Consumed


Book Description

* SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 COSTA BOOK AWARDS: BIOGRAPHY * 'If her moving, engrossing, elegantly written memoir does not win prizes, there really is no justice in the literary world.' Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. When Arifa Akbar discovered that her sister had fallen seriously ill, she assumed there would be a brief spell in hospital and then she'd be home. This was not to be. It was not until the day before she died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis. Consumed is a story of sisterhood, grief, the redemptive power of art and the strange mythologies that surround tuberculosis. It takes us from Keats's deathbed and the tubercular women of opera to the resurgence of TB in modern Britain today. Arifa travels to Rome to haunt the places Keats and her sister had explored, to her grandparent's house in Pakistan, to her sister's bedside at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and back to a London of the seventies when her family first arrived, poor, homeless and hungry. Consumed is an eloquent and moving excavation of a family's secrets and a sister's detective story to understand her sibling.




The Sister Book


Book Description

Bestselling and beloved creator Todd Parr brings his trademark wit and wisdom to this celebration of all different kinds of sisters! Some sisters are big. Some sisters are little. Some sisters want to be scientists. Some sister want to be mermaids. All sisters are a special part of your family! Following up on his family classics The Mommy Book, The Daddy Book, The Grandma Book, and The Grandpa Book, Todd Parr turns to siblings! With his trademark childlike art, Todd celebrates all different kinds of sisters. Whether they are older or younger, enjoy helping in the kitchen or the garage, live with you or live far away, sisters are always a special part of your family. This sibling celebration is perfect for sisters of all ages, and for older girls and boys who are expecting a new little one.




A Girl Returned


Book Description

“One of the best Italian novels of the year” in a pitch-perfect rendering in English by Ann Goldstein, Elena Ferrante’s translator (Huffington Post, Italy). Winner of the Campiello Prize A 2019 Best Book of the Year (The Washington Post Kirkus Reviews Dallas Morning News) Told with an immediacy and a rare expressive intensity that has earned it countless adoring readers and one of Italy’s most prestigious literary prizes, A Girl Returned is a powerful novel rendered with sensitivity and verve by Ann Goldstein, translator of the works of Elena Ferrante. Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving. Without warning or explanation, an unnamed thirteen-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self. “An achingly beautiful book, and an utterly devastating one.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “Di Pietrantonio [has a] lively way with a phrase (the translator, Ann Goldstein, shows the same sensitivity she does with Elena Ferrante) [and] a fine instinct for detail.” —The Washington Post “A gripping, deeply moving coming-of-age novel; immensely readable, beautifully written, and highly recommended.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Captivating.” —The Economist




Big Brothers Are the Best


Book Description

A new big brother finds lots to love about his new baby.




Bereft


Book Description

Reflecting on the murder of her sister many years earlier, the author embarks on a journey to uncover everything she can about the crime, including the motive, which is strangely absent from her recollections.




The Sisters? Story


Book Description

The Sisters' Story - Legend of Queen Brighton and Sister Jasmine This is the story of two sisters who are born into a peaceful and beautiful isolated valley. But fate or Providence has a job for each of them far from home. The story tells of how they find a path over the forbidding crags that hem their valley in, although nobody else believed it even existed, and so they make their way at last to the kingdom their ancestors fled from long ago, though as yet they do not know any of their history. The girls grow into women; they were teenagers when they set out from home, and each finds what seems to be a place in life and a destiny - yet it is not to be. The older meets her prince charming and marries him. For a while they reign happily enough, yet we see the cares and responsibilities that they bear as the rulers. The younger chooses another path and so they go their separate ways, as siblings generally do. In differing ways also, grave trials and despair come to each. Each wrestles with hopelessness and temptations, yearning for the childhood love with which they supported each other, but not finding it. So, still separated, each makes at length for home and peace, where they are reconciled and spend their days fruitfully in happiness, although the way home is not easy either. The story is about conquest and overcoming, through courage, honesty, faith and love. It is about how two innocents go into the World and gain much, and loose much too. They return home, yet in the wisdom each has learned, the gifts they bring from the outside back to their rustic valley are only beneficial. They also leave behind something of the simple, honest and kindly ways of the Valley in the lands they visited. This is not an allegory, although there may be parallels drawn about choices and their consequences and the sincere effort that repentance and returning may require. It is not a fairy story either - there is no fairy godmother, no wizard and no magic unless it be the magic conjured by love for another, and courage and a good heart. It is a story embodying hope and purpose, even when the actors in the story do not know at that time what it may be.




Dubliners


Book Description

Dubliners is a collection of picturesque short stories that paint a portrait of life in middle-class Dublin in the early 20th century. Joyce, a Dublin native, was careful to use actual locations and settings in the city, as well as language and slang in use at the time, to make the stories directly relatable to those who lived there. The collection had a rocky publication history, with the stories being initially rejected over eighteen times before being provisionally accepted by a publisher—then later rejected again, multiple times. It took Joyce nine years to finally see his stories in print, but not before seeing a printer burn all but one copy of the proofs. Today Dubliners survives as a rich example of not just literary excellence, but of what everyday life was like for average Dubliners in their day. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.




Dear Sister


Book Description

“While books on sibling rivalry abound, [Dear Sister] brings freshness to the topic with McGhee's gentle humor and poignant scenarios…Dear indeed.” —Kirkus Reviews “A meaningful look at…siblinghood and all its foibles.” —Publishers Weekly What do you do when you have an incredibly annoying little sister? Write her letters telling her so, of course! From New York Times bestselling author Alison McGhee comes a wickedly funny, illustrated, heartwarming, and searingly honest collection of letters from an older brother to his little sister. Whininess, annoyingness, afraid of the darkness, refusal to eat lima beans, and pulling brother’s hair. These are the criteria on which little sisters are graded. Inspired by the notes Alison McGhee’s own kids would write each other, this heavily illustrated collection of letters and messages from an older brother to his little sister reveal the special love—or, at the very least, tolerance—siblings have for each other.




The Shadow Sister


Book Description

"Star D'Apliaese is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father--the elusive billionaire, affectionately called Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted from across the four corners of the world. He has left each of them a clue to her true heritage, and Star nervously decides to follow hers, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world. A hundred years earlier, headstrong and independent Flora MacNichol vows she will never marry. She is happy and secure in her home in England's picturesque Lake District--just a stone's throw away from the residence of her childhood idol, Beatrix Potter--when machinations lead her to London, and the home of one of Edwardian society's most notorious society hostesses, Alice Keppel"--Amazon.com.




My Sister's Story


Book Description

Sonya's House founded in 2016, celebrates the life and spirit of Sonya Thompson. After 11 years of fighting, Sonya lost her battle from complications related to AIDS. Along her journey, she had difficulty accepting and compliance with her daunting medication regimen. From her experience, while caring for Sonya, the founder recognized the need for support within the Dallas Community and has heeded its call. No one should endure this battle alone and we are here to help. Opening 2017, this boarding house facility specializes in working with people affected by the virus that causes HIV and AIDS. We recognize the difficulty in adjusting to this life altering change; which can be mental, spiritual, physical and financial. Our goal is to provide low income housing and holistic care during this time. Here at Sonya's House we want every individual affected by this illness to live life abundantly. In memory of Sonya, we will be there as partners on this journey. If you would like to learn more about Sonya's House please contact the Founder Nepfrintina Hawkins.