Marriage is a major step in a relationship, and each member of that newly joined pair brings with them their own existing family and the corresponding complexity and richness of in-law relationships. These are multi-generational, multi-layered, and, like a kaleidoscope, a shifting amalgam of emotional colors. Exceptionally important, in-law relationships can be joyous and comforting. They can also be complicated, contentious, and disappointing. These ties serve as a model for how to stay connected across generations for the well-being of grandparents, parents, and grandchildren, and as a bellwether for what to avoid. Drawing on interviews and survey data with more than 1,500 mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law, the book describes how these complicated and highly significant relationships develop over time. Geoffrey L. Greif and Michael E. Woolley focus on the relationships between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law as well as fathers-in-law with sons-in-law. They describe the struggles as well as the triumphs that people encounter with these relationships from the perspectives of both generations and suggest ways to improve the relationships. To improve in-law relationships, Greif and Woolley present action-oriented family therapy theories based on the insight, communication, boundary building, and narratives that family members wish to create. They also explore how these relationships change with the normal transitions of marrying into the family, having children/grandchildren, and aging. In-law Relationships describes highly successful and nurturing connections as well as those that are troubled and distant. The resulting book offers a variety of clinical lenses to help readers of all backgrounds focus on and, if needed, repair in-law relationships.

"Think about it. In order to be grandmothers we once had to be mothers. After giving birth, we, as the mothers, were responsible for our baby's/child's well being. As grandmothers, on the other hand, we have choices. Our roles are open for interpretation and conscious choices. When I became a grandmother, and even when my daughters-in-law were pregnant, I made a conscious decision to be an involved grandmother, one of the caretakers or a Granny-Nanny.

I was sure that helping out and taking care of a baby would be easy like getting back on a bicycle after a twenty-year lapse. Oh, how wrong I was. There are new rules, new products, new findings and plenty of taboos. How did my three children ever survive their hazardous childhoods?"

Parenting rules have gone through some serious revisions since author Lois Young-Tulin raised her kids. In her helpful guide, "The Granny Nanny," Young-Tulin offers a unique opportunity for today's grandmas to hone their skills and learn the twenty principles for successful grandmothering in a modern world.

Best-selling author Tim O'Brien shares wisdom from a life in letters, lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor, and rewards of raising two sons. "We are all writing our maybe books full of maybe tomorrows, and each maybe tomorrow brings another maybe tomorrow, and then another, until the last line of the last page receives its period." In 2003, already an older father, National Book Award-winning novelist Tim O'Brien resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him--a few scraps of paper signed "Love, Dad." Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly aging father, a man they might never really know. For the next fifteen years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living. O'Brien traverses the great variety of human experience and emotion, moving from soccer games to warfare to risque lullabies, from alcoholism to magic shows to history lessons to bittersweet bedtime stories, but always returning to a father's soul-saving love for his sons. The result is Dad's Maybe Book, a funny, tender, wise, and enduring literary achievement that will squeeze the reader's heart with joy and recognition. Tim O'Brien and the writing of Dad's Maybe Book are now the subject of the documentary film The War and Peace of Tim O'Brien available to watch at timobrienfilm.com

"Love, Pray, Listen offers empathy and grounded biblical wisdom to help parents thrive, no matter what path their adult kids take."--PASTOR STEVE STROOPE Wisdom and Hope for Parents of Grown-Ups As a parent, your role changes drastically after your kids grow up. You fear heartache and strained relationships when your children choose difficult--even seemingly wrong--paths. Love, Pray, Listen is the gracious, practical resource you need for navigating the rocky terrain of parenting grown-ups. In this book, mom and author Mary DeMuth answers questions like: * What do I do when my kids make choices that don't align with my values? * How do I keep communication lines open with my grown children? * When do I speak, and when do I listen? * Is it possible to hold on to my joy when parenting is so hard? * How do I avoid the temptation of meddling in my kids' lives? Love, Pray, Listen offers a robust theology for long-term parenting gleaned from the discipleship model Jesus exemplified, one that carefully and thoughtfully applies his way of expressing love. This is your invitation for spiritual growth and a path toward fulfilling relationships with your adult children.

Like a photo shoot, pictures flashed in Anthony's head as he reflected on the first time he heard the horrifying clank of the barred door that was now staring at his back, he vividly recalled, his face smashed against the dusty police car, bright red and blue Lights blindly flashing in his eyes. Everything was a blur! His heart beating so fast and pounding so hard he could hardly hear the cop as he repeated his words... "Do you understand your rights!" A preacher's son on the way to a place deemed worse than hell! Just a teenaged boy when he was facing those bars, now a man 7 years later who has made a promise to himself to rectify his wrongs. Read this captivating story about a young man's journey into manhood down a twisted road through tragedy and triumph.

Do you long for a closer bond with your son? Do you want the kind of relationship that will honor God and be a blessing to both of you for the rest of your lives?

In Fathers and Sons Angus Buchan explains how fathers can foster a rewarding and God-honoring relationship with their sons.

Through topics like humility, love, appreciation, grace and respect Angus inspires men to be the godly fathers God has ordained them to be and reminds them that it is never too early or too late to nurture the special and blessed relationship between a father and his son.

'The best piece of nature writing since H is for Hawk, and the most powerful work of biography I have read in years' Neil Gaiman 'Wonderful - I can't recommend it too highly' Helen Macdonald 'One of those rare, enchanted books' Isabella Tree 'Beautiful - it made me cry' Simon Amstell 'I was entranced' Cathy Rentzenbrink This is a story about birds and fathers. About the young magpie that fell from its nest in a Bermondsey junkyard into Charlie Gilmour's life - and swiftly changed it. Demanding worms around the clock, riffling through his wallet, sharing his baths and roosting in his hair... About the jackdaw kept at a Cornish stately home by Heathcote Williams, anarchist, poet, magician, stealer of Christmas, and Charlie's biological father who vanished from his life in the dead of night. It is a story about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of one's own. It is a story about change - from wild to tame; from sanity to madness; from life to death to birth; from freedom to captivity and back again, via an insane asylum, a prison and a magpie's nest. And ultimately, it is the story of a love affair between a man and a magpie.

In 1905, the young and handsome Yalek left Baranovka, Russia, for the United States seeking a new way of life. He would work hard and save enough money to bring his family and his new bride, Riva, to America.

In "Obsessive Memories," author Clara R. Maslow tells the history of two close-knit families, raised in the same culture of intellectual Jews in Russia, who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. It is a story of a time of new political thinking and the flight of young families in Eastern Europe seeking to live in a democracy, away from the old czarist regimes, monarchies, and other forms of repressive governments.

With photos included, this memoir shares what it was like growing up as part of a Russian family in Trenton, New Jersey. It focuses on Maslow's father, Yalek, an intelligent man with exceptional talents in creative arts, architectural drawing, and construction. "Obsessive Memories" also explores Maslow's relationship with her father and seeks to find meaning in why he was unable to outwardly express his love for her or her family.