Hand Me Down Dreams

"My son the doctor! My daughter the lawyer!" Or whatever you heard while growing up. Sure, Mom and Dad are proud of what you've accomplished, but has anyone asked you (the one with the supposedly wonderful career) how you feel? If you feel trapped or disappointed in your current career or job, or if you feel you let your family's wishes, rather than your own natural talents, interests, and passions, guide your ultimate choice of career, you are living someone else's dream. If you are in this position, Mary Jacobsen's insightful wisdom, culled from her professional expertise and from her own personal life, illuminates the problems you'll encounter when you try to change this family dynamic. Then, by using her 7 Steps to Reclaim Your Career, you'll be armed with the knowledge you'll need to find the motivation and, finally, the courage to make the changes needed to fulfill your own dreams and attain success on your own terms. Over the last fifteen years, Mary H. Jacobsen has helped many people in this situation work through career transitions, and she can help you, too. You'll understand how even well-intentioned family expectations about work are passed on from one generation to the next, sometimes openly, but often in subtle and indirect ways, and how these expectations influence not only your career choice but also color your role, relationships, and values on the job.

Xavier and Ida Magee, once college sweethearts, appear happily married. They take trips to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, eat at fancy restaurants, and enjoy the cushy lifestyle of a 1980s major league baseball star. Then, everything goes wrong. Xavier is released from his position as a New York Yankees pitcher and falls into heavy drinking. That’s not all. Xavier finds a love letter penned by Ida to the Reverend Reynaldo Tippins, a prominent and handsome Oakland, California, minister. When the situation gets worse, the couple goes to a marriage counselor, and just as things appear to be looking up, Ida makes a shocking announcement that ruins everything. Despite his pain and confusion, Xavier is now determined to cut back on the booze and make a baseball comeback, while also working to become a writer. Amid Xavier trying to save his adulterous marriage and revive his stalled career, he finds a new lease on life. He must redeem himself, but will he succeed?

In this eBook exclusive essay, Pulitzer Prize–winning sports journalist George Dohrmann follows a father and son separated by prison bars—but bonded by their pursuit of basketball glory. The dream of playing big-time basketball never came true for Bruce Nelson, so he passed it on to his son Roberto. His every waking moment as a father was devoted to securing Roberto a Division I scholarship. Oftentimes he worried that his son’s lack of competitive fire might put that dream in jeopardy—when in fact it was Bruce’s own actions that would do so. When Bruce is forced to monitor Roberto’s progress from behind penitentiary walls, his influence recedes—and so too does Roberto’s commitment to the aspirations they once shared. In a story that combines deep insight into family relationships with the deft storytelling that distinguished his award-winning Play Their Hearts Out, George Dohrmann follows Roberto as he addresses his life’s most difficult decisions in the absence of his best friend and most constant companion. In doing so, Dohrmann sheds new light on the larger story of basketball dreams and the pressures they place on young athletes. Includes an excerpt from George Dohrmann’s Play Their Hearts Out, winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting and the Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Youth Sports. Praise for Play Their Hearts Out “Often heartbreaking, always riveting.”—The New York Times Book Review “Tremendous.”—The Plain Dealer “Indispensable.”—The Wall Street Journal “A tour de force of reporting, filled with deft storytelling and vivid character studies.”—The Washington Post “One of the finest sports books of all time.”—Harper’s Magazine “Amazing stuff . . . the Friday Night Lights of youth basketball.”—Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam “A landmark achievement in basketball journalism.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) NAMED ONE OF THE BEST SPORTS BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES • THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR • KIRKUS REVIEWS

In a mice-infested tenement in Spanish Harlem, a young girl finds solace in the pages of classic novels and photographs of distant horizons. With her mind's eye focused on her personal visions, she takes chances against overwhelming odds, because some things happen only once in a lifetime. This is the autobiography of a girl uprooted from Puerto Rico to El Barrio in New York at the age of three. Isabel and her siblings are raised by their temperamental mother and nurturing grandmother in a stifling, claustrophobic upbringing that paradoxically fosters her imagination. Without support and guidance in a teeming metropolis where few understand their language and culture, Isabel learns to rely on her inner strength to overcome adversity against reason and others' discouragement. The roads she takes are paved with fated events as she forges forward with blind faith, unaware that her childhood fantasies would eventually be recaptured in the crowning pages of her own life story. Told with panache and comedic flair and saturated with the color and vibrancy of life in El Barrio in the turbulent 60s and spirited 70s, Isabel immerses us in her proud cultural heritage while asserting her conviction that it's never too late to find happiness.

A young social worker records her efforts with 4 delinquent teenage girls to break the poverty cycle.

The award-winning author who "writes real cowboys with heart and soul" (Carolyn Brown, New York Times bestselling author) welcomes you to Unforgiven, New Mexico, a small western town filled with love and second chances! This cowboy's got one last chance to prove himself. Carly Beauchamp has loved cowboy Austin Davis since first grade. Ask anyone in their dusty, backwater New Mexico town of Unforgiven, and they'll say "Carly and Austin" the way some say "big trucks and country boys." But after years of waiting for a wedding ring, Carly's done with being a rodeo widow . . . Austin never meant to put his career on the circuit before Carly. She's always been his future, his one and only. But now that she's moved on, he's beginning to see where he went wrong, and he'll do anything to win her back. The only thing is, Carly's suddenly acting differently, and she's definitely hiding a secret-one that will test the depth of their love and open up a whole new world of possibilities. Praise for Laura Drake and The Last True Cowboy: "Brilliant writing, just brilliant!" -- Lori Wilde, New York Times bestselling author "Laura Drake writes real cowboys with heart and soul." -- Carolyn Brown, New York Times bestselling author "Drake (Sweet on You) takes readers on a beautifully imperfect journey with two people who can no longer have their ideal future, but learn that the real one might be even better." -- Publishers Weekly "This is a romance with grit, heart and just the right amount of sizzle." -- BookPage

Nina Lander moves back home after graduating from college to look for a job, but becomes frustrated with the turbulence in her parents' marriage and her relationship with a charming but unfaithful rookie NBA player.

This is a story about a woman. And the truck driver who mistook her for a prostitute. The old man she robbed and the hunters who smuggled her across the border. The woman whose name she stole, the wife who turned a blind eye. This is the story of a mother searching for her child. This is the novel you cannot stop thinking about. A quiet, mysterious, unnamed woman has come from Africa on an impassioned quest. From the shoreline of Tunisia to the confusion of Berlin, she relies on strangers – some generous, some exploitive – to guide her passage, encountering love and betrayal in its many guises along the way. When the truth behind this spellbinding story is finally revealed, we are forced to revisit everything that has gone before. Also available as an eBook