Bianca Reynolds was torn between love and love that was lost. A helpless romatic, she believed that love would prevail through it all. Never once did she think that her life would be anything but perfect. She would have a husband, kids and a house with a white picket fence. That was a dream and she fought so hard to make this dream a reality. With lover there is pain and the true measure of love is what is left of your heart once the pain is gone. Bianca knew that her lifestyle would put her in places in which she may become uncomfortable but she fought hard to overcome the obstacles that stood before her.

A Gentle Invitation into the Challenging Topic of Privilege The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward. Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She shows how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects, and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well. White Picket Fences invites us to respond to privilege with generosity, humility, and hope. It opens us to questions we are afraid to ask, so that we can walk further from fear and closer to love, in all its fragile and mysterious possibilities.

A verbatim play about young women's resilience through foster care.

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?

Behind Picket Fences is the story of how four families deal with their trials and triumphs. Sharing the same neighborhood, even spending time together, no family knows the truth about the difficulties the others face. On the outside, Sidra and Farris have the biggest house and the most expensive cars. What no one else sees, is their struggle with infertility. If their dreams do not change to compensate for the blows of fate, their unfulfilled life may lead to deception. Mariam and Morgan's modest home exudes the rich scent of family. With children playing in the yard, they seem picture perfect. But financial struggle is their continuous battle, and their only solution may give birth to an envy which is more destructive than hunger. Summer and Porter enjoy youth and the freedom of self-employment. But discontentment and mental instability linger between them. If they are not able to build a bridge over the gap, their search for happiness may have a fatal end. May and Hasan enjoy peace and true happiness. Illness cares not, however, of letting them relish in their blessings. Only patience and time will prove if this unwelcome visitor is simply passing by, or if it will tear their world apart. An honest portrayal of love and family, Behind Picket Fences opens our eyes to the difficult truths hidden behind smiling faces.

Revised and expanded, with new full-color photographs.