Book picks similar to
The Other Side of Ourselves by Rob Taylor
poetry
vancouver
marriage
violence
Texas Christmas Revenge: An Uplifting Romantic Suspense
Connie Queen - 2021
Now Brandi will do anything to protect the boy—even if it means asking her ex-fiancé, Texas Ranger Rhett Kincaid, for help. But can Brandi and Rhett stop this killer before he exacts his terrible Christmas vengeance?From Love Inspired Suspense: Courage. Danger. Faith.
The Joy of Children
Gerry Robinson - 2016
Some quotes and description below: "Wow! I just read this book today. Yes, I read the whole book in one day! It is a wonderful account of the joy of a large family. His writing is hilarious, heartwarming, and inspiring. So many of his stories brought back fond memories of life with our gang. I would highly recommend this book!" See additional endorsements below the description. Description: On their wedding day in November 1998, Gerry and Mary Robinson would never have thought they would have 10 children nine years old and younger before their 11th anniversary. Yet, that is exactly what happened. In what can only be called a miracle, their family grew in record time, and the fun that came along with it is a story for the ages. This is their story. It is a testament to how children bring joy to the family, and how God has a loving part in all of it. The stories are hilarious and the lessons life long. This is a great read for all couples, whether they be dating, engaged, or married. Quote from Dr. Theresa Farnan: The Joy of Children is a candid, funny, first person account of a family that lives the meaning of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” and never seem to want for their “daily bread.” Gerry and Mary Robinson and their beautiful family are living proof that God is never outdone in generosity. In addition to being a wonderful tribute to the joy of children, this book is filled with insights about the joy of marriage. The Robinsons' inspirational story illustrates that family life is not always easy but it can be consistently joyous when families commit themselves to complete, trustful surrender to Divine providence. About Dr. Theresa Farnan: Theresa is the Co-Author of the Book: Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There? and Consultant to the USCCB committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. Quote from James M. Littleton, President and Co-founder of Forming Faithful Families: The Joy of Children, by Gerry Robinson is a beautiful, candid story of heroic parents who overcame the fear-driven popular mindset of the modern culture by faithfully trusting in God's loving Providence by taking perceived risks in being open to a large family which opened the floodgates of blessings and joy to be poured into their lives and their family. The Joy of Children is full of hilarious anecdotes that make it a fun read. It is an important book for these times, jarring our spirit to awaken to the realization that God and family are so much more important and lasting than the things of this world. I highly recommend the Joy of Children. About James M. Littleton: James Littleton is a hope-filled, inspirational national speaker and Evangelist, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Forming Faithful Families and One More Baby For Jesus, Co-Host, Co-writer and Producer of Forming Faithful Families Formational Video & Televisions Series
Mexican Hooker #1: And My Other Roles Since the Revolution
Carmen Aguirre - 2016
At age six she was a Chilean refugee adjusting to life as a Latina in North America. At eighteen she was a revolutionary dissident married to a generous-hearted man she couldn't fully love. In her early twenties she fought to find her voice as an actress and to break away from the stereotypical roles thrust upon her--Housekeeper, Hotel Maid, Mexican Hooker #1--all the while navigating the complex paths of lust and heartbreak. As she grew in her career, Aguirre became a writer, a director, an actress, and then a mother, but alongside her many multi-faceted identities was another that was unbearable to embrace yet impossible to escape; that of the thirteen-year-old girl attacked by one of Canada's most feared rapists. Thirty-three years after the assault, Aguirre decided it was time to meet the man who changed her life.Fierce, funny and enlightening, Aguirre interweaves her account of overcoming the attack that shook her world with a host of stories of life and love. From her passionate but explosive relationship with a gorgeous Argentinian basketball player to the all-consuming days at drama school in Vancouver; from the end of the Chilean revolutionary dream to life among the Chicano theatre scene of Los Angeles; from the child who was made the victim of a terrible crime to the artist who found the courage to confront her assailant, Aguirre tells a story of strength and survival that will leave you speechless.
Wild Awake
Hilary T. Smith - 2013
You will remember to water the azaleas.2. You will take detailed, accurate messages.3. You will call your older brother, Denny, if even the slightest thing goes wrong.4. You and your best friend/bandmate Lukas will win Battle of the Bands.5. Amid the thrill of victory, Lukas will finally realize you are the girl of his dreams.Things that actually happen:1. A stranger calls who says he knew your sister.2. He says he has her stuff.3. What stuff? Her stuff.4. You tell him your parents won’t be able to—5. Sukey died five years ago; can’t he—6. You pick up a pen.7. You scribble down the address.8. You get on your bike and go.9. Things . . . get a little crazy after that.**also, you fall in love, but not with Lukas.Both exhilarating and wrenching, Hilary T. Smith’s debut novel captures the messy glory of being alive, as seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd discovers love, loss, chaos, and murder woven into a summer of music, madness, piercing heartbreak, and intoxicating joy.
Granta 152 (Granta: The Magazine of New Writing)
Sigrid Rausing - 2020
Not One of These Poems Is About You
Teva Harrison - 2020
She plunges deep into her inner world, shadowing the progression of the disease. Reality takes on sharp edges: the swell of cancer and its retreat with chemo. Her inner corporeal reality versus her outer manifestation of health, vitality, and femininity. Holding fast to the great love of her life, while preparing to leave him behind. Contemplating who she was before cancer, and who she is now.Starkly honest and wholly profound, Not One of These Poems Is About You distills life to its essence. Teva Harrison continues to gift the world with her clear-eyed insight and her open heart.
When A Thug Has Feelings
Senoj - 2017
When her parents found out, they decided to uproot them to another city. After losing contact with Dreon, she experienced her first heartbreak and decided to shift her focus back on her education. Now twenty-three, Niya is in her final year of law school, but over the years she continued to experience the short end of any relationship she was in, including the relationship with her parents. She finally accepts that her heart has never fully healed, but that all changes once she sees Dreon again. She doesn’t know how he will feel about the secret she’s been keeping from him. Dreon Carter was known for the havoc he wreaked growing up. But after being abandoned by his mother on his grandmother’s steps, he was angry and released that anger on other kids. Sometimes, even letting Niya tag along. Barely graduating high school, due to poor attendance, he went into the streets full time and was now known by the street name Menace. He ended up serving some time in prison, but now at twenty-five, he is the king of the dope game in Cleveland, running the streets with his right-hand man, Renzo. He has a two-year-old daughter by a crazy baby mama who’s set on being a pain in his ass and causing friction between him and Niya. Along with running the streets, he’s trying to run his home, but with the streets and his home life trying to cross, he runs into problems. The bond of Menace and Niya is undeniably unbreakable, but is Niya strong enough to be the woman of a thug, going against everything she’s about, and dealing with the drama that comes along? Can Menace avoid the pressures of the street life and be the man Niya wants him to be, while also not giving up his streets, or will it all be too much?
Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein
Lita Judge - 2018
Mary, just nineteen years old at the time, had been living on her own for three years and had already lost a baby days after birth. She was deeply in love with famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a mad man who both enthralled and terrified her, and her relationship with him was rife with scandal and ridicule. But rather than let it crush her, Mary fueled her grief, pain, and passion into a book that the world has still not forgotten 200 years later.Dark, intense, and beautiful, this free-verse novel with over 300 pages of gorgeous black-and-white watercolor illustrations is a unique and unforgettable depiction of one of the greatest authors of all time.
Little Labors
Rivka Galchen - 2014
Varying in length from just a sentence or paragraph to a several-page story or essay, Galchen’s puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each part opens up an odd and tender world of wonder. The 47 Ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; the quasi-repellent concept of “women writers”; origami-ophilia in Oklahoma as a gateway drug to a lifelong obsession with Japan; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces Genji and The Pillow Book; the frightening prevalence of orange as today’s new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas …Little Labors–atomized and exploratory, conceptually byzantine and freshly forthright–delights.
For Your Safety Please Hold On
Kayla Czaga - 2014
Her poems are already making waves--several from this collection have received award attention, including: "The Fiddlehead"'s 23rd annual Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize, "The Malahat Review"'s 2012 Far Horizon's Award for Poetry and an Editor's Choice Award in "ARC Poetry Magazine'"s 2012 Poem of the Year Contest. They have also been shortlisted for "The New Quarterly"'s 2013 Occasional Verse Contest, longlisted for CBC's 2013 Canada Writes Poetry Contest and have appeared in literary publications across North America.The poems in "For Your Safety Please Hold On" move in thematic focus from family, to girlhood, to adulthood, each permeated by Czaga's lively voice and quick-witted, playful language. They test the line between honest humour and bitter reality in a sophisticated, incisive manner that tugs at the gut and feels true.The linguistic hopscotch of Czaga's poems about girlhood is often beautifully juxtaposed with feelings of menace or a first taste of smothering expectations--"She sits. She sips her bright pink fingers. / She slips into smart short haircuts, yes, / she does so, and does herself up just so." While her pin prick meditations on contemporary adulthood suggest a yearning for personal meaning and purpose on a larger scale--"I still wander, sometimes, / my coat closing the world out of my body, with pockets / full of garbage, with my slender steady want. I still / make the bed and at bedtime unmake it."The irrepressible energy of the poems in "For Your Safety Please Hold On," paired with their complex balancing act between light and dark, humour and melancholy, innocence and danger, make this collection an extraordinary first offering.
#16thingsithoughtweretrue
Janet Gurtler - 2014
Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn't as far away as she thought...Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan's getting to know the real Adam, and he's actually pretty sweet...in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone?5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She's not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend...and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can't imagine living without.
The Vinyl Cafe Celebrates
Stuart McLean - 2021
His charming, humane, and side-splitting stories brought the trials and triumphs of Dave, Morley, Sam, and Stephanie to life, and made their memorable circle of friends, family, and neighbours as real as our own.This collection is both timely and timeless, a rich celebration of Stuart McLean's inimitable voice, and of the importance of love, community, kindness, and the healing power of laughter.
The Healing Summer
Heather B. Moore - 2021
They’d been trapped beneath a collapsed roof for hours, injured and unable to call for help.The morning of their rescue, Orlando Gallo promised he would find her again. But Maggie hasn’t seen or heard from him in over seventy years, and now, widowed and childless, Maggie hopes to leave her estate to Orlando’s descendants. She invites her neighbor, forty-year-old Jo Sampson, to travel with her, and as the two women return to San Francisco to track down Orlando, they form a strong bond of friendship and healing that transcends time and place.
Undying: A Love Story
Michel Faber - 2016
Bright, tragic, candid and true, these poems are an exceptional chronicle of what it means to find the love of your life. And what it is like to have to say goodbye.All I can do, in what remains of my brief time,is mention, to whoever cares to listen,that a woman once existed, who was kindand beautiful and brave, and I will not forgethow the world was altered, beyond recognition,when we met.
Happiness Economics
Shari Lapena - 2011
Pressured by a starving fellow poet, Will establishes The Poets' Preservation Society, a genteel organization to help poets in need. But when Will meets his muse, the enigmatic and athletic Lily White, he becomes inspired not only to write poetry, but to take guerrilla action in support of poets everywhere. Poetry meets parkour and culture clashes with commerce in this hilarious look at how we measure the value of art.