The Patron Saint Of Ugly

Download or read book The Patron Saint of Ugly written by Marie Manilla and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic lore, American tales, and Sicilian superstition blend in this “clever, funny, heartbreaking, and heartwarming” novel (Publishers Weekly). Born with unruly red hair, a sharp tongue, and wine-colored marks all over her body—marks that oddly mimick a map of the world and make her subject to endless ridicule—Garnet Ferrari would hardly consider herself blessed. So when an emissary from the Vatican shows up at her door, convinced that her seeming ability to cure the skin ailments of others qualifies her for sainthood, she’s not quite convinced—or pleased. Garnet sets off on a quest to better understand who she is and where she and her unusual gifts came from. Tracing a twisted path that leads from Sicily to West Virginia, poverty to riches, romance to loss, reality to mythology, Garnet uncovers a truth far more powerful than any dermatological miracle: that the things of which we are most ashamed often become our greatest strengths. “A cleareyed, touching fable of a girl learning the hard truths about herself and others.” —Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls written by Ursula Hegi and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A joy to read." —New York Times Book Review From beloved bestselling author Ursula Hegi, a new novel about three mothers, set on the shores of the Nordsee, perfect for fans of Water for Elephants and The Light Between Oceans. In the summer of 1878, the Ludwig Zirkus arrives on Nordstrand in Germany, to the delight of the island’s people. But after the show, a Hundred-Year Wave roars from the Nordsee and claims three young children. Three mothers are on the beach when it happens: Lotte, whose children are lost; Sabine, a Zirkus seamstress with her grown daughter; and Tilli, just a girl herself, who will give birth later that day at St. Margaret’s Home for Pregnant Girls. After the tragedy, Lotte’s husband escapes with the Zirkus, while she loses the will to care for their surviving son. Tilli steps in, bonding with him in a way she isn’t allowed to with her own baby, taken away at birth. Sabine, struggling to keep her childlike daughter safe in the world, forms a complicated friendship with Lotte. But the mothers' fragile trio is threatened when Lotte and her husband hatch a dangerous plan to reunite their family, and Tilli and Sabine must try to find a way to pull them back to reality. As full of joy and beauty as it is of pain, and told with the luminous power that has made Ursula Hegi a beloved bestselling author for decades, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a shining testament to the ways in which women hold each other up in the most unexpected of circumstances.

Download or read book Patron Saints for Postmoderns written by Chris R. Armstrong and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-08-27 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A professor of church history, Armstrong provides rich portraits of ten people from the past who: translated the gospel for their own times; broke down barriers; ministered out of the brokenness we all share; knew what it feels like to live on the margins; believed in the power of stories to bring transformation through Christ. --from publisher description

Download or read book Ugly Time written by Sarah Galvin and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. Sarah Galvin is here, she's queer, and she would like to talk about something else for a moment After taking a break from poetry to write The Best Party of Our Lives, a book of essays about gay marriages, Galvin's back with her second book of poems. In UGLY TIME, developers are transforming her hometown into a white-washed, glass box jungle. She's barely making rent. Her girlfriend just threw her heart in the garbage. Sex with strangers she meets on the internet is great and then empty and then great and then empty again. The 21st century is changing at hyperspeed, and it seems as if no one has time to talk about an old Kate Bush album or to praise "the patron saint of blowing up rotisserie chickens with fireworks" like they use to. But who's that beautiful person dressed head-to-toe in gold velvet? Did she just put Roy Orbison on the jukebox? Could love still be possible in the time of gentrification? And if so, does it redeem human suffering, sort of like, as Galvin writes, when "you step in human shit / while filming porn, / and notice the cherry petals / floating around you like sparks?" In a series of hilarious, tender, hyperreal poems, Galvin explores the paradox of trying to settle down--even for just a second--in a state of permanent impermanence.

Download or read book Mercy Matters written by Mathew N. Schmalz and published by Our Sunday Visitor. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.” —Pope Francis Whether dealing with adoption, sobriety, bullying, the Boston Marathon bombing, or friendship with a Jehovah’s Witness, Mathew Schmalz’s own life serves as the backdrop for his reflections on the complex nature of mercy—how we give it, and how we receive it. From a home for lepers in India to a halfway house in the Bronx, the author probes his experiences to reveal mercy as a virtue that doesn’t necessarily come easily, but is infinitely rewarding. Discussion and reflection questions at the end of each chapter allow you to dig deeper into your own ideas about mercy, what it looks like in your life, and how to move toward a more merciful existence. Perfect for individual or group study.

Download or read book Black Bottom Saints written by Alice Randall and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats. As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem. Accompanying these “tributes” are thoughtfully paired cocktails—special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy’s saints—libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall’s wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.

Download or read book The Life of Blessed Margaret of Castello written by Father William R. Bonniwell and published by TAN Books. This book was released on 1993-09 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: