This Is Not What I Ordered

Become Your Own Life Coach An inspirational book of self-care. For over a decade, four women came together for weekly “kitchen table coaching” sessions that they designed to enable them to support each other through life’s ups and downs. The power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled them to not only survive but to thrive, and the remarkable results can be found in this collection of lessons, stories, and wisdom. With this book, you can learn how to turn any unfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. Overcome adversity, embrace change, and discover your power―together. In addition to stories and advice, This Is Not the Life I Ordered will teach you how to put together your own gathering of kitchen-table friends. At the end of each section, you will find tools that you can work with as a group to help each other grow, learn, and thrive. Don't get stuck telling your friends that "everything happens for a reason" over and over again―learn how to encourage them effectively and love them well. Show yourself and others compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. Part autobiography, part self-help book, and all useful and actionable content, the authors and friends pulled from their experiences supporting one another to help you do the same. If you are struggling with work, family, love, or just life in general, This Is Not the Life I Ordered is for you. In this book, you'll find advice and stories that will help you grow to be better than before. Topics include: • Managing misfortune • Finding courage • Understanding money • Reinventing yourself • Learning to love your mistakes • Facing naysayers • And much more! Readers of motivational books and personal growth books like Tell Me More, On Being Human, and Carry On, Warrior will be inspired by This Is Not the Life I Ordered.

If you've ever felt overworked, overwhelmed, or just plain unlucky, this book is for you. Through this collection of stories, wisdom, and practical advice, readers will meet four ordinary women who have faced extraordinary life challenges. Together, they have a history of six marriages, ten children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, widowhood, and foster parenthood. They have built companies, lost companies, and sold companies. One of them was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in South America, and two lived through the deaths of spouses. Raising babies and teenagers together, they have known celebrity and success along with loneliness and self-doubt. This book started simply with four friends getting together at the kitchen table to talk about their lives. Week by week and story by story, they realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. For over a decade, the power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive. The remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. This Is Not the Life I Ordered is the culmination of weekly "kitchen table coaching" sessions that took place for more than a decade and were designed to support one another through life's ups and downs. The women realized their support of each other could help other women struggling with life's myriad issues of work, family, and love, as well as the big questions of life and death. The power and strength of their collective friendship has enabled these women to not only survive but to thrive and the remarkable results are in this collection of lessons and stories and wisdom, which can help any woman turn any misfortunate event into a joy-filled opportunity. * Features practical "Wit Kit" tips - exercises and actions for readers to become their own life coach and start their own kitchen-table cabinets.

How our shifting sense of "what's normal" defines the character of democracy "A provocative examination of social constructs and those who would alternately undo or improve them."--Kirkus Reviews This sharp and engaging collection of essays by leading governmental scholar Cass R. Sunstein examines shifting understandings of what's normal, and how those shifts account for the feminist movement, the civil rights movement, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the founding itself, the rise of gun rights, the response to COVID-19, and changing understandings of liberty. Prevailing norms include the principle of equal dignity, the idea of not treating the press as an enemy of the people, and the social unacceptability of open expressions of racial discrimination. But norms are very different from laws. They arise and change in response to individual and collective action. Exploring Nazism, #MeToo, the work of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, constitutional amendments, pandemics, and the influence of Ayn Rand, Sunstein reveals how norms ultimately determine the shape of government in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.

This heartfelt and informative book expounds on the challenges of caring for a child who has special needs. I Did Not Order This! is the true story of the author’s struggles with her daughter’s care and the financial problems that followed. It tells how God taught her the compassion and empathy needed to parent without any formal skills. Susin W. Peterson’s story is part autobiography, part self-help, and part diary. Discussions include problem solving, self-reliance, and how life continues after death. But the most important message is how to live with purpose. Hers is a life filled with suspense, faith, uncertainty, love, and lessons learned. It is also about how hope is found through family, friends, and the power of prayer.

One afternoon, Hank overhears his mom and Frankie's mom talking about having a baby. Having a baby!? It must be Frankie's mom that they're talking about! Frankie will go crazy when he hears about this! Hank worries about how to break the news to his best friend, until he finds out that it's his own mother who is pregnant! How could she do this to him? One annoying sibling is enough. Hank definitely did not order this baby!

November, 1978. Speier joined Congressman Leo Ryan's delegation to rescue defectors from cult leader Jim Jones's Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. Ryan was killed on the airstrip tarmac. Jackie was shot five times at point-blank range. While recovering, Jackie had to choose: Would she become a victim or a fighter? She chose to become a vocal proponent for human rights. Here she reveals her story of resilience as a widow, a mother, a congresswoman, and a fighter, to inspire other women to draw strength from adversity in order to do what is right. -- adapted from jacket

Literary Nonfiction. Essays. Through these powerful and insightful essays, David Olimpio explores the residual effects of sexual abuse, divorce, and grief. With surprising candor and a disarming sense of humor, Olimpio takes on the outwardly wholesome landscape of his suburban Houston childhood and the complex sexual relationships in his adult life. Both poignant and poetic, THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION leaves us with a sense that our identities have the power to transcend our circumstances. "THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION is risky, and David Olimpio's voice is modern and insightful. He has found a way to share his journey without ego or shame, and arrives at the center of one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves: Who am I and how did I get here? Olimpio answers these questions with a fearless, sometimes heartbreaking, honesty that speaks truth to the human experience." Janna Marlies Maron "THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION a road map, a refutation, and a reminder that while shame and confusion may well reverberate across time, we need not be the products of the transgressions visited upon us." Ben Tanzer "'In the end, our stories are the most powerful things we have, ' David Olimpio writes in THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION. Born not of a singular form but forged from many essay, memoir, hybrid, collage this book is as textured and varied as the human experience. It may defy easy classification, but readers will agree: here is an unforgettable debut that will shatter you. With devastating honesty and keen, poetic insight, Olimpio captures the fluidity of time and selfhood as he pierces the heart of the age-old question: What makes us? 'We create our memories; they do not create us.'" Sara Lippmann "A truly extraordinary piece of writing with a superb, graceful economy of style and zero pretension, THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION is also not 'misery memoir.' It is wry and witty and brutally honest without the cheap shock factor. You will want to read it at least twice." Sarah Lotz "The ambiguity of time, the confusion of numbers, the cycle of cicadas and the Big Bad Wolf, these are just some of the elements that David Olimpio softly wraps around us before pulling us seamlessly into his past. Heart-wrenchingly brutal memories laid out honestly on the page, THIS IS NOT A CONFESSION is all confession, the reader, a priest, sitting raptly, sometimes teary-eyed, behind a dark screen." xTx"

Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! takes a fresh look at the people and events depicted in the biblical book of Esther. Author Ilan Sendowski employs methods of analysis from rabbinic scholarship and insights from the practice of law to uncover the main purpose driving the decisions made by Mordecai, the primary subject of the study. He shows how Mordecai worked to save the scattered Jews from extinction, avoiding the fate that had been suffered by the Ten Tribes of Israel. This exploration describes the inner thoughts of figures in the book of Esther. It explains how Mordecai worked his way through complications presented by courtly practices and social customs. Finally, it uses an array of analytical tools to uncover a method for responding to problems with wisdom and knowledge. If you desire to learn from the book of Esther how to attend to the hidden nuances of difficult circumstances, how to take advantage of your insights, how to avoid suffering harm at the hands of dangerous people, or how to rely more fruitfully on knowledge and wisdom, then Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! can serve as a guide. Whether you are engaging the amazing story in Esther for the first time, seeking insight for daily life, or digging into this new reading of the biblical book, Mordecai Did Not Kneel Because the King Did Not Order It! can address your questions.