A tale told in bittersweet flashbacks follows a fateful car accident of a young woman devotedly loved by a man and a woman, who discover that the comatose woman is pregnant and that her health is being overseen by her malevolent stepfather.
This is the part of the book where I'm supposed to convince you that reading this book is worthwhile. I wish I didn't have to. I wish I never had to write it. But brokenness exists. I go through most days feeling broken and having thoughts of suicide. So, here's my book to you. I didn't write it to make a lot of money, but out of a need to survive, and to hopefully help others who read it. It is born out of my story of living with a mental illness. I write about things in this book that made life easier, and at times, probably kept me alive. You shouldn't have to wait to tell your story until you have things all figured out-I'm not even close, but I'm sharing mine. I pray what I've learned encourages you to share your experiences with someone too. Here are some things I'd like you to think about as you consider reading this book. Do you:Feel like you have to pretend you're not broken, and pray that your struggle doesn't get passed on to your kids?Feel overwhelmed with inadequate boundaries and need help knowing where to draw the line with people?Get those check-in sheets every time you go to your therapist and can't make sense out of the scale they're using? Feel lost between faith and sanity, success and failure, hope and helplessness?If you feel broken, I wrote this for you.
The year was 2000. The alternative music scene had all but died, and pre-packaged pop stars had filled the vacuum. But in a basement apartment in the heart of downtown Toronto, two musicians were forming a creative partnership that would revive the mass appeal of indie music and forever change how we think of a band. In this biography of the ever-evolving indie-rock collective, Broken Social Scene, music columnist Stuart Berman tracks the group's inception by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning; groundbreaking performances at Ted's Wrecking Yard that raised the band's local status to mythical proportions; Broken Social Scene's meteoric rise upon the release of breakout album You Forgot It In People; the creation of Arts & Crafts records with music-biz maverick Jeffrey Remedios; and life on the road with revolving bandmates, including members of Stars, Metric, The Dears, and international pop sensation Feist. Stuart Berman has drawn from hours of interviews with members and affiliates of Broken Social Scene, and exclusive, never-before-seen photographs, gig posters, and artwork to create a spectacular oral and visual history of this ever-evolving indie-rock collective.
When all signs point to heartbreak, can love still be a rule of the road? A “touching father-daughter story” (Kirkus Reviews) from the author of Bittersweet and Twenty Boy Summer. Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. She’s seen the tears and disasters that dating a Vargas boy can cause, and she swore an oath—with candles and a contract and everything—to never have anything to do with one. Now Jude is the only sister still living at home, and she’s spending the summer helping her ailing father restore his vintage motorcycle—which means hiring a mechanic to help out. Is it Jude’s fault he happens to be cute? And surprisingly sweet? And a Vargas? Jude tells herself it’s strictly bike business with Emilio. Her sisters will never find out, and Jude can spot those flirty little Vargas tricks a mile away—no way would she fall for them. But Jude’s defenses are crumbling, and if history is destined to repeat itself, she’s speeding toward some serious heartbreak…unless her sisters were wrong? Jude may have taken an oath, but she’s beginning to think that when it comes to love, some promises might be worth breaking.
An edgy, affecting, and darkly funny debut novel — narrated by Skunk, an eleven-year-old girl in a coma — that explores innocence and its betrayal as powerfully and unforgettably as do Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Lovely Bones Skunk Cunningham’s world is a small one, populated by her family; her teachers and schoolmates; and her neighbours, the quiet Buckley family and the five terrifying Oswald girls and their thug of a father, Bob. When Saskia Oswald, with her stilettos and tight pants, asks shy Rick Buckley for a ride in his new car, he can’t believe his luck. But after a quick fumble, Saskia broadcasts Rick’s deficiencies to anyone who will listen, including her younger sisters. This act of thoughtless cruelty will see Rick dragged off by the police, humiliated, and “broken,” — and, in a tragic chain of events, will leave Skunk hanging on to her young life by a thread. From her hospital bed, Skunk shows us her hapless father finding love, and her idealistic favourite teacher losing it; “Broken” Buckley spiralling into madness; and the Oswald clan coming apart at the seams. As we inch ever closer to the mystery behind her coma, Skunk’s innocence becomes a beacon by which we navigate a world as comic as it is tragic, and as engaging as it is finally uplifting. Broken introduces Daniel Clay as a brilliant and utterly original voice in international fiction.
Imagine if we treated broken hearts with the same respect and concern we have for broken arms? Psychologist Guy Winch urges us to rethink the way we deal with emotional pain, offering warm, wise, and witty advice for the broken-hearted. Real heartbreak is unmistakable. We think of nothing else. We feel nothing else. We care about nothing else. Yet while we wouldn’t expect someone to return to daily activities immediately after suffering a broken limb, heartbroken people are expected to function normally in their lives, despite the emotional pain they feel. Now psychologist Guy Winch imagines how different things would be if we paid more attention to this unique emotion—if only we can understand how heartbreak works, we can begin to fix it. Through compelling research and new scientific studies, Winch reveals how and why heartbreak impacts our brain and our behavior in dramatic and unexpected ways, regardless of our age. Emotional pain lowers our ability to reason, to think creatively, to problem solve, and to function at our best. In How to Fix a Broken Heart he focuses on two types of emotional pain—romantic heartbreak and the heartbreak that results from the loss of a cherished pet. These experiences are both accompanied by severe grief responses, yet they are not deemed as important as, for example, a formal divorce or the loss of a close relative. As a result, we are often deprived of the recognition, support, and compassion afforded to those whose heartbreak is considered more significant. Our heart might be broken, but we do not have to break with it. Winch reveals that recovering from heartbreak always starts with a decision, a determination to move on when our mind is fighting to keep us stuck. We can take control of our lives and our minds and put ourselves on the path to healing. Winch offers a toolkit on how to handle and cope with a broken heart and how to, eventually, move on.
You can't keep two people who are meant to be together apart for long . . . Lennon Davis doesn't believe in much, but she does believe in the security of the number five. If she flicks the bedroom light switch five times, maybe her new LA school won't suck. But that doesn't feel right, so she flicks the switch again. And again. Ten more flicks of the switch and maybe her new stepfamily will accept her. Twenty-five more flicks and maybe she won't cause any more of her loved ones to die. Fifty more and then she can finally go to sleep. Kyler Benton witnesses this pattern of lights from the safety of his tree house in the yard next door. It is only there, hidden from the unwanted stares of his peers, that Kyler can fill his notebooks with lyrics that reveal the true scars of the boy behind the oversize hoodies and caustic humor. But Kyler finds that descriptions of blond hair, sad eyes, and tapping fingers are beginning to fill the pages of his notebooks. Lennon, the lonely girl next door his father has warned him about, infiltrates his mind. Even though he has enough to deal with without Lennon's rumored tragic past in his life, Kyler can't help but want to know the truth about his new muse.
In this all-new, deeply moving companion to "The Night Journey," it is now 1897 and Reuven Bloom is 15 years old. When his parents and older sister are murdered by the Tsar's army, Reuven decides to escape to America with his baby sister.
A violin and a middle-school musical unleash a dark family secret in this moving story by an award-winning author duo. For fans of The Devil's Arithmetic and Hana's Suitcase. It's 2002. In the aftermath of the twin towers -- and the death of her beloved grandmother -- Shirli Berman is intent on moving forward. The best singer in her junior high, she auditions for the lead role in Fiddler on the Roof, but is crushed to learn that she's been given the part of the old Jewish mother in the musical rather than the coveted part of the sister. But there is an upside: her "husband" is none other than Ben Morgan, the cutest and most popular boy in the school. Deciding to throw herself into the role, she rummages in her grandfather's attic for some props. There, she discovers an old violin in the corner -- strange, since her Zayde has never seemed to like music, never even going to any of her recitals. Showing it to her grandfather unleashes an anger in him she has never seen before, and while she is frightened of what it might mean, Shirli keeps trying to connect with her Zayde and discover the awful reason behind his anger. A long-kept family secret spills out, and Shirli learns the true power of music, both terrible and wonderful.
Broken Little Pieces is what happens when you can no longer wear the mask of perfection. It's when you finally accept that you are flawed, shattered, and unable to recognize your own face in the mirror. It's preferring the darkness because the light forces you to see the masks that have no connection to who you truly are within. It's when you have worn so many masks for so many people that you begin to lose track of which mask was shown to whom. Broken Little Pieces takes you on the journey that feels like a stripping down to the core of who you are; in order to be built up to who you should be. It's learning to pick up all of the pieces to create the mosaic of your life's dna. It's accepting your past, pain, and shame and no longer allowing it to define you. It's realizing that your are imperfectly whole with all of your broken little pieces. Allowing yourself to be brave, vulnerable, and mask free. Refusing to no longer be invisible, but loving yourself as a unique work of art. Come along on my journey as I show you how an Invisible child grew up to become an Invisible wife. A life's journey forever searching to be seen, heard, and validated. You will see how my invisibility allowed me to create masks and the illusion of perfection in every area of my life. It will help you to identify your masks and provide a path to a life that is mask free.