false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173563023m/304495.jpg 304495 9 We all have an imaginary definition of a great family. We imagine what it would be like to belong to such a family. No fights over the holidays. No getting on one another's nerves. Respect for individual identity. Mutual support, without being intrusive. So many people believe they are disqualified from having a better family experience, primarily because they compare their own family with the mythic ideal, and their reality falls short. Is that a fair standard to judge against? In the pages of "Why Do I Love These People?", Po Bronson takes us on an extraordinary journey. It begins on a river in Texas, where a mother gets trapped underwater and has to bargain for her own life and that of her kids. Then, a father and his daughter return to their tiny rice-growing village in China, hoping to rekindle their love for each other inside the walls of his childhood home. Next, a son puts forth a riddle, asking us to understand what his first experience of God has to do with his Mexican American mother. Every step and every family on this journey is real. Calling upon his gift for powerful nonfiction narrative and philosophical insight, Bronson explores the incredibly complicated feelings that we have for our families. Each chapter introduces us to two people a father and his son, a daughter and her mother, a wife and her husband and we come to know them as intimately as characters in a novel, following the story of their relationship as they struggle resiliently through the kinds of hardships all families endure. Some of the people manage to save their relationship, while others find a better life only after letting the relationship go. From their efforts, the wisdom in this book emerges. We are left feeling emotionally raw but grounded and better prepared to love, through both hard times and good time. In these twenty mesmerizing stories, we discover what is essential and elemental to all families and, in doing so, slowly abolish the fantasies and fictions we have about those we fight to stay connected to. In "Why Do I Love These People?", Bronson shows us that we are united by our yearnings and aspirations: Family is not our dividing line, but our common ground. From the Hardcover edition. 295523 2005 "Why Do I Love These People?": Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family total:276|5:55|4:92|3:103|2:24|1:2| 276 1002 437 71 5 1 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jan 12 13:24:08 -0800 2009 Thu Sep 24 18:03:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Mar 18 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Nov 18 15:53:08 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 15:53:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 09 13:40:44 -0700 2008 Mon May 12 20:23:54 -0700 2008
This book chron...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 19:04:47 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 27 14:24:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 10:36:50 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 17:44:04 -0700 2008 "That which does not kill ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 17:30:15 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 06:40:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 22 22:02:04 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 22:02:04 -0700 2009 With My Life?" to come up with the themes in this book. He interviewed
hundreds of people for many hours to try to get at what it means to be
family, and what makes strong family relationships.

Thi...more...]]> 4 0 false true Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 29 17:43:40 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 17 10:05:48 -0800 2009
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Haven't a clue what I was expecting, but this wasn't it. What a delightful and uncomfortable (often at the same time) collection of *true* stories.

There was the woman who had to learn how to reconcile...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jan 01 09:44:32 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 09:51:52 -0800 2009 Creative, introspective, and heartfelt, author Po Bronson re-tells 18 multicultural stories with family and universal lessons at the core. Developing his main theme that "creating families of our own involves both building with new people and changing the relationships we have to those w...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 09:50:56 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 10:37:00 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 12:48:14 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 12:51:35 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 21:24:41 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 06:20:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 23 06:49:09 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 06:51:41 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Fri Jan 11 09:34:18 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 09:34:28 -0800 2008
My personal favorite involved ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 04 11:58:24 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 20:18:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 03:57:16 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 08:59:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 true false Fri Jan 30 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 14:55:23 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 22 19:54:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 17 16:54:52 -0800 2009 Mon May 04 11:53:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 12 18:19:22 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 18:20:14 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 19:04:11 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 19:09:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=304495