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What Linnaeus Saw: A Scientist And His Quest To Name And Catalog Every Living Thing
by Karen Magnuson BeilThe globetrotting naturalists of the eighteenth century were the geeks of their day: innovators and explorers who lived at the intersection of science and commerce. Foremost among them was Carl Linnaeus, a radical thinker who revolutionized biology. In What Linnaeus Saw, Karen Magnuson Beil chronicles Linnaeus’s life and career in readable, relatable prose. As a boy, Linnaeus hated school and had little interest in taking up the religious profession his family had chosen. Though he struggled through Latin and theology classes, Linnaeus was an avid student of the natural world and explored the school’s gardens and woods, transfixed by the properties of different plants. At twenty-five, on a solo expedition to the Scandinavian Mountains, Linnaeus documented and described dozens of new species. As a medical student in Holland, he moved among leading scientific thinkers and had access to the best collections of plants and animals in Europe. What Linnaeus found was a world with no consistent system for describing and naming living things—a situation he methodically set about changing. The Linnaean system for classifying plants and animals, developed and refined over the course of his life, is the foundation of modern scientific taxonomy, and inspired and guided generations of scientists. What Linnaeus Saw is rich with biographical anecdotes—from his attempt to identify a mysterious animal given him by the king to successfully growing a rare and exotic banana plant in Amsterdam to debunking stories of dragons and phoenixes. Thoroughly researched and generously illustrated, it offers a vivid and insightful glimpse into the life of one of modern science’s founding thinkers.
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Daniel Mark EpsteinA noted biographer and poet illuminates the unique woman who wrote the greatest American love poetry of the twentieth centuryWhat Lips My Lips Have Kissed is the story of a rare sort of American genius, who grew up in grinding poverty in Camden, Maine. Nothing could save the sensitive child but her talent for words, music and drama, and an inexorable desire to be loved. When she was twenty, her poetry would make her famous; at thirty she would be loved by readers the world over.Edna St. Vincent Millay was widely considered to be the most seductive woman of her age. Few men could resist her, and many women also fell under her spell. From the publication of her first poems until the scandal over Fatal Interview twenty years later, gossip about the poet's liberated lifestyle prompted speculation about who might be the real subject of her verses.Using letters, diaries and journals of the poet and her lovers that have only recently become available, Daniel Mark Epstein tells the astonishing story of the life, dedicated to art and love, that inspired the sublime lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love
by Laurel BraitmanA true story about the ways loss can transform us into the people we want to become.Laurel Braitman spent her childhood learning how to outfish grown men, keep bees, and fix carburetors from her larger-than-life dad. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, he went to spectacular lengths to teach her the skills she&’d need to survive without him. But by her mid-thirties she is a ship about to splinter on the rocks, exhausted by running from her own bad feelings. We follow as Laurel changes course, navigating multiple wildernesses—from northern New Mexico and western Alaska to her own Tinder app. She learns the hard way that no achievement, no matter how shiny, can protect her from pain, and works to transform guilt and regret into gold: learning from a badass birder in the Bering Sea, a few dozen grieving kids in a support group, a pile of smoking ashes, and countless online dates. Along the way, she faces a wildfire that threatens everyone and everything she cares about, a grueling test of her own survival skills, and the fact that we often have to say our hardest goodbyes before we&’re ready. In the end Laurel realizes that being open to love after loss is not only possible, it can set us free.What Looks Like Bravery is a hero&’s journey for our times. Laurel teaches us that hope is a form of courage, one that can work as an all- purpose key to the locked doors of your dreams.
What Made California the Golden State?: A Who HQ Graphic Novel (Who HQ Graphic Novels)
by Who HQ Shing Yin KhorDiscover what life was really like during the California Gold Rush in this powerful graphic novel written by National Book Award finalist and Eisner Award-winning creator Shing Yin Khor and illustrated by Kass Gray.Presenting Who HQ Graphic Novels: an exciting addition to the #1 New York Times best-selling Who Was? series!Explore the Gold Rush from the perspective of William Miller and Henry Garrison, two miners in the Sierra Nevada region, and uncover the often unrelenting conditions of the California gold mines. A story of community, determination, and the search for the American Dream, this graphic novel invites readers to immerse themselves into what life was really like during this pivotal period in American history--brought to life by gripping narrative and vivid full-color illustrations that jump off the page.
What Makes Olga Run?: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives
by Bruce GriersonA fascinating look at the way we age today and the extent to which we can shape the processIn What Makes Olga Run? Bruce Grierson explores what the wild success of a ninety-four-year-old track star can tell us about how our bodies and minds age. Olga Kotelko is not your average ninety-four-year-old. She not only looks and acts like a much younger woman, she holds over twenty-three world records in track and field, seventeen in her current ninety to ninety-five category. Convinced that this remarkable woman could help unlock many of the mysteries of aging, Grierson set out to uncover what it is that's driving Olga. He considers every piece of the puzzle, from her diet and sleep habits to how she scores on various personality traits, from what she does in her spare time to her family history. Olga participates in tests administered by some of the world's leading scientists and offers her DNA to groundbreaking research trials. What emerges is not only a tremendously uplifting personal story but a look at the extent to which our health and longevity are determined by the DNA we inherit at birth, and the extent to which we can shape that inheritance. It examines the sum of our genes, opportunities, and choices, and the factors that forge the course of any life, especially during our golden years.
What Makes Us Stronger
by Freya LewisThe Manchester Arena attack nearly destroyed her.Love and courage saved her.Freya Lewis was just three metres away from the terrorist who detonated the bomb at the Manchester arena on the night of 22nd May 2017. Her best friend Nell was tragically killed, but Freya - thrown forwards by the blast - somehow survived. She suffered 29 separate injuries, was in a coma for five days, and wheelchair-bound for three months.Yet just 12 months later, she was on her feet, running the Junior Great Manchester Run and raising £60,000 for the hospital that saved her. From her darkest moment, she found the determination to live life to the fullest, for herself, and for those who lost their lives.This is Freya's courageous story. But it is also the story of the amazing community that surrounded her, uplifted her, and ultimately saved her life.What Makes Us Stronger is a testament to the power of hope and positivity.
What Makes an Apple?: Six Conversations about Writing, Love, Guilt, and Other Pleasures
by Amos OzRevelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos OzIn the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple? presents the most revealing of these conversations in English for the first time, painting an illuminating and disarmingly intimate portrait of a towering literary figure.In frank and open exchanges that are by turns buoyant, introspective, and argumentative, Oz explains what impels him to begin a story and shares his routines, habits, and challenges as a writer. He discusses the tectonic changes he experienced in his lifetime in relationships between women and men, and describes how his erotic coming of age shaped him not only as a man but also as an author. Oz reflects on his parents, his formative years on a kibbutz, and how he dealt with and learned from his critics, his students, and his fame. He talks about why there is more humor in his later books and gives his exceptional take on fear of death.Resonating with Oz’s clear, honest, and humorous voice, What Makes an Apple? offers unique insights about Oz’s artistic and personal evolution, and enables readers to explore his work in new ways.
What Mama Taught Me: The Seven Core Values of Life
by Tony BrownMillions of viewers of Tony Brown's Journal, the longest-running series on PBS, know Tony Brown as an advocate for self-reliance and self-enrichment. Now, in his most personal book yet, he introduces us to the woman who brought him up and taught him the seven core values he lives by to this day: reality, knowledge, race, history, truth, patience, and love. What Mama Taught Me states that only by understanding one's place in the world can one become free in mind and spirit, which is the path to true success. Brown argues that by following other people's rules, we betray ourselves and our desires, resulting in a vicious cycle of disconnection, unhappiness, and spiritual death. Enhanced by the homespun storytelling he heard as a child, this is Brown's personal recipe for achievement, imparting values that provide a blueprint for reaching success and happiness -- on one's own terms.
What Matters Most: A Collection Of Pieces
by Chris WoodheadDiscovering the passions of Chris Woodhead. Collected writings from a man who stimulated controversy and roused passions.Best known as the Chief Inspector of Schools who demanded higher standards across the board, Woodhead was admired and condemned in equal measure for his determination to confront taboos and bring them into the national education debate.His final and greatest challenge was with Motor Neurone Disease, a condition he faced with strength and empathy until his death in 2015. While his education journalism stands at the core of this book, What Matters Most explores Woodhead's lesser known passions, literature and climbing, which he writes about with the precision and clarity that became his journalistic hallmark.In the final pages of the book Woodhead shares his personal views on assisted dying, advocating for individuals to be permitted to die with dignity at a time of their choosing.What Matters Most: A Collection of Pieces is a fascinating and poignant book which tracks the life and beliefs of a truly inspirational contemporary thinker.
What Matters Most: The Get Your Sh*t Together Guide to Wills, Money, Insurance, and Life's "What-ifs"
by Chanel ReynoldsPart-memoir, part-guidebook, this is a practical look at getting your affairs in order before the unthinkable (or inevitable) occurs.On July 17, 2009, Chanel Reynolds’s husband, José, was struck by a van, then died one week later. Just hours after the accident, Chanel realized that she was completely unprepared for what came next: What was the password to his phone? Were their wills legally binding? How much insurance did they have? Could she afford the house? And what the hell was probate anyway? Simply put, she didn’t have her shit together.The truth is, most of us don’t.Drawn rom firsthand experience, expert advice, and the unparalleled resources of her celebrated website, Get Your Shit Together, this honest, no-nonsense guide provides step-by-step practical advice to help you with:Checklists: What to do before, during, and after a crisisLegal documents: Create your will, living will, and power of attorneyCovering your ass: Get enough of the right life insuranceGet your money sorted: Emergency funds, savings, and budgetsMake a “what-if” list: Have a watertight emergency planDigital details: Track your online accounts and passwordsPraise for What Matters MostNamed One of the Top 10 Self-Help Books by The Seattle Times“Chanel’s wisdom is a gift. . . . What Matters Most offers you the chance to find, and consider, those critical answers.” —Rebecca Soffer, coauthor of Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.“A rallying cry for us all to get our sh*t together before it’s too late.” —Caitlin Doughty, New York Times–bestselling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes“Not only sound counseling but a straightforward plan for when the unthinkable occurs.” —Library Journal (Best Wellness Book)
What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark
by Gareth O'CallaghanGareth O'Callaghan is one of Irish radio's most popular and familiar voices.In 2018, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, he retired from fulltime work and gave up the career in radio that he had loved for decades. Here, in this deeply personal memoir, he tells his story of love and hope. From the moments after his doctor uttered the words Multiple System Atrophy -- a neurological disease that is both progressive and incurable, and ultimately carries a fatal prognosis -- to how, drawing on inner reserves and determination, he pulled himself from the darkness to come to terms with a new way of living.With his trademark empathy, insight and honesty, he looks at how, no matter what the circumstances, we can choose how we live and that every life must be lived to the fullest. "For me, this is not a choice. It's all I want, namely a full and loving life that I strive to choose every day over everything else - considering that maybe the big odds are heavily stacked against that. But I don't care what the odds might be; I'll keep defying them for as long as I can keep fighting and living."
What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark
by Gareth O'CallaghanFrom the Number One Bestselling author comes his powerful memoir.Gareth O'Callaghan is one of Irish radio's most popular and familiar voices. In 2018, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, he retired from full-time work and gave up the career in radio that he had loved for decades. Here, in this deeply personal memoir, he tells his story of love and hope. From the moments after his doctor uttered the words Multiple System Atrophy -- a neurological disease that is both progressive and incurable, and ultimately carries a fatal prognosis -- to how, drawing on inner reserves and determination, he pulled himself from the darkness to come to terms with a new way of living.With his trademark empathy, insight and honesty, he looks at how, no matter what the circumstances, we can choose how we live and that every life must be lived to the fullest. "For me, this is not a choice. It's all I want, namely a full and loving life that I strive to choose every day over everything else - considering that maybe the big odds are heavily stacked against that. But I don't care what the odds might be; I'll keep defying them for as long as I can keep fighting and living."(P)2021 Hachette Books Ireland
What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark
by Gareth O'Callaghan'Heart-breaking and uplifting, I defy anyone to read this memoir and not be affected by O'Callaghan's honesty and humanity' Irish TimesIn 2018, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, broadcaster Gareth O'Callaghan retired from full-time work and gave up the career that he had loved for decades.In this deeply personal and inspiring memoir he tells that story, from the moments after his doctor uttered the words Multiple System Atrophy - a progressive and incurable neurological disease that ultimately carries a fatal prognosis - to his struggle to come to terms with a life unplanned.Recounted with insight and searing honesty, What Matters Now reveals how, regardless of circumstance, we can choose how we live, to the fullest. A stunning and life-affirming account of the power of the human spirit, and the potential for hope even in the darkest times."For me, this is not a choice. It's all I want, namely a full and loving life that I strive to choose every day over everything else - considering that maybe the big odds are heavily stacked against that. But I don't care what the odds might be; I'll keep defying them for as long as I can keep fighting and living."
What Matters Now: A Memoir of Hope and Finding a Way Through the Dark
by Gareth O'Callaghan'Heart-breaking and uplifting, I defy anyone to read this memoir and not be affected by O'Callaghan's honesty and humanity' Irish TimesIn 2018, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, broadcaster Gareth O'Callaghan retired from full-time work and gave up the career that he had loved for decades.In this deeply personal and inspiring memoir he tells that story, from the moments after his doctor uttered the words Multiple System Atrophy - a progressive and incurable neurological disease that ultimately carries a fatal prognosis - to his struggle to come to terms with a life unplanned.Recounted with insight and searing honesty, What Matters Now reveals how, regardless of circumstance, we can choose how we live, to the fullest. A stunning and life-affirming account of the power of the human spirit, and the potential for hope even in the darkest times."For me, this is not a choice. It's all I want, namely a full and loving life that I strive to choose every day over everything else - considering that maybe the big odds are heavily stacked against that. But I don't care what the odds might be; I'll keep defying them for as long as I can keep fighting and living."
What Matters in Medicine: Lessons from a Life in Primary Care
by David LoxterkampPrimary care has come into the limelight with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the unchecked and unsustainable rise in American health care expenditures, and the crest of Baby Boomers who are now Medicare-eligible and entering the most health care-intensive period of their lives. Yet how much is really known about primary care? What Matters in Medicine: Lessons from a Life in Primary Care is a look at the past, present, and future of general practice, which is not only the predecessor to the modern primary care movement, but its foundation. Through memoir and conversation, Dr. David Loxterkamp reflects on the heroes and role models who drew him to family medicine and on his many years in family practice in a rural Maine community, and provides a prescription for change in the way that doctors and patients approach their shared contract for good health and a happy life. This book will be useful to those on both sides of primary care, doctors and patients alike.
What Matters: Reflections on Important Things in Life
by Mary KennedyIn this book of consideration and appreciation, best-selling author and broadcaster Mary Kennedy takes stock of her life and those things most important in it. She considers what makes us strong, and how we can develop resilience in the world through knowing ourselves from within, and knowing our roots. She considers the nature of family and friendship too, and how a mother's role changes over time.Food, fashion, beauty - 'the eyes of the heart' - and the creative arts are all explored, along with honest reflections on the challenges and uncertainties of life, and how we maintain hope and faith in the face of loss. Ultimately, she asks how, as we get older, we can change our world for the better, for those who follow in our footsteps.What Matters is the perfect bedside book to read for solace and inspiration - and the ideal gift for someone important in your life.
What Matters: Reflections on Important Things in Life
by Mary KennedyIn this book of consideration and appreciation, best-selling author and broadcaster Mary Kennedy takes stock of her life and those things most important in it. She considers what makes us strong, and how we can develop resilience in the world through knowing ourselves from within, and knowing our roots. She considers the nature of family and friendship too, and how a mother's role changes over time.Food, fashion, beauty - 'the eyes of the heart' - and the creative arts are all explored, along with honest reflections on the challenges and uncertainties of life, and how we maintain hope and faith in the face of loss. Ultimately, she asks how, as we get older, we can change our world for the better, for those who follow in our footsteps.What Matters is the perfect bedside book to read for solace and inspiration - and the ideal gift for someone important in your life.
What Matters: Spiritual Nourishment for Head and Heart
by Frederick FranckAfter his nearly 100 years of seeding, Franck's reflections on what really matters will help you to savor what truly matters in your own life. "Could the meaning of being born human be, to become Human?" This elegantly simple book of reflections presents the rich harvest of a lifetime of thinking, feeling, and seeing by an artist, whose vital spirituality has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers and students through his art, books, and workshops. The pithy, sometimes humorous, always wise contemplations reveal Franck's lifelong confrontation with the human in himself and others. Originally jotted down as reflections for himself and close friends, Franck's insights will challenge you to consider new ways of experiencing your spiritual path and to savor what truly matters.
What Milly Did: The Remarkable Pioneer of Plastics Recycling
by Elise MoserThe extraordinary story of the woman who made plastics recycling possible. Milly Zantow wanted to solve the problem of her town’s full landfill and ended up creating a global recycling standard — the system of numbers you see inside the little triangle on plastics. This is the inspiring story of how she mobilized her community, creating sweeping change to help the environment. On a trip to Japan in 1978, Milly noticed that people were putting little bundles out on the street each morning. They were recycling — something that hadn’t taken hold in North America. When she returned to Sauk City, Wisconsin, she discovered that her town’s landfill was nearing capacity, and that plastic made up a large part of the garbage. No one was recycling plastics. Milly decided to figure out how. She discovered that there are more than seven kinds of plastic, and they can’t be combined for recycling, so she learned how to use various tests to identify them. Then she found a company willing to use recycled plastic, but the plastic would have to be ground up first. Milly and her friend bought a huge industrial grinder and established E-Z Recycling. They worked with local school children and their community, and they helped other communities start their own recycling programs. But Milly knew that the large-scale recycling of plastics would never work unless people could easily identify the seven types. She came up with the idea of placing an identifying number in the little recycling triangle, which has become the international standard. Milly's story is a glimpse into the early days of the recycling movement and shows how, thanks to her determination, hard work and community-building, huge changes took place, spreading rapidly across North America. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
What Music!: The Fifty-year Friendship between Beethoven and Nannette Streicher, Who Built His Pianos
by Laurie LawlorStrings quivered. Notes shimmered. Meet best friends acclaimed composer Ludwig van Beethoven and bold female entrepreneur Nannette Streicher in this lively and lyrical nonfiction picture book.In a tall, narrow building on a wide avenue pianos plinked and plunked day and night.Everyone in quiet Augsburg knew the Stein home.What music!In 1787, aspiring yet unknown composer Ludwig van Beethoven arrives at young Nannette Stein&’s home. What follows is a decades-long friendship that persists whether life hits a low or high note. Acclaimed nonfiction writer Laurie Lawlor deftly depicts how these two fascinating friends—a composer with hearing loss and a woman who became an innovative piano maker in a time that discouraged female entrepreneurship—fought the odds and worked together in perfect harmony. The author of picture book biography Fearless World Traveler, Lawlor masterfully uses forgotten historical letters, a glossary, and rich back matter on both friends&’ lives and art to introduce readers to the man behind the music, from his loud laughter to his crushing handshake. Complete with Fearless World Traveler collaborator Becca Stadtlander&’s intricate mixed-media artwork, What Music deftly dives into musical history–and herstory–in an intimate yet expansive picture book biography that hits just the right note.
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
by Stephanie FooNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life&“Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.&”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to SomeoneONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Mashable, She Reads, Publishers WeeklyBy age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.Both of Foo&’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she&’d moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don&’t move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman&’s ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.
What My Brother Knew: A Memoir
by Kristina AmelongFor readers who were inspired by Alua Arthur&’s Briefly Perfectly Human, an emotional, eye-opening account of one woman&’s journey from loss and abuse to healing and spiritual awakening. As a boy, Jay Amelong predicted the accident that caused his death, down to the color of the car that hit him. &“I will die young, while riding my bike,&” he told friends and family repeatedly. &“It won&’t be much longer, I want you to be prepared.&” These were baffling words to hear from the mouth of a content thirteen-year-old—but when Kristina Amelong was only seventeen, her brother&’s tragic death unfolded exactly as he said it would, radically changing her life. Propelled down a self-destructive path of drug addiction and reckless sex, Kristina spent much of her young adult years wanting to die. Once or twice she came close. Always, Jay&’s bizarre story and his inexplicable acceptance of his own death lived in her body. More than thirty years after losing Jay, Kristina embarks on a journey of discovery, seeking truth about herself, her brother, and the universe. The result of her investigation is a memoir that defies belief. Charting a life path from loss and abuse to healing and spiritual awakening, What My Brother Knew demonstrates the transformative power of facing the mystery of death head-on and our incredible ability, as humans, to do just that.
What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most
by Elizabeth BenedictIn What My Mother Gave Me, women look at the relationships between mothers and daughters through a new lens: a daughter’s story of a gift from her mother that has touched her to the bone and served as a model, a metaphor, or a touchstone in her own life. The contributors of these thirty-one original pieces include Pulitzer Prize winners, perennial bestselling novelists, and celebrated broadcast journalists.Whether a gift was meant to keep a daughter warm, put a roof over her head, instruct her in the ways of womanhood, encourage her talents, or just remind her of a mother’s love, each story gets to the heart of a relationship. Rita Dove remembers the box of nail polish that inspired her to paint her nails in the wild stripes and polka dots she wears to this day. Lisa See writes about the gift of writing from her mother, Carolyn See. Cecilia Muñoz remembers both the wok her mother gave her and a lifetime of home-cooked family meals. Judith Hillman Paterson revisits the year of sobriety her mother bequeathed to her when Paterson was nine, the year before her mother died of alcoholism. Abigail Pogrebin writes about her middle-aged bat mitzvah, for which her mother provided flowers after a lifetime of guilt for skipping her daughter’s religious education. Margo Jefferson writes about her mother’s gold dress from the posh department store where they could finally shop as black women. Collectively, the pieces have a force that feels as elemental as the tides: outpourings of lightness and darkness; joy and grief; mother love and daughter love; mother love and daughter rage. In these stirring words we find that every gift, ?no matter how modest, tells the story of a powerful bond. As Elizabeth Benedict points out in her introduction, “whether we are mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, or cherished friends, we may not know for quite some time which presents will matter the most."
What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence (What We Don't Talk About #1)
by Michele Filgate&“You will devour these beautifully written—and very important—tales of honesty, pain, and resilience&” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls) from fifteen brilliant writers who explore how what we don&’t talk about with our mothers affects us, for better or for worse.As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer&’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn&’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything. As Filgate writes, &“Our mothers are our first homes, and that&’s why we&’re always trying to return to them.&” There&’s relief in acknowledging how what we couldn&’t say for so long is a way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves. Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.
What Needs to Be Said: Speak Your Truth, Release Shame, Find Oneness
by Alex ReeganAlex Reegan&’s incredible story of healing and growth is your call to look within and live as your most authentic self.As a trans man born into an evangelical Christian family that prevented his true identity from emerging, Alex spent years struggling with depression, anxiety, and addiction, trying to break free of the oppressive beliefs that bound him. After years of fighting—for his life, his freedom, and his truth—Alex learnt to surrender and come home to himself.In this part memoir, part self-help book, Alex weaves his own story with healing guidance for you to take away and implement in your own life. You&’ll find uplifting messages of compassion that will encourage you to let go of the things that are no longer serving you, as well as exercises such as journaling, self-reflection, and meditation to help you begin to heal and reclaim your connection to the divine that is within all of us.This powerful book, with its raw honesty, vulnerability, and wisdom shows you how Alex rediscovered and embraced his authentic self and gives you what you need to do the same.