Audrey Meyerwitz wants to fall in love and have a family. But for this queer 30-something insomniac who' s struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since childhood, it' s a goal that' s far from simple. When best friend Jessica, a recovering alcoholic, helps introvert Audrey with a profile on SheLovesHer, Audrey takes that scary first step toward her lifelong dream. Through online dating, immigrating to Canada, and having a baby with Down Syndrome, she struggles and grows. But when Audrey unearths a secret about her mother, everything about her identity as a mother, a daughter, and a person with mental illness ruptures. How do we create closeness from roots of deep alienation? With humor, honesty, and complexity, Audrey learns that healthy love means accepting gains and losses, taking off the blinders of fantasy, and embracing the messiness that defines human families.

Winner of a 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze Medal One size fits all does not apply to pregnancy and childbirth. Each one is different, unique, and comes with its share of pleasure and pain. But how does one prepare for an unexpected loss of a pregnancy or hoped-for baby? In How to Expect What You're Not Expecting, writers share their true stories of miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and other, related losses. This literary anthology picks up where some pregnancy books end and offers diverse, honest, and moving essays that can prepare and guide women and their families for when the unforeseen happens. Contributors include Chris Arthur, Kim Aubrey, Janet Baker, Yvonne Blomer, Jennifer Bowering Delisle, Kevin Bray, Erika Connor, Sadiqa de Meijer, Jessica Hiemstra, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Lisa Martin-DeMoor, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, Susan Olding, Laura Rock, Gail Marlene Schwartz, Maureen Scott Harris, Carrie Snyder, Cathy Stonehouse, and Chris Tarry. The fourth book in a loosely linked series of anthologies about the twenty-first-century family, How to Expect What You're Not Expecting follows Somebody's Child, Nobody's Mother, and Nobody's Father, essay collections about adoption and childless adults. Together, these four books challenge readers to re-examine traditional definitions of the concept of "family."

Audrey Meyerwitz wants to fall in love and have a family. But for this queer 30-something insomniac who' s struggled with Generalized Anxiety Disorder since childhood, it' s a goal that' s far from simple. When best friend Jessica, a recovering alcoholic, helps introvert Audrey with a profile on SheLovesHer, Audrey takes that scary first step toward her lifelong dream. Through online dating, immigrating to Canada, and having a baby with Down Syndrome, she struggles and grows. But when Audrey unearths a secret about her mother, everything about her identity as a mother, a daughter, and a person with mental illness ruptures. How do we create closeness from roots of deep alienation? With humor, honesty, and complexity, Audrey learns that healthy love means accepting gains and losses, taking off the blinders of fantasy, and embracing the messiness that defines human families.

In this groundbreaking collection, well-known and cutting-edge authors bring to light life with mental illness. These evocative essays, by writers who either suffer from or have close family members diagnosed with mental illness or a developmental disorder, aim to break down the stigma that surrounds one of the most devastating of human tribulations. The writers recount their experiences with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. What does it feel like to be psychotic? What sorts of thoughts go through your mind while you are killing yourself? How does a mother go on after her schizophrenic son throws himself into an unfinished construction site? The anthology drills to the core of compassion and disappointment—transcending hope and sometimes finding beauty in insanity. With a foreword by physician and bestselling author Gabor Maté, MD, Hidden Lives gives readers a place to turn and communicates not despair but courage.

Samuel knows that their real name is Simone, but things at their house are too quiet to think about how to tell their parents. When Chloe the costume designer moves in across the street with a dog about to have puppies, life becomes bigger, more colourful, and louder. And so does Simone.Teacher resources available on publisher website: rebelmountainpress.com/the-loudest-bark-quel-jappements-teacher-resources

A PRIVILEGED standalone novel, get ready for secret societies, international romance, and college debauchery...If you're in, you'll never have to ask. If you ask, you'll never be in.Eloise Mason knows what it's like to live among the privileged. Seeking a change from the upper crust society of Europe, she flies halfway across the world for a semester abroad in the one place guaranteed to toss responsibility out the window and provide some good, old-fashioned fun; college in The United States.Except nothing at the picturesque, Ivy-covered university in Vermont appears as it seems. And after a mysterious invitation arrives on her doorstep, curiosity wins over the need to turn her back on games meant for the rich and ruthless.Secret societies, risky tasks, and an inner circle to rival the royals. But it may just be one American boy who threatens to be the most dangerous endeavor of all.Colton Reiter defines the word idolized at Jade Mountain University. In fact, he practically rules the roost from the three point line of the basketball court. The college's star point guard, he is a god and treated as such; professional scouts at every game, teachers looking the other way when it comes to grades, and girls falling into his lap at the snap of a finger. He wants for nothing, or at least that's what he wants everyone to believe.But when he meets the sassy girl with the British accent who could care less about his status, her very existence threatens to unveil the skeletons buried deep in the back of his closet.With stakes this high, and hearts on the line, can they turn their backs on power and popularity before the ivory tower comes crashing down on their heads?

From Wall Street Journal, USA Today Bestselling and RITA® Award-winning Author Kennedy Ryan, comes a captivating second chance romance like only she can deliver... The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can't have… Dig a little and you'll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern. Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old. Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other. The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence. Get into our business and you'll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant. Twenty years later, my "awkward duckling" best friend from childhood, the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore. Finer. Fiercer. Smarter. Taken. Tell me it's wrong. Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have. When we find each other again, everything stands in our way--secrets, lies, promises. But we didn't come this far to give up now. And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.