It only takes a moment for your life to be changed forever—as the characters of this darkly comic novel discover early on. The fateful moment for the newlyweds Ross and Iliana comes with the freak automobile accident that leaves Iliana paralyzed, Ross grief-stricken, and both of them struggling to come to terms with a married life nothing like they originally had in mind. As the usually affable Ross struggles with guilt and with finding ways to cope with his newly fractured life, Iliana gets used to her unwelcome existence as a wheelchair-bound wife, to her husband’s growing sense of alienation, and to their awkward new lack of intimacy.What ultimately happens with Ross and Iliana is as unexpected and surprising as the fateful mishap that sets the events in motion in the first place. Sitting Practice is a clever and insightful study of love’s collision with harsh reality, told by an author with a remarkable instinct for the workings of human nature, a nimble gift for language, and the ability to find humor in the oddest places.

Sitting Practice

Literature & Fiction

Adderson, Caroline

Contemporary

Trumpeter

It's July 4, 1845. A soft-spoken young man named Henry David Thoreau has carefully constructed a small, simple cabin in the woods overlooking Walden Pond. For the next two years, his closest companions will be the chickadees, the woodchucks, and the quiet pines of the Walden Woods. Henry is twenty-eight years old, and his life has not been easy. His brother John—his closest friend and companion—has died. The only woman he ever loved has rejected him. On this day he has come to Walden in search of truth—not the truth taught in schools or in church, but the truth he can feel dwelling deep within him. Henry opens his journal and begins to write: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Follow Henry into the woods and out again—through a courageous American life that has changed our world for the better. For ages 12 and up.

A Mind with Wings: The Story of Henry David Thoreau

Biographies & Memoirs

HAUSMAN, GERALD

Hausman, Loretta

Arts & Literature

Receiving a diagnosis of autism is a major crisis for parents and families, who often feel as if their world has come to an end. In this insightful narrative, a courageous and inspiring mother explains why a diagnosis of autism doesn't have to shatter a family's dreams of happiness. Senator offers the hard-won, in-the-trenches wisdom of someone who's been there and is still there today—and she demonstrates how families can find courage, contentment, and connection in the shadow of autism. In Making Peace with Autism , Susan Senator describes her own journey raising a child with a severe autism spectrum disorder, along with two other typically developing boys. Without offering a miracle treatment or cure, Senator offers valuable strategies for coping successfully with the daily struggles of life with an autistic child. Along the way she models the combination of stamina and courage, openness and humor that has helped her family to survive—and even to thrive. Topics include: the agony of diagnosis, grieving and acceptance, finding the right school program, helping siblings with their struggles and concerns, having fun together, and keeping the marriage strong.

Making Peace with Autism: One Family's Story of Struggle, Discovery, and Unexpected Gifts

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Senator, Susan

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1952, fierce winds force a small boat into port. The boat's pilot, the eccentric Captain Charles Johnson, takes up residence at the small inn run by Jim and his mother. With each day, the captain's presence becomes more valuable to the family as they struggle to keep the inn open for business—and his background becomes more mysterious as Jim discovers how much he knows about the lives and battles of the old-time pirates. Who is this man whose compelling stories bring to life in such detail the day-to-day experience of sailing on a pirate ship? And how can he possibly know so much about how it feels to grow up among the Vikings; about how Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth plotted their victories; about the loves of Grace O'Malley, the pirate queen of Ireland?

Pirate's Passage

Gilkerson, William

Genre Fiction

In this exquisitely written memoir, poet Patrick Lane describes his raw and tender emergence at age sixty from a lifetime of alcohol and drug addiction. He spent the first year of his sobriety close to home, tending his garden, where he cast his mind back over his life, searching for the memories he'd tried to drown in vodka. Lane has gardened for as long as he can remember, and his garden's life has become inseparable from his own. A new bloom on a plant, a skirmish among the birds, the way a tree bends in the wind, and the slow, measured change of seasons invariably bring to his mind an episode from his eventful past. What the Stones Remember is the emerging chronicle of Lane's attempt to face those memories, as well as his new self—to rediscover his life. In this powerful and beautifully written book, Lane offers readers an unflinching and unsentimental account of coming to one's senses in the presence of nature.

What the Stones Remember: A Life Rediscovered

Lane, Patrick

History

While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. Why if love is so great and powerful are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love's full flowering in our lives. Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal, core wounding around love that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This wounding shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove —a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. And this shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us. This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace our humanness and appreciate the imperfections of our relationships as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves. Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.

Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart

Self-Help

WELWOOD, JOHN

Relationships

There's a lot of romance about becoming a parent, but at some point the storybook scenarios of serene life with baby are interrupted by the darker side of the motherhood experience: the little "bundle of joy" cries inconsolably, wakes up four times a night, won't take a bottle—the fantasy of motherhood quickly collides with reality. Vivian Glyck shows us that in fact it's the difficult parts of parenting that are the most valuable. The many challenges call on us to grow and develop as people. "Parenting," Glyck writes, "is the ultimate spiritual practice." The Tao of Poop presents ten valuable life lessons that arise amid all the challenges of parenting. Based on the author's own experience and drawing on the sentiments of many mothers she's spoken to and corresponded with, each chapter explores a common parenting predicament and a lesson that can be drawn from it, as well as helpful tips and strategies she calls "sanity savers."

The Tao of Poop: Keeping Your Sanity (and Your Soul) While Raising a Baby

Glyck, Vivian E.

We are thirteen indigenous grandmothers. . . . We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth, the atrocities of war, the global scourge of poverty, the prevailing culture of materialism, the epidemics that threaten the health of the Earth’s peoples, and with the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking, and healing are vitally needed today. . . . We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. In some Native American societies, tribal leaders consulted a council of grandmothers before making any major decisions that would affect the whole community. What if we consulted our wise women elders about the problems facing our global community today? This book presents the insights and guidance of thirteen indigenous grandmothers from five continents, many of whom are living legends among their own peoples. The Grandmothers offer wisdom on such timely issues as nurturing our families; cultivating physical and mental health; and confronting violence, war, and poverty. Also included are the reflections of Western women elders, including Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Helena Norberg-Hodge, and Carol Moseley Brown.

Grandmothers Counsel the World: Women Elders Offer Their Vision for Our Planet

Schaefer, Carol

Motivational

Drawing on the results of her unique national sex survey—and on decades of clinical practice as a sex therapist—Gina Ogden offers a revolutionary exploration of women's sexual experience. The best sex, say thousands of women, doesn't just happen in the body. It is multidimensional, connecting body, mind, heart, and soul. In The Heart and Soul of Sex, Ogden coaches readers to fully realize the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of sex, making what she calls the "ISIS Connection." Throughout the book are firsthand stories of survey respondents, offering examples of how ordinary women—from ages eighteen to eighty-six and from many backgrounds—have found their own way to sexual expression that is deeply satisfying and even life-changing. The Heart and Soul of Sex takes the reader on a journey beyond the usual emphasis on performance, including practical exercises that can be done alone or with a partner. Ogden shows us that we can be much more than we've been told—not just fun and exciting but deeply healing, magical, and transformative. Click here to read an interview with Gina Ogden on Oprah.com.

The Heart and Soul of Sex: Making the ISIS Connection

Ogden, Gina

Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen

In this provocative work, Susan Griffin charts the rise and fall of our society’s highest values—equality, truth, and freedom—from the Declaration of Independence to the Iraq War. Combining contemplative memoir with social and political history, she explores both the inward and outward dimensions of our democracy. She argues compellingly that the dawning of American democracy represented nothing less than a revolution of consciousness, one that is still unfolding today.

GRIFFIN, SUSAN

Community & Culture

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