'This isn't a Catholic country anymore,' someone proudly declared in a pub where Ellen Coyne was sitting. Ellen had left the Church long ago, like many her age. But she had never stopped talking to God. Now, about to turn 30, she realised she wasn't quite ready for this declaration to be true. Abandoning the Church had been an act of protest. However, Ellen began to wonder: who had really lost the most? Why should those who damaged the Church get to keep all its good bits, like the rituals, the community, a guide for living a better life and the comfort of believing it's not the end when somebody dies? But how could she ally herself to an institution she doesn't entirely agree with? In her first book, a stunningly thoughtful and intelligent debut, Ellen Coyne tries to figure out how much she really wants to go back to the Church, and if it is even the right thing to do. 'Get ready – this is going to inspire a thousand conversations across Ireland about the role of the Church in our society and our future' Louise O'Neill 'I flew through this on a "will she, won't she?" knife-edge, all the while questioning my own attitude to faith and spirituality' Emer McLysaght 'Sings with sincerity ... this is the book the church doesn't know it needs for its own survival' Justine McCarthy

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ellen DeGeneres shares her hilarious take on everything from our most baffling human foibles–including how we behave in elevators, airplanes, and restrooms, and why we’re so scared of the boogeyman–to fashion trends, celebrity, and her secret recipe for Ellen’s Real Frenchy French Toast. Most of all, this witty, engaging book offers insights into the mind of one of America’s most beloved comics.… Dear Reader, I was awfully excited when I was asked to write a book. I was however, nervous. I was afraid I didn’t have anything important to say. But when I began writing, I realized that although I don’t know a lot about any one thing, I know a little about a whole bunch of things: baking a pie; dancing; curing the common cold; running the Iditarod–it’s all in the book. And I realized I notice things that maybe some people don’t notice (or they don’t notice that they don’t notice). That’s all in the book, too.

The human race. You have to love it and wish it well and not preach or think you have any reason to think you are better than anyone else. Amen. Good-bye. Peace . . . Master short story writer Ellen Gilchrist, winner of the National Book Award, returns with her first story collection in over eight years. In Acts of God, she has crafted ten different scenarios in which people dealing with forces beyond their control somehow manage to survive, persevere, and triumph, even if it is only a triumph of the will. For Marie James, a teenager from Fayetteville, Arkansas, the future changes when she joins a group of friends in their effort to find survivors among the debris left when a tornado destroys a neighboring town. For Philipa, a woman blessed with beauty and love and a life without care, the decision she makes to take control of her fate is perhaps the easiest she has ever made. As she writes to Charles, her husband and lifetime partner, “Nothing is of value except to have lived well and to die without pain.” For Eli Naylor, left orphaned by a flood, there comes an understanding that sometimes out of tragedy can come the greatest good, as he finds a life and a future in a most unexpected place. In one way or another, all of these people are fighters and believers, survivors who find the strength to go on when faced with the truth of their mortality, and they are given vivid life in these stories, told with Ellen Gilchrist’s clear-eyed optimism and salty sense of humor. As a critic in the Washington Post wrote in reviewing one of the author’s earlier works, “To say that Ellen Gilchrist can write is to say that Placido Domingo can sing. All you have to do is listen."

Having suffered abuse and misfortune for much of her life, a young child searches for a better life and finally gets a break in the home of a loving woman with several foster children.

A compelling memoir about "Ed" Krug, who as a man, had everything that anyone could want: a soul mate's love, the adoration of two beautiful daughters, a house in the best neighborhood, and a successful trial lawyer's career. After years of self-denial, "Ed" began a "gender journey" of self-discovery, In the end, that journey meant accepting Ellen, even though doing so meant giving up much of what "Ed" had valued as a man. This is a truly compelling story that goes beyond some things lost and others gained. It has universal meaning for everyone--whether they are transgender or not.