Aisling Creegan's childhood was dominated by an abusive, alcoholic mother, who tortured her at every turn. From insults and beatings to being threatened with a butcher's knife, Aisling endured unthinkable suffering at the hands of the woman who should have loved her unconditionally. Yet, in the midst of this trauma, Aisling relied on the one person she knew she could trust – herself. Possessed of an incredible imagination and remarkable resilience, Aisling found escape in the little things in life. Her power to imagine an alternative world enabled her to hold on and make it to adolescence and the freedom she had longed for since childhood. But the scars of the past take time to heal, and when Aisling suffered a breakdown it took her on a surprising path to freedom – and forgiveness. I Am Someone is an extraordinary memoir about female cruelty and – ultimately – female strength and endurance. 'Searingly honest ... brings you straight into the inner world of someone pushed to the limits' Lynn Ruane

In the book I Am Someone Special, the author shares the story of her dysfunctional childhoodher journey through the road of drug addiction and drug dealing and how she struggled to leave her dark past behind and move on to a new and better life. Ms. Hernandez did not experience the kind of childhood others enjoy by being adopted into a wealthy, well-off family. She failed to receive the affection she wanted from her parents, particularly from her adoptive mother. The author was the youngest among seven children and the one who received the worst treatment from her alcoholic mother, who was also addicted to drugs. Her birthmother had stabbed her in the head when she was a nine-month-old baby. After an incident that almost robbed the author of her life, she was placed into an orphanage, where her adoptive parents rescued her. The authors adoptive family gave her the love she had long wanted, along with everything she and her adopted brother and sister could ask for. But despite it all, Ms. Hernandez became rebellious, especially as a teenager. Her rebellious teenage years eventually led her to the wrong path as she started using drugs and selling it as well. She worked further into the drug business until she got caught and sentenced for a couple years in prison. After serving her sentence, the author strived to live a clean life and start anew. With the help of her faith in God and the support of the man she loves, she managed to reinvent herself into a better and strong person. I Am Someone Special might appeal to a reader interested in stories that have changed the lives of individuals who recovered from drug addiction and made the decision to rebuild their lives away from drugs. If you would like to get ahold of the author for questions or for advice, contact her through [email protected]. You can buy my books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Do you remember what it was like to see the world through a childs eyes? What it was like to take in the vibrancy of the colors, sounds, and smells with all the precious imagination, speculation, and childlike wonder of an impressionable young mind? Do you remember what it was like to be open and free to experience the happiness, innocence, and beauty of childhood? In I Am Someone; I Am Me, author Audrey C. Hayes shares her creative effort to help build positive self-esteem in children by painting lucid, imaginative pictures of the world as it is seen through the eyes of children. Combining touching, heartwarming poetry and engaging fairy tales with fun, and interactive activities young children should delight in being a part of, it promises to bring to light some of the thoughts, feelings, and impressions young children have about their self-worth and who they are. Creating in a child the sense that they are special, good, and beautiful is the most important thing parents and educators can do to instill positive self-worth. Remembering what it was like to be so impressionable and so vulnerable, the hope is to help build and reinforce our childrens inner sense of worth and goodness and to promote positive, constructive, and wholesome development.

“The most crucial relationship advice book since Men Are from Mars.”—Erin Meanley, Glamour.com A groundbreaking, interactive relationship tool that literally places in the hands of couples the power to transform chronically frustrating relationship dynamics. We've all been there. A conversation with a loved one escalates into conflict. Voices rise to a fever pitch and angry, accusative words fly through the air. At times like these, it seems impossible to find the magic words that will lead to healing. Enter Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love. A psychotherapist with decades of experience in counseling couples, Nancy Dreyfus hit upon the revolutionary practice outlined in this book during a couples-therapy session in which a wife’s unrelenting criticism of her husband was causing him to become emotionally withdrawn. In the midst of this, Dreyfus found herself scribbling on a scrap of paper, “Talk to me like I'm someone you love,” and gestured to the husband that he should hold it up. He did and within seconds the familiar power differential between the two shifted, and a gentler, more genuine connection emerged. Dreyfus was startled, then intrigued, and then motivated to create a tool that could help others. This book features more than one hundred of Dreyfus's "flash cards for real life," written statements that express what we wish we could communicate to the person we love, but either can't find the right words or the right tone in which to say it. The statements include: • Taking responsibility: "I realize I'm overreacting. Can you give me a minute to get sane again?" • Apologizing: "I know I've really hurt you. What can I do to help you trust me again?" • Loving: "You are precious, and I get that I haven't been treating you like you are." A one-of-a-kind, practical relationship tool, Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love will help couples to stop arguing and begin healing.

"I had a real romance with this book." —Miranda July A highly anticipated collection, from the writer Maggie Nelson has called, “bracingly good...refreshing and welcome,” that explores the myriad ways in which desire and commodification intersect. From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre—including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission— Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship. Both tender and jarring, this collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth. Hodson’s accumulation within each piece is purposeful, and her prose vivid, clear, and sometimes even shocking, as she explores the wonderful and strange forms of desire. Tonight I'm Someone Else is a fresh, poetic debut from an exciting emerging voice, in which Hodson asks, “How much can a body endure?” And the resounding answer: "Almost everything."

An unforgettable memoir about one woman’s story of overcoming neglect in the U.S. foster-care system and finding her place in the world. Drawing on her experience as one of society’s abandoned children, Regina Louise tells how she emerged from the cruel, unjust system, not only to survive, but to flourish . . . After years of jumping from one fleeting, often abusive home to the next, Louise meets a counselor named Jeanne Kerr. For the first time in her young life, Louise knows what it means to be seen, wanted, understood, and loved. After Kerr tries unsuccessfully to adopt Louise, the two are ripped apart—seemingly forever—and Louise continues her passage through the cold cinder-block landscape of a broken system, enduring solitary confinement, overmedication, and the actions of adults who seem hell-bent on convincing her that she deserves nothing, that she is nothing. But instead of losing her will to thrive, Louise remains determined to achieve her dream of a higher education. After she ages out of the system, Louise is thrown into adulthood and, haunted by her trauma, struggles to finish school, build a career, and develop relationships. As she puts it, it felt impossible “to understand how to be in the world.” Eventually, Louise learns how to confront her past and reflect on her traumas. She starts writing, quite literally, a new future for herself, a new way to be. Louise weaves together raw, sometimes fragmented memories, excerpts from real documents from her case file, and elegant reflections to tell the story of her painful upbringing and what came after. The result is a rich, engrossing account of one abandoned girl’s efforts to find her place in the world, people to love, and people to love her back. Praise for Someone Has Led This Child to Believe “Regina Louise’s childhood ordeal and quest to find true family are enthralling and ultimately triumphant. I cheered her every step of the way.” —Julia Scheeres, New York Times–bestselling author of Jesus Land “Revealing and much needed.” —Booklist “Her story had a distinctly raw edge to it, as she chronicled . . . how she was deemed mentally disturbed and incorrigible for wanting what so many children from intact families took for granted, and how she triumphed over unbelievable odds.” —Kirkus Reviews “There’s pain and beauty in Louise’s vulnerability and her willingness to evict personal experience from the singular realm of self and take it into the world.” —Foreword Reviews

In this poignant and heart wrenching true story, Regina Louise recounts her childhood search for connection in the face of abuse, neglect, and rejection. What happens to a child when her own parents reject her and sit idly by as others abuse her? In this poignant, heart wrenching debut work, Regina Louise recounts her childhood search for someone to feel connected to. A mother she has never known--but long fantasized about-- deposited her and her half sister at the same group home that she herself fled years before. When another resident beats Regina so badly that she can barely move, she knows that she must leave this terrible place-the only home she knows. Thus begins Regina's fight to survive, utterly alone at the age of 10. A stint living with her mother and her abusive boyfriend is followed by a stay with her father's lily white wife and daughters, who ignore her before turning to abuse and ultimately kicking her out of the house. Regina then tries everything in her search for someone to care for her and to care about, from taking herself to jail to escaping countless foster homes to be near her beloved counselor. Written in her distinctive and unique voice, Regina's story offers an in-depth look at the life of a child who no one wanted. From her initial flight to her eventual discovery of love, your heart will go out to Regina's younger self, and you'll cheer her on as she struggles to be Somebody's Someone.

The book that you are going to read is all about my emotions and I feel yours too because once in our life many of us, Go through the same situations and emotions. But the ways we handle it are different. Many times we are able to handle it but many times we aren’t. And how we handle it, plays a key role in our life that's why we need to be mentally strong in every situation, which is not an easy task and cannot be built only in a day, for building it up we need to work on it daily. And I believe slightly it'd make you strong to handle any situation without any panic.

This book continues the discussions in "What a piece of work: on being human" (Imprint Academic 2006) and may be considered its sequel. Among all the creatures in the physical universe, humans seem to be more than simply physical, because they are aware of being creatures in the universe. Human beings essentially belong to the world of nature, yet stand out as the most complex and fascinating of all living beings. Like and also unlike other animals, they respond to what happens to them; they make plans and carry them out; they recognize one another, sometimes lovingly; they make friends and enjoy their company; they shape the world around them for convenience and for delight; they ask questions both practical and theoretical; and many of them try to praise God. In What a Piece of Work, Helen Oppenheimer considered humankind as part of the natural universe which Christians believe God set in motion, asking how human beings stand among other creatures and how they are to be valued. In this volume she leaves aside comparisons with our fellow creatures in order to attend to our own experience. It makes a good start to think of oneself as a human animal, but then we need to go further and ask what does it mean to be a person, to be counted as someone?