Personal Memoirs Women

Jenn Berney was one of those people who knew she was destined for motherhood - it wasn't a question of if, but when. So when she and her wife, Kelly, decided to start building their family, they took the next logical step: They went to a fertility clinic. But they soon found themselves entrenched in a medical establishment that didn't know what to do with people like them. With no man factoring into their relationship, doctors were at best embarrassed and at worst disparaging of the couple. Soon Jenn found herself stepping outside of the system determined to disregard her.

At twenty-three, Michelle Ephraim was failing at everything. The only child of reclusive Holocaust-survivor parents who were dismayed by her literary studies, she found herself dumped by her boyfriend and bombing out of graduate school. Then, one night, she crashed a Shakespeare recitation party. Loopy from vodka and never having read a single line of Shakespeare, she was transfixed. Shakespeare, she decided, was the lifeline she needed.

Based on extensive research and access to Alcott's journals and correspondence, Cheever chronicles all aspects of Alcott's life, beginning with the fateful meeting of her parents to her death, just two days after that of her dynamic and domineering father, Bronson. Cheever examines Alcott's role as a woman, a working writer, and a daughter at a time when Alcott's rejection of marriage in favor of independence - a decision to be no man's "little woman" - was seen as defying conventional wisdom.

At 25, as her wedding date approached, Laura Smith began to feel trapped. Not by her fiancé, who shared her appetite for adventure, but by the unsettling idea that it was hard to be at once married and free. Laura wanted her life to be different. She wanted her marriage to be different. And she found in the strangely captivating story of another restless young woman determined to live without constraints both an enticement and a challenge.

There are so many ways to find out. From a cell phone. From a bank statement. From some weird supermarket encounter. One morning in early January 2005, Wendy Plump's friend came to tell her that her husband was having an affair. It was not a shock. Actually, it explained a lot. But what Wendy was not prepared for was the revelation that her husband also had another child, living within a mile of their family home. Monogamy is one of the most important of the many vows we make in our marriages.

With the advent of TV dinners in the 1950s, an intense and entrepreneurial father rises from poverty to build a multi-million-dollar trucking empire hauling frozen food throughout the Northwest. His determination, combined with generosity and strict punishment, leaves his family in a state of emotional paralysis. After his untimely death, his survivors implode in a maelstrom of brutal courtroom drama, illness, and dementia. The estate and family are destroyed.

Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence - beginning in childhood, through the present - Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day.

After two years of waiting to adopt - slogging through paperwork and bouncing between hope and despair - a miracle finally happened for Vanessa McGrady. Her sweet baby, Grace, was a dream come true. Then Vanessa made a highly uncommon gesture: when Grace’s biological parents became homeless, Vanessa invited them to stay. Without a blueprint for navigating the practical basics of an open adoption or any discussion of expectations or boundaries, the unusual living arrangement became a bottomless well of conflicting emotions and increasingly difficult decisions.

Kate Braestrup's life was transformed by the loss of her husband; now Kate faces the possibility that she may lose her son. As a young mother, Kate Braestrup discovered the fierce protectiveness that accompanies parenthood. In the intervening years - through mourning her husband and the joy of remarriage and a blended family - Kate has absorbed the rewards and complications of that spirit. But when her eldest son joins the marines, Kate is at a crossroads.

In Traveling without Moving, Coleman shares intimate essays from her life: her childhood in Chicago—growing up in poverty with four siblings and a single mother—and the empowering decision to leave her first marriage. She writes about being the only Black student in a prestigious and predominantly White creative writing program, about institutional racism and implicit bias in writing instruction, about the violent legacies of racism in the US housing market, about the maternal health disparities seen across the country and their implication in her own miscarriage.

Between 1930 and 1932, Henry Ford sent 450 of his Detroit employees plus their families to live in Gorky, Russia, to operate a new manufacturing facility. This is the true story of one of those families—Carl and Elisabeth Werner and their young daughter Margaret—and their terrifying life in Russia under brutal dictator Joseph Stalin.

O sonho de Juli era ser mãe e ela o realizou–e segue realizando diariamente–porém, ela não esperava os desafios que a maternidade atípica lhe reservava. O diagnóstico de Rafael veio no ano de 2015 e, de lá para cá, o hobby de Juli em escrever e influenciar pessoas teve uma mudança drástica: compartilhar tudo aquilo que estava reaprendendo com seu filho e sua família, fazendo-a acrescentar em seu currículo mais uma função: palestrante.

The author conceived of this project while a visiting research scholar at Wellesley Centers for Women in the 1990s. The stories were so compelling that she decided they must be made available to the general public rather than merely to an academic audience. The book is based on extensive interviews with highly successful women scientists and artists who were ages 65 to 95 when the author met them.

This is a story of my personal journey through alcoholism and recovery. The events in my life that lead to abusing substances, and becoming an alcoholic/addict. I have an addiction to alcohol. I am not able to drink "in moderation" and I have found my path with the help of a step program and therapy. I am sharing my personal journey in hopes to reach others and assure them they are not alone and there is help. A lot of help out there. I hope you find freedom from whatever ails you, and I hope you enjoy.

After her fight against breast cancer, as a survivor, Mellie decided to tell her story. Through the discipline and focus she learned in the martial arts and regular meditation, she hopes to pass on some of the knowledge that helped during her fight, to those facing a battle of their own. Mellie takes you from her martial arts beginnings through the diagnosis of breast cancer, all the way to recovery.

Christa Parravani was 40 years old, in a troubled marriage, and in bad financial straits when she learned she was pregnant with her third child. She and her family were living in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she had taken a professorial position at the local university. Haunted by a childhood steeped in poverty and violence and by young adult years rocked by the tragic death of her identical twin sister, Christa hoped her professor’s salary and health care might set her and her young family on a safe and steady path.

EINE WAHRE GESCHICHTE ÜBER GEWALT UND MISSBRAUCH IN DER PARTNERSCHAFT. Wenn die rosarote Brille zum ersten Mal auch andere Farben durchlässt, dann ist es oft schon zu spät. Hinter Kais attraktiver Maske und seiner Unwiderstehlichkeit verbirgt sich das nackte Grauen. Immer tiefer rutscht Anja in eine Spirale aus Manipulation, Demütigung und Gewalt, und es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis es zum Schlimmsten kommt. Drecksweib – So nannte er mich erzählt die wahre Geschichte einer Frau, die mehrere Jahre an der Seite eines gefährlichen Psychopathen überlebt hat. Das ist die Geschichte von Anja.

Anastasia grew up in a weird mix of chaos. As a Bi-Racial child, she experienced the truths of the world in a very fast and open, and sometimes aggressive, way. That’s how she became an actress and comedian, learning quickly that to entertain is an easy way to deliver messages and to make people laugh is good for the soul and great way to break up the chaos. Nobody can stay mad while chuckling. Try it. I’ll wait. See?!

You can change your stars and live your dreams. Listen to the inspiring story of Michele Weslander Quaid, who beat the odds. Given her humble beginnings as a daughter of a single mom, no one could have predicted her path or success. Her stars seemed to point to a life quite different from the one she leads.

Narrated by award-winning actress, Shariba Rivers, Kari Kelley's Living Resiliently is a book that blends autobiographical information with tips for living a resilient life. As you listen to this audiobook, you will witness the many obstacles that the author overcame in her own life. You may also recognize that you are resilient as well. As you listen to this audiobook, you may discover that living a resilient life is not just possible, it is a calling.