The Herstories Project
The Herstories Project

Author: Jessica Smock

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2013-11

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9781493752973

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The bonds of women's friendship can be more intimate than marriage, and just as essential to emotional health. From the childhood friend who broke your heart to the college roommate who witnessed you at your highest and lowest, from the lost friendship that ended bitterly to the devoted companion who is still in your life, from the bond that was forged due to shared grief to the shaky connection born with new motherhood, all women have stories to tell about their friendships. The HerStories Project: Women Explore the Joy, Pain, and Power of Female Friendship is a collection of essays from over 50 women writers, encompassing tales of friendship from the sandbox to the inbox. The book includes a foreword from Jill Smokler of Scary Mommy and several chapters on understanding friendship from friendship experts Shasta Nelson and Carlin Flora. In this book, you will read stories of childhood friendship, relationships between sisters, mothers, and daughters, grown-up friendships--both real life and online-- friendships during motherhood, and stories of friendship break-ups and losses. Whether you identify with the new mother who struggles with loneliness, the woman who looks forward to her social media notifications, the challenging and complex relationship of sisters, or the stories of friends that have drifted apart, you will recognize yourself somewhere in the pages of this book.

Mothering Through the Darkness
Mothering Through the Darkness

Author: Stephanie Sprenger

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-11-03

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 163152805X

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Approximately 1 in 7 women suffer from postpartum depression after having a baby. Many more may experience depression during pregnancy, postpartum anxiety, OCD, and other mood disorders. Postpartum depression is, in fact, the most common pregnancy-related complication—yet confusion and misinformation about this disorder are still widespread. And these aren’t harmless myths: the lack of clarity surrounding mothers’ mental health challenges can have devastating effects on their well-being and their identities as mothers, which too often leads to shame and inadequate treatment. In this one-of-a-kind anthology, thirty mothers break the silence to dispel myths about postpartum mental health issues and explore the diversity of women’s experiences. Powerful and inspiring, Mothering Through the Darkness will comfort every mother who’s ever felt alone, ashamed, and hopeless—and, hopefully, inspire her to speak out.

She Matters
She Matters

Author: Susanna Sonnenberg

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-09-10

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1439190607

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Illuminates the friendships that have influenced, nourished, inspired, and haunted the author--and sometimes torn her apart--each of which has its own lessons that she seeks to understand.

Rise: How a House Built a Family
Rise: How a House Built a Family

Author: Cara Brookins

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2017-01-24

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1250095670

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If you were inspired by Wild and Eat, Pray, Love, you’ll love this extraordinary true story of a woman taking the greatest risk of her life in order to heal from the unthinkable. After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara Brookins had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible. Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan and a mile-wide stubborn streak, Cara built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children. It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two story, five bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family. This must-read memoir traces one family’s rise from battered victims to stronger, better versions of themselves, all through one extraordinary do-it-yourself project.

Maxed Out
Maxed Out

Author: Katrina Alcorn

Publisher: Seal Press

Published: 2013-08-28

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1580055230

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Winner of a Foreword IndieFab Book of the Year Award Katrina Alcorn was a 37-year-old mother with a happy marriage and a thriving career when one day, on the way to Target to buy diapers, she had a breakdown. Her carefully built career shuddered to a halt, and her journey through depression, anxiety, and insomnia—followed by medication, meditation, and therapy—began. Alcorn wondered how a woman like herself, with a loving husband, a supportive boss, three healthy kids, and a good income, was unable to manage the demands of having a career and a family. Over time, she realized that she wasn’t alone; many women were struggling to do it all—and feeling as if they were somehow failing as a result. Mothers are the breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, yet the American workplace is uniquely hostile to the needs of parents. Weaving in surprising research about the dysfunction between the careers and home lives of working mothers, as well as the consequences to women’s health, Alcorn tells a deeply personal story about “having it all,” failing miserably, and what comes after. Ultimately, she offers readers a vision for a healthier, happier, and more productive way to live and work.

Home in the Woods
Home in the Woods

Author: Eliza Wheeler

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 0399162909

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This stunningly beautiful picture book from New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Eliza Wheeler is based on her grandmother's childhood and pays homage to a family's fortitude as they discover the meaning of home. Eliza Wheeler's gorgeously illustrated book tells the story of what happens when six-year-old Marvel, her seven siblings, and their mom must start all over again after their father has died. Deep in the woods of Wisconsin they find a tar-paper shack. It doesn't seem like much of a home, but they soon start seeing what it could be. During their first year it's a struggle to maintain the shack and make sure they have enough to eat. But each season also brings its own delights and blessings--and the children always find a way to have fun. Most importantly, the family finds immense joy in being together, surrounded by nature. And slowly, their little shack starts feeling like a true home--warm, bright, and filled up with love.

The Project
The Project

Author: Courtney Summers

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1250105749

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The Project is a pulls-no-punches story from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award winning author Courtney Summers, about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister no matter the cost. The #1 Indie Next Pick and winner of the International Thriller Writers Award. BELIEVE HIM, BETRAY HER 1998: Six-year-old Bea doesn’t want a sister but everything changes when Lo is born early. Small and frail, Lo needs someone to look out for her. Having a sister is a promise, Mom says—one Bea’s determined not to break. 2011: A car wreck, their parents dead. Lo would’ve died too if not for Lev Warren, the charismatic leader of The Unity Project. He’s going to change the world and after he saves Lo’s life, Bea wants to commit to his extraordinary calling. Lev promises a place for the girls in the project, where no harm will ever come to them again . . . if Bea proves herself to him first. 2017: Lo doesn’t know why Bea abandoned her for The Unity Project after the accident, but she never forgot what Bea said the last time they spoke: We’ll see each other again. Six years later, Lo is invited to witness the group’s workings, meet with Lev, and—she hopes—finally reconnect with her sister. But Bea is long gone, and the only one who seems to understand the depths of this betrayal is Lev. If it’s family Lo wants, he can make her a new promise . . . if she proves herself to him first. Powerful, suspenseful and heartbreaking, The Project follows two sisters who fall prey to the same cult leader—and their desperate fight back to one another.

Her Stories
Her Stories

Author: Elana Levine

Publisher: Duke University Press Books

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781478007661

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Since the debut of These Are My Children in 1949, the daytime television soap opera has been foundational to the history of the medium as an economic, creative, technological, social, and cultural institution. In Her Stories, Elana Levine draws on archival research and her experience as a longtime soap fan to provide an in-depth history of the daytime television soap opera as a uniquely gendered cultural form and a central force in the economic and social influence of network television. Closely observing the production, promotion, reception, and narrative strategies of the soaps, Levine examines two intersecting developments: the role soap operas have played in shaping cultural understandings of gender and the rise and fall of broadcast network television as a culture industry. In so doing, she foregrounds how soap operas have revealed changing conceptions of gender and femininity as imagined by and reflected on the television screen.

Tales the Devil Told Me
Tales the Devil Told Me

Author: Jen Fawkes

Publisher: Press 53

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781950413362

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What if Captain Hook gave up marauding and took a gig at the Post Office? How did Hamlet's uncle Claudius become such a rat? What might happen if a plastic surgeon fell for Medusa? If Moby Dick could write a letter, what would he say to Ahab? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in Tales the Devil Told Me by Jen Fawkes-winner of the 2020 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. These twelve stories examine the possible lives of such classic literary villains as Professor Moriarty, Shere Khan, Rumpelstiltskin, Polyphemus, Mrs. Danvers and others, while illuminating the consumptive nature of love, the crushing weight of isolation, the false promise of beauty, and the power of storytelling itself.

The Pandemic Midlife Crisis
The Pandemic Midlife Crisis

Author: Stephanie Sprenger

Publisher:

Published: 2021-10-30

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13:

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Gen X women were overwhelmed and stretched like never before by the COVID-19 pandemic. They were hit hard in all of their many roles--as workers, as caregivers, and more. In this essay collection, 31 midlife women describe their experiences confronting the daily challenges of pandemic life. They are writers, teachers, artists, mothers, daughters, caregivers, activists, friends, and neighbors. Their stories highlight change, flexibility, isolation, connection, loss, and ingenuity, but at the core of each piece is resilience. The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink takes readers behind the news headlines of job losses, virtual schooling, and quarantines and into the lives of real midlife women who have found themselves on the brink of so many things during this pandemic: crisis and reinvention, breakdowns and breakthroughs. Within the stories of this collection--the 5th HerStories Project anthology--it is our hope that you'll find the comfort and connection of knowing you are not alone right now.