Love Is All That Makes Sense

Sakeenah Francis describes her life as a Cinderella story in reverse. She grew up in a well-respected, middle-class African American family. She went to college, was homecoming queen, married, began a career and had children. Then, schizophrenia struck and she lost everything. She went from homecoming queen to being homeless and institutionalized. Sakeenah Francis tells her daughter about her darkest moments of living with schizophrenia in a series of letters that chronicle the first time she heard voices in her head, her hospitalizations, her struggle to parent, and her arduous path to long-term recovery. Both shaken and moved by her mother's revealing letters, Anika faces the haunting effects her mother's mental illness had on her. After years of keeping the secret about her mother's illness, Anika breaks her silence voicing what it was like to grow up with a mother with a severe mental illness.She describes the emotional roller coaster created by her mother's bouts of recovery and how this impacted her well into adulthood. Though Sakeenah lost many bouts in her early struggles with schizophrenia, she kept striving. Through it all, there was love which at times was the only thing that made sense to Sakeenah and Anika. Love gave them the strength and resilience to heal and piece together that which schizophrenia had torn apart in our lives. This sobering story carries a message of hope that will be inspiring to people affected by a severe mental illness and the web of people connected to them.

“A beautifully written and well-researched cultural criticism as well as an honest memoir” (Los Angeles Review of Books) from the author of the popular New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” explores the romantic myths we create and explains how they limit our ability to achieve and sustain intimacy. What really makes love last? Does love ever work the way we say it does in movies and books and Facebook posts? Or does obsessing over those love stories hurt our real-life relationships? When her parents divorced after a twenty-eight year marriage and her own ten-year relationship ended, those were the questions that Mandy Len Catron wanted to answer. In a series of candid, vulnerable, and wise essays that takes a closer look at what it means to love someone, be loved, and how we present our love to the world, “Catron melds science and emotion beautifully into a thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation” (Bookpage). She delves back to 1944, when her grandparents met in a coal mining town in Appalachia, to her own dating life as a professor in Vancouver. She uses biologists’ research into dopamine triggers to ask whether the need to love is an innate human drive. She uses literary theory to show why we prefer certain kinds of love stories. She urges us to question the unwritten scripts we follow in relationships and looks into where those scripts come from. And she tells the story of how she decided to test an experiment that she’d read about—where the goal was to create intimacy between strangers using a list of thirty-six questions—and ended up in the surreal situation of having millions of people following her brand-new relationship. “Perfect fodder for the romantic and the cynic in all of us” (Booklist), How to Fall in Love with Anyone flips the script on love. “Clear-eyed and full of heart, it is mandatory reading for anyone coping with—or curious about—the challenges of contemporary courtship” (The Toronto Star).

From the New York Times bestselling author of Through a Dog’s Eyes—the inspiration for the PBS documentary—a paradigm-shifting approach to living with and loving our dogs There are few people who understand dogs better than Jennifer Arnold. Twenty-five years after she founded Canine Assistants, a nationally recognized nonprofit that raises and provides service dogs for people with disabilities, Arnold had an epiphany. She’d always approached the education of dogs with kindness and compassion—eschewing the faux science of fear and domination-based training methods. And she’d always understood dogs to be uniquely, uncannily attuned to their human companions; in fact she depended on it—she knew that the bond that developed between a person and their service dog was the single greatest predictor of that partnership’s success and, conversely, failure to bond brought about anxiety and distress in dogs. But it wasn’t until recent scientific findings confirmed her hands-on experience with dogs’ intuitive social skills that she was willing to put this bold idea to the test: Dogs who bond with us completely and unconditionally will seek to please us and, with minimal cues, can learn to make remarkably sophisticated decisions about their own behavior. Sure, dogs can be taught commands such as “sit,” “stay,” and “heel,” but even the kindest reward and punishment models were merely manipulating dogs’ behavior, rather than unleashing their unique social genius and innate ability to navigate the world. In this groundbreaking, persuasive, and heartfelt book, Arnold shows us how every dog—no matter their age—can thrive through Bond-Based Choice Teaching. Her proprietary method has been hailed by leading canine behavioral scientists and is being adopted by notable dog trainers, advocates, humane societies, and puppies behind bars programs across the country. For this liberating, revolutionary method to succeed, Arnold says, love really is all you need. Advance praise for Love Is All You Need “Jennifer Arnold, who has trained service dogs for the past twenty years for people with physical disabilities, offers a window into the world of ‘man’s best friend.’ Arnold, who believes that dogs are attuned to their owner’s needs and emotions, shares tips she thinks every dog owner should know.”—ABC News “[Arnold] takes pride in facilitating the powerful relationship between every service dog and its owner—a bond that is as much about companionship and comfort as it is about health and safety.”—Everyday Health “Within the world of dogs and canine behavior there are only a handful of people who truly ‘move the needle’ when it comes to innovation, novel approaches, and intuitive thinking—Jennifer Arnold is one of those rare few. Constantly pushing boundaries of traditional thought, she not only provides fresh perspectives about how we interact with and learn from man’s best friend, she fearlessly forges new paths that stimulate and engage dog lovers as well as behavior experts and explores possibilities which previously may have seemed out of reach.”—Victoria Stilwell, star of Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog and CEO of Victoria Stilwell Positively Dog Training

Meet the charming Abbott family of Green Mountain in this heartwarming and sexy collection by New York Times bestseller Marie Force. What happens when the threat to your business becomes a threat to your heart? Find out in YOUR LOVE IS ALL I NEED . . . When Cameron Murphy heads to Vermont to build a website for a new client, she anticipates a relaxing trip. That is, until she collides with the town moose, wrecking her car, and meets the most handsome man she's ever seen. Unfortunately, her saviour and son of her client, Will Abbott, wants nothing to do with the new website or the city girl creating it. But as the chemistry between the two heats up, they begin to wonder if simple could be best - especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Can a grieving heart open itself up to love again? Find out in LET ME HOLD YOUR HAND . . . Almost seven years after losing her husband in Iraq, Hannah Abbott Guthrie isn't sure she's ready - or able - to move on. That is until a sweet kiss shared with lifelong friend Nolan Roberts makes her think about it for the first time. Nolan has loved Hannah for years, but understood she needed to heal from her devastating loss. Now, when an opportunity arises to show her how he feels, Nolan can't resist, yet knows he has to prove to Hannah that finding love twice in a lifetime is possible - and well worth risking her heart. Can a secret affair survive being exposed? Find out in I SAW YOU STANDING THERE . . . Colton Abbott and Lucy Mulvaney have a secret, and it's one they especially don't want Colton's brother Will to know about, or his wife, Lucy's best friend Cam. It's not like Lucy to keep things from Cam, but she's not about to tell her that she's having a fling, with Will's brother! Flitting between New York and Vermont is exhausting, so Lucy is looking forward to a weekend with Colton at the Abbott family lake house. Too bad Will and Cam have the same idea... With their secret out, will Lucy and Colton's clandestine romance lose its appeal or this the start of something lasting? ***Your Love Is All I Need is published in the USA as All You Need Is Love*** ***Let Me Hold Your Hand is published in the USA as I Want To Hold Your Hand*** ***I Saw You Standing There is published in the USA as I Saw Her Standing There*** For more spellbinding Green Mountain romance, check out the whole series: Your Love Is All I Need, Let Me Hold Your Hand, I Saw You Standing There, And I Love You, You'll Be Mine, It's Love, Only Love and Ain't She Sweet.

The bestselling author of Hold Me Tight presents a revolutionary new understanding of why and how we love, based on cutting-edge research. Every day, we hear of relationships failing and questions of whether humans are meant to be monogamous. Love Sense presents new scientific evidence that tells us that humans are meant to mate for life. Dr. Johnson explains that romantic love is an attachment bond, just like that between mother and child, and shows us how to develop our "love sense" -- our ability to develop long-lasting relationships. Love is not the least bit illogical or random, but actually an ordered and wise recipe for survival. Love Sense covers the three stages of a relationship and how to best weather them; the intelligence of emotions and the logic of love; the physical and psychological benefits of secure love; and much more. Based on groundbreaking research, Love Sense will change the way we think about love.

Great literature is more often praised for compelling depictions of conflict and tragedy than for moving portrayals of happiness and well-being. This collection of verse brings together poems of felicity, capturing what it means to be well in the fullest sense. Presented in 14 thematic sections, these works offer inspiring readings on wisdom, self-love, ecstasy, growth, righteousness, love and lust, inspiration, oneness with nature, hope, irreverence, awe, the delights of the senses, gratitude and compassion, relation to the sacred, justice, and unity. At times elegant, at others blunt, these poems reflect on what it means to live a rich, fulfilling life.

Get a double dose of realistic romance in this collection of two fan favorites from Deb Caletti. Love may or may not be all you actually need, but it’s easy to feel that it is when you’re wrapped up in one of these two stories from Deb Caletti. In Wild Roses, Cassie is in love, but she can’t let her stepfather know. Her mom’s husband is a beloved public figure, but a private nightmare whose manic phases and paranoia are getting worse. Cassie begins to fear for the safety of her boyfriend...and herself. In The Nature of Jade, Jade struggles with Panic Disorder. Her boyfriend is a calming influence…until she learns that he’s hiding a terrible secret. A secret that will force Jade to decide between what is right—and what feels right.

Come along for the ride on Eldon and Penny's crazy journey as they go from child rearing "experts" in their early 20's as newlyweds, to being ready for the insane asylum 8 kids later in their 40's Why won't one set of rules work for the whole family? What do you mean Mars and Venus? I think some of us are from different GALAXIES It actually wasn't that bad, but it sure wasn't harmonious either. Then, along comes my business and the constant Leadership Development Training. All of a sudden, we started seeing the parallels and applications to our family. Join us for an enjoyable and entertaining discussion on how understanding these principles has changed our family and could do the same for yours How often have we joked about wishing they would have given us an "Owner's Manual" when we got married? Or, why aren't we required to pass a "Marriage and Parenting" course before we can get a marriage license? Don't babies come with an instruction book? THAT MAKES SENSE is all about what I wish we could have been taught 25 years ago as we were getting our start in the family building game It could have saved us a lot of grief if we had just known some simple principles that would help us understand ourselves, each other, and the kids The principles of family relationships and how to build your family on a strong and safe foundation are sometimes some of the most elusive concepts to find. Why do we always seem to choose a spouse who is our opposite? Why does the same set of strategies never seem to work with any two of our kids? How can X number of kids all raised in the same environment turn out so vastly different? Sometimes it makes you doubt the science of genetics There are answers. Sometimes they come from the most unlikely places too. Who would have thought that there would be so much overlap between business building and family building? Not me certainly. But here it is. What I wish my parents would have taught me about family building THAT MAKES SENSE...(Finally)...What Leadership Training Taught Me About Family Relationships The Principles of Family Building 101