Download or read book Dancing at the Shame Prom written by Amy Ferris and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shame is a powerful thing. It can weigh on your heart and mind, diminish your sense of self-worth, and impact the way you live in the world. But what happens when you share that secret burden? Amy Ferris, Hollye Dexter, and the writers they brought together are all ready to let go of shame. In Dancing at the Shame Prom, twenty-six extraordinary women-Lyena Strelkoff, Teresa Stack, Monica Holloway, Nina Burleigh, Amy Friedman, Meredith Resnick, Victoria Zackheim, and more—take the plunge and say "yes” to sharing their stories. These brave writers, journalists, musicians, artists, directors, and activists have offered up their most funny, sad, poignant, miraculous, life-changing, and jaw-dropping secrets for you to gawk at, empathize with, and learn from—in the hopes that they will inspire others to do the same. Letting go feels good! Freeing, provocative, and audacious, Dancing at the Shame Prom is about flaunting the secrets that have made you feel small so that you can stand up straight, let the shame go, and finally—decisively—move on with your life.

Download or read book Dancing at the Shame Prom written by Amy Ferris and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shame is a powerful thing. It can weigh on your heart and mind, diminish your sense of self-worth, and impact the way you live in the world. But what happens when you share that secret burden? Amy Ferris, Hollye Dexter, and the writers they brought together are all ready to let go of shame. In Dancing at the Shame Prom, twenty-six extraordinary women-Lyena Strelkoff, Teresa Stack, Monica Holloway, Nina Burleigh, Amy Friedman, Meredith Resnick, Victoria Zackheim, and more—take the plunge and say "yes” to sharing their stories. These brave writers, journalists, musicians, artists, directors, and activists have offered up their most funny, sad, poignant, miraculous, life-changing, and jaw-dropping secrets for you to gawk at, empathize with, and learn from—in the hopes that they will inspire others to do the same. Letting go feels good! Freeing, provocative, and audacious, Dancing at the Shame Prom is about flaunting the secrets that have made you feel small so that you can stand up straight, let the shame go, and finally—decisively—move on with your life.

Download or read book Marrying George Clooney written by Amy Ferris and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While wide-awake in the middle of the night (welcome to menopause!), Amy Ferris chronicles every one of her hysterical, heartbreaking, ridiculous, and unflinchingly honest thoughts. Along with fantasizing about marrying George Clooney, Ferris faces a plethora of other insomnia-induced thoughts and activities. From Googling old boyfriends to researching obscure and fatal diseases on the web, she worries endlessly about her husband, relies heavily on Ambien, and tries to arrange care via the Internet for her mother (who has both severe dementia and a massive crush on Jesus Christ) - all while refraining from lighting up just one more cigarette.

Download or read book A Time to Dance written by Padma Venkatraman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit. Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Download or read book Dancing with Molly written by Lena Horowitz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An edgy and intimate glimpse at what one girl will do just to be the life of the party. Before, I was never the life of the party. I was the reliable one. The one no one had to worry about. The one no one had to think about. I was the one that everyone could ignore. Until that night, when everything changed and I finally became someone. Someone special. Someone memorable. Someone Carson might actually care about... But the cost of being someone is more than anyone can imagine. For every moment, there’s a price to pay. For every party. For every choice made. For every kiss. Living a life of pure ecstasy might be no different from not living at all.

Download or read book Pissed Off written by Spike Gillespie and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2006-04-20 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal resource for women who have been accused of undue anger offers counsel on how to both allow oneself to experience a healthy range of strong feelings and forgive, drawing on the stories of everyday women as well as the author's own experiences to explain how to use anger as an appropriate catalyst for change and communication without becoming consumed. Original.

Download or read book Shades of Blue written by Amy Ferris and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The silent epidemic of depression affects millions of people and takes dozens of lives everyday, while our culture grapples with a stigma against open discussion of mental health issues. Editor Amy Ferris has collected these stories to illuminate the truth behind that stigma and offer compassion, solidarity, and hope for all those who have struggled with depression. Contributors to Shades of Blue include: Barbara Abercrombie Sherry Amatenstein Regina Anavy Chloe Caldwell Jimmy Camp Debra LoGuercio DeAngelo Marika Rosenthal Delan Hollye Dexter Beverly Donofrio Beth Bornstein Dunnington Matt Ebert Betsy Graziani Fasbinder Zoe FitzGerald Carter Pam L. Houston David Lacy Patti Linsky Mark S. King Caroline Leavitt Karen Lynch Lira Maywood C.O. Moed Mark Morgan Linda Joy Myers Christine Kehl O Hagan Jennifer Pastiloff Ruth Pennebaker Angela M. Giles Patel Alexa Rosalsky Elizabeth Rosner Kathryn Rountree Kitty Sheehan Jenna Stone judywhite Samantha White Shades of Blue brings the conversation around depression and sadness into the open with real, first-hand accounts of depression and mental health issues, offering empathy to all those who have been affected by these issues. It s time to scream out loud against this silent annihilator: We are not alone. "

Download or read book I Do It with the Lights On written by Whitney Way Thore and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the star of TLC’s My Big Fat Fabulous Life and the YouTube sensation “A Fat Girl Dancing” comes an empowering memoir about letting go of your limitations and living the life you deserve. Right now. Whitney Way Thore stands five feet two inches tall and weighs well over three hundred pounds, and she is totally, completely, and truly . . . happy. But she wasn’t always the vivacious, confident woman you see on TV. Growing up as a dancer, Whitney felt the pressure to be thin, a desire that grew into an obsession as she got older. From developing an eating disorder as a teenager, to extreme weight gain in college, to her ongoing struggle with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), Whitney reveals her fight to overcome the darkest moments in her life. She holds nothing back, opening up about the depths of her depression as well as her resilience in the face of constant harassment and mistreatment. Now Whitney is on top of the world and taking no BS (Body Shame, of course). And she’s sharing the steps she took to get there and the powerful message behind her successful No Body Shame campaign. She even reveals her favorite “F” word (it’s probably not what you think), the thrill of doing it with the lights on, and the story behind the “Fat Girl Dancing” video that started it all. Exuberant and utterly honest, I Do It with the Lights On is the inspiring story of how Whitney finally discovered her fabulousness when she stepped off the scale and into her life, embracing herself unconditionally—body, heart, and soul. Advance praise for I Do It with the Lights On “Whitney’s story is one of radical vulnerability. She is a vibrant example of what it means to choose confidence when insecurity beckons from every corner. She is cool, funny, and shameless—in the best possible way.”—Kelsey Miller, author of Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting & Got a Life “Soaring above expectations, I Do It with the Lights On delves into the complicated relationship between a woman and her body. With her trademark charisma, Whitney emerges triumphant, plucking from the mire some of the most important realizations one can hope to have. If you have a body, this memoir is a must-read.”—Linda Bacon, PhD

Download or read book And Then We Danced written by Henry Alford and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Captivating…equal parts memoir and cultural history, Henry Alford seamlessly interweaves heartwarming and hilarious anecdotes about his deep dive into all things dance” (Misty Copeland, The New York Times Book Review). When Henry Alford wrote about his experience with a Zumba class for The New York Times, little did he realize that it was the start of something much bigger. Dance would grow and take on many roles for Henry: exercise, stress reliever, confidence builder, an excuse to travel, a source of ongoing wonder, and—when he dances with Alzheimer’s patients—even a kind of community service. Tackling a wide range of forms (including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, tap, contact improvisation, Zumba, swing), Alford’s grand tour takes us through the works and careers of luminaries ranging from Bob Fosse to George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp to Arthur Murray. Rich in insight and humor, Alford mines both personal experience and fascinating cultural history to offer a witty and ultimately moving portrait of how dance can express all things human. And Then We Danced “is in one sense a celebration of hoofer in all its wonder and variety, from abandon to refinement. But it is also history, investigation, memoir, and even, in its smart, sly way, self-help…very funny, but more, it is joyful—a dance all its own” (Vanity Fair).

Download or read book Bunny written by Mona Awad and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER Soon to be a major motion picture "Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly 'Get In Trouble' Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell! No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled! O Bunny you are sooo genius!" —Margaret Atwood, via Twitter "A wild, audacious and ultimately unforgettable novel." —Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times "Awad is a stone-cold genius." —Ann Bauer, The Washington Post The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel from the acclaimed author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Rouge "We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?" Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision. The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination. Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library

Download or read book You Gotta Have Girlfriends written by Suzanne Braun Levine and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brief, lively, and relatable guide to improving your health through friendship One of the best things a woman can do for her health, especially after the age of fifty, is nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. New studies show that women can change one another’s brain chemistry for the better, which means those laughter-filled get-togethers are crucial to aging well. In other words, the post-fifty version of “an apple a day” is “nurture your friendships.” In her trademark style—a vibrant and accessible mix of anecdotes, personal observations, and relevant research—Suzanne Braun Levine’s You Gotta Have Girlfriends is an inspiring and eye-opening affirmation of the power of female friendship in the second half of life.

Download or read book Write On Sisters written by Brooke Warner and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are more outlets than ever for writers to spread their messages and share their work, more opportunities to speak out and be seen. Writers expose themselves freely and willingly in a way that would have been unfathomable fifty years ago, and more people than ever are writing and publishing. Men and women are writing with equal fervor and commitment to their message and craft. As a result, it’s easy to assume, or hope, that the gendered playing field is a thing of the past, too. Unfortunately for women writers, it’s not. Knowing what we’re up against and how to fight back is the heart and soul of Write On, Sisters! Inside these pages, Brooke Warner draws upon research, anecdotes, and her personal experiences from twenty years in the book publishing industry to show how women’s writing is discounted or less valued than men’s writing, then provides support to overcome these challenges. This book also shines light on how women writers face not only ever-present historical and social challenges but also their own self-limiting beliefs. Write On, Sisters! is for every woman writer ready to be done with all that, and who’s ready for the next revolution.

Download or read book Stranger Here written by Jen Larsen and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jen Larsen always thought that if she could only lose some weight, she would be unstoppable. She was convinced that once she found a way to not be fat any more, she would have the perfect existence she’d always dreamed of. When diet after diet failed, she decided to try bariatric surgery, and it worked better than she ever could have dreamed: she lost 180 pounds. As the weight fell away, though, Larsen realized that getting skinny was not the magical cure she thought it would be—and suddenly, she wasn’t sure who she was anymore. Stranger Here is the brutally honest, surprisingly hilarious story of one woman’s journey from one extreme of the weight spectrum to the other, and of the unexpected emotional chaos it created. Insightful and unsparing in her self-examination, Larsen depicts the exhilarating highs and devastating lows she experienced as a result of her weight loss—the incredible joy of finally beginning to look like the image of herself she’s always carried inside her head, and the crushing pain and confusion of feeling like a stranger in her own body after losing the weight that has always defined her.

Download or read book Chicken Soup for the Soul The Power of Positive written by Jack Canfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-23 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attitude is everything. And this book will uplift and inspire readers with its stories about the power of positive thinking! In bad times, and good, readers will be encouraged to keep a positive attitude. Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive will inspire readers with its 101 success stories about the power of a positive attitude. Contributors share how they changed their lives, solved problems, or overcame challenges through a positive attitude, counting their blessings, or other epiphanies, motivating and uplifting readers.

Download or read book A Leg to Stand On written by Colleen Haggerty and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Colleen Haggerty lost her leg in an accident during her senior year of high school, she could have retreated from life and let her disability become her defining quality—and no one would have blamed her for it. Instead, she went the opposite way. In the years following her accident, Haggerty explored her physical world with vigor, testing the limits of her body by joining a ski team, playing with a co-ed soccer team, and taking up kayaking and backpacking. She also tested the limits of her heart, pursuing love and passion with restless men. In A Leg to Stand On, Haggerty recounts her life as a disabled woman, from redefining herself as a young woman after tragedy—fierce and able, but haunted by hard choices and suppressed grief—to choosing marriage and motherhood. That choice comes at great cost to the physical freedom Haggerty has fought for, but ultimately she redemption, fulfillment, and self-acceptance in the bargain. No one will read this book without being inspired to accept their past and create the future they always wanted.

Download or read book Fire Season written by Hollye Dexter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who would you be if you lost everything? Hollye Dexter and her husband Troy woke one night to find their house ablaze. To escape the fire, they had to jump from their second-story window with their toddler son—and then watch their house and home-based businesses burn to the ground. Over the next two years, the family went bankrupt, lost their cars and another home, and got dropped by their best friends. As the outer layers of her life were stripped away, Dexter began to unravel emotionally; but then she found herself on the brink of losing her marriage, and she realized that if she was going to save her family, she would have to pull herself back together somehow. As she fought to reassemble the pieces of the life she’d had, Dexter discovered that a shattered heart has the ability to regenerate in a mighty way; that even in the midst of disaster, you can find your place; and that when everything you identify with is gone, you are free to discover who you really are. Poignant and inspiring, Fire Season is a story for anyone who has ever lost hope—and found it again.

Download or read book We Hope You Like This Song written by Bree Housley and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From fourth grade onward, shy, nervous Bree Housley and fearless, outgoing Shelly were an inseparable, albeit unlikely, pair. Their friendship survived everything from the awkward years of junior high to the transformative upheavals of early adulthood—until, at the young age of 25, Shelly lost her life to complications caused by Preeclampsia. We Hope You Like This Song is a tribute to the ineffable, incomparable bond that we call friendship, and a celebration of living life to the fullest. Housley recounts how she and her sister found a way to keep Shelly’s memory alive—by spending a year doing crazy things that Shelly would have done, like giving Valentines to strangers, singing at a karaoke bar, and letting her boyfriend pick out her outfits for a week. In the process, she paints a vivid, often hilarious, portrait of her fun-loving, social butterfly best friend and the many adventures they had growing up together in '80s and ’90s small-town America. Sweet, poignant, and yet somehow laugh-out-loud funny, We Hope You Like This Song is a touching story of love, loss, and the honoring of a friendship after it’s gone.