Don T Blame The Music

DIVDIVIn Caroline B. Cooney’s powerful novel about love, independence, and responsibility, a prodigal daughter returns—and a high school senior and her family must cope with the fallout/divDIV Things are starting to come together for seventeen-year-old Susan Hall. She has great friends and a major crush on handsome, privileged Anthony Fielding, who has finally begun to show some interest. And she was just asked to be music editor of the yearbook./divDIV Suddenly, her older sister comes home. Ashley ran away at sixteen to join a rock band. For an impossibly short time, her star burned bright. She had a hit song. Now she’s back, filled with bitterness and anger. She hates her parents. She hates her younger sister. But most of all, she hates herself./divDIV As Ashley’s self-destructive behavior starts tearing the family apart, Susan’s life changes in unexpected ways. It becomes harder to maintain her equilibrium, both at school and at home. She still loves her sister, but she’s starting to see things—and people, like Whit, an outcast rock musician—in a different light./divDIV With charity, grace, and a generous heart, Caroline B. Cooney gives us an immensely moving story about what it means to be a family./divDIV/div/div

For many of us, life is about the stories that make up our past, provide context for the present, and give hope for our future. As an art form, storytelling has fallen victim to the smart phone, the computer tablet, and the video game. We just don't take time anymore to pass along the stories that define our culture, our heritage, and our character. Crazy as a Run Over Dog is one man's attempt to renew the tradition of legacy building by telling the stories of everyday experiences that remind us we are all more alike than we are different.

The true story of how Hollywood musicals got one person through school, depression, and the challenges of parenthood Inspired by the visual richness and cinematic structure of the Hollywood musical, Blame This on the Boogie chronicles the adventures of a Filipino American girl born in the decade of disco who escapes life's hardships and mundanity through the genre's feel-good song-and-dance numbers. Rina Ayuyang explores how the glowing charm of the silver screen can transform reality, shaping a person's approach to childhood, relationships, sports, reality TV, and eventually politics, parenthood, and mortality. Ayuyang's comics are as vibrant as the movies that she loves. Her deeply personal, moving stories unveil the magic of the world around us--rendering the ordinary extraordinary through a jazzed-up song-and-dance routine. Ayuyang showcases the way her love of musicals became a form of therapeutic distraction to circumnavigate a childhood of dealing with cultural differences, her struggles with postpartum depression, and an adulthood overshadowed by an increasingly frightening and depressing political climate. Blame This on the Boogie is Ayuyang's ode to the melody of the world, and shows how tuning out of life and into the magic of Hollywood can actually help an outsider find her place in it.

Welcome to the small town of Cloud Bay where the weather is great, the music is fire, and love is complicated… She doesn’t believe in happy endings and he needs a new beginning Growing up in the shadow of her rock god dad taught Faith Harper that fame has a price. When her own music career fizzled, she came home to tiny Cloud Bay. She’s perfectly happy running CloudFest, the music festival that’s one part of her father’s legacy, staying out of the spotlight, and keeping men strictly temporary. And when she lays eyes on Caleb White’s gorgeous face, she knows no one would blame her for choosing him for a summer fling. He’s perfect—a hot famous guy who’ll leave quietly when they’re done. Caleb has been number one in the tennis world for a long time. But he can’t play forever, and he needs a new plan. When his best friend announces he’s going to CloudFest, Cloud Bay sounds like the perfect place to figure things out with no distractions. Until he meets Faith. Kissing her is more than a distraction, it’s downright addictive. And soon he’s not sure he wants to let her go. Convincing Faith to believe in love is going to take more than music and hot summer nights and it’s a match he can’t afford to lose, because it’s his whole heart on the line. Previously published as Need You Now by Emma Douglas. Don’t Blame Me is the first book in the Cloud Bay series, a steamy small town island romance series. This series has beach vibes, rock’n’roll families, small town drama, the odd cute dog, and sexy times. Enjoy! Author's note: For tropes and CW, please check the author's website. KEYWORDS: Small town romance series, steamy beach romance books, small town island romance, musicians, rock’n’roll, athlete hero romance, musical festival, strong heroine romance, just a fling, contemporary romance, sensual, sexy, modern, kissing books, swoon, emotional

"One of the 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time” --Rolling Stone Magazine (#8) “Sensitive and emotionally raw… it’s also wildly funny”--The New York Times Book Review A powerfully original memoir of pregnancy and mental illness by the legendary founder of the seminal rock band Throwing Muses, 'a magnificently charged union of Sylvia Plath and Patti Smith' - The Guardian Kristin Hersh was a preternaturally bright teenager, starting college at fifteen and with her band, Throwing Muses, playing rock clubs she was too young to frequent. By the age of seventeen she was living in her car, unable to sleep for the torment of strange songs swimming around her head - the songs for which she is now known. But just as her band was taking off, Hersh was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. Rat Girl chronicles the unraveling of a young woman's personality, culminating in a suicide attempt; and then her arduous yet inspiring recovery, her unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19, and the birth of her first son. Playful, vivid, and wonderfully warm, this is a visceral and brave memoir by a truly original performer, told in a truly original voice.