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Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: The New York Times bestseller
by Lauren HoughSearing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.'Hough's writing will break your heart' - Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women'An edgy and unapologetic memoir in essays' - Kirkus Reviews'This moving account of resilience and hard-earned agency brims with a fresh originality' - Publishers WeeklySearing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe--to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile--but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond "The Family."Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. She's taken pilgrimages to the sights of her youth, been kept in solitary confinement, dated a lot of women, dabbled in drugs, and eventually found herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Leaving Iran: Between Migration and Exile
by Goldin FaridehIn 1976, at the age of twenty-three, Farideh Goldin left Iran in search of her imagined America. She sought an escape from the suffocation she felt under the cultural rules of her country and the future her family had envisioned for her. While she settled uneasily into American life, the political unrest in Iran intensified and in February of 1979, Farideh’s family was forced to flee Iran on the last El-Al flights to Tel Aviv. They arrived in Israel as refugees, having left everything behind including the only home Farideh’s father had ever known. Baba, as Farideh called her father, was a well-respected son of the chief rabbi and dayan of the Jews of Shiraz. During his last visit to the United States in 2006, he handed Farideh his memoir that chronicled the years of his life after exile: the confiscation of his passport while he attempted to return to Iran for his belongings, the resulting years of loneliness as he struggled against a hostile bureaucracy to return to his wife and family in Israel, and the eventual loss of the poultry farm that had supported his family. Farideh translated her father’s memoir along with other documents she found in a briefcase after his death. Leaving Iran knits together her father’s story of dislocation and loss with her own experience as an Iranian Jew in a newly adopted home. As an intimate portrait of displacement and the construction of identity, as a story of family loyalty and cultural memory, Leaving Iran is an important addition to a growing body of Iranian–American narratives.
Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents
by Minal HajratwalaThe PEN Award–winning chronicle of the Indian diaspora told through the stories of the author&’s own family. In this &“rich, entertaining and illuminating story,&” Minal Hajratwala mixes history, memoir, and reportage to explore the collisions of choice and history that led her family to emigrate from India (San Francisco Chronicle). &“Meticulously researched and evocatively written&” (The Washington Post), Leaving India looks for answers to the eternal questions that faced not only Hajratwala&’s own Indian family but all immigrants, everywhere: Where did we come from? Why did we leave? What did we give up and gain in the process? Beginning with her great-grandfather Motiram&’s original flight from British-occupied India to Fiji, where he rose from tailor to department store mogul, Hajratwala follows her ancestors across the twentieth-century to explain how they came to be spread across five continents and nine countries. As she delves into the relationship between personal choice and the great historical forces—British colonialism, apartheid, Gandhi&’s salt march, and American immigration policy—that helped shape her family&’s experiences, Hajratwala brings to light for the very first time the story of the Indian diaspora. A luminous narrative from &“a fine daughter of the continent, bringing insight, intelligence and compassion to the lives and sojourns of her far-flung kin,&” Leaving India offers a deeply intimate look at what it means to call more than one part of the world home (Alice Walker).
Leaving Home, A Memoir
by Art BuchwaldThe early years of a humorist who was raised in foster homes.
Leaving Home
by John Lawrence ReynoldsPetro (Peter) Jacyk survived two of the most horrendous events of the 20th century: the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, instigated by Stalin and responsible for the deaths of untold millions, and waves of invasion and slaughter from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Fleeing postwar Europe in 1949, he arrived in Canada with seven dollars in his pocket and horrific images in his memory. His adopted country would inspire a deep and lifelong love in Jacyk. Here at last, as he put it, he was "free to live and free to succeed." Through the Toronto building and land development firm he founded, he established himself as an economic and cultural powerhouse. Exacting in his dealings with others, yet a generous mentor, he sought excellence in all of his pursuits. In time, the man who had begun as a "poor-penny immigrant" became one of the country's most prominent philanthropists, donating substantial portions of his wealth to projects dedicated to Ukrainian history, language, and culture. Universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Toronto benefited from his largesse. Leaving Home celebrates the life of a remarkable man determined to make a positive impact on an often-hostile world.
Leaving Good Things Behind: Photographs of Atlantic Canada
by Darren CalabreseWhen a family tragedy pulled photojournalist Darren Calabrese back to Atlantic Canada, the region both he and his wife once called home, he was confronted with a sense of profound grief. But, on returning to the rural property where he grew up, as a new father, he rediscovered an appreciation for the geographies, histories, and people of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, turning his lens to explore the tension between the perseverance of tradition and the inevitability of change.Darren&’s work led him into communities across the eastern provinces, who welcomed him to document the inextricable relationship between people, their stories, and the landscapes—equally beautiful and harsh—where they live and work. The result is an astonishing, evocative collection of curated photographs and archival images, with personal essays on family, coming home, loss, and his experiences exploring the region woven in throughout.Elegant, spare, and revelatory at every turn, Leaving Good Things Behind shines a light on both the challenges and joys of the places we live.
Leaving Glorytown: One Boy's Struggle under Castro
by Eduardo F. CalcinesIn this absorbing memoir, by turns humorous and heartbreaking, Eduardo Calcines recounts his boyhood and chronicles the conditions that led him to wish above all else to leave behind his beloved extended family and his home for a chance at a better future.
Leaving Dorian
by Linda DynelThis is a story about finding hope and embracing the unknown, as recounted by domestic violence survivor Linda Dynel. This fast paced, riveting memoir takes the reader with Ms. Dynel on every step of her journey; from hurriedly throwing her children's clothes into garbage bags and gathering the weapons that her husband had stockpiled to protect his family during the Apocalypse that he was sure was coming with the New Millennium, to moving back in with her equally as imbalanced mother, which at the time she believed to be her only reasonable means of escape."My purpose in writing Leaving Dorian was primarily to educate. The questions that were asked of me when I finally escaped are the very same questions that are asked over and over again by loved ones, lawyers and co-workers of victims. "If it was so bad, why didn't you call the police? Why did you keep having children with him? How could you just let him push you around/yell at you/hit you like that? Why didn't you fight back? How could you let your children live like that? Why didn't you leave sooner?" My hope is that by bringing the reader into my violent marriage, as well as allowing the reader to examine my upbringing and the way in which I ended up meeting and eventually marrying "Dorian", I can help the reader to understand not only how abuse starts but also how it is successfully carried out against the victim. Domestic violence is perhaps the most misunderstood of all crimes that law enforcement and social service agencies deal with on a daily basis, as it's not about poor anger management skills, substance abuse or economic stressors. Domestic violence is about one person's belief that they are entitled to have complete control over another human being. It is my sincerest hope that Leaving Dorian will enable those in the mental health and counseling professions, as well as loved ones of victims, to gain an entirely new and fresh perspective on what a victim of domestic violence really grapples with every day. It is only through education and understanding that we will ever, as a society, put an end to the erroneous thought processes that allow domestic violence to continue to flourish."
Leaving Dirty Jersey: A Crystal Meth Memoir
by James SalantWith his nickname, Dirty Jersey, tattooed on the inside of his left forearm, James Salant wanted everyone to know he was a tough guy. At the age of eighteen, after one too many run-ins with the cops for drug possession, he left his upper-middle-class home in Princeton, New Jersey, for a stint at a rehab facility in Riverside, California. Instead of getting clean, he spent his year there shooting crystal meth and living as a petty criminal among not-so-petty ones until a near psychotic episode (among other things) convinced him to clean up. In stark prose infused with heartbreaking insight, wicked humor, and complete veracity, Salant provides graphic descriptions of life on crystal meth -- the incredible sex drive, the paranoia, the cravings. He details the slang, the scams, and the psychoses, and weaves them into a narrative that is breathtakingly honest and authentic. Salant grapples with his attraction to the thuggish life, eschewing easy answers -- his parents, both therapists, were loving and supportive, and his family's subtle dysfunctions typical of almost any American family. Exploring the allure and effects of the least understood drug of our time, Leaving Dirty Jersey is that rarity among memoirs -- a compulsively readable, superbly told story that is shocking precisely because it could happen to almost anyone.
Leaving Coy's Hill: A Novel
by Katherine A. SherbrookeAn unforgettable story about the triumphs and travails of a woman unwilling to play by the rules, based on the the remarkable life of pioneering feminist and abolitionist Lucy Stone.Born on a farm in 1818, Lucy Stone dreamt of extraordinary things for a girl of her time, like continuing her education beyond the eighth grade and working for the abolitionist cause, and of ordinary things, such as raising a family of her own. But when she learns that the Constitution affords no rights to married women, she declares that she will never marry and dedicates her life to fighting for change. At a time when it is considered promiscuous for women to speak in public, Lucy risks everything for the anti-slavery movement, her powerful oratory mesmerizing even her most ardent detractors as she rapidly becomes a household name. And when she begins to lecture on the &“woman question,&” she inspires a young Susan B. Anthony to join the movement. But life as a crusader is a lonely one. When Henry Blackwell, a dashing and forward-thinking man, proposes a marriage of equals, Lucy must reconcile her desire for love and children with her public persona and the legal perils of marriage she has long railed against. And when a wrenching controversy pits Stone and Anthony against each other, Lucy makes a decision that will impact her legacy forever. Based on true events, Leaving Coy&’s Hill is a timeless story of women&’s quest for personal and professional fulfillment within society&’s stubborn constraints. And as an abolitionist and women&’s rights activist fighting for the future of a deeply divided country, Lucy Stone&’s quest to live a life on her own terms is as relevant as ever. In this &“propulsive,&” &“astonishing,&” and &“powerful&” story, Katherine Sherbrooke brings to life a true American heroine for a new generation.
Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected from the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma, and Mental Illness
by Ericka AndersenA powerful, heartbreaking, and redemptive account of a boy who endured a childhood of poverty and abuse in an American Southwest trailer park named Cloud 9.Abandoned by his father at age two, Rick Sylvester lived with an abusive mother whose struggles as a member of the working poor led her to drugs, alcohol, theft, and prostitution--and eventually attempted suicide. Rick battled depression, anxiety, and PTSD as the chaos, neglect, and unpredictability of his childhood seemed to doom him to follow in his mother's footsteps.Well into adulthood, Rick stumbled through unemployment and divorce, using drugs and alcohol to numb the pain until he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Miraculously, though, he overcame the odds and today is a happy husband and father. How did this happen? Rick's answer is this: "It was the Lord."A message of hope to those who are drowning from an undeserved childhood, Leaving Cloud 9 speaks to millions who grew up poor, feeling ignored and hopeless, and who need the healing power of God. This indelibly American story conveys the steadfast love of Jesus and his power to deliver us from the most devastating of pasts.
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
by Barbara Brown TaylorBy now I expected to be a seasoned parish minister, wearing black clergy shirts grown gray from frequent washing. I expected to love the children who hung on my legs after Sunday morning services until they grew up and had children of their own. I even expected to be buried wearing the same red vestments in which I was ordained. Today those vestments are hanging in the sacristy of an Anglican church in Kenya, my church pension is frozen, and I am as likely to spend Sunday mornings with friendly Quakers, Presbyterians, or Congregationalists as I am with the Episcopalians who remain my closest kin. Some-times I even keep the Sabbath with a cup of steaming Assam tea on my front porch, watching towhees vie for the highest perch in the poplar tree while God watches me. These days I earn my living teaching school, not leading worship, and while I still dream of opening a small restaurant in Clarkesville or volunteering at an eye clinic in Nepal, there is no guarantee that I will not run off with the circus before I am through. This is not the life I planned, or the life I recommend to others. But it is the life that has turned out to be mine, and the central revelation in it for me -- that the call to serve God is first and last the call to be fully human -- seems important enough to witness to on paper. This book is my attempt to do that. After nine years serving on the staff of a big urban church in Atlanta, Barbara Brown Taylor arrives in rural Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500), following her dream to become the pastor of her own small congregation. The adjustment from city life to country dweller is something of a shock -- Taylor is one of the only professional women in the community -- but small-town life offers many of its own unique joys. Taylor has five successful years that see significant growth in the church she serves, but ultimately she finds herself experiencing "compassion fatigue" and wonders what exactly God has called her to do. She realizes that in order to keep her faith she may have to leave. Taylor describes a rich spiritual journey in which God has given her more questions than answers. As she becomes part of the flock instead of the shepherd, she describes her poignant and sincere struggle to regain her footing in the world without her defining collar. Taylor's realization that this may in fact be God's surprising path for her leads her to a refreshing search to find Him in new places. Leaving Church will remind even the most skeptical among us that life is about both disappointment and hope -- and ultimately, renewal.
Leaving China: An Artist Paints His World War II Childhood
by James McMullanA memoir in paintings and words by internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and teacher James McMullan. A Booklist Top 10 Biography for Youth“It is this dreamlike quality of my memories that I wanted to capture in some way in the paintings that accompany the text--to suggest in the images that the events occurred a long time ago in a simpler yet more exotic world, and that the players in that world, including me, are at a distance.” Artist James McMullan’s work has appeared in the pages of virtually every American magazine, on the posters for more than seventy Lincoln Center theater productions, and in bestselling picture books. Now, in a unique memoir comprising more than fifty short essays and illustrations, the artist explores how his early childhood in China and wartime journeys with his mother influenced his whole life, especially his painting and illustration. James McMullan was born in Tsingtao, North China, in 1934, the grandson of missionaries who settled there. As a little boy, Jim took for granted a privileged life of household servants, rickshaw rides, and picnics on the shore—until World War II erupted and life changed drastically. Jim’s father, a British citizen fluent in several Chinese dialects, joined the Allied forces. For the next several years, Jim and his mother moved from one place to another—Shanghai, San Francisco, Vancouver, Darjeeling—first escaping Japanese occupation then trying to find security, with no clear destination except the unpredictable end of the war. For Jim, those ever-changing years took on the quality of a dream, sometimes a nightmare, a feeling that persists in the stunning full-page, full-color paintings that along with their accompanying text tell the story of Leaving China.
Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir
by Brenda Myers-Powell April ReynoldsTold in an inimitable voice, Leaving Breezy Street is the stunning account of Brenda Myers-Powell’s brutal and beautiful life.“Careful—don’t think prostitution is just about money. It’s never just the money. It’s about slipping in at all the wrong places. Getting into dangerous situations and getting out of them. That’s exciting. That’s what you want. But you want something else, too.”What did Brenda Myers-Powell want? When she turned to prostitution at the age of fifteen, she wanted to support her two baby daughters and have a little money for herself. She was pretty and funny as hell, and although she called herself “Breezy,” she was also tough—a survivor in every sense of the word. Over the next twenty-five years, she would move across the country, finding new pimps, parties, drugs, and endless, profound heartache. And she would begin to want something else, something huge: a life of dignity, self-acceptance, and love. Astonishingly, she managed to find the strength to break from an unsparing world and save not only herself but also future Breezys.We have no say into which worlds we are born. But sometimes we can find a way out.
Leaving Before the Rains Come
by Alexandra FullerNew York Times Bestseller"One of the gutsiest memoirs I've ever read. And the writing--oh my god the writing." --Entertainment Weekly A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller's own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she finally confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such grace and intelligence, filled with such wit and courage, that it could only have been written by Alexandra Fuller.Leaving Before the Rains Come begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Fuller's delicate balance--between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage--irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia--elephant attacks on the first date, sick with malaria on the wedding day--Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. Fuller soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father, the man who warned his daughter that "the problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live." Fuller's father--"Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode" as he first introduced himself to his future wife--was a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear.Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how, after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her, she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves.An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fuller's Africa.From the Hardcover edition.
Leaving Before the Rains Come
by Alexandra FullerLooking to rebuild after a painful divorce, Alexandra Fuller turns to her African past for clues to living a life fully and without fear. A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of 2 deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller's own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such grace and intelligence, filled with such wit and courage, that it could only have been written by Alexandra Fuller. Leaving Before the Rains Come begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Fuller's delicate balance--between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage--irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia--elephant attacks on the first date, sick with malaria on the wedding day--Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. Fuller soon realizes that what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father, the man who warned his daughter that "the problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live." Fuller's father--"Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode" as he first introduced himself to his future wife--was a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear. Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how--after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her--she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves. An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fuller's Africa.
Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt (Canons Ser.)
by Richard HollowayAt the tender age of fourteen, Richard Holloway left his home town of Alexandria, north of Glasgow, and travelled hundreds of miles to be educated and trained for the priesthood at an English monastery. By the age of twenty-five he had been ordained and was working in the slums of Glasgow. Through the forty years that followed, Richard touched the lives of many people as he rose to one of the highest positions in the Anglican Church. But behind his confident public faith lay a restless heart and an inquisitive mind.Poignant, wise and fiercely honest, Leaving Alexandria is a remarkable memoir of a life defined by faith but plagued by doubt.
Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic
by Reinhold NiebuhrFrom 1915 to 1928, at the beginning of a career that would see him become America's foremost theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr served as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan. This deeply personal book presents his advice and insights for young ministers about the challenges and rewards of pastoral ministry. It is presented in this exclusive Library of America E-Book Classic edition with a preface by Niebuhr's daughter, editor Elisabeth Sifton, plus a chronology of Niebuhr's life and detailed notes.
Leaves From The Diary Of An Officer Of The Guards
by Pickle Partners Publishing Sir John Cowell-StepneyThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Originally written under the nom de plume of "A Veteran Comrade", the leaves of Sir John Cowell-Stepney's diary make for a fascinating read as he recounts his experiences during the Peninsular Campaign and his other anecdotes of his military career. Commissioned in the Grenadier Guards in May 1809 as an Ensign, and rose to the rank of Lt-Colonel in 1830. In his later life he was active in politics as a Liberal Member of parliament and the High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire. Focusing on the campaigns of 1810 and 1811 in particular, the author describes his experiences vividly from his initial landing in Portugal, throughout his varied trials of the British army officer in the Peninsular. Major battles that his was involved in such as Fuentes D'Oñoro, Albuera and perhaps the best account of the siege and assault of Cuidad Rodrigo, are covered in his inimitable style. Reminiscent in tone to Kincaid's "Adventures in the Rifle Brigade", with a jaunty self-deprecating humour, and eye for detail. A classic of the Genre. Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1854 edition, published in London by Chapman. Original - 312 pages. Author- Sir John Cowell-Stepney (1791-1877) Linked TOC.
Leaves From a War Diary
by James G. HarbordGeneral Harbord brought to his service in France a long and honorable record as fighting man. Nor did he depart from this tradition as his brilliant and all-too-brief command of the famous Second Division attests. Here he differed from his colleagues in the other armies notably the late General Sir John S. Cowans, who was Quartermaster General of the British forces. Most of these men had been trained and operated solely in supply. General Harbord, on the other hand, is the line officer who proved his mettle as administrator as well.This book was originally written in the form of a diary not intended for outside eyes. It therefore embodies a wealth of intimate and naïve comment. Combined with this is a deep insight into the men and conditions that marked an epoch. The revelations are rich and not without permanent significance. Best of all they disclose the vision and character of a soldier as modest as he is capable. What follows is a genuine contribution to the history of the world war.—Isaac F. Marcosson
Leaves from a Russian Diary—and Thirty Years After [Enlarged Edition]
by Pitirim A. SorokinThe reminiscences of a fiercely anti-Communist Petrograd professor, Pitirim A. Sorokin—from the February Revolution right through to his departure from Russia in September 1922.This is the enlarged edition published almost 30 years after the first 1924 publication and contains the additional section, “Thirty Years After,” in which the author describes how the Revolution that has since come of age has turned out to be simultaneously “a gigantic success and a colossal failure.”A fascinating read.
Leave Your Mark: Land Your Dream Job. Kill It In Your Career. Rock Social Media
by Aliza Licht"If you want the job of your dreams, read this book." - Stacy London, TV personality and style expertLeave Your Mark isn't an advice book -- it's a mentorship in 288 pages.Aliza Licht- global fashion communications executive, fashion's favorite 'PR girl,' and former Twitter phenomenon - is here to tell her story, complete with The Devil Wears Prada-like moments and insider secrets.Drawing invaluable lessons from her own experience, Licht shares advice, inspiration, and a healthy dose of real talk. She delivers personal and professional guidance for people just starting their careers and for people who are well on their way.With a particular emphasis on building your personal brand (something she knows a thing or two about), Aliza is your sassy and knowledgeable guide to the contemporary working world, where personal and professional lines are blurred and the most important thing you can have is a strong sense of self.
Leave the Light On
by Jennifer StormA revealing, hopeful account of a young woman's ascent out of the bleak despair of addiction and how recovery helped her confront the traumas and secrets that kept her living in the dark for so long.
Leave the Dogs at Home, Break Away Book Club Edition: A Memoir
by Claire S. ArbogastClaire and Jim were friends, lovers, and sometimes enemies for 27 years. In order to get health insurance, they finally married, calling their anniversary the "It Means Absolutely Nothing" day. Then Jim was diagnosed with cancer. With ever-decreasing odds of survival, punctuated by arcs of false hope, Jim's deteriorating health altered their well-established independence as they became caregiver and patient, sharing intimacy as close as their own breaths. A year and a half into their marriage, Jim died from lung/brain cancer. Sustained by good dogs and gardening through the two years of madness that followed, Claire soldiered through home repairs, career disaster, genealogy quests, and "dating for seniors" trying to build a better life on the debris of her old one. Leave the Dogs at Home maps and plays with the stages of grief. Delightfully confessional, it challenges persistent, yet outdated, societal norms about relationships, and finds relief in whimsy, pop culture, and renewed spirituality.
Leave the Building Quickly: True Stories
by Cynthia KaplanCynthia Kaplan, acclaimed author of Why I'm Like This, once again casts her gimlet eye upon the current state of her affairs. Also of your affairs, and some other people's affairs as well. Journey with her as she humiliates herself in a variety of locales and fearlessly takes on all the important issues of the day—including her family, intelligent design, Narnia, and New England's deer population. Leave the Building Quickly is a hilarious, moving, bitingly honest, take-no-prisoners incursion into the kind of real-life daily circumstances that inspire us to crouch in the linen closet at three in the morning. But that's okay because Kaplan's there, too. And she's brought snacks.