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It's 2014 and Amy Daughters is a forty-six-year old stay-at-home mom living in Dayton, Ohio. She returns to her hometown of Houston over the Thanksgiving holiday to discuss her parents’ estate—and finds herself hurled back in time. Suddenly, it’s 1978, and she is forced to spend thirty-six hours in her childhood home with her nuclear family, including her ten-year old self. Over the next day and a half she reconsiders every feeling she’s ever had, discusses current events with dead people, gets overserved at a party with her parent’s friends, and is treated to lunch at the Bonanza Sirloin Pit. Besides noticing that everyone is smoking cigarettes, she’s still jealous of her sister, and there is a serious lack of tampons in the house, Amy also begins to appreciate that memories are malleable, wholly dependent on who is doing the remembering. In viewing her parents as peers and her siblings as detached children, she redefines her difficult relationships with her family members and, ultimately, realizes that her life story matters and is profoundly significant—not so much to everyone else, perhaps, but certainly to her. Amy’s guide said her trip back in time wouldn’t change anything in the future, but by the time her thirty-six hours are up, she’s convinced that she’ll never be the same again. Publication Date: June 4, 2019 Author: Amy Weinland Daughters -
2017-18 Reader Views Literary Award, LGBTQIA: Finalist “This work movingly renders the complex emotional landscape of living in and out of the closet.” ―Kirkus Reviews 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. The watershed point in Carol’s journey comes when she returns to graduate school and discovers the feminist movement, which emboldens her sense of personal power and the freedom to love whom she chooses. But this sense of self-possession comes too late for honesty with her father. His unexpected death before she can tell him the truth brings the full cost of Carol’s secret crashing in—compelling her to come out to her mother before it is too late. Candid and poignant, You Can’t Buy Love Like Thatreveals the complex invisible dynamics that arise for gay people who are forced to hide their true selves in order to survive—and celebrates the hard-won rewards of finding one’s courageous heart and achieving self-acceptance and self-love. Author: Carol E. Anderson Publication Date: October 17, 2017 -
If you’re stressed and unhappy because of problems with a boss or colleague, you pay a price. Not only can your mental and physical health suffer, your nearest and dearest get sick of hearing about it. Going to bed angry and waking up only to dread a new workday is a terrible way to live. Remote work may have lessened the impact of annoying colleagues for a while, but they can still find ways to irritate. If you’re co-located, the “mute” and “stop video” buttons don’t exist to diminish your exasperation. Not all jerks are the same; the person you find to be a nightmare may be perfectly acceptable to others. And, astonishingly, someone else may even think you’re the jerk! Author Louise Carnachan has the credentials and experience to make her an expert in this area, but more importantly, she’s been in the trenches herself. With an emphasis on the positive actions you can take while being attentive to your specific situation, Work Jerks provides practical advice on how to deal with a variety of problematic coworkers—whether in-person or remotely—so work can stop being something you dread and start being something you enjoy. Author: Louise Carnachan Pub Date: June 14, 2022 -
Forty-six-year-old Madeline Fairbanks has no use for ideas like “separation of the races” or “men as the superior sex.” There are many in her dying Southern Appalachian town who are upset by her socially progressive views, but for years—partly due to her late husband’s still-powerful influence, and partly due to her skill as a healer in a remote town with no doctor of its own—folks have been willing to turn a blind eye to her “transgressions.” Even Maddie’s decision to take on a Black apprentice, Ren Morgan, goes largely unchallenged by her white neighbors, though it’s certainly grumbled about. But when a charismatic and power-hungry new reverend blows into town in 1917 and begins to preach about the importance of racial segregation, the long-idle local KKK chapter fires back into action—and places Maddie and her friends in Jamesville’s Black community squarely in their sights. Maddie had better stop intermingling with Black folks, discontinue her herbalistic “witchcraft,” and leave town immediately, they threaten, or they’ll lynch Ren’s father, Daniel. Faced with this decision, Maddie is terrified . . . and torn. Will she bow to their demands and walk away—or will she fight to keep the home she’s built in Jamesville and protect the future of the people she loves, both Black and white? Author: Adele Holmes Publication Date: August 9, 2022 -
Jackie, born of medical missionaries in China during World War II, rejected her connection to her birth country growing up because it made her different. A return to China with her parents in 1980, however, is life-changing. After always having known her mother as distant and emotionally abusive, she is stunned to see a loving side to her for the first time—and pleasantly surprised by the affinity she feels for her birth country. These revelations launch Jackie on a quest to understand her difficult childhood and who she is beyond “wife,” “mother,” and “daughter.” Her journey takes her first to the mountainous landscapes of Alaska, where she finds a passion for nature and begins a thirty-five-year environmental career. As she builds her life there and later in New England, she makes multiple trips to her birth country—with her parents, alone, and with her adult children. Each of these trips provides a benchmark for the growth and transformation she undergoes as she learns to create the authentic life she craves. Deeply reflective and sensitively rendered, Whispers from the Valley of the Yak touches on the healing power of nature and universal themes of unconditional love and forgiveness—and, most importantly, being true to oneself. Author: Jacquelyn Lenox Tuxill Pub Date: September 26, 2023 -
When China opened its doors in the 1980s, it shocked the world by allowing private enterprise and free markets. Dori Jones was among the first American correspondents to cover China under Deng Xiaoping, who dared to defy Maoist doctrine to try to catch up with richer nations. Though introverted, Dori used her fluency in Mandarin to get to know the ordinary people she met—people embracing opportunities that had once been unimaginable in China. Soon, Dori fell for a Chinese man who had fled China with his family in 1949 and only recently returned. Together, they found the relatives his parents had left behind, who were just starting to hope for a better future. This euphoria—shared by American businesses and Chinese citizens alike—reached its peak in 1989, when a million peaceful protestors filled Tiananmen Square, demanding democracy. Dori lived that hope, as well as the despair that followed when the army opened fire. After Tiananmen, dejected and sure that the era of promising possibilities was over, she returned to America in 1990—only to watch as China resumed its growth. Written in a time when China’s rapid rise is setting off fears in Washington, When the Red Gates Opened offers insight into the daring policies that started it all. Author: Dori Jones Yang Publication Date: September 22, 2020 -
“Lena’s beautifully developed character, Ridley’s commanding sense of place, and a well-drawn supporting cast bring this intricate historical fiction vividly to life.” —Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of Even in Darkness Coming of age in Prague in the 1930s, Lena Kulkova is inspired by the left-wing activists who resist the rise of fascism. She meets Otto, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, and follows him to Paris to work for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. As the war in Spain ends and a far greater war engulfs the continent, Lena gets stuck in Paris with no news from her Jewish family, including her beloved baby sister, left behind in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Otto, meanwhile, has fled to a village in England, and urges Lena to join him, but she can’t obtain a visa. When Lena and Otto are finally reunited, the safe haven Lena has hoped for doesn’t last long. Their relationship becomes strained, and Lena is torn between her loyalty to Otto and her growing attraction to Milton, the son of the eccentric Lady of the Manor. As the war continues, she yearns to be reunited with her sister, while Milton is preoccupied with the political turmoil that leads to the landslide defeat of Churchill in the 1945 election. Based on a true story, When It’s Over is a moving, resonant, and timely read about the lives of war refugees, dramatic political changes, and the importance of family, love, and hope. Author: Barbara Ridley Publication Date: September 26, 2017 -
In the United States, more than 15 million women are parenting children on their own, either by circumstance or by choice. Too often these moms who do it all have been misrepresented and maligned. Not anymore. In We Got This, seventy-five solo mom writers tell the truth about their lives—their hopes and fears, their resilience and setbacks, their embarrassments and triumphs. Some of these writers’ names will sound familiar, like Amy Poehler, Anne Lamott, and Elizabeth Alexander, while others are about to become unforgettable. Bound together by their strength, pride, and—most of all— their dedication to their children, they broadcast a universal and empowering message: You are not alone, solo moms—and your tenacity, courage, and fierce love are worthy of celebration. Author: Marika Lindholm et. al Publication Date: September 10, 2019 -
Families who have supported a child with special needs will connect with this memoir about Sarah, a feisty girl with autism and a unique genetic blueprint. Her mom, Jenny, is equally feisty and determined, which leads her to make a commitment that dramatically changes her and Sarah’s lives—as well as those of many others. Sarah’s early years are filled with challenges, and Jenny and her husband, Carl, try various therapies in an effort to help her. At four years old, Sarah is still nonverbal, still doesn’t use the potty, and still struggles with eating. Jenny knows she must do more. She has heard of a method developed by the Autism Treatment Center of America called The Son-Rise Program, which, through loving, supportive interaction, aims to foster social connection in people with autism. It is a huge undertaking, requiring hours of one-on-one therapeutic playtime, which means Jenny needs to find and train volunteers to make it possible. Though Jenny isn’t sure she can do it, she decides to try. She calls her program Sarah-Rise. Accompany Jenny as Sarah’s language explodes, her eye contact intensifies, and she plays games, plays imaginatively, uses the potty, eats healthily, reads, and writes. Have your heart warmed and your socks knocked off by this momentous journey. Author: Jennifer Celeste Briggs Publication Date: January 21, 2025 -
2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal for Memoir 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist 2017 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite for Memoir When young Barbara Bracht’s mother disappears from her life (no one tells her that she has died), she is left a confused child whose blue-collar father is intent upon erasing any memory of his dead wife. Forced to keep the secret of her mother’s existence from her brother, Bracht struggles to keep from being crushed under the weight of family secrets as she comes of age and strives to educate herself despite her father’s stance against women’s education—a journey that culminates in a visit to her mother’s grave nearly twenty years after her death. Narrated in a precocious, fiercely intelligent, and compelling voice, Veronica’s Grave” A Daughter’s Memoir is a heartrending story about the psychological cost of families who keep secrets—and the importance of pursuing one’s dreams and passions. Author: Barbara Donsky Publication Date: May 10, 2016 -
Valeria Vose: A Novel takes a reader deep inside the cultural and emotional life of a 1970’s southern woman. Privileged, approaching age forty, her “perfect” life is shattered. Determined to survive, she’s forced to confront all preconceived values and expectations in order to find a path toward creative, spiritual independence and her true identity. Author: Alice Bingham Gorman Publication Date: October 2, 2018 -
Jaded New York City Public Defender Liana Cohen would give anything to have one client in whom she can believe. Dozens of hardened criminals and repeat offenders have chipped away at her faith in both herself and the system. Her boyfriend Jakob’s high-powered law firm colleagues see her do-gooder job as a joke, which only adds to the increasing strain in their relationship. Enter imprisoned felon Danny Shea, whose unforgivable crime would raise a moral conflict in an attorney at the height of her idealism―and that hasn't been Liana in quite a while. But Danny's astonishing blend of good looks, intelligence, and vulnerability intrigues Liana. Could he be the client she’s been longing for―the wrongly accused in need of a second chance? Is he innocent? As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arm’s length, Liana is forced to confront fundamental questions of truth, faith, and love―and to decide who she wants to be. Author: Reyna Marder Gentin Publication Date: November 13, 2018 -
In the spirit of The Glass Castle and The Burning Light of Two Stars, Antonia Deignan delivers what New York Times best-selling author Julie Cantrell calls a “a heart-shattering memoir of painful truth and soulful healing.” As a child, Antonia perceived her father’s nighttime visits as special acts of love. On some deeper level, though, she knew what was happening wasn’t right. To escape, she began creating imaginary worlds and used dreams to transport her away from her fears. As she got older, Antonia traded those fantasies for dance—but despite her outlets she remained trapped underwater, without a lifeline to make her feel fundamentally safe. For years, Antonia silently navigated the dark fathoms of her internalized pain, which manifested in myriad self-destructive habits: disordered eating, drug and alcohol abuse. Only decades later, while recovering from a serious bike accident, did she finally stop running and start reflecting—giving her the power to fully accept what had happened to her in her early life and ultimately forgive the unforgivable. Raw and visceral yet gorgeously lyrical, Underwater Daughter masterfully conveys not only the rippling effects of childhood trauma but also the hope that with honesty and work, healing is possible. Pub Date: May 2, 2023 Author: Antonia Deignan -
“Fascinating and insightful . . .” —Booklist, Starred Review Uncovered follows her as a young teen who left her secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew. Ultimately we see her as a forty-something woman who has to abandon the only world she’s know for thirty years for the sake of her personal freedom. Lax details her experiences in the Hasidic fold in understated, crystalline prose—arranged marriage, cult-like faith, endless motherhood without birth control—all the while exploring how creative, sexual, and spiritual longings simmered beneath the surface throughout her time there.Uncovered is the first memoir of a gay woman in the Jewish orthodox world, the moving story of her long journey toward finding a home where she truly belongs.In Uncovered, Leah Lax tells her story—beginning as a young teen who left her liberal, secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew, and ending as a forty-something woman who has to abandon the only world she’s known for thirty years in order to achieve personal freedom. In understated, crystalline prose, Lax details her experiences with arranged marriage, cult-like faith, and motherhood during her years with the Hasidim, and explores how her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings simmer beneath the surface throughout her time there. The first book to tell the story of a gay woman who spent thirty adult years in the Hasidic fold, Uncovered is the moving story of Lax’s long journey toward finding a home where she truly belongs. Author: Leah Lax Publication Date: August 28, 2015 -
Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers—which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents—and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background. Julie’s search for her birth relatives spans eight years and involves a search agency, a PI, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker, and a genealogist. By journey’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest—one that unearths secrets, lies, and family members that are literally right next door. Publication Date: May 11, 2021 Author: Julie Ryan McGue -
On an ordinary day in June of 1964 in a small town in the Altiplano of Peru, Sister Mary Katherine (formerly known as Kate), a young American nun recently arrived in this very foreign place, walks away from her convent with no money and no destination. Desperate and afraid of her feelings for an Irish priest with whom she has been working, she spends eight days on the run, encountering a variety of characters along the way: a cynical Englishman who helps her out; a suspicious Peruvian police officer who takes her in for questioning; and two American Peace Corps workers who befriend her. As Kate traverses this dangerous physical journey through Peru, she also embarks upon an interior journey of self-discovery—one that leads her somewhere she never could have expected. Author: Marian O’Shea Wernicke Publication Date: September 29, 2020 -
It’s 1939. On the brink of World War II, Jane Benjamin wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother. But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie. Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. She plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is thrown off track. While sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death, which she now knows was a murder, and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war? Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately—like nations around the globe in 1939—she must choose what she’ll give up in order to do what’s right. Author: Shelley Blanton-Stroud Pub Date: June 28, 2022 -
In 2018, Kathy Elkind and her husband decided to take a grown-up “gap year” in Europe and walk the 1,400-mile Grande Randonnée Cinq (GR5) across The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. At fifty-seven, Kathy has chosen comfort over hardship: Unlike the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail, the GR5 winds from village to village instead of campsite to campsite. She and Jim get to indulge in warm beds and delicious regional food every night and croissants in the mornings. The GR5 is not all comfort. Walking day after day for ninety-eight days bring sickness, accommodation struggles, language barriers, and storm-shrouded mountains in the Alps. Meanwhile, Kathy finds herself reflecting on difficult topics—primarily, her struggles with dyslexia, overeating, and shame. But she also finds that the walking becomes a moving meditation and the beauty of the landscape heals; she begins to discover her own wise strength; and as the days unfold, she comes to the gratifying realization that a long marriage is like a long trail: there are ups and downs and it takes hard work to keep going, but the beauty along the way is staggering. Written with raw honesty and compassion, and rich with dazzling scenery, To Walk It Is To See It will inspire you to lace up your walking shoes and discover your own path. Author: Kathy Elkind Pub Date: August 15, 2023 -
Finalist, 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards 2017 IPPY Awards: Contemporary Fiction, Gold Medal Readers' Favorite: Gold Medal Award for Women's Fiction Andrew Carnegie funded fifty-nine public libraries in Kansas in the early 20th century—but it was frontier women who organized waffle suppers, minstrel shows, and women’s baseball games to buy books to fill them. Now, a century later, Angelina returns to her father’s hometown of New Hope to complete her dissertation on the Carnegie libraries, just as Traci and Gayle arrive in town—Traci as an artist-in-residence at the renovated Carnegie Arts Center and Gayle as a refugee whose neighboring town, Prairie Hill, has just been destroyed by a tornado. The discovery of an old journal inspires the women to create a library and arts center as the first act of rebuilding Prairie Hill after the tornado. As they work together to raise money for the center, Traci reveals her enormous heart, Angelina discovers that problem-solving is more valuable than her PhD, and Gayle demonstrates that courage is not about waiting out a storm but building a future. Full of Kansas history—from pioneer homesteaders to Carrie Nation to orphan trains—To the Stars through Difficulties is a contemporary story of women changing their world, and finding their own voices, powers, and self-esteem in the process. Author: Romalyn Tilghman Publication Date: April 4, 2017 -
It’s the summer of 2017 in Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices—divisions that change the lives of five neighbors. Longtime resident and real estate agent Lisa Kensington juggles her job, her shopaholic husband, a mother-in-law who knows how to push her buttons, and teenage children with ideas of their own, all while trying to hold on to her own dreams. Her neighbor Ray Gorman is a haunted Vietnam vet who is also caring for his aging mother. Keith Nelson, an ex-con, lives in his car, parked around the corner from Ray, near his parents’ house. Keith’s got a job, a grandmother he loves, and a gym routine that almost helps him manage his violent tendencies. Down the street from Ray, sixteen-year-old Josh Kowalski is working through the shock of his father’s abandonment by slamming on a drum set. He loves Led Zeppelin and setting things on fire and is fascinated with his friend’s sister. New neighbor Jeannette Larsen, an aerobics teacher numbed by horrific tragedy, turns away from her husband—and toward sex with strangers. In the end, these characters discover that despite their differences, they are more connected than any of them could have imagined. Author: Mary Camarillo Pub Date: October 10, 2023 -
International Excellence Body, Mind, Spirit Book Awards Winner: Self-help 2017 IPPY Silver Medal Winner in Self-Help “This Way Up is a bold new path to personal growth and one that will help any woman who caretakes everyone but herself, whether at work or at home. Patti Clark's approach is wholly unique and the meditations, visualizations, questions, and journal prompts will gently lead you back to yourself.” —Brenda Knight, author of Be a Good in the WorlBe a Good in the World Women spend so much of life nurturing and giving to others that when they find themselves alone—because of an empty nest, the end of a marriage, or the death of a partner—they often struggle with feeling purposeless. This Way Up: Seven Tools for Unleashing Your Creative Self and Transforming Your Life provides a step-by-step way out of this sense of loss and into a life filled with enthusiasm, creativity, and joy. This story of healing centers on the essential wisdom of introspection and on the importance of following one’s dreams. Join the protagonist, Katya, a widow whose two sons have recently left home, as she learns seven tools for uncovering her best self: visualization, heart-centered goal setting, positive focus, meditation on love; meditation on forgiveness, gratitude, and taking action on inspiration. Katya’s experience highlights these insights in an easily digestible, highly relatable format that readers can systematically apply to their own circumstances as they work through This Way Up’s twelve weeks’ worth of day-by-day journaling exercises, thought-provoking questions, and reader support. For any woman who yearns to lead a fuller life but doesn’t know how to begin, this book is an ideal starting point. Author: Patti Clark Publication Date: April 26, 2016 -
AWARDS: Bookclub Favorite Winner of New Adult Fiction—Beverly Hills Book Awards Winner of the SILVER Medal for Best Fiction in Drama from Readers' Favorite Finalist USA Best Books Awards in Literary Fiction and in New Fiction “Under its skin, it is a lively, accessible meditation on redemption and the transformative value of good intention and deed.” ―Rebecca Coffey, author of Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story “An outstanding book that is not only deeply honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful, but also brilliant, poignant, and original. It captures what is at the heart of all of us and showcases that life is what we make it. Brilliant, just brilliant! 5 stars.” ―Emily Lewis, Mrs. Mommy Booknerd’s Book Reviews Inspired by a true story about mothers, daughters, and impossible choices—Jules Foster, a child psychologist, upon hearing news of her estranged, narcissistic mother’s terminal diagnosis, chooses to care for her mother over her own daughter, only to find out she has been betrayed all along. Things Unsaid asks us to consider what children owe their aging parents and siblings. Jules Foster is summoned to the local police station to retrieve her elderly parents, after her father has sideswiped a parked automobile. Her parents now rely heavily on her financial support, and Jules finds herself sacrificing her daughter Zoe's dreams for going to college in order to continue bankrolling them. Her husband, Mike, is forced to take sides. Joanne, her divorced younger sister, and Andrew, her brother, refuse to send their parents so much as a Christmas present. Now that their parents are incapable of caring for themselves, Jules, Andrew, and Joanne must decide where to draw the line between obligation and their own families. Throughout Things Unsaid, Jules, Zoe, and Andrew are forced repeatedly to evaluate their personal priorities and avoid repeated misfirings of the heart. As they make impossible choices, they pull back the curtain to reveal deeply buried family secrets. A powerful and courageous tale of family dysfunction and senior citizens, this bold and poignant debut novel presents deep insights into the messy and inevitably complicated world of family relationships, and shows how one woman is able to survive with her sanity and spirit intact. Author: Diana Y. Paul Publication Date: October 13, 2015 -
In May of 1976, twenty-four-year-old Carol Menaker was impaneled with eleven others on a jury in the trial of Freddy Burton, a young Black prison inmate charged with the grisly murders of two white wardens inside Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison. After being sequestered for twenty-one days, the jury voted to convict Mr. Burton, who was then sentenced to life in prison without parole. For more than forty years, Menaker did what she could to put the intensely emotional experience of the sequestration and trial behind her, rarely speaking of it to others and avoiding jury service when at all possible. But the arrival of a jury summons at her home in Northern California in 2017 set her on a path to unravel the painful experience of sequestration and finally ask the question: What ever happened to Freddy Burton—and is it possible that my youth and white privilege were what led me to convict him of murder? The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done is Menaker’s inspirational account of journeying back in time to uncover the personal bias that may have led her to judge someone whose shoes she never could have walked in. Pub Date: April 11, 2023 Author: Carol Menaker -
2016 International Book Award Finalist in Fiction: Historical Nettie has spent every summer of her life in the Southern Wiregrass town of Crystal Springs, Alabama. This year, she hopes the small town’s relaxed pace will give her a break from the unrelenting physical and emotional changes of puberty. But a chance encounter with Mitchell, a seductively handsome yet secretive young man, turns Nettie’s summer plans and her heart upside down. As their relationship grows, Nettie realizes Mitchell is harboring a dark and dangerous secret—one that, when revealed, rocks the core of the sleepy little town and has Nettie and those she loves running for their lives. Author: Pam Webber Publication Date: August 4, 2015 -
As Josie Belle Gore, daughter of a Louisiana train engineer and Texas seamstress, journeys with her itinerant family through the deserts of the boom-and-bust American West and revolutionary Mexico, she learns that in her life, two things are constant: water is precious, and her role in her family is to save it. When unforeseeable events force the separation of her family, Josie begins an odyssey that takes her from New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto to Bisbee, Tucson, Los Angeles, and finally post-WWI San Francisco—experiencing betrayal, pandemic, and survivor’s guilt, as well as the compassion and generosity of friends and strangers, along the way. Once she lands in San Francisco, like a river meeting the sea, Josie has nowhere else to run—and she realizes that she must make peace with the past and good on her promise to the family she loves. Inspired by the author’s family lore, The Ways of Water is a lyrical tale of loss, hope, and forgiveness set in the rugged beauty of the turn-of-the-century Southwest that, like Josie, is growing up in fits and starts. Author: Teresa H. Janssen Pub Date: November 7, 2023 -
2017 IPPY Awards: Best First Book/Fiction, Silver ". . . a masterpiece. . . . Incandescent, pitch-perfect, and destined for greatness." ―Library Journal, starred review The Velveteen Daughter reveals for the first time the true story of two remarkable women: Margery Williams Bianco, the author of one of the most beloved children’s books of all time—The Velveteen Rabbit—and her daughter Pamela, a world-renowned child prodigy artist whose fame at one time greatly eclipses her mother’s. But celebrity at such an early age exacts a great toll. Pamela’s dreams elude her as she struggles with severe depressions, an overbearing father, an obsessive love affair, and a spectacularly misguided marriage. Throughout, her life raft is her mother. The glamorous art world of Europe and New York in the early 20th century and a supporting cast of luminaries —Eugene O’Neill and his wife Agnes (Margery’s niece), Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Richard Hughes, author of A High Wind in Jamaica—provide a vivid backdrop to the Biancos’ story. From the opening pages, the novel will captivate readers with its multifaceted and illuminating observations on art, family, and the consequences of genius touched by madness. Author: Laurel Davis Huber Publication Date: July 27, 2017 -
Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica—the GR20, Europe’s toughest long-distance footpath—to challenge what it means to grow old. Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The Twenty is a journey across a rugged island of stunning beauty little known outside Europe. From a chubby, non-athletic child, Bohr grew into a fit, athletic person with an “I’ll show them” attitude. But hiking The Twenty forces her to transform a lifetime of hard-won achievements into acceptance of her body and its limitations. The difficult journey across a remote island provides the crucible for exploring what it means to be an aging woman in a youth-focused culture, a physically fit person whose limitations are getting the best of her, and the partner of a husband who is growing old with her. More than a hiking tale, The Twenty is a moving story infused with humor about hiking, aging, accepting life’s finite journey, and the intimacy of a long-term marriage—set against the breathtaking beauty of Corsica’s rugged countryside. Pub Date: June 6, 2023 Author: Marianne C. Bohr -
A young, determined woman figures out life and love while staying true to herself in this whip-smart and genuinely witty debut. Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Spencer wants nothing more than to change everything about her life. After ten years of living in cities, Nathan Wild has just moved back home to Vermont and doesn’t want to change anything about his. Recently laid off from her depressing job in Boston and ready for a challenge, Hannah heads to Vermont for the summer to take care of her sister’s kids and do some serious soul searching. There, against the stunning landscape of the Green Mountains, she embarks on an ambitious project: building a treehouse for her niece and nephew. As she hammers away, she formulates a plan to jump-start her life with a new job out West. But will Nathan-next-door complicate her desire to change course? A witty, romantic, and inspiring story of a young woman taking control and making tough choices about love and work to build the life she wants, The Treehouse on Dog River Road will have you rooting for Hannah every step of the way. Author: Catherine Drake Pub Date: May 10th, 2022 -
When her charismatic mentor, Ernesto, publicly chooses her as his professional partner, all indications are that Vera’s bodywork career is about to ignite. There is just one glitch—no, make that two. Vera—single mother of savvy, smart teenage India and her scruffy mutt, Francisco—is fucking Ernesto. As for her new promotion . . . Ernesto took it from his wife, Jean, in order to give it to her. As Vera becomes increasingly embroiled in Ernesto and Jean’s dark shenanigans, she quickly realizes that what seemed like an exciting opportunity is more like a deal with the Devil. Confronted with the consequences of her own yearning for male validation, it takes India, a glamorous and aristocratic client named Grace, and the mysterious goddess White Tara, Tibetan Goddess of compassion, to teach Vera the virtues of a sustainable path to self-authority. A fast-paced, humorous tale, The T Room is sure to prove irresistible to every adventurous woman familiar with that Saturday-morning-bookstore trajectory that starts with Self-Help, diverts into Romance, and lands heartfirst in Spirituality. Author: Victoria Lilienthal Pub Date: July 19, 2022 -
Foreward Reviews Indie Fab Finalist in Historical Fiction USA Book Reviews Best Books of the Year Finalist Nominated by the A.L.A. for The Sophie Brody Award in Fiction Early in The Sweetness, an inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of sliced lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their ghetto. “Something sour to remind me of the sweetness,” she tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives ultimately converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women’s knitwear in New York. Her cousin, eight-year-old Rosha Kaninsky, is the lone survivor of a family in Vilna exterminated by the invading Nazis. But unbeknownst to her American relatives, Rosha did not perish. Desperate to save his only child during a round-up of their ghetto, her father thrusts her into the arms of a Polish Catholic candle maker, who then hides her in a root cellar─putting her own family at risk. The headstrong and talented Mira, who dreams of escaping Brooklyn for a career as a fashion designer, finds her ambitions abruptly thwarted when, traumatized at the fate of his European relatives, her father becomes intent on safeguarding his loved ones from threats of a brutal world, and all the family must challenge his unuttered but injurious survivor guilt. Though the American Kanes endure the experience of the Jews who got out, they reveal how even in the safety of our lives, we are profoundly affected by the dire circumstances of others. Author: Sande Boritz Berger Publication Date: September 23, 2014 -
Following the unexpected death of her alcoholic mother, and worn down by the unceasing taunts of “bastard” from her hostile and mentally unstable stepfather, plucky sixteen-year-old Terry Sue sets out to find her biological father—believing this man, whom she has never met, could change her life for the better. But before she can find him, she must identify him, and the unfamiliar names on her birth certificate perplex her. She comes to realize that tenacity must run in her family, for as determined as she is to find her father, he appears equally determined to remain hidden. In The Strongbox, Terry Sue offers readers a forthright and inspirational account of her challenges, as well as her against-all-odds successes. This decades-long personal journey reads like a detective novel, full of setbacks, false leads, jaw-dropping discoveries, and heartening triumphs. The narrative’s twists and turns also pull back the curtain on many of today’s inconvenient truths: child abandonment, multigenerational alcoholism, sexism, economic inequality, domestic violence, mental illness, and illiteracy. Undaunted by the many blind alleys she encounters, Terry Sue forges on in her hunt for the loving care and emotional support she never received from her parents, and she ultimately finds it—but it arrives in forms she never expected. Author: Terry Sue Harms Publication Date: October 27, 2020 -
"Maureen reminds us to pay attention and follow the signs and signals of the Universe that lead us to the life of our dreams. To remember, even in the midst of the depths of despair, that endings are always beginnings, that we are writing our own stories in collaboration with the Divine Creator that lives within us, to never give up when the chips are down, because the Goddess will burn down our limited expectations and deliver something bigger, badder, and bolder than we could ever dream of ourselves." —Cathy Richardson, lead singer Jefferson Starship This story begins with an ending: the day Maureen Muldoon realized the devastating fact that her husband was having an affair—and leaving her for Miss Universe. Miss freaking Universe! How does this even happen? An intimate examination of Muldoon’s unraveling in the face of this betrayal, A Spiritual Vixen’s Guide to An Unapologetic Life takes a fresh, funny and fearless look at loss, denial, anger, grace, and liberation. Muldoon reveals the strength that comes from facing one’s fears, the humor that arrives in the darkest hours, and the miracles that happen when you least expect them in this grand tapestry of tales from the dark side. Ultimately, with wit and wisdom, she walks herself out of hell in a pair of sexy stilettos and manages to do what the all the king’s horse and all the king’s men could not: she puts herself back together. And in doing so, she comes to find more beauty and strength in the fractured places than anyone would have ever imagined. Author: Maureen Muldoon Publication Date: November 20, 2018 -
Now a USA TODAY BEST-SELLER, The Sound of Wings is a masterfully crafted tale of love, friendship, betrayal, and the risks we take in the pursuit of justice. Seventy-year-old Goldie Sparrows faces declining finances, questionable health, and a late husband who torments her from the beyond. She seeks refuge in her butterfly garden, which is filled with voices and memories from long ago. Jocelyn Anderson is a struggling writer who finds escape from her custody battle in the journal of her late mother-in-law. As she gets pulled through the pages of time, Jocelyn discovers her own husband has a hidden history she knows nothing about. Is this secret now Jocelyn’s to keep? Krystal Axelrod is living a life she never dreamed she could have. And yet the demons of a dysfunctional childhood and mean girl culture from her cheerleading days cast their shadow over her ability to feel whole, capable, and worthy. Does Goldie hold the key to Krystal’s path to freedom? Publication Date: May 4, 2021 Author: Suzanne Simonetti -
Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Paige Toon, this suspenseful new adult romance follows an eighteen-year-old woman reeling from loss as she’s drawn into an unexpected attraction—one that might expose the secrets she’s tried to bury. Seven months after her boyfriend and parents die tragically on the same night, eighteen-year-old Brynn—once an aspiring singer, now desperate for any paying gig that will keep her from ending up on the streets—sets out to rebuild her shattered world. At her new ad agency job, she’s distracted by enigmatic twenty-year-old Micah. Their enemies-to-lovers attraction ignites as both struggle with secrets that could jeopardize far more than just their budding relationship. After things turn romantic with Brynn, Micah’s psychosis becomes harder to conceal. Living with his disorder has cost him relationships before, including with his estranged father; now he fears Brynn will become the next casualty. Things are already complicated enough before a mystery girl from Brynn’s boyfriend’s past comes forward with threatening information and unfinished business of her own. Will she reveal Brynn’s secret—and steal Micah away from her in the process? Author: Heather Cumiskey Publication Date: March 10, 2026 -
When Alicia Rodriguez, a successful entrepreneur recovering from divorce and loss, accepts an invitation to Ecuador to help a friend who is studying with a shaman, she has no idea how profoundly the decision will change her life’s course.
In Ecuador Alicia meets Napo, a powerful shaman, and they begin an extraordinary relationship that spans two continents and eight years. As their connection deepens, Alicia learns the principles of shamanism and witnesses Napo’s remarkable healing abilities. Confronted with the illusion of her life in the United States, she decides to move to Ecuador to be with him, and they make plans to build a healing center together on the coast. Within a short time, however, she realizes that she has surrendered her power and agency to Napo, who now wields it as a weapon against her. After years of inner struggle, Alicia finally finds the courage to leave Ecuador and moves to Portugal, where she finds peace . . . until an unexpected phone call rekindles old memories.
An extraordinary memoir steeped in spirituality, shamanism, and metaphysics, The Shaman’s Wife is the story of a woman who, through a daring journey of self-discovery, reclaims and embraces her feminine wisdom—and realizes that love is the answer to her lifelong spiritual quest.
Author: Alicia Rodriguez Publication date: September 10, 2024 -
Mother was an emotionally damaged woman shrouded in depression and dark secrets. Father was a man plagued by alcoholism who lived in a state of drunken evasion for many years before jumping ship. Kathleen was born into this family who masqueraded as ordinary and merged with a lineage and community plagued by toxic male aggression, submissive women, wannabe Mafia brutes, charlatan holy men and women, and lurid and criminal goings–on, all made possible by cheek–turners, complicit and fearful enablers, and the ever–present overarching code of silence. The Seller of Secrets tells a story of the admission of long-held secrets of trauma, leading to a poignant heroine’s journey to seek deep healing through truth, nature, various forms of energy medicine, and a longing to rediscover the authentic self. After a shocking deathbed confession is revealed, the healing path merges with an investigation into a shadowy past where the puzzle of long-hidden family secrets is painstakingly assembled. Kathleen recognizes how adverse childhood experiences shape a fractured life with limitations and how the importance of acknowledging the truth and freeing oneself from fear and the muteness of shame is the key to true freedom. Author: Kathleen Rose Morgan Publication Date: June 11, 2024 -
In accordance with her Sicilian Catholic family’s unspoken code, Paolina Milana learned at an early age to keep her secrets locked away where no one could find them. Nobody outside the family needed to know about the voices her Mamma battled in her head; or about how Paolina forged her birth certificate at thirteen so she could get a job at The Donut Shop; or about the police officer twenty-six years her senior whose promise to her Papà to “keep an eye on her” quickly translated into something sinister. And perhaps that’s why no one saw it coming when—on the eve of her sweet sixteen, pushed to edge—Paolina attempted to take her own mother’s life. Raw and compelling, The S-Word is the true story of a girl who nearly suffocates in the silence she was taught to value above all else—until she finally finds the strength to break free of the secrets binding her and save herself. Author: Paolina Milana Publication Date: May 5, 2015 -
The Parrot’s Perch opens in 2013, when Karen Keilt, age sixty, receives an invitation to testify at the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN in New York. The email sparks memories of her “previous life”—the one she has kept safely bottled up for more than thirty-seven years. Hopeful of helping to raise awareness about ongoing human rights violations in Brazil, she wants to testify, but she anguishes over reliving the horrific events of her youth. In the pages that follow, Keilt tells the story of her life in Brazil—from her exclusive, upper-class lifestyle and dreams of Olympic medals to her turmoil-filled youth. Full of hints of a dark oligarchy in Brazil, corruption, crime, and military interference, The Parrot’s Perch is a searing, sometimes shocking true tale of suffering, struggle—and survival. Karen Keilt lived through the darkest days of Brazil’s military dictatorship. In her courageous and compelling memoir, Keilt narrates an emotionally honest reckoning of her desire to find true happiness. Forbidden by her wealthy family to even mention her imprisonment, torture, and rape, Keilt is forced to make a change that will affect the rest of her life. Seen through her testimony to the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN, readers become witnesses to both her vulnerability and her quiet strength. Author: Karen Keilt Publication Date: April 16, 2019 -
2015 National Indie Excellence Award Winner in Autobiography 2015 Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards Winner in Non-Fiction “What makes this book particularly valuable is its vivid depiction of the abhorrent consequences of legalized segregation. What gives it heart is the window it opens to the personal journeys of mother and daughter. An important, riveting history lesson that, unfortunately, is still relevant today.” —Kirkus Reviews In 1967, when Jo Ivester was ten years old, her father transplanted his young family from a suburb of Boston to a small town in the heart of the Mississippi cotton fields, where he became the medical director of a clinic that served the poor population for miles around. But ultimately it was not Ivester’s father but her mother—a stay-at-home mother of four who became a high school English teacher when the family moved to the South—who made the most enduring mark on the town. In The Outskirts of Hope, Ivester uses journals left by her mother, as well as writings of her own, to paint a vivid, moving, and inspiring portrait of her family’s experiences living and working in an all-black town during the height of the civil rights movement. Author: Jo Ivester Publication Date: April 7, 2015 -
In 1998, fiery Eleanor “Els” Gordon thought the new century would find her married to her childhood soul mate, rejuvenating her family’s Scottish Highlands estate, and finally earning a managing director title at her investment bank. Maybe she’d even have the courage to discover why her estranged mother ran home to Italy thirty years earlier. But when 2000 dawns, Els is mourning her fiancé and her father, and she’s unemployed, broke, and sharing an antique plantation house on the Caribbean island of Nevis with the ghost—or “jumbie”—of Jack Griggs, the former owner. Jack’s jumbie wangles Els’s help in making amends for wrongs committed during his Casanova life, and in exchange he appoints himself Cupid on behalf of a charter captain who’s as skittish about vulnerability as Els. Meanwhile, Els lures her mother to Nevis in hopes of unraveling the family secrets—but will the shocking truth set her free, or pull her fragile new happiness apart? A moving and lyrical novel that transports readers from lush tropics to rugged highlands and back again, The Moon Always Rising explores how the power of forgiveness can help even the most damaged person fix whatever is broken. Author: Alice C. Early Publication Date: April 21, 2020 -
In 1660, Amsterdam is the trading and map-printing capital of the world. Anneke van Brug is one of the colorists paid to enhance black-and-white maps for a growing number of collectors. Her artistic talent brings her to the attention of the Blaeu printing house, and she begins to color for a rich merchant, Willem de Groot. But Anneke is not content to simply embellish the work of others; she longs to create maps of her own. Cartography, however, is the domain of men—so it is in secret that she borrows the notes her father made on a trip to Africa in 1642 and sets about designing a new map. Anneke hopes to convince the charismatic de Groot to use his influence to persuade Blaeu to include her map in the Atlas Maior, which will be the largest and most expensive publication of the century. But family secrets, infidelity, and murder endanger her dream. Will her map withstand these threats, or will it be forever lost? Author: Rebecca D'harlingue Pub Date: September 19, 2023 -
Brenda Lockhart’s family has been living well beyond their means for too long when Brenda’s husband leaves them—for an older and less attractive woman than Brenda, no less. Brenda’s never worked outside the home, and the family’s economic situation quickly declines. Oldest daughter Peggy is certain she’s heading off to a university, until her father offers her a job sorting mail while she attends community college instead. Younger daughter Allison, a high school senior, can’t believe her luck that California golden boy Kevin has fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, the chatter about the O. J. Simpson murder investigations is always on in the background, a media frenzy that underscores domestic violence against women and race and class divisions in Southern California. Brenda, increasingly obsessed with the case, is convinced O. J. is innocent and has been framed by the LAPD. Both daughters are more interested in their own lives—that is, until Peggy starts noticing bruises Allison can’t explain. For a while, it feels to everyone as if the family is falling apart; but in the end, they all come together again in unexpected ways. Publication Date: June 1, 2021 Author: Mary Camarillo -
Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the vast Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish. Marriage at age sixteen takes her west to Colorado Springs, where her young husband chases a phantom cure for tuberculosis. When tragedy strikes, Mary Agnes finds herself alone again, dreams shattered. But she is determined to forge her own path, and after securing work as a chuckwagon cook at a rugged Colorado ranch, she discovers a newfound sense of purpose and identity. Torn between desire for her ranch boss—who is neither Irish nor Catholic—and propriety, Mary Agnes returns to Chicago, her future uncertain. There, resilience and resolve become her constant companions as she faces yet another tragedy: her family, newly arrived from Ireland, disowns her. Digging deep within, Mary Agnes discovers strength and worth as she redefines what it means to belong while grappling with the clash of heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Author: Ashley E. Sweeney Publication Date: December 10, 2024 -
What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children? Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University. Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn’t initially understand her children—or how to help them—she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out. The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It's a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won't see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it's an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success. Pub Date: April 18, 2023 Author: Irena Smith -
A Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist and Best Book Awards Finalist * Featured in Ms. Magazine, Brit + Co, Hypertext Magazine, BookTrib, Publishers Weekly, Writer's Digest and more! An enthralling historical novel about brave women set during the peak of the Vietnam War and told through the rare perspective of a young woman, who traces her path to self-discovery and a “Coming of Conscience.” If you loved Kristin Hannah's latest novel The Women, this one's for you. On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrates her nineteenth birthday by secretly joining the campus anti-Vietnam War movement. In doing so, she jeopardizes both the army scholarship that will secure her future and her relationship with her military family. But Judy’s doubts have escalated with the travesties of the war. Who is she if she stays in the army? What is she if she leaves? When the first date pulled in the Draft Lottery turns up as her birthday, she realizes that if she were a man, she’d have been Number One―off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy of six seconds. The stakes become clear, propelling her toward a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any draftee. Judy’s story speaks to the poignant clash of young adulthood, early feminism, and war, offering an ageless inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world stops making sense. Author: Rita Dragonette Publication Date: September 18, 2018 -
Born of illustrious New England stock, Rachel Field was a National Book Award–winning novelist, a Newbery Medal–winning children’s writer, a poet, playwright, and rising Hollywood success in the early twentieth century. Her light was abruptly extinguished at the age of forty-seven, when she died at the pinnacle of her personal happiness and professional acclaim. Fifty years later, Robin Clifford Wood stepped onto the sagging floorboards of Rachel’s long-neglected home on the rugged shores of an island in Maine and began dredging up Rachel’s history. She was determined to answer the questions that filled the house’s every crevice: Who was this vibrant, talented artist whose very name entrances those who still remember her work? Why is that work—so richly remunerated and widely celebrated in her lifetime—so largely forgotten today? The journey into Rachel’s world took Wood further than she ever dreamed possible, unveiling a life fraught with challenge, and buried by tragedy, and yet incandescent with joy. The Field House is a book about beauty—beauty in Maine island landscapes, in friendship, love, and heartbreak; beauty hidden beneath a woman’s woefully unbeautiful exterior; beauty in a rare, delightful spirit that still whispers from the past. Just listen. Publication Date: May 4, 2021 Author: Robin Clifford Wood -
Meet Chris and Marty—a married couple working on their careers, raising their only child, and chasing big adventures. At midlife, they suddenly find themselves weighing the responsibility of parenthood against the possibility of one more grand adventure, before their aging bodies and the warming continent of Antarctica further degrade. They ultimately decide it’s time to pursue their biggest dream: Ski 570 miles from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole. With no guide or resupply. From the lush Pacific Northwest to the barren landscape of Antarctica, Chris and Marty embark on one of the hardest challenges on the planet. After three years of intense planning and training, including meticulous preparations for the care of their twelve-year-old son, they are ready. Experience a boundless white wonderland like no other on earth. Encounter life-threatening dangers lurking in the bitter cold. Feel the intensity of 220-pound sleds, relentless wind, 40-below temperatures, and mind-numbing isolation. This is not an average couples getaway. Chris and Marty go where few others have dared on the way to making history—stretching their bodies, minds, and marriage to the limit in the process. Riveting and inspiring, The Expedition is about the power of family and community, the adventurous spirit that dwells within us all, and breaking through to feel fully alive. Author: Chris Fagan Publication Date: September 3, 2019 -
International Book Awards 2016 finalist for literary fiction IPPY 2017 Gold Medal Winner in Autobiography/Memoir “Monica Starkman offers a penetrating look at the drastic capabilities of the obsessed mind. Written beautifully and carefully, at just the right pace, The End of Miracles is a thoroughly compelling piece of work.” —Roger Rosenblatt, New York Times bestselling author, literary editor of The New Republic, essayist for Washington Post and Time magazine When a pregnancy following years of infertility ends in premature labor, Margo Kerber’s grieving becomes intertwined with feelings of inadequacy and shame. An imaginary pregnancy shields her from despair until ultrasound images confront her with the truth—at which point Margo sinks into a depression requiring psychiatric hospitalization. There, her harrowing experiences magnify her sense of being abnormal. When an opportunity arises, she flees. But following her escape, a chance encounter with a mother and her briefly unattended baby evokes another fantasy: she can better nurture this infant than can its mother. This new self-deception propels Margo into a gripping, heartbreaking series of increasingly daring and dangerous actions—with profound consequences for herself and others. Author: Monica Starkman Publication Date: May 3, 2016
