Parenting Memoir

What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting chronicles Jyl Barlow’s bumpy road to success as a (step)mother. Shared are the struggles of being inserted into an existing family still sitting within the emotional woodchipper of divorce. Jyl shares real-world lessons, not the mumbo-jumbo one can receive for the low price of a co-pay.

TV stars Noel and Sue beat all the odds to stay together and become Britain’s biggest family with 22 children. Meeting as youngsters, Sue first fell pregnant at a young age and the teenage lovebirds, both adopted as babies, were determined to bring up their first baby and build a family together. Their love story continued to blossom—and their children kept on coming! The couple confess to having had an addiction with a difference—a positive addiction motivated by love.

After trying for years to emulate her boomer parents’ 40-year and still-going-strong marriage, Sophie realized that maybe the love she was looking for was down a road less traveled. In this bold, graphic memoir, she explores her sexuality, her values, and the versions of love our society accepts and practices.

When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch’s home, setting a mystery in motion that will take decades to uncover. At the age of seventy-two, Lee falls ill and on her deathbed asks Sandy to write her story. The only problem is, Sandy doesn’t know the story. Embarking on a quest to honor Lee’s final wishes, Sandy takes an emotional and thrilling journey, unveiling shocking truths not only about her beloved housekeeper but also her own upbringing.

In 1962, Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley created a software company when the concept of software barely existed. Freelance Programmers employed women to work on complex projects such as Concorde's black box recorder from the comfort of their own homes. Shirley empowered a generation of women in technology, giving them unheard of freedom to choose their own hours and manage their own workloads. The business thrived, and Shirley gradually transferred ownership to her staff, creating 70 millionaires in the process.

On the surface, Victoria Jackson is the American Dream personified: from a troubled childhood and unfinished high school education, she overcame immeasurable odds to create a cosmetics empire valued at more than half a billion dollars. Married to Bill Guthy - self-made principal of infomercial marketing giant Guthy-Renker - Victoria’s most treasured role is mother to three beautiful, beloved children, Evan, Ali, and Jackson. Suddenly, Victoria’s dream life is broken....

In November 2000, Chicago journalist and music critic Jim DeRogatis received an anonymous fax that alleged R. Kelly had a problem with “young girls”. Weeks later, DeRogatis broke the shocking story, publishing allegations that the R&B superstar and local hero had groomed girls, sexually abused them, and paid them off. DeRogatis thought his work would have an impact. Instead, Kelly’s career flourished. No one seemed to care: not the music industry, not the culture at large, not the parents of numerous other young girls. But for more than 18 years, DeRogatis stayed on the story.

In her intimate, first audio memoir, Meghan McCain finds herself at a transitional moment: With the passing of her war-hero father and the birth of her daughter Liberty, Meghan realizes she’s becoming a different woman. Known as a Republican rebel and a departing cohost of The View, new mom Meghan McCain tells her story - in her own words. She invites listeners inside the unwavering heart and ferocious mind of a young conservative woman who refuses to back down.

Dan Savage’s mother wants him to get married. His boyfriend, Terry, says “no thanks” because he doesn’t want to act like a straight person. Their six-year-old son, D.J., says his two dads aren’t “allowed” to get married but that he’d like to come to the reception and eat cake. Throw into the mix Dan’s straight siblings, whose varied choices form a microcosm of how Americans are approaching marriage these days, and you get a rollicking family memoir that will have everyone - gay or straight, right or left, single or married - howling with laughter.

Part memoir, part self-help guide, Suffer Well bridges the gap between lived experience and evidence-based solutions, offering hope and concrete strategies for those ready to change their lives. It's an essential listen for anyone interested in addiction recovery, endurance sports, personal transformation, or the remarkable possibilities that emerge when we choose to reshape our relationship with suffering.

An autobiographical story, Ten Lessons In Love looks with fearless intimacy at the beauty within the ordinary, sharing snapshots of a life that read like meditations, tales of unconventional love, and powerful illuminations delivered through brilliantly written direct experience.

Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her.

Detroit is a thriving blue-collar town in the 1970s, an era when alcoholism and dysfunction thrive behind closed doors. When fifteen-year-old Debbie accepts a new babysitting job, she has no idea that it will forever alter her life. Mac, father of the young children she cares for, slowly begins to groom Debbie with words of praise and flattery.

Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. It follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, as well as the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental-health professionals.

Born in the tough East End of Glasgow and married into one of the city's most notorious criminal families, Janey Godley's young life was far from ordinary. From the grim and far-from-swinging '60s, to the discos of the '70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which engulfed Glasgow's East End during the '80s, Janey was witness to an extraordinary underworld - as well as religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws. Throughout it all, her indomitable spirit - and her vivid sense of humour - kept her alive.

Lorilyn Roberts' hopes of motherhood came to a devastating end when her husband left her for his pregnant girlfriend. Eight years later, Children of Dreams reveals God's restoration of her dreams through the international adoption of her two daughters. Written as creative nonfiction, an analogy is drawn between the physical adoption of children and God's spiritual adoption as recounted in the Bible.

"A really brilliant book" — Malcolm Gladwell "So important" — Glennon Doyle Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Awards 2022 A close look at how big money and high stakes have transformed youth sports, turning once healthy, fun activities for kids into all-consuming...

Are you thinking about school counseling as a profession or just starting as a school counselor? Okay, maybe you're already an established school counselor; congratulations! However, are you feeling stuck, lost, or frustrated in your present position? If you answer "yes" to either question, this book is definitely for you. Enjoy your journey toward a personal and professional reawakening!

Here is an audiobook that transcends the limits of how-to guides and honors the act of childbirth in the 21st century. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have gathered true birth stories by women who have made self-expression their business, including Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, Dani Shapiro, and many other luminaries. In Labor Day, you'll hear about women determined to give birth naturally and others begging for epidurals; women who pushed for hours and women whose labors were over practically before they'd started; women giving birth to twins and to 10-pound babies.

When Carolyn Weber moved to Oxford University to study, she didn't expect to find God there. But she did. As she grappled with her newest and most important relationship, she also found that there was another invitation: to think bigger about love. In this book we follow Weber through courtship and into marriage and parenthood. Now a literature professor, Weber reflects on her relationship with a sometimes-absent father and how that has shaped her.