Sometimes you need to search for the next roads to take in your life; other times these roads approach you. I was looking for new ways to use my long-term communication and mental health advocacy skills and then, sadly, the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. I immediately wanted to help community members ease their pain and assist cities nationwide to greatly improve their disaster mental health response. I never expected a pandemic would arrive only two months after I published, making my book all the more important. Now climate change is exacerbating our already stressful times, and we must act to stem mental health issues before they become out of hand.
Bob Schmidt is a licensed professional counselor in Sandy Hook, Connecticut who has worked diligently to help shooting survivors and their families as well as others in the community with their emotional needs. He is known for utilizing state-of-the-art trauma therapy such as “Tapping,” (Emotional Freedom Technique), which has proven successful in treating PTSD. This book includes a wealth of examples of wellness techniques and trauma-response activities that have proven helpful in relieving high levels of stress and PTSD. These activities make individuals more resilient, so they are better prepared to face life’s challenges and learn to accept the ones they cannot change. Resiliency is one of the keys to happiness, and is increasingly found as a productive way to prepare for any possible disturbing event in the future.
Life is, and has always been, a series of challenges. Some challenges can be resolved easily, some are more difficult, and a few cannot be fixed at all. Resilient individuals are better prepared to deal with life’s challenges and learn to accept the ones they cannot change. Resiliency is one of the keys to happiness, and is found by learning a variety of coping skills and wellness techniques, as well as philosophy from experts in the counseling field. These are the same skills and approaches that I have successfully used with my clients in my private practice in Sandy Hook,…
I love history and I love to laugh. That’s why I brand myself as a writer of Victorian Whodunits with a touch of humor. I’ve spent decades learning about 1800s America. I began sharing that knowledge by performing in costume as real women of history. But I couldn’t be on stage all the time so I began writing the books I want to read, books that entertain while sticking to the basic facts of history and giving the flavor of an earlier time. I seek that great marriage of words that brings readers to a new understanding. As Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
I admire chutzpah. Of all the authors who channel Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, Jane Austen, and countless others, I admire Peter Heck the most.
He takes on the Herculean task of matching historical humor with our
national treasure Mark Twain. Oddly enough, his example gave me courage,
or at least permission, to try something other than historical
whodunits. I wrote book-length magic realism and am seeking a publisher.
Beneath the charm of New Orleans lay a mix of corruption and racism that had a black man set to hang for a murder he didn't commit. "Detective" Mark Twain, together with travelling secretary Wentworth Cabot, set about the dangerous business of finding out the truth that some wished to keep hidden.
I enjoy combining science, wit, and satire in my stories. I’ve observed life for 75 years, practiced food-animal veterinary medicine, and used molecular biology to earn a PhD in microbiology. The evolution of virulence in pathogens has long been an interest of mine. From observation, I’ve learned never to underestimate the destructive power of a well-intentioned fool, and that no situation is so bad that an idiot can’t make it worse. Heroes are flawed. They make mistakes, but they grow. They kick themselves in the ass and move on. Their opponents aren’t supermen, either.
This witty and wryly humorous murder mystery features two amateur sleuths. Maggie, a reporter from up north, is vacationing on an island off the coast of Florida when a murder takes place. She investigates, is stumped, and convinces her irascible boss, editor C. B. Greenfield, to come down and help. Thereafter, she grouses about him as he puts his formidable intellect into solving the mystery.
The tagline on the cover of my book reads: Family life is not always easy. And never a truer word was spoken. I was inspired to write my book while raising my own daughter, Nina, who was diagnosed with autism at age ten. My book is fiction, but my knowledge of autism is from my lived experience. As Nina got older, she began to join me in doing talks about my book–where she was the autism expert, and I was the expert in writing. Together we have done many talks on TV, radio, newspapers, schools and libraries. I hope you enjoy these autistic characters–real and fictional–as much as I do.
I could hardly put down this memoir written by the sibling of an autistic boy–set in a time when the term ‘autistic’ did not exist. Mary-Ann Tirone Smith was brought up in New England in the fifties when there was no understanding of autism at all. There was no welfare dept, social services, or health service to turn to for help because no one understood.
Instead, the family ‘absorbs’ Tyler, the autistic brother, and protects and cares for him themselves. Getting this ‘sibling’s view’ is really fascinating. I loved all the quirky characters and the inevitable humor when the outside world does not understand Tyler.
Running alongside the story of Tyler is a true crime story about a school friend of Mary-Ann’s who was murdered by a pedophile. I found the book to be gripping, heartbreaking, funny, and moving.
Mary-Ann Tirone Smith grew up in New England during the 1950s, the daughter of an extended French-Italian family. Smith's neighbourhood was typical small-town America - everyone's door was left unlocked at night, and the school, church, library, pub and grocery shop were all within walking distance. In many ways, it was a typical rough-and-tumble childhood, but someone would shatter it and change Smith's life and that of the town, forever. Smith's family is peopled with wonderful characters - her mother who's always on the verge of a nervous breakdown; her adoring father who sees to waking Mary-Ann each morning to…
I love the thrill of the chase and have always been passionate about the dramatic. In school, I was always the evil sorceress in plays. Later, as a professional actress, I sought dramatic roles or outrageously funny characters. Psychological thrillers fulfill the need to make my world more dramatic than it actually is. I call good thrillers “fudge reading.” Because having them in my life is like pigging out on the best fudge you can find, now, as a writer of psychological thrillers, I try and give my readers a roller coaster ride on daring topics just the way these five writers have inspired me to do.
I love the way this author puts ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances. I read the book in gulps, and as I neared the end, I slowed down to savor the mind-blowing story as it was unfolding. I became fully absorbed in the lives of people I now knew well and liked. I rooted for the good people and knew the bad would finally meet their end. This was an utterly unpredictable story that kept me guessing and surprised me all the way through.
'A page-turner... you'll get your money's worth out of this one' Stephen King
'Linwood Barclay is a flat-out master of the modern thriller, and I Will Ruin You is impossible to put down. You need this book in your life.' David Koepp
WHEN IT'S LIFE OR DEATH, WHO CAN YOU TRUST?
Teacher Richard Boyle certainly never thought he would find himself talking down a former student intent on harming others, but when Mark LeDrew shows up at school with a bomb strapped to his chest, Richard immediately jumps into action. Thanks to his quick thinking, Richard averts a major tragedy…
I became interested in bar culture in my 20s when I worked at a neighborhood "local" in Toronto and was struck by how close people could become when sharing drinks and stories across a bar. Since then, I’ve spent most of my life researching the history of cocktails and bars—both as an academic topic and as a columnist for magazines and newspapers, including the Toronto Star. I’ve written a podcast on Prohibition for Wondery Media, as well as four books, Mondo Cocktail, America Walks Into a Bar,Canadian Spirits (with Stephen Beaumont), and the forthcoming Cocktails: A Still Life (Running Press), with James Waller and still-life artist Todd M. Casey.
Although I loved the city of New York more than ever after 9/11, it was sometimes hard to feel optimism and hope about the bigger picture and humanity as a whole in the first several years of the new millennium. This book was one of several things that helped restore my faith, since Moehringer so lovingly portrays the community where he grew up in Long Island—an area profoundly impacted by the attack on the World Trade Center. While I was fact-checking the title, et cetera, I discovered there’s a movie version coming out in early 2022. Obviously I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m really looking forward to it.
**Now a major film directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck**
'Highly entertaining . . . constructed as skilfully as a drink mixed by the author's Uncle Charlie' New York Times
In the rich tradition of bestselling memoirs about self-invention, The Tender Bar is by turns riveting, moving, and achingly funny. An evocative portrait of one boy's struggle to become a man, it's also a touching depiction of how some men remain lost boys.
JR Moehringer grew up listening for a voice, the voice of his missing father, a DJ who disappeared before JR spoke his first words. As…
I’ve been a lover of historical mysteries ever since I realized it’s possible to read mystery fiction and learn history at the same time. Every time I pick up a mystery set in the past, whether it’s the ancient past, the more recent past, or somewhere in between, I know I’m going to be intrigued and challenged by a great story and come away with a greater understanding of the people, culture, customs, and events of that time period. It’s a win-win. I write historical mysteries because I want to share with readers what I’ve learned about a particular time or place in a way that’s compelling and engaging.
I tell anyone who will listen that I am not a fan of anything paranormal, but this series has me hooked. I think Summoning the Winds is the first book I ever read about witches (Hamletdoesn't count), and I loved it. In a nutshell, the series takes the notion of witch trials and turns it on its head with tales of real witches in colonial Connecticut of the 1660s (where, in my time machine, I would view the events in this story from a safe distance).
Yarrow Pickering, the main character and an eighteen-year-old orphan, is spunky and smart. She’s also a witch. She uses her abilities for good and, like her mother, is skilled at creating herbal remedies for illnesses and injuries suffered by the people in the village of Milthorpe. When she attempts to help a young girl who has become ill, the girl’s father becomes…
Witches have been hunted, tried, and executed for centuries. The Colonies are not immune to the fear of sorcery. In the Spring of 1660, the small Connecticut village of Milthorpe abruptly finds itself in the throes of a witch scare. Yarrow Pickering, the village herbal woman and proprietor of the Lanthorne Ordinary struggles to prove an accused woman is innocent but becomes ensnared in the witch hunt. Yarrow can't be sure if her relationship with the Magistrate’s son will harm or help her against her most strident opponents. The trials are beginning...but this time, what will happen when one of…
When I finished this book, I immediately told all my close friends to read it so we could discuss. At year’s end, it’s the book I’ve recommended most. This is a quick, juicy, sometimes infuriating read, and I could not put it down.
Jess is a Black liberal from Nebraska, starting her first post-college job at Goldman Sachs. Josh is her white, conservative coworker from Connecticut and a former thorn in her side from undergrad.
Watching these two opposites attract during the Obama-Trump transition was the most fun I ever had (the banter is top-notch) and had me squirming with its hyper-realistic portrayal of America’s political polarization. Will Jess and Josh’s love survive, or will it suffer death by a thousand microaggressions? Everything’s Fine is a romance wrapped in an enigma.
Widowed at age fifty and now eighty-four, I know first hand the search for love in late life. I have three adult children and can't avoid bringing baggage to any new relationship, whether with humans or the cats I adore. Coming to writing seriously only after my husband’s death, I remain fascinated by questions of craft, how the story is told (as my recommendations show), and I’ve published several essays on aspects of that subject. My first career in dance, my conversion to Catholicism, and my psychoanalytic therapy have been major parts of my life and play significant roles in my memoir, my novel, and my more recent novella and stories.
This true story of love and lasting marriage in later life is told by the husband and wife in alternating first-person voices. Ingrained habits of social and personal life and relationships with both parents and children all create stumbling blocks as the two lovers strive to create a unified way of life. I admire this book for its frank and vivid presentation of the pitfalls that can threaten a union of two individuals who meet in late middle age, already well set on their paths. In its presentation of problems and solutions, this book offers the most “self-help” of these five recommendations.
Jill Robinson, the author of Bed/Time/Story and Past Forgetting, and her husband, Stuart Shaw, share their true story about finding love when they both had lost faith in romance.
When Stuart and Jill first met, neither felt ready for love. Stuart was recovering from the alcoholism that had wrecked his marriage and ravaged his career. Jill was recovering from a second failed marriage and believed she was done with love forever.
But then, in a crowded Connecticut diner, Jill caught Stuart's eye and shot him a look that she knew would draw him in. What follows is a sexy journey…
I taught teenagers and young adults for 40 years. During these years, I always thought about what I could use to make my classroom an exciting place for learning. I would hear a new song about loneliness that I wanted to share with my students. Or I would think of a prompt they would laugh about in notebook writing. Too often, we take the dedication teachers give to their students for granted. I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have and make you remember again a special teacher in your life who gave his/her all, and if you’re a teacher, here’s to you!
I love how the epigraphs set the tone. “I cannot teach anything; I can only make them think” (Socrates) and “It’s not the broken dreams that break us, it’s the ones we don’t dare to dream.” Connecticut high school science teacher Andy Bramante not only has his students dream, but he also shows them how to put foundations under these dreams.
In this book, a journalist describes an amazing teacher who gives the students freedom to research for science fairs and celebrates independent learning. With humor and kindness, Andy truly changes their lives and shows us we’re capable of so much if given the opportunity and trust. The book made me feel good about what a teacher can do and led me to remember great teachers in my own life.
An unforgettable year in the life of a visionary high school science teacher and his award-winning students, as they try to get into college, land a date for the prom . . . and possibly change the world
“A complex portrait of the ups and downs of teaching in a culture that undervalues what teaching delivers.”—The Wall Street Journal
Andy Bramante left his successful career as a corporate scientist to teach public high school—and now helms one of the most remarkable classrooms in America. Bramante’s unconventional class at Connecticut’s prestigious yet diverse Greenwich High School has no curriculum, tests, textbooks,…
