We've Been There


Book Description

Candid, unfiltered stories about how it feels to be a teen adoptee The teen years are full of uncomfortable self-discovery for everyone. But adopted teens grapple with issues that make the coming of age journey immensely more difficult. Many don't have words for what they're feeling, sensing, or believing about themselves. They often don't have anyone like them to help them work through their struggles. Forced to cope on their own, they end up feeling isolated. Adoption advocate and adoptive mom Susan TeBos has watched her own children go through these struggles. Often she wished for a voice that would resonate with adopted teens--her own and others--and authentically meet them where they are. She found not one voice, but many: over thirty adopted teens and young adults. We've Been There gathers their stories, giving readers a front row seat to people with similar stories and feelings. This book is an unprecedented glimpse into the unfiltered feelings, thoughts, experiences, and unanswered questions that well up in the heart of every person with adoption in their story. From people who have been there as adopted kids, this book not only invites adopted teens to bring their concerns into the open, but also helps them process how they feel and offers them hope on the other side. In these pages, teen adoptees will understand themselves in a whole new way and find reassurance and a sense of belonging as part of a global adopted community.







I've Been There


Book Description

If you have ever experience moments in life where you felt alone in love, marriage or just not accepted. Cornan's writings are deep and heart piercing. His book is about experiences that will captivate your mind. Have you ever been in love or been with someone but didn't know the reason why? Have you lived a life of hardship and bad relationships but felt the presence of GOD through it all? Cornan writes on different venues of life such as; love, relationship, marriage, cheating, church, life, work and people of the world. He encourages people to live and appreciate life as it is and accept people for who they are and not for who we wish them to be. He understands that the world is meant for change and his poetry expresses the changes we may go through as children, teenagers and adults. His life journey shows no matter what we go through someone can relate and "No matter how hard life gets there's always words to comfort you!" And God is real!




Act Like You've Been There


Book Description

Act Like You Have Been There: Rules for My Brother began many years ago, as a set of rules for my little brother to follow, while I was living away from home. I jotted down on a piece of paper a few things that I felt he needed to understand. Little things he could refer to in case he needed guidance during a difficult time. It started as a few thoughts like: always have a firm handshake, enter a room with confidence, live with chivalry. It has since developed into a large collection of rules and words of advice.




Hello There, We've Been Waiting for You!


Book Description

When Madison McGee is orphaned and forced to live with her wacky grandmother in boring old Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, she’s pretty sure nothing will ever be right again. Her grandmother is addicted to TV shopping shows. Her only neighbors are a crazy lady and a vicious junkyard mutt. And she misses her old life something fierce. Could it get any worse? A jeans and T-shirt kind of girl, Madison refuses to be seen in the “cupcake dresses” her grandmother tries to get her to wear. Everything changes when a MegaPix 6000 TV mysteriously shows up on her doorstep. With the accidental push of a button on the remote control, Madison teleports into a dizzying world of lights, cameras, action, and peril. But with the help of a little magic, she discovers that things aren’t always what they appear to be, and that life can actually get better in a brand new way.




We Have Always Been Here


Book Description

CANADA READS 2020 WINNER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION NATIONAL BESTSELLER 2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER ONE OF BOOK RIOT'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL QUEER BOOKS OF ALL TIME How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist? Samra Habib has spent most of their life searching for the safety to be themself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, they faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From their parents, they internalized the lesson that revealing their identity could put them in grave danger. When their family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, their need for a safe space--in which to grow and nurture their creative, feminist spirit--became dire. The men in Samra's life wanted to police them, the women in their life had only shown them the example of pious obedience, and their body was a problem to be solved. So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes them to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within them all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.




Rock What You've Got


Book Description

From Katherine Schwarzenegger comes ROCK WHAT YOU'VE GOT, a hip, empowering, get-real guide to loving the body you're in. For young women today, developing a healthy body image can be a challenge. Yet Katherine Schwarzenegger has done just that. She has been there . . . and back, and has come not only to accept but to love her curvy, powerful, smart, sexy, and happy self. She wants to help other girls do the same-recognize their own beauty, both inside and out. An estimated 8 million Americans have an eating disorder. Seven million of those are young women, and more and more of them are girls. Girls are increasingly growing dissatisfied with their bodies, trying to change them and fit into some image or mold of perfection that is impossible to achieve. Where are they getting this from? The answer is clear: their moms, sisters, friends, frenemies, television, movies, magazines, and every other media outlet imaginable. When you open a magazine or watch a movie, what kind of girls do you see? Skinny ones! Impossibly perfect girls with immaculate bodies. Everywhere they look, girls are inundated with carefully airbrushed, highly inaccurate images of the female body. It's no wonder they feel something's wrong with them! In this down-to-earth, reassuring, and fun book, Katherine calls for a new way of seeing what is beautiful. Packed with informative facts, moving personal anecdotes from Katherine's life, and the voices of other Rock What You've Got women, her book celebrates the female form, whatever the size, and inspires girls to ROCK WHAT YOU'VE GOT!




There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You


Book Description

By turns, it is riotous, deeply serious, practical and sad. Reading it is like being at her kitchen table with a glass of wine to hand. (Daily Telegraph) Lynda Bellingham was a tremendously gifted storyteller with a rich collection of tales of love, loss and laughter and this memoir brings her kind heart, courage and emotion to the page in vivid detail. There's Something I've Been Dying To Tell You is a brave memoir about Lynda's battle with cancer, facing death she found joy and shared it with millions. Her story is an affecting and at times heart-breaking one but it is so often laugh-out-loud too and ultimately the way Lynda told her life story serves as a great inspiration to us all. Woven into this very moving and brave story are extraordinary, colourful tales of her acting and family life that will enlighten and entertain as well as the journey that Lynda has taken to find the family of her birth father having already suffered heartache in her search for her birth mother. In the search for her father's family, Lynda finds a family with a history in entertainment showing that acting was always in the blood. This book was written in Lynda's final months and revealed for the first time, and in great detail, her fight with cancer and how her life was transformed since her diagnosis. This edition includes a brand new chapter written by Lynda's husband Michael about his love for her, her love of life and her glorious final send-off.




I've Been Out There


Book Description

In the 1950s, as the leader of the Upsetters, the original backing band for rock pioneer Little Richard, Grady Gaines first exposed the music world to his unique brand of “honkin’,” bombastic, attitude-drenched saxophone playing. In the years that followed, the Upsetters became the backing band for Sam Cooke and crisscrossed the country as the go-to-band for revue-style tours featuring James Brown, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Supremes, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John, and Etta James. In I’ve Been Out There, the Houston blues and R&B legend Grady Gaines speaks candidly about his sixty-year music career and life on the road supporting some of the biggest names in blues, soul, and R&B. This annotated autobiographical account details Gaines's professional triumphs and personal sacrifices. The book contains anecdotes about life on the road and in the studio during a period when the entertainment industry was vastly different, affording readers a glimpse into the creative makeup of a man whose distinctive sax playing powered some of the most popular songs of the era, helped define the genre, and mesmerized countless audiences.




You've Always Been There for Me


Book Description

Today, approximately 1.6 million American children live in what social scientists call “grandfamilies”—households in which children are being raised by their grandparents. In You’ve Always Been There for Me, Rachel Dunifon uses data gathered from grandfamilies in New York to analyze their unique strengths and distinct needs. Though grandfamilies can benefit from the accumulated wisdom of mature adults raising children for a second time, Dunifon notes, such families also face high rates of health problems as well as parenting challenges related to a large generation gap. Grandfamilies are also largely hidden in American society, flying under the radar of social service agencies, policymakers, and family researchers. This book gives family researchers a greater understanding of a unique family form, and also offers service providers, policymakers and the general public important information about the lives of an important group of American families.