Download or read book Pieces of My Mother written by Melissa Cistaro and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A story that lingers in the heart long after the last page is turned." —HOPE EDELMAN, bestselling author of Motherless Daughters and The Possibility of Everything This provocative, poignant memoir of a daughter whose mother left her behind by choice begs the question: Are we destined to make the same mistakes as our parents? One summer, Melissa Cistaro's mother drove off without explanation Devastated, Melissa and her brothers were left to pick up the pieces, always tormented by the thought: Why did their mother abandon them? Thirty-five years later, with children of her own, Melissa finds herself in Olympia, Washington, as her mother is dying. After decades of hiding her painful memories, she has just days to find out what happened that summer and confront the fear she could do the same to her kids. But Melissa never expects to stumble across a cache of letters her mother wrote to her but never sent, which could hold the answers she seeks. Haunting yet ultimately uplifting, Pieces of My Mother chronicles one woman's quest to discover what drives a mother to walk away from the children she loves. Alternating between Melissa's tumultuous coming-of-age and her mother's final days, this captivating memoir reveals how our parents' choices impact our own and how we can survive those to forge our own paths.

Download or read book Melissa If One Life written by Janette Henning and published by . This book was released on 2024-07-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melissa If One Life... isn't just a love story, it is a life-changing experience revealing the mystery of living a courageous life filled with love, joy, and hope no matter the circumstances.

Download or read book Without My Mother written by Melissa Cistaro and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Do You Forgive a Parent Who Has Failed You? One summer, Melissa Cistaro’s mother stepped into her baby-blue Dodge Dart and drove away, leaving behind Melissa and her brothers. Rarely seeing their mother as they were growing up, they blamed themselves for her leaving, turning to each other for support and seeking out often destructive ways to cope with living without their mom. Decades later, with children of her own, Melissa finds herself in Olympia, Washington, as her mother is dying. She has just days to find out what happened that summer and to confront the unthinkable fear that a “leaving gene” might be lying dormant inside of her. She knew she came from a long line of mothers who left their children. But when Melissa stumbles across a folder titled “Letters Never Sent” tucked away in her mother’s filing cabinet, she begins to feel the wreckage of her mother’s painful journey, before and after she abandoned her family. Alternating between Melissa’s tumultuous coming-of-age and her mother’s final days, Without My Mother is a haunting yet ultimately uplifting story of one woman’s quest to discover how our parents’ choices impact our own and how we can survive those choices to forge our own paths.

Download or read book Some Writer written by Melissa Sweet and published by Clarion Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this stunning, first-ever fully-illustrated biography of legendary author E.B. White, Sibert medalist and Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet uses White's letters, photos, and mementos, as well as her original collaged art, to tell the true story of one of the most beloved authors of all time.

Download or read book Shattered Silence written by Melissa Grace Moore and published by Plain Sight. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melissa always knew that her family wasn't perfect, but she never suspected the shocking truth What would you do if, as a teenager, you found out that someone you loved had committed the most horrific of acts? Worse, what if he had done it again and again? Could you ever learn to forgive him? Would you even want to? In Shattered Silence Melissa Moore shares the true story of her life as the daughter of the notorious Happy Face serial killer. In this inspiring story, Melissa grows from a confused child to an outraged adolescent to an accepting adult. As she slowly connects the dots and realizes the full extent of the terrifying and gruesome crimes her father has committed, Melissa also begins to realize that she cannot change her father all she has control over is her own life and deciding how she will react to everything that has happened. Told with heartbreaking sincerity, this uplifting story of optimism and discovering joy, even in the face of overwhelming adversity, will inspire you to face your own challenges with a similar attitude of hope.

Download or read book Melissa s Gift written by Olin Dodson and published by Bay Tree Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In August, 1990, a solitary, unmarried man received a phone call from a stranger who informed him that he was the father of an eleven-year-old child who wanted to meet him. The girl's name was Melissa. She lived with her mother, a housekeeper, in a small town in western Costa Rica. Melissa had the incurable disease known as cystic fibrosis. Thus begins Melissa's Gift, Olin Dodson's account of his extraordinary relationship with his daughter. Written with elegance, beauty and power, Melissa's Gift is an unforgettable story and a deeply moving reading experience. "This poignant memoir recount's Dodson's relationship with [Melissa] and his anguish as her battle with cystic fibrosis threatens to take her away too soon. Dodson's writing flows with the raw joy and terror every father must experience in caring for his child, but parents and non-parents alike will find themselves swept up in this non-fiction tale." Ashley Biggers, New Mexico Magazine, June, 2012 "His tender and compelling story is an inspiring revelation of the power of love." Robert Woltman, Albuquerque Journal, April 8, 2012 "Tender, potent and beautifully written ... I loved this story." Joan Schweighardt, author of Gudrun's Tapestry "A thrilling, thought-provoking roller-coaster ride." Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, co-author of The Power of Two

Download or read book Whip Smart written by Melissa Febos and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dark, wild, powerful memoir about a young woman's transformation from college student to professional dominatrix While a college student at The New School, Melissa Febos spent four years working as a dominatrix in a midtown dungeon. In poetic, nuanced prose she charts in Whip Smart how unchecked risk-taking eventually gave way to a course of self-destruction. But as she recounts crossing over the very boundaries that she set for her own safety, she never plays the victim. In fact, the glory of this memoir is Melissa's ability to illuminate the strange and powerful truths that she learned as she found her way out of a hell of her own making. Rest assured; the reader will emerge from the journey more or less unscathed.

Download or read book The Names of All the Flowers written by Melissa Valentine and published by The Feminist Press at CUNY. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “poignant, painful, and gorgeous” memoir that explores siblinghood, adolescence, and grief for a family shattered by loss (Alicia Garza, cocreator, Black Lives Matter). Melissa and her older brother Junior grow up running around the disparate neighborhoods of 1990s Oakland, two of six children to a white Quaker father and a black Southern mother. But as Junior approaches adolescence, a bullying incident and later a violent attack in school leave him searching for power and a sense of self in all the wrong places; he develops a hard front and falls into drug dealing. Right before Junior’s twentieth birthday, the family is torn apart when he is murdered as a result of gun violence. The Names of All the Flowers connects one tragic death to a collective grief for all black people who die too young. A lyrical recounting of a life lost, Melissa Valentine’s debut memoir is an intimate portrait of a family fractured by the school-to-prison pipeline and an enduring love letter to an adored older brother. It is a call for justice amid endless cycles of violence, grief, and trauma, declaring: “We are all witness and therefore no one is spared from this loss.” “A portrait of a place, a person who died too young, the systems that led to that death, and the keen insights of the author herself. Lyrical and smart, with appropriate undercurrents of rage.” —Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion “Eloquently poignant.” —Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book Verity written by Colleen Hoover and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us. #1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.

Download or read book We Love in Small Moments written by Melissa Boles and published by ELJ Editions, Ltd.. This book was released on 2021-05-03 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most beautiful moments are when we love and see love in unexpected places. We Love in Small Moments is a collection of snapshots into love, however that looks for you.

Download or read book A River of Words written by Jen Bryant and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2008-07-09 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2009 Caldecott Honor Book An ALA Notable Book A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book NCTE Notable Children’s Book When he wrote poems, he felt as free as the Passaic River as it rushed to the falls. Willie’s notebooks filled up, one after another. Willie’s words gave him freedom and peace, but he also knew he needed to earn a living. So he went off to medical school and became a doctor -- one of the busiest men in town! Yet he never stopped writing poetry. In this picture book biography of William Carlos Williams, Jen Bryant’s engaging prose and Melissa Sweet’s stunning mixed-media illustrations celebrate the amazing man who found a way to earn a living and to honor his calling to be a poet.

Download or read book Diary of a Stage Mother s Daughter written by Melissa Francis and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis. When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world's most famous primetime soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, living a charmed life, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother, as fame and a mother's ambition pushed her older sister deeper into the shadows. Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is a fascinating account of life as a child star in the 1980's, and also a startling tale of a family under the care of a highly neurotic, dangerously competitive "tiger mother." But perhaps most importantly, now that Melissa has two sons of her own, it's a meditation on motherhood, and the value of pushing your children: how hard should you push a child to succeed, and at what point does your help turn into harm?

Download or read book The Beloved Wild written by Melissa Ostrom and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A debut YA American epic and historical adventure from Melissa Ostrom about striking out for your own destiny. She's not the girl everyone expects her to be. Harriet Winter is the eldest daughter in a farming family in New Hampshire, 1807. She is expected to help with her younger sisters. To pitch in with the cooking and cleaning. And to marry her neighbor, the farmer Daniel Long. Harriet’s mother sees Daniel as a good match, but Harriet doesn’t want someone else to choose her path—in love or in life. When Harriet’s brother decides to strike out for the Genesee Valley in Western New York, Harriet decides to go with him—disguised as a boy. Their journey includes sickness, uninvited strangers, and difficult emotional terrain as Harriet sees more of the world, realizes what she wants, and accepts who she’s loved all along.

Download or read book Writing for Her Life written by Ripley S. Hugo and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the author of 13 celebrated novels is also Hugo's search for the writing life of a mother known to her children as a socially correct middle-class doctor's wife rather than as the ambitious novelist she was as well. 14 photos.

Download or read book Letters to Yesenin written by Jim Harrison and published by Copper Canyon Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sergei Yesenin was a Russian poet who, in 1925, hanged himself after writing his farewell poem in blood. Jim Harrison's "correspondence" with Yesenin is an American masterwork. In the early 1970s, Harrison was living in poverty on a hard-scrabble farm, suffering from depression and suicidal urges. He began to write daily prose-poem letters to Yesenin, confiding to his unlikely friend about sex, drunkenness, family, politics - about living for another day. Although "the rope" remained ever present, Harrison listened to his poems: "My year-old daughter's red robe hangs from the doorknob shouting Stop."

Download or read book Letters to Darcy written by Tracy Ramos and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2009 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Started as a blog written by a mother to her unborn child, "Letter to Darcy" follows Ramos' pregnancy with Darcy, a baby with a terminal genetic condition. Through her intensely personal entries, Tracy beautifully and convincingly answers the question: When does life begin?

Download or read book George written by Alex Gino and published by Scholastic Fiction. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Allow me to introduce you to a remarkable book, full of love, wonder, hope, and the importance of getting to be who you were meant to be. You must read this." - David Levithan, author of Every Day and editor of George. When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.