One summer, young Charlotte met Riccardo and fell in love. Then she discovered that he, the son of a noble family in Italy, was merely enjoying summer love, and her days of devoting her heart and body ended in tragedy. Some years later, Riccardo’s mean looks still haunt and pain her. Now a real-estate agent, Charlotte is shocked when she finds her next client is none other than the unforgettable Riccardo!
One summer, young Charlotte met Riccardo and fell in love. Then she discovered that he, the son of a noble family in Italy, was merely enjoying summer love, and her days of devoting her heart and body ended in tragedy. Some years later, Riccardo’s mean looks still haunt and pain her. Now a real-estate agent, Charlotte is shocked when she finds her next client is none other than the unforgettable Riccardo!
After losing her home, Sophie is walking in the rain, pushing her son in his stroller. While she’s looking for directions, she slips and falls in the gutter, almost getting hit by a car. Miserable, she looks up into the eyes of the man who stepped out of the car. It’s Ettore, the man she fell in love with and who falsely accused her of being a jewelry thief! Sophie feels desperate, shaken after their cruel reunion, and that’s before he mocks her for her misfortune. She absolutely cannot let this coldhearted man know about Torry, his son!
A CBC BOOKS BEST NONFICTION OF 2020 AN ENTROPY MAGAZINE BEST NONFICTION 2020/21 A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK OF THE DAY (07/23/2022) Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference. "Historically we have associated the disabled body image and disabled life with an unhappy ending” – Sue Carter, Toronto Star "Leduc persuasively illustrates the power of stories to affect reality in this painstakingly researched and provocative study that invites us to consider our favorite folktales from another angle." – Sara Shreve, Library Journal "She [Leduc] argues that template is how society continues to treat the disabled: rather than making the world accessible for everyone, the disabled are often asked to adapt to inaccessible environments." – Ryan Porter, Quill & Quire "Read this smart, tenacious book." – The Washington Post "A brilliant young critic named Amanda Leduc explores this pernicious power of language in her new book, Disfigured … Leduc follows the bread crumbs back into her original experience with fairy tales – and then explores their residual effects … Read this smart, tenacious book." – The Washington Post "Leduc investigates the intersection between disability and her beloved fairy tales, questioning the constructs of these stories and where her place is, as a disabled woman, among those narratives." – The Globe and Mail "It gave me goosebumps as I read, to see so many of my unexpressed, half-formed thoughts in print. My highlighter got a good workout." – BookRiot "Disfigured is not just an eye-opener when it comes to the Disney princess crew and the Marvel universe – this thin volume provides the tools to change how readers engage with other kinds of popular media, from horror films to fashion magazines to outdated sitcom jokes." – Quill & Quire “It’s an essential read for anyone who loves fairy tales.” – Buzzfeed Books "Leduc makes one thing clear and beautifully so – fairy tales are fundamentally fantastic, but that doesn’t mean that they are beyond reproach in their depiction of real issues and identities." – Shrapnel Magazine "As Leduc takes us through these fairy tales and the space they occupy in the narratives that we construct, she slowly unfolds a call-to-action: the claiming of space for disability in storytelling." – The Globe and Mail "A provocative beginning to a thoughtful and wide-ranging book, one which explores some of the most primal stories readers have encountered and prompts them to ponder the subtext situated there all along." – LitHub "a poignant and informative account of how the stories we tell shape our collective understanding of one another.” – BookMarks "What happens when we allow disabled writers to tell stories of disability within fairytales and in magical and supernatural settings? It is a reimagining of the fairytale canon we need. Leduc dares to dream of a world that most stories envision is unattainable." – Bitch Media
From the age of two-and-a-half "Em" adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, the journey to uncover the source of her child's inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi's past and her own struggle to live an authentic life. Raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave, Mimi eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld. Helping her son-- renamed Jacob-- Mimi explains how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future. -- adapted from jacket
"Smith spins out a sensuous, sinuous psychological thriller that compels attention to the final line."—Booklist Amelie and Janet are in love with the same man: Janet's husband. One knows it; the other doesn't. Or does she? As bestselling novelist Amelie Ferrar knows, an affair with a married person is like a work of fiction: a kind of spy story with its rules and customs, negotiations and compromises, and many private rituals. But like any spy story, there will inevitably be a betrayal: something will slip, someone else will find out, someone may even die. As Amelie falls deeper into her obsession with the man she loves—and his wife—the line between the fiction she writes and the reality she lives begins to blur...and the twisted ending to this story is one that not even she could have seen coming.
