But You Seemed So Happy
But You Seemed So Happy

Author: Kimberly Harrington

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0062993321

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In this tender, funny, and sharp memoir-in-essays, the author of Amateur Hour examines marriage, divorce, and the ways love, loss & longing shape a life. Six weeks after she and her husband announced their divorce, Kimberly Harrington began work on a book that she thought would be about divorce, full of dark humor and a not-small amount of annoyance. After all, on the heels of planning to dissolve a twenty-year marriage, they had chosen to still live together in the same house with their kids. Over the course of two years of what was supposed to be a temporary period of transition, she sifted through how she had formed her ideas about relationships, sex, marriage, and divorce. And she dug back into the history of her marriage—how she and her future ex-husband had met, what it felt like to be madly in love, how they changed, the impact that having children had on their relationship, and what they still owed each other. But You Seemed So Happy is an honest, intimate biography of a marriage, from its heady, idealistic, and easy beginnings to its slowly coming apart, and finally to its evolution into something completely unexpected. As she probes what it means when everyone assumes you’re happy as long as you’re still married, Harrington skewers the casual way we make life-altering decisions when we’re young. Ultimately, this moving and funny memoir-in-essays is an irreverent act of forgiveness—of ourselves, our partners, and the relationships that have run their course but will always hold a permanent place in our lives. “An honest, tender, and often hilarious book on the end of a modern marriage. No matter your relationship status, But You Seemed So Happy begs the question, What are we all doing here? I laughed, I cried, I found myself in the pages over and over again.” —Kate Baer, New York Times–bestselling author of What Kind of Woman: Poems “Intimate and raw yet meticulously scrubbed of the slightest tinge of self-pity, Harrington explores the pain and intricacies of a marriage and its dissolution with a ruthless, unflinching honest and gallows humor that makes you feel like you buried a body with her.” —Emily Flake, cartoonist for The New Yorker

Marriage and Same-Sex Unions
Marriage and Same-Sex Unions

Author: Lynn D. Wardle

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2003-04-30

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0313016224

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This book exemplifies the high quality of thoughtful discussion and debate that is possible on the issue of same-sex marriage. Authors are paired to address and respond to a particular topic, one in favor of state recognition of same-sex relationships, and one in favor of limiting state recognition to those relationships that have been traditionally recognized as marriages. Proposals to legalize same-sex marriage evoke strong response from those on both sides of the debate. Much has been written about the legal policy issues over the legal recognition of same-sex unions in the United States, yet there has been little dialogue and exchange between participants in the debate. This book attempts to open that dialogue, and to exemplify the high quality of thoughtful discussion and debate that is possible. Authors are paired to address and respond to a particular topic, one in favor of state recognition of same-sex relationships and one in favor of limiting state recognition to those relationships that have been traditionally recognized as marriages. This ideal introduction is designed to lead the reader through the relevant issues, progressing from the general to the particular. Debates are contextualized, offering comparative, historical, and family-policy perspectives, asking fundamental questions such as what is the purpose of a family, and what interests, if any, that state has in promoting a particular type of family over others. Issues of jurisprudence and political philosophy are examined, addressing the public benefits of marriage and equal treatment before the law, among other items. The constitutionality of same-sex marriage or domestic partnership policies is explored. Finally, this book covers the broad implications when states—such as Vermont—legally recognize same-sex unions, and the impact of international recognition of same-sex marriage rights.

What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage
What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage

Author: Amy Sutherland

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2008-02-12

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1588366901

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While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life–namely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainers’ lessons home. The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the house in search of his mislaid car keys, she asked herself, “What would a dolphin trainer do?” The answer was: nothing. Trainers reward the behavior they want and, just as important, ignore the behavior they don’t. Rather than appease her mate’s rising temper by joining in the search, or fuel his temper by nagging him to keep better track of his things in the first place, Sutherland kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the dishes she was washing. In short order, Scott found his keys and regained his cool. “I felt like I should throw him a mackerel,” she writes. In time, as she put more training principles into action, she noticed that she became more optimistic and less judgmental, and their twelve-year marriage was better than ever. What started as a goofy experiment had such good results that Sutherland began using the training techniques with all the people in her life, including her mother, her friends, her students, even the clerk at the post office. In the end, the biggest lesson she learned is that the only animal you can truly change is yourself. Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage describes Sutherland’s Alice-in-Wonderland experience of stumbling into a world where cheetahs walk nicely on leashes and elephants paint with watercolors, and of leaving a new, improved Homo sapiens.

Civil Wars
Civil Wars

Author: David Moats

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13:

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In 2000 Vermont became the first state to grant gay and lesbian couples the right to join in civil unions. Moats was in the thick of it, writing a series of balanced, humane editorials that earned a Pulitzer Prize. Now he tells the intimate stories behind the battle and introduces all the key actors in the struggle.