Download or read book Figuring Shit Out written by Amy Biancolli and published by Behler Publications, LLC. This book was released on 2014-09-29 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Your life isn't over." My dad says this. "I mean, YOUR life isn't over. Beyond the kids. You'll go on living, doing things. This isn't it." I know, I assure him. I have the kids. They need me. They're my life now. "OK," he replies, then grunts—more of a brief hum. He only hums when he thinks I'm full of shit. Shockingly single. Amy Biancolli's life went off script more dramatically than most after her husband of twenty years jumped off the roof of a parking garage. Left with three children, a three-story house, and a pile of knotty psychological complications, Amy realizes the flooding dishwasher, dead car battery, rapidly growing lawn, basement sump pump, and broken doorknob aren't going to fix themselves. She also realizes that "figuring shit out" means accepting the horrors that came her way, rolling with them, slogging through them, helping others through theirs, and working her way through life with love and laughter. Amy Biancolli is an author and journalist whose column appears in the Albany Times Union. Before that, Amy served as film critic for the Houston Chronicle where her reviews, published around the country, won her the 2007 Comment and Criticism Award from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Association. Biancolli is the author of House of Holy Fools: A Family Portrait in Six Cracked Parts, which earned her Albany Author of the Year. Amy lives in Albany, New York, with her three children.

Download or read book Firefly Lane written by Kristin Hannah and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2008-02-05 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . now a #1 Netflix series! In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all—beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable. So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness. Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn't know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she'll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she'll envy her famous best friend. . . . For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship—jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test. Firefly Lane is for anyone who ever drank Boone's Farm apple wine while listening to Abba or Fleetwood Mac. More than a coming-of-age novel, it's the story of a generation of women who were both blessed and cursed by choices. It's about promises and secrets and betrayals. And ultimately, about the one person who really, truly knows you—and knows what has the power to hurt you . . . and heal you. Firefly Lane is a story you'll never forget . . . one you'll want to pass on to your best friend.

Download or read book The Blue Jay s Dance written by Louise Erdrich and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1996-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novelist writes of her experiences during a 12 month period through pregnancy, new motherhood, and return to writing.

Download or read book The Only Dance There Is written by Ram Dass and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-02-09 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based on talks by Ram Dass at the Menninger Foundation in 1970 and at the Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland in 1972. The text grew out of the interaction between Ram Dass and the spiritual seekers in attendance at these talks. The result of this unique exchange is a useful guide for understanding the nature of consciousness--useful both to other spiritual seekers and to formally trained psychologists. It is also a celebration of the Dance of Life--which, in the words of Ram Dass, is the "only dance there is."

Download or read book Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980 1983 written by Tim Lawrence and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the 1970s gave way to the 80s, New York's party scene entered a ferociously inventive period characterized by its creativity, intensity, and hybridity. Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor chronicles this tumultuous time, charting the sonic and social eruptions that took place in the city’s subterranean party venues as well as the way they cultivated breakthrough movements in art, performance, video, and film. Interviewing DJs, party hosts, producers, musicians, artists, and dancers, Tim Lawrence illustrates how the relatively discrete post-disco, post-punk, and hip hop scenes became marked by their level of plurality, interaction, and convergence. He also explains how the shifting urban landscape of New York supported the cultural renaissance before gentrification, Reaganomics, corporate intrusion, and the spread of AIDS brought this gritty and protean time and place in American culture to a troubled denouement.

Download or read book Butcher s Moon written by Richard Stark and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixteenth Parker novel, Butcher’s Moon is more than twice as long as most of the master heister’s adventures, and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve-jangling tension readers have come to expect. Back in the corrupt town where he lost his money, and nearly his life, in Slayground, Parker assembles a stunning cast of characters from throughout his career for one gigantic, blowout job: starting—and finishing—a gang war. It feels like the Parker novel to end all Parker novels, and for nearly twenty-five years that’s what it was. After its publication in 1974, Donald Westlake said, “Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone.” Featuring a new introduction by Westlake’s close friend and writing partner, Lawrence Block, this classic Parker adventure deserves a place of honor on any crime fan’s bookshelf. More than thirty-five years later, Butcher’s Moon still packs a punch: keep your calendar clear when you pick it up, because once you open it you won’t want to do anything but read until the last shot is fired.

Download or read book Free written by Summer Brooks and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2018-03-12 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many, the most difficult person to love is themselves. Yet, this may be the most important person to love as it sets up other relationships for success or failure. In Free, author Summer Brooks describes her healing journey of learning self-love after years of self-loathing. She offers a guide for all women struggling with the pressures of todays society. Its about change, love, parenting, bullying, motherhood, and about how women can transform their lives by changing their thoughts to live a wonderful happy life. In Free, Brooks reflects on her childhood to find the love within her before delving into the painful teenage bullying years. She moves through the stages of becoming a woman and all the problems many women face. She expresses the hardships of motherhood and societal pressures of marriage and parenting while sharing her own struggles, desires, fears, and pain to help women understand why they are so critical of themselves and how to make a change, today. Free will help all women to find self-love and let go of all thats holding them back from becoming the absolute best they can be.

Download or read book Naked Lives written by Mindy S. Bradley-Engen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-07-26 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is stripping good or bad for the women who do it? According to sociologist Mindy S. Bradley-Engen, there's no simple answer. An exotic dancer's experiences can be both empowering and degrading: at times a dancer can feel like a goddess, at times ashamed and dirty. Drawing on extensive interviews as well as her own experiences as an exotic dancer, Bradley-Engen shows that strippers' work experiences are shaped by the types of establishments—the different worlds—in which they work. A typology of strip clubs emerges: the hustle club, the show club, and the social club, each with its own distinct culture, expectations, and challenges, each creating circumstances in which stripping can be good, bad, or indifferent. Going beyond the warring rhetorics of exploitation and empowerment, this book provides a rich and complex account of the realities of exotic dance and offers a fascinating, thought-provoking consideration for both academics and general readers.

Download or read book Stories from the Dance of Life written by Red Jordan Arobateau and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2004 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second collection of 7 shorter stories by Master Artist Red Jordan Arobateau. Including AT AN EARLY AGE, the tale of a butch player of mixed race heritage; EL PAN DE LA VIDA, one of Red's hispanic works, THE TALISMAN, which is a glimpse of black South Side Chicago circa 1970's. Plus The INVISABLE NIGGER, part of the 3 story collection about mixed race heritage.

Download or read book How to Live Like a Chipmunk and Other Tips on Living an Awesome Sauce Life written by Patty Lowry and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2016-04-28 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life can be wonderful, amazing and funny and it can also be hard, scary and full of surprisesif only there was a manual! Just a simple guide to show me how to get from point A to point B (in the quickest and least painful way). - Patty If youve ever uttered these words, then this book is for you! Enter Patty Lowry. Shes a little bit edgy, saucy and bold. Shes also super smart, sensible and real. Inspired by the practical and productive panache of a chipmunk and driven by a lust for lists, Patty created this how-to guide for managing the different things that life throws at you. Each scenario simplified to eleven steps to follow; her logic is that ten steps are doable, and throw in one more for good luck! Youll find over eighty instructional and enlightening lists for both celebratory and challenging life scenarios; including everything from how to handle a bad hair day and broken heart to how to be the best you. Filled with sure-fire ways to tap into possibilities and choices, How to Live Like a Chipmunk and Other Tips on Living an Awesome Sauce Life will spark a smile, debunk the ordinary, amp up the extraordinary and offer up options to live your most Awesome Sauce life.

Download or read book If You Can Walk You Can Dance written by Marion Molteno and published by Niyogi Books. This book was released on 2017 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jennie de Villiers, an idealistic and politically engaged student, suddenly has to flee her native South Africa with a boyfriend whom she no longer loves—only to be stranded as an exile in neighbouring Swaziland. Fending for herself in a new culture, she discovers new ways of living and a kind of music that moves her deeply. As the story moves between Africa and 1970s London, the music of different cultures is woven through the narrative. Jennie works, studies, learns music and tries to bring these various strands together to create a fulfilling and meaningful life, as well as discover her way forward—personally and professionally. Lyrically written, extremely engrossing and deeply moving, If you can walk you can dance exemplifies the thought—‘the personal is political’. Its depiction of a young woman’s life as she travels across frontiers and cultures, reaffirms the healing power of music and the redemptive nature of human connections.

Download or read book One Last Dance written by Emma Jane Holmes and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sassy, heart-breaking and jaw-dropping memoir of life behind the scenes in a funeral home and strip club, written with all the panache, honesty and sensitivity of Rosie Waterland's The Anti-Cool Girl and Sarah Krasnostein's The Trauma Cleaner. Emma Jane Holmes had her dream job, working in the funeral industry, caring for those who could no longer care for themselves. But when the bills mounted after her marriage breakdown, she turned to her other dream - dancing on stage as a showgirl - and her glittering alter ego Madison was born. Emma Jane kept Madison a secret. Madison kept Emma Jane an even bigger one. But what happens when death touches the neon world of the strip club? And sex - in the form of a cute co-worker - encroaches on the funeral home? Could the answer be life, lived in the day, because that's the only day you have? Emma Jane Holmes' debut will take you into the mortuary, cemetery and crematorium - and behind the scenes in night clubs - and answer all the questions you never wanted to ask ... PRAISE 'A beautiful insight into two industries we're all curious about, full of warmth and wit' - Carly Findlay OAM, author of Say Hello 'Meet Australia's most outrageous mortician ... her stories are deadly' - news.com.au 'Emma Jane Holmes shines a beautiful light on love, death and connection' - Samantha X, author of Hooked 'We're all going to die sometime ... Emma Jane Holmes brings so much light to the subject' - Andy Dowling, Andy Social podcast

Download or read book The Songs of My Out Of Tune Love Life written by Brianna Leake and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2021-09-20 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brianna is just like any ordinary female in her 20’s living her best life - she’s got her thriving fitness career, homeowner, good car, well-travelled, amazing family and friends, a fun and busy social life but something is missing - someone to share it all with. She’s searching for love, but her journey has been far from easy. With online dating being this generations go-to, she’s found herself facing an uncanny challenge. From ghostings to dumpings, Brianna shares a handful of some of her worst dating experiences from dating apps such as Hinge, Bumble and Tinder that many women will be able to relate to.

Download or read book THREE MEN DANCING written by David Windmon and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THREE MEN DANCING By DAVID LYNN WINDMON In everything humans do in life the family is the basis for true individual success. Strong family ties, and as is the case in this family a strong and steady maternal presence is the way to family social power. Regardless to sameness of togetherness, the lives of this family are also unfortunately paved with the bones of chance and error. Through the true love and respect of one another, and the togetherness unconditional that love brings, the power manifests itself in the lives of Paul and Amy Jackson. It is also wrung from the source, for the enrichment of the lives of their children, grandchildren, and extended community family. It is said often that it takes a village to raise a child, and in the village the Jackson family lived in (San Francisco, Ca.) many wonderful children stand up to be counted. This is the story of an American Family. Not the average family, but not far from it. It is not my family for sure, maybe not yours either. But in every way this is a family, all the good things and tragic ones along the way included. One familiar, like lots of others, with stratospheric highs, coupled with the sting of harsh, bitter lowness. The four men in the first few lines of the story between them represent the fullness of the life for and within the family Jackson. The story begins on the unforgiving streets of New Orleans Louisiana, with two children who meet inadvertently, quite by accident. They are both in separate children’s orphanages as such, and it is just because of the willingness of Paul to work for little money one day that makes that meeting happen. Through the years his willingness to work, both above and below the law makes lots of things come their way. Through his willingness to bend the rules she is spared the last few years of unfulfilled wait kids have in an orphanage. Paul and Amy, both are grandchildren of freed slaves from homes broken by tragedy or tragedy of circumstance. They decide together early on they want to rear a large, loving family. They would for the rest of their lives hold on to the things they used for survival and that made those early years in children’s homes feel safe for them. Paul learns fast that a steady willingness to bend the rules holds gallant if risky reward. Amy spends little time with her prostitute mother. But in that time she gets indoctrinated to a voodoo priestess, learning that things unexplained drives forever her life and choices. Moving to San Francisco in 1932 deep depression era America proves a godsend, as they are able to forge a positive, productive life. Eventually they groom ten children to take on all the world has to offer, some with a level of worldly success matched by few. That steady flow of children and with that the bond only a family has gives those children the space within themselves to be the very best they can be. Unfortunately though, space also allows those that want to be, at times far less than their best, through lapses or intent, be that as it may. There is tragedy born flush of such lapses of mind and body; that delicate ballet of the two that separates one’s best from one’s worst. There is in the lives of the Jackson family tragedy, based on the randomness of another delicate ballet, that of time, space, and opportunity. One of the bright lights of the loins of Paul and Amy didn’t make it to the completeness of life that comes with age and wisdom. He was struck down as just a child, and that tragedy only bonded the family, and fused them to the community. That made them all into the massive family so many of them if unknowingly, needed. Another beloved sibling chose the destructive path and abject loneliness of drug abuse, and never made it out of the turbulent 1960’s. The children of Paul and Amy also scale the heights of career fields that include Law, Medicine, Music, and professional sports. Subsequent generations have also achieved those and show

Download or read book Girl Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup written by Zara Barrie and published by Post Hill Press. This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Self-help meets memoir. Party girl meets wise sage. Beauty meets reality. Zara Barrie is the cool older sister you wish you had. The one that lets you borrow her designer dresses and ripped up fishnets, buys you champagne (she loves you too much to let you drink beer), and colors your lips with bright pink lipstick. She'll take you to the coolest parties, and will stick by your side and she guides you through the glitter, pain, danger, laughter, and what it means to be a f*cked up girl in this f*cked up world (both of which are beautiful despite the darkness). Girl, Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup is for the girls that are too much of a beautiful contradiction to be contained. Zara is a gifted writer—one second she'll have you laughing over rich girls agonizing over which Birkin bag to buy, the next second she'll shatter your heart in one sentence about losing one’s innocence. Zara is the nuanced girl she writes for—light, irreverent, snarky, bitchy, funny; and aching, perceptive, deep, flawed, wise, poised, honest—all at once. Perhaps the only thing that can match Zara's unparalleled wit and big sister advice is her candid humor and undeniable talent for the written word. Zara is one of the most prolific and entertaining honest voices on the internet—and her talent is only multiplied in book form. Girl, Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup is for the bad girls, honey.”—Dayna Troisi, Executive Editor, GO Magazine “Reading Zara's writing will make you feel like you're at your cool-as-hell big sister's sleepover party. You will be transfixed by her unflinching honesty and words of wisdom, and she'll successfully convince you to not only ditch the shame you feel about the raw and messy parts of yourself, but to dare to see them as beautiful.”—Alexia LaFata, Editor, New York Magazine “If Cat Marnell and F. Scott Fitzgerald had a literary baby it would be Zara Barrie. She’s got Marnell’s casual, dark, downright hilarious tone of an irreverent party girl. But then she also has Fitzgerald’s talent for making words literally feel like they sparkle on the page. I’ve always been a fan of Zara’s writing but Girl, Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup takes it to the next level. With shimmery words that make her dark stories sparkle, she seamlessly manages to inspire even the most coked-out girl at the party to get her shit together.”—Candice Jalili, Senior Sex & Dating Writer, Elite Daily

Download or read book Get Out of Your Own Way Guide to Life written by Justin Loeber and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on one CEO’s inspiring journey, this motivational guide shows how to build on your strengths, eliminate weaknesses, and achieve your own success. Do you want to be known as a tremendous talent . . . or a lazy, unfocused slacker? Whether you’re a Millennial yearning to join corporate America, a Boomer ready for reinvention, a closeted LGBTQ+ individual, or even a nerd nauseated with perfection, this in-your-face, funny, no-nonsense, socio-business, coming-of-ageless handbook can help you find true, inner-personal success. Inside, you’ll learn ten easy steps, such as: • Work on Your Work Ethic • Own the Power of Thoughtfulness • Find Perfection in Imperfection • Rule Your Plane • and more This book is based on Loeber’s quirky personal life experiences that all started in 1970s, disco-era New York City. Justin worked as a waiter, a Wang Word Processing Operator, (remember Wang?), a substitute go-go dancer, and was discovered by pop icon Gary Numan in London. He was one step from stardom in his own right as a solo pop-recording artist—only to lose it all. Then, in a 180-degree turn—and without a college degree—went from a temp at Random House to an executive vice president at HarperCollins in a little more than a decade. In 2006, Loeber created mouth: digital + public relations, a boutique agency in NYC—repping over 550 clients to date. Get Out of Your Own Way Guide to Life will give you the courage to: • Shake down your fear, which is squelching your dream • Find the “it” that makes you “tick” • Take a Risk, which in the end, isn’t risky after all • Put down the electronics, look up; and transfer from the passenger to the pilot of your life So, Get out of your own way! Dream big! Do it now!

Download or read book Boomer at Midlife written by Mark Cain and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2007-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bold and bittersweet, a tragedy wrapped in a comedy. You can read it and laugh, or weep, but always with the shock of recognition." -Landon Y. Jones, best-selling author and National Book Award nominee for Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation Walter "Boomer" Stapleton has good reason to believe that he is the ultimate stereotype: divorced, middle-aged, tired of his job, involved with a much younger woman, and soon to lose his only child to college. He is a Baby Boomer, one of an anonymous seventy-seven million Americans at or approaching midlife. With his fiftieth birthday just around the corner, Boomer is finished being a poster child for his generation and determined to forge a new path despite his progressively shrinking set of life options. He quits his job and leaves friends and family behind to move to New Orleans to play zydeco on his accordion. But what he encounters in The Big Easy leads him even deeper into the realm of uncertainty about who he is and where he really belongs. From the halls of corporate America to the sidewalks and clubs of New Orleans, Boomer at Midlife lampoons the self-conscious Baby Boomers in a story that is at once comic, nostalgic, and melancholy.