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"When I clear a quiet space for my family, I make room for our souls to grow."
-Katrina Kenison

As mothers today we are faced with daunting responsibilities and increasing pressure to do and have it all. How easy it is to rush headlong through our lives, slaves to our daily obligations—and to rush our children through their childhoods in the process. But there is another way...

In MITTEN STRINGS FOR GOD, Katrina Kenison shares her own search for a more satisfying balance in her life. The result is a lyrical, heartfelt series of reflections, interwoven with gentle suggestions and practical advice, that remind us what happens when we slow down and become fully present in our lives. Suddenly there is room for joy and play and intimacy, space for wonder and reverie, time to awaken to the beauty of the world and rediscover the sacred in the ordinary. Coming home to ourselves, we are able to offer our children the one thing they need more than anything else: our own quiet presence. And we receive something priceless in return—the chance to savor our lives and the precious people in them.

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EVERY WOMAN HAS A STORY™
Many Voices, Many Lessons, Many Lives
True Tales Compiled by Daryl Ott Underhill
When Daryl Ott Underhill put out a call to women everywhere for their personal stories, she received hundreds of wonderful replies. Now in this compilation of the most inspiring essays she received, you will meet women of all ages who, amid tears and laughter, honestly share the truest and most important moments of their lives. From turning thirty to realizing you're metamorphosing into your mother...from joyfully watching children grow to the bittersweet letting go when they leave the nest...here are the rites of passage that link us all.

"There's something meaningful and enjoyable here for women of every age."
-Chattanooga Free Press

I'D RATHER LAUGH
How to Be Happy Even When Life
Has Other Plans for You
by Linda Richman
"It's one thing to hear your $150-an-hour (excuse me, fifty minutes) shrink say that if you do this, this, and this, you'll laugh again. It's another, I think, to hear it from me." A tragic childhood, agoraphobia, and the death of a beloved son…Linda Richman has suffered more hurt, loss, and rejection than any person ought, yet she still has the power to find joy in living. In this candid and hilarious book, Linda shares her unbelievable losses and setbacks, and offers readers guidance with the uplifting, often uproarious ways she's dealt with them.

"The Jewish mother you wish you had-full of wisdom and wit....She's managed to find humor in even her darkest moments—and her hilarious, moving memoir will inspire you to do the same."
-Glamour

EVERYDAY I LOVE YOU MORE
(Just Not Today)
by Nancy Shulins
In this touching, perceptive, and often hilarious book, Nancy Shulins casts a warm and compassionate eye on the moments that make up married life. She offers insightful answers to questions about grown-up love and she shows you how to give and forgive and what to remember and what to overlook. Heartfelt and wise, here are stories from real life that will bring new hope and light to any married life, proving that while passion may pass, true love is really here to stay.

"Should be required reading for every 15-year-old girl who dreamily doodles 'Mrs.' all over her algebra notebook-and for every 35-year-old woman trying to remember why she ever did."
-Patt Morrison, columnist, L.A. Times, and commentator, NPR

The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition-boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town. It is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers--holding on, letting go.
Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all.
The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.

Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY brings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in this quintessentially American literary genre. This expanded edition includes a new story from The Best American Short Stories 1999 to round out the century, as well as an index including every story published in the series. Of all the writers whose work has appeared in the series, only John Updike has been represented in each of the last five decades, from his first appearance, in 1959, to his most recent, in 1998. Updike worked with coeditor Katrina Kenison to choose the finest stories from the years since 1915. The result is "extraordinary . . . A one-volume literary history of this country's immeasurable pains and near-infinite hopes" (Boston Globe).

AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL

As more and more people in the West pursue yoga in its various forms, whether at traditional centers, in the high-powered atmosphere of sports clubs, or on their own, they begin to realize that far from being just another exercise routine, yoga is a discipline of the body and the mind.

The 365 meditations incluided in this book offer a way to integrate the mindfulness that yoga teaches into everyday life. Whether used in the morning to set the tone for the day, during yoga exercise itself, or at the end of the day, during evening reflection, Meditations from the Mat will support and enhance anyone’s yoga journey.

From the author of The Gift of an Ordinary Day comes an intimate memoir of loss, self-discovery, and growth that will resonate deeply with any woman who has ever mourned the passage of time, questioned her own purpose, or wondered, "Do I have what it takes to create something new in my life?"?"No longer indispensable, no longer assured of our old carefully crafted identities, no longer beautiful in the way we were at twenty or thirty or forty, we are hungry and searching nonetheless."With the candor and warmth that have endeared her to readers, Kenison reflects on the inevitable changes wrought by time: the death of a dear friend, children leaving home, recognition of her own physical vulnerability, and surprising shifts in her marriage. She finds solace in the notion that midlife is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for growth as old roles and responsibilities fall away, and unanticipated possibilities appear on the horizon.More a spiritual journey than a physical one, Kenison's beautifully crafted exploration begins and ends with a home, a life, a marriage. But this metamorphosis proves as demanding as any trek or pilgrimage to distant lands-it will guide and inspire every woman who finds herself asking: "What now?"

The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition-boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town. It is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers--holding on, letting go.
Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all.
The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.

"While a single short story may have a difficult time raising enough noise on its own to be heard over the din of civilization, short stories in bulk can have the effect of swarming bees, blocking out sound and sun and becoming the only thing you can think about," writes Ann Patchett in her introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2006.
This vibrant, varied sampler of the American literary scene revels in life's little absurdities, captures timely personal and cultural challenges, and ultimately shares subtle insight and compassion. In "The View from Castle Rock," the short story master Alice Munro imagines a fictional account of her Scottish ancestors' emigration to Canada in 1818. Nathan Englander's cast of young characters in "How We Avenged the Blums" confronts a bully dubbed "The Anti-Semite" to both comic and tragic ends. In "Refresh, Refresh," Benjamin Percy gives a forceful, heart-wrenching look at a young man's choices when his father -- along with most of the men in his small town -- is deployed to Iraq. Yiyun Li's "After a Life" reveals secrets, hidden shame, and cultural change in modern China. And in "Tatooizm," Kevin Moffett weaves a story full of humor and humanity about a young couple's relationship that has run its course.
Ann Patchett "brought unprecedented enthusiasm and judiciousness [to The Best American Short Stories 2006]," writes Katrina Kenison in her foreword, "and she is, surely, every story writer's ideal reader, eager to love, slow to fault, exquisitely attentive to the text and all that lies beneath it."

The Best American Series First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.
The Best American Short Stories 2005 includes
Dennis Lehane - Tom Perrotta - Alice Munro - Edward P. Jones - Joy Williams - Joyce Carol Oates - Thomas McGuane - Kelly Link - Charles D'Ambrosio - Cory Doctorow - George Saunders - and others
Michael Chabon, guest editor, is the best-selling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Wonder Boys, A Model World, and, most recently, The Final Solution. His novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000.

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.
Lorrie Moore brings her keen eye for wit and surprise to the volume, and The Best American Short Stories 2004 is an eclectic and enthralling gathering of well-known voices and talented up-and-comers. Here are stories that probe the biggest issues: ambition, gender, romance, war. Here are funny and touching and striking tales of a Spokane Indian, the estranged wife of an Iranian immigrant, an American tutor in Bombay. In her introduction Lorrie Moore writes, "The stories collected here impressed me with their depth of knowledge and feeling of character, setting, and situation . . . They spoke with amused intelligence, compassion, and dispassion."

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Lending a fresh perspective to a perennial favorite, Walter Mosley has chosen unforgettable short stories by both renowned writers and exciting newcomers. The Best American Short Stories 2003 features poignant tales that explore the nuances of family life and love, birth and death. Here are stories that will, as Mosley writes in his introduction, "live with the reader long after the words have been translated into ideas and dreams. That's because a good short story crosses the borders of our nations and our prejudices and our beliefs."

Dorothy Allison Edwidge Danticat E. L. Doctorow Louise Erdrich Adam Haslett ZZ Packer Mona Simpson Mary Yukari Waters

This remarkable collection of twenty stories about motherhood by writers who are mothers evokes every stage of the journey, from pregnancy and birth through the childhood years, adolescence, and adulthood. Together they depict the complexity of mothering in America today as woman are actually experience it.
The works gathered here constitute a step toward a new mothers literature that puts to rest the long-held myth that has separated motherhood from a woman's creativity. In these pages women from all walks of life, single, married, divorced or just out of their teens and well into their eighties, rich and poor, black and white, grapple with the realities of motherhood - sacrifice and boundless joy, self-doubt and miracles of the every day. Whether you are a new mother, a seasoned mother, or a grandmother many times over you will find yourself in this book.
Contributors: Mary Grimm, Laurie Colwin, Perri Klass, Kate Braverman, Molly Giles, Mary Gordon, Ronnie Sandroff, Roxana Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Marian Thurm, Paula K. Gover, Marsha Lee Berkman, Melissa Pritchard, Jane Shapiro, Julia Whitty, Alice Elliott Dark, J. California Cooper, Sue Miller, Eileen Fitzgerald.

The arc of MAGICAL JOURNEY will span a year in which, like thousands of other women her age, Katrina will confront the reality of a new life without children at home, and begin to shape the second half of her own adulthood. It will chronicle twelve months of both great transformation and subtle shifts. More an account of a spiritual journey than a physical one, this transformation begins and ends in one place--a home, a life, a marriage--but that is, in its own way, as demanding as any trek or pilgrimage to distant lands. And it is inspired by the belief that even as old identities are outgrown, new ones begin to beckon, if we can only summon courage to heed the call.