Other books that might interest you

• 

  Switched at Birth - What would...

  Jessica Pitchford

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  'Well … I got the test results back and he's not the father. But it's more complicated than that …'
  He was holding a sheet of paper in his hand, but seemed unable to articulate what was on it.
  Megs reached out for it: 'Let me read it then.'
  'And that's how I found out. Boom! It was like I had been stabbed … I collapsed on the floor at the back of the shop. It was as if I had passed out from shock. Then I cried. I cried for the child I had and the child I didn't have. I knew without a shadow of a doubt my life had changed forever.'
  In 1990 two South African mothers were faced with an impossible choice, one that no mother should ever have to make. Should they surrender the child they had lovingly raised in order to get back the baby they had given birth to?
  Megs Clinton-Parker and Sandy Dawkins chose nurture over nature, simply unable to give up their two-year-old sons who were switched at birth at an East Rand hospital. Instead they decided to try to make their strange relationship work, although they lived in different cities, 500 km apart. And they decided to sue the South African state, whose negligence had altered the fates of the two families forever.
  Robin Dawkins and Gavin Clinton-Parker grew up living each other's lives, brothers-but-not-brothers, acutely aware that their mothers' hearts were torn. Unable to escape the consequences of the swap, Robin decided at the age of 15 that it was time to claim what was rightfully his, adding a further twist to this bitter saga. Theirs is a story of how to live with the unliveable, and how some decisions can never be unmade.

  Show book

• 

  Osnabrück Station to Jerusalem -...

  Hélène Cixous

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An inventive blend of memoir and family history that ponders those who didn’t flee their German town in time: “Powerfully reclaimed—and imagined—reality.” —The Jewish Chronicle 
   
  Winner, French Voices Award for Excellence in Publication and Translation 
   
  For about eighty years, the Jonas family of Osnabrück were part of a small but vibrant Jewish community in this mid-size city of Lower Saxony. After the war, Osnabrück counted not a single Jew. Most had been deported and murdered in the camps; others emigrated—if they could, and if they managed to overcome their own inertia. It is this inertia and failure to escape that Hélène Cixous seeks to account for in Osnabrück Station to Jerusalem. 
   
  Vicious anti-Semitism hounded Osnabrück’s Jews long before the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933. So why did people wait to leave when the threat was so clear? Drawn from the stories told to Cixous by her mother, Ève, and grandmother, Rosalie (Rosi), this literary work reimagines fragments of Ève’s and Rosi’s stories, including the death of Ève’s uncle, Onkel André. Piecing together the story of Andreas Jonas from what she was told and from what she envisions, Cixous recounts the tragedy of the one she calls the King Lear of Osnabrück, who followed his daughter to Jerusalem only to be sent away by her, returning to Osnabrück in time to be deported to a death camp. 
   
  Cixous wanders the streets of the city she’d heard about all her life, digs into its archives, meets city officials, all the while wondering if she should have come. These reflections in the present are woven with scenes from her childhood in Algeria and the half-remembered, half-invented stories of the Jonas family, making Osnabrück Station to Jerusalem one of the author’s most intensely engaging books. 
   
  “An inventive literary account of Cixous’s remarkable journey to her mother’s birthplace and of the Jewish community of a German town that was wiped out in the Holocaust.” —Literary Hub, “The Best of the University Presses” 
   
  This work received the French Voices Award for excellence in publication and translation. French Voices is a program created and funded by the French Embassy in the United States and FACE (French American Cultural Exchange).

  Show book

• 

  The Ribbon of Road Ahead

  Carol Clupny

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  At forty-nine years old, Carol Clupny was an active, driven woman with a career, a family, and a zest for adventure. A mere year later, she struggles with strange symptoms of internal tremors, frozen shoulders, and a serious intestinal infection. She doesn’t understand why she can’t paddle a kayak or throw the ball for her dogs. Then comes the diagnosis: early onset Parkinson’s Disease. “How can I keep going?” she asks her doctor. “Keep exercising and taking your meds. You have five to ten years before things get more difficult.” Carol finds she can no longer work. From her easy chair, she watches videos of people in advanced stages of Parkinson’s. “I can’t go there,” she tells herself. Struggling out of her chair, she shuffles outside to the mailbox and back. These first steps begin her training for the trip at the top of her bucket list: a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Completing this adventure once is not enough, she returns again and again. She reads in an article that bicycling helps mitigate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Dusting off a seldom-used bike in her garage, she leans it against the mailbox to mount up. Away she goes with newfound freedom to train for the RAGBRAI (the Des Moines Registers Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa). On her trips, Carol faces challenges she never could have foreseen. She forges lasting friendships and confronts the reality of living with a progressive neurological disorder. Crashing her bike, slipping along muddy paths with a heavy backpack, suffering through blisters and tendonitis, using a field as a bathroom, she approaches every aspect of life with an attitude of adventure. Carol is not afraid to face the apathy and depression that come with Parkinson’s. Instead of being drug down into darkness, she finds strategies for lifting herself, and others around her, up into the light.

  Show book

• 

  Point of Order Mr Speaker -...

  Selwyn Katene, Rahui Katene

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Eight current or former Māori politicians from different political parties recount their leadership experiences, and describe the significant events in their journeys from their early lives to Parliament. Paula Bennett, Te Ururoa Flavell, Hone Harawira, Tau Henare, Shane Jones, Nanaia Mahuta, Hekia Parata and Metiria Turei give readers a unique glimpse into their personal and public lives. They share their dreams and aspirations, lessons learned and knowledge gained while making meaningful contributions to Māori development.

  Show book

• 

  She's Nice Though - Essays on...

  Mia Mercado

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  AN NPR BOOK-OF-THE-DAY • A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STAFF PICK • A NYLON MUST-READ • A FORTUNE NEW BOOK TO READ IN AUGUST 
  “And, at the center of it all, am I actually nice or am I just performing a role I think I’m expected to play?” Mia Mercado is a razor-sharp cultural critic and essayist known for her witty and hilarious dissections of the uncomfortable truths that rule our lives. In this thought-provoking collection of new essays, Mercado examines what it means to be “polite,” “agreeable,” and “nice.” She covers topics from the subtleties of the “Bad Bitch” and why women dominate the ASMR market, to what makes her dog an adorable little freak and how you know if you’re shy. This is a book about the unspoken trick mirror of our “good” intentions: the inherent performance of the social media apology, celebrating men when they do the bare minimum, and why we trust a Midwesterner to watch our stuff when we go pee. 
  Throughout, she ponders her identity as an Asian woman and asks what “nice” even means—and why anyone would want to be it. With writing that is as precise as it is profound, and cultural references that range from trash reality television to the New York Times Sunday-morning crossword puzzle, Mercado uncovers weird, long-overdue truths about our frailties and failings. In the end, she sees them not as a source of shame but as a cause for celebration. Filled with revelations that range from the silly to the serious, 
  She’s Nice Though offers a mind-bending glimpse into the illusions and delusions of contemporary life—and reveals who we *really* are when no one is watching.

  Show book

• 

  Short Story Collection Vol 046

  Various

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 046: a collection of 20 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a group of LibriVox members.

  Show book