This is not a book for the faint- hearted. This topic effects every one of us whether we realize it or not- and it is one that the writer crafts with honor. It is an explosively heart-rendering "must read" that deals with the residuals of severe child abuse and the squalid monsters who commit such horrendous acts- monsters who hide among us all. Catherine's brutal honesty is commendably brave-She spares nothing in order to get her message across for her readers to get the full feeling of the story. With keen empathy and vibrancy, Catherine takes you on a journey of finalizing contingent and prevailing wisdom. The reader is taken into the lives and the sensations of such victims with specific ardor. Her handling of the topic sets the readers feet onto the very misbegotten path that these unfortunate people were unwillingly cast onto. And she does it with such openly harsh tact. She artfully commends all victims into their rightful place by giving validating insight into the makings of the deep scars and the mechanisms that protrude into their lives. Some might view this book as a type of thriller or horror tale by way of its purely raw depiction of a sincere truth. The horizon is drawn via a variety of delicately captured candidness. You will tingle and sensate from this depiction of human-ugliness at it's best. The words may rip through you, but you will undoubtedly reach a poignant climax by the travels you go on with her main character. Catherine has succeeded in outlining the nefarious nature that brings about the subject with colorful detail in this creative non-fiction novel. You will not be able to put it down.

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor-including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother-and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother's dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called "calorie restriction," eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, "Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn't tint hers?" She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail-just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi ("Hi Gale!"), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I'm Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O'BRIEN AWARD 2022 'A stunning debut from this new Irish talent' STELLAR A young woman comes of age in the shadow of her family's tragic past When Beth Crowe starts university, she is shadowed by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. Free to create a fresh identity for herself, she finds herself among people who adore the poetry of her grandfather, Benjamin Crowe, who died tragically before she was born. She embarks on a secret relationship - and on a quest to discover the truth about Benjamin and his widow, her beloved grandmother Lydia. The quest brings her into an archive that no scholar has ever seen, and to a person who knows things about her family that nobody else knows. Holding Her Breath is a razor-sharp, moving and seriously entertaining novel about complicated love stories, ambition and grief - and a young woman coming fully into her powers. __________ 'A beautiful coming-of-age story told with impressive skill and lightness of touch . . . I absolutely loved it' LOUISE O'NEILL 'Whip smart observations and addictive prose' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Precise, sure, engaging, and a joy to read' RODDY DOYLE 'A moving debut with a satisfying conclusion' IRISH INDEPENDENT 'Brilliant, vivid - I enjoyed this book ENORMOUSLY' MARIAN KEYES 'Enthralling' IMAGE 'A nimble account of student life with a darkly enjoyable undercurrent of secrecy and emotional turmoil' SARA BAUME 'A truly compelling read, and one I wholeheartedly recommend' BUZZ 'Through the dark sky of our times, Eimear Ryan arrives like a comet, a bright talent scorching through every page' DOIREANN NI GHRIOFA, author of A Ghost in the Throat 'Brilliantly realised, gripping, and moving . . . This is absolutely the real thing' KEVIN POWER 'Written with a wonderful clarity and insight, Holding Her Breath lingers in the imagination. Beth's unravelling and re-ravelling is drawn with great skill and empathy. A brilliant debut' DONAL RYAN

SHORTLISTED FOR TWO IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2021 '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 - Openhearted 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 Dunphy

To honour a promise to her dying father, Jane takes her ageing incontinent mother to Italy. What could possibly go wrong? Jane Christmas had always had a difficult relationship with her mother, but thought that a mother and daughter trip to Italy could be the start of a whole new friendship. In this hilarious but poignant memoir, she discovers that it will not be that easy. Describing her mother as a cross between 'Queen Victoria and Hyacinth Bucket', Jane struggles to build bridges to a woman she has always found a puzzle, while also trying to cope with her mother's failing health and physical needs.

There was once an elderly woman who called Time & Temperature every day, just to hear the sound of another human voice. Did she know it was an automated recording? Maybe, but it didn't matter-so long as there was something there to lessen her loneliness. Situations like this are not new, especially in nursing homes, where people seemingly go to be forgotten-by family, by friends, and by society. What if you could do something about their loneliness? What if you could make them feel useful, loved, and respected? Frank Pawlak, a pastor and evangelist, did just that. He spent fifty years ministering to senior citizens, notably through music and the word of God. His stories are many-as are his hilarious anecdotes-but what Frank took away from his ministry was more than just entertainment. Frank Pawlak came to realize that just when you think you're blessing someone else, you turn out to be the one who is blessed. The nursing home occupants he visited taught him more than he could ever teach them; they showed him more love than he could have given. His amazing journey is chronicled in I Hear the Music-I Have to Go, as Frank lives out the adage, "If you're looking for something to do with your life, help someone in need!"

More than a horse book, this work maintains that the old ways of looking at the world, at our lives, at how to train horses, and even about looking at God, do not work. We might get the job done - but not in a way that we as gentle humans walking softly on the earth wish for ourselves.

On August 1, 1983, Laurel Greshel's world changed forever after a phone call from her doctor. After receiving word that her unborn baby had serious health issues, Laurel was overwhelmed. As she and her husband, Ted, struggled to accept the diagnosis that their daughter, Amanda, would be born with spina bifida, they had to slowly learn to say goodbye to "normal" and embrace each of their tiny newborn's accomplishments.

Without any instruction book on how to raise a child with spina bifida, Laurel and Ted must learn to survive countless medical issues and several near-death scares with Amanda by leaning on their faith in God. As Laurel candidly shares experiences-both good and bad-that she has with doctors, nurses, teachers, family members, and friends, she offers a heartfelt glimpse into her painful struggles as she gives entirely of herself to help Amanda grow to her full potential. With the help of God's steady hand, Laurel manages to raise two other daughters, nurture her marriage, and cope with all the ups and downs of caring for a medically challenged child.

In this poignant memoir, one mother describes her unforgettable journey through her daughter's difficulties, revealing the important message that God creates all of us just the way He wants us- perfectly made.

In Grandma's On the Camino, author Mary O'Hara Wyman, a 72 year old grandmother from San Francisco, relates her 2010 adventures walking 500 miles alone as a pilgrim on the Camino Frances. Her journey takes her from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, across the Pyrenees to Spain, then westward to the ancient spiritual destination of Santiago de Compostela. Through back-home reflections based on journal entries and postcards sent to her grand daughter, Mary describes engaging encounters with pilgrims of all ages and motivations, close-range observations of numerous animals on the trails, and the daily tasks of finding food and a bed each evening. Readers will gain keen insight into the physical day to day rigors facing a walking pilgrim, as Mary endured several falls on the trails, a serious foot injury, copious rain, mud and unseasonal cold and hot weather. Grandma's On the Camino will inspire pilgrims and armchair readers of any age with Mary's adventures and coping mechanisms, calmness under pressure, humorous outlook on life and truly spiritual approach to walking the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela. You will walk as a pilgrim with Mary through every word in the book.

On June 11, 2004 Michael, a perfectly healthy looking young teenager, participates in a walk for the American Cancer Society with his mother, Laura. Hours later he is fighting for his life in an emergency room as doctors try to stop the bleeding from a brain hemorrhage that could kill him. "Michael's Journey" is the compelling true story of cancer survival based on the journal kept by his mother, Laura. Laura candidly shares the pain and perseverance she and her family experience during this difficult time. Michael's inspirational story focuses on the emotional reality of childhood cancer and his courage and will to survive.

People worked hard, back then, to promote themselves as they believed they should be. Norman Rockwell, then Ozzie and Harriet, depicted Godlike behaviors and values that we continue to admire. However the hurt and loneliness endured by the fat girl, the oddball, the foreigner or the village idiot was largely ignored. Hopefully, they didn't live on our block. Few of us can attain Rockwellian Ideals. We're born with powerful and indelible compulsions. The flesh is weak and failure to achieve the ideal can result in the worst kinds of hypocracy. Pretending to be something we aren't causes damage to ourselves and to others as well. We've all heard stories about explosive consequences of passion denied. This book is about one man's fight to be kind to others, true to himself, yet achieve normalcy in a world with little tolerance for those who are, somehow, "queer."

This is a story of a medical intern in post apartheid South Africa. It is a novel about the imperfections of society.It follows the trials of a young muslim adult in a difficult world as he comes to grips with religion, work and family.As the title suggests we are all teething when it comes to life experiences.

Blessed:Therapy is the long awaited masterpiece, by new author, Jennifer 'Je' Wilford. It is a true story, based on the trials and tribulations that surrounded the sudden death of both of her parents. She tells us how those tragic events, have caused her to walk away from an 18yr alternative lifestyle, that her mother often encouraged her to change. Je' is a true survivor of circumstances that would damage the lives of some and threaten the lives of most. Blessed:Therapy will have you laughing, crying and praying from the very beginning. Journey with her, through her eyes, as she takes you on the most difficult path that she has ever had to face in life. You will laugh, you will cry and you will be Blessed.

Empower yourself and the latest generation of girls with this collection of inspiring reflections from notable, highly accomplished women in politics, academia, athletics, the arts, and business, including Madeleine Albright, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and more. In What I Told My Daughter, a powerful, diverse group of women reflect on the best advice and counsel they have given their daughters either by example, throughout their lives, or in character-building, teachable moments between parent and child. One of the country's only female police chiefs teaches her daughter the meaning of courage, how to respond to danger but more importantly how not to let fear stop her from experiencing all that life has to offer. A bestselling writer, who has deliberated for years on empowering girls, wonders if we're unintentionally leading them to believe they can never make mistakes, when "resiliency is more important than perfection." In a time when childhood seems at once more fraught and more precious than ever, What I Told My Daughter is a book anyone who wishes to connect with a young girl cannot afford to miss.

Every wondered if other parents have the same thoughts? Remember the time your child painted the family dog? Ever wondered how other's feel about losing a loved one? Well so have I. It's a Buddy's World is based on real life events, both personal and the tales of others. The book actually started with articles I published in magazines and news papers. My readers commented on wanting more, and some actually thanked me for making them feel better. I have tried to include a broad selection of topics which I hope you will enjoy and, in some cases, take to heart. Curl up and relax, and let me warm your heart and stimulate the " Hmmm, I wonder...," side of you. I promise at least some will bring a knowing smile to your face, while others will bring forth feelings of empathy. As that old saying goes: "Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you have been up to." I hope I can help you smile, at least for a while.