Download or read book Never Simple written by Liz Scheier and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This gripping and darkly funny memoir “is a testament to the undeniable, indestructible love between a mother and a daughter” (Isaac Mizrahi). Liz Scheier’s mother was a news junkie, a hilarious storyteller, a fast-talking charmer you couldn’t look away from, a single mother whose devotion crossed the line into obsession, and—when in the grips of the mental illness that plagued her—a masterful liar. On an otherwise uneventful afternoon when Scheier was eighteen, her mother sauntered into the room and dropped two bombshells. First, that she had been married for most of the previous two decades to a man Liz had never heard of and, second, that the man she had claimed was Liz’s dead father was entirely fictional. She’d made him up—his name, the stories, everything. Those big lies were the start, but not the end; it had taken dozens of smaller lies to support them, and by the time she was done she had built a fairy-tale, half-true life for the two of them. Judith Scheier’s charm was more than matched by her eccentricity, and Liz had always known there was something wrong in their home. After all, other mothers didn’t raise a child single-handedly with no visible source of income, or hide their children behind fake Social Security numbers, or host giant parties in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment only to throw raging tantrums when the door closed behind the guests. Now, decades later, armed with clues to her father’s identity—and as her mother’s worsening dementia reveals truths she never intended to share—Liz attempts to uncover the real answers to the mysteries underpinning her childhood. Trying to construct a “normal” life out of decidedly abnormal roots, she navigates her own circuitous path to adulthood: a bizarre breakup, an unexpected romance, and the birth of her son and daughter. Along the way, Liz wrestles with questions of what we owe our parents even when they fail us, and of how to share her mother’s hilarity, limitless love, and creativity with children—without passing down the trauma of her mental illness. Never Simple is the story of enduring the legacy of a hard-to-love parent with compassion, humor, and, ultimately, self-preservation.

Download or read book The Last Lecture written by Randy Pausch and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Download or read book Baltimore Sons written by Dean Bartoli Smith and published by Stillhouse Press. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank, unsparing, often violent and disturbing, these poems speak in the voice of a young man trying to navigate the city he loves as he lives in the long shadow of his father's suffocating obsession with firearms. With the city of Baltimore as his backdrop, accomplished poet, author, and editor Dean Bartoli Smith offers a wrenching examination of our troubled attachments to place and the deepest wounds of the American psyche.

Download or read book Stoner written by John Williams and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2015 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Born the child of a poor farmer in Missouri, William Stoner is urged by his parents to study new agriculture techniques at the state university. Digging instead into the texts of Milton and Shakespeare, Stoner falls under the spell of the unexpected pleasures of English literature, and decides to make it his life. Stoner is the story of that life"--

Download or read book Never Die Easy written by Walter Payton and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2001-09-11 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Never die easy. Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life. It's okay to lose, to die, but don't die without trying, without giving it your best." His legacy is towering. Walter Payton—the man they called Sweetness, for the way he ran—remains the most prolific running back in the history of the National Football League, the star of the Chicago Bears' only Super Bowl Championship, eleven times voted the most popular sports figure in Chicago's history. Off the field, he was a devoted father whose charitable foundation benefited tens of thousands of children each year, and who—faced with terminal liver disease—refused to use his celebrity to gain a preferential position for organ donation. Walter Payton was not just a football hero; he was America's hero. Never Die Easy is Walter Payton's autobiography, told from the heart. Growing up poor in Mississippi, he took up football to get girls' attention, and went on to become a Black College All-American at tiny Jackson State (during which time he was also a finalist in a Soul Train dance contest). Drafted by the Bears in 1975, he predicted that he would last only five years but went on to play thirteen extraordinary seasons, a career earning him regular acknowledgment as one of the greatest players in the history of professional football. And when his playing days were over, he approached business and charity endeavors with the same determination and success he had brought to the football field, always putting first his devotion to friends and family. His ultimate battle with illness truly proved him the champion he always had been and prompted a staggering outpouring of love and support from hundreds of thousands of friends and admirers. Written with veteran journalist and author Don Yaeger in the last weeks of Walter Payton's life, Never Die Easy presents Walter's singular voice—warm, plainspoken, funny, self-aware—along with the voices of the friends, family, teammates, and business associates who knew him best at all stages of his life, including his wife, Connie, and their children, Brittney and Jarrett; his teammate and friend Matt Suhey; former Bears head coach Mike Ditka; and many, many others. Walter made Don Yaeger promise that his book would be "inspirational and leave people with some kind of lesson . . . and make sure you spell all the words right." Never Die Easy keeps all those promises.

Download or read book If He Had Been with Me written by Laura Nowlin and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If he had been with me everything would have been different... I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know—the cause of the argument—is crucial. So let me tell you...

Download or read book A Little Life written by Hanya Yanagihara and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

Download or read book Never Too Little to Love written by Jeanne Willis and published by Walker. This book was released on 2013 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tiny Too-Little really needs a kiss. The one that he loves is right up there. Will Tiny ever reach her?

Download or read book His Rules written by CC MacKenzie and published by CC MacKenzie. This book was released on 2015-04-12 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lotus Girl written by Helen Tworkov and published by St. Martin's Essentials. This book was released on 2024-04-16 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From one of the central figures in Buddhism's introduction to the West and the founder of Tricycle magazine comes a brilliant memoir of forging one’s own path that Pico Iyer calls "unflinching" and "indispensable." The daughter of an artist, Helen Tworkov grew up in the heady climate of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism; yet from an early age, she questioned the value of Western cultural norms. Her life was forever changed when she saw the iconic photo of Thich Quang Duc, the Vietnamese monk who, seated in meditation, set himself on fire to protest his government’s crackdown on the Buddhist clergy. Tworkov realized that radically different states of mind truly existed and were worth exploring. At the age of twenty-two, she set off for Japan, then traveled through Cambodia, India, and eventually to Tibetan refugee camps in Nepal. Set against the arresting cultural backdrop of the sixties and their legacy, this intimate self-portrait depicts Tworkov's search for a true home as she interacts with renowned artists and spiritual luminaries including the Dalai Lama, Pema Chödrön, Joseph Goldstein, Bernie Glassman, Charles Mingus, Elizabeth Murray and Richard Serra. Interweaving experience, research, and revelation, Helen Tworkov explores the relationship between Buddhist wisdom and American values, presenting a wholly unique look at the developing landscape of Buddhism in the West. Lotus Girl offers insight not only into Tworkov's own search for the truth, but into the ways each of us can better understand and transform ourselves.

Download or read book It s Never Easy These Days written by Gareth Hollbrooke and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it like for hospital administrators dealing with surgeons on the warpath? Or consultant medical staff fighting amongst themselves over car parking spaces? How about the 'new age' travellers parking their caravan in the hospital car park and refusing to move on? It’s Never Easy These Days is a memoir about working in and managing public and private hospitals in Britain from the late 1970s to the end of the 1990s. During this time, a lot changed both within the country and its healthcare system. The public are well aware of the role that doctors and nurses play, but who deals with the six foot six inch giant incensed when a sticky 'No Parking' label is placed on the windscreen of his Jaguar? Or the woman living next door to the hospital who takes a hammer to the wooden fence put up beside her house? Most of the staff would agree that the pigeons colonising the ridges and rooftops of the hospital must be removed, but who has to arrange the solution to the problem? The hospital manager of course! Then there are also the lurking spectres of politicians and their policies. How are the waiting lists best handled to make sure there are no patients exceeding the waiting time limits? And who deals with the local MP during his hospital rounds at Christmas and election time? Find out the answers and more in It’s Never Easy These Days, an eye-opening memoir that provides a candid and sometimes comical account of hospital life from a different perspective. Those interested in the NHS and the history of hospital management will find this a fascinating read.

Download or read book The Woman from Brazil written by Zuzu Alexi Cupido and published by Author House. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story that captures the journey of an Amazonian woman with a curious spirit and a desire to nurture dreams no one believed in. Her bravery became her sole accomplice through trivial and misleading experiences. With merely her courage and a single pair of traveling pants, she began her journey to discover what her dreams would lead her to. This book insightfully reveals how she conquered her adversities and crystallized her aspirations.

Download or read book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas written by Hunter S. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 2003-04-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a reissue of the novel inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's ether-fuelled, savage journey to the heart of the American Dream: We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold... And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.

Download or read book Gregg Troy It s Never Easy written by Jackson Leonard and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authorized biography of U.S. Olympic Head Coach Gregg Troy, with contributions by U.S. Olympic gold medalists Ryan Lochte and Caeleb Dressel.

Download or read book Undergraduates in a Second Language written by Ilona Leki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length study of bilingual, international, and immigrant students in English writing courses that attempts to fully embed their writing experiences within the broader frame of their personal histories, the human context of their development, and the disciplinary contexts of their majors. It addresses the questions: How useful are L2 writing courses for the students who are required to take them? What do the students carry with them from these courses to their other disciplinary courses across the curriculum? What happens to these students after they leave ESL, English, or writing classes? Drawing on data from a 5-year longitudinal study of four university students for whom English was not their strongest/primary language, it captures their literacy experiences throughout their undergraduate careers. The intensive case studies answer some questions and raise others about these students’ academic development as it entwined with their social experiences and identity formation and with the ideological context of studying at a US university in the 1990s.

Download or read book How It All Began written by Miguel Cisneros and published by Page Publishing, Inc. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How It All Began is based on Miguel "Mike" Cisneros Jr.'s life experiences growing up as a child dealing with family conflicts, domestic violence, bullying and child abuse, homelessness, and short periods of happiness. At times there were moments of hopelessness, despair, and desperation until he had to make a life-changing commitment to leave all that was negative and begin a new life, hoping something positive would come from it. That life-changing commitment was with the United States Navy. From the very beginning upon joining the Navy, many in leadership positions seemed to try blocking his desire to move forward, including people in leadership positions during a period when the Vietnam War was ending and the military was experiencing racial tension. Even though he didn't like it and knew it wasn't right, he kept going. There were also those in leadership positions that saw the potential in him and provided the mentoring and guidance for him to advance. After serving in the Navy for over thirty years, through many years of sea duty, deployments, family separations, adversity, and at times humiliations, he found ways to achieve his goals and succeed. At the same time, he provides insights of the chain of command and their leadership style. As with all organizations, there are good leaders and bad leaders; and from that, he learned and tried emulating the best from each. This personal story was written in the hopes that someone may learn from these experiences and perhaps inspire them to believe in themselves, to use their abilities, to have a positive attitude, and most importantly, to never give up.

Download or read book The Glory Boys written by Douglas Reeman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-09-24 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As we've come to expect from multi-million copy bestselling author Douglas Reeman, The Glory Boys expertly weaves close and detailed knowledge of the actual events of WWII into a simply brilliant and stirring action adventure, guaranteed to have you hooked from page one. Readers of Clive Cussler, Bernard Cornwell and Wilbur Smith will not be disappointed! 'One of our foremost writers of naval fiction' -- Sunday Times 'Mr Reeman writes with great knowledge about the sea and those who sail on it' --The Times 'A real adventure' -- ***** Reader review 'Great storyline - really grips you to the end' -- ***** Reader review 'Typically superbly written' -- ***** Reader review 'This author never lets you down' -- ***** Reader review 'Great reading -- edge of your seat stuff' -- ***** Reader review ******************************************************************************** They're called The Glory Boys, by those who regard their exploits with envy or contempt. January 1943: Glory Boy Bob Kearton - already a veteran and survivor of the close action in the English Channel and North Sea - is ordered to the Mediterranean and beleaguered Malta, a mere sixty miles from occupied Sicily. Unexpectedly promoted to lieutenant-commander, he is given charge of a newly formed and, as yet, incomplete flotilla of motor torpedo boats. Although the tide of defeat is thought to be turning, with the enemy no longer advancing along the North African coast, Kearton's is a new war of stealth, subterfuge, and daring, in which the Glory Boys are only too expendable.