Continuing in the tradition of the beloved first volume, Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren’t Told taps into women’s compelling need to share their personal reflections on life’s defining moments of surprise and silence. These stories celebrate the female experience with an honesty
and intimacy that will take your breath away. Readers will explore what may be unfamiliar terrain, and will come away with the powerful knowledge of what it must be like to step into another woman’s shoes. “The fact is,” writes Adrienne Clarkson in the foreword, “none of us knows anything, and it is what happens to us in life that teaches us everything.”

Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson, with the assistance of Carol’s daughter Catherine, have gathered an astounding collection of fresh, beautifully crafted and original pieces by well-known Canadians, including Jane Urquhart, Susan Swan, Shelagh Rogers, Michele Landsberg, Elizabeth Hay, Billie Livingston, Sandra Martin and Flora MacDonald. As with the first book, this volume also includes contributions from new writers, women whose names you may not recognize but whose stories will resonate, move and inspire.

Table of Contents:
Contents

Adrienne Clarkson, Foreword
Marjorie Anderson, Introduction
End Notes
Jane Urquhart — Losing Paul: A Memoir
Alison Wearing — My Life as a Shadow
Mary Jane Copps — In My Mother's Arms
Lisa Majeau Gordon — An Exercise in Fertility
Billie Livingston — Cat Bag
Shirley Serviss — One Step Forward
Pamela Mala Sinha — Hiding
Dana McNairn — A Marriage in Seven Parts
Lisa Gregoire — Northern Lights and Darkness
Variations
Maggie Dwyer — Like Mother, Like Daughter
Sandra Martin — Snapshots
Barbara Defago — Inside Talking
Linda Harlos — The Fall, and After
Hildegard Martens — By Choice
Marianne Brandis — Virgin Crone
Faith Johnston — Debonding
Sarah Harvey — Mother Interrupted
C.J. Papoutsis — They Didn't Come with Instructions
Glimpses
Ingeborg Boyens — On the Water's Edge
Mary J. Breen — Nobody Needs to Know
Jennifer L. Schulz — Toe-Ring
Debbie Culbertson — A Place on the Pavement
Wanda Wuttunee — We Are More Than Our Problems
Linda Rogers — Bettina's Hat
Michele Landsberg — Don't Say Anything
Susan Swan — My Secret Life as a Mother
Nourishment
Karen Houle — Double Arc
Elizabeth Hay — Ten Beauty Tips You Never Asked For
Carole Sabiston — Conjuring Up a New Life
Flora MacDonald — New Voices
Sandra Beardsall — Life with an Overeager Conscience
Sandra Birdsell — One of a Bunch
Maude Barlow — The Coat I Left Behind
Ann Dowsett Johnston — The Boy Can't Sleep
Shelagh Rogers — Speaking of Dying
Carol Shields, Afterword