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Sarah's Diary: An unflinchingly honest account of one family's struggle with depression
By Sarah Griffin. 2007
'I was fourteen when I found my Dad trying to commit suicide in the garage. Sounds shocking doesn't it? But…
that was part of me, part of living with my Dad'Sarah's Diary is the very personal diary of Sarah Griffin - an ordinary teenage girl learning to deal with the ups and downs of family life. On the outside hers was like any other family, but behind closed doors lay a sad and lonely secret. Sarah's Dad had depression -- a condition we've all heard of but seldom discuss. Beautifully written, brutally honest, Sarah's story is compelling reading.The Race Against Time: The perfect running gift for runners over 40
By Richard Askwith. 2023
'Inspirational' - ObserverA transformational quest for the secrets of happy, healthy, whole-life running that will change the way you think…
about growing older.Colourful, informative and inspiring, The Race Against Time is a story of cold science and heart-warming resilience; of champions and also-rans; of sprinting centenarians and forty-something super-athletes barely touched by age. Its heroes are experts and enthusiasts - scientists, coaches, runners - from many countries, each with a different story to tell.This is a book for anyone who has ever felt the healing power of running – or simply wondered about the effects of ageing. It is both a very personal account of one man's journey from despair to hope, and an exhilarating guide, explaining how timely adjustments to lifestyle and training can slow the progress of physiological decay, while sheer human spirit can, if you are lucky, keep you running happily and healthily, all the way into extreme old age.The Positive Ageing Plan: The Expert Guide to Healthy, Beautiful Skin at Every Age
By Dr Vicky Dondos. 2021
'This book will make you rethink everything the world has erroneously told you about ageing' Farrah Storr, Editor of Elle…
*****When we look in the mirror we want to see a fresh-faced, radiant and confident version of ourselves and Dr Vicky Dondos has spent fifteen years helping her clients see just that. In The Positive Ageing Plan she shares her advice for how you can enjoy an effortless, confident glow, at every age.The aim isn't to look younger, but to look and feel good about yourself and your appearance throughout your life. In this empowering guide, Dr Vicky demystifies the ageing process, reveals the products that are worth investing in and shows you how to create your own personalized programme, so that you can care for your own health and appearance in a way that works for you, your schedule and your budget.The expert advice in this book will help you:- Better understand your own skin- Find the skincare approach that works for you- Learn radiance-boosting lifestyle tips- Get the lowdown on the cosmetic treatments available to you- Above all, appreciate your own natural beautyWhatever your reasons for picking up this book, it is a science-based, straight-talking, judgement-free guide to finding the best options for your skin and will help you grow the confidence that comes with looking great.*****'Tatler's finest ... one of the most rigorous, skilled, clever and charming specialists out there.' Francesca White, Tatler Beauty Editor 'A brilliant book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and learned so much. I finished it feeling empowered and in control' Lily Boulle, Founder & Managing Director of Sleep SirenPlease Don't Cry: A family torn apart by grief. An incredible act of love.
By Jane Plume. 2014
'I’m glad I could do her this one last favour. If it had been the other way round, I know…
Gina would have done the same for me.’Jane and Gina were the best of friends. When Gina’s husband Shaun was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Jane vowed to do everything she could to help her best mate and her two small sons through the awful time to come. But things were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. In 2010, Gina was killed in a shock car crash. Though devastated by her own grief, Jane knew that Gina needed her now more than ever – to help with the boys she had left behind. And after cancer claimed Shaun's life, Jane stepped in to care for the two orphans, becoming the mother her best friend could no longer be.This is the moving true story behind an incredible act of love.One of the greatest nineteenth-century scientist-explorers, Alexander von Humboldt traversed the tropical Spanish Americas between 1799 and 1804. By the…
time of his death in 1859, he had won international fame for his scientific discoveries, his observations of Native American peoples and his detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna of the 'new continent'. The first to draw and speculate on Aztec art, to observe reverse polarity in magnetism and to discover why America is called America, his writings profoundly influenced the course of Victorian culture, causing Darwin to reflect: 'He alone gives any notion of the feelings which are raised in the mind on first entering the Tropics'.Our Billie
By Ian Clayton. 2010
'An astonishing work' - Joanne HarrisEvery parent's worst nightmare became a reality for Ian Clayton. On a short holiday break…
in Hay-on-Wye he took his nine-year-old twins canoeing, and in a freak accident his daughter Billie was drowned. In a remarkably frank and vivid way Clayton describes what happened on that spring day, his desperate attempts to save his two children, and then what it felt like two years later to come face to face with the men who hired out the canoe.But Our Billie is not a story of bitterness and recrimination. Instead it's the story of how a family attempts to come to terms with something which makes no sense at all. Through his memories of Billie and his wonderfully affectionate portrait of the small town in Yorkshire where the family has lived for generations, he weaves a story of loss and remembering, of gratitude and forgiveness.Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go
By Ann Ingle. 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR TWO IRISH BOOK AWARDS'Something they don't tell you about getting older is that you fall. Oh, you hear…
about it in passing, of course, "She had a fall, poor thing". Falling is not something you ever think about as a younger woman. You think about falling in love . . .'At 20 Londoner Ann Ingle fell madly in love with an Irish fellow she met on holiday in Cornwall. At the church to arrange their shotgun wedding she discovered that he hadn't even told her his real name.Sixty-odd years later Ann looks back on that first glorious fall and in a series of essays considers what she has learned from the life that followed - bringing eight children into the world, their father's years of mental illness and tragic death at 40, being a cash-strapped single mother in 1980s Dublin, coming into her own in her middle years - going to college, working and writing, and continuing to evolve and learn into her ninth decade, even as she accepts the realities of being 'old'.Candid about everything that matters - love, sex, heartbreak, money, class, religion, mental health, rearing children (and letting them go), reading and writing, ageing - Open-Hearted is a compelling story about living life in a spirit of curiosity and delight and with a willingness to look for good in others._________________________________'By some distance the most courageous, most poignant, most life-affirming memoir I've read in the last twenty years and more' Paul Howard'Genuinely inspirational. I LOVE ANN INGLE' Marian Keyes'What a beautiful openhearted, at times broken-hearted memoir ... honest, funny, searingly direct, a wonderful voice ... remarkable' Joe Duffy'Really beautiful. Searingly honest, astonishingly frank and very, very funny' Maia DunphyOne Last Goodbye: Sometimes only a mother's love can help end the pain
By Kay Gilderdale. 2011
Watching her child die is the hardest thing a mother can ever do. But for Kay Gilderdale, saying a final…
goodbye to her only daughter Lynn was exceptionally painful: she'd played a part in her death.Lynn was just 14 when she was struck down by the crippling disease ME, leaving her paralysed and in constant agony. Over the next 17 years, she became desperate to escape her miserable existence, even begging her mum to help her die. So, one night, when Kay found Lynn attempting suicide, she was forced to make an impossible decision. Continue watching her child suffer or help her end the pain?Eventually, fighting her every instinct, Kay helped her precious daughter take a fatal overdose. But while Lynn was finally free, her mother faced a fresh agony - a possible lifetime behind bars. The highly controversial trial that followed opened a fierce public debate on assisted suicide. Is it murder or mercy?Here, in her heartbreaking story, Kay reveals the harrowing truth behind the headlines and the desperate lengths a mother will go to for the love of a child.One Day at a Time: A Memoir
By Susan Lewis. 2011
She was only nine when her world fell apart. The struggle to understand took a lifetime.In 1960s Bristol, Susan's family…
was like any other with its joys and frustrations, and fierce loyalties. Then tragedy struck and left a legacy that was to last a lifetime.Susan was only nine when her mother died. A year later she was sent away to school. She didn't want to go, and didn't understand why she had to. In her struggle to cope with an uncertain world - a world where nothing seemed to make sense any more - she pushed away the one person she loved best, her father. It wasn't until adulthood beckoned that she realised that, in order to turn their relationship around, she had to learn to love - and trust - again.A New Voyage Round the World
By William Dampier. 2020
'A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697' GuardianThe pirate and…
adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank, vivid account of his buccaneering sea voyages around the world, from the Caribbean to the Pacific and East Indies. Filled with accounts of raids, escapes, wrecks and storms, it also contains precise observations of people, places, animals and food (including the first English accounts of guacamole, mango chutney and chopsticks). A bestseller on publication, this unique record of the colonial age influenced Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels and consequently the whole of English literature.Edited with an Introduction by Nicholas ThomasMy Sister Milly
By Gemma Dowler. 2017
You've seen Manhunt, now read this powerful and personal account from Milly Dowler's sister Gemma . . . 'My name…
is Gemma Dowler. On 21 March 2002, a serial killer named Levi Bellfield stole my sister and sent our family to hell . . .'In My Sister Milly, Gemma Dowler recounts the terrible day of Milly's disappearance, the suspicions that fell on the family, the torture of encountering the murderer in court, the fatal errors made by the police, how it very nearly destroyed her family and how love and hope helped the family survive.Everyone thinks they know the story of Milly Dowler, but only one person knows the true pain of having lost her sister, and how a family can rediscover hope to survive.________________'Compelling. An amazing book'Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2'Heartbreaking' Daily Mail'Tragic, poignant, full of emotional memories'Daily MirrorA Mother's War: One Woman's Fight for the Truth Behind Her Son's Death at Deepcut
By Yvonne Collinson Heath. 2013
Yvonne Collinson Heath will never forget the telephone call that changed her life for ever. On 23 March 2002, her…
eldest son, James – a private with the Royal Logistic Corps – was found dead in mysterious circumstances at the notorious Deepcut barracks. He had a single gunshot wound to the head. It was a tragedy that to this day raises questions.A Mother’s War recounts Yvonne’s anguish at losing her son, a boy who dreamed of serving his country but died before he had even reached his 18th birthday. It is also the powerful story of an extraordinary woman who overcame adversity – including the hurt of being abandoned by her father, bullied as a child and abused by a trusted uncle – to find love and raise a son, only to see him cruelly taken from her within weeks of his joining the Army. It reveals how her decade-long quest for answers uncovered sinister secrets and a series of cover-ups that went right to the heart of Whitehall.Above all else, A Mother’s War is the story of how Yvonne’s grief triggered a search for the truth that took her to Downing Street and captured the hearts of the nation.Living On The Seabed: A memoir of love, life and survival
By Lindsay Nicholson. 2011
'The morning after John's death, I remember feeling absolutely enraged that the world had kept turning and the sun had…
come up as if nothing had happened.'Lindsay Nicholson and her husband, the Observer journalist John Merritt, were regarded as a golden couple. But their world was turned upside down when John contracted leukaemia. His death at the age of 35 left Nicholson bereft with grief, now the single parent of two beautiful daughters. Then, in a tragic twist of fate, her elder daughter Ellie also contracted the same disease, dying shortly after. Nicholson found that nothing could prepare her for the emotions she was feeling. In this courageous and heart-rending memoir, Lindsay Nicholson reflects on her grieving process and the battle she faced to survive it. Her resilience and spirited determination are an inspiration to us all.Life After You
By Lucie Brownlee. 2014
‘He crashed on to the pillow next to me, heavy as a felled oak. I slapped His face and told…
Him to wake up. Our daughter, B, appeared in the doorway, woken up by the screaming – I must have been screaming but I don’t remember – and she was crying and peering in. I told her the ultimate adult lie; that everything was all right.’Sudden death is rude. It just wanders in and takes your husband without any warning; it doesn’t even have the decency to knock. At the impossibly young age of 37, as they were making love one night, Lucie Brownlee’s beloved husband Mark dropped dead. As Lucie tried to make sense of her new life – the one she never thought she would be living – she turned to writing to express her grief. Life After You is the stunning, irreverent and heartbreakingly honest result.Life After Baby Loss: A Companion and Guide for Parents
By Nicola Gaskin. 2018
**Winner of Author of The Year at The Butterfly (Baby Loss) Awards**For all parents and family managing the emotional battlefield…
of baby loss.When my baby died my whole world changed forever. I was left full of love, yet deeply heartbroken and faced with the task of living without my most precious longed for treasure. Following a fraught journey of trying to conceive again, two subsequent miscarriages, and an anxiety fuelled pregnancy after loss, I was finally able to welcome my baby girl into the world. This is the book I wish I’d been given – it will help you to not only survive the loss of your baby but to celebrate the life they had, no matter how brief. This is my hard won gift to you.Losing a child is one of the most devastating events you can go through and yet, losing your baby – particularly before they are born – remains a taboo and often misunderstood topic. In this very gentle guide, Nicola Gaskin opens up the conversation around baby loss offering raw, honest and deeply empathetic support to all parents. From coping with the initial shock, finding ways to overcome jealousy and anger, surviving birthdays and Mother’s Day, through to living with everlasting grief and the fresh round of grief and anxiety that comes with parenting after loss, it will help you to navigate through a huge range of intense and complex emotions.Beautifully written and powerfully illustrated, this book will hold your hand through your darkest and lightest moments: read it to know you are not alone and that all your feelings are absolutely valid.I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye: Surviving, Coping and Healing After the Sudden Death of a Loved One
By Brook Noel, Pamela Blair. 2008
The most helpful grief book to read when you're ready to start healing after the loss of a loved one.Discover…
the transformative power of healing and hope with this top-rated grief book and compassionate guide for those navigating the challenging journey of grief and loss.Written with profound wisdom and heartfelt empathy, I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye gently walks readers through the stages of grief, providing practical tools and empowering strategies to cope with the pain and confusion that accompany the loss of a loved one. Whether you've experienced the recent passing of a family member, friend, or even a pet, this book offers solace and guidance to help you navigate your unique grieving process.Features include:Practical Guidance: Learn effective coping strategies and practical tools to navigate the grieving process.Empathy and Understanding: Feel understood and supported through heartfelt anecdotes and relatable experiences.Personal Growth: Find solace and meaning in your grief journey as you embark on a path of healing and personal growth.Comprehensive Resource: Access a comprehensive guide that addresses various aspects of grief, including anticipatory grief, sudden loss, and long-term complicated grief.Hope and Inspiration: Embrace a message of hope and inspiration, knowing that healing is possible even in the face of profound loss.Whether you are at the beginning of your grief journey or further along the path, this book will help you find the strength to heal, honor your loved one's memory, and rediscover joy and purpose in your life.Praise for I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye:"I highly recommend this book, not only to the bereaved, but to friends and counselors as well."— Helen Fitzgerald, author of The Grieving Child, The Mourning Handbook, and The Grieving Teen"This book, by women who have done their homework on grief... can hold a hand and comfort a soul through grief's wilderness. Outstanding references of where to see other help."— George C. Kandle, Pastoral Psychologist"Finally, you have found a friend who can not only explain what has just occurred, but can take you by the hand and lead you to a place of healing and personal growth…this guide can help you survive and cope, but even more importantly... heal."— The Rebecca Review"For those dealing with the loss of a loved one, or for those who want to help someone who is, this is a highly recommended read."—Midwest Book ReviewNamed a Best Book on Losing a Parent for 2022 by Choosing Therapy.To the Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth
By Vanessa O'Brien. 2021
This riveting and uplifting memoir by Vanessa O&’Brien, record-breaking American-British explorer, takes you on an unexpected journey to the top…
of the world&’s highest mountains. Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O&’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family.Making her own way in the world, Vanessa strove to reach her lofty ambitions. Soon, armed with an MBA and a wry sense of humor, she climbed the corporate ladder to great success, but after the 2009 economic meltdown, her career went into a tailspin. She searched for a new purpose and settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest. When her first attempt ended in disaster, she trudged home, humbled but wiser. Two years later, she made it to the top of the world. And then she kept going.Grounded by a cadre of wise-cracking friends and an inimitable British spouse, Vanessa held her own in the intensely competitive world of mountaineering, summiting the highest peak on every continent, and skiing the last degree to the North and South Poles. She set new speed records for the Seven Summits, receiving a Guinness World Record and the Explorers Grand Slam, and finally made peace with her traumatic past. During her attempt on K2, she very nearly gave up. But on the &“savage mountain,&” which kills one out of every four climbers who summit, Vanessa evolved from an adventurer out to challenge herself to an explorer with a high-altitude perspective on a changing world—and a new call to share her knowledge and passion across the globe.Told with heart and humor, Vanessa&’s journey from suburban Detroit to Everest&’s Death Zone to the summit of K2 and beyond, is a transformative story of resilience, higher purpose, and the courage to overcome any obstacle.The Death Class: A True Story About Life
By Erika Hayasaki. 2014
The poignant, “powerful” (The Boston Globe) look at how to appreciate life from an extraordinary professor who teaches about death:…
“Poetic passages and assorted revelations you’ll likely not forget” (Chicago Tribune).Why does a college course on death have a three-year waiting list? When nurse Norma Bowe decided to teach a course on death at a college in New Jersey, she never expected it to be popular. But year after year students crowd into her classroom, and the reason is clear: Norma’s “death class” is really about how to make the most of what poet Mary Oliver famously called our “one wild and precious life.”Under the guise of discussions about last wills and last breaths and visits to cemeteries and crematoriums, Norma teaches her students to find grace in one another. In The Death Class, award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki followed Norma for more than four years, showing how she steers four extraordinary students from their tormented families and neighborhoods toward happiness: she rescues one young woman from her suicidal mother, helps a young man manage his schizophrenic brother, and inspires another to leave his gang life behind. Through this unorthodox class on death, Norma helps kids who are barely hanging on to understand not only the value of their own lives, but also the secret of fulfillment: to throw yourself into helping others. Hayasaki’s expert reporting and literary prose bring Norma’s wisdom out of the classroom, transforming it into an inspiring lesson for all. In the end, Norma’s very own life—and how she lives it—is the lecture that sticks. “Readers will come away struck by Bowe’s compassion—and by the unexpectedly life-affirming messages of courage that spring from her students’ harrowing experiences” (Entertainment Weekly).Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
By Andrea Pitzer. 2021
In the bestselling tradition of Hampton Sides&’s In the Kingdom of Ice, a &“gripping adventure tale&” (The Boston Globe) recounting…
Dutch polar explorer William Barents&’ three harrowing Arctic expeditions—the last of which resulted in a relentlessly challenging year-long fight for survival.The human story has always been one of perseverance—often against remarkable odds. The most astonishing survival tale of all might be that of 16th-century Dutch explorer William Barents and his crew of sixteen, who ventured farther north than any Europeans before and, on their third polar exploration, lost their ship off the frozen coast of Nova Zembla to unforgiving ice. The men would spend the next year fighting off ravenous polar bears, gnawing hunger, and endless winter.In Icebound, Andrea Pitzer masterfully combines a gripping tale of survival with a sweeping history of the great Age of Exploration—a time of hope, adventure, and seemingly unlimited geographic frontiers. At the story&’s center is William Barents, one of the 16th century&’s greatest navigators whose larger-than-life ambitions and obsessive quest to chart a path through the deepest, most remote regions of the Arctic ended in both tragedy and glory. Journalist Pitzer did extensive research, learning how to use four-hundred-year-old navigation equipment, setting out on three Arctic expeditions to retrace Barents&’s steps, and visiting replicas of Barents&’s ship and cabin.&“A resonant meditation on human ingenuity, resilience, and hope&” (The New Yorker), Pitzer&’s reenactment of Barents&’s ill-fated journey shows us how the human body can function at twenty degrees below, the history of mutiny, the art of celestial navigation, and the intricacies of building shelters. But above all, it gives us a firsthand glimpse into the true nature of courage.From Bob Greene, bestselling author of Get With the Program!, comes a comprehensive, innovative twelve-week plan for transforming your body…
inside and out. With Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover, you'll achieve maximum results in a minimum amount of time!Knowing that great health and fitness begin with the right state of mind, Greene addresses the important emotional issues behind poor exercise and eating patterns and provides the motivational tools needed to achieve your fitness goals, as well as develop practical and beneficial habits for lasting results. You'll be inspired and moved by reading the compelling true-life success stories of real people who have taken the challenge and who have changed their bodies -- and lives -- in ways they never dreamed possible! Whether you're struggling to lose that last ten pounds or searching for a radical weight-loss solution, the twelve-week makeover challenge is the answer to your fitness goals.After committing to the program, you'll find illustrated step-by-step workout guides for all fitness levels, combining progressive cardiovascular and intensive strength training exercises designed to revitalize your metabolism and get noticeable results fast. Each of the accelerated workouts has been created to energize and invigorate your body and mind while you have fun and trim down in the process! In addition, Greene takes a fresh approach to the question of diets by providing key nutritional guidelines that work in conjunction with any healthy eating plan, and he explains many of the popular diets on the market today to help you choose the one that's right for you. Finally, there is helpful advice on making the transition back to your everyday life: how to avoid regaining the weight you've lost, and how to maintain healthy exercise and eating habits for life. While many books leave you wondering what to do next, Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover offers enthusiastic and informative hands-on advice and tips beyond eating and exercise, and teaches you how to make your own happiness and well-being the foundation of an active and healthy life.