Ordinary paradise

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Mira Ptacin

"Guided by the narrative of her mother's tragic loss of a son years earlier, Mira Ptacin confronts an unexpected pregnancy with a child who has no chance of survival outside the womb. At age twenty-eight, Mira Ptacin discovered she was pregnant. Though it was unplanned, she soon embraced the pregnancy and became engaged to Andrew, the father. Five months later, an ultrasound revealed birth defects that would give the child no chance of survival outside the womb. Mira was given three options: terminate her pregnancy, induce early delivery, or wait and inevitably miscarry. Mira's story is woven together with the story of her mother, who emigrated from Poland, also at the age of twenty-eight, and adopted a son, Julian. Julian would die tragically, bringing her an unimaginable grief. A memoir about loss and self-preservation, grief and recovery, and mothers and daughters, Poor Your Soul is a beautiful examination of free will, love, and the fierce bonds of family"-- "At age twenty-eight, Mira Ptacin discovered she was pregnant. Though it was unplanned, she soon embraced the pregnancy and became engaged to Andrew, the father. Five months later, an ultrasound revealed birth defects that would give the child no chance of survival outside the womb. Mira was given three options: terminate her pregnancy, induce early delivery, or wait and inevitably miscarry. Mira's story is woven together with the story of her mother, who emigrated from Poland, also at the age of twenty-eight, and adopted a son, Julian. Julian would die tragically, bringing her an unimaginable grief. A memoir about loss and self-preservation, grief and recovery, and mothers and daughters, Poor Your Soul is a beautiful examination of free will, love, and the fierce bonds of family"--

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Valérie de Courville Nicol

Social Economies of Fear and Desire contributes to the study of emotional life as bound to social life. It shows that emotional experience is structured by forms of felt in/capacity₇emotional norms that emerge through the successes and failures of embodied beings in the exercise of autonomy, and that are acquired through emotional socialization. Economies of fear and desire are the social configurations within which particular kinds of urges to act can be placed, together with the danger and security signs that trigger their experience, the objects of fear and desire they designate, and the means in the exercise of power with which they become associated. Their study should aid in the understanding of contemporary forms of suffering and well-being.

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John Pavlovitz

"Grief is a solitary road. Even if we are fortunate enough to have people alongside us during the journey, (as I have been), no one can really travel all the way with us. Our pain and our path are as individual as the relationship we share with the person we've lost. When my father died suddenly back in September of 2013, I began doing what I always do: I started writing. I did it to somehow make sense of my own grief, and to keep moving through the place I now call The Grief Valley. These seven short chapters, (the first one written just three days after his passing) are some of the most personal things I've ever shared. They're also some of the writings I'm most proud of. I've collected them here, in the hopes that they will be an encouragement and source of comfort for those experiencing loss of someone they love dearly, though I know each path will be a completely different one. This work represents a real-time processing of my first year without my Dad. It's not a "how-to" book by any means, but maybe in my story, you'll find something that you yourself can own; something to make your personal road through the Grief Valley a little more bearable. Be encouraged. Keep walking."--Amazon.com.

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Nina Shandler

Mothers of adolescent girls speak out on the challenges, frustrations, and concerns of dealing with teenagers, discussing such topics as love and sex, friends, drugs and alcohol, and changes in their daughters' and their own lives.