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They left us everything : a memoir / by Johnson, Plum;
After the death of the author's senile father, and cantankerous ninety-three-year-old mother, she and her three younger brothers must empty and sell the beloved family home. Twenty-three rooms full of history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. The author remembers her loving but difficult parents who could not have been more different: the British father, a handsome, disciplined patriarch who nonetheless could not control his opinionated, extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumes her, becoming more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood trigger memories of her eccentric family growing up in a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario in the 1950s and 60s. But unearthing new facts about her parents helps her reconcile those relationships with a more accepting perspective about who they were and what they valued. LSC
Subjects: Johnson, Plum; Caregivers; Adult children of aging parents; Aging parents; Parent and adult child.;
© 2014., Penguin Canada Books,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Trouble with Fairy Tales, The A Memoir [electronic resource] : by Johnson, Plum.aut; Johnson, Plum.nrt; CloudLibrary;
The long-awaited second memoir from Plum Johnson, bestselling author of They Left Us Everything. The Trouble with Fairy Tales is a wise and insightful reflection on the relationships that sprawl across a lifetime. In it, Plum explores how we often sacrifice our independence and identity in our love lives, falling for the fairytale notion of “happily ever after”, and how it can take years, and many detours, to fulfil the most important relationship—the one with ourselves. Ripe with the humorous anecdotes, charming insights, and aching revelations so characteristic of Plum’s style, the book is our window onto her reinvention of self as she moves through the various roles that many women inhabit: from compliant child to loving mother, rebel wife, artist, and successful writer. Plum’s writing urges her readers to turn inward to reach a deeper understanding of their own tangled relationships. Funny and resonant, The Trouble with Fairy Tales is the kind of striking personal narrative that will stir and inspire women of all ages.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Inspiration & Personal Growth; Personal Memoirs; Women;
© 2025., Penguin Random House,
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The Trouble with Fairy Tales A Memoir [electronic resource] : by Johnson, Plum.aut; CloudLibrary;
The long-awaited second memoir from Plum Johnson, bestselling author of They Left Us Everything. The Trouble with Fairy Tales is a wise and insightful reflection on the relationships that sprawl across a lifetime. In it, Plum explores how we often sacrifice our independence and identity in our love lives, falling for the fairytale notion of “happily ever after”, and how it can take years, and many detours, to fulfil the most important relationship—the one with ourselves. Ripe with the humorous anecdotes, charming insights, and aching revelations so characteristic of Plum’s style, the book is our window onto her reinvention of self as she moves through the various roles that many women inhabit: from compliant child to loving mother, rebel wife, artist, and successful writer. Plum’s writing urges her readers to turn inward to reach a deeper understanding of their own tangled relationships. Funny and resonant, The Trouble with Fairy Tales is the kind of striking personal narrative that will stir and inspire women of all ages.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Personal Memoirs; Inspiration & Personal Growth; Women;
© 2025., Penguin Canada,
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The trouble with fairy tales : a memoir / by Johnson, Plum,author.;
"Plum Johnson, author of the bestselling, award-winning memoir about her parents, They Left Us Everything, turns her gaze toward her own fascinating romantic and creative history. This witty, energetic, surprising memoir explores the fairy tale models of romantic love that a young Plum, and most girls of her generation, absorbed -- of the prince who awakens the princess with a kiss, of the pied piper who irresistibly draws his followers close to the cliff's edge, of the tragic, damaged man who needs help -- but might turn out to be a terrible Bluebeard in disguise. These models shaped her life, but creativity has been an equally powerful influence. From the plays she wrote and put on as a child, through a college-age "improv" in which she slipped into the role of personal cook for a wealthy American, to decades of painting, inventing, and ultimately her revelatory, life-changing return to her first love, writing -- creation has been a life-force through joy and pain, triumph and terrible loss. The Trouble With Fairytales rings with wisdom, elegance, and hilarity, and will serve as an affirmation for all those who desire to write, paint, garden, invent, and create, but feel that they aren't "allowed," or that it is too late. Go forth and create; it might just save your life"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Johnson, Plum.; Johnson, Plum; Authors, Canadian; Authors; Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.); Fairy tales; Women authors;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The Bright Side [electronic resource] : Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and One (Maybe) Miracle / by Bradbury, Cathrinaut; CloudLibrary;
“Anyone who has had their life completely gutted and rewired will adore this family story. Bradbury's dark humour and gloriously upbeat voice makes it the perfect antidote to a tough year. I loved it!” —Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything The hilarious and moving story of how a modern woman's life can change utterly in a single year—and how, even when life whacks you in the head, you can find yourself rewarded with grace. Cathrin Bradbury's life imploded in the space of a few months. Her beloved parents died, her marriage limped to an end after twenty-five years, her heavily mortgaged house turned against her, and a promising new romance ended in crushing disappointment.   But somewhere in that year, a new path, or three or four, began to open up. As Bradbury navigates the setbacks, her troubled brother makes an astounding recovery to health and sobriety. She is reunited with her closest childhood friend after a long absence, with deeply satisfying results. She and her four siblings feel their way to becoming a new kind of family without their parents. And her adult children emerge into sharper focus, each gloriously and uniquely themselves. Slowly, she discovers that the path is steep, the view obscured, but there's light ahead.   Cathartic, hilarious, and profoundly moving, The Bright Side broadens the way we think and talk to each other about the ordinary experiences we all share. A master of the uncomplaining voice, Bradbury combines grace and humanity to look at the world unflinchingly and see what makes it wonderful and absurd at the same time, and to let us all in on the secret.General adult.Electronic reproduction.Online resource; title from digital title page (CloudLibrary, viewed April 2, 2025).
Subjects: Electronic books.; Women; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY; Later Years; Life Stages; FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS;
© 2021., Penguin Canada,
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The Bright Side [electronic resource] : Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and One (Maybe) Miracle / by Bradbury, Cathrinaut; Porter, Jessicanrt; CloudLibrary;
Read by Porter, Jessica.“Anyone who has had their life completely gutted and rewired will adore this family story. Bradbury's dark humour and gloriously upbeat voice makes it the perfect antidote to a tough year. I loved it!” —Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything The hilarious and moving story of how a modern woman's life can change utterly in a single year—and how, even when life whacks you in the head, you can find yourself rewarded with grace. Cathrin Bradbury's life imploded in the space of a few months. Her beloved parents died, her marriage limped to an end after twenty-five years, her heavily mortgaged house turned against her, and a promising new romance ended in crushing disappointment.   But somewhere in that year, a new path, or three or four, began to open up. As Bradbury navigates the setbacks, her troubled brother makes an astounding recovery to health and sobriety. She is reunited with her closest childhood friend after a long absence, with deeply satisfying results. She and her four siblings feel their way to becoming a new kind of family without their parents. And her adult children emerge into sharper focus, each gloriously and uniquely themselves. Slowly, she discovers that the path is steep, the view obscured, but there's light ahead.   Cathartic, hilarious, and profoundly moving, The Bright Side broadens the way we think and talk to each other about the ordinary experiences we all share. A master of the uncomplaining voice, Bradbury combines grace and humanity to look at the world unflinchingly and see what makes it wonderful and absurd at the same time, and to let us all in on the secret.Electronic reproduction.Online resource; title from title details screen (CloudLibrary, viewed April 2, 2025).
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Personal Memoirs; Women; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY; Later Years; Life Stages; FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS;
© 2021., Penguin Random House,
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