In this very practical book, Stillman details why and how to record words that go straight to the heart-the simple, vital words that will speak to those you care most about and to their descendants many years from now.

Who are we with—and without—families? How do we relate as children to our parents, as parents to our children? How are parent-child relationships—and familial relationships in general—made and (not) maintained? Informed by narrative, performance studies, poststructuralism, critical theory, and queer theory, contributors to this collection use autoethnography—a method that uses the personal to examine the cultural—to interrogate these questions. The essays write about/around issues of interpersonal distance and closeness, gratitude and disdain, courage and fear, doubt and certainty, openness and secrecy, remembering and forgetting, accountability and forgiveness, life and death. Throughout, family relationships are framed as relationships that inspire and inform, bind and scar—relationships replete with presence and absence, love and loss. An essential text for anyone interested in autoethnography, personal narrative, identity, relationships, and family communication.

At last! Here is a clear, concise, and highly readable explanation of how to write your family history. This book was written for the genealogist who has compiled scores of pedigree charts and family group sheets, has spent years poring over forgotten manuscripts and staring into dimly-lit microfilm readers, and who now wants to bring it all together into a final narrative form. In a timely and interesting manner, the author shows how you can compose a controlled and focused rendition of your family's story.

Warrior Mother is the true story of a mother’s fierce love and determination, and her willingness to go outside the bounds of the ordinary when two of her three adult children are diagnosed with life-threatening diseases. When Sheila Collins’s best friend, dying of breast cancer, asked her to accompany her through what turned out to be the last fourteen days of her life, she didn’t know that the experience was preparing her for what lay ahead with her own children. In the years that followed, Collins had to face both her son’s diagnosis with AIDS and her daughter’s diagnosis with breast cancer. Warrior Mother documents how she faces these challenges and the issues accompanying them—from learning to be the mother of a gay son to visiting a healer in Brazil on her daughter’s behalf when she decides on bone marrow transplant treatment. Experience as a professional social worker and family therapist doesn’t always help Collins to cope with her children’s illnesses—but her relationship with improvisational song, dance, storytelling, and women’s spirituality rituals carries her through. Warrior Mother follows Collins’s family through memorials and celebrations of lives well lived, all the while exploring the impact of grief on those left behind and the rituals that help them heal.

You can know how to handle any parenting situation! Do you want to make effective parenting choices and feel confident that you're doing the right thing for your child? "Parenting in the Real World" is the interactive book that will get you there. Dr. Stephanie O'Leary's no-nonsense, judgmental-free tools are practical and easy to use with kids of all ages. Whether you're raising toddlers or teens, these go-to strategies will empower you in any situation and make room for a deeper connection that will last well beyond the drama of today. In seven simple steps, you'll learn to:· Really listen to your kids so they start listening to you· Let your child know you understand (even when you have no clue!)· Pump up the volume on respect· Set limits, say no like you mean it, and stop worrying about push-back· Own your mistakes (because we all make them!) so your child starts taking responsibility· Find joy and begin to like your child as much as you love him or her· Practice guilt-free self-care so you can take really good care of your childDr. Stephanie O'Leary is a Clinical Psychologist specializing in Neuropsychology, and a mom of two. For over a decade she has been providing parents with a no-nonsense approach to navigating the daily grind while preparing kids for the challenges they'll face in the real world.

This book shares the author's discoveries in a first-grade classroom about Family Message Journals--notebooks in which children write a message to their families each day about something they did, learned, or thought about in school, and then a family member writes a message in reply. The book is intended to spur other teachers to reflect on how they might incorporate Family Message Journals into their programs, in their own ways. The author analyzes how two primary grade teachers implement Family Message Journals in their classrooms, illustrating that the journals are a workable, realistic, and effective strategy for literacy and content learning. She focuses on journal entries of four representative students and their families; questions widespread assumptions about teaching writing; and identifies teachers' and families' roles in helping elementary students appropriate new genres, topics, and purposes for writing. The book's 7 chapters are: (1) Challenging Assumptions about Learning To Write and Teaching Writing; (2) Why Family Message Journals? The Intersection of Writing Instruction, Writing To Learn, and Family Involvement; (3) Family Message Journals in the Classroom; (4) Writing for a Purpose: Writing as a Tool across the Curriculum; (5) Writing for an Audience: The Functions of Children's Messages; (6) Families' Perspectives and Replies; and (7) Family Message Journals Document Growth. (Contains 100 references.) (SR)

Jen Miller has fallen in and out of love, but no man has been there for her the way running has. In Running: A Love Story, Jen tells the story of her lifelong relationship with running, doing so with wit, thoughtfulness, and brutal honesty. Jen first laces up her sneakers in high school, when, like many people, she sees running as a painful part of conditioning for other sports. But when she discovers early in her career as a journalist that it helps her clear her mind, focus her efforts, and achieve new goals, she becomes hooked for good. Jen, a middle-of-the-pack but tenacious runner, hones her skill while navigating relationships with men that, like a tricky marathon route, have their ups and downs, relying on running to keep her steady in the hard times. As Jen pushes herself toward ever-greater challenges, she finds that running helps her walk away from the wrong men and learn to love herself while revealing focus, discipline, and confidence she didn’t realize she had. Relatable, inspiring, and brutally honest, Running: A Love Story, explores the many ways that distance running carves a path to inner peace and empowerment by charting one woman’s evolution in the sport.

When a mysterious man claims to be her long-missing brother, a woman must confront her family’s closely guarded secrets in this “delicious hybrid of mystery, drama, and elegance” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author). Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Beatrice as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea’s warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers. Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US—ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husband’s boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers in a rapidly changing world and a country they don’t really understand. Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family broken by loss and betrayal, and “a richly imagined page-turner that delivers twists alongside thought-provoking commentary” (Kirkus Reviews).

The importance and relevance of travelling cannot be overemphasized. This book of poems is a collection of my thoughts and experiences as I travel through towns and places outside of my own country. The importance and relevance of travelling cannot be overemphasized. This book of poems is a collection of my thoughts and experiences as I travel through towns and places outside of my own country.

‘Painful, raw and with an honesty that rings clear as a bell’ Catherine Simpson, author of When I Had a Little Sister A searing account of a mother’s late-diagnosis of autism – and its reaching effects on a whole family.