Josie's Story: A Mother's Inspiring Crusade to Make Medical Care Safe


Sorrel King - 2009
    All that changed with Josie. Sorrel King's eighteen-month-old daughter was badly burned by a faulty water heater in the family's new home, but was taken to the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she made a remarkable recovery. But as she was preparing to leave, the hospital's system of communication broke down and Josie was given a fatal shot of methadone, sending her into cardiac arrest. Within forty-eight hours, the King family went from planning a homecoming to planning a funeral. Dizzy with grief and close to ending her marriage, Sorrel slowly pulled herself and her life back together. Accepting Hopkins' settlement, she and her husband established the Josie King Foundation. They began to implement basic programs in hospitals emphasizing communication between patients, family, and medical staff--practices which can now be found in hospitals around the country. The account of one woman's unlikely path from full-time mom to nationally renowned patient advocate, Josie's Story is the inspirational chronicle of how a mother--and her unforgettable daughter--are transforming the face of American medicine.

Near Death


Richard C. Hale - 2011
    And every night for the past two years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The moonless night. The piercing screams. The horrific crash. The night his wife was taken from him. The last time he saw her alive.Everyone tells him to move on. But for Jake, there can be no closure. A message appears in his dreams—a warning he is reluctant to heed.The omens ignored, Jake finds himself caught between the desire to see his beloved wife again and disrupting the delicate balance of life and death. The technology he developed has shown him the path, and others will do anything to use it, but at what price?He must choose, and the consequences may ultimately shatter his world.

Landon


S.M. Shade - 2016
    I’m not interested in his blue-green ocean colored eyes, his lean muscular body, or that crooked smile that can be so infuriating. I have more important things to worry about, like how to keep myself in college and my sixteen year old brother fed and sheltered. We all know life is hard, some of us just learn that lesson younger than others, but that doesn’t mean I’ll give up. I intend to succeed and make sure my brother has the opportunities he deserves, and no privileged jerk is going to distract me. Landon I don’t date. Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from celibate, but my condition makes carrying on any kind of normal relationship impossible. My life revolves around In Safe Hands or ISH, the underground hacker group I work with to track down and take care of predators and sex offenders who beat the system. I’m satisfied with my life until the day I meet the smart mouthed, compassionate, determined woman who opens my eyes to possibilities I never thought existed. This is book one in a series of standalone novels.

What the Water Gave Me (UK)


Pascale Petit - 2010
    Some of the poems are close interpretations of Kahlo's work, while others are parallels or version homages where Petit draws on her experience as a visual artist to create alternative 'paintings' with words. More than just a verse biography, this collection explores how Kahlo transformed trauma into art after the artist's near-fatal bus accident. Petit, with her vivid style, her feel for nature and her understanding of pain and redemption, fully inhabits Kahlo's world. Each poem is an evocation of 'how art works on the pain spectrum', laced with splashes of ferocious colour.

Sweet Tea Tuesdays


Ashley Farley - 2017
    And then they stopped. From the author of the bestselling Sweeney Sisters Series comes a novel of friendship, family, and hope.When new next-door neighbors Georgia, Midge, and Lula first assembled on Georgia’s porch in Charleston for sweet tea, they couldn’t have known their gathering was the beginning of a treasured tradition. For twenty-six years they have met on Tuesdays at four o’clock, watching the seasons change and their children grow up, supporting each other in good times and in bad. With their ambitions as different as their personalities, these best friends anticipate many more years of tea time. And then, one Tuesday, Georgia shares news that brings their long-standing social hour to an abrupt halt. And that’s only the beginning as unraveling secrets threaten to alter their friendship forever. This is a new release of an edition originally published by Leisure Time Books.

Plum


Brendan Cowell - 2021
    Peter 'The Plum' Lum is a 49-year-old ex-star NRL player, living with his son and girlfriend in Cronulla. He's living a pretty cruisey life until one day he suffers an epileptic fit and discovers that he has a brain disorder as a result of the thousand-odd head knocks he took on the footy field in his twenty-year-career. According to his neurologist, Plum has to make some changes - right now - or it's dementia, or even death.Reluctantly, Plum embarks on a journey of self-care and self-discovery, which is not so easy when all you've ever known is to go full tilt at everything. On top of this, he's being haunted by dead poets, and, unable to stop crying, discovers he has a special gift for the spoken word. With spectral visits from Bukowski and Plath, the friendship of local misfits, and the prospect of new love, Plum might just save his own life.From award-winning writer, director and actor, Brendan Cowell, Plum is a powerfully moving, authentic, big-hearted, angry and joyous novel of men, their inarticulate pain and what it takes for them to save themselves - from themselves. It's got a roaring energy, a raucous humour, a heart of gold and a poetic soul.'Exploring masculinity and the healing power of language with great humour, grace and whimsy, Plum is a bighearted, raw and joyous take on what it means to be a man in modern Australia.' Sunday Times'The audacious inclusion of literary outlaws ... the muscular viscerality of his language ... [Plum is] a Shire pastoral that yearns for a nostalgia fantasy of The Golden Days ... I wonder whether Plath was inspired by the great Peter Lum. Or if Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass observing a spear of summer grass while sitting in Shark Park one lonely Sunday afternoon.' Sydney Morning Herald

Love You Truly


Susan L. Tuttle - 2019
    But when his mother’s popularity declines and she falls into a depression, he offers himself up as the next bachelor on a reality show, hoping to reignite interest in her career while creating a way for them to finally connect.After her fiancé dumps her for her best friend, aspiring photographer Harlow Tucker is done with romance—until her beloved, disabled sister requests her aid to start a nonprofit. Harlow agrees to do whatever is needed to raise funds, even reluctantly costarring on a dating show with a notorious womanizer who distrusts anyone behind a lens.As Blake and Harlow navigate the superficiality of a reality show, their preconceived notions of love are challenged. Deciding to trust each other feels like the ultimate risk, but taking that chance could lead to a love truly picture-perfect, worth both of their hearts.

The Best Day of My Life


Deborah Ellis - 2012
    The only sight that fills her with terror is the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks - the lepers. When Valli discovers that that her 'aunt' is a stranger who was paid money to take Valli off her own family's hands, she leaves Jharia and begins a series of adventures that takes her to Kolkata, the city of the gods. Valli finds that she really doesn't need much to live and is very resourceful. But a chance encounter with a doctor reveals that she has leprosy. Unable to bear the thought that she is one of the monsters she has always feared, Valli rejects help and begins an uncertain life on the street.

Liverpool Daisy


Helen Forrester - 1984
    In a Liverpool torn by the Depression, Daisy Gallagher grows to womanhood the hard way. She is the mainstay of her poverty-stricken family and the devoted friend of Nellie O'Brian, who is dying for lack of medical attention. Daisy's desperation for money leads her into the darkened streets and into the arms of drunken sailors willing to pay for their relief. Through her own strength and suffering, Daisy earns enough to pay for her friend's much needed medical attention. Her family know nothing of her occupation, but when her stoker husband returns from the sea Daisy realises, terror-stricken, that the moment of truth has finally arrived...

Megan's Cure (Enzo Lee )


Robert B. Lowe - 2014
    However, a more complicated story soon emerges. The action follows Megan and a brilliant but troubled scientist across the South on a desperate mission to evade their pursuers. Big Pharma is intent on burying Megan and the secret she carries.Meanwhile, reporter Enzo Lee is trying to save his gravely ill grandmother and embarks on a search for a cure. That quest leads him to the fugitive pair. Together, they must confront the wrath of the entire drug industry armed with the deadly tools of organized crime.Megan's Cure is an action-filled story played out in the labs and boardrooms of Big Pharma as well as along the rural byroads of the Deep South. This is the third novel in the Enzo Lee mystery thriller series By Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert B. Lowe.

My Mother's Choice


Ali Mercer - 2020
    Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?I watch them at the school gates, all the mothers with their daughters. I see the hugs and all those thoughtful little adjustments to scarves and ponytails. How their love seems to overflow, they have so much of it to give.And then I walk home to my aunt’s cold house, where there are a hundred rules for me to follow and only a single photograph of my mother to look at.She is never spoken about in this house. They tell me that it will be easier if I don’t think about her.It is strange though, isn’t it? That I know nothing about my own mother?But they don’t know about the diary I’ve found up in the loft. Maybe they even forgot it was there. It doesn’t matter anymore if they won’t tell me anything. Because within these pages is what I’ve waited fourteen years to find out. And maybe some things I wish I could forget.All I wanted was to bring our family closer together, but could what I find tear us apart instead?A heartbreaking and powerful novel about family secrets and how we live with decisions we never thought we would have to make. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kate Hewitt and Amanda Prowse.

The Hairy Bikers Blood, Sweat and Tyres: The Autobiography


Hairy Bikers - 2015
    Born in the north of England, both Si and Dave had their childhood challenges. For Si, being bullied as the fat kid in class was part of his daily school routine. For Dave, his life changed when he became a childhood carer for his mother. But through the challenges of their early years came a love of really good food.And it was food that brought Si and Dave together. Their eyes met over a curry and a pint on the set of a Catherine Cookson drama, and they knew they would be firm and fast friends for life.From deserts to desserts, potholes to pot roasts, the nation's favourite cooking duo reveals what's made their friendship such a special and lasting one. They've eaten their way around the world a good few times, but have never lost sight of what matters: great friends, great family and great food.In this heartwarming memoir of friendship and hilarious misadventure, Si and Dave take you on the ride of their lives!

Alice in Bed


Cathleen Schine - 1983
    Her legs won’t move (the pain coming in “hot waves, like acute embarrassment”). She’s in traction that looks to her like a late-night TV gadget (“It slices! It dices! It mashes! It whips!”). Dr. Witherspoons (famous attending physician to famous football teams) can’t find cause or cure…In this wryly comic and exhilarating first novel, Cathleen Schine gives us a young, sassy, appealing girl suddenly struck down and fighting back; the year she spends recovering; and the odd, crowded life that buzzes around her: her parents divorcing (her father apologetically off to Vancouver to a new bride, a new life)… her mother, well-meaning and well-appointed (except for her new-found beau, who wears a diamond pinky ring), suddenly by herself, representing Family, sitting with Alice, every day, all day (starting and abandoning endless needlepoints), comforting and irritating her daughter… the specialists flown in for consultation (“The Dr. O’Solomon who wrote Cement and the Orthopod” and Dr. Onnen, who limps), patronizing and prodding her… her nurses fussing and her two doctor-lovers hovering around her—Dr. Davis (bearing violets, quoting Shakespeare, going all sultry) and Dr. Fresser, genuine Israeli hypnotist extraordinaire, authority on pain, barging into her room, his presence “filling the place like a pinball machine,” but able to induce in his patient moments of true calm…Alice—on the surface involved, touched, even amused—participating in the life of her family, her fellow patients, her nurses, her doctor-lovers, yet all the while instinctively focusing every ounce of her real strength on the recovery of her freedom, the recapturing of what she once took for granted: motion.Here is a novel that expresses within its exuberant humors a sense of the eternal contest between the randomness of fate and the resilience of personality.A remarkable book. An impressive debut.

The Good Luck Cat: How a Cat Saved a Family, and a Family Saved a Cat


Lissa Warren - 2014
    Enter Ting, a seven-pound Korat who changed his life, and the life of the family. All kittens are mischievous, but Ting “the cat grenade” was real trouble. She was also smart, endearing, and the soul of the Warren family.     In late 2008, Lissa’s father died of a heart attack. The images from that night still haunt her—especially the EKG readout ending in one long, devastating em dash. Less than a year later, Lissa and her mother stared at another EKG readout, this time for Ting. A living feline extension of the man they missed so much—the man they had tried, but failed, to save—she was diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition. The only option was to have a human pacemaker implanted in the cat—a procedure even the best animal hospital in Boston hadn’t performed in a decade. Determined not to lose another family member, they embarked on a medical odyssey on behalf of the gray cat who had been her father’s shadow—a journey that would prepare one of them for her own serious diagnosis.   A gorgeously written memoir about grief, hope, and how pets both complicate and enrich our lives, The Good Luck Cat is a testament to the power of the human—and the feline—spirit.

Diana's Story


Deric Longden - 1989
    In 1982 Diana contracted ME, a condition which meant years of pain and paralysis that ended in death. Throughout her illness Deric cared for her and this book is the story of that time.