This Lovely Life

One woman’s true story of raising a child born three months premature—“propulsive, startling, and vivid, like motherhood itself” (Meg Wolitzer, New York Times–bestselling author of The Female Persuasion). Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing only one pound each, at twenty-three weeks’ gestation. During the delivery she begged the doctors to “let her babies go”—knowing all too well that at their early stage of development they would likely die and, if they survived, would have a high risk of permanent disabilities. However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter died just four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiply disabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. This Lovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of the Forman family after the birth of the twins—the harrowing medical interventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity of life and death. In the end, the long-delayed first steps of a five-year-old child will seem like the fist-pumping stuff of a triumph narrative. Forman’s intelligent voice gives a sensitive, nuanced rendering of her guilt, her anger, and her eventual acceptance in this portrait of a mother’s fierce love for her children. “Intimate, compelling, and hopeful—an absolutely important book.” —Rachel Simon, author of Riding the Bus with My Sister

Starred Review. Forman's enormously affecting memoirwinner of the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference Bakeless Prizeabout the drastic disabilities of her extremely premature child poses challenging questions about parenthood and human compassion. Having given birth to twins at just six months' gestation (23 weeks), due to an undetected infection she learned of only much later, the author, living with her husband and three-year-old daughter in Southern California, and aware of the daunting health issues facing these babies, begged the doctors to let them go. However, the doctors refused the do-not-resuscitate order, offering the infants every form of neonatal intensive care available, and while one of the twins died within days, the boy, Evan, survived, spending six months in the hospital before the family could take him home. Evan was plagued by severe developmental difficulties, including seizures, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, congenital heart defect and blindness, and the author writes with unflinching honesty about her raw fear and conflicted feelings. With time, Forman persevered as Evan's advocate, finding solace in friendships with other mothers of special-needs children and open to experimental therapies that might prove helpful. Numbed by the crass exigencies surrounding the burial of one child (cemetery plots, tax forms), and hardened by what she terms post-traumatic stress syndrome, Forman portrays herself (sometimes shockingly) as deeply flawed and forgivingly human. (July) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Home-decorating expert Melissa Michaels invites you to experience the peace and joy that come from a well-balanced life that nurtures your home and soul throughout the year. You might think that you need to make big changes to create a better life but it’s often the small, intentional, everyday decisions that shape our environment over time and bring sustained contentment and well-being. Savor the process. Melissa Michaels shows you how to cultivate a lovely life in each season: Spring—experience renewal as you clean up and reimagine your spaces and learn to enjoy everything the outdoors has to offer. Summer—enjoy refreshment with a summer staycation, self-care nourishments, and the delightof simple pleasures. Autumn—make room for reconnection when you decorate to reflect your family, style, and story; embrace gratitude; and adopt seasonal rhythms for body, mind, and soul. Winter—enter a season of rest as you establish morning and evening rituals, winterize your bedroom, and indulge in restorative home spa treatments. Beautifully designed and photographed, A Lovely Life offers you tangible ways to make every day a better one.

Three best friends, who just wanted a peaceful summer vacation after their last year in middle school, go through tonnes of twists and turns. Young love and high school problems run through the life of Katie Jones after an alarming incident and a big mistake. Her life completely changes as she experiences a series of events, including relationship problems. But even with all the love and support, will she be able to make it? Find out in Lovely Life.

Myha Luong partners up with National Bestselling Author Angela Stanton to give a raw, riveting account of what it takes to survive. Reality Television Star "Lovely MiMi" from Love and Hip Hop Atlanta Season 6 gives us a look into her personal life, the good, the bad, and the ugly on how she made her claim to fame. Her story begins in a refugee camp located in the Philippines after that horrific ordeal her family safely escapes to America where Myha spends most of her teenage years partying, drinking, making terrible decisions, and living in group homes and detention centers. Myha opens her life for public view as she illustrates the guts that it takes to survive on the streets of Silver Springs, Maryland. "Lovely MiMi" is an amazing free-spirited woman married to "Remytheboss" and mother to Juice and Jay. Myha and her husband Remy are the proud owners of ultraviolet Hair and Nail Salon in Atlanta, GA where they reside with their two children.

An insightful and uplifting memoir about a young Haitian girl in post-earthquake Haiti, and the profound, life-changing effect she had on one journalist's life. In January 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people and paralyzing the country. Catherine Porter, a newly minted international reporter, was on the ground in the immediate aftermath. Moments after she arrived in Haiti, Catherine found her first story. A ragtag group of volunteers told her about a “miracle child”—a two-year-old girl who had survived six days under the rubble and emerged virtually unscathed. Catherine found the girl the next day. Her family was a mystery; her future uncertain. Her name was Lovely. She seemed a symbol of Haiti—both hopeful and despairing. When Catherine learned that Lovely had been reunited with her family, she did what any journalist would do and followed the story. The cardinal rule of journalism is to remain objective and not become personally involved in the stories you report. But Catherine broke that rule on the last day of her second trip to Haiti. That day, Catherine made the simple decision to enroll Lovely in school, and to pay for it with money she and her readers donated. Over the next five years, Catherine would visit Lovely and her family seventeen times, while also reporting on the country’s struggles to harness the international rush of aid. Each trip, Catherine's relationship with Lovely and her family became more involved and more complicated. Trying to balance her instincts as a mother and a journalist, and increasingly conscious of the costs involved, Catherine found herself struggling to align her worldview with the realities of Haiti after the earthquake. Although her dual roles as donor and journalist were constantly at odds, as one piled up expectations and the other documented failures, a third role had emerged and quietly become the most important: that of a friend. A Girl Named Lovely is about the reverberations of a single decision—in Lovely’s life and in Catherine’s. It recounts a journalist’s voyage into the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, hit by the greatest natural disaster in modern history, and the fraught, messy realities of international aid. It is about hope, kindness, heartbreak, and the modest but meaningful difference one person can make.

A rare glimpse into the woman behind the mystique and the definitive guide to living genuinely with glamour and grace. “Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book and remembering—because you can’t take it all in at once.”—Audrey Hepburn On many occasions, Audrey Hepburn was approached to pen her autobiography, the definitive book of Audrey, yet she never agreed. A beloved icon who found success as an actress, a mother, and a humanitarian, Audrey Hepburn perfected the art of gracious living. More philosophy than biography, How to Be Lovely revisits the many interviews Audrey gave over the years, allowing us to hear her voice directly on universal topics of concern to women the world over: careers, love lives, motherhood and relationships. Enhanced by rarely seen photographs, behind-the-scenes stories, and insights from the friends who knew her well, How to Be Lovely uncovers the real Audrey, in her own words.

Meet Quinn Cummings. Former child star, mother, and modern woman, she just wants to be a good person. Quinn grew up in Los Angeles, a city whose patron saint would be a sixteen-year-old with a gold card and two trips to rehab under her belt. Quinn does crossword puzzles, eats lentils without being forced, and longs to wear a scarf without looking like a Camp Fire Girl. And she tries very hard to be the Adult--the one everybody calls for a ride to the airport--but somehow she always comes up short. In Notes from the Underwire, Quinn's smart and hilarious debut, she tackles the domestic and the delightfully absurd, proving that all too often they're one and the same. From fighting off a catnip-addled cat to mortal conflict with a sewing machine, Quinn provides insight into her often chaotic, seldom-perfect universe -- a universe made even less perfect when the goofy smile of past celebrity shows its occasional fang. The book, like the author herself, is good hearted, keenly observant, and blisteringly funny. In other words, really good company.