|
Rachel Simon's last book was the bestselling memoir Riding The Bus With My Sister
| |
|
|
|
| New Paperback Release!
The House on Teacher's Lane |
|
May 25, 2010
Hello Friends:
Today is the publication date for my latest book, The House on Teacher's Lane: A Memoir of Home, Healing and Love's Hardest Questions. This is the paperback edition of my 2009 memoir Building A Home With My Husband, which was retitled for the paperback to reflect the deeper emotional essence of the story.
It's a book I loved writing and I have been delighted by readers' responses. Many people have said that they've dogearred pages and sent quotes to friends. They've told me they've discovered their own unspoken thoughts, recognized their own hopes and dreams, and, most importantly, have been inspired to rethink their own most difficult relationships.
Every writer hopes that her words touch people and make a difference in their lives. I'm so grateful that this story, which is now known by two different titles, is creating such a deep connection with readers.
If you haven't read it yet, I hope the paperback release will inspire you to pick up a copy. And, if you have read it, I hope you'll consider giving the paperback to a friend. To thank you for your readership, if you buy a copy by June 15th, I'll send you a signed book plate. Send me an e-mail request at rachelsimon2002@yahoo.com. |
|
The House on Teacher's Lane |  When the author, Rachel Simon, and her architect husband began to renovate their house on Teacher's Lane, she braced herself for the ups and downs that often accompany such projects. But to her surprise, as the old walls fell and new paint appeared, she was propelled into a transformative journey that encompassed the deepest issues of life and love. With compassion and humor, The House On Teacher's Lane shimmers with intensely memorable insights into the power of forgiveness, the struggle to find meaning and purpose, the compatibility of imperfection and happiness, and the ways that broken relationships can be repaired. Rachel Simon's beautifully-crafted narrative will resonate with anyone who's ever cherished a friend, grown apart from a sibling, felt disappointed by a parent, searched for true love, questioned their life choices, or wondered how they got here and where to go now. The House On Teacher's Lane is for everyone who's ever experienced love in its many forms--and wrestled with its hardest questions.
Click here to Read the First Chapter.
|
|
From Rachel's Blog: It Takes A Village to Help A Sister |
 Last Wednesday, two weeks before my sister Beth's fiftieth birthday my phone rang. I saw her name on the caller ID and was baffled. It was only nine thirty in the morning, and she rarely takes her lunch break so early. I snatched up the phone, expecting her usual, sing-songy "Hi, Sis. Thiz Chatty Beth."
Instead she said, "My side hurts." Her voice had a gasping, panicky tone, as if she was holding back tears.
I sat up at my desk, on full alert. This is the opening to a call you do not want to get from someone you love, and especially not someone who neds a little more help to get through life. My sister Beth has an intellectual disability, and although she's confident and self-reliant, has a boyfriend and an apartment of her own, and has carved out a very social life riding buses all day, every day, I know I need to help when she needs me.
I've always known that. She's eleven months younger than I am. On her birthday we'll be twins for the next month.
To read the rest of the blog entry, click here.
To read Rachel's most recent blog entry, "How I Learned What Love Really Is," click here. |
|
New Novel Coming in Spring of 2011 | Mark your calendars! In Spring 2011, Rachel Simon will publish The Story of Beautiful Girl, a novel about disability and intertwining destinies that will get right under your skin and into your heart.
The story is about Lynnie, a beautiful young white woman with a developmental disability that involved her ability to speak, and the man she loves, Homan, an African American deaf man with only his home signs to guide him. Both were institutionalized in the mid-twentieth century, when people with disabilities were routinely shut off from society and left to languish without attention, forgotten.
One night, Lynnie and Homan escape. They find refuge in the farmhouse of the widow Martha, a retired schoolteacher. But the couple is not alone; Lynnie has just borne a child. The authorities catch up to them; Homan escapes into the darkness; Lynnie is caught. But just before she is gruffly taken back to the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, she manages to utter two words to Martha: "Hide Her." And so begins the epic tale of three lives desperate to reconnect, yet kept apart by seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Although The Story of Beautiful Girl is a work of fiction, fans of Riding The Bus With My Sister and The House On Teacher's Lane will recognize many familiar themes and images. This is Rachel's first novel in sixteen years.
|
|
|
|
|
