Growing up in the seventies, our family appeared perfect to the residents of our small community. My mother was determined to have her Camelot on the North Dakota prairie. My father was an unwilling participant in her goal of perfection; the children were props in the setting she was determined to create.

Behind the White Picket Fence: Power and Privilege in a Multiethnic Neighborhood

Growing up, Krista Kathleen followed all the rules... She went to church every Sunday, got straight A's in school, found a high paying job, and married her college sweetheart at the age of 26. From the outside looking in? Life looked picture perfect. But inside? She couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something was missing...that she was meant for so much more. Then, at the age of 30, Krista tragically got fired AND divorced within the span of a week. Though on one level, these events were totally catastrophic, they were also the energetic wakeup call Krista needed from the Universe to leave her former life behind so she could start over again. This book holds the answers she found as she put the pieces of her life back together in a bold and daring way that TRULY fit Part memoir, part "how-to" guide, Beyond the White Picket Fence is a battle cry for the woman who wants to blaze her own trail in a world desperate to keep her on the well-trodden path. You're going to walk away looking at your relationships, health, purpose, and connection to humanity in new ways and start asking yourself some really powerful questions maybe for the first time ever. At the end of the day, there are two kinds of women in this world: Those who follow the rules, and those who write their own. Beyond the White Picket Fence is for the latter.

First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. Nearly fifteen years later, this book remains a groundbreaking study of a group still underrepresented in the academic and public spheres. The result of living for three years in “Groveland,” a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Black Picket Fences explored both the advantages the black middle class has and the boundaries they still face. Despite arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo showed a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal. Stark, moving, and still timely, the book is updated for this edition with a new epilogue by the author that details how the neighborhood and its residents fared in the recession of 2008, as well as new interviews with many of the same neighborhood residents featured in the original. Also included is a new foreword by acclaimed University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau.

Come home to Shelter Valley where love lasts and families matter.... Miranda Parsons is content with her life. She has a great job, a wonderful family, a lovely house. She has good friends. And she lives in a town where people know her, care about her. So what's missing? Passion--as she finds out when she meets Zack Foster. Zack's a veterinarian who's recently moved to Shelter Valley after the failure of a marriage he'd considered perfect. He still likes being with women, but now prefers his romances "short and sweet." Randi and Zack learn what it is to feel truly passionate about someone else--and they begin to want the passion they've discovered. But to get something, you have to give something up. Can they exchange contentment for happiness--even if greater happiness means greater risk?

How Do You Rewrite Your Life's Script after You've Suffered a Massive Brain Tumor? Janet Johnson Schliff was an award-winning special education teacher for 25 years. But, as her abilities began to fade away with no medical explanation, she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors that wreaked havoc on her much-loved teaching career.... A massive brain tumor was discovered, and finally, after brain surgery, the odd behaviors it caused that had ruled her life for years were gone, only to be replaced by a different set of life-long challenges due to her injured brain. Her story will inspire and inform her readers.