Many songs and stories have been written about how important mothers are to their children. But what story would you tell if you put pen to paper? Perhaps things you had learned from her that made you who you are today. Perhaps express your gratitude for the sacrifices she had made for you. Or perhaps matters left unresolved that have since become a thorn in your relationship. Insightful and heart-wrenching, packed with poignant anecdotes. These letters testify to the nurturing love that mothers have for their children. In this collection of mini-essays edited by award-winning author Felix Cheong, sons and daughters write letters to their mother about their relationships and articulate what has often not been expressed.
What would you tell your father if you wrote him a letter? Perhaps what you have always wanted to say, but never could. Perhaps things you would like to thank him for, but never had the chance to. Or perhaps sort out disagreements you wished had been resolved more amicably. Heartfelt and moving and full of vignettes about their growing up years, these letters by our contributors show us the pivotal role the father figure plays in their children’s lives.Contributors include: Margaret Thomas, Sadie-Jane Alexis Nunis, Christina Thé, Louis Tang, Alvin Tan, David Kwee, Hoh Chung Shih, Wong Ting Hway, Chee Soo Lian, Natalie Ng, Charmaine Leung, Crispin Rodrigues, Jacintha Abisheganaden, Kelvin Tan, Usha Pillai, Andrew Koh, Patrick Sagaram, Loh Guan Liang, Sarah Voon, Koh Jee Leong
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today • As a young mother facing a terminal diagnosis, Julie Yip-Williams began to write her story, a story like no other. What began as the chronicle of an imminent and early death became something much more—a powerful exhortation to the living. “An exquisitely moving portrait of the daily stuff of life.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Born blind in Vietnam, she narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it—a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining. Motherhood, marriage, the immigrant experience, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, fortune-tellers, grief, reincarnation, jealousy, comfort, pain, the marvel of the body in full rebellion—this book is as sprawling and majestic as the life it records. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is a book of indelible moments, seared deep—an incomparable guide to living vividly by facing hard truths consciously. With humor, bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life. Praise for The Unwinding of the Miracle “Everything worth understanding and holding on to is in this book. . . . A miracle indeed.”—Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author “A beautifully written, moving, and compassionate chronicle that deserves to be read and absorbed widely.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies
Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.
Warrior Mother is the true story of a mother’s fierce love and determination, and her willingness to go outside the bounds of the ordinary when two of her three adult children are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases. When Sheila Collins’s best friend, dying of breast cancer, asked her to accompany her through what turned out to be the last fourteen days of her life, she didn’t know that the experience was preparing her for what lay ahead with her own children. In the years that followed, Collins had to face both her son’s diagnosis with AIDS and her daughter’s diagnosis with breast cancer. Warrior Mother documents how she faces these challenges and the issues accompanying them—from learning to be the mother of a gay son to visiting a healer in Brazil on her daughter’s behalf when she decides on bone marrow transplant treatment. Experience as a professional social worker and family therapist doesn’t always help Collins to cope with her children’s illnesses—but her relationship with improvisational song, dance, storytelling, and women’s spirituality rituals carries her through. Warrior Mother follows Collins’s family through memorials and celebrations of lives well lived, all the while exploring the impact of grief on those left behind and the rituals that help them heal.
After a mother's death, a daughter embarks on a personal journey of grief and healing. Hope Edelman shared her journey in Motherless Daughters; afterward, she received letters from motherless women all over the world who felt compelled to share their own stories of mother loss. Comforted by the shared experiences that appeared in the book, they wanted to hear more from women like them. Letters from Motherless Daughters was created to fulfill that request, and now, in this updated edition, Hope compiles letters received over the two decades since the publication of her New York Times bestseller. In their own voices, these daughters--ranging in age from thirteen to seventy-eight--share their journeys of mourning and regeneration. Beginning with the initial period of adjustment and acceptance, covering the first years after a mother's death, and describing lives shaped by loss more than twenty years later, these letters reflect the challenges and triumphs motherless girls and women face over time. The words of these brave women illustrate the profound pain, astounding strength, and personal growth inherent in living through the loss of a mother--without ever outliving the need for her.
