From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone… OUR HOUSE. OUR FAMILY. OUR SECRETS. Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin. Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

Whats wrong with Christianity? Why does it so often seem like the church is working against good in the world instead of helping it? What if we got the facts right but the story wrong? What If Christians Grew Up? takes the beliefs most common in mainstream Christianity and puts them under the lens of building a dynamic relationship with God, a relationship in which we began as infants, but through which we grow to be the heirs of God. This book was written to equip Christians who are passionate about social justice and effective engagement in the world around us to express their beliefs in a world where the Bible is so often used to justify ignorance and persecution.

Drawing on the insights of Alfred Adler and others, Atkins examines the varying dynamics of "warm" and "cool" families and shows how siblings tutored each other in friendship, authority, cooperation and competition, dependence and independence."--BOOK JACKET.

One of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2019 A journey through the many ways to live an artistic life—from the flashy and famous to the quiet and steady—full of unexpected insights about creativity and contentment, from the author of The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost. Rachel Friedman was a serious violist as a kid. She quit music in college but never stopped fantasizing about what her life might be like if she had never put down her bow. Years later, a freelance writer in New York, she again finds herself struggling with her fantasy of an artist’s life versus its much more complicated reality. In search of answers, she decides to track down her childhood friends from Interlochen, a prestigious arts camp she attended, full of aspiring actors, artists, dancers, and musicians, to find out how their early creative ambitions have translated into adult careers, relationships, and identities. Rachel’s conversations with these men and women spark nuanced revelations about creativity and being an artist: that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, that success isn’t always linear, that sometimes it’s okay to quit. And Then We Grew Up is for anyone who has given up a childhood dream and wondered “what-if?”, for those who have aspired to do what they love and had doubts along the way, and for all whose careers fall somewhere between emerging and established. Warm, whip-smart, and insightful, it offers inspiration for finding creative fulfillment wherever we end up in life.

A Hollywood ghostwriter and his basset hound explore the deadly world of high-stakes divorce in this hilarious mystery from an Edgar Award–winning author. Matthew Wax is an overgrown kid with a taste for sweets, go-kart racing, and wholesome family comedy. He’s also the most successful director in Hollywood, a golden boy whose films are toothache sweet and spit-shine clean. But when his wife, leading lady Pennyroyal Brim, tires of life in a G-rated wonderland, she brings in the most ruthless lawyer on the West Coast: the notorious Abel Zorch. To win the divorce settlement, Zorch drags Wax through the mud, accusing him of perversion, misogyny, and abuse. So when Pennyroyal announces a tell-all memoir, Wax has only one choice: to call in Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag, ghostwriter to the stars. Working with Wax, Hoagy and his basset hound, Lulu, get closer to the boy wonder than anyone else ever has. But when Zorch turns up dead, Wax is the prime suspect—followed closely by every spurned husband in Beverly Hills—and to clear their client’s name, the amateur sleuth and his canine companion will have to leave La-La Land behind and cross over to the dark side of Los Angeles. From Edgar Award–winning author David Handler, The Boy Who Never Grew Up is a razor-sharp entry in the beloved Stewart Hoag Mysteries, called an “all-time favorite series” by Harlan Coben. The funniest sleuth around, Hoagy knows that quick wit can overcome any obstacle—even murder. The Boy Who Never Grew Up is the 5th book in the Stewart Hoag Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Set during the devastating Memorial Day floods in Texas, a surreal, empathetic novel for readers of Station Eleven and The Age of Miracles. 2015. 18-year-old Boyd Montgomery returns from her grandfather's wedding to find her friend Isaac missing. Drought-ravaged central Texas has been newly inundated with rain, and flash floods across the state have begun to sweep away people, cars, and entire houses as every river breaks its banks. In the midst of the rising waters, Boyd sets out across the ravaged back country. She is determined to rescue her missing friend, and she's not alone in her quest: her neighbor, Carla, spots Boyd's boot prints leading away from the safety of home and follows in her path. Hours later, her mother returns to find Boyd missing, and she, too, joins the search. Boyd, Carla, and Lucy Maud know the land well. They've lived in central Texas for their entire lives. But they have no way of knowing the fissure the storm has opened along the back roads, no way of knowing what has been erased-and what has resurfaced. As they each travel through the newly unfamiliar landscape, they discover the ghosts of Texas past and present. Haunting and timely, Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here considers questions of history and empathy and brings a pre-apocalyptic landscape both foreign and familiar to shockingly vivid life.

This is a book for mature men with high intrinsic immaturity who enjoy simple things in life; No effort has been made in being politically correct with regards to religion, gender, ethnicity or other sensitive matters of general concern. It is for those who still can laugh at a poo-story. The book, although harmless, could easily upset a lot of morality fixed individuals, especially the ethical ones. Consequently, they are advised to pick up another, more serious book, and leave this one where it is. The story is that of a teenage foreign student in England during the 1970's, spanning over a few years. It starts with the time in an English boarding school. After getting expelled at the age of sixteen he moves into a house with three other teenagers and starts high school studies. The university studies follow and life experiences flourish. It is more or less a collection of stories you might tell a friend in a pub. Stories with high a level of juvenescence with very little philosophical repercussions.

For some 20 years at the beginning of the century J. M. Barrie enjoyed enormous commercial success with a wide variety of plays, but he is best known for Peter Pan. It retains its popularity today, both in the original and in adaptations. As well as being the author of the greatest of all children's plays Barrie also wrote sophisticated social comedy and political satire, much of it now newly topical. The Admirable Crichton and What Every Woman Knows are shrewd and entertaining contributions to the politics of class and gender, while Mary Rose is one of the best ghost stories written for the stage. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are supplemented with a scholarly introduction and detailed annotation.

Positive and practical, this guide is designed to offer a route to recovery from grief and loss after adoption or long-term foster care. Children growing up in adoptive families or foster care often have complicated feelings about the loss of their birth parents - feelings which become all the more complex as they gain independence and become young adults, and which can endure throughout their lives. Common life events such as entering new relationships, building a family or losing a loved one can give rise to difficult questions about their own childhood and identity. In this book, Renée Wolfs provides an accessible explanation of the feelings of loss and grief commonly experienced by adults who grew up in adoptive families or foster care, and how debilitating they can be. She provides grounded advice and strategies to aid recovery and provides the reader with a useful tool: The Circle of Connecting. The Circle provides strategies for healing from loss, spanning all seven elements of your life: your body, mind, heart, environment, past, present and future. This book is essential reading for older teens and adults who need help in addressing feelings of grief and loss, as well as those who support them including adoptive and foster parents, social workers, counsellors and therapists.