Her Closest Strangers

Her Closest Strangers PDF Author: Anandi Mehrotra
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1638865507
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
“Maybe this was a ‘coincidence? I think not’ kind of scenario. Or a more likely case-the universe was just playing a cruel trick on me. And just like that, I was back in Nostalgia town, and looking around, I realized it was a ghost town. There was no one here and I was clawing at my chest, trying to get some air. I needed to escape. I needed to escape because the absolute desolation of this place was choking me. I was trying to find an exit, I was banging on doors, I was standing in the centre of the town and screaming as loud as I could, but no one came. No one heard me. I was trapped. And I couldn’t get out.” - Emerald. Emerald Johnson comes across some horrifying finds when she breaks into her father’s study- discoveries that would forever change the course of her life. As she launches a covert operation to find out the real truth behind her father’s mysterious double life, Emerald begins to track the victims of “her father’s depravity”. A new chapter of her life begins when she moves to Oxford and is reunited with her old friends, Trey and Charlie, who had supposedly abandoned her four years ago. Her vision of a peaceful life in Oxford soon distorts into an ordeal as she finds herself entangled in a web of lies and treachery; having to look behind her back every step of the way. And that’s when the plot takes a sudden twist. “Mine was a different kind of chess, with a different set of players. It felt like a puzzle that I’d wrongly assembled, perhaps, because it looked so twisted, but it was also missing one piece. The centre piece.” -Trey.

Her Closest Strangers

Her Closest Strangers PDF Author: Anandi Mehrotra
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 1638865507
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
“Maybe this was a ‘coincidence? I think not’ kind of scenario. Or a more likely case-the universe was just playing a cruel trick on me. And just like that, I was back in Nostalgia town, and looking around, I realized it was a ghost town. There was no one here and I was clawing at my chest, trying to get some air. I needed to escape. I needed to escape because the absolute desolation of this place was choking me. I was trying to find an exit, I was banging on doors, I was standing in the centre of the town and screaming as loud as I could, but no one came. No one heard me. I was trapped. And I couldn’t get out.” - Emerald. Emerald Johnson comes across some horrifying finds when she breaks into her father’s study- discoveries that would forever change the course of her life. As she launches a covert operation to find out the real truth behind her father’s mysterious double life, Emerald begins to track the victims of “her father’s depravity”. A new chapter of her life begins when she moves to Oxford and is reunited with her old friends, Trey and Charlie, who had supposedly abandoned her four years ago. Her vision of a peaceful life in Oxford soon distorts into an ordeal as she finds herself entangled in a web of lies and treachery; having to look behind her back every step of the way. And that’s when the plot takes a sudden twist. “Mine was a different kind of chess, with a different set of players. It felt like a puzzle that I’d wrongly assembled, perhaps, because it looked so twisted, but it was also missing one piece. The centre piece.” -Trey.

Mothers and Other Strangers

Mothers and Other Strangers PDF Author: Gina Sorell
Publisher: Prospect Park Books
ISBN: 1938849906
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man’s child, she accepted." Thus begins this riveting story of a woman's quest to understand her recently deceased mother, a glamorous, cruel narcissist who left her only child an inheritance of debts, threats, and mysteries.

Strangers Drowning

Strangers Drowning PDF Author: Larissa MacFarquhar
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143109782
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others? In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. A couple adopts two children in distress. But then they think: If they can change two lives, why not four? Or ten? They adopt twenty. But how do they weigh the needs of unknown children in distress against the needs of the children they already have? Another couple founds a leprosy colony in the wilderness in India, living in huts with no walls, knowing that their two small children may contract leprosy or be eaten by panthers. The children survive. But what if they hadn’t? How would their parents’ risk have been judged? A woman believes that if she spends money on herself, rather than donate it to buy life-saving medicine, then she’s responsible for the deaths that result. She lives on a fraction of her income, but wonders: when is compromise self-indulgence and when is it essential? We honor such generosity and high ideals; but when we call people do-gooders there is skepticism in it, even hostility. Why do moral people make us uneasy? Between her stories, MacFarquhar threads a lively history of the literature, philosophy, social science, and self-help that have contributed to a deep suspicion of do-gooders in Western culture. Through its sympathetic and beautifully vivid storytelling, Strangers Drowning confronts us with fundamental questions about what it means to be human. In a world of strangers drowning in need, how much should we help, and how much can we help? Is it right to care for strangers even at the expense of those we are closest to? Moving and provocative, Strangers Drowning challenges us to think about what we value most, and why.

The Closest Stranger

The Closest Stranger PDF Author: Shane Ballon
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1468506900
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This story follows the last book of, "The Closest Stranger" when Amy Hill is released from Oakcrest Mental Institution. After spending her whole teenage life under the instituions control without a clue of why she was there in the first place; she finds herself now having to fend for herself in the real world without any knowledge of how life is supposed to go. After a few days of struggling on her own she decides to search for answers by finding her birth parents. She discovers her decision was probably not the best choice to make as she starts to reveal disturbing secrets of her family as her own demons start to surface.

The Kindness of Strangers

The Kindness of Strangers PDF Author: Katrina Kittle
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062292234
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
“A moving novel” of a family’s struggle with trauma written in “clear prose” that lends “a luminous quality to [a] story of thriving against the odds”(People magazine). Sarah Laden, a young widow and mother of two, struggles to keep her family together. Since the death of her husband, her teenage son, Nate, has developed a rebellious streak. Her kindhearted younger son, Danny, struggles to pass his remedial classes. All the while, Sarah must make ends meet by running a catering business out of her home. But when a shocking and unbelievable revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another young boy into her already tumultuous life. Jordan, a quiet and reclusive elementary-school boy and classmate of Danny's, has survived a terrible tragedy, leaving him without a family. When Sarah becomes Jordan's foster mother, a relationship develops that will force her to question the things of which she thought she was so sure. Yet Sarah is not the only one changed by this young boy, and as the delicate balance that holds her family together begins to falter, the Ladens will all face truths about themselves and one another—and discover the power of love to forgive and to heal. Powerful and poignant, The Kindness of Strangers is a shocking look at how the tragedy of a single family in a small suburban town can affect so many. Katrina Kittle has created a haunting vision of the secret lives of the people we think we know best, and with heartrending storytelling, reveals that redemption is always possible. “Kittle crafts a disturbing but compelling story line. . . . [A] gripping read.” —Publishers Weekly “Utterly compelling. . . . [A] heartbreaking story.” —Kirkus Reviews

Never Smile at Strangers

Never Smile at Strangers PDF Author: Jennifer Jaynes
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: 9781477821916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
When a young woman vanishes without a trace, the residents of rural Grand Trespass, Louisiana, begin to regard each other with suspicion even as a killer hides quietly in their midst.

The Stranger in the Woods

The Stranger in the Woods PDF Author: Michael Finkel
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1101911530
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality—not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own. “A meditation on solitude, wildness and survival.” —The Wall Street Journal In 1986, a shy and intelligent twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothing, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of his secluded life—why did he leave? what did he learn?—as well as the challenges he has faced since returning to the world. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded.

Beloved Strangers

Beloved Strangers PDF Author: Maria Chaudhuri
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408844613
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
A bright and brilliant new voice from Bangladesh 'Moving, lyrical and curious – this memoir effortlessly captures the disorientating feeling of growing up in a world that misunderstands you' Red On and on we dream, we wish, we love - no matter that the dreams come to an end, the wishes evolve or that love dissipates like dust in the wind. Perhaps, what matters only is that we have lived long enough to dream, hard enough to wish and indisputably enough to love. One of Maria's early memories growing up in Dhaka is of planning to run away with her friend Nadia. Even then, Maria couldn't quite figure out why she longed to escape. It is not that home is an unhappy place. It's just that in her family, joy is ephemeral. With a mother who yearns for the mountains, the solitude and freedom to pursue her own dreams and career, and a charismatic but distant father who finds it difficult to expresses emotion, they are never able to hold on to happiness for very long. Maria studies the Holy Book, says her daily prayers and wonders if God is watching her. She dreams, like her mother, of unstitching the seam of her life. It is her neighbour, Bablu, the Imitator of Frogs, who both excites and repulses Maria by showing her a yellowing pornographic magazine, but it is Mala, a girl her own age who comes to work in their house, whose wise eyes and wicked smile makes her dizzy with longing. When she moves to New England for university at eighteen Maria meets Yameen, a man who lives in a desperately squalid apartment in Jersey City, woos her with phone calls and a marathon night of drinking in New York bars, and is not what he seems... From Dhaka to New York, this is a candid and moving account of growing up and growing away, a meditation on why people leave their homes and why they sometimes find it difficult to return. Beloved Strangers is an unforgettable memoir marking the arrival of a brilliant new voice from Bangladesh.

Born Together—Reared Apart

Born Together—Reared Apart PDF Author: Nancy L. Segal
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674065158
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart startled scientists by demonstrating that twins reared apart are as alike, across a number of personality traits and other measures, as those raised together, suggesting that genetic influence is pervasive. Segal offers an overview of the study’s scientific contributions and effect on public consciousness.

See No Stranger

See No Stranger PDF Author: Valarie Kaur
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0525509097
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize • “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken world while not breaking ourselves? Valarie Kaur—renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer—describes revolutionary love as the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation. Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey—as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see.