Hoarders collect to excess, filling bathtubs, closets, kitchens, garages, storage sheds—floor-to-ceiling—to render their living spaces uninhabitable. They’re so consumed they lose jobs, family and friends, homes, health, and occasionally their lives. To the rest us, these people seem bizarre or mentally ill, and we view their challenges with impatience, frustration and simplistic answers. Yet a true fix isn’t so simple. My Husband’s Under Here Somewhere, however, strives to unearth them. Morbidly fascinating tales abound as the lives of hoarders who amass animals and collectors who spin out of control are examined. The science behind hoarding—including its link with Obsessive-Compulsive disorders—as well as promising forms of treatment, meet with consideration. Our materialistic culture, one that’s obsessed with with having more and more, further informs the narrative. Certain types of stockpiling stem from challenging life experiences. A fellow who’d been imprisoned in a Russian Gulag spent the remainder of his days amassing keys. Jodin, a resistance fighter during World War II, is a consummate saver of twine. For her, a possession of such insignificance once meant the difference between extinction and survival. As a boy, Norman’s father insisted the house be kept as neat as a pin. Should anything fall out of place—absolutely anything—and he got beaten. So nowadays, he thoroughly enjoys his messes and views them as a way to get even. Ordinary hoarders and extreme collectors notwithstanding, they’re also found among the rich and famous. Peter the Great kept a human zoo of freakish oddities, and also enjoyed excising his subjects’ teeth, adding them to his vast assemblage. The hapless Collyer brothers crammed their Manhattan brownstone to the brim and accidentally entombed themselves within it. Unable to part with his shorn locks and nail clippings, Howard Hughes stored them away for “safekeeping.” Then there’s China’s remarkable Emperor Qin. After he conquered all surrounding kingdoms, he constructed 270 palaces to live in. As if that weren’t enough, he built roads and dug irrigation canals alongside, standardized laws, established a system of weights and measures, created a form of currency, and then formalized the use of written characters. While not a hoarder by today's’ standards, he was, quite possibly, the first to promulgate the axiom, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Eccentricity, wealth and death aside, each of the aforementioned had way too much stuff, which is a problem familiar to most of us. Dare to quest for answers as to why this is so, and our acquisitive culture must be examined. Harnessing humor and compassion, My Husband’s Under Here Somewhere does precisely that. As the first of its kind, this book of narrative non-fiction looks at hoarding and collecting as part of a continuum. And, while many self-help decluttering books and hoarding-related memoirs, as well as works dealing with Obsessive-Compulsive Hoarding already exist, none of them focus on the psycho-spiritual ramifications of suffocating to death beneath heaps of possessions. Hopefully, this publication will appeal to hoarders and collectors, as well as family, friends and neighbors impacted by the hoarder’s behaviors. It’s also for clinicians and public agencies in search of positive ways to respond. Lastly, it's for curious folks who seek to understand.

A national bestseller—adapted into a movie starring Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon—Anywhere But Here is the heart-rending tale of a mother and daughter. A moving, often comic portrait of wise child Ann August and her mother, Adele, a larger-than-life American dreamer, the novel follows the two women as they travel through the landscape of their often conflicting ambitions. A brilliant exploration of the perennial urge to keep moving, even at the risk of profound disorientation, Anywhere But Here is a story about the things we do for love, and a powerful study of familial bonds.

Contributions by Keiko Araki, Ikaweba Bunting, Kimberly Cleveland, Amy Caldwell de Farias, Kimberli Gant, Danielle Legros Georges, Douglas W. Leonard, John Maynard, Kendahl Radcliffe, Edward L. Robinson Jr., Jennifer Scott, and Anja Werner Anywhere But Here brings together new scholarship on the cross-cultural experiences of intellectuals of African descent since the eighteenth century. The book embraces historian Paul Gilroy's prominent thesis in The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness and posits arguments beyond The Black Atlantic's traditional organization and symbolism. Contributions are arranged into three sections that highlight the motivations and characteristics connecting a certain set of agents, thinkers, and intellectuals: the first, Re-ordering Worldviews: Rebellious Thinkers, Poets, Writers, and Political Architects; the second, Crafting Connections: Strategic and Ideological Alliances; and the third, Cultural Mastery in Foreign Spaces: Evolving Visions of Home and Identity. These essays expand categories and suggest patterns at play that have united individuals and communities across the African diaspora. They highlight the stories of people who, from their intercultural and often marginalized positions, challenged the status quo, created strategic (and at times, unexpected) international alliances, cultivated expertise and cultural fluency abroad, as well as crafted physical and intellectual spaces for their self-expression and dignity to thrive. What, for example, connects the eighteenth-century Igbo author Olaudah Equiano with 1940s literary figure Richard Wright; nineteenth-century expatriate anthropologist Antenor Fermin with 1960s Haitian émigrés to the Congo; Japanese Pan-Asianists and Southern Hemisphere Aboriginal activists with Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey; or Angela Davis with artists of the British Black Arts Movement, Ingrid Pollard and Zarina Bhimji? They are all part of a mapping that reaches across and beyond geographical, historical, and ideological boundaries typically associated with the “Black Atlantic.” They reflect accounts of individuals and communities equally united in their will to seek out better lives, often, as the title suggests, “anywhere but here.”

Mary Kate Dupree has reached a crossroad in her lifeless life. Literally. While running an errand for her oppressively controlling husband, she encounters a handsome hitchhiker whose siren-like lure tempts her to do the unthinkable: pick up a strange man on the side of the road and keep on driving. Like the mesmerizing lip of Niagara Falls, which has tempted many an unsuspecting soul to plunge to an icy demise, the hitchhiker woos Mary Kate from her mundane existence into an adventure she could never before have imagined. Randy “Smoothie” Cunningham is abandoning convention. After one too many life surprises thrown his way, he’s decided to chuck it all and take to the road. When meek and mousy Mary Kate unexpectedly picks him up, the two downtrodden souls embark on a road trip that eventually leads them to the source of Mary Kate’s temptation: Niagara Falls, where they confront the fabled water’s edge in search of elusive redemption. What people are saying about Jenny Gardiner's books: "A fun, sassy read! A cross between Erma Bombeck and Candace Bushnell, reading Jenny Gardiner is like sinking your teeth into a chocolate cupcake…you just want more." --Meg Cabot, NY Times bestselling author of Princess Diaries, Queen of Babble and more, on Sleeping with Ward Cleaver "As Sweet as a song and sharp as a beak, Bite Me really soars as a memoir about family--children and husbands, feathers and fur--and our capacity to keep loving though life may occasionally bite." --Wade Rouse, bestselling author of At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream "With a strong yet delightfully vulnerable voice, food critic Abbie Jennings embarks on a soulful journey where her love for banana cream pie and disdain for ill-fitting Spanx clash in hilarious and heartbreaking ways. As her body balloons and her personal life crumbles, Abbie must face the pain and secret fears she's held inside for far too long. I cheered for her the entire way." --Beth Hoffman, NY Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt on Slim to None "Jenny Gardiner has done it again--this fun, fast-paced book is a great summer read." --Sarah Pekkanen, NY Times bestselling author of The Opposite of Me, on Slim to None Keywords: women’s fiction, romantic comedy, humor, contemporary romance, modern fairy tale, new adult, second chances, romance, love, chick lit, chicklit, wedding, marriage, self-discovery, family issues

Tired of those organizational binges where you shuffle stuff from one room to another-and just end up with a neater mess? Then let this book show you the secrets of putting your home in order and keeping it that way! Most books tell you how to find a place for everything, then to put everything in its place. Alice Fulton-Osborne and Pauline Hatch add one vital step for lasting success: they show you how to find more places by streamlining first, THEN organizing. With their unique room-by-room approach, they take you through every drawer, closet and cupboard in your home, helping you weed out what you don't like, use, need, want, or have room for, and properly store what's left. You'll learn... The three reasons people cling to things they don't like, use, need, want, or have room for, and how to overcome them, The real definition of clutter, and why it is a stress-maker and an energy-zapper, and what to do with it by using the authors' Eight Streamlining Steps, How to save energy and time (up to two months per year), and create comfortable, productivity-boosting environments, The secrets professional custodians use to clean any bathroom (in five to ten minutes), How to get more help from family members in maintaining the home, simply by creating "reasonable responsibilities", How to create more storage space and take storage areas that currently exist, from the state of "lost in space" to "found in place", How to visually expand living and working spaces and create low-to no-maintenance rooms, Specific ideas for organizing each room in your house-from master bedroom to sewing room, bathroom to baby's room, and family room to back porch-with a variety of kitchen set-up ideas. You'll discover that this system not only helps you keep your house in order, but the familiar feelings of being overbooked, overworked and overwhelmed are eliminated as you eliminate clutter and overload from your home and workplace. It's Here... Somewhere will give you an advantage over whatever your day has to offer! Book jacket.

The belief in my little angel has given me my greatest strength. Embrace all the mystery, wonder, and love your child has to offer. Nothing can take that away from you, not even autism. What you are about to read is a true story about my daughter and other angels in my life. They have given me the love, patience, and faith needed to survive in our new world together. This is not a cure-all book that debates or dictates which treatments or therapies are best for treating autism. However, this book meant to give others renewed strength and courage. Our story is not just about autism. It is meant to be shared by anyone who is struggling with any life challenge. More importantly, I am sending you this message... "You are not alone, you are never alone."