What happens to a woman—and a marriage—when she loses a baby not once, not twice, but five times? With a surprising amount of humor, as well as poignancy, award-winning fiction writer Michelle Brafman explores pregnancy loss from the perspectives of mother, husband, and unborn baby, providing a window onto what is usually a very private kind of grief.
“Intimate, big-hearted, compassionate and clear-eyed, Brafman’s novel turns secrets into truths and the truth into the heart of fiction.” —AMY BLOOM, author of Lucky Us and Away “From roots in one religious tradition, comes a tale of emotional redemption for all of us. Michelle Brafman’s astonishing compassion for all human frailty infuses this story about the need for truth and the promise of forgiveness.” —HELEN SIMONSON, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand “Heartfelt and genuine, Washing the Dead never betrays the complicated truths of family and tradition.” — DAVID BEZMOZGIS, author of Natasha and Other Stories and The Betrayers “Like a Jewish Anne Lamott, Brafman reels you in with warmth, depth and heart.” —SUSAN COLL, author of The Stager and Acceptance Three generations of women confront family secrets in this exquisitely wrought debut novel that examines the experience of religious community, the perilous emotional path to adulthood, and the power of sacred rituals to repair damaged bonds between mothers and daughters. Michelle Brafman’s award-winning short stories and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, Bethesda Magazine and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland with her husband and two children.
From the acclaimed author of Washing the Dead and Bertrand Court comes a satirical and chilling, yet deeply-sensitive, tale that captures the ethos and ruin of children’s competitive swimming, where parents must face the haunting spirits of their own tumultuous upbringings or risk losing their way and—in turn—themselves. It’s June 2012. The magical and slightly cultish River Run swim club is alive with the spirit of fun competition when a perfect storm brews between team moms and best friends, Gillian Cloud and Kristy Weinstein. The ghost of family addiction has turned up, looming over their carefully planned pasta parties, tie-dye nights, and pep rallies, forcing them to face their unresolved childhood trauma. Gillian responds by trying to control everyone around her, while Kristy relapses into her dangerous addiction to love. Real sparks fly on the night of the derecho—a freak land hurricane—which sweeps through Northern Virginia, knocking out power for days. The storm ignites a tinder box of secrets, leaving Gillian and Kristy alone in the hot dark—their shame their only company. At times humorous and devastating, Swimming with Ghosts is a hauntingly dark, yet uniquely tender story of the various entrapments of addiction and lingering trauma, and what it takes to overcome our hidden legacies of disgrace and discover a once unimaginable freedom made possible by confronting life’s greatest storms with the people closest to us.
Book 7 in the Michelle Book Blog Series. This book go all out so if you have a faint heart, read with care because this book is so not for you. If you are homosexual, heterosexual and Rasta then this book is for you.
“Intimate, big-hearted, compassionate and clear-eyed, Brafman’s novel turns secrets into truths and the truth into the heart of fiction.” —AMY BLOOM, author of Lucky Us and Away “From roots in one religious tradition, comes a tale of emotional redemption for all of us. Michelle Brafman’s astonishing compassion for all human frailty infuses this story about the need for truth and the promise of forgiveness.” —HELEN SIMONSON, author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand “Heartfelt and genuine, Washing the Dead never betrays the complicated truths of family and tradition.” — DAVID BEZMOZGIS, author of Natasha and Other Stories and The Betrayers “Like a Jewish Anne Lamott, Brafman reels you in with warmth, depth and heart.” —SUSAN COLL, author of The Stager and Acceptance Three generations of women confront family secrets in this exquisitely wrought debut novel that examines the experience of religious community, the perilous emotional path to adulthood, and the power of sacred rituals to repair damaged bonds between mothers and daughters. Michelle Brafman’s award-winning short stories and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, Bethesda Magazine and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and lives in Glen Echo, Maryland with her husband and two children.
From the acclaimed author of Washing the Dead and Bertrand Court comes a satirical and chilling, yet deeply-sensitive, tale that captures the ethos and ruin of children’s competitive swimming, where parents must face the haunting spirits of their own tumultuous upbringings or risk losing their way and—in turn—themselves. It’s June 2012. The magical and slightly cultish River Run swim club is alive with the spirit of fun competition when a perfect storm brews between team moms and best friends, Gillian Cloud and Kristy Weinstein. The ghost of family addiction has turned up, looming over their carefully planned pasta parties, tie-dye nights, and pep rallies, forcing them to face their unresolved childhood trauma. Gillian responds by trying to control everyone around her, while Kristy relapses into her dangerous addiction to love. Real sparks fly on the night of the derecho—a freak land hurricane—which sweeps through Northern Virginia, knocking out power for days. The storm ignites a tinder box of secrets, leaving Gillian and Kristy alone in the hot dark—their shame their only company. At times humorous and devastating, Swimming with Ghosts is a hauntingly dark, yet uniquely tender story of the various entrapments of addiction and lingering trauma, and what it takes to overcome our hidden legacies of disgrace and discover a once unimaginable freedom made possible by confronting life’s greatest storms with the people closest to us.
What happens to a woman—and a marriage—when she loses a baby not once, not twice, but five times? With a surprising amount of humor, as well as poignancy, award-winning fiction writer Michelle Brafman explores pregnancy loss from the perspectives of mother, husband, and unborn baby, providing a window onto what is usually a very private kind of grief.
The social mind... It's always on the job, even when you're off the job! Most people are born with an intuitive sense of the social world that allows them to naturally be aware of social expectations and feeds them the information they need to follow the social code. But not everyone is born with intuitive social understanding. Social learning differences, difficulties, or disabilities can be especially challenging in the workplace, where it’s assumed employees understand not only how to do their job but how to effectively work in a group, understand the hidden rules of office etiquette and office politics, and build and maintain solid professional relationships with others. The updated, 2nd edition of this 200+ page book is a primer about the social mind in the workplace, but the concepts and strategies are equally applicable in all areas of life. This volume includes many important updates to descriptive language to teach basic concepts. It’s largely based on the authors’ years of clinical experience working with adults who struggle socially who may or may not have a specific diagnosis. Many are highly intelligent and skilled employees who find it difficult to decipher the often-nuanced social underpinnings that are part of daily life, on or off the job. We all want to be appreciated for who we are and how we contribute, but if our messages are communicated in a way where others feel confused or hurt, then the good intention underlying the message is lost. As a result, it’s often tough for these individuals to build the relationships and reputation necessary to excel in the workplace, regardless of their expertise or how hard they work. This book is also a good way for neurotypical employers and employees to better understand the perspectives of their Neurodivergent coworkers, as well as show empathy and sensitivity for the difficult social learning process. Given years of feedback from our clients, adults with social learning differences, difficulties or disabilities often need information about social emotional relationships broken down and explained in a way that can help them build skills and understanding, one step at a time. This book does just that—it is a constructive and detailed guide to help adults learn how to do the “social dance” to build stronger relationships at work and beyond. This book is also a good primer for neurotypical employers/employees or HR departments to read about the experiences and perspectives of Neurodivergent coworkers, and perhaps develop empathy for the complexity of the bi-directional social learning process. It provides practical strategies for how to effectively work in a group, understand the hidden rules of the social world—including workplace etiquette and politics—and build relationships. It also encourages employees to self-advocate when needed. Powerful, Practical Strategies Social Thinking at Work contains easily accessible information about core concepts that describe how we think about our own and others’ thoughts and emotions, actions and reactions, intentions, and motives. In it you’ll learn to become a stronger social observer and use strategies that increase your social competencies. Chapters address:
The social mind, social intelligence, and how social thinking is different from social skills The role of our emotions and social memory in office interactions The hidden rules or expectations and social memory in various types of specific office situations Giving compliments, asking for help, and apologizing Seven core tenets of perspective taking and understanding others' points of view Exploring the Social-Emotional Chain Reaction The four steps of communication Indirect communication: reading between the lines Belonging: workplace adaptations vs. conformity vs. teamwork and networking The office hierarchy, friendships, romantic relationships, bullying, and more
Book 18 in the Michelle's Book Blog Series. As usual this book is hard hitting and no holds barred. In this book I talk about my dreams The Klu Klux Klan and more.
This book is my take on the Foota Hype UFO situation. Bunny Wailer's comment on Rita Marley and the $25 million pound injection into Jamaica to build a new prison there.
Transnational cinemas are eclipsing national cinemas in the contemporary world, and Sino-French films exemplify this phenomenon through the cinematic coupling of the Sinophone and the Francophone, linking France not just with the Chinese mainland but also with the rest of the Chinese-speaking world. Sinophone directors most often reach out to French cinema by referencing and adapting it. They set their films in Paris and metropolitan France, cast French actors, and sometimes use French dialogue, even when the directors themselves don't understand it. They tend to view France as mysterious, sexy, and sophisticated, just as the French see China and Taiwan as exotic. As Michelle E. Bloom makes clear, many films move past a simplistic opposition between East and West and beyond Orientalist and Occidentalist cross-cultural interplay. Bloom focuses on films that have appeared since 2000 such as Tsai Ming-liang's What Time Is It There? , Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, and Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. She views the work of these well-known directors through a Sino-French optic, applying the tropes of métissage (or biraciality), intertextuality, adaptation and remake, translation, and imitation to shed new light on their work. She also calls attention to important, lesser studied films: Taiwanese director Cheng Yu-chieh's Yang Yang, which depicts the up-and-coming Taiwanese star Sandrine Pinna as a mixed race beauty; and Emily Tang Xiaobai's debut film Conjugation, which contrasts Paris and post-Tiananmen Square Beijing, the one an incarnation of liberty, the other a place of entrapment. Bloom's insightful analysis also probes what such films reveal about their Taiwanese and Chinese creators. Scholars have long studied Sino-French literature, but this inaugural full-length work on Sino-French cinema maps uncharted territory, offering a paradigm for understanding other cross-cultural interminglings and tools to study transnational cinema and world cinema. The Sino-French, rich and multifaceted, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically, constitutes an important part of film studies, Francophone studies, Sinophone studies and myriad other fields. This is a must-read for students, scholars, and lovers of film.
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