Up We Grew

From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone… OUR HOUSE. OUR FAMILY. OUR SECRETS. Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin. Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in—to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

One of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2019 A journey through the many ways to live an artistic life—from the flashy and famous to the quiet and steady—full of unexpected insights about creativity and contentment, from the author of The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost. Rachel Friedman was a serious violist as a kid. She quit music in college but never stopped fantasizing about what her life might be like if she had never put down her bow. Years later, a freelance writer in New York, she again finds herself struggling with her fantasy of an artist’s life versus its much more complicated reality. In search of answers, she decides to track down her childhood friends from Interlochen, a prestigious arts camp she attended, full of aspiring actors, artists, dancers, and musicians, to find out how their early creative ambitions have translated into adult careers, relationships, and identities. Rachel’s conversations with these men and women spark nuanced revelations about creativity and being an artist: that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, that success isn’t always linear, that sometimes it’s okay to quit. And Then We Grew Up is for anyone who has given up a childhood dream and wondered “what-if?”, for those who have aspired to do what they love and had doubts along the way, and for all whose careers fall somewhere between emerging and established. Warm, whip-smart, and insightful, it offers inspiration for finding creative fulfillment wherever we end up in life.

'Bone's voice has definition in an ocean of mediocre peers.' Weekend Australian 'Up We Grew is a reflective, whimsical book full of personal memories, both sweet and sour...Bone offers a deliciously colourful patchwork of memories carefully chosen and beautifully written. Her vivid pictures come easily to life.' The Age '[Bone] has the journalist's sense of looking beneath the veneer of what childhood appears to be, to see what is really going on.' Sunday Tasmanian Resilience. Why do some children in difficult circumstances seem blessed with it, while others struggle to cope with life? And are Australian children generally less resilient than they used to be? In Up We Grew, award-winning journalist Pamela Bone explores the Australian childhood through the prism of her own experience as a daughter, a sister and a mother. Taking as her starting point her own story of growing up in a small town on the Murray River after the war, Bone illuminates the influences that shape us from early life: family, friendships, school. Through interviews with Helen Coonan, Max Gillies, Terry Lane, Mark Latham, Michael Leunig, Joanna Murray-Smith and Natasha Stott Despoja, she considers how some famous and less well-known Australians coped with the death of a parent, divorce, difference, talent, opportunity, money, or the lack thereof. Richly researched and vividly written, by turns nostalgic and unblinkingly sentimental, Up We Grew provides remarkable insight into how we are tempered and transformed by our childhood.

Drawing on the insights of Alfred Adler and others, Atkins examines the varying dynamics of "warm" and "cool" families and shows how siblings tutored each other in friendship, authority, cooperation and competition, dependence and independence."--BOOK JACKET.

Post-college life can be amazing, but it is also hard. So much will happen to us during this phase in our lives, but nothing speaks to the whole of it. And the whole of it can be unexpectedly frustrating, demanding, and disappointing—as well as exciting, dynamic, and filled with opportunity. Then We Grew Up is a moment of introspection. Four years after college, I sometimes still feel just as lost and hopeful as that young man who walked alongside thousands of graduating peers into a period defined by overwhelming ambiguity. I hope that my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned from them can spark a conversation—a dialogue around what I and countless others have slammed up against: the shock of adulthood, the loss of clear direction, the expectation of instant gratification, and the fear that everybody but you has their entire life figured out. The stories in this book are my truths—experiences that have come to define this in-between period. May they become a gateway for the exploration of your own journey into adulthood, no matter how far along that path you might be.

A young woman holds her newborn son And looks at him lovingly. Softly she sings to him: "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always As long as I'm living My baby you'll be." So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide. Since publication in l986, Love You Forever has sold more than 15 million copies in paperback and the regular hardcover edition (as well as hundreds of thousands of copies in Spanish and French). Firefly Books is proud to offer this sentimental favorite in a variety of editions and sizes: We offer a trade paper and laminated hardcover edition in a 8" x 8" size. In gift editions we carry: a slipcased edition (8 1/2" x 8 1/4"), with a laminated box and a cloth binding on the book and a 10" x 10" laminated hardcover with jacket. And a Big Book Edition, 16" x 16" with a trade paper binding.

Follows the animals, plants, and activities on a small farm throughout the seasons.

Kenney Hayes and Marlene Hamilton share stories from their own lives, stories of events that helped them clear the way to achieving their dreams, along with exercises and inspirations at the end of each chapter to help you do the same.