Difficult Daughters

Set against the tumult of the 1947 Partition, Manju Kapur’s acclaimed first novel captures a life torn between family, desire, and love The one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother. Virmati is the eldest of eleven children, born to a respectable family in Amritsar. Her world is shaken when she falls in love with a married man. Charismatic Harish is a respected professor and her family’s tenant. Virmati takes up with Harish and finds herself living alongside his first wife. Set in Amritsar and Lahore and narrated by Virmati and her daughter, Ida, a divorcée on a quest to understand and connect with her departed mother, Difficult Daughters is a stunning tale of motherhood, love, and finding one’s identity in a nation struggling to discover its own. Winner of the 1999 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book (Eurasia Region) and shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in India.

The first mother-daughter book for mothers, featuring a new Afterword and a Reading Group Discussion Guide ¸ Do you long for a better relationship with your daughter? ¸ Do you occasionally feel as though you have failed as a mother? ¸ Do you blame yourself because your relationship with your daughter is strained, faltering, or nonexistent? ¸ Do you feel that the relationship is unchangeable and that there is no chance that it could become a nurturing and deeply satisfying friendship? Dr. Charney Herst knows that there is always more than one side to a story, and in her book, For Mothers of Difficult Daughters, she uses her twenty-five years of experience as counselor and group therapist to provide mothers with solutions that work. In the book she first helps you understand your particular relationship with your grown daughter--untangling the complex web of personal history and intense emotion inherent in any mother-daughter relationship. Then she describes practical, successful, mother-tested steps you can take to repair this all-important bond.

“An empowering book . . . strategies for freeing yourself from the control of an unhealthy mother relationship.” —Susan Forward PhD, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Toxic Parents For any adult daughter who struggles with a narcissistic, controlling, or otherwise difficult mother, here’s the good news: Your mother doesn't have to change in order for you to be happy. Inspired by her own journey, Karen C.L. Anderson shows women how to emotionally separate from their difficult mothers without guilt and anxiety, so they can finally create a life based on their own values, desires, needs, and preferences. With personal stories, practical tools, and journal prompts that can be used now to feel better. Anderson compassionately leads women struggling in their relationships with their difficult mothers through a process of self-awareness and understanding. Her experience with hundreds of women has resulted in cases of profound growth and transformation. This book is about Anderson discovering and accepting the whole of who she is (separate from her mother), and—in relatable, real, funny, and compassionate prose—making her discoveries accessible to women struggling to redefine their own challenging relationships with their mothers. Learn: · Why mothers and daughters can have difficult relationships · How to heal and transform your mother “wounds” · How to tell your stories in a way that empowers · How to handle the uncomfortable emotions that seem inevitable · The art of creating, articulating, and maintaining impeccable boundaries · How to stop “shouldering” How to “re-mother” yourself and acknowledge, honor, and meet your needs

A much-needed perspective on how to mother difficult adult children while balancing one’s own needs. Difficult brings to life the conflicts that arise for mothers who are confronted with the unexpected, burdensome, and even catastrophic dependencies of their adult children associated with mental illness, substance use, or chronic unemployment. Through real stories of mothers and their challenging adult children, this book offers relatable, provocative, and, at times, shocking illustrations of the excruciating maternal dilemma: Which takes precedence—the needs of the mother or of the distressed adult child? With guidance for finding social support, staying safe, engaging in self-care, and helping the adult child, Difficult is a compassionate resource for those living in a family situation which too many keep secret and allows readers to see that they are not alone.

On a hot July night on Cape Cod, at the age of 14, Brodeur became a confidante to her mother's affair with her husband's closest friend. Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help, but when the affair had calamitous consequences for everyone involved, Brodeau was driven into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. In her memoir she examines how the people close to us can break our hearts simply because they have access to them, and the lies we tell in order to justify the choices we make. -- adapted from jacket

In a world of rapidly changing values and traditions, an Indian woman enters into an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows and moves to distant Canada Thirty-year-old Nina is an English teacher living alone in Jangpura, India. With diminishing prospects, she agrees to an arranged union. Her groom is the Indian-born Ananda, who lives in Canada. He once dreamed of becoming a doctor but settled for dentistry. He is lonely, and also in want of a spouse. Their life together is not what either expected. Unable to find work teaching in Nova Scotia, Nina takes a job at the local library. Ananda is troubled by his own response to the sexual aspects of their relationship. Assimilating into a new culture pales in comparison to the trials of marriage—its ups and downs, its inevitable compromises . . . and the temptations of illicit passion.

Are you struggling to connect with your child now that they've left the nest? Are you feeling the tension and heartache as your relationship dynamic begins to change? In Doing Life with Your Adult Children, bestselling author and parenting expert Jim Burns provides practical advice and hopeful encouragement for navigating this tough yet rewarding transition. If you've raised a child, you know that parenting doesn't stop when they turn eighteen. In many ways, your relationship gets even more complicated--your heart and your head are as involved as ever, but you can feel things shifting, whether your child lives under your roof or rarely stays in contact. Doing Life with Your Adult Children helps you navigate this rich and challenging season of parenting. Speaking from his own personal and professional experience, Burns offers practical answers to the most common questions he's received over the years, including: My child's choices are breaking my heart--where did I go wrong? Is it OK to give advice to my grown child? What's the difference between enabling and helping? What boundaries should I have if my child moves back home? What do I do when my child doesn't seem to be maturing into adulthood? How do I relate to my grown child's significant other? What does it mean to have healthy financial boundaries? How can I support my grown children when I don't support their values? Including positive principles on bringing kids back to faith, ideas on how to leave a legacy as a grandparent, and encouragement for every changing season, Doing Life with Your Adult Children is a unique book on your changing role in a calling that never ends.

The classic novel of a middle-aged man's affair with a worldly younger woman.

A #1 bestseller in India: Three generations of Delhi shopkeepers confront a changing world Home tells the story of Banwari Lal and his family, merchants in one of the oldest districts of Delhi. An immigrant from Pakistan, Banwari Lal believes in fate, faith, and hard work. He comes to India after the Partition and opens a sari business. His daughter is given away into an arranged marriage, with tragic consequences. His eldest son is determined to marry for love. He soon sets his sights on beautiful seventeen-year-old Sona, who walks into the family shop one fine day in May of 1965. But it is Banwari Lal’s granddaughter Nisha who will become the family’s heart as they move from sorrow to prosperity. Spanning thirty years, Home is an extraordinary novel about tradition, change, and finding a place in which to belong.

"Ever wonder what it's really like to grow up in Manhattan with a famous mom or dad? Well, Joanna Philbin is going to tell you. The Daughters is authentic and well-told. Gossip Girl herself would love this new series." --Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling series Gossip Girl They didn't ask for fame. They were born with it. The only daughter of supermodel Katia Summers, witty and thoughtful Lizzie Summers likes to stick to the sidelines. The sole heir to Metronome Media and daughter of billionaire Karl Jurgensen, outspoken Carina Jurgensen would rather climb mountains than social ladders. Daughter of chart-topping pop icon Holla Jones, stylish and sensitive Hudson Jones is on the brink of her own music breakthrough. By the time freshman year begins, unconventional-looking Lizzie Summers has come to expect fawning photographers and adoring fans to surround her gorgeous supermodel mother. But when Lizzie is approached by a fashion photographer that believes she's "the new face of beauty," Lizzie surprises herself and her family by becoming the newest Summers woman to capture the media's spotlight. Don't miss this insider's look at what it's like to be the child of a world-famous celebrity, all while trying to navigate the ups and downs of high school.