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“In 100 Under $100, writer, artist and activist Betsy Teutsch showcases creative, low-cost tools that are helping the world’s most impoverished women improve their lives. You’ll learn about $1 eye glasses, eco-toilet biogesters, biochar briquettes, and bike-powered machines to pump water or shell corn. Inspiring yet practical, lavishly illustrated and loaded with suggestions for reader engagement, this book is a goldmine for entrepreneurs, designers, philanthropists, and all who seek to expand opportunities for global women. I loved reading this book.” —Marc Gunther, Editor at Large, Guardian Sustainable Business US 100 Under $100: One Hundred Tools for Empowering Global Women is a comprehensive look at effective, low-cost solutions for helping women in the Global South out of poverty. Most books on this subject focus on one problem and one solution; author Betsy Teutsch instead spreads her net wide, sharing one hundred successful, proven paths out of poverty in eleven different sectors—including tech, public health, law, finance, and more—in a visually striking book full of images of vibrant, strong women farmers, health practitioners, entrepreneurs, and humanitarian tech stars doing exciting, cutting-edge work. Eye-opening and compelling, 100 Under $100 is an accessible entry point for globally-attuned readers excited about using a broad range of tools to empower women and help alleviate poverty in the developing world. Author: Betsy Teutsch Publication Date: March 6, 2015 -
Floundering in her second career, the one she’s always wanted, forty-eight year old Cheryl Suchors resolves that, despite a fear of heights, her mid-life success depends on hiking the highest of the grueling White Mountains in New Hampshire. All forty-eight of them. She endures injuries, novice mistakes, and the heartbreaking loss of a best friend. When breast cancer threatens her own life, she seeks solace and recovery in the wild. Her quest takes ten years. Regardless of the need since childhood to feel successful and in control, climbing teaches her mastery isn’t enough and control is often an illusion. Connecting with friends and with nature, Suchors redefines success: she discovers a source of spiritual nourishment, spaces powerful enough to absorb her grief, and joy in the persistence of love and beauty. 48 PEAKS inspires us to believe that, no matter what obstacles we face, we too can attain our summits. Author: Cheryl Suchors Publication Date: September 11, 2018 -
Jess Lawson, a forty-five-year-old healthcare consultant, wife, and mother of two, has spent most of her adulthood fostering the illusion of having a perfect life. Her impending empty-nest syndrome as her youngest child prepares to start college is troubling enough, but when her doctor husband, Arthur, announces his intention to take a prestigious new job on the other side of the country—and relocate with-out Jess—her world quickly crumbles. Amid their acrimonious divorce, revelations about Arthur's infidelity come to light; and at work, instead of the revitalized ca-reer Jess is hoping for, she uncovers surprising financial corruption that threatens a scandal for her client—and the well-being of the many unsuspecting patients and physicians they serve. Ultimately, this superwoman is forced to acknowledge that her put-together veneer can't hold up under the weight of these new burdens. She also, however, refuses to wallow in victimhood. So what now? A smart, relatable story for every woman who’s gone bold to sort out her next chapter, A Better Next shows how—with a little soul searching and a supportive circle of friends and colleagues—it’s possible to redefine happiness and establish a liberating, new normal at any stage of life. Author: Maren Cooper Publication Date: May 28, 2019 -
Sophie believed her childhood nightmares were safely behind her when she married and moved from France to the US—but when her mother, Marcelle, calls her to her deathbed and asks her to honor one final request (“Find Pourrette!”), Sophie can’t refuse. Marcelle, who never knew her father, has carried the Pourrette name—along with the shame of illegitimacy—her whole life; now it’s up to Sophie to scour that stain from her family’s past. Kate, Sophie’s friend, who gave up her illegitimate child for adoption during wartime, finds herself awash in her own shame when her now-thirty-year-old daughter reappears in her life—and she jumps at the opportunity to help Sophie search for her grandfather in France. Like the braiding of three strands of brioche, the lives of these three women become inextricably intertwined as each struggles to resolve issues from the past that have defined their lives. Author: Carole Bumpus Publication Date: October 27, 2014 -
All around us, older women flourish in industry, entertainment, and politics. Do they know something that we don’t, or are we all just trying to figure it out? For so many of us, our hearts and minds still feel that we are twenty-something young women who can take on the world. But in our bodies, the flexibility and strength that were once taken for granted are far from how we remember them. Every day we have to rise above the creaky joints and achy knees to earn the opportunity of moving through the world with a modicum of grace. Yet we do rise, because it’s a privilege to grow old, and every single day is a gift. Peter Pan’s mantra was “never grow up”; our collective mantra should be “never stop growing.” This collection of user-friendly stories, essays, and philosophies invites readers to celebrate whatever age they are with a sense of joy and purpose and with a spirit of gratitude. Author: Stephanie Raffelock Publication Date: April 28, 2020 -
2016 International Book Awards: Finalist, Health: Psychology & Mental Health “[H]onest, brave, and soul-baring in its exploration of grief and clinical depression.” —Colorado Review Two weeks before his college graduation, Kelley Clink’s younger brother Matt hanged himself. Though he’d been diagnosed as bipolar as a teenager and had attempted suicide once before, the news came as a shock—and it sent Kelley into a spiral of grief and guilt. After her Matt’s death, a chasm opened for Kelley between the brother she’d known and the brother she’d buried. She kept telling herself she couldn’t understand why he’d done it—but the truth was, she could. Several years before he’d been diagnosed with bipolar, she’d been diagnosed with depression. Several years before he first attempted suicide by overdose, she had attempted suicide by overdose. She’d blazed the trail he’d followed. And if he couldn’t make it . . . what hope was there for her? A Different Kind of Same traces Kelley’s journey through grief, her investigation into what role her own depression played in her brother’s death, and, ultimately, her path toward acceptance, forgiveness, resilience, and love. Author: Kelley Clink Publication Date: June 9, 2015 -
In Riverton Falls, a small New England town, globe-trotting bartender Celeste Fortune stands in her kitchen puzzling over last night’s frightening dream—a woman at a window, lilacs blowing in the breeze, someone’s hands tight around her neck. Celeste is sure the dream belongs to someone else. Perhaps she has finally broken through to the collective dreams of Dreamland cult. Hoping her therapist and cult leader will help her untangle it, she heads off into the cold November morning to her final appointment with him—or so she hopes. Her estranged fiancé has delivered an ultimatum: Leave the cult of Dreamers, or end their relationship for good. Instead of help, however, Celeste discovers her therapist dying in a pool of blood, skull stove in by his own healing crystal. His computer, containing the intimate dreams and secrets of half the town, is gone. Suspicion immediately falls on Celeste, known to be a rebellious member of his cult. To clear her name, Celeste enlists the help of her old friend, Gloria, and the two women set out to find the real culprit. But in the middle of their hunt, the stolen dreams seemingly come to life, terrifying the town—and Celeste and Gloria become the killer’s next target. Author: Susan Z. Ritz Publication Date: July 16, 2019 -
When faced with overwhelming hardship, what we believe makes all the difference. At age twenty-six, Anne Reeder Heck was attacked by a stranger and brutally raped. Years later, still seeking to heal the remnants of this trauma, Anne stands alone in her living room one winter day and claims her desired belief aloud: “This is my year of strength.” Her clear intention results in a phone call; her rapist has been identified—fourteen years after the crime. Offering all the gripping and uplifting details of a story that sparked national interest—Heck appeared on the front page of The Washington Post and was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America—A Fierce Belief in Miracles lights the way for those seeking to heal from life’s traumas by demonstrating the importance of clear intention and trusting inner guidance, and the transformative power of forgiveness. Author: Anne Reeder Heck Publication Date: September 22, 2020 -
“A heart-wrenching and inspiring contribution to the literature of loss and disability, A Leg to Stand On offers the visceral detail, black humor, and grit of a fine novel combined with all the vulnerability of the deepest, most honest memoirs. Colleen Haggerty captures the tender and defiant voice of the 17-year-old she was when she lost her leg in a terrifying auto accident. But the author manages to imbue that voice with the ferocity required of her as she found a way to accept and surmount her disability. Anyone who has ever confronted limitation will be inspired by Haggerty’s story.” —Amy Friedman, author of Desperado's Wife: A Memoir When Colleen Haggerty lost her leg in an accident during her senior year of high school, she could have retreated from life and let her disability become her defining quality—and no one would have blamed her for it. Instead, she went the opposite way. In the years following her accident, Haggerty explored her physical world with vigor, testing the limits of her body by joining a ski team, playing with a co-ed soccer team, and taking up kayaking and backpacking. She also tested the limits of her heart, pursuing love and passion with restless men. In A Leg to Stand On, Haggerty recounts her life as a disabled woman, from redefining herself as a young woman after tragedy—fierce and able, but haunted by hard choices and suppressed grief—to choosing marriage and motherhood. That choice comes at great cost to the physical freedom Haggerty has fought for, but ultimately she finds redemption, fulfillment, and self-acceptance in the bargain. No one will read this book without being inspired to accept their past and create the future they always wanted. Author: Colleen Haggerty Publication Date: November 11, 2014 -
After a devastating stillbirth and longing for a second child, English professor Joy explores Granada, Spain, hoping to ease her heartbreak and rekindle her relationship with her husband, Richard. Instead, their trip leads to an erotic interlude between Joy and a handsome stranger―and Richard, filled with disappointment at his disintegrating marriage, embarks on an affair with vivacious Belinda, their tryst unfolding in a series of cheap hotel rooms. After learning of Richard’s affair, Joy divorces him and moves to Virginia. Despite her lingering bitterness over his infidelity, Joy is inspired by the centuries-old love story between Sultan Suleyman and his Russian concubine, Roxelana, and in traveling to Istanbul with Richard finds herself attracted to him anew. However, Richard has a confession: Belinda, although out of his life for several years, has had his daughter―a now-three-year-old named Karma―and, critically ill, has asked that Richard and Joy take Karma. Joy agrees to travel to Tunisia with Richard―and when they arrive, Belinda divulges the shocking truth about her daughter to Joy. Author: Kathryn K. Abdul-Baki Publication Date: November 20, 2018 -
Negotiating collaboratively in your committed relationship is a new way to achieve individual and marital goals, to resolve differences equitably, to manage conflicts, to create and sustain a satisfying sex life, to figure out where you stand on fidelity, to think about having and caring for kids, and to have committed careers and a satisfying family life. Negotiating collaboratively supports you and your partner seeing yourselves simultaneously as individuals and as a couple—enhances the sense of “being in this together” while also having individual life plans. Negotiating collaboratively supports valuing each other as individuals before seeing each other as husband and wife, and allows modern couples to challenge old gender trappings that can undermine the achievement of balance in a committed relationship. Straightforward and accessible, A Marriage of Equals offers couples a road map for how to negotiate collaboratively around the most essential aspects of a committed relationship—and, in doing so, create the equitable marriage they long for. Author: Catherine E. Aponte PsyD Publication Date: May 28, 2019 -
"Maloney highlights the risks a mother will take to save her child, and the will and determination to never give up hope, in an intriguing literary-thriller/women's-fiction crossover that will appeal to readers looking for a sophisticated puzzle." —Booklist When eight-year-old Vinni Stewart disappears from a Jersey shore town, Maddy, her distraught single mother, begins a desperate search for her daughter. Maddy’s five-year journey leads her to a bakery in Brooklyn, where she stumbles upon something terrifying. Ultimately, her artist neighbor Evelyn reconnects Maddy to her passion for painting and guides her to a life transformed through art. Detective John D’Orfini sees more than a kidnapping in the plot-thickening twists of chance surrounding Vinni’s disappearance, but his warnings to stay away from the investigation do not deter Maddy, even when her search puts her in danger. When the Russian Mafia warns her to stop sniffing into their business, Maddy must make a choice whether to save one child—even if it might jeopardize saving her own. Author: Julie Maloney Publication Date: April 10, 2018 -
“A mesmerizing kaleidoscope of stories about displacement, finding home, and the kindness of strangers. Haunting and heartfelt.” —Fiona Davis, national best-selling author of The Chelsea Girls An extraordinary narrative inspired by true events. 1938. Eli Stoff and his parents, Austrian Jews, escape to America just after Germany takes over their homeland. Within five years, Eli joins the US Army and, like all those who became known as Ritchie boys, he works undercover in Intelligence on the European front to help the Allies win World War II. In A Ritchie Boy, different characters tell interrelated stories that, together, form a cohesive narrative that follows Eli from Vienna to New York, from Ohio to Maryland, and then to war-torn Europe before he returns to the heartland of his new country to set down his roots. Set during the dawn of World War II and the disruptive decade to follow, A Ritchie Boy is the poignant, compelling tale of one young immigrant’s triumph over adversity. Author: Linda Kass Publication Date: September 1, 2020 -
“The prolific author and playwright parcels her stream of consciousness into wily and witty essays in Life in New York.” —The New York Times That elusive Holy Grail of modern physics, A Theory of Everything (ToE), would explain the universe in a single set of equations. Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking tackled the problem during their lifetimes and the quest continues today in laboratories around the world. Leaving string theory, galaxy clusters, and supersymmetry to the Quantum Computer and Hadron Collider crowd, Pedersen has taken up the rest—that is, A Theory of Everything Else (ToEE), based on her own groundbreaking experiences as a dog walker, camp counselor, and Bingo caller. Pedersen’s essays are a series of colorful helium balloons that entertain as well as affirm and uplift. Why, she ponders in one essay, are thousands are perishing as a result of assault weapons, carbon emissions, forest fires, pesticides, and processed foods—and yet how lawn darts were banned in the 1980s after two people died? In A Theory of Everything Else, Pedersen vividly demonstrates how life can appear to grind us down while it’s actually polishing us up—and why everyone wants to live a long time but no one wants to grow old. Author: Laura Pedersen Publication Date: September 1, 2020 -
2014 PNBA Book Award Nominee: General 2015 IndieFab Winner: Finalist, General “A Tight Grip [is] a hilarious, high-drama novel with a delightful angle of approach to the inner workings of women in golf, family, and the positives and negatives of middle age.” —Books, Inc., The West's Oldest Independent Bookseller Some people might say that, at age 46, Jane “Par” Parker is too old to win golf tournaments; too old to fear her mother; and too old, after twenty years, to still feel heavy grief over the murder of her father. But Par has an obsessively tight grip on the past, and no one can tell her to live her life otherwise. Par is maniacally driven to win a golf tournament she hasn’t been able to win in ten years. Recent low-scoring rounds have strengthened her confidence. Distractions conspire against her: she spends a night in jail for a crime she blames on her husband; reads about her arrest on the front page; learns she has an enemy at the newspaper; and discovers shocking love affairs by those closest to her. A Tight Gripcelebrates the bonds of female friendships as Par Parker processes her life with her three closest friends. She discovers the transformative power of adversity, and seizes options to evolve as a person, an athlete, and a best friend. Author: Kay Rae Chomic Publication Date: June 10, 2014 -
Kelley Skoloda was the healthiest person she knew—until the day she became a cancer patient. During her first, routine colonoscopy—without having experienced any symptoms—Kelley received a shocking diagnosis: colon cancer. Based on the true story of her subsequent cancer journey, A Way Back to Health reveals how surprising lessons paved the way for her recovery, shares helpful action steps for those who find themselves in a similar situation, and illuminates how personal stories can powerfully motivate and heal. In addition to telling her own story, Kelley also features examples of how other, amazing survivors have learned to manage, survive and thrive in the face of cancer. She also explores how often overlooked actions, such as trusting your instincts, speaking up, getting a second opinion, and watching for miracles, can have a profound impact on recovery—lessons meant to help patients advocate for themselves and help friends, family, and caregivers as they wrestle with cancer and its treatment. Much more prevalent than COVID-19, cancer will affect one in three people directly, and many more indirectly, in their lifetime. A Way Back to Health, with its real-life stories and unexpected lessons, is a helpful and relatable guide to the most important information you need to know about cancer—for the time you need it most. Author: Kelley Skoloda Publication Date: November 9, 2021 -
When Crystal’s husband, Brian, suddenly announces that his company is sending him to manage its Bangkok office and that he expects her and their children to come along, she reluctantly acquiesces. She doesn’t want to leave the job she loves and everything familiar in their small Oklahoma town; it’s 1975, however, and Crystal, a woman with traditional values, feels she has to be a good wife and follow her husband. Crystal finds beauty in Thailand, but also isolation and betrayal. Fighting intense loneliness and buffeted by a series frightening and shocking events, she struggles to adapt to a very different culture and battle a severe depression—and, ultimately, decide whether her broken relationship with her husband is worth saving. Author: Iris Mitlin Lav Publication Date: September 8, 2020 -
"Romantics should enjoy watching this feisty couple rediscover their love for each other, work through their differences, and start over again with their new baby.” —Kirkus Reviews “An endlessly charming story about second chances, A Work of Art explores the question we’ve all asked ourselves: is true love worth a second chance?” —Redbook Letting go after her abrupt break-up with Samson is harder than Julene thought it would be, especially since her ex has wasted no time in burying himself in the local dating scene. But during an extended visit to her parents overseas, Julene rediscovers her love of art, and a burgeoning career develops. Samson, on the other hand, after trying valiantly—and unsuccessfully—to forget Julene, has settled instead on his own new career. When Julene returns home to Australia, a coincidental meeting leads to an emotional reunion—but her love and patience will be tested when she finds out just how busy Samson has been in her absence. Yes, they have both made mistakes they can work through and move past—but when a specter from Samson’s past looms, Julene wonders: Can she trust him again? Author: Micayla Lally Publication Date: May 2, 2017 -
Named as a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus Reviews Being kind is something most of us do when it’s easy and when it suits us. Being kind when we don’t feel like it, or when all of our buttons are being pushed, is hard. But that’s also when it’s most needed; that’s when it can defuse anger and even violence, when it can restore civility in our personal and virtual interactions. Kindness has the power to profoundly change our relationships with other people and with ourselves. It can, in fact, change the world. In A Year of Living Kindly―using stories, observation, humor, and summaries of expert research―Donna Cameron shares her experience committing to 365 days of practicing kindness. She presents compelling research into the myriad benefits of kindness, including health, wealth, longevity, improved relationships, and personal and business success. She explores what a kind life entails, and what gets in the way of it. And she provides practical and experiential suggestions for how each of us can strengthen our kindness muscle so choosing a life of kindness becomes ever easier and more natural. An inspiring, practical guide that can help any reader make a commitment to kindness, A Year of Living Kindly shines a light on how we can create a better, safer, and more just world―and how you can be part of that transformation. Author: Donna Cameron Publication Date: September 25, 2018 -
2016 Santa Fe literary awards - finalist 2016 Next Generation Indie Book awards – finalist in military 2016 USA Best Book Awards - finalist in the memoir category At age nineteen, Dorit Sasson, a dual American-Israeli citizen, was trying to make the status quo work as a college student—until she realized that if she didn’t distance herself from her neurotic, worrywart of a mother, she would become just like her. Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces is Sasson’s story of how she dropped out of college and volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces in an effort to change her life—and how, in stepping out of her comfort zone and into a war zone, she discovered courage and faith she didn’t know she was capable of. Author: Dorit Sasson Publication Date: June 14, 2016 -
April is a thoughtful yet sarcastic mother of two who tries her best to be a caring, connected mom in a middle-class culture where motherhood has become relentless. April rages at modern motherhood’s impossible pressures, her husband’s “Dad privilege,” and her kids’ incessant snack requests. She wants to enjoy motherhood, but her idealist vision and lived experience are in constant conflict with one another. Is she broken—or is motherhood? Desperate for an answer, she seeks out a therapist, and lands with an unexpected woman whose validation and wisdom gives April the clarity to reclaim herself and even start designing clothes—her pre-motherhood passion. But when the ever-elusive babysitter cancels last-minute, April finds herself back at square one. She seeks guidance, but her therapist is now dealing with her own crumbling marriage—and instead of counseling April, she convinces her to speed off to Las Vegas with her to help catch her husband cheating. With a little weed, alcohol, and topless pool hopping, plus a male stripper and some much-needed autonomy, the two find lost pieces of themselves that motherhood swallowed up.But neither one is prepared for how tested—and tempted—they will be, or for the life-altering choices their journey will force them to make. Who is guiding whom anymore? Author: Brandy Ferner Publication Date: May 5, 2020 -
In 1937, at the age of nineteen, Ralph Hall, suicidal, revealed his sexual orientation to his grandmother, knowing she would comfort him. He was out for three years afterwards, until an indiscretion sent him back into the closet. At twenty-four, while in the army, he met and married Irene. The couple made their home on the San Francisco Peninsula and had four children. Ralph was an attentive husband and father—albeit with an intense interest in interior design, flower arranging, and fine objects—and a diligent worker who rose to payroll accountant at Standard Oil. It wasn't until 1975 that Ralph came out to his middle daughter, Laura, telling her that he had once considered his sexuality an aberration, an affliction. She was shocked, as the possibility her father might be gay had never crossed her mind. Irene had known Ralph’s secret for eighteen years, but the two remained married until she died. It was only then that this charismatic man and devoted father, by now in his eighties, could freely express his authentic, gay self. Here, Laura paints a vivid and honest portrait of her beloved father and the effect his secret had on her own life. Publication Date: July 13, 2021 Author: Laura Hall -
What if you had the chance to relinquish the life you’ve built and begin again? At the age of forty-five, Maggie Dolin is grappling with the realities of aging. Nearly two decades ago, she made the decision to leave her career in publishing to devote herself to raising her daughter, Gia—but now that Gia is about to leave for college, Maggie is confronted with uncertainty about her own identity and purpose. Having spent so many years caring for others, she struggles to remember the last time someone cared for her. Meanwhile, Maggie’s husband of nineteen years, Jim, seems distant and preoccupied, leading her to suspect that he is keeping secrets from her; her mother is self-absorbed and judgmental; and her brother harbors resentment toward her. And to compound matters, the one constant in Maggie's life, her father, is facing serious health challenges, leaving her feeling adrift without his unwavering support. As Maggie embarks on a daunting journey of self-discovery, she finds herself drawn toward decisions that challenge the life she has always known. After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family dynamics, the empty nest, aging parents, and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time. Publication Date: April 6, 2021 Author: Leslie A. Rasmussen -
Dr. Sarah Whitaker has always been an obedient overachiever, but she is burned out. Training to be a surgeon is stressful. So when her fiancé, David, offers a solution―take a break year at a hospital in Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro together―she jumps on board. When he backs out, she embarks on the adventure alone. Sarah quickly falls in love with Tanzania, a land of gentle people, exotic wildlife, and stunning natural beauty, from the sands of Zanzibar to the peaks of Kilimanjaro. She also develops great respect for new Tanzanian friends: strong African women who strive to serve an overwhelming need for health care. Shocked by the high rate of maternal mortality and the scourge of female genital mutilation in the country, Sarah begins to speak out against FGM and develops an experimental program to train tribal birth attendants in a remote mountain village. Conditions are primitive there, and life is fragile. The separation takes its toll on her relationship with David, and she fights against feelings for another man. As the months pass, one thing becomes clear: if Sarah survives this year, her life will never be the same again. Author: Gayle Woodson Publication Date: October 8, 2019
