Posts tagged marriage
September 12, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged adoption, cruelty, divorce, father, fiction, happiness, healing, marriage, mother, pedophilia, rape, relationships, self awareness, storytelling, writing
Chosen: A Novel
By Chandra Hoffman
Published August 24, 2010 (Hardcover) Harper
Seems I’ve been attracted lately to novels that, in some way, address babies and children. In a word – family! Chandra Hoffman’s novel, Chosen, seduced me instantly with the topic.
There’s a sweet tone to the book – Chloe’s mostly – even though Hoffman also tells the story in the voices of Penny, Paul, and Jason. A pregnant woman, the husband whose wife finally gives birth, and Penny’s difficult boyfriend. We also see Francie’s posts on the adoption site – Francie, a woman who has not been able to have a child of her own.
Chloe is an adoption worker who handles both the desperate parents wanting a child, willing to do anything to have a child, and the frantic parents-to-be, who are not sure whether to (1) end it, (2) have it and adopt it out, and (3) have it and keep it. The waters keep getting muddied. A lot. Especially when you blend in meth mothers and the violent cons who get them pregnant. Especially when one baby goes missing. Read the rest of this entry »
July 23, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged angels, death, friendship, happiness, healing, inspiration, magic, marriage, nde, relationships, self awareness, storytelling, therapy, trauma, writing
If I Stay
By Gayle Forman
Published April 2, 2009 (Hardcover) Dutton, and April 6, 2010 (Paperback) Penguin
I remember the news story on which this novel, If I Stay, was based. Or at least one very like it.
I have reported on dozens of tragedies during my years as a broadcast journalist. And, when a cop’s voice quivers during a phone interview as he speaks from the scene. Or when – in the early days – I could actually report from the scene, and I walked away with the story in my head, and an ache imprinted in my heart. Or when I heard on the scanner snippets of a young person waving a gun at police, and the anguish that followed. The story stays. Read the rest of this entry »
July 12, 2010 · Filed under Author Interviews, Open Book · Tagged career, friends, friendship, girlfriend, happiness, healing, inspiration, love, manifest, marriage, motherhood, non-fiction, optimism, passion, positive thinking, relationships, self awareness, storytelling, trauma, writing
Kris Carlson is my newest friend. I say this with certainty, after spending a few hours together, first at my home, then in studio on-the-air at www.pdx.fm. Kris tells me that Richard Carlson, her husband, world-famous for his Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff books, used to tell her that we would like each other.
But Richard is gone – he passed suddenly at age 45 on descent into JFK on his book tour a few years ago – of an embolism. He fell asleep, and never woke up.
Kris said on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan today that she lost the love of her life – and gained her self. He never woke up. She had to.
Heartbroken Open tells Kris’s aching journey non-chronologically and beautifully. Grief – especially from the sudden, unexpected wrenching away of a loved one – must be traveled, not walled up. Kris says she learned that when you are grieving a loss, you Surrender. Trust. Accept. And, Receive.
If you’ve ever grieved – and we all do – this tough, rewarding, opening path will take you to the most amazing places, places you’ve never imagined possible.
July 9, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, career, expressing grief, fearless, friendship, grief, happiness, healing, inspiration, love, marriage, passion, positive thinking, rape, relationships, self awareness, trauma, writing
Heartbroken Open: A Memoir Through Loss to Self-Discovery
By Kristine Carlson
April 6, 2010 (Hardcover) HarperOne
Never a good time to say goodbye. It’s just too damn hard. But what if you had the perfect family, the perfect life, and your partner was a universally-adored New York Times bestselling author who died at age 45 on descent into JFK airport.
This is Kristine Carlson’s story of healing from a loss that seemed impossible. Read the rest of this entry »
July 1, 2010 · Filed under Author Interviews, Book Reviews · Tagged acting, career, fearless, happiness, inspiration, love, love affair, marriage, passion, relationships, writing
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of The Century
By Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger
Published June 15, 2010 (Hardcover) Harper
Elizabeth Taylor did not want to expose her personal love letters from Richard Burton to the world. That is, until serendipity graced co-authors of Furious Love Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.
Kashner and Schoenberger told me today in an interview that a young drama student – upon hearing that Elizabeth Taylor was married to Burton, Read the rest of this entry »
June 21, 2010 · Filed under Author Interviews · Tagged career, fearless, fiction, happiness, inspiration, love, marriage, novel, optimism, passion, positive thinking, relationships, storytelling, writing
Sweet Misfortune – and Interview with the Author
Novel by Kevin Alan Milne
Published June 10, 2010 (Hardcover) Center Street
The first thing I learned during my interview today with Kevin Alan Milne on Open Book with Diana Page Jordan is that his last name is pronounced MIL-nee. And, the coolest thing I learned about his name is that he’s related to AA Milne, the “father” of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore. Oh! It made me so happy to hear that! Winnie the Pooh was one of my happy memories.
One thing I learned as a kid – much like the main character Sophie – Read the rest of this entry »
May 27, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, career, crystals, Dr Emoto, healing, inspiration, marriage, optimism, positive thinking, PTSD, relationships, storytelling, trauma, water
What Was Your Mother Thinking…The Cause and Effect of Human Behavior and Remarkable Observations of the Physics of Energy and Nature
By A. Christina Liczbinski
2009 (Paperback) Authentic Creations Books
What legacy do you bear because of what your birth mother experienced while she was pregnant with you? Christina Liczbinski’s book What Was Your Mother Thinking explores that question, and reaches into other areas of energy – PTSD, animals, music, among others.
While the celebrity make-up and hairstylist dutifully quotes research, her personal career was most interesting to me. Read the rest of this entry »
May 19, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews, Events · Tagged asperger's syndrome, books, chick lit, fiction, happiness, inspiration, love, marriage, novel, optimism, passion, positive thinking, reading, relationships, self awareness, self-help, storytelling, summer reads, summertime, thriller, writing
What’s it like to talk Summer Reads on Martha Stewart Living? Other than getting up at 4am to do so? Fabulous fun! I was on a bit after 5am – I got up at four to warm up my voice. Tip: lukewarm water on hand, and lion-like yawns. Scares the cats, though.
The Sirius producer called me out of the blue. That’s always a cool thing. Read the rest of this entry »
May 13, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, dancing, diabetes, diet, divorce, EMDR, father, fearless, feelings, happiness, healing, healthy diet, love, marriage, physical health, rape, self awareness, stepfather, therapy, trauma, women food and god, writing
Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
By Geneen Roth
Published March 2, 2010 (Hardcover) Scribner
There have been only two sizes of clothes in my closet for the past twenty years – fours and smalls. You may conclude that I do not need to read a book like Women Food and God. But I do.
Because inside my wicker hamper – that I bought in New York City when I was 21 and working for a fashion and beauty boutique PR agency – I have Read the rest of this entry »
May 7, 2010 · Filed under Book Reviews · Tagged abuse, alcoholism, doctor, fiction, friendship, marriage, mother, motherhood, novel, pedophilia, plastic surgery, relationships, self awareness, stepfather, storytelling, trauma, writing
Heart of the Matter
By Emily Giffin
Published May 11, 2010 (Hardcover) St Martin’s Press
The exquisite premise of Heart of the Matter tugs hard. What was the moment when your life changed its trajectory? I know that moment in mine, and I had nothing to do with it.
In Emily Giffin’s gently-written novel, that moment comes when a six-year old fatherless-boy tumbles into the campfire while roasting marshmallows at a friend’s birthday party. One side of his face and his hand suffer second and third degree burns. The boy’s single mother and the wife of the plastic surgeon who tends to little Charlie are tenuously connected – at first. Read the rest of this entry »
