'Beautiful . . . insightful, fascinating and moving. It's a lovely LOVELY book' Marian Keyes 'This book made me cry' Sara Cox After Emma Kennedy's mother Brenda passed away, she found herself floundering, unable to make sense of the mysterious, charismatic but unpredictable woman who had been her mum. And then she found Brenda's letters, forgotten for years in the attic. As Emma made her way through decades of correspondence, she started to piece together the fractured relationships and buried secrets that had left their indelible mark on Brenda. Finally, she allowed herself to ask the question she couldn't as a child: who, really, was her mother? 'This honest, insightful book is a touching tribute to her complex, inimitable mother' Daily Express 'Remarkable' Dawn French 'A beautiful, hilarious and bittersweet book' Mel Giedroyc
Winner of the Griffin Poetry Trust's International Poetry Prize (2014) Runner-up for the Northern California Book Reviewers Northern California Book Award (2014) Fire— its physical, symbolic, political, and spiritual forms—is the fourth and final subject in Brenda Hillman's masterful series on the elements. Her previous volumes—Cascadia, Pieces of Air in the Epic, Practical Water—have addressed earth, air, and water. Here, Hillman evokes fire as metaphor and as event to chart subtle changes of seasons during financial breakdown, environmental crisis, and street movements for social justice; she gathers factual data, earthly rhythms, chants to the dead, journal entries, and lyric fragments in the service of a radical animism. In the polyphony of Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, the poet fuses the visionary, the political, and the personal to summon music and fire at once, calling the reader to be alive to the senses and to re-imagine a common life. This is major work by one of our most important writers. Check for the online reader's companion at brendahillman.site.wesleyan.edu.
This selection of letters written by Miller, then in his eighties, to his neighbor, a young dancer/actress named Brenda Venus, is interwoven with a text by Venus recounting the course of their relationship
Sienna Mills knows her alpha males. They brood. They growl. They love the word "mine." After spending her early twenties in and out of relationships with alphas, Sienna used her knowledge to found Alpha Mail, a booming business that allows women to sign up for emails, letters, and texts from their own brooding, red-blooded man. Her star is on the rise and Sienna is attracting the interest of investors when a mysterious man starts messaging her about the true nature of an alpha. She's got it all wrong, he says, and he's willing to show her how a real man makes women respond. The more Sienna hears from him, the more aggravated she becomes. Who does this anonymous, supposed alpha think he is, anyway? And yet...she can't deny his messages are becoming the best part of her days. Commitment-phobic Sienna finds herself wanting more from her sensei of seduction. But is she willing to trust her heart to an alpha again?
“A must read.”—Fresh Fiction Laurel Hodges has changed her identity twice. She’s been on the run for the past four years, trying to outdistance the gang members who blame her for the death of one of their own. She’s finally found peace and stability in the small town of Pineview, Montana. But just when Laurel thinks she and her children are safe the nightmare starts all over again. The Crew, a ruthless prison gang with ties to Laurel’s brother, will never forget and they’ll never forgive. And now that they’ve finally tracked her down, they’ll stop at nothing. Sheriff Myles King, who happens to live next door with his thirteen-year-old daughter, appoints himself Laurel’s personal guardian. His growing attraction to her could change his life Myles is beginning to picture marriage and family. But it could also end his life. If he can’t save her, everything he’s built, everything he wants, could be destroyed. Originally published in 2011
New York Times–Bestselling Author: A profiler is taunted by the predator who traumatized her long ago—and she intends to fight back . . . Romain Fornier lost his reason for living when his daughter was kidnapped and murdered. He used a cop’s gun to mete out his own justice and spent the next few years in prison. Once he was freed, he returned to his Cajun roots in small-town Louisiana. But now he learns that he might have killed the wrong man. Jasmine Stratford, a psychological profiler who works with the private detective firm The Last Stand, is convinced his daughter’s killer is still alive—and that she and Romain have something in common. She believes the same man kidnapped her sister, Kimberly, sixteen years ago. Jasmine is determined to track him down when she receives an anonymous package, postmarked New Orleans—the bracelet she gave Kimberly for her eighth birthday. She approaches Romain because she knows he can help her . . . if he chooses. But searching for the man who irrevocably changed both their lives means they have to rise to a killer’s challenge: Stop me . . . Praise for the series “Genuine thrills.” —Publishers Weekly “Nonstop suspense at its very best.” —Carla Neggers, New York Times–bestselling author of Rival’s Break
Brenda Ueland was a journalist, editor, freelance writer, and teacher of writing. In If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit she shares her philosophies on writing and life in general. Ueland firmly believed that anyone can write, that everyone is talented, original, and has something important to say. In this book she explains how find that spark that will make you a great writer. Carl Sandburg called this book the best book ever written about how to write. Join the millions of others who've found inspiration and unlocked their own talent.
From the depths of sorrow following the sudden death of her closest female mentor, Brenda Hillman asks anguished questions in this book of poems about separation, spiritual transcendence, and the difference between life and death. Both personal and philosophical, her work can be read as a spirit-guide for those mourning the loss of a loved one and as a series of fundamental ponderings on the inevitability of death and separation. At first refusing to let go, desperate to feel the presence of her friend, the poet seeks solace in a belief in the spirit world. But life, not death, becomes the issue when she begins to see physical existence as "an interruption" that preoccupies us with shapes and borders. "Shape makes life too small," she realizes. Comfort at last comes in the idea of "reverse seeing": that even if she cannot see forward into the spirit world, her friend can see "backward into this world" and be with her. Death Tractates is the companion volume to a philosophical poetic work entitles Bright Existence, which Hillman was in the midst of writing when her friend died. Published by Wesleyan University Press in 1993, it shares many of the same Gnostic themes and sources.
The Kite Maker is Brenda Peynado's science fiction novelette of how humans cope with alien contact. After aliens arrive on earth, humans do the unthinkable out of fear. When an alien walks into a human kite maker's store, coveting her kites, the human struggles with her guilt over her part in the alien massacres, while neo-Nazis draw a violent line between alien and human. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Lola's Letters is an African American family's collection of heart to heart correspondences to a beloved son and brother, Samuel McGee, a soldier stationed in Germany during the Korean War. Sammie's separation from his large family added to the many challenges faced by him, his parents and siblings after the McGee's migration from Richland, Georgia to the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey in 1946. Sammie's mother Lola Cox McGee encouraged everyone in the household to keep in touch with him, in spite of the family's day to day struggles. After Lola's death the insightful letters were found in a small burlap bag among her few prized possessions. Further testimony to Lola's positive influence and homespun grit are found in the biographies of the McGee family members. A strong belief in God, respect of person, belief in their fellow man, good work ethics, and undying determination are some of the qualities that Lola instilled in her children. Her vocabulary was that of the poor rural South yet soft-spoken Lola could get her point across. Some of her sayings are defined in this publication. Three decades after Lola's passing, her words and ways live on. They serve as an inspiration to her family to keep moving forward and to make better lives for themselves. Lola taught her family to draw strength from God and from within when confronted with the harshness of life. She evenly showed her love for her ten children. Lola did all she could for her family during the decades (1920's through the 80's), especially during the times when there were no or few support services or groups to aid with physical handicaps, physical and mental health issues and abuses, alcoholism, homelessness, divorce, interracial marriage and prejudices. All of which touched Lola's family in one way or another. Lola, Mama and MomMom to her children and grandchildren, was the one who heard it all, saw the effects of it all, prayed through it all, yet remained the anchor keeping th
