"It Was Like That When I Found It" is a collection of essays that some people, like the author, might find humorous. Most people just find them bizarre. Only a small handful of people found it offensive enough to remove the author from their Christmas card lists.

Sam is a fifteen-year-old drug orphan living with her custodial grandmother who is stricken with late-stage Alzheimer's. She struggles to fill the role of caregiver to her grandmother while keeping her little family a secret from the authorities who would send her grandmother to a state facility and Sam to foster care. Just because her life isn't hard enough, there are still boys to have crushes on, essays to write for horrible English teachers, and a squad full of bullies to torment her o...

View our feature on Tyler Perry's Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings.In 2005, Tyler Perry took Hollywood by storm. The movie he wrote, produced, and starred in, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, opened number one at the box office and went on to gross more than $50 million. In its first week on sale, the DVD sold 2.4 million copies. At the same time, Perry was starring nightly across the country in a soldout stage show he'd also writ...

Rose Parker's husband has been lying. About everything.When a conversation with her husband triggers questions, Rose Parker uncovers alarming answers that shatter her perfect life. But it is only when she shoves her belongings in her SUV and drives off that Rose realizes just how far from perfect her life actually was. She has nowhere to turn.While debating between distressing sleeping arrangements–her mother’s house full of questions or a hotel room with too much solitude–...

Chicken Soup for the Soul: On Being a Parent includes the best selections on parenting from Chicken Soup for the Soul’s rich history, with 101 stories carefully selected to appeal to both mothers and fathers.Parenting is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world. Filled with stories on the humor, hard work, and joy of being a parent, this is a great book for couples to share, whether they are embarking on a new adventure as parents or reflecting on t...

A fascinating look at compulsive hoarding by a woman whose mother suffers from the disease.To be the child of a compulsive hoarder is to live in a permanent state of unease. Because if my mother is one of those crazy junk-house people, then what does that make me?When her divorced mother was diagnosed with cancer, New York City writer Jessie Sholl returned to her hometown of Minneapolis to help her prepare for her upcoming surgery and get her affai...

This third installment of true ghost stories recounts not only experiences from Willow Cross, but also stories from close personal friends. Ghostly knocks on doors, an apparition who seems to enjoy peeping into windows in the dead of night, and even a specter who insists on taking up residence in a child's closet. As with the other two volumes, all the stories are believed to be 100% true.

Sweet secretsIt has been almost five years since Shari Drayson graduated college-almost five years since she had her heart broken. Now the only man in her life is her cherished son, Andre. But her life is full, and her family's bakery is about to appear in a baking competition on national TV. Who needs love when you've got pastries?Sweetest seductionWhen Grant Robinson finally tracks Shari down in Chicago, he expects she will still be beautiful. He...

A collection of mordantly hilarious and sharply-observed stories on motherhood from the bestselling author of Family—The Ties That Bind . . . And Gag!Erma Bombeck has learned a few things about children and family over the years—and in a way that is uniquely and wonderfully her own, she shares everything she knows with her readers. Whether it's cleaning up after the kids and him, or expendable mothers-in-law, Erma Bombeck gets to the heart of the matter an...

Posey is really nervous about starting first grade. Instead of getting walked to her classroom, her mom has to drop her off at the Kiss-and-Go Lane. Then she'll have to walk into school and face the Monster of the Blue Hall all by herself. Worst of all, she has to do it without the one thing that always makes her feel brave and special: the tutu that turns her into the Pink Princess. But when Posey inspires her new teacher to throw a first-day parade in which all the kids are invited to we...

Readers will be amused, comforted, and encouraged, by stories about “dysfunctional” families just like their own, and will realize we are all alike and we all have the same family issues. A great quirky and fun holiday book.Almost everyone thinks their own family is “dysfunctional “or at least has a dysfunctional member or two.With stories about wacky yet lovable relatives, holiday meltdowns, and funny foibles along with more serious stories about abuse, controllin...

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Moms Know Best celebrates the special bond between mothers and children. Mothers of all ages will delight in the stories and feel good about the recognition they receive.“Mom will know where it is... what to say... how to fix it.” This book focuses on the pervasive wisdom of mothers everywhere. It includes the 101 best stories from Chicken Soup for the Soul’s library on our perceptive, understanding, and insightful mothers. These...