Download or read book Little Matches written by Maryanne O'Hara and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Gripping and true in all ways. This fine, affecting memoir will stay with me for a very long time.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion “In this vividly written memoir novelist O’Hara shares a painful but ultimately beautiful account of her daughter Caitlin’s life with cystic fibrosis. . . . Her compelling story will resonate with anyone seeking a light in the darkest depths of grief.”—Library Journal In the vein of The Year of Magical Thinking and Beautiful Boy, an emotionally raw and inspiring memoir that illuminates a mother’s grief over the loss of her adult child and considers the hope of soulful connections that transcend the boundary of life and death. When their only child was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at the age of two, Maryanne O’Hara and her husband were told that Caitlin could live a long life or be dead in a matter of months. Thirty-one years later, Caitlin lost her battle with this devastating disease following an excruciating two-year wait on the transplant list and a last-minute race to locate a pair of healthy lungs. The sudden spiral of events left Maryanne in an existential crisis, searching to find an answer to the eternal question: Why we are here? During her final years, Caitlin had become a source of wisdom and comfort for her mother—the partner with whom she shared a deep spiritual quest to understand what it meant to have a soul. After Caitlin’s passing, Maryanne began to notice signs—poignant, persistent synchronicities that seemed to lean toward proof of Caitlin’s enduring presence. Weaving together a series of interconnected meditations with illuminating glimpses of life rendered via text messages, e-mails, and journal entries, Little Matches is a profound reflection on life and death, motherhood, the pain of chronic uncertainty, and finding inspiration in the unexpected sparks that light our way through the darkness.

Download or read book Loving Sports When They Don t Love You Back written by Jessica Luther and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Triumphant wins, gut-wrenching losses, last-second shots, underdogs, competition, and loyalty—it’s fun to be a fan. But when a football player takes a hit to the head after yet another study has warned of the dangers of CTE, or when a team whose mascot was born in an era of racism and bigotry takes the field, or when a relief pitcher accused of domestic violence saves the game, how is one to cheer? Welcome to the club for sports fans who care too much. In Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back, acclaimed sports writers Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson tackle the most pressing issues in sports, why they matter, and how we can do better. For the authors, “sticking to sports” is not an option—not when our taxes are paying for the stadiums, and college athletes aren’t getting paid at all. But simply quitting a favorite team won’t change corrupt and deplorable practices, and the root causes of many of these problems are endemic in our wider society. An essential read for modern fans, Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back challenges the status quo and explores how we might begin to reconcile our conscience with our fandom.

Download or read book The Bright Forever written by Lee Martin and published by Crown. This book was released on 2005-05-03 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dark, harrowing novel about a nine-year-old girl's disappearance and the lasting impact it has on her close-knit community On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books. This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Fact, speculation, and contradiction play off one another as the details about Katie's disappearance--and about the townspeople--unfold, creating a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. A nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss, The Bright Forever is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.

Download or read book Everything Happens for a Reason written by Kate Bowler and published by Random House. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A meditation on sense-making when there’s no sense to be made, on letting go when we can’t hold on, and on being unafraid even when we’re terrified.”—Lucy Kalanithi “Belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.”—Bill Gates NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward “blessing.” She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son. Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with “a surge of determination.” Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you “can’t do” and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before. Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live. Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason “I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping—she’s like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate’s story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising

Download or read book People You d Trust Your Life To written by Bronwen Wallace and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-11-24 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Completed shortly before her early death, Bronwen Wallace did not live to see the publication of this, her only book of fiction. Capturing the moment when her unique talent blossomed in a new direction, this new edition of her life-affirming, universal stories will allow her to be read by a another generation of readers. Wallace’s poetry and short stories have been anthologized, and have appeared in periodicals across the country. She won a National Magazine Award, the Pat Lowther Award, the Du Maurier Award for Poetry, and in 1989 she was named Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in the U.K.

Download or read book Kentucky Passion written by Del Duduit and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildcat Wisdom for the Big Blue Nation! For more than a century, the University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team has built a winning tradition that feeds the Big Blue Nation. The history of the winningest program in college basketball is peppered with unforgettable moments and personalities. In Kentucky Passion, Del Duduit and John Huang help fans reexperience some of the most memorable seasons and shots and meet key players and coaches. Readers will learn how they too can rise to challenges and find success through the inspiring stories from Wildcat history. Weekly stories showcasing legendary coaches including Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith, and John Calipari, standout players including John Wall, Kyle Macy, DeAndre Liggins, Goose Givens, and Aaron Harrison, and indelible highs and lows (yes, the BBN still hates Laettner) illustrate the value of persistence, hard work, resiliency, teamwork, and more. Kentucky Passion is for every citizen of the Big Blue Nation and for every sports fan who relishes well-deserved victories, moans at surprise defeats, or wants to learn more about one of the most storied teams in college sports.

Download or read book Synchro Sisters Forever written by Katie Reveno and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children's chapter book geared toward girls ages 5-8 introduces the Olympic sport of synchronized swimming and teaches life lessons including the values of friendship and perseverance. Written and published by a teenaged swimmer (and first time author) to help grow the sport she loves. All profits from book sales go directly to USA Synchro.

Download or read book The Opportunist written by Tarryn Fisher and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2024-11-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book in Tarryn Fisher's fan-favorite Love Me with Lies trilogy, The Opportunist is the twisty, unconventional second-chance love story you didn't see coming! When Olivia Kaspen spots her ex-boyfriend in a Miami record shop, she ignores good sense and approaches him. It’s been three years since their breakup, but when Caleb reveals he’s suffering from amnesia after a recent car accident, first she feels regret—and then opportunity. If he doesn't remember her, then he also doesn’t remember her manipulation, her deceit, or the horrible way she broke his heart. Seeing a chance to reunite with Caleb, she keeps their past, and the details around the implosion of their relationship, a secret. Wrestling to keep her true identity and their sordid history under wraps, Olivia’s greatest obstacle is Caleb’s wicked new girlfriend, Leah, who's equally determined to possess the man who no longer remembers her. But soon Olivia must face the consequences of her lies, and in the process discover that sometimes love falls short of redemption.

Download or read book The Bright Forever written by Lee Martin and published by Crown. This book was released on 2006-04-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dark, harrowing novel about a nine-year-old girl's disappearance and the lasting impact it has on her close-knit community On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books. This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Fact, speculation, and contradiction play off one another as the details about Katie's disappearance--and about the townspeople--unfold, creating a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. A nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss, The Bright Forever is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.

Download or read book Forever One Summer written by George M. Leon and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2007-11-20 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a love story based on events that occurred in my life more than fifty years ago. Some of the names have been changed, and some events may have been diminished or embellished while recalling things that happened when writing the story. The story is a based on recollections of actual experiences I had. It is a story filled with discovery, joy, and the innocence of teenage years back in the fiftys. It also shows how those years became the building blocks of a lifetime. The motivation for writing this came from an extraordinary thing that happened to me in the Spring of 2006 that stirred my memory and caused me to recall with clarity what I had so long ago buried in my subconscious mind. I met a person who became a good friend, but more importantly she reawakened everything I had discovered in that one magical summer back in 1954. Looking back as an adult fifty years later made me realize that there is symmetry in life, but many people never take the time to see it. This all started for me when we returned from our Winter Condo in Boca Raton, Florida in April of 2006. As per my usual morning routine, I continued to awaken early and go over to Starbucks to sit and have my morning cup of Decaf Americano. Id sit there and read the Daily News, or the New York Times, and chat with some fascinating people I had met whod become friends in the several years since I retired. One particular April morning I came in and they had a new person in charge of the morning shift working there. From the moment I saw her I could not stop looking at her. There was something instantly so familiar about her, but I wasnt able to see exactly what it was initially. When I made the connection with what it was it hit me like a ton of bricks. After we were introduced we began chatting briefly, but the more we made small talk, the less I actually heard what she was saying as memories of my past flooded back. All of a sudden I was fifteen years old again. I knew then I had to sit down and somehow get this written. I also knew I would at some point; have to share this amazing story with her if or when I got to know her better. It was interesting recalling my early childhood, and the events that brought me to that wonderful summer of discovery, and falling in love for what I believed then to be the first and last time in my life. That summer held some of the keys to the person I would become as I grew up, and dealt with life at all ages.

Download or read book Keepsake Letters written by Tuesday's Children and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tuesday's Children is proud to self publish the enclosed letters, a compilation of stories and letters from those who lost a loved one on 9/11, including spouses, fiancs, children, grandchildren, parents, brothers, sisters and cousins. The letters are tributes to those lost but also messages of inspiration and strength and hope. On behalf of Tuesdays Children and Brian Curtis, a New York Times bestselling author, and our partner in the project, we thank everyone, who particpated in the project, for taking the time to share their stories and heartfelt letters.

Download or read book Long Shot written by Kennedy Ryan and published by Bloom Books. This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From award-winning author Kennedy Ryan comes the soul-gripping, unforgettable first installment of the Hoops trilogy. Iris DuPree meets August West in a sports bar during her last semester of college. It's the conversation of a lifetime and sends sparks flying in every direction. The connection is undeniable...but the timing is all wrong. August is poised for the NBA draft, and Iris belongs to another man--basketball's "golden boy" and August's long-time rival. The two go their separate ways, but they often recall that electric night and what could have been. While August has embarked on his all-star life, studded with wealth and fame, Iris's perfect public relationship has become a nightmare behind closed doors. A tarnished dream of fool's gold. When August re-enters her life, the world seems briefly bright again, but Iris's darkest nights are not over yet. To survive, she must build her own strength and trust that her bond with August can endure after all this time. Even when her fraudulent prince has vowed never to let her go.

Download or read book Say You ll Remember Me written by Katie McGarry and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2018-01-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Authentic, edgy, and fraught with realistic, heartfelt conflict and romantic tension . . . a fantastic coming of age story.” —Samantha Young, New York Times–bestselling author When Drix was convicted of a crime—one he didn’t commit—he thought his life was over. But opportunity came with the Second Chance Program, the governor’s newest pet project to get delinquents off the streets, rehabilitated, and back into society. Drix knows this is his chance to get his life back on track, even if it means being paraded in front of reporters for a while. Elle knows she lives a life of privilege. As the governor’s daughter, she can open doors with her name alone. But the expectations and pressure to be someone she isn’t may be too much to handle. She wants to follow her own path, whatever that means. When Drix and Elle meet, their connection is immediate, but so are their problems. Drix is not the type of boy Elle’s parents have in mind for her, and Elle is not the kind of girl who can understand Drix’s messy life. But sometimes love can breach all barriers. Fighting against a society that can’t imagine them together, Drix and Elle must push themselves—Drix to confront the truth of the robbery, and Elle to assert her independence—and each other to finally get what they deserve. “This story broke my heart and then stitched it back together before I finished the last page.” —Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times-bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures “McGarry delivers a romantic tale with substance, and Elle and Drix are characters worth getting to know.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book The 12 Minute Athlete written by Krista Stryker and published by S&S/Simon Element. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlock your athletic potential and get into the best shape of your life with Krista Stryker’s HIIT and bodyweight workouts—all of which can be done in just minutes a day! If you’ve ever thought you couldn’t get results without spending hours in the gym, that you’d never be able to do a pull-up, or that it’s too late to get in your best shape ever, The 12-Minute Athlete will change your mind, your body, and your life. Get serious results with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts that can be done in just minutes a day. Give up the excuses and learn to use your own bodyweight and a few basic pieces of portable equipment for short, incredibly effective workouts. Reset your mindset, bust through mental blocks, and set meaningful goals you’ll actually accomplish. You can finally ditch the dieting and enjoy food as fuel with simple eating guidelines to the 80/20 rule. In The 12-Minute Athlete you’ll also find: –A guide to basic calisthenics and bodyweight exercises for any fitness level –Progressive exercises to achieve seemingly “impossible” feats like pistol squats, one-arm push-ups, pull-ups, and handstands –More than a dozen simple and healthy recipes that will fuel your workouts –Two 8-week workout plans for getting fitter, faster, and stronger –Bonus Tabata workouts –And so much more! The 12-Minute Athlete is for men and women, ex-athletes and new athletes, experienced athletes and “non-athletes”—for anyone who has a body and wants to get stronger and start living their healthiest life.

Download or read book Grown and Flown written by Lisa Heffernan and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.

Download or read book Nowhere But Here Thunder Road Book 1 written by Katie McGarry and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long awaited all new series from the #1 bestselling author of Pushing the Limits Emily likes her life the way it is...

Download or read book Living Full written by Danielle Sherman-Lazar and published by Mango Media Inc.. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survivor takes those struggling with anorexia and/or bulimia on “a passionate, heartbreaking to humorous road from rock bottom to recovery” (Robert Tuchman, author of Young Guns). Imagine waking in a hospital bed to find your frail, pale arm punctured by an IV transferring fluids and nutrients into your weak, stiff body. What happened? You’re an adult, age twenty-six, and you just had a seizure precipitated by your chronic, secretive, decades-long struggle with unacknowledged eating disorders. You have no friends and no normal young-adult experiences. Living Full is written by Danielle Sherman-Lazar, a woman who passed through the eating disorder crucible to recovery, sharing the most intimate and shameful details of her mental illness. Living Full is Danielle’s story. Eating disorders in young adults are hardly talked about, but are pervasive. Eating disorders are kept hidden out of shame. A groundbreaking 2012 study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that about thirteen percent of women over age fifty exhibit eating disorder symptoms. Living Full chronicles the author’s step-by-step descent into the full-blown eating disorder nightmare and her path to recovery. Recovery comes from the Maudsley Approach, a regimen of supervised controlled eating or refeeding by out-patient helpers that eventually can result in recovery. Benefits of reading Living Full: See how to confront your eating disorder demon Learn from someone who won her eating disorder battle Discover a new and beautiful life