The Sadness Book - A Journal To Let Go

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Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush, who calls Bianca the Duff—the Designated Ugly Fat Friend—of her crew. But things aren’t so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone. Growing up the way I did, you’d think I’d be more screwed up than what I actually am. Soon as I turned sixteen, I left that bump in the road I called home and took my chances on the street. Best decision I ever made. Now, at the age of twenty six, I’m educated, employed and damn good at my job. My friends have become my family. Like me, they know what it’s like to grow up unloved. But the saying is true. The world makes way for those who know where they are going. That’s me. I know where I’m going and I’ll get there eventually. On my own terms and at my own pace. But then there’s him.” SFF Trish Doller is a go-to contemporary romance author for us with easy-to-digest, engaging stories along with the rescuing of animals. Blake, who has previously illustrated Sylvia Plath’s little-known children’s book and many of Roald Dahl’s stories, brings his unmistakably expressive sensibility to the book, here and there concretizing Rosen’s abstract words into visual vignettes that make you wonder what losses of his own he is holding in the mind’s eye as he draws.

Hilary hates Jews. As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she’s finally found a sense of belonging. But when she’s critically injured in an accident, everything changes. Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II. In 2004, they entered into a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Brother, I’m Dying is an astonishing true-life epic, told on an intimate scale by one of our finest writers. I went in with the expectation that this would be a non-fiction story that discussed mental illness/clinical depression. Instead it discusses the importance of balanced, rational emotion alongside Russell's personal struggles. It talks about how sadness is the most normal thing and yet the most vilified and compares the experiences of friends and celebrities with critiques from a variety of psychologists. An overbearing and manipulative cancer survivor and hoarder, Jennette’s mom forces her to act, dance, and sing to pay for the family’s growing debt.Tillie hates those early morning wakeups, much of the sport, and the fact that her parents show no interest in her life. The skating moms are just wretched too.

The city of Leiodare is unlike any other in the post-climate change United States. Within its boundaries, birds are outlawed and what was once a crater in Appalachia is now a tropical, glittering metropolis where Anna Armour is waiting. An artist by passion and a factory worker by trade, Anna is a woman of special gifts. She has chosen this beautiful, traumatized city to wait for the woman she’s lost, the one she believes can save her from her troubled past and uncertain future. When one night Anna creates life out of thin air and desperation, no one is prepared for what comes next . Former iCarlyand Sam & Cat actress, Jennette McCurdy, talks about her childhood, which was filled with trauma – abuse she only realizes she suffered at the hands of her mother as she enters adulthood. Examining the lives of ordinary Haitians, particularly those struggling to survive under the brutal Duvalier regime, Danticat illuminates the distance between people’s desires and the stifling reality of their lives.

We see the effects played out in the three sisters’ lives, following the perspectives and stories’ of Priya, Deepa, and Jamini. I especially appreciated the advice section at the end - for those who are shorter on time you could skip to this part if you need help. Some of it is what we’ve heard before - exercise, diet etc, but there’s also a surprising link between mood and the weather (not just SAD), and a huge benefit from culture and reading (woohoo, my method of keeping sane!). In The Light of the World , Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid price, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the trauma resulting from her husband’s death, and the solace found in caring for her two teenage sons, Alexander universalizes a very personal quest for meaning and acceptance in the wake of loss. IM: This book slayed me. I remember sitting on the subway, reading the advanced reader copy. My hand was over my mouth, and my eyes were wet. The book is massive, by the way, so reading it and crying while trying to maneuver around New York City wasn’t easy. There was a lot of wrist pain happening. But the point is, the book is truly emotionally resonant. It follows the lives of four men who meet in their college dorm room. They become extremely close friends, all of them, although their friendships are different, the dynamics unique to each configuration. The writing is stunning, and the pacing is slow enough to make it feel like you’re really involved in the men’s lives. Malcolm, Willem, J.B., and Jude—these men will live in your heart by the time you’re halfway through the book. By the end, it’ll feel like they’re part of your family.