Dating Memoir

Through the intimate writing of critically acclaimed autistic author Kay Kerr, Love & Autism presents an uplifting celebration of neurodivergent love, the search for it and a deeper look into the lives of autistic Australians.

Anyone who saw an episode of Saturday Night Live between 1999 and 2006 knows Rachel Dratch. She was hilarious! So what happened to her? After a misbegotten part as Jenna on the pilot of 30 Rock, Dratch was only getting offered roles as "Lesbians. Secretaries. Sometimes secretaries who are lesbians." Her career at a low point, Dratch suddenly had time for yoga, dog- sitting, learning Spanish - and dating. After all, what did a forty-something single woman living in New York have to lose?

Rachel Krantz is a 27-year-old journalist living in Brooklyn when she meets Adam, who is non-monogamous. The concept isn't entirely new to her and the possibility of that kind of freedom is as exciting as it is daunting. If there's a chance that she could date, have sex and connect with different people alongside a loving and supportive long-term relationship, why wouldn't she seize it?

After trying for years to emulate her boomer parents’ 40-year and still-going-strong marriage, Sophie realized that maybe the love she was looking for was down a road less traveled. In this bold, graphic memoir, she explores her sexuality, her values, and the versions of love our society accepts and practices.

Abby knew her pattern all too well: get her heart broken, swear off dating, find a man "worth" breaking that vow for . . . Rinse. Repeat. However, after leaving a particularly traumatic relationship, Abby realized that something had to change if she wanted to kick the pattern. One night while purchasing a solo concert ticket, an epiphany was born: she needed a year in which she was her own dating interest. One full year to give herself the care and consideration that she once gave to romantic partners. A year to treat herself the way she wished a partner would.

Ann is 60 and suffering from celibacy. Going through two divorces has made her skittish; having two children has made her cautious. But finally her longing for sex and romance sends her hurtling out of her comfort zone. Her adventure begins with a very nice transvestite and gets more interesting from there.

For many years, Jeffrey Demitrack searched for a meaningful and fulfilling relationship and, most of all, hoped that one day he would find a significant other who understood and unconditionally accepted his struggles with epilepsy. People have their insecurities, and relationships already are hard without throwing seizures into the mix, so his search has been a challenging one.

Captured by Love shares the real love stories of 20 Vietnam War POWs. Some had wives who started a movement that changed American foreign policy. Others came home and had to start over, while five single men met the loves of their lives. Despite their unique differences, all these couples have been happily married 40 to 65 years. Former POW Lee Ellis and love expert Greg Godek take you on a dramatic journey of faithfulness, passion, excitement, resilience, and practical love lessons from these couples.

Single life in New York City is something Shaunie thought was far behind her. That is, until her husband dropped a bomb, days after her birthday that left her with no choice but to end their union. Challenged by the reality of heartbreak, she breaks free from regret and never looks back. This charming, career-driven event planner would enter her 30s as a single, independent woman, ready to embrace her new beginning. Armed with wit, a sense of humor, and plenty of wine, she embarks on her bright future full of hope to find love again.

Dumb is not a word usually affiliated with Ivy Wright. Accomplished, successful and inspirational are usually more common. So focused on success in her career, Wright misses that her love life is actually only a sex life. Her relationships begin with passion and romance and change to drama and pain long before she makes her way out of them. As she creeps past her 30s she realizes she has a problem and seeks help from "The Husband Whisperer." Wright tracks her bad decision making back to emotional damage from her childhood and her first godforsaken exploration of sex.

A divorced woman in her forties finds herself suddenly single after thirty-two years with the same man. Does she head off to a resort on the Indian Ocean? Does she become a stand-up comedian? Does she conquer the online dating world by scheduling three or four dates a day for several years? Renata Lubinsky managed to do all three, and by the time she had dated eighty men, she had learned many things in her quest to remain a vital and exciting woman as she headed into the next stage of her life.

Stunned and in disbelief, author Shelby Wagner, watched as the young nurses walked away after informing her that “Mr. Wagner didn’t make it!” A once-confident woman is shattered with grief, unable to accept that her husband is "gone". As visions of a lonely and uncertain future danced before her, she asked God why he had not taken her too. But God had plans for her. Wagner's story is provocative and captivating. Her insights and coping strategies are invaluable.

In the late 1950s, when a shy, 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old, outgoing boy fall in love in a small Midwestern town, population 695, their happiness is short-lived when they discover she is pregnant. Forced by their very young ages and family expectations, they place their child up for adoption and separate—each living their lives apart for 53 years. But a corner of Dennis' heart still belonged to Karen. Despite the many passing years, he searches for and finds his lost love, and later, together they find their daughter. Love is not what you say; love is what you feel.

It’s the cusp of Natasha Sizlo’s 44th birthday. Still reeling from her disastrous divorce—the kind where your husband moves out, you lose your house, your business collapses and you file for bankruptcy—she’s navigating life as a single mum and doing her best to fake it ‘til she makes it in the cutthroat world of LA real estate. In the meantime, her ex-husband is dating a Hollywood star, and she’s just broken it off—for the 100th and final time—with her devastatingly handsome but impossibly noncommittal French boyfriend.

Sex in the Seminary is based on author Ameila Strang’s own experience as a single seminarian. During her years of theological study, she made friends with students who refrained from dating while attending school.

When Laura Fraser's husband leaves her for his high school sweetheart, she takes off, on impulse, for Italy, hoping to leave some of her sadness behind. There, on the island of Ischia, she meets M., an aesthetics professor from Paris with an oversized love of life. What they both assume will be a casual vacation tryst turns into a passionate, transatlantic love affair, as they rendezvous in London, Marrakech, Milan, the Aeolian Islands, and San Francisco.

A memoir about hope and second chances. Elise, my mother, fell in love for the first time when she was 19. Peter was his name. She became engaged to him at 21 but didn't marry him until she was 75!

Married twice, each time for 18 years, Richard began online dating at the age of 64, after the end of his second marriage. Lost in the cyberspace of strange faces and distant places, he chronicled his journey to discover a true soul connection. Many years, many encounters, and countless lonely nights later he produced Lonely Heart, Will Travel in a cathartic effort to heal his own wounds while helping others to navigate the quagmire of finding real love.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so, too! Listen to Dating in the Electric Age and learn about the author's experience with online dating.

Online dating has become the norm for many of us. Busy lives, children, sometimes working two jobs in order to provide as a single parent, means that it's not so easy anymore to meet people in "real life". But this profile is different - this profile belongs to prisoner Mark Twitchell, a convicted murderer who used one of the most popular dating sites around, PlentyofFish.com, to lure his victims to an empty garage, where he hoped to satisfy his lust for blood.