Winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award! An "eleven-going-on-twelve-year-old Jewish girl" searches for her identity in what Publisher's Weekly called a "reassuring debut novel about finding one's personal peace-and-comfort zone." Justine Silver's best friend, Mary Catherine McAllister, has given up chocolate for Lent, but Justine doesn't think God wants her to make that kind of sacrifice. So she's decided to give up being Jewish instead. Eleven-year-old Justine pours her heart out to her teddy bear, "Father Ted," in a homemade closet confessional. But when Justine's beloved Bubbe suffers a stroke, Justine worries that her religious exploration is responsible. Worse, she must suddenly contemplate life without Bubbe. Ultimately, it's Bubbe's quiet understanding of Justine's search for identity that helps Justine to find faith in the most important place of all-within herself.
Abstract: A recovered bulimia, wife, and mother, describes what it's like to go through a typical binge purge attack. She traces the background of her disorder, explains the mechanics involved in the recovery stages, and describes the role played by her renewed faith in Jesus. The purpose and benefits of the self-help organization Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) are described. Advice is offered to parents and spouses of Anorexia or bulimia on helping their loved ones. The importance of self-esteem is discussed as is the need to accent one's positive traits rather than the negative ones. Several ideas are offered for treating the physical symptoms of bulimia: slowing down before and during eating and walking to relax, tuning in to others rather than to the food present while eating, as certaining what situation trigger binges, and other behavior modification tips. Taking one step at a time is important in overcoming an eating disorder: be patient, face the symptoms, accept certain individual needs, and set small goals so the task of recovering doesn't seem too overwhelming to begin. (as).
A former Hollywood insider trades the Hollywood Hills for Green Acres—and lives to tell about it in this hilarious, poignant treat of a memoir. As head of her celebrity sister’s production company, Gesine Bullock-Prado had a closet full of designer clothes and the ear of all the influential studio heads, but she was miserable. The only solace she found was in her secret hobby: baking. With every sugary, buttery confection to emerge from her oven, Gesine took one step away from her glittery, empty existence—and one step closer to her true destiny. Before long, she and her husband left the trappings of their Hollywood lifestyle behind, ending up in Vermont, where they started the gem known as Gesine Confectionary. And they never looked back. Confections of a Closet Master Baker follows Gesine's journey from sugar-obsessed child to miserable, awkward Hollywood insider to reluctant master baker. Chock-full of eccentric characters, beautifully detailed descriptions of her baking process, ceaselessly funny renditions of Hollywood nonsense, and recipes, the ingredients of her story will appeal to anyone who has ever considered leaving the life they know and completely starting over.
In this New York Times bestseller, brilliant detective Tandy Angel is meeting her lost love in Paris . . . but when he becomes more distant, she starts to question everything she knows. Is there anyone she can trust? After investigating multiple homicides and her family's decades-old skeletons in the closet, Tandy Angel is finally reunited with her lost love in Paris. But as he grows increasingly distant, she is confronted with disturbing questions about him, as well as what really happened to her long-dead sister. With no way to tell anymore who in her life she can trust, how will Tandy ever get to the bottom of the countless secrets her parents kept from her? James Patterson leads this brilliant teenage detective through Paris on a trail of lies years in the making, with shocking revelations around every corner.
Elliot's the boy at the back of the class. Smart, kind, and totally invisible. Except when it comes to Aimee, his best friend in the entire world, and Hailey and Tommy, the step-siblings from hell. A modern-day Cinderella controlled by a monstrous step-father, he dreams of one day having absolute freedom. Justin's the most popular guy in school: A straight A student, a rockstar out on the baseball field, and on the fast track to a successful medical career. Only one problem: He dreams of art school in the Big Apple and a life where he can finally be proud of who he is. Will either break free from the chains of who they're told to be, or will they be forced apart?
NATIONAL BESTSELLER (The Globe and Mail) A moving memoir about growing up with a gay father in the 1980s, and a tribute to the power of truth, humour, acceptance and familial love. A true "It GOT Better" story. Alison Wearing led a largely carefree childhood until she learned, at the age of 12, that her family was a little more complex than she had realized. Sure her father had always been unusual compared to the other dads in the neighbourhood: he loved to bake croissants, wear silk pyjamas around the house, and skip down the street singing songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. But when he came out of the closet in the 1970s, when homosexuality was still a cardinal taboo, it was a shock to everyone in the quiet community of Peterborough, Ontario—especially to his wife and three children. Alison’s father was a professor of political science and amateur choral conductor, her mother was an accomplished pianist and marathon runner, and together they had fed the family a steady diet of arts, adventures, mishaps, normal frustrations and inexhaustible laughter. Yet despite these agreeable circumstances, Joe’s internal life was haunted by conflicting desires. As he began to explore and understand the truth about himself, he became determined to find a way to live both as a gay man and also a devoted father, something almost unheard of at the time. Through extraordinary excerpts from his own letters and journals from the years of his coming out, we read of Joe’s private struggle to make sense and beauty of his life, to take inspiration from an evolving society and become part of the vanguard of the gay revolution in Canada. Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter is also the story of “coming out” as the daughter of a gay father. Already wrestling with an adolescent’s search for identity when her father came out of the closet, Alison promptly “went in,” concealing his sexual orientation from her friends and spinning extravagant stories about all of the “great straight things” they did together. Over time, Alison came to see that life with her father was surprisingly interesting and entertaining, even oddly inspiring, and in fact, there was nothing to hide. Balancing intimacy, history and downright hilarity, Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter is a captivating tale of family life: deliciously imperfect, riotously challenging, and full of life’s great lessons in love. Alison brings her story to life with a skillfully light touch in this warm, heartfelt and revelatory memoir.
A behind the scenes, in front of the camera look at what it is to be a gay man on TV. It is a call for others, like Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith to come out of the closet!
Henry Peterson has reached the end of his rope. Taunted at work and depressed by the constant rain, Henry reaches the breaking point when he is jilted by his girlfriend. In a moment of desperation, he locks her in the closet. The tension mounts when her sister suspects something. As Henry's world implodes he finds himself doing things he never imagined as he tries to keep her from being taken from him.
In reading The Lesbian Polyamory Reader: Open Relationships, Non-Monogamy, and Casual Sex, you'll quickly discover that the steps toward love and happiness are as easy as 1, 2, 3, and maybe even 4 or 5. And you'll find that if your own lesbian relationship lies outside the “traditional monogamous couple” model, you're definitely not alone. You'll explore many multifaceted and multifarious love relationships, each one applicable to your own liking, if you so choose. You'll find successful models of relationship styles--regardless of your own orientation--from cover to cover, and you'll discover the pleasing polyphony in the many, many female voices of authorities on love and love relationships. Whereas other similar studies project the limited view of one or two authors, The Lesbian Polyamory Reader calls upon a broad scope of writers, professional women and academics alike. You'll see that outside the gay rights movement that currently pushes for a traditional, monogamous marriage model of gay couplehood, there lies pleasing multiplicity in the arms and hearts of lesbians worldwide. Specifically, this collection offers: “first person” articles--stories that describe a variety of lesbian experiences relating to multiple lovers in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s “how-to” articles--descriptions of the various polyamorous relationship configurations, including ways of dealing with jealousy “theoretical” pieces--the history of multiple relationships, the social implications of practicing a love style other than monogamous coupling, and safer sex considerations Much, much more than a book on personal satisfaction, The Lesbian Polyamory Reader also focuses on the social implications of this love phenomenon, bringing it into a more inclusive circle of discussion for lesbians, educators, and students of sociology and sexology. You'll find satisfaction in seeing the love so many lesbian women have achieved by not mimicking the “marriage model” of living.
