Essays Life

For three years, Jennifer Ackerman lived in the small coastal town of Lewes, Delaware, in the sort of blue-water, white-sand landscape that draws summer crowds up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Birds by the Shore is a book about discovering the natural life at the ocean's edge: the habits of shorebirds and seabirds, the movement of sand and water, the wealth of creatures that survive amid storm and surf. Against this landscape's rhythms, Ackerman revisits her own history - her mother's death, her father's illness, and her hopes to have children of her own.

In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.

When Marya Hornbacher published her first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, she did not yet have the piece of shattering knowledge that would finally make sense of the chaos of her life. At age 24, Hornbacher was diagnosed with type I rapid-cycle bipolar, the most severe form of bipolar disorder. In Madness, in her trademark wry and utterly self-revealing voice, Hornbacher tells her new story.

Blending her own experiences with an intimate grasp of spirituality, Sue Monk Kidd relates the passionate and moving tale of her spiritual crisis, when life seemed to have lost meaning and her longing for a hasty escape from the pain yielded to a discipline of "active waiting." Full of wisdom, poise, and grace, Kidd’s words will encourage us along our spiritual journey, toward becoming who we truly are.

2014 INDIEFAB AWARD finalist!! Inspiration. Empowerment. Reinvention. From soccer mom to prosecuting attorney. From body cast to the back seat of a Harley. From sneakers to stilettos. When a hard fall from a tall horse landed Mary T. Wagner—then a freelance writer and a soccer mom with four young children—in a body cast for three months with a broken back, she didn’t take it as a sign to ease back on the throttle. Instead, she changed careers, went to law school, took a job prosecuting criminals, and bought her first pair of spike heels. And THEN she started writing again. In essays ...

·Embark on a philosophical adventure. Explore profound questions about existence, art, politics, and the human condition.· Challenge your assumptions and expand your mind: Engage with diverse perspectives through insightful essays and thought-provoking dialogues.· Navigate the complexities of society: Gain a deeper understanding of sociopolitical issues and their impact on individuals and society.· Uncover timeless truths and unconventional ideas: Discover fresh insights into life's mysteries through stimulating conversations and analyses.· Sharpen your critical thinking skills by ...

A rollicking journey through the wild world of real estate, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House is the story of "a very imperfect life lived among very imperfect houses" and one woman's obsession with the search for four walls (along with, preferably, a roof not in need of replacing) to call home. In the six houses and many states where Meghan Daum spent her suburban childhood, for the Daum family, "if there was anything that came close to a regular weekend activity it was attending open houses."

The Jerusalem Syndrome is a genuine psychological phenomenon that often strikes visitors to the Holy Land - the delusion that they are suddenly direct vessels for the voice of God. Marc Maron seems to have a distinctly American version of the Jerusalem Syndrome, which has led him on a lifelong quest for religious significance and revelation in the most unlikely of places.

Everyday life is filled with opportunities to learn, grow, and flourish, yet it’s easy to miss these chances if you don’t recognize their value. As you read the eighty-seven essays in this insightful collection written by Anne Marie Bennett, one of Seena Frost’s chosen SoulCollage® Trainers, you will begin to see yourself and the world around you with fresh eyes. Illustrating the intuitive art process of SoulCollage®, in which creating your own deck of collaged cards helps you gain access to deep personal wisdom, Bennett’s essays cover life lessons, community, animal guides, ...

When sporting events were put on hold in March 2020, commentator Andrew Cotter shifted to working from home. The one-on-one competitors? His two Labrador retrievers, Olive and Mabel. In the hilarious videos that ensued, the dogs engage in various contests, from bone-snatching and breakfast-eating to crushing it on the dog walk, while Cotter narrates to hilarious effect.

To overcome a crisis of melancholy after the death of his father, Montaigne withdrew to his country estates and began to write, and in the highly original essays that resulted he discussed themes such as fathers and children, conscience and cowardice, coaches and cannibals, and, above all, himself.

No matter what was happening in Jennifer Weiner's life - whether good, bad, or very, very ugly - her mother, Fran, would say the same thing: It's all material. Now the number-one New York Times best-selling author and "one of the biggest names in popular fiction" ( USA Today), beloved on Twitter and hailed as "an unlikely feminist enforcer" ( The New Yorker), takes the raw stuff of her personal life and spins it into a collection of personal essays as uproariously funny and heartfelt as the best of Tina Fey and Nora Ephron.

After nearly drowning in Greece, Christine Stovell was determined never to get on a boat again. The sailing kind? Definitely not. Yet when she married a keen sailor and became joint owner of a vintage wooden yacht, she somehow managed to sail halfway round Britain, despite never finding her sea legs. Insightful, funny and raw, Christine’s story captures the joy, terror and wonder of a novice, seasick sailor out on the waves in a small wooden boat. Her adventures have taken her through sleepy backwaters and high seas, from Essex to west Wales and across to France. Along the way, she’s ...

Although never considered to be a popular speaker nor prolific writer, A. W. Tozer's audiences did appreciate what he had to say, and he was probably the most widely read Christian writer of his time. Keys to the Deeper Life contains six of his best-known essays and editorials. In them he rigorously examines many of the failings and foibles of his day. Although most were written more than three decades ago, the insights they offer are as fresh and thought-provoking as the day they were published.

Best-selling author and human guinea pig A. J. Jacobs puts his life to the test and reports on the surprising and entertaining results. He goes undercover as a woman, lives by George Washington’s moral code, and impersonates a movie star. He practices "radical honesty", brushes his teeth with the world’s most rational toothpaste, and outsources every part of his life to India—including reading bedtime stories to his kids.

If you are captivated by creative storytelling—brimming with vivid imagery and emotional honesty—you will love Mark Johnson’s fourth book, I Think I’ll Prune the Lemon Tree. Set against the warm and rugged landscape of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, it features thirty-nine serendipitous, provocative, and humorous essays. Mark’s true stories and desert fantasies chronicle his triumphs as a gay man and journey with husband Tom to build a healthy, open, and literary life in Arizona, while revisiting indelible memories from his Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina past. Throughout his ...

From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico in a region where “my ancestors lived for centuries,” the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection—spanning three decades, and including never-before-published work—Cisneros has come home at last.

In Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Tim McLoughlin draws upon his three-decade career in the criminal justice system with his characteristic wit and his fascination with misfits and malfeasance. A lifetime immersed in New York City feeds short stories that evoke a landscape of characters rife with personal arrogance and misjudgment; and nonfiction essays about toeing the line when the line keeps disappearing.

Slip into the extraordinary world of Mr. Joe, where words transcend the page, weaving together memories, dreams, and the relentless pursuit of understanding life’s deepest mysteries. This book is more than just a collection of stories; it’s a journey through time, identity, and the very essence of what it means to be human. With a blend of flash fiction, lyric essays, character sketches, and monologues, Joseph Santiago explores the intricate dance between reality and imagination, leaving readers with a sense of connection that resonates long after the last page is turned. Whether ...

Funny, candid, and searchingly self-aware, this essay collection tells the story of Chelsea Martin’s coming of age as an artist. We are with Chelsea as an 11-year-old atheist, trying to will an alien visitation to her neighborhood; fighting with her stepfather and grappling with a Tourette’s diagnosis as she becomes a teenager; falling under the sway of frenemies and crushes in high school; going into debt to afford what might be a meaningless education at an expensive art college.