Lesley Arfin kept a diary during the apocalypse that was her adolescence, chronicling her depression from being bullied in the 10th grade and her discovery of heroin. Lesley told her diary everything. Now in her 20s, Lesley has returned to her journal and added new comments that only an adult looking back on their own life can perceive. Most of these are in the vein of What the hell was I talking about?' Lesley's hilarious updates remind readers how heavy it all seemed back then and how irrelevant it all really is in the face of adulthood.'
When her five-year-old son passed the rigorous entrance exams to one of Japan's top private elementary schools, Makihara, a single mother, thought they were on their way. Taro would wear the historic dark blue uniform and learn alongside other little Einsteins while she basked in the glory of his high achievements with the other perfect moms. Together they would climb the rungs into the country's successful elite. But it didn't turn out that way. Taro had other things in mind.While set in Japan, their struggles in the school's hyper-competitive environment mirror those faced by parents here in the US and raise the same questions about the best way to educate a child—especially one that doesn’t quite fit the mold. Public or private? Competitive or nurturing? Standardized or individualized. Helicopter parenting or free-range? Amid this frenzied debate, how does one find balance and maintain a healthy parent-child relationship? Dear Diary Boy is an intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child's experience in a prestigious private Tokyo school. It's a tale that will resonate with all parents as we try to answer the age-old questions of how best to educate our children and what, truly, is in their best interests versus what is in our own.
A devotional written in diary style that addresses many of the issues facing young girls today, by providing biblically based soulutions to real-life challenges that aren't always so clear-cut.
In poignant and insightful interviews, Anrénee Englander presents the voices of ten pregnant teens as they discuss their experiences and choices around motherhood, adoption and abortion. First published to critical acclaim in 1997, this new edition contains the original interviews as well as d material including a resources section. Presenting different points of view, DEAR DIARY, I’M PREGNANT is a non-judgmental source of information for all teens that provides support and guidance for those who find themselves in this situation. Chosen by The New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age” list and hailed by The Globe and Mail for its “...frank, revealing and brave conversations,” this is a must-read book for young women looking for reassurance that they are not alone.
“[Manguso] has written the memoir we didn’t realize we needed.” —The New Yorker In Ongoingness, Sarah Manguso continues to define the contours of the contemporary essay. In it, she confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for twenty-five years. “I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,” she explains. But this simple statement belies a terror that she might forget something, that she might miss something important. Maintaining that diary, now eight hundred thousand words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice. Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time. Ongoingness is a spare, meditative work that stands in stark contrast to the volubility of the diary—it is a haunting account of mortality and impermanence, of how we struggle to find clarity in the chaos of time that rushes around and over and through us. “Bold, elegant, and honest . . . Ongoingness reads variously as an addict’s testimony, a confession, a celebration, an elegy.” —The Paris Review “Manguso captures the central challenge of memory, of attentiveness to life . . . A spectacularly and unsummarizably rewarding read.” —Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
It's him, Diary. It's Tyson. I don't know what it is about him; well I guess I do know. It's everything about him. Everything he does makes me smile. It's him
That's Alex Smith rushing past you, hurrying home to check out his journal. Why? Because Alex has never written a word in his journal, but yesterday, a mysterious entry appeared in the book – one that told Alex about the future. Alex can't wait to read the journal tonight to find out if there's anything new inside. Too bad he doesn't realize that by opening that book, he's opening the door to...The Nightmare Room
Twelve-year-old best friends Elizabeth and Tara*Starr continue their friendship through letter-writing after Tara*Starr's family moves to another state, in a complex and emotionally rich novel about two friends coping with overwhelming change.
My inspiration for this book came from a project I did in second grade. We had to write from the perspective of another animal or creature. I chose a little bunny that I saw on the playground that day. This bunny became known as my Briar Pinnacle Bunny. Briar Bunny is your average fluffy bunny. She lives in her cozy burrow, somewhere in Texas, and her small, but big world is full of wonderful people. She lives at home with her family which includes, her addictive, lovable dad, hilarious, out-of-this-world mom, and highly naughty, but also highly sweet little brother. But Briar is not your average bunny at all. And one day, she stumbles upon what may be the biggest challenge she will ever face. When the aliens strike in the place it hurts her and her loved one the most, she will do anything to fight back and save them. But she soon comes to realize that the best strategy is probably also the most dangerous. Will Briar befriending the enemy that are the feared aliens be enough? And, who are these aliens anyway?
Diaries of Girls and Women captures and preserves the diverse lives of forty-seven girls and women who lived in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin between 1837 and 1999—young schoolgirls, adolescents coming of age, newlywed wives, mothers grieving the loss of children, teachers, nurses, elderly women, Luxembourger immigrant nuns, and women traveling abroad. A compelling work of living history, it brings together both diaries from historical society archives and diaries still in possession of the diarists or their descendents. Editor Suzanne L. Bunkers has selected these excerpts from more than 450 diaries she examined. Some diaries were kept only briefly, others through an entire lifetime; some diaries are the intensely private record of a life, others tell the story of an entire family and were meant to be saved and appreciated by future generations. By approaching diaries as historical documents, therapeutic tools, and a form of literature, Bunkers offers readers insight into the self-images of girls and women, the dynamics of families and communities, and the kinds of contributions that girls and women have made, past and present. As a representation of the girls and women of varied historical eras, locales, races, and economic circumstances who settled and populated the Midwest, Diaries of Girls and Women adds texture and pattern to the fabric of American history.
