There's a Bird in My Bathtub By: Daryl D Hansen This is just a weird story about a weird bird, and the ordinary people that happen to come in contact with that bird. Well, most of them are normal, but maybe not quite. Everybody has a problem, somewhere, although you can’t usually tell just by looking, or even by talking to them. In this case, the main character in this story has some deep-seated fears about commitment. In the past, he lost a lot of those he had grown close to, and now it is affecting his personal life. Put simply, he is afraid to get too close to anyone, because he is afraid to face that sense of loss a second time. So, the question is: Can a bird in his bathtub really change his life, and bring Henry the love and happiness he deserves?
Collects personal accounts from Alzheimer's patients and family members on their individual struggles, providing inspiring and uplifting tales of strength, treatment, and compassion. --
A memoir in essays that expands on the viral sensation “The Crane Wife” with a frank and funny look at love, intimacy, and self in the twenty-first century. From friends and lovers to blood family and chosen family, this “elegant masterpiece” (Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger) asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE GUARDIAN, GARDEN & GUN "Hauser builds their life's inventory out of deconstructed personal narratives, resulting in a reading experience that's rich like a complicated dessert—not for wolfing down but for savoring in small bites." —The New York Times “Clever, heartfelt, and wrenching.” —Time “Brilliant.” —Oprah Daily Ten days after calling off their wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to Texas to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, they realized they'd almost signed up to live someone else's life. What if you released yourself from traditional narratives of happiness? What if you looked for ways to leave room for the unexpected? In Hauser’s case, this meant dissecting pop culture touchstone, from The Philadelphia Story to The X Files, to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. They attended a robot convention, contemplated grief at John Belushi’s gravesite, and officiated a wedding. Most importantly, they mapped the difference between the stories we’re asked to hold versus those we choose to carry. Told with the late-night barstool directness of your wisest, most bighearted friend, The Crane Wife is a book for everyone whose path doesn't look the way they thought it would; for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing and to build a new sort of life story, a new sort of family, a new sort of home to live in.
Dont say a word. We have never needed them to communicate with one another. Whether its an energy or an ancient kinship between our souls, I dont know. But whatever we have goes beyond language. Between us, even the silence is extraordinary. Even the stillness speaks (Beau Taplin, Silence).
Prepare to be bewitched by Iceland and the book that has enchanted readers for decades – and imprisoned one of them. Elva loves Iceland for many reasons – the epic landscape of gods and volcanoes, weather that’s the polar opposite of her home in Australia, and the fact that it’s where her mother might have gone back to when she disappeared. Iceland is where Elva’s beloved grandfather – the famous children’s book author – lives in a remote village and where the beings that haunt her imagination reside. Elva is interested in the odd things people make – Victorian collectibles, old spells, taxidermy, fairy tales. The weird, the wonderful and the sometimes macabre. She’s got a few quirks of her own that she’s (mainly) keeping under control. Except one. Working in a shop of curiosities, studying at an Icelandic language school, Elva begins to explore her obsessions, and when her grandfather suffers a stroke, they threaten to overtake her. Then she meets Remy, a painter who’s got some secrets of his own … In her captivating debut, Rijn Collins has created a beautifully evocative portrait of an enchanted mind in an enchanting place – a story of everyday magic, both dark and light; of families and the shadows they can cast; of the delights and dangers of the imagination. Fed to Red Birds will transport you to remote corners of both the world and the human heart. ‘Intensely evocative and beautiful.’ Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rights 'Rijn Collins is a writer of great humanity and intelligence who has fashioned a vividly realised portrait of a young woman trying to make a life for herself in the shadow of familial trauma and dysfunction.' Simon McDonald, Kill Your Darlings ‘Fed to Red Birds is dreamy and immersive … both travelogue and beautifully written literary fiction. It is for readers who loved the insightful prose and armchair travel of Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au and the brooding, fairytale-esque feelings of Hydra by Adriane Howell.’ Books+Publishing '[T]he sense of place in this novel is spellbinding – as is Collins’s prose in describing it.' Australian Book Review '[L]ost in this book, I have only put it down for long enough to write this column, and am already missing Iceland and Elva terribly ... I feel I am typing this with frost-bitten fingers while being watched by trolls.' The Canberra Times 'Fed to Red Birds is a quietly haunting novel that leads us to ponder our histories and genealogies, and how we hold onto the past through our obsessions and compulsions.' Better Reading
Some see dreams as communications with another reality and others see them as insignificant random phenomena. Dreams range from the mundane of day-to-day events to the extraordinary, including visions, lucid dreaming, out of body experiences, interactions with the deceased, precognition, sleep paralysis and vivid hallucinations during transitions between sleep and wakefulness. Drawing on individuals’ reports, this book explores the phenomena and the significance of extraordinary dreams.
After being deceived and tricked by Ashmedai, Cassandra’s had it with demons and their scheming. She refuses to be a pawn in their games any longer. It’s high time she lived a normal life. But then the Vampire Tribunal accuses Alexey—the vampire who helped her escape Ashmedai's clutches—of high treason. If found guilty, he’ll die the Sun Death! Cassandra has no choice but to ask the newly crowned demon king Nysrogh for help. After all, he is the demon Alexey supposedly summoned, an action that could now put him on death row. Only he can prove Alexey’s innocence. But when Nysrogh refuses to heed her call, a race against the clock starts. Can Cassandra prove Alexey’s innocence in time and save his life?
This fascinating book applies social theorist Georges Bataille’s revolutionary thinking to psychotherapy, offering clinicians a new and valuable context for practicing therapy. In adding Bataille’s ideas to several different psychotherapeutic modalities, this book makes the notoriously obscure thinker more accessible while testing the validity of his far-reaching work in the treatment room. Through an in-depth examination of several clinical case studies, the book demonstrates how to balance an understanding of the social and historical contexts of participants with a therapeutic approach that offers empathy for individual distress. It also explains how Bataille’s innovative approach can be applied to work with couples, groups, institutions, and even one of Freud’s classic case studies. Both the content and form of each chapter demonstrate the therapeutic value of a reflexive, critical approach to one’s practice and exemplify how to write about it. Offering an unprecedented opportunity to imagine how Bataille’s own interest in psychoanalysis and clinical psychology might have developed, this book will be of interest to both practitioners in the field and scholars of continental philosophy and social theory.
