Welcome to this week’s extra credit course at BookSparks University, Life Prep featuring OUR GRAND FINALE byĀ Laraine Denny Burrell, MOTHERHOOD REIMAGINED byĀ Sarah Kowalski, YOU CAN’T BUY LOVE LIKE THAT by Carol E. Anderson, and WHILE THEY’RE STILL HEREĀ byĀ Patricia Williams.

OUR GRAND FINALE

by Laraine Denny Burrell

Laraine Burrell gets the call to come back to England from the United States just in time to visit briefly with her father before he passes away. Following his death, she is overcome with grief, feeling that she has squandered the time she had with her father. Instead of staying close, she chose to travel the world and seek her own goals as a young woman, always thinking there would be time later on to tell her dad all the things she wanted to tell him―how much she loved him, and how he was her hero. Now, she realizes, it’s too late.

MOTHERHOOD REIMAGINED

by Sarah Kowalski

At the age of thirty-nine, Sarah Kowalski began to realize time was running out to have a baby. After grappling with what it meant to have a baby alone, she eventually realized that she’d always wanted a baby more than anything and decided to use a sperm donor―only to find out she was infertile. Thus began a year of hope and despair in which she fought the diagnosis, refusing to accept her doctor’s suggestion that she move on to donor eggs. In the months that followed, Kowalski catapulted herself into a diligent regime of herbs, Qigong, meditation, acupuncture, and more in a futile attempt to improve her egg quality. It was only after facing the dormant self-doubt and self-hatred fueled by her body’s inability to conceive that she was able to surrender her previous notions of what it meant to be a mother and embrace a path to motherhood that involved both egg and sperm donation.

YOU CAN’T BUY LOVE LIKE THAT

by Carol E. Anderson

Carol Anderson grows up in a fundamentalist Christian home in the 60s, a time when being gay was in opposition to all social and religious mores and against the law in most states. Fearing the rejection of her parents, she hides the truth about her love orientation, creating emotional distance from them for years, as she desperately struggles to harness her powerful attractions to women while pursuing false efforts to be with men.

WHILE THEY’RE STILL HERE

by Patricia Williams

After a lifetime of strained bonds with her aging parents, Patricia Williams finds herself in the unexpected position of being their caregiver and neighbor. As they all begin to navigate this murky battleground, the long-buried issues that have divided their family for decades―alcoholism, infidelity, opposing politics―rear up and demand to be addressed head-on.

Have you signed up for the BookSparks Fall Reading Challenge yet? SIGN UP NOW and be sure to follow us on social for our grand prize giveaway and more!

It’s easy as 1-2-3!

1. Pick your course schedule by taking a look at the books (our ā€œclassesā€) we’re reading all Fall long.

2. Each week, post your blog or social media postĀ about the book and share your participation in BookSparks University.

3. Watch for weekly giveaways on social and enter to win the grand prize giveaway, too!

JOIN THE FRC AND ENTER TO WIN!

Everyone can enter to win ourĀ grand prize giveaway! Ā You’ll be ready for all your post-graduation adventures with this Jessica Simpson plaid carry-on luggage, coordinating luggage tag and passport cover and a $300 Southwest Airlines voucher.