Download or read book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir in bite-size chunks from the author of the viral Modern Love column “You May Want to Marry My Husband.” “[Rosenthal] shines her generous light of humanity on the seemingly humdrum moments of life and shows how delightfully precious they actually are.” —The Chicago Sun-Times How do you conjure a life? Give the truest account of what you saw, felt, learned, loved, strived for? For Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the surprising answer came in the form of an encyclopedia. In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life she has ingeniously adapted this centuries-old format for conveying knowledge into a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir. Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere—preferably at the beginning—and see how one young woman’s alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways. An ordinary life, perhaps, but an extraordinary book.
Download or read book Not Quite an Ordinary Life written by J. David Joyce and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2009-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of wisdom and honesty, Not Quite an Ordinary Life shares the rather extraordinary life of J. David Joyce, a common man who took the common man's journey through life. One of eight children born to an Irish Catholic housepainter and his wife, Joyce grew up in the midst of poverty in a small New York town. In his youth, he endured (and survived) Catholic school, dealt with his father's addiction to morphine, and learned the importance of hard work. As an adult, he served a tour of duty in Vietnam, suffered through financial difficulties, and mourned the death of his only son. Yet through it all, Joyce continued to believe in a better life for himself and his family. His middle class success included a solid marriage, wonderful children, advanced education, and worldwide travel. He enjoyed a twenty-year career in the US Air Force working in foreign intelligence collection and analysis, as well as being a counselor to veterans. In later years, he became an IRS agent and finished his working life as an accountant. Rich with detail and brimming with emotion, Not Quite an Ordinary Life reveals one man's strength and courage against the odds and his remarkable zest in pursuing the American dream.
Download or read book Ordinary Life written by Elizabeth Berg and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “An extraordinary short story collection that deserves our closest attention.”—Detroit Free Press “Elizabeth Berg’s gift as a storyteller lies most powerfully in her ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the remarkable in the everyday.”—The Boston Globe In this superb collection of short stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into pivotal moments in the lives of women, when memories and events come together to create a sense of coherence, understanding, and change. In “Ordinary Life,” Mavis McPherson locks herself in the bathroom for a week, shutting out her husband and the realities of their life together—and no, she isn't contemplating a divorce. She just needs some time to think, take stock of her life, and to arrive, finally, at a surprising conclusion. In “White Dwarf” and “Martin's Letter to Nan,” the secrets of a marriage are revealed with sensitivity and “brilliant insights about the human condition” (Detroit Free Press) that have become trademark of Berg's writing. The Charlotte Observer has said, “Berg captures the way women think as well as any writer.” Those qualities of wisdom and perception are everywhere present in Ordinary Life.
Download or read book My Extraordinary Ordinary Life written by Sissy Spacek and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her delightful and moving memoir, Sissy Spacek writes about her idyllic, barefoot childhood in a small East Texas town, with the clarity and wisdom that comes from never losing sight of her roots. Descended from industrious Czech immigrants and threadbare southern gentility, she grew up a tomboy, tagging along with two older brothers and absorbing grace and grit from her remarkable parents, who taught her that she could do anything. She also learned fearlessness in the wake of a family tragedy, the grief propelling her "like rocket fuel" to follow her dreams of becoming a performer. With a keen sense of humor and a big-hearted voice, she describes how she arrived in New York City one star-struck summer as a seventeen-year-old carrying a suitcase and two guitars; and how she built a career that has spanned four decades with films such as Carrie, Coal Miner's Daughter, 3 Women, and The Help. She details working with some of the great directors of our time, including Terrence Malick, Robert Altman, David Lynch, and Brian De Palma-who thought of her as a no-talent set decorator until he cast her as the lead in Carrie. She also reveals why, at the height of her fame, she and her family moved away from Los Angeles to a farm in rural Virginia. Whether she's describing the terrors and joys of raising two talented, independent daughters, taking readers behind the scenes on Oscar night, or meditating on the thrill of watching a pair of otters frolicking in her pond, Sissy Spacek's memoir is poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, plainspoken and utterly honest. My Extraordinary Ordinary Life is about what matters most: the exquisite worth of ordinary things, the simple pleasures of home and family, and the honest job of being right with the world. "If I get hit by a truck tomorrow," she writes, "I want to know I've returned my neighbor's cake pan."
Download or read book An Ordinary Age written by Rainesford Stauffer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Book of 2021 —Esquire? Featured on Good Morning America "A meticulous cartography of how outer forces shape young people’s inner lives." —Esquire, Best Books of 2021 In conversation with young adults and experts alike, journalist Rainesford Stauffer explores how the incessant pursuit of a “best life” has put extraordinary pressure on young adults today, across our personal and professional lives—and how ordinary, meaningful experiences may instead be the foundation of a fulfilled and contented life. Young adulthood: the time of our lives when, theoretically, anything can happen, and the pressure is on to make sure everything does. Social media has long been the scapegoat for a generation of unhappy young people, but perhaps the forces working beneath us—wage stagnation, student debt, perfectionism, and inflated costs of living—have a larger, more detrimental impact on the world we post to our feeds. An Ordinary Age puts young adults at the center as Rainesford Stauffer examines our obsessive need to live and post our #bestlife, and the culture that has defined that life on narrow, and often unattainable, terms. From the now required slate of (often unpaid) internships, to the loneliness epidemic, to the stress of "finding yourself" through school, work, and hobbies—the world is demanding more of young people these days than ever before. And worse, it’s leaving little room for our generation to ask the big questions about who they want to be, and what makes a life feel meaningful. Perhaps we’re losing sight of the things that fulfill us: strong relationships, real roots in a community, and the ability to question how we want our lives to look and feel, even when that’s different from what we see on the ‘Gram. Stauffer makes the case that many of our most formative young adult moments are the ordinary ones: finding our people and sticking with them, learning to care for ourselves on our own terms, and figuring out who we are when the other stuff—the GPAs, job titles, the filters—fall away.
Download or read book A World Lost written by Wendell Berry and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliantly detailed characters and subtle social observations distinguish Berry's unassuming but powerful fifth novel. The T.S. Eliot Award-winning poet, essayist and novelist writes with the authority of a man steeped in the culture of a time an...
Download or read book Waking To Ordinary Life written by Lalitha Thomas and published by SCB Distributors. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual practice is never something mysterious or alien to ordinary existence. Neither is it defined by difficult exercises or maintained by perfect tranquility. Waking To Ordinary Life speaks directly to the false presumption that our relationship to the Divine, to Spirit, somehow precludes a simple life based in human maturity, dignity and kindness toward others. It casts unrelenting light on how clear-cut spiritual practice actually is, if only we have the courage to choose it. Lalitha is a spiritual teacher living in Washington state and Canada. Waking to Ordinary Life is derived from her recent talks and conversations with friends and students making its message fresh, accessible and real. Her many examples bypass heady concepts and pretty words, and bring the reader down to earth where messy relationships, greed and cancer must be handled. She speaks with compassion, yet is categorically unwilling to compromise the demands of committed, unsentimental work on self. Topics include: the necessity for articulating an aim, which may then be applied as a guiding principle in all one’s endeavors; the power of genuine forgiveness; the urgency inspired in the face of death, and the experience of delight in ordinary life. A Handbook for Sustainable Spiritual Practice. Fresh, wise female voice on the spiritual scene. Grounded and practical help for any serious practitioner.
Download or read book Microadventures Local Discoveries for Great Escapes written by Alastair Humphreys and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Enthusiastic, pleasingly madcap’ Geographical Adventure – something that’s new and exhilarating, outside your comfort zone. Adventures change you and how you see the world, and all you need is an open mind, bags of enthusiasm and boundless curiosity. Recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.
Download or read book The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick Age 81 written by J. B. Morrison and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank Derrick is 81 ... and he's just been run over by a milk float. It was tough enough to fill the hours of the day when he was active, but now he's broken his arm and fractured his foot, it looks set to be a very long few weeks ahead. He watches DVDs, spends his money frivolously at the local charity shop and desperately tries to avoid the cold callers knocking on his door. Emailing his daughter in America on the library computer and visiting his friend Smelly John used to be the highlights of his week. Now he can't even do that. Then a breath of fresh air comes into his life in the form of Kelly Christmas, home help. With her little blue car and appalling parking, her cheerful resilience and ability to laugh at his jokes, Kelly changes Frank's life.
Download or read book Ordinary Light written by Tracy K. Smith and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist From the dazzlingly original Pulitzer Prize-winning poet hailed for her “extraordinary range and ambition” (The New York Times Book Review): a quietly potent memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter. The youngest of five children, Tracy K. Smith was raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But just as Tracy is about to leave home for college, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, a condition she accepts as part of God’s plan. Ordinary Light is the story of a young woman struggling to fashion her own understanding of belief, loss, history, and what it means to be black in America. In lucid, clear prose, Smith interrogates her childhood in suburban California, her first collision with independence at Harvard, and her Alabama-born parents’ recollections of their own youth in the Civil Rights era. These dizzying juxtapositions—of her family’s past, her own comfortable present, and the promise of her future—will in due course compel Tracy to act on her passions for love and “ecstatic possibility,” and her desire to become a writer. Shot through with exquisite lyricism, wry humor, and an acute awareness of the beauty of everyday life, Ordinary Light is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of self and family, one that skillfully combines a child’s and teenager’s perceptions with adult retrospection. Here is a universal story of being and becoming, a classic portrait of the ways we find and lose ourselves amid the places we call home.
Download or read book This Ordinary Life written by Jennifer Walkup and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-01-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes hope is the most extraordinary gift of all. High-school radio host Jasmine Torres's life is full of family dysfunction, but if she can score the internship of her dreams with a New York City radio station, she knows she can turn things around. That is, until her brother Danny's latest seizure forces her to miss the interview, and she's back to the endless loop of missing school for his doctor appointments, picking up the pieces of her mother's booze-soaked life, and stressing about Danny's future. Then she meets Wes. He's the perfect combination of smart, cute, and funny. He also happens to have epilepsy like her brother. Wes is living a normal life despite his medical issues, which gives Jasmine hope for Danny. But memories of her cheating ex-boyfriend keep Jasmine from going on a real date with Wes, no matter how many times he asks her. Jasmine can't control everything, not who wins the internship, not her mother's addiction, not her brother's health, not even where her heart will lead her. She wishes she could just have an ordinary life, but Jasmine may just discover that what she already has is pretty extraordinary after all.
Download or read book It s Not Out There written by Danapriya and published by Windhorse Publications. This book was released on 2020-10-02 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us are always looking outside ourselves for something. But this something, this ‘it’, is not out there. ‘It’ is within us. In 'It’s Not Out There', Buddhist teacher and mentor, Danapriya, shows you how to stop looking outside yourself for happiness and fulfilment. He explains how to uncover the fertile ground of your own potential, so you can live the life you are here for.
Download or read book The Remarkable Ordinary written by Frederick Buechner and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn to see God's remarkable works in the everyday ordinary of your life. Your remarkable life is happening right here, right now. You may not be able to see it--your life may seem predictable and your work insignificant until you look at your life as Frederick Buechner does. Named "the father of today's spiritual memoir movement" by Christianity Today, Frederick Buechner reveals how to stop, look, and listen to your life. He reflects on how both art and faith teach us how to pay attention to the remarkableness right in front of us, to watch for the greatness in the ordinary, and to use our imaginations to see the greatness in others and love them well. Pay attention, says Buechner. Listen to the call of a bird or the rush of the wind, to the people who flow in and out of your life. The ordinary points you to the extraordinary God who created and loves all of creation, including you. Pay attention to these things as if your life depends upon it. Because, of course, it does. As you learn to pay attention to your life and what God is doing in it, you will uncover the plot of your life's story and the sacred opportunity to connect with the Divine in each moment.
Download or read book Modern Day Mystic written by Thomas Lyons and published by We Publish Books. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can we really bend spoons with our minds? Do regular people have prophetic dreams? Can spirits speak to us from beyond? What does it really mean to be "enlightened?" How you can develop "healing hands." Author Thomas Lyons has seen it all and shares hundreds of stories of mystical experience.
Download or read book No Ordinary Lives written by David Johnson and published by Grand Central Pub. This book was released on 2002 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects the stories of Americans who were profiled in the author's "Everybody Has a Story" column, tracing his two decades of encounters with more than eight hundred individuals, many of whose perspectives changed his life.
Download or read book Intimacy on the Plate Extra Trim Edition written by Olga Petrenko and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-27 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intimacy On The Plate: Extra Trim Edition contains the same 200+ elegant, erotic recipes as the original, but has been reformatted for a smaller size and lower price. Snack on the convenience of the new smaller trim size, or indulge in the colorful, picturesque body of the original coffee table book. Every couple knows that the key to a harmonious home is a healthy love life, but keeping your time in bed spicy isn't enough - you need to turn to the kitchen and amp up the flavor. Olga Petrenko is a housewife who dedicated years of her life to crafting original dishes that combine tradition with innovation, creating new tastes that everyone can enjoy. In the process, she discovered something new: by applying scientific research to her recipes and by using the correct ingredients, all meals had the potential to be the perfect aphrodisiac. After a decade of hard work and experimentation, she finally had an extensive collection of recipes designed to make every bite erotic - Intimacy On The Plate: 200+ Aphrodisiac Recipes to Spice Up Your Love Life at Home Tonight Every dish in this erotic cookbook pays as much attention to presentation as to flavor and science. If you want to create the right mood for your loved one, you need to feed the eyes before you feed the stomach. Olga has worked hard to make every sensual meal beautiful and visually appetizing so that you and your partner will feel the food love before you even sit down to eat. Within these pages, you'll find 200+ healthy, easy-to-cook recipes known around the world to contribute to sexual desire. Using a wide range of ingredients, including dozens of types of vegetables, mushrooms, fish, seafood, fruits, nuts, herbs, and spices, you and your partner will experience the full range of erotic properties the world of food has to offer. You'll never run out of new and exciting places to take your meals. From appetizers to main courses, to side dishes, beverages, and desserts, you'll always have something scintillating to offer up on date night.
Download or read book A Not Quite Ordinary Life written by Nancy Fairley and published by . This book was released on with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: