-
Award-Winning Memoir and 2017 Readers’ Favorite “Pomerantz’s memoir is a well-plotted, swift-paced story full of vivid details. This gem of a book stands out from the pack, Not only does the author survive a horrible marriage, she survives cancer. Her characters are real and multi-dimensional.” ―Book Life/ Publisher’s Weekly When Diane, a psychologist, falls in love with Charles, a charming and brilliant psychiatrist, there is laughter and flowers—and also darkness. After moving through infertility treatments and the trials of the adoption process as a united front, the couple is ultimately successful in creating a family. As time goes on, however, Charles becomes increasingly critical and controlling, and Diane begins to feel barraged and battered. When she is diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer, Charles is initially there for her, but his attentiveness quickly vanishes and is replaced by withdrawal, anger, and unfathomable sadism. What Diane previously thought were just Charles’ controlling ways are replaced by clear pathologic narcissism and emotional abuse that turns venomous at the very hour of her greatest need. A memoir and a psychological love story that is at times tender and at times horrifying, Lost in the Reflecting Pool is a chronicle of one woman’s struggle to survive within—and ultimately break free of—a relationship with a man incapable of caring about anyone beyond himself. Author: Diane Pomerantz Publication Date: October 10, 2017 -
Once a promising young concert pianist, Camille Childs retreated to her mother’s Santa Barbara estate after an injury to her hand destroyed her hopes for a musical career. She now leads a solitary life teaching piano, and she has a star student: Graciela, the daughter of her mother’s Mexican housekeeper. Camille has been grooming the young Graciela for the career that she herself lost out on, and now Graciela, newly turned eighteen, has just won the grand prize in a piano competition, which means she gets to perform with the LA Philharmonic. Camille is ecstatic; if she can’t play herself, at least as Graciela’s teacher, she will finally get the recognition she deserves. But there are only two weeks left before the concert, and Graciela has disappeared—gone back to her family’s village in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Desperate to bring Graciela back in time for the concert, Camille goes after her, but on the way there, a bus accident leaves her without any of her possessions. Alone and unable to speak the language, Camille is befriended by Alejandro, a Zapotec man who lives in LA but is from the same village as Graciela. Despite a contentious first meeting, Alejandro helps Camille navigate the rugged terrain and unfamiliar culture of Oaxaca, allowing her the opportunity to view the world in a different light—and perhaps find love in the process. Author: Jessica Winters Mireles Publication Date: April 21, 2020 -
Inspired by a gripping true story, Lookin’ for Love begins in 1963, when Ava, nineteen and pregnant, marries a violent alcoholic and is disowned by her abusive mother. She bears two sons, leaves her husband, and turns to go-go dancing to provide for her children, using alcohol and drugs to numb herself to the degrading work. Then she meets Mike, a charismatic drug dealer who promises to give her “a beautiful life.” They move to Florida and begin working for The Crew, one of the largest drug smuggling organizations in the country. The Crew sends Ava and Mike to Kenya to find farmers to grow marijuana—but while they’re there, their home is raided, they’re charged with international drug smuggling, and Ava is sentenced to serve time in a Kenyan prison. After her release, Ava struggles with sobriety but soon returns to dancing, alcohol, and drugs. Eventually, she hits bottom and surrenders her will to God. Once sober, she learns the power of forgiveness, faith, and love. Author: Susen Edwards Publication Date: October 15, 2024 -
Tom Smiley signed up as a private in the Confederate army when he was eighteen and quickly came to regret it. Spending the last year of the war in a Union prison scarred him so deeply that even death hasn't brought freedom from its memory. A ghost in his deserted childhood home, he can’t forget the bloody war and its meaningless losses, or shed his revulsion for his role in the Confederate defense of slavery. But when a young couple moves in and makes his home their own in the early 21st century, trouble erupts—and Tom is forced to not only face his own terrible secret but also come to grips with his family’s hidden wartime history. He finds an unexpected ally in his house’s new owner, Phoebe Hunter, who is both fascinated and frightened by his ghostly presence—and whose discoveries will have momentous consequences for them both. Author: Abigail Cutter Pub Date: July 12, 2022 -
2017 Living Now Awards Bronze Winner, Enlightenment/Spirituality Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World offers a offers an unconventional approach to the spiritual-material split so prevalent in our culture. In these pages, Dr. Anna Gatmon demystifies the all-too-often elusive nature of spirituality and brings it down to earth, providing a concrete roadmap to living a life that is spiritually fulfilling without having to give up material pleasures. Weaving stories from her personal life with insights and testimonials from her doctoral research, Gatmon offers four keys to improve intuitive decision making, empowering readers to become their own spiritual guide and live a spiritually meaningful life while staying fully engaged in daily material living. Author: Anna Gatmon Publication Date: August 15, 2017 -
“Little Woman in Blue is an inspiring and engaging fictional portrait of the artist May Alcott, written with knowledge, sensitivity, and beauty. It is wonderful to see May Alcott gain the center of her own story, and inhabit it with such generosity and grace.” —Harriet Scott Chessman, author of Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper May Alcott spends her days sewing blue shirts for Union soldiers, but she dreams of painting a masterpiece—which many say is impossible for a woman—and of finding love, too. When she reads her sister’s wildly popular novel, Little Women, she is stung by Louisa’s portrayal of her as “Amy,” the youngest of four sisters who trades her desire to succeed as an artist for the joys of hearth and home. Determined to prove her talent, May makes plans to move far from Massachusetts and make a life for herself with room for both watercolors and a wedding dress. Can she succeed? And if she does, what price will she have to pay? Based May Alcott’s letters and diaries, as well as memoirs written by her neighbors, Little Woman in Blue puts May at the center of the story she might have told about sisterhood and rivalry in an extraordinary family. Author: Jeannine Atkins Publication Date: September 8, 2015 -
Gold Medal IPPY Winner in Religious Fiction Finalist in the novel/fiction category of the Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner: Best Religious Fiction, International Book Award 2017 The Divine Shekinah seeks deliverance from exile to heal a world desperately in need of Her wisdom. Her chosen mission keepers, three generations of kabbalists from places as diverse as a 19th century Polish shtetl and modern day Israel/Palestine, must grapple with profound injustices and the shadows of humanity. If they choose the path of righteousness, love, and forgiveness, Her light can return to the world. Will the mission succeed? Will the divine feminine return to this world? The Shekinah calls to all of us to find our own way to ‘knit the world back together.’ Author: Leah Chyten Publication Date: May 16, 2017 -
Light in Bandaged Places shows us the harm done when an older man in a position of power convinces a child that sex with him is alright because he loves her. This poignant story takes us through the long-term wounding of such abuse—and the multifaceted path of healing. As a lonely girl coming of age in the 1970s, Liz has every reason to believe her 8th-grade teacher is in love with her. Because the sex isn’t physically violent and is wrapped in a message of love, she learns to exchange sex for attention. It feels like love, after all. But years later, as an adult, emotional closeness eludes Liz. Even after marrying a sensitive, caring man, she is walled off. Struggling through confusing years, she believes something is deeply wrong with her. Healing begins when an unexpected event takes Liz back to those formative years, and she sees for the first time that what happened to her was not love but trauma. As she begins to understand how her relationship with her former teacher destroyed her innocence and self-worth, she begins a spiritual and psychological journey that sets her free. Now a meditation teacher and Buddhist practitioner, Liz offers her story in hope of helping others along their own paths of discovery and healing. Author: Liz Kinchen Pub Date: September 5, 2023 -
When Janice learns that she has stage four cancer, she feels the sand in life’s hourglass begin to escape through her fingers. A successful trial lawyer, she’s spent her entire adulthood competing, clock watching, and chasing the money while life slipped by unnoticed. But this diagnosis leaves her questioning whether it’s all been worth it. In this candid memoir, Janice reflects on the choices she made throughout her life to bring her to this point. She offers an insider’s view of Big Law and questions corporate America’s relationship with wealth and excess. She examines how one’s longing for approval—from family or elsewhere—comes at the expense of knowing what we want and being our true selves. And she discovers that the remedy is a long, hard road to travel. Earnest, tender, and eye-opening, Life’s Hourglass inspires readers to ask themselves, “How do I want to spend the days I have remaining?” Author: Janice Mock Publication Date: October 6, 2020 -
Rachel Levy Lesser can relive almost every significant life event through an accessory. A scarf, a pair of earrings, a bag, even a fleece pair of socks―each contains the elements that put together the story of a life. Life’s Accessories is a funny, sad, touching, relatable, shake-your-head-right-along-as-you-laugh-and-wipe-away-tears, coming-of-age memoir. In fourteen essays, Lesser tackles sensitive issues like anxiety, illness, and loss in a way that feels a bit like having a chat with a good friend. Out of the stories comes solid life―and fashion―advice. About far more than just a hair tie, a bracelet, or a belt, Life’s Accessories is a window into the many ways in which Lesser has come to understand life―in all of its beauty, its joys, its sorrows, its heartaches, its challenges, and its absurdity. Author: Rachel Levy Lesser Publication Date: November 5, 2019 -
Nettie and Andy have been soul mates since childhood. While planning their wedding, Andy receives orders from the Army to deploy immediately to South Vietnam for a year. Anxious about Andy’s safety, Nettie dives into her work as a nursing intern in the hospital emergency room. When she inadvertently walks in on a nursing supervisor and surgeon during a late-night tryst, the vengeful lovers initiate a campaign to end her career before it starts. Nettie’s only respite is an elderly patient who has everything money can buy—except the one thing he wants. In Southeast Asia, Andy is leading a long-range reconnaissance squad in an unforgiving jungle when he receives orders to escort a high-ranking female freedom fighter, Bien, to a clandestine meeting with an enemy officer who wants to defect. Previously raped, beaten, and left for dead by North Vietnamese soldiers, Bien is suspicious of the enemy officer’s motives, but she also thinks he may be the younger brother her attackers conscripted into their army as a child. Andy, meanwhile, believes his unit is walking into a trap that could cost them everything. Struggling to survive in different worlds, Nettie and Andy navigate the best and worst of human nature as they try to find their way back to each other. Author: Pam Webber Publication Date: October 11, 2022 -
“All that glitters is not gold in Corie Adjmi’s wonderful short story collection Life and Other Shortcomings. Adjmi exposes the fear, envy, and yearning that simmer just beneath the surface of her characters’ beautiful lives. Her writing is both elegant and powerful. I was hooked from the first page to the last.” —Ellen Sussman, New York Times best-selling author of four novels, A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons and On a Night Like This Life and Other Shortcomings is a collection of linked short stories that takes the reader from New Orleans to New York City to Madrid, and from 1970 to the present day. The women in these twelve stories make a number of different choices: some work, others don’t; some stay married, some get divorced; others never marry at all. Through each character’s intimate journey, specific truths are revealed about what it means to be a woman—in relationship with another person, in a particular culture and era—and how these conditions ultimately affect her relationship with herself. The stories as a whole depict patriarchy, showing what still might be, but certainly what was, for some women in this country before the #MeToo movement. Both a cautionary tale and a captivating window into women’s lives, Life and Other Shortcomings is required reading for anyone interested in an honest, incisive, and compelling portrayal of the female experience. Author: Corie Adjmi Publication Date: August 4, 2020 -
In this compelling tale, Judy Foreman reveals the terror she felt every night as a girl as she lay in bed frozen in dread, listening for her father’s footsteps coming down the hall. She recalls his mostly naked body, his stale smell, his silhouette in the bedroom doorway. Worse, in some ways, was her mother’s denial—her insistence that this man was wonderful, her refusal to acknowledge his drinking or his rage. It wasn’t until Foreman spent a high school summer as an exchange student with a Danish family that she began to see how unsafe her own family was; it wasn’t until she went to an all-women’s college that she realized that women had value. Ultimately, this book shows that with time and therapy, it is possible to heal from serious childhood trauma and lead a life of deep fulfillment, rewarding work and, most wonderfully, love. It is a book about the power of emotional courage to change one’s own inner and outer experience of the world, and about what matters most in life: cultivating healthy connections to other people. Author: Judy Foreman Pub Date: August 29, 2023 -
For readers inspired by Margaret Busby’s New Daughters of Africa, Juliet Cutler presents a stunning testament to a group of Maasai women who are claiming their voices and shaping a future of lasting change. In this inspiring collection of interviews and portraits, over twenty Maasai women share the ways education has transformed their lives by giving them the tools to overcome poverty and empowering them to make profound differences in their communities. Through their stories, the women featured in Lessons in Hope lay bare the overwhelming challenges many Maasai women and girls continue to face. For some, hunger hovers nearby, only one bad drought away. Many must raise children without running water or electricity. Most struggle to gain a basic education, see a doctor, or earn an income. And too many Maasai girls still endure female genital mutilation, early forced marriages, and other forms of violence. Yet these remarkable women have overcome the odds. As graduates of the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa, these thriving leaders now hold positions in education, health care, nonprofits, government, and business. Their stories reveal a cadre of Maasai women working toward positive change within their own culture and offering a compelling, optimistic vision for the future. Proceeds from the sale of this book support education for Maasai girls. Author: Juliet Cutler Publication Date: September 9, 2025 -
It’s 1977 and Cassie Lyman, a graduate student in women’s history, is struggling to find a topic for her doctoral dissertation. When she discovers a trove of drawings, suffrage cartoons, letters, and diaries at Smith College belonging to Kate Easton, founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in 1916, she believes she has located her subject. Digging deeper into Kate’s life, Cassie learns that she and Kate are related—closely. Driven to understand why her family has never spoken of Kate, Cassie travels to Cape Ann to attend her sister’s shotgun wedding, where she questions her female relatives about Kate—only to find herself soon afterward in the same challenging situation Kate faced. Publication Date: May 11, 2021 Author: Ames Sheldon -
Raised by two loving parents in New Delhi, India, Kanchan Bhaskar has always been taught that marriage means companionship, tenderness, and mutual respect—so when she enters into an arranged marriage, this is the kind of partnership she anticipates with her new, seemingly wonderful, husband. But after they marry, she quickly discovers that his warmth is deceptive—that the man beneath the bright, charming façade is actually a narcissistic, alcoholic, and violent man. Trapped in a nightmare, Kanchan pleads with her husband to seek help for his issues, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Indian law is not on her side, and as the years pass, she finds herself with three children to protect—three children she fears she will lose custody of if she leaves. Almost overnight, she finds herself transformed into a tigress who will do whatever it takes to protect her cubs, and she becomes determined to free them from their toxic father. But it’s not until many years later, when the family of five moves from India to the United States, that Kanchan is presented with a real opportunity to leave him—and she takes it. Chronicling Kanchan’s gradual climb out of the abyss, little by little, day by day, Leaving is the empowering story of how—buoyed by her deep faith in a higher power and single-minded in her determination to protect her children best—she fought relentlessly to build a ramp toward freedom from her abuser. In this memoir, Kanchan clearly lays out the tools and methods she utilized in her pursuit of liberation—and reveals how belief in self and belief in the Universe can not only be weapons of escape but also beautiful foundations for a triumphant, purpose-driven life. Pub Date: April 11, 2023 Author: Kanchan Bhaskar -
2016 Indie Book Award Finalist in Spirituality 2016 IPPY Silver Medal Winner in Spiritual/Inspirational 2016 International Book Award Finalist in Spirituality: General When Margaret Bendet is told to interview an Indian holy man, she thinks it’s just another assignment—but after speaking with him, she decides to accompany him back to his ashram, hoping to find enlightenment. In Learning to Eat Along the Way, Bendet enters a world that many have wondered about but few have seen: the milieu of a spiritual master. Subtle experiences prompt her to embark on this journey with “the swami,” as she calls the holy man, and to enter into the ashram—but once there, she deals with a host of psychological issues, including intense infatuation and life-threatening anorexia. “Each person comes to the ashram in order to receive something,” the swami tells her, “something to take with you when you leave—something you can eat along the way.” Bendet finds this to be truer than she could have imagined. Clear-eyed and candid, Learning to Eat Along the Way is an honest and often surprising account of one woman’s experience with spiritual work. Author: Margaret Bendet Publication Date: August 11, 2015 -
Leading in organizations working for justice is not the same as leading anywhere else. Staff expect to be treated as partners and demand internal practices that center equity. Justice leaders must meet these expectations, as well as recognize and address the ways that individuals and organizations inadvertently replicate oppression. Created specifically for social justice leaders, Leading for Justice addresses specific concerns and issues that beset organizations working for social justice and offers practices and models that center justice and equity. Topics include: the role of a supervisor in a social justice organization, the importance of self-awareness, issues of power and privilege, human resources as a justice partner, misses and messes, and clear guidelines for holding people accountable in a manner that is respectful and effective. Written in a friendly, accessible, and supportive tone, and offering discussion questions at the end of each short section to make the book user-friendly for both individuals and teams, Leading for Justice is a book for leaders who want to walk the talk of supporting social justice, in their organizations and in the world. Author: Rita Sever Publication Date: August 3, 2021 -
In this refreshing approach to leadership development, Peri Chickering offers a philosophy that is bold and current and yet, in many respects, as old as the planets: she proposes that there is a flow—an underlying rhythm to life—that fuels and evokes effective leadership, and we can all lead more productively and sustainably, in or out of the workplace, by learning to access our natural strengths and connect them with the power of the larger order of all things. Written in a straightforward voice and peppered with practical exercises, thoughtful anecdotes, and personal stories, this guide supports new and experienced leaders alike. Chickering draws on the human relationship to the natural world, spirituality, the traditions of Taoism, and leadership structures of indigenous cultures to form specific tools and practices readers can use daily, and invites readers to understand where their natural skills fit within the wider ecosystem of life. At once accessible and eye-opening, Leadership Flow will help readers uncover a pleasant truth: It’s far easier to get things done when we open ourselves not only to other people but also to the ever-present invitation and engagement of our connected universe. We are each here for a reason, and we are all needed. Author: Peri Chickering Publication Date: August 17, 2021 -
During Ellen Snee’s eighteen years as a Catholic nun, she gained a number of essential—and, happily, transferable—skills: how to discern a call or deep desire, how to work collaboratively with other women, and how to be a savvy operator within male hierarchies. In Lead, she draws on that knowledge—as well as lessons learned and insights gained from her Harvard dissertation on psychological dimensions of authority for women, two decades of work with executive women as CEO of Fine Line Consulting, and five years as VP of Organizational & Leadership Development at VMware, a global technology leader—to address the exercise of authority by women. Lead guides readers through specific challenges of leadership Snee has identified as most vital to success through her own corporate experience and consulting work: developing resilience, presenting with authority, gaining financial literacy, managing in every direction, and more. Throughout, Snee urges women to find and speak with their unique voice and claim their personal power. Full of illuminating personal and client anecdotes and surprising research insights, Lead is an accessible, instructive, and empowering road map to finding external success—by drawing on the strengths you’ve carried inside you all along. Author: Ellen Snee Publication Date: August 2021 -
Melissa Giberson is a middle-aged suburban wife and mother of two kids, solidly planted in the life she’s always wanted. Yet she longs for something more—something she can’t quite put her finger on until, one day at the Y, she finds herself mesmerized by the sight of a naked woman and asks herself for the first time: Am I gay? This revelation sends Melissa on a head-spinning journey of self-discovery, one that challenges everything she thinks she knows about herself, forces her to decide exactly how much she’s willing to risk for authenticity, and shakes the foundations of the family she’s fiercely determined to shield from the kinds of wounds she sustained during her own childhood. Torn between her desire to be true to herself and her desire to protect her children, she is consumed by fear and conflicting emotions—and when her husband unexpectedly serves her divorce papers, her confusion only deepens. Adrift in uncharted waters, Melissa finds fragments of understanding and peace in unexpected places—in a conference room in Israel, a small fishing village in Cape Cod, and at a yoga retreat center—that help her deconstruct her preconceptions about faith and identity and begin to construct a new framework for her life. Over the course of her ten-year journey, she finds hope, love, and more courage than she ever knew she was capable of, and she gradually assembles the puzzle that is her—the real her. Author: Melissa Giberson Pub Date: August 8, 2023 -
“With a writer’s voice that is sassy and vibrant, Wanda Maureen Miller’s gripping narrative took me by the heart and the scruff of my neck into regions I would never otherwise have explored.” —Nancy Bacal, creator and leader of The Writer’s Way workshops, editor of Leonard Cohen’s anthology, Stranger Music, and writer/producer of RAGA, starring Ravi Shankar and George Harrison “An outrageous story of love and redemption set in the not-so-gracious South, from an exciting and completely original new voice. Last Trip Home is for people who like their sanity skewed.” —Terri Cheney, author of the New York Times bestseller Manic and blogger for Psychology Today “Who do you thank you are, the Quane of Anglund?” That’s what Grace Marie’s father used to say to her whenever he thought she was getting out of her place. In her fifties now, Grace Marie is a college professor living in a beach town in California, and when she gets a phone call telling her that her father is dead, she is glad. She hopes her return for his funeral will be her “last trip home.” As a young girl Grace Marie struggled to escape from poverty, her father's lecherous, controlling grip, and a husband in the Klan. Determined to get an education, she clawed her way to a comfortable life and a home with indoor toilets—but her most unexpected struggle turned out to be survivor’s guilt, so she kept returning home to “fix” her family and the sharecropper shack. After her father’s funeral, Grace Marie burns down the family home—only to discover that she has unexpected ties to both the land and the people in her community. She realizes she will never have a “last trip home.” Author: Wanda Maureen Miller Publication Date: May 15, 2018 -
2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, Mystery 2017 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite, Mystery Psychologist and police consultant Dr. Pepper Hunt, struggling to deal with the murder of her husband, leaves the private practice they shared and relocates to Wyoming. There, in the stark landscape of the high desert, there is nothing to remind her of everything she lost and left behind. Then her new patient, Kimi Benally, goes missing in a Wyoming blizzard after her last therapy session—making Pepper the last person to see her. She knows the secrets Kimi shared in therapy hold clues to her mysterious disappearance, and she joins forces with Detective Beau Antelope to try to discover what’s happened to her. But as she follows the trail of Kimi’s obsession with the past, Pepper begins to fear the worst for her missing patient—and her own haunted memories surface. Author: J.L. Doucette Publication Date: May 23, 2017 -
As the secret federal sting operation Snakehead targets the fentanyl trade, the small mill town of Stanton, Massachusetts, becomes a battlefield in the war on drugs and three mothers—newspaper reporter Laura Everett, businesswoman Mimi Sullivan, and machinist Angie Gillen—must overcome their differences and confront their pasts to keep their troubled teenagers out of the crossfire. Help comes from unexpected quarters when several Stanton cops break ranks with their superiors after learning that Snakehead’s real mission is to militarize the police and northern border. Stakes rise as the opioid crisis deepens and Mimi’s daughter sinks further into depression and heroin addiction. Laura’s and Angie’s sons try to save her, but their efforts only place her more at risk and she is forced to run away. Ultimately, the deadly violence being perpetrated all around her—by gangs, dealers, and those running the Snakehead operation—compels Laura to dig deep within herself for the power to take charge. A fast-paced, multilayered thriller that reveals the high human costs of the drug war, Last Place Called Home is also a story about love and loyalty to family, friends, and place. Stanton is a hard place to live in—but it’s an even harder place to leave. Author: Betsy Hartmann Publication Date: July 16, 2024
