Mom's Needs, Dad's Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Revell (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800731018
• ISBN-13: 978-0800731014
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces

Product Description

It isn't easy to keep a marriage passionate. Every parent knows how quiet dinners and romantic evenings seem to disappear in the wake of school projects, potty training, and middle-of-the-night feedings. In fact, with children underfoot, it can seem downright impossible. Mom's Needs, Dad's Needs guides both new and seasoned parents through specific, practical steps to help them sustain a great marriage while raising happy and successful children. Dr. Harley, best-selling author of His Needs, Her Needs, gives expert advice on everything from romance and values to emotional needs and time constraints. How should parents approach child-training methods? How can household tasks be divided fairly? How can you maintain a romantic marriage after kids? It's all here. Dr. Harley's insightful and practical advice shows parents what it takes to stay in love with each other and raise happy and successful children at the same time. Previously published as His Needs, Her Needs for Parents

From the Back Cover

Passion after kids? It's not impossible! Finding time to laugh together, talk with each other, and enjoy each other's company came easily when it was just the two of you. But then you had children. Suddenly, quiet dinners and romantic evenings disappeared in the wake of school projects, potty training, and middle-of-the-night feedings. In Mom's Needs, Dad's Needs, Willard F. Harley Jr. will show you how to restore the passion in your marriage, keep your marriage healthy, and keep your children happy, by making your relationship with your spouse your top priority. With everything from dividing household tasks fairly to meeting intimate emotional needs, the advice in this book will help you do what it takes to build a love that lasts a lifetime. If marriage and parenting leave you feeling overwhelmed, know that you're not alone. The truth is, it isn't easy to keep a marriage passionate. And with children underfoot, it can seem downright impossible. But if you take Dr. Harley's advice, you can have it all-a terrific marriage and happy children.

About the Author

Willard F. Harley Jr. is a nationally acclaimed clinical psychologist, marriage counselor, and best-selling author. His popular web site, www.marriagebuilders.com, offers practical solutions to almost any marital problem. Dr. Harley leads Marriage Builders Weekends across the country and lives in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, with Joyce, his wife of forty years.

The Modern Dad's Dilemma: How to Stay Connected with Your Kids in a Rapidly Changing World by John Badalament

Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: New World Library; Original edition (May 11, 2010)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1577316606

ISBN-13: 978-1577316602

The Modern Dad's Dilemma: How to Stay Connected with Your Kids in a Rapidly Changing World by John Badalament (May 11, 2010)

Table of Contents:-

Chapter 1 Create Your Own Vision
Chapter 2 Be the Bridge between Your Past and Your Future
Chapter 3 Be a New Kind of Provider
Chapter 4 Find Balance through Ritual
Chapter 5 Know Your Children
Chapter 6 Be Known by Your Children
Conclusion
Appendix: Exercises
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About  the Author

Other Reviews


“John Badalament is hands down the most innovative voice in helping men from all walks of life become the fathers they want to be. This book has the power to change your life and, more important, your children’s lives.” — Terrence Real, author of The New Rules of Marriage


“John Badalament’s work will help all of us.” — Robert Coles, MD, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the Children of Crisis series


“This book will help you build healthy and prosperous relationships with your children.” — Chris Sanders, former NFL wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans


“The refresher course that many dads need to reconnect with their children.” — Patrick F. Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools


“John Badalament’s powerful message is as vital for women as it is for men. It is no exaggeration to say that this compelling book could save some lives.” — Jean Kilbourne, EdD, coauthor of So Sexy So Soon and author of Deadly Persuasion


“John Badalament’s message is exactly what this generation of fathers needs. Times have changed, and Badalament gives dads the tools to keep up.” — Abigail Tuller, editor in chief of Mom and Pregnancy magazines


About the Book 


More is expected of dads today than ever before. Drawing on his experience working with thousands of dads and families, John Badalament delivers a hands-on approach to meeting the everyday challenges of modern fatherhood. 


Told through the stories of a diverse group of fifteen real dads who have attended John Badalament’s pioneering workshops, The Modern Dad’s Dilemma is filled with practical information, road-tested activities, and key skills dads can put to use right away. 


Learn to:
* Balance family time with work demands 
* Build open communication with your kids, no matter how old they are
* Model a healthy relationship with your children’s mother
* Sort through your own father’s legacy



About the Author


John Badalament, EdM, is an author, filmmaker, Harvard-trained educator, and internationally recognized speaker on parenting. He is the director of the acclaimed PBS documentary All Men Are Sons: Exploring the Legacy of Fatherhood. He consults with schools, parent groups, and organizations throughout the world. He lives with his wife and two children in Massachusetts.

Right from Wrong by Michael Riera & Joseph Di Prisco

Right from Wrong: Instilling a Sense of Integrity in Your Child by Michael Riera and Joseph Di Prisco (Paperback - Oct 20, 2008)

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (October 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738208027
• ISBN-13: 978-0738208022

Amazon.com Review

Never preachy and always practical, Right from Wrongis an important and inspiring book about raising children with a conscience. Educators Michael Riera and Joseph Di Prisco focus on integrity rather than morality in their provocative and persuasive thesis: "The most direct way for children to take lessons of integrity to heart is by being out of integrity," they explain.Targeted for preschoolers through preteens, each chapter is organized around evocative vignettes about finding integrity. Among them: a kindergartner stealing a candy bar, the death of a family pet, a dustup on the soccer field, an 11-year-old who gives her phone number to a teenage boy at the movies. The authors imaginatively explore how parents can leverage kids' everyday experiences--homework, competition, tattling, awakening sexuality, or surfing the Internet--into teachable moments of integrity.
Overall, don't take your child's behavior personally, the book cautions. Avoid the trap of being so disappointed or panicked by children's behavior that you lose an opportunity for them to unpack conflicting emotions and learn to value integrity. Sound advice is underlined with sample parent-child dialogues, asking, for example, "What stopped you from listening to the part of you that knew the right thing to do?" This book is simply a gem--and a must-read for parents and teachers of young children alike. --Barbara Mackoff --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Almost a sequel to the authors' Field Guide to the American Teenager, this book is aimed at helping parents instill a moral sense in children ages five to 12. The authors briefly introduce the concept of integrity, defining it as "the compass within each of us... only with integrity do our journeys achieve meaning." Each of the chapters begins with a specific case study and dialogue between parent and child illustrating a specific point from lying to dealing with illness to believing in Santa Claus to handling bullies. The authors show how the parents handle the particular situation and then offer some suggestions for how to deal with variations of the basic situation. While many parents, especially first-timers, will find the authors' tone reassuring and the advice somewhat helpful, the book is less penetrating than readers might have hoped. The authors don't offer enough suggestions for parents; instead, they're more concerned with explaining how the parents might feel rather than offering prescriptive advice on how parents should handle some difficult conversations. Parenting presents many challenges and there are few absolute right or wrong ways to handle situations, but given the stresses of today's working parent, a more hard-hitting approach would have made for a more useful book.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Riera and Di Prisco, coauthors of Field Guide to the American Teenager (2000), turn their focus on integrity, the internal sense of right and wrong parents want so much to instill in their children. Building a sense of integrity in children doesn't occur by happenstance, but can be consciously and creatively achieved, the authors pronounce. They advise parents on how to lay the foundation in young children to ensure development of integrity by adolescence, when they are most confronted with ethical and moral decisions. The authors examine a variety of issues related to discerning right and wrong in situations ranging from after-school fights and overwrought emotions at sports events to cheating, emerging sexuality, and shoplifting. Each chapter includes representative narratives of parents and children confronting ethical issues in everyday life and advice to parents on taking advantage of these incidents to help form a strong sense of knowing right from wrong. Parents can use listening, praise, and discipline, as well as punishment and the "integrity conversation." A helpful resource for parents. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A tremendous resource...[the book] couldn't be more timely." -- Dr. Drew Pinsky, USA Weekend

Product Description

A wise and reassuring guide to fostering integrity in young children, making them people whom we admire as well as people who are proud of themselves.Integrity is not simply something that happens as a result of family stability, unconditional love, healthy genes, or good luck; it emerges, if it does, because parents make it important and because they choose to exercise influence in this arena. Combining stories of children in their natural settings with compassionate, in-depth analysis and pragmatic counsel, Right from Wrong makes the promotion of integrity possible, feasible, indispensable. It shows parents how their use of praise and discipline, honesty, listening, and consequences will help foster integrity in young children, making them people whom we admire as well as people who are proud of themselves.

About the Author

Michael Riera, Ph.D., and Joseph Di Prisco, Ph.D., are both writers and educators. Co-authors of Field Guide to the American Teenager, they live in Berkeley, California.

Real Life by Phil McGraw

Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life by Phil McGraw

Firnando Chau Review


Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Prep Talk
Chapter 2: Attitude of Approach
Chapter 3: Stress – The Days Between the Peaks and the Valleys
Chapter 4: Loss – The Day Your Heart Is Shattered
Chapter 5: Fear – The Day You Realize You Have Lived Your Life as a Sellout
Chapter 6: Adaptability Breakdown – The Day You Realize You are in Way Over Your Head
Chapter 7: Health – The Day the Body Breaks Down
Chapter 8: Mental Health – The Day the Mind Breaks Down
Chapter 9: Addiction – The Day Addiction Takes Over
Chapter 10: Existential Crisis – The Day You Have Lost Your Purpose and Have No Answer to the Question “Why?”
Chapter 11: The Next Step
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Notes
Resource Guide

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Free Press; Reprint edition (September 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1439131562
ISBN-13: 978-1439131565


Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life - Paperback (Sept. 15, 2009) by Dr. Phil McGraw


What if you could see around the corners of your life? Wouldn't it help to know what the most challenging days of your life would be like BEFORE they hit?


There are certain days in life that stand out because they are among the toughest that you or someone you love will experience. Your quality of life and your experience on the journey through this world are a function of how you handle these days when they arrive. Will you be ready? Will you be strong? Will you survive and be better for it, or will you cave?


In Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life, bestselling author and talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is here to help you prepare to confront what he believes are the seven most common critical days that you or a loved one are likely to face. This book helps make it possible for you to be there for yourself or to be the calm in the middle of the storm for someone you love when any of these difficult days arrive.


Loss -- the day that you or someone you love has their heart shattered by death, divorce, or losing something of great value.
Fear -- the day that you realize you have lived your life as a sellout and that every choice you have made up until this point was dictated by other people's expectations, not based on your own goals and desires.
Adaptability Breakdown -- the day that the pressures of balancing your responsibilities and needs, along with life's demands, have become way too overwhelming, and you realize that you are in way over your head.
Physical Health -- the day that your body or that of someone you love breaks down because of illness, trauma, or disease.
Mental Health -- the day that the mind breaks down and betrays you or someone you love.
Addiction -- the day that addiction takes over, and you or your loved one look a powerful destroyer in the face and realize that you are not in control.
Existential Crisis -- the day that you or someone you love lose the purpose, compass, and connection to meaning in life and have no answer to the question "Why?"
Encountering these days can feel like hitting a brick wall. But while they will change your life, they do not have to ruin it. Dr. Phil's step-by-step plan for getting through the worst days is designed to help you feel prepared when it really matters -- in the midst of a crisis. Dr. Phil provides wisdom and resources that will guide you toward a solution that is right for you, showing you how to minimize disruption and maximize the recovery.


This book is not just about giving you a crisis-mode plan. It will also show you how to change your life now, before you get into a crisis, so that you are not behind the power curve when any of the seven days hit. You will be able to be a leader to someone you love during their crisis because you will know what to do. Dr. Phil says there are no exceptions: with the right attitude and the right information, every challenging day can be turned into a valuable life experience.


About the Author


Dr. Phil Mcgraw is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ultimate Weight Solution, Self Matters, Life Strategies, and Relationship Rescue. He is the host of the nationally syndicated, daily one-hour series Dr. Phil. One of the world's foremost experts in the field of human functioning, Dr. McGraw is the cofounder of Courtroom Sciences, Inc., the world's leading litigation consulting firm. Dr. McGraw currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and two sons.



--Start--

Chapter 1: Prep Talk

1.1. Real Life Brings Real Problems

• Monsters Live in the Dark

1.2. The 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life

1.2.1. The Day Your Heart Is Shattered

1.2.2. The Day You Realize You Have Lived Your Life as a Sellout

1.2.3. The Day You Realize You are in Way Over Your Head

1.2.4. The Day the Body Breaks Down

1.2.5. The Day the Mind Breaks Down

1.2.6. The Day Addiction Takes Over

1.2.7. The Day You Have Lost Your Purpose and Have No Answer to the Question “Why?”

1.3. Life Is Not A Success-Only Journey

1.4. Hold Your Head Up

Chapter 2: Attitude of Approach

• In the Eye of the Beholder

• Challenge your thoughts on a regular basis and make sure they can pass this four-point test:

i. Is the thought or belief a true fact?

ii. Does the thought or belief serve your best interest?

iii. Does the thought or belief protect and prolong your health?

iv. Does the thought or belief get you what you want?

2.1. Prioritizing Consistent with a Healthy Attitude of Approach

2.1.1. Living with Perspective

2.1.2. Words Are Very Powerful Because You Believe What You Say to Yourself

2.1.3. Do Not Give Your Power Away

2.1.4. Accountability Counts

2.2. Take Action

2.3. Your Attitude Can Change Your Life

Chapter 3: Stress – The Days Between the Peaks and the Valleys

3.1. What is a Stressor?

3.2. What is Stress?

3.2.1. Your Body on Stress

3.3. The Stress Index

3.4. Social Disconnection Stresses

3.5. Performance Stresses

3.6. Pessimistic Stresses

3.6.1. The Velocity of Life 

3.7. Assessing Your Stress

3.8. Stress-Fighting Strategies

3.8.1. Conscientiously Manage Your Reactions

3.8.2. Exercise Regularly

3.8.3. Practice Relaxation techniques such as Visualisation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation 

3.8.4. Breathe Deeply at least Once a Day

3.8.5. Repeat a Powerful Affirmation to Yourself Several Times Daily

3.8.6. Avoid Excessive Amounts of Alcohol, Caffeine, Fats and Sugar

3.8.7. Get High-Quality Sleep

3.8.8. Acknowledge and Celebrate a Goal You’ve Accomplished at least Once a Week

3.8.9. Laugh at least Once a Day

3.8.10. Take a Hot Bath

3.8.11. Recognize What You Can Control and What You Can’t

3.9. Final Thought

Chapter 4: Loss – The Day Your Heart Is Shattered

4.1. What Is Loss?

4.1.1. Doing Your Best to Prepare for the Worst

4.1.2. Violated Expectations

4.1.3. And Then It was My Turn…

4.1.4. More than One Way to Lose

4.2. What to Expect

4.2.1. Loss from Death

4.2.1.1. Getting Distracted

4.2.2. Loss from Divorce

4.2.3. Losses Comes in Many Forms

4.3. Getting Back to Better Days

4.3.1. Action Steps

4.3.1.1. Adjust Your Expectations

4.3.1.2. Accept What You Cannot Change

4.3.1.3. Find Strength in Others

4.3.1.4. Don’t Get Stuck

4.3.1.5. Recognize that time is finite

4.3.1.6. Create value from this experience

4.3.1.7. Think about how you will prepare for your own death when you’re in calm waters

4.3.1.8. Celebrate Life

4.4. Final Thought

Chapter 5: Fear – The Day You Realize You Have Lived Your Life as a Sellout

5.1. What is A Fear-Dominated Life?

5.1.1. Signs of a Fear-Dominated “Authenticity” Breakdown

5.1.2. Fake It to Make It

5.1.3. What I Fear, I Create

5.2. What to Expect

5.2.1. Fear Audit: Identifying Your Fears

5.3. Getting Back to Better Days

5.3.1. Action Steps

5.3.1.1. Find “True North” for Your Life (Decide What You Really Care About)

5.3.1.2. Examine Where you are now (how far off course are you?)

5.3.1.3. Make a life decision

5.3.1.4. Be True to Yourself

5.3.1.5. Make it Happen (Make Yourself Accountable With A Plan)

5.3.1.6. Acknowledge your fears

5.3.2. Challenge Your Irrational Fears

5.3.2.1. Set Yourself Up for Success (Maintain Your Newfound Freedom)

5.3.2.2. Know that You’re Not Alone

5.4. Final Thought

Chapter 6: Adaptability Breakdown – The Day You Realize You are in Way Over Your Head

• Adapt-Ability

• How Stable Is Your Foundation?

6.1. What is an Adaptability Breakdown?

6.2. What to Expect

6.2.1. How Cognitively Flexible Are You?

6.3. Getting Back to Better Days

6.3.1. Action Steps

6.3.1.1. Do a “Situation Autopsy”

6.3.1.2. Confront Your Myths

6.3.1.3. Conquer the Present

6.3.1.4. Redefine Success

6.3.1.5. Don’t Try to Solve Money Problems with Money

6.3.1.6. Find Positive Influences

6.4. Final Thought

Chapter 7: Health – The Day the Body Breaks Down

7.1. What Does a Health Crisis Involve?

7.2. What to Expect

7.2.1. Asking Why

7.2.2. Losing Your Balance

7.2.3. I don’t Remember Signing Up for This…

7.2.4. Managed Not Cured

7.3. Getting Back to Better Days

7.3.1. Action Steps

7.3.1.1. Identify Your Health Perception

7.3.1.1.1. Internal Health Perception

7.3.1.1.2. External Health Perception

7.3.1.1.3. Chance Health Perception

7.3.1.2. Make A Plan

7.3.1.3. Create a Health Team

7.3.1.4. Get Your Thinking Right

7.3.1.5. Start Taking Better Care of Yourself Now

7.3.1.6. Focus on The Positive

7.4. Final Thought

Chapter 8: Mental Health – The Day the Mind Breaks Down
• Down the Rabbit Hole
• The Scarlet Letter
8.1. What is a Mental Health Breakdown?
8.1.1. When “Speeding Up” Results in Breaking Down
8.1.2. Blowing Up the Myths
8.1.3. Five Myths about Mental Illnesses
Myth 1: People who are mentally ill are dangerous or violent
Myth 2: People who have a mental disorder are less intelligent than those who don’t
Myth 3: Most Mentally Ill People end up Poor and on the streets because they can’t hold a job
Myth 4: People with mental illness have some kind of character deficiency or moral weakness
Myth 5: Mental Illness is a life sentence
8.2. What to Expect
• Mood Disturbances
8.2.1. “Normal” versus Clinical Depression
8.2.2. What Causes Depression
8.2.3. How It Feels: Life, Interrupted
8.2.4. The Other Side of Depression
8.2.5. Leah’s Story
• Anxiety Disorder
8.2.6. Anxiety versus Fear
8.2.7. The Many Faces of Anxiety Disorder
• Severe Mental Disorders
8.2.8. What Causes This Type of Mental Illness?
8.3. Getting Back to Better Days
8.3.1. Don’ts
8.3.1.1. Don’t become a slave to a label
8.3.1.2. Don’t’ take drugs from anyone except your doctor
8.3.1.3. Don’t’ feel guilty
8.3.1.4. Don’t’ consider mental illness as a moral issues
8.3.1.5. Don’t’ shun a person with mental illness
8.3.2. Do’s:
8.3.2.1. Do Seek psychotherapy and counselling
8.3.2.2. Do Talk to your doctor about medication
8.3.2.3. Do identify de-stressing activities that enhance self-care
8.3.2.4. Do support creative, constructive activities that enhance self-worth
8.3.2.5. Do express interest in others
8.3.2.6. Do break a sweat
8.3.2.7. Do explore or ask your therapist about media and art therapy
8.3.2.8. Do learn to breathe correctly
8.3.2.9. Do explore desensitization
8.3.2.10. Do Change your internal dialogue
8.3.2.11. Do try journaling
8.4. Final Thought


Chapter 9: Addiction – The Day Addiction Takes Over
9.1. What is Addiction?
9.1.1. Understanding Addiction
9.1.2. Predisposed but Not Predestined
9.2. What to Expect
9.2.1. Life as an Addict
9.2.2. An Addict in the Family
9.2.3. Addiction Audit
9.3. Getting Back to Better Days
9.4. Action Steps
• If You’re the Addict
9.4.1. Find Your Personal Truth
9.4.2. Consult with an Expert
• If Your Loved One Is the Addict
9.4.3. Choose to Assist –But Not Enable – the Person You are Trying to Help
9.4.4. Set Up an Intervention
9.4.5. Set Your Team
9.4.6. Confront Factually, but with Love, Care and Concern
9.4.7. Remember That You Are Talking to the Drugs, Not the Person
9.4.8. Create a Crisis for the Troubled Person
9.4.9. Focus Only on Chemically Related Issues
9.4.10. Get a Commitment from the Addict to Go to Treatment or Be Prepared to Break Contract
9.4.11. Have a Firm, Immediate Plan
9.5. Final Thought


Chapter 10: Existential Crisis – The Day You Have Lost Your Purpose and Have No Answer to the Question “Why?”
10.1. What is an Existential Crisis?
10.1.1. So What Is the Answer? What Is It All About?
10.1.2. Living for – and in – the Moment
• Existential Crisis Audit
10.2. What to Expect
10.3. Getting Back to Better Days
10.3.1. If You want Meaning, Create Meaning
10.3.2. Now I Ask You, “Why Not?”
10.4. Final Thought


Chapter 11: The Next Step
11.1. The Continuity of Life
11.2. Looking Forward
11.2.1. The miracle of life
11.2.2. The miracle of love
11.2.3. The miracle of forgiveness
11.2.4. The miracle of beauty
11.2.5. The miracle of compassion
11.2.6. The miracle of healing
11.2.7. The miracle of awareness
11.2.8. Observe Your Own Life
11.3. The End… For Now

--End--

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

• Paperback
• Publisher: Hyperion Publishers (1998)
• ASIN: B002PGVGNM

Product Description

Product Description Now available in paperback! The New York Times bestselling authors show readers how to feel like newlyweds every day. He's helped 12 million people reduce the stress at home and at work. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, Richard Carlson with Kristine, his wife of 14 years bring us a simple, stress-free approach to love. While depression, heartache, and anger are associated with love relationships, stress is rarely identified as a problem. Yet we all have concerns about our most important relationships. In one hundred brief, beautifully written essays, the authors show readers how not to overreact to a loved one's criticism, how to appreciate your spouse in new ways, how to get past old angers, and many other ways to improve and increase the joy and pleasure that can and should be part of any relationship. About the Author Best-selling author Richard Carlson, Ph.D., creator of the popular Don't Sweat the Small Stuff series and the just published Don't Get Scrooged, died suddenly of cardiac arrest enroute to New York on December 13. Carlson, 45, published his first book in 1985 and went on to publish more than 20 books that remain popular in English and in translation in 130 languages and 35 countries.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Hyperion; 1st edition (September 26, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401303277
ISBN-13: 978-1401303273

From Publishers Weekly

In this second novel from Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven author Albom, grief-stricken Charles "Chick" Benetto goes into an alcoholic tailspin when his always-attentive mother, Pauline, dies. Framed as an "as told to" story, Chick quickly narrates her funeral; his drink-fueled loss of savings, job ("sales") and family; and his descent into loneliness and isolation. After a suicide attempt, Chick encounters Pauline's ghost. Together, the two revisit Pauline's travails raising her children alone after his father abandons them: she braves the town's disapproval of her divorce and works at a beauty parlor, taking an extra job to put money aside for the children's education. Pauline cringes at the heartache Chick inflicted as a demanding child, obnoxious teen and brusque, oblivious adult chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of a baseball career. Through their story, Albom foregrounds family sanctity, maternal self-sacrifice and the destructive power of personal ambition and male self-involvement. He wields pathos as if it were a Louisville Slugger—shoveling dirt into Pauline's grave, Chick hears her spirit cry out, " 'Oh, Charley. How could you?' "—but Albom often strikes a nerve on his way to the heart. (Sept. 26)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

From the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie, a new novel that millions of fans have been waiting for."Every family is a ghost story . . ."
Mitch Albom mesmerized readers around the world with his number one New York Times bestsellers, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.
For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?
As a child, Charley "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.
Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.
He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother--who died eight years earlier–-is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened.
What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.
Through Albom's inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love--and may have thought they'd lost--in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom's millions of fans worldwide.

About the Author

Mitch Albom is the author of the international bestsellers The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie, as well as six other books. He also writes screenplays and stage plays. Albom servers on numerous charitable boards and has funded three charities in the Detroit area. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan. --This text refers to theHardcover edition.

From AudioFile

Charlie's been drunk so often and disappointed his daughter so many times that she doesn't invite him to her wedding. He even fails at his suicide. Or does he? When his deceased mother returns to love him unconditionally for one more day, he's not quite sure what's going on. The author reads his book with a deep, resonant voice that matches the sentimental sermonizing in the story. Albom's narration singsongs as Charlie reflects on his mother's past support, his own failings, and the events of a confusing present in which he relishes his mother's care and sees his own life clearly for the first time. S.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CDedition.

The Hidden Value of a Man: Created to Lead, Empowered to Succeed by Gary Smalley, John T. Trent, John Trent

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Living Books (August 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589972120
• ISBN-13: 978-1589972124

Product Description

Often men are ridiculed for being men. The media portray them as sitcom buffoons; heartless, moneyhungry corporate raiders; and angry criminals. Many men feel powerless and frustrated, unsure of their role in the family and beyond. The truth is that a man has great value and incredible impact on his familyand his world. In The Hidden Value of a Man: Created to Lead, Empowered to Succeed, Gary Smalley and John Trent explore that influence and show men how to use their Godgiven power to build strength, love, and unity in their families and the world.

About the Author

Gary Smalley is one of the country's best known authors and speakers on family relationships. He is the author and co-author of 16 best-selling, award-winning books along with several popular films and videos. He has spent over 30 years learning, teaching, and counseling.Gary and his wife, Norma, have been married for 40 years and live in Branson, Missouri. They have three children, Kari, Greg and Michael, and six grandchildren.
Dr. John Trent is president of the Center for StrongFamilies and StrongFamilies.com, an organization that trains leaders to launch and lead marriage and family programs in their churches and communities. John speaks at conferences across the country and has authored or coauthored more than a dozen award-winning and best-selling books.

Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

Siblings Without Rivalry: How to Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Expanded edition (December 14, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380799006
ISBN-13: 978-0380799008