Ada Calhoun – författare

Inspired by her wildly popular The New York Times essay "The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give", Ada Calhoun provides a funny (but not flip), clever (but not smug) take on the institution of marriage. Weaving intimate moments from her own married life with frank insight from experts, clergy and friends, she upends expectations of total marital bliss to present a realistic—but ultimately optimistic—portrait of what marriage is really like. There will be fights, there will be existential angst, there may even be affairs; sometimes you’ll look at the person you love and feel nothing but rage. Despite it all, Calhoun contends, staying married is easy: just don’t get divorced.Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers bracing straight talk to the newly married and honours those who have weathered the storm. This exploration of modern marriage is at once wise and entertaining, a work of unexpected candour and literary grace.

St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted and the Velvet Underground wailed. Ada Calhoun tells the “Fascinating” (Village Voice) many-layered history of the street—from its beginnings as a pear orchard to today’s hipster playground—organised around the pivotal moments when critics declared “St. Marks is dead”.In this “timely, provocative, and stylishly written book.” (The Atlantic), enriched by interviews and rare images, Calhoun profiles iconic characters from W.H. Auden to Abbie Hoffman, from Keith Haring to the Beastie Boys. St. Marks has variously been an elite address, an immigrants’ haven, a mafia warzone, a hippie paradise and a backdrop to the film Kids—but it has always been a place that outsiders call home.

Inspired by her wildly popular The New York Times essay "The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give", Ada Calhoun provides a funny (but not flip), clever (but not smug) take on the institution of marriage. Weaving intimate moments from her own married life with frank insight from experts, clergy and friends, she upends expectations of total marital bliss to present a realistic—but ultimately optimistic—portrait of what marriage is really like. There will be fights, there will be existential angst, there may even be affairs; sometimes you’ll look at the person you love and feel nothing but rage. Despite it all, Calhoun contends, staying married is easy: just don’t get divorced.Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give offers bracing straight talk to the newly married and honours those who have weathered the storm. This exploration of modern marriage is at once wise and entertaining, a work of unexpected candour and literary grace.

Abandon your insecurities. Trust your instincts. Enjoy raising a happy, considerate child.SMART CHILDREARING SENSE FROM THE FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF BABBLE.COMWhat’s the right way to parent? Any playground or online message board will supply as many opinions as there are adults. Every subject—from sleep training to time-outs to pacifiers—has its supporters and detractors, and every viewpoint can be backed up by a truckload of research and statistics.It’s enough to reduce any new parent to tears, but you can end the madness. Ada Calhoun—a young mother as well as the founding editor-in-chief of Babble .com—provides a complete and completely reassuring guide that will calm your fears and make those precious early years a source of joy. Her simple yet profound advice: find what works for you and your family and ditch the anxiety and judgment.Despite what other parenting books—and other parents—might have you believe, there is no universal “best.” Whether you start solids at four months or eight, whether you co-sleep or Ferberize, whether Junior’s mac ’n’ cheese is Day-Glo orange or 100 percent organic is not nearly as important as providing the few absolute essentials (love, food, shelter) while teaching your little one how to be a kind, responsible human being. With its compelling mixture of entertaining, hilarious firsthand accounts and refreshing common sense, Instinctive Parenting will show you how to do that—and even show you how to retain your sanity, your friends, your sense of humor, and your personal life in the process.