Search:

We have never lived on Earth : stories / by Van Schaik, Kasia,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."'Love in the age of microplastics.' Kasia Van Schaik's debut story collection follows the journey of Charlotte Ferrier, a child of divorce raised by a single mother in a small town in British Columbia after moving from South Africa. The stories traverse the most intimate, violent, and transforming moments of female experience in a world threatened by ecological crisis. Charlotte navigates relationships-- with lovers, parents, friends, and environments-- as they form and fray. Mother and daughter wait out the end of a bad year in a Mexican hotel; a friendship is tested as forest fires demolish Charlotte's town; a childhood friend disappears while travelling through Europe; and a girl on the beach examines the memories of dying jellyfish. Each story asks: how do we find connection in a world shaped by isolation? How do we accept the new? Written in startling, poetic prose, We Have Never Lived On Earth captures the feelings and experiences of being a woman: physical and psychological threat, creativity, disappointment, objectification, and desire. Calling to mind Alice Munro's precocious Del Jordan and Rachel Cusk's Faye, these powerful portraits of female interiority balance nostalgia, fear, and hope for the future as they tell of the struggle to understand what it means to live on earth."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Short stories.; Linked stories.; Psychological fiction.; Children of single parents; South Africans; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Rage against the minivan : learning to parent without perfection / by Howerton, Kristen,author.;
"A heartfelt, subversively funny memoir and a bold personal manifesto that pushes back against the superficial expectations of motherhood-- and challenges the idea that there's a "right" way to raise kids. With hard-won knowledge gained from having four kids in four years, Kristen Howerton navigates the emotional and sometimes messy waters of motherhood, sharing valuable lessons from her journey through infertility, adoption, pregnancy, toddler tantrums, divorce, and the shock and awe of parenting teens. Howerton recounts how she learned to opt out from the pressure to do it all perfectly. As a mom of both white and black children and a licensed therapist, Howerton talks frankly about the thorny issues parents face today, whether it's finding good mom friends, confronting racism, disciplining other people's kids, or falling short of that elusive work/life balance. Howerton's experience-- the expectations, the stress, the total lack of control, and yes, the indignities of driving a minivan (which now sits in her driveway littered with crushed Cheetos and the remnants of her self-esteem)-- along with her ability to laugh at herself, reminds parents they are not alone on this unpredictable ride"--
Subjects: Howerton, Kristen.; Motherhood; Parenting;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The dark side : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.;
"In her new novel, Danielle Steel tells a riveting story of the dark side of motherhood. Zoe Morgan's childhood was marked by her younger sister's tragic illness, watching as her parents dedicated themselves completely to her final days and then divorced. As a young woman driven by these painful memories, Zoe sets the bar high for herself, studying hard and pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, where her deep compassion for disadvantaged children finds a focus. When Zoe falls in love and has her own child, she is determined to be a perfect mother as well. But before long, old scars long dormant begin to pull Zoe to the edge of an abyss too terrifying to contemplate. As Zoe is haunted by the ghosts of the past, her story will become a race against time and a tale of psychological suspense that no reader will soon forget"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Motherhood; love stories ;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 3
unAPI

Empty : a memoir / by Burton, Susan,1973-author.;
"Susan Burton is ready to come clean. Happily married with two children, working at her dream job, she has lived a secret life of compulsive eating and starving for twenty-five years. This is a relentlessly honest, fiercely intelligent narrative of living with binge-eating disorder. When Burton was thirteen, her stable life in suburban Michigan was turned upside down by her parents' abrupt, hostile divorce, and she moved to Colorado with her mother and sister. She seized on this move west as an adventure and an opportunity to reinvent herself from middle-school nerd to popular teenage girl. But she hadn't escaped unscathed, and in the fallout from her parents' breakup--including her mother's intensifying alcoholism--an inherited fixation on thinness went from "peculiarity to pathology." She entered into a painful cycle of anorexia, or "iron purity" and feral binge eating that formed the subterranean layer of her sunny life. This is the story not only of loosening the grip of her compulsion but of moving past her shame and learning to tell her secret. In tart, soulful prose Susan Burton strikes a blow for the importance of women's stories, brings to life an indelible cast of characters and tells a story of exhilaration, longing, compulsion and hard-earned self-revelation"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Burton, Susan, 1973-; Eating disorders in women; Eating disorders; Eating disorders; Women journalists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Better luck next time : a novel / by Hilton, Kate,1972-author.;
"It isn't easy being related to a feminist icon, especially when she's celebrating the greatest moment of her storied career. Just ask the daughters of Lydia Hennessey, who could have it all if only they'd stop self-destructing. Mariana, the eldest, is on the verge of throwing away a distinguished reputation in journalism, along with her marriage. Nina, the middle daughter, has returned from a medical mission overseas as a changed woman but won't discuss it with anyone. And Beata, the youngest, has a hostile teenaged son who just discovered the existence of a father who didn't know about him either. Meanwhile, their cousin Zoe is making divorce look like a death match, while her brother, Zack, is grappling with the fallout from his popular television dramedy, which is based far too closely on Lydia herself. It might be easier to find their paths if they could step out of Lydia's shadow--but the biggest women's march in history is underway, and Lydia and her family are at the centre of it. Over the course of an eventful year, the Hennessey children contend with the big struggles of midlife: aging parents, raging teens, crumbling marriages and bodies, new loves and the choice between playing it safe or taking life-altering risks. And as they inch toward a new definition of happiness, they might even persuade their parents--and themselves--that they're all grown up"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Feminists; Women journalists; Dysfunctional families; Mothers and daughters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Forest dark : a novel / by Krauss, Nicole,author.;
"One of America's most important novelists (New York Times), the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The History of Love, conjures an achingly beautiful and breathtakingly original novel about personal transformation that interweaves the stories of two disparate individuals, an older lawyer and a young novelist, whose transcendental search leads them to the same Israeli desert. Jules Epstein, a man whose drive, avidity, and outsized personality have, for sixty-eight years, been a force to be reckoned with, is undergoing a metamorphosis. In the wake of his parents' deaths, his divorce from his wife of more than thirty years, and his retirement from the New York legal firm where he was a partner, he's felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions, alarming his children and perplexing the executor of his estate. With the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi planning a reunion for the descendants of King David who insists that Epstein is part of that storied dynastic line. He also meets the rabbi's beautiful daughter who convinces Epstein to become involved in her own project, a film about the life of David being shot in the desert, with life-changing consequences. But Epstein isn't the only seeker embarking on a metaphysical journey that dissolves his sense of self, place, and history. Leaving her family in Brooklyn, a young, well-known novelist arrives at the Tel Aviv Hilton where she has stayed every year since birth. Troubled by writer's block and a failing marriage, she hopes that the hotel can unlock a dimension of reality, and her own perception of life, that has been closed off to her. But when she meets a retired literature professor who proposes a project she can't turn down, she's drawn into a mystery that alters her life in ways she could never have imagined. Bursting with life and humor, Forest Dark is a profound, mesmerizing novel of metamorphosis and self-realization, of looking beyond all that is visible towards the infinite."--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Self-realization; Missing persons;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

An unsuitable match / by Trollope, Joanna,author.;
Rose Woodrowe has just got engaged to Tyler Masson - a wonderful, sensitive man who is head-over-heels in love with her. The only problem? This isn't the first time for either of them, and their five grown-up children have strong opinions on the matter. Like Rose's daughter, Laura, who remembers her parents' painful divorce and doesn't want to see her mother hurt again. Or the twins, Emmy and Nat, who simply don't trust the man their mother has fallen for. Then there's Tyler's children: Seth, too busy with his San Francisco sourdough bakery to get to know his father's new partner; and Mallory, the aspiring actress, who is still wrestling with the issues of her own childhood. Who to listen to? Who to please? Rose and Tyler are determined to get it right this time, but in trying to make everyone happy, can they ever be happy themselves?
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Remarriage; Divorced people; Stepfamilies;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

End of the rope : mountains, marriage and motherhood / by Redford, Jan,author.;
"In the tradition of Cheryl Strayed's Wild comes the story of a young climber's struggle to make her own way in the mountains and in life. As a fourteen-year-old tomboy languishing in small-town Ontario in an alcohol-afflicted family, Jan is thirsting for adventure and freedom. After climbing a hundred-foot rock face, alone and without any equipment, she decides she will be a mountain climber when she grows up. Though it's a highly improbable goal, by twenty she's a cocky, nomadic, tobacco-chewing climber with a magnetic attraction to the wrong men and misadventures. She gradually develops as a climber, with the intention of becoming one of a few female mountain guides. After a series of doomed romances, Jan falls in love with an affable, hardcore Banff climber, Dan. Dreaming of a life together, maybe even kids, she enrolls in university with plans to become a teacher. But her world falls apart when Dan is killed in an avalanche. Two days after Dan's memorial, she grieves in the arms of another extreme alpinist, Grant. Not long after, she discovers she's pregnant. Terrified of being alone, she accepts a grudging offer of marriage and abandons her education and climbing. In spite of paralyzing unhappiness, they buy a house in the mountains, have a second baby, and slip into their parents' rigid roles: Grant, the provider, working in the bush as a logger; Jan, the housewife and mother. While she clings to her dream of university and autonomy, he pursues his dream of scaling mountains--dreams that pit them against each other. As her marriage unravels, Jan realizes she has to transform herself into the kind of person who can seize her dream, just like she transformed herself into a climber. It takes years and many small acts of courage, but finally, her need to grow surpasses her need to feel safe. She packs up her young children and drives off to the city, for perhaps the biggest adventure of her life: university and single motherhood. Combining driving narrative and sardonic humour with white-knuckled descriptions of life and death in the mountains, Jan Redford is paving the way for a new breed of memoir writers. She shows the immense determination required to follow your dream, even when your world is crumbling around you, and the bravery it takes to lead, not follow--in the mountains and in life."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Redford, Jan; Redford, Jan; Redford, Jan.; Self-actualization (Psychology); Women mountaineers; Women authors, Canadian (English);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Moral compass : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.;
"Saint Ambrose Prep is a place where the wealthy send their children for the best possible education, with teachers and administrators from the Ivy League, and graduates who become future lawyers, politicians, filmmakers, and CEOs. Traditionally a boys-only school, Saint Ambrose has just enrolled one hundred and forty female students for the first time. Even though most of the kids on the campus have all the privilege in the world, some are struggling, wounded by their parents' bitter divorces, dealing with insecurity and loneliness. In such a heightened environment, even the smallest spark can become a raging fire. One day after the school's annual Halloween event, a student lies in the hospital, her system poisoned by dangerous levels of alcohol. Everyone in this sheltered community--parents, teachers, students, police, and the media--are left trying to figure out what actually happened. Only the handful of students who were there when she was attacked truly know the answers and they have vowed to keep one another's secrets. As details from the evening emerge, powerful families are forced to hire attorneys and less powerful families watch helplessly. Parents' marriages are jeopardized, and students' futures are impacted. No one at Saint Ambrose can escape the fallout of a life-altering event. In this compelling novel, Danielle Steel illuminates the dark side of one drunken night, with its tragic consequences, from every possible point of view. As the drama unfolds, the characters will reach a crossroads where they must choose between truth and lies, between what is easy and what is right, and find the moral compass they will need for the rest of their lives"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Preparatory schools; Students; Children of the rich; Alcohol; Truth; Secrecy;
Available copies: 4 / Total copies: 4
unAPI

Moral compass [sound recording] : a novel / by Steel, Danielle,author.; Miller, Dan John,narrator.; Recorded Books, LLC,publisher.;
Read by Dan John Miller."Saint Ambrose Prep is a place where the wealthy send their children for the best possible education, with teachers and administrators from the Ivy League, and graduates who become future lawyers, politicians, filmmakers, and CEOs. Traditionally a boys-only school, Saint Ambrose has just enrolled one hundred and forty female students for the first time. Even though most of the kids on the campus have all the privilege in the world, some are struggling, wounded by their parents' bitter divorces, dealing with insecurity and loneliness. In such a heightened environment, even the smallest spark can become a raging fire. One day after the school's annual Halloween event, a student lies in the hospital, her system poisoned by dangerous levels of alcohol. Everyone in this sheltered community--parents, teachers, students, police, and the media--are left trying to figure out what actually happened. Only the handful of students who were there when she was attacked truly know the answers and they have vowed to keep one another's secrets. As details from the evening emerge, powerful families are forced to hire attorneys and less powerful families watch helplessly. Parents' marriages are jeopardized, and students' futures are impacted. No one at Saint Ambrose can escape the fallout of a life-altering event. In this compelling novel, Danielle Steel illuminates the dark side of one drunken night, with its tragic consequences, from every possible point of view. As the drama unfolds, the characters will reach a crossroads where they must choose between truth and lies, between what is easy and what is right, and find the moral compass they will need for the rest of their lives"--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Domestic fiction.; Alcohol; Children of the rich; Preparatory schools; Secrecy; Students; Truth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI