room. Surviving in the woods isn't easy. While Cricket camps out in an old tree house and looks for clues, she meets the last resident of the ghost town, encounters a poetry-loving dog (who just might hold a key to part of the puzzle), and discovers that sometimes you have to get a little lost . . . to really find your way.

Äldst, yngst eller mittemellan


Elisabeth Schönbeck - 2008
    This book looks closer at the patterns and similarites between those who are the eldest or the youngest or the middle child in a family and explains exactly how we are affected by not only our own siblings but even our parents and their siblings.

Breathe My Name


R.A. Nelson - 2007
    Please come right away.We have to finish."Frances Robinson is in high school now. She lives a quiet, suburban life, far from her horrifying past. When she was a child, her birthmother smothered her three sisters. Through pure luck, Frances survived. Now her mother has just been released from prison . . . and she wants to see Frances.A new boy at school called Nix charms Frances. Together, Nix and Frances embark on a clandestine journey to visit Frances' mother: to confront the monster in its lair. This trip will help Frances at last find peace or die trying. But no matter what, Frances will discover just what it means to finish.

Uphill All The Way (Transita)


Sue Moorcroft - 2005
    It wasn't in her to obey Maria Zammit and 'Go England!' But Malta just wasn't bearable now that she no longer had Giorgio, his smile, his love, the feeling of being alive in his arms. In a cruel twist of fate, fifty-one year old Judith loses her younger lover, Giorgio in a diving accident, and with it the intoxicating life she'd shared with him in Malta. With nothing but him to keep her there, Judith returns to England and moves to her sister's spare bedroom in Northamptonshire, distressed and desperate to avoid reminders of her past. Judith struggles to regain her love of life, but a road that's uphill all the way can bring exhilarating views, especially when you find someone who wants to travel it with you...

Side Effects


Amy Goldman Koss - 2006
    In reality, kids get all kinds of cancers, go through unspeakable torture and painful treatments, but walk away fine in the end. From the acclaimed author of The Girls and Poison Ivy, Side Effects is about the pain, fear, and unlikely comedy of 15-year-old Izzy's journey, told in her own powerful and authentic voice. It is Izzy's story--screams and all.

Extraordinary Hearts: A Journey of Cardiac Medicine and the Human Spirit


John A. Elefteriades - 2014
    Elefteriades, one of Men’s Health magazine’s ten best doctors in America, shares moving patient stories and lessons about the human heart. The human heart is a paradox, incredibly strong yet surprisingly fragile. And while stories that reveal its symbolic characteristics abound, there are far fewer that laud its physical capabilities, which are perhaps even more profound. Dr. Elefteriades, one of the most respected cardiac surgeons in America, has treated more than 10,000 patients in his distinguished career. Now, for the first time, he shares fascinating stories of his most memorable patients and cases—patients who have challenged him technically and moved him emotionally, patients who have enriched his life and expanded his horizons while he cared for their hearts. By detailing heart conditions and cardiac reparative procedures with specific yet accessible medical narratives, Dr. Elefteriades encapsulates the beauty, complexity, and majesty of the human heart. But there is far more to this organ—and these stories—than a collection of veins, arteries, and valves. These are stories of courage, miracles, and the bravery of patients (some famous and others not) and their families when facing nearly insurmountable challenges, offering a thought-provoking, informative, and at times heart-wrenching study of the resilience of both the human body and spirit.

One True Love


Barbara Freethy - 1998
    But when Maggie called her up and begged for time alone, something in Lisa made her say yes. Lisa never expected her handsome ex-husband Nick to show up on the doorstep, walking back into her life, and taking over more than the weekend....Nick can't believe how Lisa has changed over the years - and how she's stayed the same. His heart still races when her eyes catch his, his pulse pounds when she's near. After tragedy pushed them apart, Nick spent eight years rebuilding his life and his soul. Can he risk losing his heart again, for a second chance at true love?

Am I Normal Yet?


Holly Bourne - 2015
    She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?

How to Develop Your Family Mission Statement


Stephen R. Covey - 2001
    This family mission statement kit will help you: Unite your family around a common sense of purpose and mission Develop more patience and the capacity to solve problems proactively Strengthen you children and family members in a turbulent world Eliminate ineffective family habits Transform family life from a desperate, miserable, day-to-day grind to a family life rich with meaningful relationships

Nature Girl


Jane Kelley - 2010
    So when Megan gets lost on the Appalachian Trail with only her little dog, Arp, for company, she decides she might as well hike all the way to Massachusetts where her best friend, Lucy, is spending her summer. Life on the trail isn't easy, and Megan faces everything from wild animals and raging rivers to tofu jerky and life without bathrooms. Most of all, though, Megan gets to know herself--both who she's been in the past and who she wants to be in the future--and the journey goes from a spur-of-the-moment lark to a quest to prove herself to Lucy, her family, and the world "First-time novelist Jane Kelley uses the light touch of humor to let in the sunlight. Bravo "--Sid Fleischman, Newbery Award-winning author