Brave, Beautiful and Baring it All
Brave, Beautiful and Baring it All

Author: Rhyanna Watson

Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

Published: 2020-01-14

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1786783363

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In this bold, compassionate title, yoga teacher, wellness trainer and social media sensation Rhyanna Watson - who has come out the other side of a lot of personal trauma both stronger and happier - explores how to strip back your protective layers, feel brave and beautiful again, and make the rest of your life the best of your life. Rhyanna's nurturing yet empowering text encourages us to get out of our heads and more into our bodies and hearts in order to reconnect with both ourselves and others - to feel less judged, more accepted; less flawed, more worthy; less insecure, more confident; less scared, more loved. As the title suggests, the key message is that it's only when we're willing to be brave, open our minds and hearts, get fit from the inside out, and both 'bare' it all (allowing ourselves to be vulnerable when appropriate) and 'bear' it all (accepting both the good and the bad with patience and grace) that we will be able to feel our most beautiful and live our best lives. Being brave doesn't mean we have to jump out of planes or fight lions of course! It simply means being open enough to really get to know and love ourselves, stripped of all societal pressures and expectations. And when it comes to being beautiful, well, we're all beautiful in our own ways, so it's just about accepting our own truth and embracing and believing in ourselves!

Some Nerve
Some Nerve

Author: Patty Chang Anker

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 110163216X

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“A compelling story of everyday courage” (Elizabeth Gilbert). Patty Chang Anker grew up eager to please and afraid to fail. But after thirty-nine years, she decided it was time to stop being a chicken. Motivated initially to become a better role model for her two kids, she vowed to master the fears that were choking the fun and spontaneity out of life. She learned to dive into a swimming pool, ride a bike, do a handstand, and surf. As she shared her experiences, she discovered that most people suffer from their own secret terrors—of flying, driving, heights, public speaking, and more. It became her mission to help others do what they thought they couldn’t and to experience the joy and aliveness that is the true reward of becoming brave. Inspired and inspiring, this book draws on Anker’s interviews with teachers, therapists, coaches, and clergy to convey both practical advice and profound wisdom. Through her own journey and the stories of others, she conveys with grace and infectious exhilaration the most vital lesson of all: Fear isn’t the end point to life, but the point of entry.

Beautiful Scars
Beautiful Scars

Author: Tom Wilson

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Published: 2017-11-21

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0385685661

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"I'm scared and scarred but I’ve survived" Tom Wilson was raised in the rough-and-tumble world of Hamilton—Steeltown— in the company of World War II vets, factory workers, fall-guy wrestlers and the deeply guarded secrets kept by his parents, Bunny and George. For decades Tom carved out a life for himself in shadows. He built an international music career and became a father, he battled demons and addiction, and he waited, hoping for the lies to cease and the truth to emerge. It would. And when it did, it would sweep up the St. Lawrence River to the Mohawk reserves of Quebec, on to the heights of the Manhattan skyline. With a rare gift for storytelling and an astonishing story to tell, Tom writes with unflinching honesty and extraordinary compassion about his search for the truth. It's a story about scars, about the ones that hurt us, and the ones that make us who we are. From Beautiful Scars: Even as a kid my existence as the son of Bunny and George Wilson seemed far-fetched to me. When I went over it in my head, none of it added up. The other kids on East 36th Street in Hamilton used to tell me stories of their mothers being pregnant and their newborn siblings coming home from the hospital. Nobody ever talked about Bunny's and my return from the hospital. In my mind my birth was like the nativity, only with gnarly dogs and dirty snow and a chipped picket fence and old blind people with short tempers and dim lights, ashtrays full of Export Plain cigarette butts and bottles of rum. Once, when I was about four, I asked Bunny, "How come I don't look anything like you and George? How come you are old and the other moms are young?" "There are secrets I know about you that I’ll take to my grave," she responded. And that pretty well finished that. Bunny built up a wall to protect her secrets, and as a result I built a wall to protect myself.

Soft Thorns
Soft Thorns

Author: Bridgett Devoue

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1449499503

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Soft Thorns is a poetry collection that takes the reader on a journey through a young woman’s life—from reckoning with her looks and sexuality to dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, and finally through the highs and lows of young love found and lost. Bridgett Devoue shares her raw, human story and the lessons learned from living a life fully.

Baring Witness
Baring Witness

Author: Holly Welker

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2016-08-15

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 0252098595

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In Baring Witness, Holly Welker and thirty-six Mormon women write about devotion and love and luck, about the wonder of discovery, and about the journeys, both thorny and magical, to humor, grace, and contentment. They speak to a diversity of life experiences: what happens when one partner rejects Church teachings; marrying outside one's faith; the pain of divorce and widowhood; the horrors of spousal abuse; the hard journey from visions of an idealized marriage to the everyday truth; sexuality within Mormon marriage; how the pressure to find a husband shapes young women's actions and sense of self; and the ways Mormon belief and culture can influence second marriages and same-sex unions. The result is an unflinching look at the earthly realities of an institution central to Mormon life.

The Beautiful No
The Beautiful No

Author: Sheri Salata

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 006274321X

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“Thursday morning. One hundred pounds overweight, no man in sight, and rounding the bend to 57 years old—a full-blown catastrophe.” What happens when you realize you’ve had the career of your dreams, but you don’t have the life of your dreams? This was the stark reality facing Sheri Salata when she left her twenty-year stint at The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Studios and the OWN network. She had dedicated decades to her dream job, and loved (almost) every minute of it, but had left the rest of her life gathering dust on the shelf. After years of telling other people’s makeover stories, Sheri decided to “produce” her own life transformation. And this meant revisiting her past, excavating its lessons, and boldly reimagining her future. In these pages, she invites readers along for the ride—detoxing in the desert, braving humiliation at Hollywood’s favorite fitness studio, grappling with losses, reinventing friendships, baring her soul in sex therapy, and more. Part cautionary tale, part middle-of-life rallying cry, Sheri’s stories offer profound inspiration for personal renewal.

Cruel Beauty
Cruel Beauty

Author: Rosamund Hodge

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-01-28

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 0062224751

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If you’re excited about the upcoming Disney film Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson, don’t miss Cruel Beauty. The romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the adventure of Graceling in this dazzling fantasy novel about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Perfect for fans of bestselling An Ember in the Ashes and A Court of Thorns and Roses, this gorgeously written debut infuses the classic fairy tale with glittering magic, a feisty heroine, and a romance sure to take your breath away. Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known that her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny. But on her seventeenth birthday when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom's mountaintop, nothing is what she expected—particularly her charming and beguiling new husband. Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can't resist the pull of her sworn enemy—who's gotten in her way by stealing her heart.

Unbound
Unbound

Author: Steph Jagger

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2017-01-24

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 0062418122

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A young woman follows winter across five continents on a physical and spiritual journey that tests her body and soul, in this transformative memoir, full of heart and courage, that speaks to the adventurousness in all of us. Steph Jagger had always been a force of nature. Dissatisfied with the passive, limited roles she saw for women growing up, she emulated the men in her life—chasing success, climbing the corporate ladder, ticking the boxes, playing by the rules of a masculine ideal. She was accomplished. She was living "The Dream." But it wasn't her dream. Then the universe caught her attention with a sign: Raise Restraining Device. Steph had seen this ski lift sign on countless occasions in the past, but the familiar words suddenly became a personal call to shake off the life she had built in a search for something different, something more. Steph soon decided to walk away from the success and security she had worked long and hard to obtain. She quit her job, took a second mortgage on her house, sold everything except her ski equipment and her laptop, and bought a bundle of plane tickets. For the next year, she followed winter across North and South America, Asia, Europe, and New Zealand—and up and down the mountains of nine countries—on a mission to ski four million vertical feet in a year. What hiking was for Cheryl Strayed, skiing became for Steph: a crucible in which to crack open her life and get to the very center of herself. But she would have to break herself down—first physically, then emotionally—before she could start to rebuild. And it was through this journey that she came to understand how to be a woman, how to love, and how to live authentically. Electrifying, heartfelt, and full of humor, Unbound is Steph’s story—an odyssey of courage and self-discovery that, like Wild and Eat, Pray, Love, will inspire readers to remove their own restraining devices and pursue the life they are meant to lead.

The End of Eve
The End of Eve

Author: Ariel Gore

Publisher: Hawthorne Books

Published: 2014-02-17

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0989360415

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At age 39, Ariel Gore has everything she’s always wanted: a successful writing career, a long-term partnership, a beautiful if tiny home, a daughter in college and a son in preschool. But life’s happy endings don’t always last. If it’s not one thing, after all, it’s your mother. Her name is Eve. Her epic temper tantrums have already gotten her banned from three cab companies in Portland. And she’s here to announce that she’s dying. “Pitifully, Ariel,” she sighs. “You’re all I have.” Ariel doesn’t want to take care of her crazy dying mother, but she knows she will. It’s the right thing to do, isn’t it? And, anyway, how long could it go on? “Don’t worry,” Eve says. “If I’m ever a burden, I’ll just blow my brains out.” Amidst the chaos of clowns and hospice workers, pie and too much whiskey, Ariel’s own ten-year relationship begins to unravel. Darkly humorous and intimately human, The End of Eve redefines the meaning of family and everything we’ve ever been taught to call “love.”

Brave Naked Truth
Brave Naked Truth

Author: Trish Leichty

Publisher: Freedom House Publishing Company

Published: 2021-06-26

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781952566240

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What if everything you've believed was not true? What if you've been living from the script of someone else's life and it has been a story authored in shame and fear?And what if you could tear up that script and reimagine a story that is birthed with brave truth, radical love, and unlimited freedom?Early on Trish was home in nature and science as she explored the muddy banks of the Fox River in Algonquin, Illinois. By the time she started college, she was drawn to studying the human body in her anatomy and physiology courses. But after attending medical school to become a physician, she was detoured on a wild journey of discovering her own human self? in body, mind, and soul. Through years of disappointment, abuse, striving, and chronic illness, she began to ask hard questions of the systems and beliefs that she had about what it means to be a woman and a human. She peels back the layers of stories from history, family, culture, religion, education, and medicine and uncovers devastating truth; everything she's ever known has been untrue. In the midst of raising four children, she suddenly realizes that these false beliefs and stories have kept her from knowing her deepest truths and living her bravest life.In these vulnerable pages, Trish shares how she engaged in a wild dismantling of her life and a subsequent messy rebuilding as she uncovered her truth. After living her life feeling broken, she realizes that she is part of the universal awakening story of all women.Her honest reflections invite us to hunger for more and wonder what would be possible in our lives and the world if we truly believed that..?We hold the power to heal and transform our pain and trauma.?We can reimagine and create a new story birthed in divine truth, compassion, and love.?We are all created for radical love and freedom in our bodies, minds, souls, and lives.Trish reminds us that we too are created to live and enjoy our Brave Naked Truth.