Dinner with the Smileys

Dinner with the Smileys PDF Author: Sarah Smiley
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1401305342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Fifty-two guests take turns filling a military father's chair at his family's dinner table while he serves his yearlong deployment. The week before Thanksgiving 2011, Dustin Smiley left for a yearlong military deployment. Soon after, his son Ford, eleven, invited Senator Susan Collins to fill his dad's chair at dinner. On January 3, 2012, Senator Collins came to dinner ... and brought brownies. So began Dinner with the Smileys, nationally syndicated columnist Sarah Smiley's fifty-two-week commitment to fill her husband's place at the family dinner table with interesting people--from schoolteachers to Olympians, professional athletes to famous authors, comedians to politicians--and unique role models for her three sons, even as she knows Dustin's seat cannot truly be "filled" until he is home again for the fifty-third dinner. Why dinner? Because dinnertime is often the loneliest time for people living alone. If houses and apartments were like dollhouses with one side totally exposed, Sarah says, we'd see plenty of people eating alone to the glow of a television. That was the fate Sarah feared for herself and her children during Dustin's absence. So she opened her home, and she and the kids sent invitations. And they found that a surprising number of people really are available for dinner. You just have to ask. In a time when popular culture leads us to believe that the family dinner table is dead, Dinner with the Smileys shows people that time spent with family, friends, and neighbors is still very much part of the American lifestyle.

Dinner with the Smileys

Dinner with the Smileys PDF Author: Sarah Smiley
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1401305342
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Get Book

Book Description
Fifty-two guests take turns filling a military father's chair at his family's dinner table while he serves his yearlong deployment. The week before Thanksgiving 2011, Dustin Smiley left for a yearlong military deployment. Soon after, his son Ford, eleven, invited Senator Susan Collins to fill his dad's chair at dinner. On January 3, 2012, Senator Collins came to dinner ... and brought brownies. So began Dinner with the Smileys, nationally syndicated columnist Sarah Smiley's fifty-two-week commitment to fill her husband's place at the family dinner table with interesting people--from schoolteachers to Olympians, professional athletes to famous authors, comedians to politicians--and unique role models for her three sons, even as she knows Dustin's seat cannot truly be "filled" until he is home again for the fifty-third dinner. Why dinner? Because dinnertime is often the loneliest time for people living alone. If houses and apartments were like dollhouses with one side totally exposed, Sarah says, we'd see plenty of people eating alone to the glow of a television. That was the fate Sarah feared for herself and her children during Dustin's absence. So she opened her home, and she and the kids sent invitations. And they found that a surprising number of people really are available for dinner. You just have to ask. In a time when popular culture leads us to believe that the family dinner table is dead, Dinner with the Smileys shows people that time spent with family, friends, and neighbors is still very much part of the American lifestyle.

Stand by Your Truth

Stand by Your Truth PDF Author: Rickey Smiley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501178628
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Part memoir, part testimonial, and part life guide, Stand by Your Truth mixes Rickey Smiley’s down-home humor with the values he learned from being raised by three generations of elders, steeped in the Baptist church, and mentored by some of the most celebrated comics in the entertainment industry today. “I’m very passionate about everything that I do and I don’t play any games. I just keep it honest. I don’t put on airs. That’s the only way you can be. If you tell one lie, you’ve got to tell another lie. I’m cool with who I am. What you see is what you get.” Stand-up comic. Single dad. Radio personality. TV star. Prankster. Producer. Community activist. Man of faith. Visit a church, comedy club, college campus, or barber shop, and you’ll find few people who aren’t familiar with, or fans of, Rickey Smiley. At least four million listeners in more than seventy markets tune in every weekday morning to hear him banter with his radio show crew, hilariously prank call an unsuspecting listener, and perform skits featuring his one-man cast of characters, including “Lil Darryl,” “Beauford,” and “Joe Willie.” But in between the rapid-fire jokes and celebrity dish are flashes of how Rickey views the world, from the challenges of raising children, to the importance of education, to the need to always stand by your own truth. After more than two decades in the spotlight, Rickey is finally ready to delve more deeply into the opinions he voices on the air, riffing on those issues that his listeners, viewers, and fans find most important. This collection of personal and powerful essays will speak to readers from all walks of life, and is sure to inspire you to Stand by Your Truth.

Falling Through Clouds

Falling Through Clouds PDF Author: Damian Fowler
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250026237
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"Mommy burned up." On a cloudy day in August 2003, Grace and Lily Pearson, 4 and 3, were flying in their uncle's plane along with their mother on their way to their grandpa's birthday party near Lake Superior, when Lily noticed the trees out the window were growing close; so close she could almost touch them. Before the trees tore into the cabin, Grace had the strange sensation of falling through clouds. A story of tragedy, survival, and justice, Damian Fowler's Falling Through Clouds is about a young father's fight for his family in the wake of a plane crash that killed his wife, badly injured his two daughters, and thrust him into a David-vs-Goliath legal confrontation with a multi-billion dollar insurance company. Blindsided when he was sued in federal court by this insurance company, Toby Pearson made it his mission to change aviation insurance law in his home state and nationally, while nursing his daughters to recovery and recreating his own life. Falling Through Clouds charts the dramatic journey of a man who turned a personal tragedy into an important victory for himself, his girls, and many other Americans.

Going Overboard

Going Overboard PDF Author: Sarah Smiley
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101210664
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
In 1999, Sarah was a typical bride-to-be, flustered with wedding details. Then the groom called. “I don’t want you to panic, but I might not be able to come to our wedding....” So began Sarah Smiley’s life as a military wife. As a former Navy brat herself, Sarah knew better than anyone that weddings and funerals—even childbirth!—take a backseat to Uncle Sam. But just as the young, nationally syndicated columnist was getting comfortable with the military wife’s routine, her husband was sent away for an unexpected deployment. What followed was a true test of strength and wit. From getting locked out of the house in cowgirl pajamas to wrestling with the temptation of infidelity, Sarah exposes it all with candor, heart—and knowing humor.

Got Here As Soon As I Could

Got Here As Soon As I Could PDF Author: Sarah Smiley
Publisher: Down East Books
ISBN: 1608935779
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
I’m not from Maine… but I got here as soon as I could. Six years ago, a family from Florida fell in love with “the way life should be,” and although they’ve never seen a moose, the Smileys intend to stay. Because say what you will about the cold winters and the messy mud season, there is no other place to raise a kid than in the great state of Maine. Got Here As Soon As I Could is a collection of syndicated columnist Sarah Smiley’s most-loved columns about raising a family in Maine. In these 100 essays, readers will laugh, cry and nod their head “yes” as they remember a time when all of America was as simple and beautiful as it still is today in Vacationland.

Moo

Moo PDF Author: Jane Smiley
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307805298
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes “an uproariously funny and at the same time hauntingly melancholy portrait of a college community in the Midwest" (The New York Times). In this darkly satirical send-up of academia and the Midwest, we are introduced to Moo University, a distinguished institution devoted to the study of agriculture. Amid cow pastures and waving fields of grain, Moo’s campus churns with devious plots, mischievous intrigue, lusty liaisons, and academic one-upmanship, Chairman X of the Horticulture Department harbors a secret fantasy to kill the dean; Mrs. Walker, the provost's right hand and campus information queen, knows where all the bodies are buried; Timothy Monahan, associate professor of English, advocates eavesdropping for his creative writing assignments; and Bob Carlson, a sophomore, feeds and maintains his only friend: a hog named Earl Butz. Wonderfully written and masterfully plotted, Moo gives us a wickedly funny slice of life.

Ten Days in the Hills

Ten Days in the Hills PDF Author: Jane Smiley
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307267350
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this novel set in Hollywood Hills after the 2003 Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of A Thousand Acres delivers “a blazing farce, a fiery satire of contemporary celebrity culture and a rich, simmering meditation on the price of war and fame and desire.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review In the aftermath of the 2003 Academy Awards, Max and Elena—he's an Oscar-winning writer/director—open their Holywood Hills home to a group of friends and neighbors, industy insiders and hangers–on, eager to escape the outside world and dissect the latest news, gossip, and secrets of the business. Over the next ten days, old lovers collide, new relationships form, and sparks fly, all with Smiley's signature sparkling wit and characterization. With its breathtaking passion and sexy irreverence, Ten Days in the Hills is a glowing addition to the work of one of our most beloved novelists.

Journey of a Strong-Willed Child

Journey of a Strong-Willed Child PDF Author: Kendra K. Smiley
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 9781575673066
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
You can Parent Like a Pro™ with Kendra and John Smiley! Readers will be familiar with Kendra’s strong-willed child, Aaron, from Aaron’s Way. Updated and refreshed, this book brings to life and light the challenges of rearing a child who wants to do things his or her own way. Resident Dad John Smiley lends his insights on the father’s role in a willful child’s discipline, and Aaron — now grown — adds his unique perspective.

The Age of Grief

The Age of Grief PDF Author: Jane Smiley
Publisher: Mantle
ISBN: 176078558X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
In this brilliant collection of five short stories and a novella, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley presents six unforgettable portraits exploring the perils of domestic life. I am thirty-five years old, and it seems to me that I have reached the age of grief. Others arrive there sooner. Almost no one arrives much later . . . In the title novella, a man who has reached the 'age of grief' slowly realizes that his wife is in love with someone else. Unsure whether his marriage is best protected by confronting her or by feigning ignorance, he struggles to repress his anguish and to prevent his wife discovering that he is aware of her infidelity . . . Accompanying this novella are five short stories, including The Pleasure of Her Company, in which a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret to their happiness. And Long Distance, in which a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape.

Night of the Twisters

Night of the Twisters PDF Author: Ivy Ruckman
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0064401766
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
When a tornado watch is issued one Tuesday evening in June, twelve-year-old Dan Hatch and his best friend, Arthur, don't think much of it. After all, tornado warnings are a way of life during the summer in Grand Island, Nebraska. But soon enough, the wind begins to howl, and the lights and telephone stop working. Then the emergency siren starts to wail. Dan, his baby brother, and Arthur have only seconds to get to the basement before the monstrous twister is on top of them. Little do they know that even if they do survive the storm, their ordeal will have only just begun. . . .