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Without a Map: A Memoir
by Meredith HallMeredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally her blood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief. When he is twenty-one, her lost son finds her. Hall learns that he grew up in gritty poverty with an abusive father—in her own father's hometown. Their reunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall's parents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offers them her love. What sets Without a Map apart is the way in which loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom.
Without a Trace: A Novel
by Danielle SteelNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, a powerful story about fighting for a chance at happiness—whatever the cost.Charles Vincent seems to have it all—a beautiful wife, two successful children, and a well-paying career. Yet happiness remains out of reach. He is trapped in a loveless marriage and his job is simply a paycheck. But his life changes forever one night as he drives along the Normandy coast, heading to their lavish château for the weekend. In one terrifying moment, Charles falls asleep at the wheel and veers off the road, plunging thirty feet down the face of a rocky cliff.Miraculously, Charles survives. After gathering the courage to climb to safety, he starts to walk—bruised, bloody, and desperate for help. In the dark of night, he happens upon a cabin where he meets the kind and beautiful Aude Saint-Martin. They have an instant connection, and as she nurses him back to health, Charles begins to discover the passion he&’s been missing for so many years.In the aftermath of the crash, Charles has a startling realization: He doesn&’t have to go back. He could simply choose to disappear, to walk away from his old life. When his car is discovered, he&’ll be presumed dead, washed away at sea. If he stays with Aude, he has a chance at a fuller, happier life that he didn&’t know was possible. It all seems too good to resist. But Aude has secrets of her own, and before long their pasts catch up to them, threatening everything they have fought to build.What would happen if you were given a chance to walk away from everything in your life and start over with a blank slate, and you had a split second to decide? In Without a Trace, Danielle Steel tells an irresistible story of the risks two people are willing to take in exchange for a chance at the life they&’ve always wanted.
Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother
by Peggy O'Donnell HeffingtonA historian explores the complicated relationship between womanhood and motherhood in this &“timely, refreshingly open-hearted study of the choices women make and the cards they&’re dealt&” (Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can&’t Sleep). In an era of falling births, it&’s often said that millennials invented the idea of not having kids. But history is full of women without children: some who chose childless lives, others who wanted children but never had them, and still others—the vast majority, then and now—who fell somewhere in between. Modern women considering how and if children fit into their lives are products of their political, ecological, and cultural moment. But history also tells them that they are not alone. Drawing on deep research and her own experience as a woman without children, historian Peggy O&’Donnell Heffington shows that many of the reasons women are not having children today are ones they share with women in the past: a lack of support, their jobs or finances, environmental concerns, infertility, and the desire to live different kinds of lives. Understanding this history—how normal it has always been to not have children, and how hard society has worked to make it seem abnormal—is key, she writes, to rebuilding kinship between mothers and non-mothers, and to building a better world for us all.
Without Him: Maybe She's Better Off?
by Fiona O'BrienThe dazzling new bestseller from Fiona O'Brien.One moment, Shelley has everything - three beautiful children, an adoring property magnate husband, and the life of her dreams. Then Charlie's business empire crashes and he vanishes. While their privileged beautiful daughters Olivia and Emma have to come to terms with being broke, eleven-year-old Mac refuses to talk about what happened. When Charlie's estranged mother, Vera opens her doors to the broken family, secrets emerge that reveal there was more to Charlie than meets the eye. But Charlie's shell shocked family aren't the only ones asking questions . . . The darkly enigmatic Russian billionaire Lukaz Mihailov arrives in Dublin with some unfinished business. What better way to track down Charlie than befriend his pretty and very vulnerable, abandoned wife Shelley . . . Is blood is always thicker than water? Maybe Charlie's family are simply better off without him ....
Without Looking Back
by Tabitha SuzumaTwelve-year-old Parisian boy Louis Whittaker has a lot on his plate - his parents are locked in a custody battle over him and his brother and sister, Mum's always working late and Dad's rarely allowed to visit them. Louis finds release in his dance classes and discovers he has a real talent for ballet. But suddenly, Dad whisks them away on a surprise holiday to England, right in the middle of the school term. Something isn't right - Dad is acting strangely again: could it be he has not fully recovered from his mental breakdown? The rented farmhouse in the Lake District is nice, but why is Dad furnishing it and why won't he let them call home? Then Louis comes across a poster - a missing person's poster. And it has his face on it.
Without Merit: A Novel
by Colleen HooverA moving and haunting story of family, love and the power of truth, by international bestselling author Colleen Hoover ‘Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.’ The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, the once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then there’s Merit. Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. Then she meets Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her – until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix. Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves. Poignant and powerful, Without Merit explores the layers of lies that tie a family together and the power of love and truth.
Without Shame: The Addict's Mom and Her Family Share Their Stories of Pain and Healing
by Barbara TheodosiouBarbara Theodosiou and her family reveal the pain, loss, and connection that emerge from addiction, trauma, codependency, and recovery in this unique view into the heart of a national crisis. The ringing phone startles Barbara during another sleepless night. She knows it must be Daniel, her big-hearted, intelligent son who has spent years cycling through hospitals, jails, and treatment centers. Although Daniel’s childhood struggles started much earlier, he was sixteen when Barbara discovered he was horribly addicted to DXM, the drug found in many over-the-counter cough medicines. After picking up the pieces from one more of her son’s relapses, Barbara seeks support in the online refuge she created when she had nowhere else to turn: The Addict’s Mom. There, she can "Share Without Shame” with others who understand. These other mothers know that it can become normal to hope your son will be locked up so he isn’t sleeping on the street. These other moms understand how it feels to realize you have not just one addicted child but two--Barbara discovered her oldest son Peter’s addiction just six months after Daniel’s. And when that happens, sometimes all a mother can do is try to save herself. But this isn’t just a mother’s story. Without Shame encompasses Daniel’s own poetry and prose, Peter’s story of healing against all odds, their sister Nicole’s story of balancing compassion and independence, and other often unheard voices. This multifaceted story reveals what it truly means to describe addiction as a family disease.
Without Tess
by Marcella PixleyTess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can't live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever. Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess's battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.
Without Warning and Only Sometimes
by Kit De WaalFrom the award-winning author of MY NAME IS LEON, THE TRICK TO TIME and SUPPORTING CAST comes a childhood memoir set to become a classic: stinging, warm-hearted, and true. <p><p>Kit de Waal grew up in a household of opposites and extremes. Her haphazard mother rarely cooked, forbade Christmas and birthdays, worked as a cleaner, nurse and childminder, sometimes all at once and believed the world would end in 1975. <p><p>Meanwhile, her father stuffed barrels full of goodies for his relatives in the Caribbean, cooked elaborate meals on a whim and splurged money they didn't have on cars, suits and shoes fit for a prince. <p><p>Both of her parents were waiting for paradise. It never came. <p><p>Caught between three worlds, Irish, Caribbean and British in 1960s Birmingham, Kit and her brothers and sisters knew all the words to the best songs, caught sticklebacks in jam jars and braved hunger and hellfire until they could all escape. <p><p>WITHOUT WARNING AND ONLY SOMETIMES is a story of an extraordinary childhood and how a girl who grew up in house where the Bible was the only book on offer went on to discover a love of reading that inspires her to this day. (P) 2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Without Warning and Only Sometimes: Quick Reads 2024
by Kit de WaalKit de Waal and her brother and sisters had a hard childhood in the West Midlands. Her Irish mother didn't feed them, didn't believe in Christmas or birthdays, and thought the world would end in 1975. Her father saved all his money to return to the Caribbean, where he planned to make a new life without them. At school, their faces just didn't fit in. This is the story of how Kit and her brother and sisters helped each other escape, and what gave Kit the strength to keep living.
Without Warning and Only Sometimes: Quick Reads 2024
by Kit de WaalKit de Waal and her brother and sisters had a hard childhood in the West Midlands. Her Irish mother didn't feed them, didn't believe in Christmas or birthdays, and thought the world would end in 1975. Her father saved all his money to return to the Caribbean, where he planned to make a new life without them. At school, their faces just didn't fit in. This is the story of how Kit and her brother and sisters helped each other escape, and what gave Kit the strength to keep living.
Without You
by Saskia Sarginson1984 - Suffolk, England. When 17-year-old Eva goes missing at sea, everyone presumes that she drowned. Her parents' relationship is falling apart, undermined by guilt and grief. But her younger sister, Faith, refuses to consider a life without Eva; she's determined to find her sister and bring her home alive. Close to the shore looms the shape of an island -- out of bounds, mysterious, and dotted with windowless concrete huts. What nobody knows is that inside one of the huts Eva is being held captive. That she is fighting to survive -- and return home...
Without You: An emotionally turbulent thriller by Richard & Judy bestselling author
by Saskia Sarginson'Atmospheric, readable, beautifully evoked' Sunday Mirror From the Richard & Judy bestselling author of The Twins - Without You is a captivating blend of mystery, thriller and emotional family drama, that will leave you unsettled, even as it touches your heart.1984, SuffolkWhen 17-year-old Eva goes missing at sea, everyone presumes that she drowned. Her parents' relationship is falling apart, undermined by guilt and grief. But her younger sister, Faith, refuses to consider a life without Eva; she's determined to find her sister and bring her home alive.Close to the shore looms the shape of an island - out of bounds, mysterious, and dotted with windowless concrete huts. What nobody knows is that inside one of the huts Eva is being held captive. That she is fighting to survive - and return home.Praise for Saskia Sarginson:'Outstandingly good. Part thriller, part love story, I guarantee you will not be able to put it down' Sun on The Twins'Immersive, gripping, will pull at your heartstrings' Gilly Macmillan on The Stranger'Stunning in its insight and beautifully written' Judy Finnigan on The Twins'A stunning writer with deep insight into people, their thoughts and behaviour' NZ Women's Weekly
Without You: An emotionally turbulent thriller by Richard & Judy bestselling author
by Saskia Sarginson1984, SuffolkWhen 17-year-old Eva goes missing at sea, everyone presumes that she drowned. Her parents' relationship is falling apart, undermined by guilt and grief. But her younger sister, Faith, refuses to consider a life without Eva; she's determined to find her sister and bring her home alive.Close to the shore looms the shape of an island - out of bounds, mysterious, and dotted with windowless concrete huts. What nobody knows is that inside one of the huts Eva is being held captive. That she is fighting to survive - and return home.In a captivating blend of mystery, thriller and emotional family drama, Without You will leave you unsettled, even as it touches your heart.
A Witness to Life: Shadow Of Ashland, A Witness To Life, And St. Patrick's Bed (The Ashland Trilogy #2)
by Terence M. Green&“A beautiful novel&” of life and death, past and present, and the thin lines that lie between them (The Toronto Star). On a streetcar, on Christmas Day, 1950, clutching the chrome rail in front of him, Martin Radey looks at the woman seated beside him, a stranger, and utters his last words: &“I can&’t breathe.&” Like millions, billions before him, it is his turn to die. But death is not what he expected. The journey has only begun. From 1880 to 1950, time happens to the world around him, not to memory, because memory, he discovers, is beyond time, traveling forward with him, shaping the earth, the sky, the heart. The prequel to the widely celebrated Shadow of Ashland, A Witness to Life &“is an emotionally charged experience that will not soon be forgotten.&” (Dallas Morning News)
Wits Guts Grit: All-natural Biohacks For Raising Smart, Resilient Kids
by Jena PincottWits Guts Grit is inspired by the many questions acclaimed science writer and mother Jena Pincott explored about the natural forces that shape children's minds and health. What if we identify the microbes that support stress resilience and find ways to expose our kids to them? What if we reintroduce the mineral magnesium, deficient in almost every child's diet? Would it reduce anxiety and increase bounce back, as the science now suggests? What if memory and learning could improve measurably after eating certain foods—such as blueberries—high in plant chemicals called flavonols, or after certain forms of exercise? These and many more questions led Pincott to simple, all-natural "biohacks"—experiments inspired by current research and theory—complete with instructions on how to undertake them to help your own children strengthen their wits, guts, and grit. Explaining the science and her own experimentation with her two gung-ho daughters in a lively, accessible way, Pincott shows parents how the underlying ingredients of the traits we all want for our kids—resilience, focus, perseverance, working memory, and more—may be all around us in the natural world, ready to be harnessed.
Wives and Daughters: An Every-day Story, Volume 2... (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Elizabeth GaskellMolly Gibson is a small-town girl in England during the 1830s, kind-hearted but unwise in the ways of the world. Her widower father sends her to stay with the aristocrats of Hamley Hall, where she befriends both of the family's sons, learning the elder's dark secret while falling in love with the younger. But her father has remarried in her absence, and in addition to a selfish and ambitious stepmother, Molly has acquired a stepsister who quickly becomes a rival for the younger Hamley's affections.Molly's strikingly realistic coming-of-age story, recounted with humor and pathos, depicts the consequences of both good and bad marriages as well as the dynamics of changing relationships within family. Elizabeth Gaskell develops timeless themes of friendship, love, money, and tragedy amid a portrait of a rapidly changing Victorian world. Her richly drawn characters and their preoccupation with social behavior and moral issues provide thought-provoking entertainment in the manner of Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, and George Eliot.
Wives and Daughters: An Every-day Story, Volume 2... (Barnes And Noble Classics Ser.)
by Elizabeth GaskellSecrets and scandals steer a young woman&’s life as she comes of age and finds love in Victorian England. Seventeen-year-old Molly Gibson has grown up under the watchful eye of her widowed father, the doctor Mr. Gibson. After one of his apprentices develops an interest in Molly, Mr. Gibson feels the only way to protect her is to send her to live with the Hamley family. With his daughter away, Gibson decides to remarry, giving Molly a new mother and sister. Although her stepmother is manipulative, Molly gains an ally in her stepsister, Cynthia, who is educated, worldly, and irresistible to just about any man she meets. Growing closer to the Hamleys and her new stepsister, Molly also finds herself mired in their scandals—and the town&’s gossip. If she hopes to set things right, she must risk her own reputation, as well as the man she secretly loves. By the author of Mary Barton and North and South, this is a story of love, family, and the challenges of both, as relevant today as it was in the nineteenth century.
Wives, Husbands, and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China
by Sara L. Friedman Deborah S. DavisWhat is the state of intimate romantic relationships and marriage in urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? Since the 1980's, the character of intimate life in these urban settings has changed dramatically. While many speculate about the 21st century as Asia's century, this book turns to the more intimate territory of sexuality and marriage—and observes the unprecedented changes in the law and popular expectations for romantic bonds and the creation of new families. Wives, Husbands, and Lovers examines how sexual relationships and marriage are perceived and practiced under new developments within each urban location, including the establishment of no fault divorce laws, lower rates of childbearing within marriage, and the increased tolerance for non-marital and non-heterosexual intimate relationships. The authors also chronicle what happens when states remove themselves from direct involvement in some features of marriage but not others. Tracing how the marital "rules of the game" have changed substantially across the region, this book challenges long-standing assumptions that marriage is the universally preferred status for all men and women, that extramarital sexuality is incompatible with marriage, or that marriage necessarily unites a man and a woman. This book illustrates the wide range of potential futures for marriage, sexuality, and family across these societies.
Wives Like Us: A Novel
by Plum Sykes“Wives Like Us made me laugh so hard I actually knocked over my lamp. Can a book be so wickedly smart, so effortless, so chic and hilarious that you would stumble through the night to find a new lightbulb just so you can keep reading way past your bedtime? In a word, yes." —Kevin KwanTake a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcee, three rich wives, two tycoons, a pair of miniature sausage dogs and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes the impossibly funny Wives Like Us, the new novel from the best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes and Party Girls Die In Pearls, Plum Sykes.If you think the English countryside is all green wellies, muddy Land Rovers and grey-haired ladies in tweed, then you’ve never visited ‘The Bottoms.’Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire, and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess. Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband Bryan a lesson.But things don’t go to plan: Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door, is refusing Tata’s overtures at friendship; Tata’s best friends, Sophie Thompson and Fernanda Ovington-Williams, are distracted by their own heartache, and the posh Pennybacker-Hoare sisters are plotting to prevent Tata regaining her crown as Queen of the Bottoms. Worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers.Will Tata ever return to the comforts of the Manor? Will Selby find her Prince Charming? Will the Pennybacker-Hoares prevail? With the help of a pig farmer-ess moonlighting as a Personal Assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand and a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, can Ian restore harmony to The Bottoms?
The Wives of Henry Oades: A Novel
by Johanna MoranWhen Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected--and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children. For months, Henry scours the surrounding wilderness, until all hope is lost and his wife and children are presumed dead. Grief-stricken, he books passage to California. There he marries Nancy Foreland, a young widow with a new baby, and it seems they've both found happiness in the midst of their mourning--until Henry's first wife and children show up, alive and having finally escaped captivity. Narrated primarily by the two wives, and based on a real-life legal case, The Wives of Henry Oades is the riveting story of what happens when Henry, Margaret, and Nancy face persecution for bigamy. Exploring the intricacies of marriage, the construction of family, the changing world of the late 1800s, and the strength of two remarkable women, Johanna Moran turns this unusual family's story into an unforgettable page-turning drama.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Wiving: A Memoir of Loving Then Leaving the Patriarchy
by Caitlin MyerThe Most Anticipated Memoirs of 2020, She Reads • Bay Area Authors to Read This Summer, 7X7 A literary memoir of one woman's journey from wife to warrior, in the vein of breakout hits like Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle. At thirty-six years old, Caitlin Myer is ready to start a family with her husband. She has left behind the restrictive confines of her Mormon upbringing and early sexual trauma and believes she is now living her happily ever after . . . when her body betrays her. In a single week, she suffers the twin losses of a hysterectomy and the death of her mother, and she is jolted into a terrible awakening that forces her to reckon with her past—and future. This is the story of one woman&’s lifelong combat with a culture—her &“escape&” from religion at age twenty, only to find herself similarly entrapped in the gender conventions of the secular culture at large, conventions that teach girls and women to shape themselves to please men, to become good wives and mothers. The biblical characters Yael and Judith, wives who became assassins, become her totems as she evolves from wifely submission to warrior independence. An electric debut that loudly redefines our notions of womanhood, Wiving grapples with the intersections of religion and sex, trauma and love, sickness and mental illness, and a woman&’s harrowing enlightenment. Building on the literary tradition of difficult women who struggle to be heard, Wiving introduces an urgent, striking voice to the scene of contemporary women&’s writing at a time when we must explode old myths and build new stories in their place.
The Wizard Heir (Heir Series Book #2)
by Cinda Williams ChimaSixteen-year-old Seph McCauley has spent the past three years getting kicked out of one exclusive private school after another. Seph is a wizard, orphaned and untrained, and his powers are escalating out of control.
Wizardmatch
by Lauren MagazinerTake the hilarious, magic-infused world of Eva Ibbotson's Which Witch, add the lovable feuding family from The Incredibles, and you'll get Wizardmatch--funny, fantastical, action-packed, and totally heartwarming.Twelve-year-old Lennie Mercado loves magic. She practices her invisibility powers all the time (she can now stay invisible for fifteen seconds!), and she dreams of the day that she can visit her grandfather, the Prime Wizard de Pomporromp, at his magical estate.Now Lennie has her chance. Poppop has decided to retire, and his grandchildren are coming from all over to compete in Wizardmatch. The winner inherits his title, his castle, and every single one of his unlimited magical powers. The losers get nothing. Lennie is desperate to win, but when Poppop creates a new rule to quelch any sibling rivalry, her thoughts turn from winning Wizardmatch to sabotaging it...even if it means betraying her family.Comedic, touching, and page-turny, Wizardmatch is perfect for fans of Mr. Lemoncello's Library, The Gollywopper Games, and The Candymakers.
The Wizards of Wyrd World (Way-Too-Real Aliens #3)
by Pamela F. ServiceJosh Higgins and his sister Maggie have vowed not to use the alien gizmo that lets them visit other worlds. But when Josh's favorite writer comes to town, the temptation is too much. Along with famous author P. L. Cuthbertson, Josh and Maggie prepare to visit the land of Cuthbertson's books: Wyrd World. As soon as the crew arrives, some of Wyrd World's thuggish locals mistake P.L. for a wizard—and that's not a good thing. Josh and Maggie begin a rescue mission, sneaking through fortresses and dungeons. But to challenge the planet's evil rulers, they'll have to unite a group of rebels and outcasts who would just as soon fight each other. . . .