The Girls at 17 Swann Street

The Girls at 17 Swann Street
Author: Yara Zgheib
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-02-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250202469

*A BookMovement Group Read* **A People Pick for Best New Books** Yara Zgheib’s poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman’s struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life. The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound. Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day. Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.

No Land to Light On

No Land to Light On
Author: Yara Zgheib
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2022-09-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982187433

"Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple in the throes of new love, building a life in the country that brought them together. They'd met in Cambridge, Massachusetts: he, a shell-shocked refugee of a bloody civil war; she, a passionate dreamer who'd come to America years earlier in search of new horizons. Now, they giddily await the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi's father dies, in Amman, the night before the embassy interview that would finally reunite Hadi with his parents and deliver them from a country in crisis. Hadi flies back to the Middle East for the funeral, promising he'll be gone only a few days. On the day his flight is due to arrive in Boston, Sama decides to surprise him at the airport, eager to scoop him up and bring him back home. She waits, and waits. There are protests at Logan airport, and Hadi never shows up. What Sama doesn't yet know is that Hadi has been stopped at the border. That he's been taken away for questioning, detained in a windowless, timeless, nightmarish limbo. She does not know about the travel ban, that his legal status in the U.S., which yesterday seemed rock solid, is now in jeopardy - and with it, the chance that he'll ever step foot on U.S. soil again. Amid the protests, Sama goes into premature labor; their son, Naseem, is born, too soon, his father nowhere to be found, the future they could almost taste wrenched from their grasp in a matter of hours. Worlds apart, suspended between hope and disillusion as hours become days become weeks, Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they'd dreamed up together. But does that life exist anymore? Was it only ever an illusion? Achingly intimate yet poignantly universal, No Land to Light On is the story of a family caught on either side of a border, fighting for freedom and home, finding both in each other, and in the tenacious faith of creatures who take flight"--

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Author: Anissa Gray
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1984802445

“If you enjoyed An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, read The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls...an absorbing commentary on love, family and forgiveness.”—The Washington Post “A fast-paced, intriguing story...the novel’s real achievement is its uncommon perceptiveness on the origins and variations of addiction.”—The New York Times Book Review One of the most anticipated reads of 2019 from Vogue, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Essence, Bustle, HelloGiggles and Cosmo! “The Mothers meets An American Marriage” (HelloGiggles) in this dazzling debut novel about mothers and daughters, identity and family, and how the relationships that sustain you can also be the ones that consume you. The Butler family has had their share of trials—as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest—but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters. What unfolds is a stunning portrait of the heart and core of an American family in a story that is as page-turning as it is important.

How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time
Author: Matt Haig
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0525522883

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library. “A quirky romcom dusted with philosophical observations….A delightfully witty…poignant novel.” —The Washington Post “She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going… I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words.” Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life. Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present. How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages—and for the ages—about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Biography of a Little Prince

Biography of a Little Prince
Author: Yara Zgheib
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2012-07-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781475040159

In his short life, a seven-year-hundred-day-old prince left an unforgettable mark on every person he met. Through the memories of all who knew him, The Biography of a Little Prince narrates the triumphant life of this little boy who transformed the lives of so many others.The novel begins nineteen days after the prince's untimely death. His life is not told in a conventional, chronological manner; rather it is celebrated in a series of vignettes that swing back and forth in time to the gentle breeze of his accomplishments. Many of the memories are simple and sweet, like when the little boy prepared breakfast, taught his elders to blow bubble gum, and explained how to fly a kite to catch the prevailing winds. Others are more serious, like when the prince intervened to break up a fight between adults, called a family together to pray, and meditated on death with a maturity far beyond his young years.Heartfelt, honest, and enchanting, The Biography of a Little Prince is the story of a real little boy. To write the book, author Yara Zgheib drew on the experience of the most fascinating person she has ever met, her youngest brother Mikey. From watching him learn how to lace up his shoes to making pancake breakfasts and drawing air castles in the clouds, the seven years, hundred days she spent with her brother were the happiest times of her life. Through the novel, she hopes that readers can get to know and love him the same way she did. This isn't a book written for profit or personal gain but a labor of love that seeks to put the story of an exceptional young boy into the public record. “Trust me, this is one kid you cannot afford not to have in your life,” says Zgheib. From love to magic, friendships to family, this boy's story will have you rethinking life.

Not Little

Not Little
Author: Maya Myers
Publisher: Holiday House
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0823446190

Just because you're really small doesn't mean you can't have a big heart. When the diminutive Dot stands up to a bully on behalf of an even smaller friend, she proves how big she can truly be. Dot is the smallest person in her family and at school; even her name is small! People often mistake her for being younger than she is, but not when she tells them the square root of sixty-four is eight, nor when she orders from the grown-up menu at restaurants or checks out the hard books at the library. She may be small, but she's not little. When a new boy named Sam joins Dot's class, she wonders if he's even smaller than she is. When she sees him getting bullied by a mean kid twice his size, she knows she has to do the big thing and stand up for him. Maya Myers's debut picture book has a pitch-perfect voice that captures the inimitable Dot in all her fierceness, and Hyewon Yum's delightful pastel-hued artwork is its perfect complement. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection An ALSC Notable Children's Book

Before We Were Blue

Before We Were Blue
Author: E. J. Schwartz
Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1635830702

In a treatment center for eating disorders, teenagers Shoshana and Rowan develop an intense, sometimes destructive connection. Ultimately, the girls will have to make a choice: get healthy on their own—or stay sick together.

Wintergirls

Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2014-03-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1407148710

A beautifully written and riveting look at anorexia from acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson. Cassie and Lia are best friends, and united in their quest to be thin. But when Cassie is found dead in a motel room, Lia must question whether she continues to lose weight, or choose life instead.

The Lady Tempts an Heir

The Lady Tempts an Heir
Author: Harper St. George
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2022-02-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593197240

One of Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Romances of 2022! A fake engagement brings together a lady with bold and daring dreams, and the heir whose heart she captured—perfect for fans of Bridgerton! Tall, dark, and brooding—to say that American Maxwell Crenshaw stood out in the glittering ballrooms of London is an understatement. He vowed never to set foot in England again, but when a summons from his father along with an ultimatum to secure his legacy has him crossing the Atlantic for the last time, reuniting him with the delectable Lady Helena March, he can’t deny the temptation she presents. Or the ideas she inspires… Lady Helena March is flirting with scandal. Instead of spending her time at teas and balls in search of another husband, as is expected of a young widow, Helena pours her energy into The London Home for Young Women. But Society gives no quarter to unmarried radicals who associate with illegitimate children and fallen women, and Helena’s funding is almost run out. So when the sinfully seductive Crenshaw heir suggests a fake engagement to save them both—him from an unwanted marriage and her from scorn and financial ruin—Helena finds herself too fascinated to refuse the sexy American. As their arrangement of convenience melts oh so deliciously into nights of passion, their deception starts to become real. But if Max knew the true reason Helena can never remarry, he wouldn’t look at her with such heat in his eyes. Or might the Crenshaw heir be willing to do whatever it takes to win the one woman he’s never been able to forget…

Believarexic

Believarexic
Author: J. J. Johnson
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1504026802

Asking for help is only the first step Jennifer can’t go on like this—binging, purging, starving, all while trying to appear like she’s got it all together. But when she finally confesses her secret to her parents and is hospitalized at the Samuel Tuke Center, her journey is only beginning. As Jennifer progresses through her treatment, she learns to recognize her relationships with food, friends, and family—and how each relationship is healthy or unhealthy. She has to learn to trust herself and her own instincts, but that’s easier than it sounds. She has to believe—after many years of being a believarexic. Using her trademark dark humor and powerful emotion, J. J. Johnson tells an inspiring story that is based on her own experience of being hospitalized for an eating disorder as a teenager. The innovative format—which tells Jennifer’s story through blank verse and prose, with changes in tense and voice, and uses forms, workbooks, and journal entries—mirrors the protagonist’s progress toward a healthy body and mind.