This book is about life and love. It is also about the courage to dare to live without boundaries and to learn how to bounce back no matter what happens to you. Through events the author lived and some analysis of societal and cultural trends, you will be exposed to new perspectives that will help you turn the negative events you are facing into positive outcomes. From dealing with the harsh realities of divorce to learning about hormonal challenges and living through bankruptcy and foreclosure, the author writes with a tint of humor that will leave you with a smile on your face.
Full-time FindingJoy.net blogger, speaker, marketer, podcaster, and single mom of seven, Rachel Marie Martin presents a rallying cry to anyone who believes the lie that she is "just a mom." Over the years, you willingly pour everything you have into your family, but in the process, you lose the essence of who you are. In her characteristic raw and visceral style, Rachel teaches you how to rewrite the pages of your story, follow your passion, and discover the beauty of who you are. Drawing on lessons from her own incredible journey--together with insight from conversations with thousands of other women--Rachel encourages moms to break cycles, take off masks, and prevent fear from taking control. She balances her "no excuses" approach with breathing room and grace for those messy moments in life and mothering. Rachel reminds you there is always a reason to hope, to move forward, and to dare the impossible. You can make changes. You can pursue dreams, find yourself, and live a life of deep happiness and boundless joy. Stop waiting for "someday." Take hold of the moment, and say yes to your dreams.
After accidentally injuring his neighbor, Matt Sprouts thinks he has "the Curse,” a hometown myth that ruins middle schoolers’ lives. To defeat the Curse, Matt decides he needs to solve the mystery—and FAST!—but that’s not easy to do when you’re entering middle school, keeping track of your little brother, trying to defeat the best soccer team, and oh yeah, not breaking any more toes. Twelve-year-old Matt Sprouts is in big trouble. He didn't mean to hurt his neighbor Jenna with that awesome martial arts move—it just happened! Blame it on morning cartoons or Jenna's lack of coordination. Anyways, getting grounded is the worst thing that could happen, right? Wrong. After the incident spirals into a series of downright unfortunate events, it's decided that Matt has contracted "the Curse," a hometown myth that has ruined the lives of middle schoolers before him. And as if the Curse weren't enough, entering sixth grade proves to be just as mysterious—there's a strange girlfriend, wacky teachers, and . . . c'mon, can Matt's toes stop breaking PLEASE?! Matt decides to take matters into his own hands. Now he just has to break the Curse . . . before all his bones break. "Funny, heartwarming, and impossible to put down, this book is a must-read for anyone trying to survive the perils of middle school." – Dustin Brady, bestselling author of Trapped in a Video Game, World's Worst Time Machine, the Leila and Nugget Mysteries, and Escape from a Video Game "Matt Sprouts is the next star of middle-grade comedy! Matt Eicheldinger expertly draws from his life to create this heart-warming and fun illustrated series." – Jarret Krososzka, New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist "This is the kind of book that makes a kid stay up past their bedtime, reading with a flashlight under the blanket.” – Nina Hamza, bestselling author of Ahmed Azis's Epic Year
After years of successfully raising two sons on her own, Denise finds herself involved with both of their fathers, as well as in a relationship with a new man. Jimmie, after learning that his son is a top basketball prospect, suddenly wants a major role in the teenager's life. Walter is trying to gain custody of his twelve-year-old. And there's Brock, who is falling in love with Denise but is uncertain whether he wants a ready-made family. Denise is left with plenty of tough decisions to make, but thankfully she has the character and independence to make it work.
Are you pleased with the progress you've made so far in achieving your hopes and dreams? Are you excited about what's coming next in your life? Or do you need a complete overhaul? In How to Be a Grown Up, renowned psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser demonstrates the life-changing benefits of embracing the concept of the "fully loaded grown up." After counseling thousands of patients, she has identified ten critical areas that determine success, happiness, and fulfillment—from conscientious money management to developing strong coping skills to building the right kind of friendships and intimate partnerships. How to Be a Grown Up begins with "The Quiz," the first step to empowering you by helping you become an expert on your own life, exploring what you really want and need in every area of life. In chapters packed full of tips, tools, and exercises, Stacy takes you on a journey of self-discovery in which you evaluate your individual strengths and weaknesses as well as identify self-sabotaging traits and learn how to change them once and for all. Had trouble keeping your cool the last time you talked to your mom? Read up on the secrets of dynamic communicators. Reevaluating your circle of friends? Discover the six types of grown-up friendships and appreciate your relationships for what they are. Stuck on a frustrating rung of the corporate ladder? Learn the traits that every employer loves—and how to master them yourself. Fully loaded grown ups are fully empowered and in charge of their own lives. They are able to initiate change instead of just reacting to events, bounce back from setbacks and disappointments, and enjoy more satisfying relationships—with everyone, including themselves. Most important, fully loaded grown ups enjoy true freedom—not the kind envisioned as a child, meaning eating ice cream for dinner, but absolute confidence in their ability to live their own best life. With her trademark mix of warmth and toughness, Stacy motivates readers to rally their strengths, let go of childish, outgrown attachments, and arrive at a peaceful balance between freedom and responsibility. Whether you feel you've lost control of your life or you just need a tune-up in an area or two, How to Be a Grown Up is a wise and witty life guide for the twenty-first century.
Packed with research, insights, and illuminating (and often funny) examples from Paris’s own divorce experience, this book is a “practical and reassuring guide to parting well.” —Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project Engaging and revolutionary, filled with wit, searing honesty, and intimate interviews, Splitopia is a call for a saner, more civil kind of divorce. As Paris reveals, divorce has improved dramatically in recent decades due to changes in laws and family structures, advances in psychology and child development, and a new understanding of the importance of the father. Positive psychology expert and author of Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar, writes that Paris’s “personal insights, stories, and research” create “a smart and interesting guide that can be extremely helpful for those going through divorce.” Reading this book can be the difference between an expensive, ugly battle and a decent divorce, between children sucked under by conflict or happy, healthy kids. This is “a compelling case that it’s high time for a new definition of Happily Ever After—for everyone” (Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time).
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, producer, and six-time Grammy winner opens up about faith, sexuality, parenthood, and a life shaped by music in “one of the great memoirs of our time” (Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed). NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND AUTOSTRADDLE • “The best-written, most engaging rock autobiography since her childhood hero, Elton John, published Me.”—Variety Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, fourteen times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving an indelible mark on her formative years and altering her journey into young adulthood. As an openly gay teenager, Brandi grappled with the tension between her sexuality and her faith when her pastor publicly refused to baptize her on the day of the ceremony. Shockingly, her small town rallied around Brandi in support and set her on a path to salvation where the rest of the misfits and rejects find it: through twisted, joyful, weird, and wonderful music. In Broken Horses, Brandi Carlile takes readers through the events of her life that shaped her very raw art—from her start at a local singing competition where she performed Elton John’s “Honky Cat” in a bedazzled white polyester suit, to her first break opening for Dave Matthews Band, to many sleepless tours over fifteen years and six studio albums, all while raising two children with her wife, Catherine Shepherd. This hard-won success led her to collaborations with personal heroes like Elton John, Dolly Parton, Mavis Staples, Pearl Jam, Tanya Tucker, and Joni Mitchell, as well as her peers in the supergroup The Highwomen, and ultimately to the Grammy stage, where she converted millions of viewers into instant fans. Evocative and piercingly honest, Broken Horses is at once an examination of faith through the eyes of a person rejected by the church’s basic tenets and a meditation on the moments and lyrics that have shaped the life of a creative mind, a brilliant artist, and a genuine empath on a mission to give back.
New start, new life… New family? After a lifetime of putting others first, GP Nick Cooper is craving his fresh start in Yoxburgh—it’s time to discover what he wants. And that’s his beautiful new colleague, Ellie Kendal! But Ellie comes as a package deal, and as a devoted single mom of three, she’s nothing like anyone he’s ever met before! His head warns him to hold back, even though his heart already belongs to them all… “What a delightful story…. Overall, Ms. Anderson has delivered an emotionally-animating and entertaining read in this book…the romance was nicely-detailed….” —Harlequin Junkie on From Heartache to Forever “This is the best medical romance I’ve read by Ms. Anderson…where the chemistry between this couple was strong right from the beginning and kept getting stronger….” —Harlequin Junkie on A Single Dad to Heal Her Heart
PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.
Told from the perspective of a high school girl and a football coach, Broken Field reveals the tensions that tear at the fabric of a small town when a high school hazing incident escalates and threatens a championship season. Set on the high prairies of Montana, in small towns scattered across vast landscapes, the distances in Broken Field are both insurmountable and deeply internalized. Life is dusty and hard, and men are judged by their labor. Women have to be tougher yet. That’s what sixteen-year-old Josie Frehse learns as she struggles to meet the expectations of her community while fumbling with her own desires. Tom Warner coaches the Dumont Wolfpack, an eight-man football team, typical for such small towns. Warner is stumbling through life, numbed by the death of his own young son and the dissolution of his marriage. But he’s jolted into taking sides when his star players are accused of a hazing incident that happened right under his nose. The scandal divides and ignites the town and in Broken Field, Jeff Hull brilliantly gives breadth and depth to both sides of this fractured community, where the roots of bullying reach deep, secrets are buried, and, in a school obsessed with winning, everyone loses.
