“With courage and heart, Susan Hadler embarks upon a difficult journey to find the lost and forgotten members of her fragmented family. Along the way, she uncovers the family’s decades-old pain and sometimes shame―all with the hope of healing and reconciliation. Her story shows how loss, denial, and stigma can drain us, and also how forgiveness and compassion can restore us. Her unique blend of talents―equal parts writer, psychologist, and bloodhound hot on the trail―make for highly engaging and relatable reading. No one who reads this book will ever look at his or her own family history the same way again.”
—David A. Lande, National Geographic senior researcher and author of I Was with Patton

“If you don’t believe it’s possible to miss someone you never knew, Hadler’s quest-based memoir will convince you otherwise. The Beauty of What Remains dovetails the search for her hero father who never came home from war with that of her mysterious aunts. In seeking them, she gradually finds herself, but will leave you pondering the secrets we keep.”
—Megan Smolenyak, author of Who Do You Think You Are?

“The Beauty of What Remains is a heartfelt memoir that reads like a good mystery. Susan Hadler shares the process of uncovering her family’s history, including how meditation supported her along the way. A wonderful book!”
—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

“Hadler’s search for her father as an adult, a journey that took her to the last places on earth that he walked, serves as a prelude in this meditative memoir to her quest to discover what happened to her mother’s estranged sisters. What she discovers is a legacy of loss and mental illness, with repercussions for the generations that followed. Her years as a psychotherapist are evident in her measured, sympathetic treatment of the struggles faced by those in the family who used silence to cover tragedy. Both an exploration of loss and a celebration of discovering connections, The Beauty of What Remains is a moving account of one woman’s efforts to make her family whole.”
—Booklist

“This book is about the power of absence. Can we miss people we never even knew? . . . This book is also about the power of silence. Why did Hadler not know anything about her father or her aunts when she was growing up? Why was her mother so secretive about her first family, actively rebuffing Hadler’s requests for information . . . . compelling.”
—The Isthmus

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“Your images of the art work are wall hangers. They are wonderfully exposed and composed and well balanced in regards to white balance. Great job.”
―Elliot Stern of Blue Ridge Photography

“The incisive poems of Claire Scott are the perfect complement to the expressive photography of Joan Scott. Claire probes the vagaries of everyday life and Joan’s close in images of hands symbolically express often overlooked aspects of the human experience… an eloquent and evocative rendering.”
―Robert Madden, former National Geographic senior assistant editor and staff photographer

“When do we ever stop to take time to look at hands? To understand their meaning in our lives, their work, their patience, their skill, their wonder? Here is a book celebrating hands, stunning images illustrating their capacity, awesome words illustrating the images, two sisters working together like two hands.”
―Kim Chernin, author of In My Mother’s House and The Hungry Self 

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“The Vitamin Solution is a worthwhile resource for information on vitamin supplements, their usages, and recommended dosages.”
―IndieReader, Indie Reader Approved Book

“If there was ever a Bible on vitamins and nutrition, The Vitamin Solution is it . . . I feel like I’m sitting down and talking with a couple of clued up friends. And it’s that tone that had me turning pages as fast as I do when reading an absorbing novel . . . So few doctors seem to know the first thing about nutrition, let alone about vitamins and minerals, what we need, how much, and how these elements affect our bodies and well-being. The Vitamin Solution dispels the myths and clarifies the grey areas with detailed information.”
―Viga Boland for Reader’s Favorite – 5 Star Review

“This consumer guide to therapeutic vitamin use takes a welcoming, conversational approach to a clinical topic. Doctors Block and Levitan draw on their experiences with patients and have come to the conclusion that many common ailments, from depression to sleep problems to weight issues, can be eased (they are wisely careful to never say cured) by vitamin supplementation. Sections cover different health problems and the possible vitamin solutions. There is a 30-page listing of vitamins that highlights each individual vitamin, with easy bullet points of why one might take it. It bears noting that the authors sell their own supplements online, but this is not a sales-pitch book. This extremely user-friendly volume should find a home in the circulating health collections of most libraries.”
―Booklist

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“There’s something darkly compelling against ‘doom memoirs’, if only because of that inkling that – in contexts like the one surrounding MAKE A WISH FOR ME – the difficulty of the journey also carries some rich spiritual rewards and a tremendous sense of hope and survival.

Autism, rightly or wrongly, is widely seen as a nightmare diagnosis: it certainly makes, as MAKE A WISH FOR ME spells out, for some complex and overwhelming care conditions many of which are examined in emotive detail. Chergey doesn’t pull any punches: her line on first hearing of her son Ryan’s autism is ‘it feels like he’s died’, and the pain certainly seeps from the pages for the opening chapters.

But then Chergey comes through the other side, and for all the family issues and stacked up difficulties, there’s a sense of progress and positivity to what she writes. Enormously dedicated to her family, she nevertheless offers  a cutting and brutally honest assessment of the rejections and the anger that come with her son’s day-to-day life.

Despite the difficulties, the book is also a tribute to the help Chergey and her husband found along the way, both the professional help that slowly transformed their son, and the more personal, emotional support that became vital. That support was hard to come by: frustration is a recurring theme, with red tape blocking or complicated many of the necessities (from education to treatment itself). Chergey and her husband battle valiantly against such difficulties, and clearly take so much from the wins. Substantial resources are dedicated to Ryan’s progress, the family unwilling to leave any stone unturned.

The style is somewhat bloggy: conversational, broken into relatively small passages, and accessible, emotional descriptions of everyday issues, happily tinged with the humor of a family that are fantastically resilient. Sometimes it reads almost like fiction – in that the ‘plot’ has real drive and intrigue – though perhaps the reality is easy to extract for a reader who has more direct experience of the subject. What stands out here is that hope is never lost; difficulties never allowed to take control.

I’ve passed MAKE A WISH FOR ME to a friend closely linked with autism, who says it resonates deeply, in the struggles, the goods days and the bad, and the elation of small victories. He also found it tough at times, in that it brought the harshest moments flooding back.

Not a casual read, then; this is a deeply emotional experience exploring the inner conflict that comes with raising a child on the spectrum, and it will punch against the soul at times. The chapters are short, which is a blessing when it starts to cut. For all the rawness and the glance behind the curtains of such everyday struggles, anyone with an autism spectrum connection – or simply and interest – would be hard pressed to find a better companion.”
—James Hendicott for IndieReader

“In this deeply felt memoir, Chergey shares her very personal story of living with her son’s autism. With direct prose, Chergey’s story pulls at readers’ heart strings as she pushes through the challenges of her son’s diagnosis, his difficulties with speech and sleep, the search for adequate medical care and a supportive school environment, and the stigma attached to the disorder. The sincerity of Chergey’s story gives readers with no personal experience of autism an eye-opening account; for those living within the world of autism, Chergey offers hope. “Sometimes acceptance has to punch you in the gut to make its point,” she admits. Drawing on medical, school, and church communities and immediate family, Chergey and her husband use every ounce of energy to create a network of people who “get it” and can help him be comfortably autistic and happy. Even if autism has not touched a reader personally, the intimacy and optimism with which Chergey writes will resonate with many readers.”
—Book Life, Publishers Weekly

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“The book enthralled from the beginning to the end. It impressed upon me Sunny’s struggle to know “real” from “unreal.” On a personal level, I feel proud to know her story.”
—Sarah Kennedy McPhee, MPH, Sexuality Educator, New Hampshire

“What is real and what’s a delusion? An erotic, intimate, tantalizing journey through a life like no other.”
—Grant Thorsson, author of Bipolar for Beginners

“There is something in this memoir that will speak to each of us. The protagonist’s development and upbringing is arresting, and the descent into psychosis is real, maddening, and mind-numbing. The difficulties that the protagonist faces and often surmounts, are laid out in an explicit manner that is unmistakably personal. There are insights in this novel that demand thoughtful consideration, especially about the ways and depth with which we affect each other.”
—Frederick Naftolin, MD, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynocology and Director of Reproductive Biology Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynocology, New York University

The post All in Her Head appeared first on She Writes Press.

“One of the best mysteries I’ve read in a long time. Kept me from doing ten important things I should have been doing because I just had to finish it! Kate Raphael writes great women characters and does a fantastic job of portraying the realities of Palestinian life as background to a gripping story.”
—Starhawk, best-selling author of The Fifth Sacred Thing and The Spiral Dance

“Strong and complex female characters, a unique and vividly drawn setting, and an utterly compelling story―Kate Jessica Raphael offers you everything you could possibly want in a page-turning mystery. Let’s hope this is the first of many novels to come.”
—Elaine Beale, author of Murder in the Castro

“[Murder Under the Bridge’s] mix of murder and politics makes for fascinating reading, made even richer by the revealing glimpse of life in the occupied territories.”
—Booklist

“A stunning mystery novel by a talented new writer. Anyone picking up the book will be drawn in by Rania and Chloe, a dynamic, realistic, pair of women sleuths . . . An outstanding addition to the global mystery field. More, please!”
—Sujata Massey, author of The Sleeping Dictionary

“Raphael has created a wonderful cast, most especially her Palestinian policewoman, Rania… Authoritatively and vividly rendered, Murder Under the Bridge is a compelling read.”
—Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club

“Both [Chloe] and Rania work, in their own ways, to protect the innocent from easy labels like terrorist―labels that Raphael dismantles and examines in this provocative novel.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Raphael thoroughly captures the tension of life on the West Bank by setting a murder in a location marked by daily violence. Substantial yet humanly flawed female protagonists give depth to both the mystery … and the political and social turmoil of the region.”
—Library Journal, starred review

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“ . . . will most please those who share, in the words of Bamberger’s introduction, an ‘endless fascination with all things Hillary.’”
—Publishers Weekly

“Whether Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for president gives you a flitter of excitement or a pit of dread, these 28 essays in Love Her, Love Her Not are an election season must-read. Though each is unique in its point of view and assessment of her, together they remind us why 2016 is going to be a crucial year in our nation’s political history. After reading Joanne Bamberger’s expertly curated selection, you’ll be ready to be a guest on Bill Maher, even if it’s just from your couch.”
—Angela Matusik, executive digital editor, InStyle

“In Love Her, Love Her Not, Joanne Bamberger sets the stage for rethinking what we already know about Hillary Clinton. Bamberger examines the social and political dynamics that brought us to this historic electoral moment and then hands the stage to some of today’s best women pundits and writers to answer our biggest question about the woman most of us refer to simply as ‘Hillary’: Why are we so conflicted about her as with no other politician?”
—Lisa Belkin, Senior National Correspondent, Yahoo News

“Each one of these entertaining and insightful essays made me think in a new way about Hillary Clinton. Love Her, Love Her Not is a must-read before the 2016 election.”
—Leslie Sanchez, political analyst and author of You’ve Come a Long Way, Maybe: Sarah, Michelle, Hillary and the Shaping of the New American Woman

“Think you know Hillary Clinton? Think again! Just in time for 2016, Love Her, Love Her Not is an indispensable guide to the woman who’s already put 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling and may be poised to do a whole lot more.”
—Krystal Ball, former MSNBC host and congressional candidate

“Bamberger’s Love Her, Love Her Not is a book every American should read before casting a ballot in the 2016 Presidential election. With precision and skillful editing, Bamberger assembles an influential collection of diverse voices to give us a chorus of smart and sometimes controversial opinions about one of the most important political figures in history. Regardless of the outcome of the election, this book is a winner!”
—Julie Burton, President of the Women’s Media Center

“Look no further than this collection of smart, witty, and provocative essays by some of today’s most interesting women writers to refine what you think about a future Clinton presidency. Love Her, Love Her Not is definitely the book to prepare you for all conversations about Hillary as we head to 2016. Thanks, Joanne Bamberger, for bringing us these essential writings.”
—Carol Jenkins, Emmy-winning journalist and executive producer of the award-winning documentary, What I Want My Words to Do to You

“I didn’t know how many feelings women had about Hillary―hell, I didn’t know how many feelings *I* had about Hillary―until I read Joanne Bamberger’s anthology, which was far more hilarious and thought-provoking and surprising than it has any right to be, given that this is a woman who has been in the public eye for decades now. Instructive, and never reductive, for this upcoming election season.”
—Elisa Camahort Page, SheKnows Media Senior Vice President and BlogHer Co-founder

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“Raw, honest, fascinating insight into the growing-up years of a girl raised by what might be an ordinary family with ordinary flaws, and the extraordinary effects their lives have on her. J.A. Wright makes Randall so real, you want to go round and pick her up, make her a decent meal and tell her she’s going to be okay.”
—Michele A’Court, columnist at The Press, New Zealand Comedy Guild’s
Comedienne of the Decade 2010 and author of Stuff I Forgot to Tell my Daughter 

“J. A. Wright’s book is a compelling illustration of what fertile ground families are for nurturing addiction. It’s not all doom and gloom however – the story is told in a clear-eyed, unsentimental voice which, for me, made it utterly convincing. It’s captivating, heartrending and uplifting.”
—Morrin Rout, Former Literary Director of Chch Writers’ Festival, Director of Hagley Writers’ Institute

The post How to Grow an Addict appeared first on She Writes Press.