“In Adele Holmes’s debut novel, a white herbalist and her Black best friend challenge a slick conman and the KKK in 1917 rural America. The strong characters and vivid sense of place lingered in my mind long after the last page. That’s my measure of a darned good book.”

—Marcia Preston, Mary Higgins Clark Award Winner and author of The Spiderling and The Butterfly House

“Adele Holmes’s Winter’s Reckoning is a beautifully written story that reminds America of our unresolved sins against humanity and our struggles to place value where it’s due. Protagonist Madeline Fairbanks and her protégée Ren Morgan represent our hopes of resolving our fears of the other and erasing old hates.”

—Janis F. Kearney, author, publisher, and personal diarist for President Bill Clinton in the White House   

“A spellbinding narrative that brilliantly captures both the price of standing against segregation and how bold action paves the way to unexpected healing. Holmes’s beautifully developed characters allude to our inevitable connection to the past in a story that resonates to the bone. Simply unputdownable.”

—Cara Brookins, author of Rise: How a House Built a Family

“Set in the brooding rural South, and for a good portion of the novel in the challenging and crystalline world of a deep snowstorm, Winter’s Reckoning is rich in storyline and character with plenty of mystery woven throughout. Simply put, here’s a story that takes on issues whose harm remains with us today. With a climactic pulpit scene that’s not to be missed – and one novel we can highly recommend!”

 —Chanticleer Reviews   

“Brimming with all the feels—friendship, passion, hatred, prejudice. A remarkable debut.”

—Julia Daily, author of No Names to Be Given   

“Tear out a page of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, add in a mix of Deliverance and The Apostle, along with a dash of Nell… and you have yourself a die-hard Appalachian story set so far back in the woods and so backwards in their thinking, that Madeline Fairbanks, the local healer, must find an inner strength to fight the racial and misogynistic prejudice permeating the town.”

—Historical Fiction Company Review

“A timeless story of kinships, friendships, and secret legacies born of good and evil. With a keen eye for detail and an intricate plot leading to a satisfying conclusion, this tale is sure to enchant readers.”

—Donna Everhart, author of The Road to Bittersweet and The Saints of Swallow Hill

“Holmes’ satisfying conclusion offers a twist to the tale. . . . [and] the novel’s explorations of the horrors of misogyny and racism have powerful contemporary resonance. Along the way, Holmes constructs a vivid and believable historical setting and populates her novel with well-developed characters who are flawed and relatable as they seek to triumph over evil. A notable tale that offers the hope that even small actions can lead toward greater good.”

—Kirkus Reviews

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“May this diverse, brilliant powerful gathering of some of our finest feminist voices and stories, inspire you to tell your story, raise your voice and fight with your life for our bodily autonomy and reproductive justice for all.”
—V (formerly Eve Ensler), playwright, author, and activist

“This incisive collection of essays offers diverse and necessary insights into how the loss of Roe v. Wade will impact the lives of pregnant people in America. The writers featured in Aftermath provide a vision of the new reality too many Americans will be forced to confront. This is essential reading for post-Roe America.”
—Reshma Saujani, founder & CEO, Marshall Plan for Moms, and founder of Girls Who Code

“A woman’s right to decide when she’ll bear children is critical to her success in the workplace and beyond. The stories in Aftermath bear witness to women’s turmoil before Roe v. Wade and highlight how central reproductive freedom has been to unleashing our potential over the last fifty years. Read these stories, share them, and commit yourself to building an equitable world.”
—Tiffany Dufu, founder & CEO, The Cru, and author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less

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“This book should be required reading for educators, caregivers, and health providers alike. The thought-provoking and relatable story will hopefully raise awareness around the devastating consequences of bullying and the necessity of respecting children’s individuality and inherent dignity.”
—Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees & Wannabes

“For any parent who has worried their child does not fit in or who has battled with a school to do what is right for a child, this amazing book will heal your soul while offering important strategies, insights, and even several smiles along the way.”
—Jo Boaler, Stanford, author of Limitless Mind, Co-Founder of youcubed.org

“This is an important book with essential messages for all of us … Let’s hope that [it] helps to open up the discussion in order to affect some change in our society.”
—Booktrib

“Overall, this is a powerful book that offers a brilliant exposé of how, even after the rise of anti-bullying efforts, enforcement remains a challenge, and it illustrates what happens when anti-bullying efforts are finally honored . . . A necessary book on the intersections of neurodivergence and bullying.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The courage to put this story on paper should not be overlooked … Taylor addresses so many noteworthy things … includ[ing] the importance of inclusion, diversity, and how to protect children who are vulnerable. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to all parents [and] educators. Everyone can benefit from a better understanding of [each] other’s differences.”
—San Francisco Book Review (5/5 Stars)

“Taylor powerfully highlights America’s bias against neurodiversity in this heartfelt and sensitive debut … Parents will be swept into Taylor’s story, experiencing the family’s pain and eventual triumphs alongside them, and some may even recognize their own biases and contributions to school bullying in the process.”
—Booklife by Publisher’s Weekly (Editor’s Pick)

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“If you read only one book this year, let it be Bittersweet. It just may change your life.”
—Gloria Vanderbilt, artist, author, heiress, and socialite

“A book I wish I had read in my early years . . . I might have grown up a little sooner had I been able to share the author’s frank insights into the nature of love, sex, and loneliness in their various aspects. I hope youths of all ages—from sixteen to sixty—will read it.”
—Howard Koch, primary screenwriter of Casablanca

“[W]ith rare insight, the book shows us how to accept our loneliness—then, as we stop resisting it, how to use it to our advantage . . .”
—Publisher Blurb (Penguin Classic, 1st ed.)

The post On Loneliness appeared first on She Writes Press.

“A young woman’s quest to save her Virginia family’s historic house from developers collides with her determination to bring its secrets out into the open. Folly Park is a timely tale of racial reckoning, the need to face uncomfortable truths about the past, and the barriers we erect—and tear down.”
—Susan Higginbotham, author of John Brown’s Women

“Temple Preston’s beloved ancestral plantation harbors evil secrets. When faced with the sins of its past, will she set the story straight—at any cost? Folly Park spins a haunting tale of a struggle for integrity in the face of familial corruption. Timely, engaging, and evocative.”
—Adele Holmes, author of Winter’s Reckoning

“At what cost, truth? When Temple Preston discovers an old family photograph lodged in the ceiling of the decaying ancestral Virginia plantation where she works as the curator, she is forced to confront long-held family secrets. With the help of a Black research assistant, Temple makes explosive discoveries that challenge family honor, loyalty, and trust. A five-star debut!”
—Ashley E. Sweeney, author of Answer Creek

“Are we ever able to escape our past? Should we be allowed to? At once a work of superbly accurate historical fiction and a commentary on today’s clash over the place of historic monuments and rhetoric surrounding race and slavery, Folly Park is a gripping good read.”
—L. Diane Barnes, historian and associate editor of the Frederick Douglass Papers

“In this fast-paced and suspenseful novel, a daughter of the white southern aristocracy veers between accountability and nostalgia as she struggles to become an agent of social change. Especially vivid is Temple’s developing alliance with Vee, a Black researcher whose findings threaten to unseat Temple’s idols and to place both young women on surprising common ground.”
—Wendy Sanford, author of These Walls Between Us: A Memoir of Friendship Across Race and Class

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“What a Trip: A Novel is flavorful, a balanced story that brims with realism and features intelligently written characters.”
—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“Spare and uncompromising, What a Trip is a historical novel about a young woman’s tumultuous, painful coming-of-age.”
—Foreword Reviews

“A coming-of-age slice-of-life in which a young woman finds herself in the turbulent 1960s. . . . Their talk and fears and conflicts . . . are highly specific and yet in many ways also timeless, the hearts and minds of young people convincingly rendered, feeling towards their own truths and tragedies as their nation verges on a crackup.”
—BookLife

“Amid the turmoil of the 1960s in America, a young woman and her circle of friends find meaning in the power of friendships, romance, and many unexpected adventures. It’s a wild ride!”
—Vivian Fransen, author of The Straight Spouse: A Memoir

“What a Trip takes us back to the late 1960s, when a college girl tests the limits of free love, drugs, and the occult against her political views, family loyalty, and deep-rooted friendships. This nostalgic and gripping coming-of-age novel from debut author Susen Edwards is storytelling at its finest.”
—Valerie Taylor, author of What’s Not Said and What’s Not True

“What a trip! What a story! Set against the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, the author spins a tale of love, uncertainty, black magic, life, and death, with a nail-biting plot twist I never saw coming. Fasten your seatbelts and go along for the ride. For anyone who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s—and those who wish they had.”
—Deborah K. Shepherd, author of So Happy Together 

“What A Trip celebrates and explores the universal complexity of female friendships. But it doesn’t stop there. It interrogates those tender and vulnerable places where a girl becomes a woman and whether or not those friends can survive the obstacles of youth. Told with beauty, grace, and a sharp insightfulness, Susen Edwards makes an unforgettable debut.”
—Krystal A. Sital, author of Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad and PEN Award Finalist

“Against the backdrop of the sizzling sixties, a beautiful and intelligent Fiona tries to figure out where she belongs and how she can shape her life. Drugs, sex, and rock’n’roll drive much of the action in this wonderful coming-of-age novel. Ms. Edwards uses her deft talents to create a compelling story that is hard to put down. A great and fast-moving read!”
—Jenny Brooks, author of Fractured: A Memoir

“Susen Edwards takes us on the ’70s, wild, generational jailbreak ride in her novel, What A Trip. Vietnam, the draft lottery, Woodstock, witchcraft, protests, acid . . . it’s all here! Through the eyes of the wide-eyed Fiona O’Brien, the story is a sensorial immersion in the unhinged explosion of consciousness of the times. I could almost taste the iceberg lettuce salads with fluorescent French dressing, hear the lyrics of a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune, and smell the home-grown weed.”
—J. Dylan Yates, author of The Belief in Angels

“Wow—this is a trip! Anyone who remembers those days will find themselves in a familiar world, rich with detail and lyrics of the times, including a song playlist at the end. The author’s protagonist has an authentic voice and her worries were our youthful worries.”
—Linda Moore, author of Attribution

“The cusp of adulthood is both scary and hopeful, and it was particularly fraught in the late ’60s and early ’70s. What a Trip skillfully evokes the era as well as the poignant personal lives of nineteen-year-old art student Fiona O’Brien and her best friend, Melissa. My fingers were crossed all along the way for Fiona to figure out who she is and what she wants, and have the courage to take a chance on her future. A novel that feels deeply honest and true.”
—Heidi Hackford, author of Folly Park

“An engaging trip through the social and political upheaval of life in the ’60s through the eyes of a young woman looking for love and meaning in life. Sex, drugs, and the Vietnam War provide the backdrop for a story that dramatically illustrates the complexity of the times and the changing values from one generation to the next. Despite the clamor all around them, attempting to pull them apart, the characters in this entertaining and heartfelt novel admirably demonstrate the importance of human connection.”
—Debra Green, author of The Convention of Wives

“What a Trip by Susen Edwards is like entering a time machine back to the 1960s. Many of the themes in this book—abortion choice, drugs, government corruption—are as relevant today as they were then. Whether you lived the ’60s or only heard about that transformative time from your parents, this book will take you on a journey you will not regret.”
—Patricia Grayhall, author of Making the Rounds

The post What a Trip appeared first on She Writes Press.

“A debut memoir of caregiving that addresses issues of life and death in a direct and hopeful way. . . . The author is candid about the struggles of caregiving, which readers who have experienced similar situations will find refreshing . . .”
—Kirkus Reviews

“[Staebler] writes with humor and pathos . . . Mother Lode is a raw and insightful chronicle of life as a (reluctant) caregiver. . . .but it is ultimately an example of the triumph of love and resilience.”
—Seattle Book Review, 4.5 stars

“. . . I found Gretchen’s frustrations with the healthcare system and with the reluctant patient highly resonant, and she writes with an empathetic but direct narrative style that makes you feel as though a kindred soul is speaking to you. There are many difficult moments where trauma is worked through, but the overall feel of the read is one of strength, acceptance, and love, for yourself as much as for those that you care for.”
—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“. . . an excellent read for professionals, and for anyone else open to walking with a strong, brave, humorous daughter who stayed until the end. The story radiates the funny, sad, kind, compassionate, frustrating, intelligent, strong, stubborn aspects of good people with hard challenges.”
—Story Circle Book Reviews

“Mother Lode redefines ‘coming of age’ in the drama of an independent daughter who moves back to the family home to care for her elderly mother. The story unfolds page by page, week by month, as Gretchen takes us artfully into her relationship with her mother, her sisters, and a house packed with memories. Specific in detail, universal in appeal, told with wit, wisdom, and compassion; if you ever had a mother . . . if you ever had a family . . . if you’ve ever wondered if you could go home again . . . Mother Lode will intrigue, delight, and open your heart.”
—Christina Baldwin, author of Storycatcher, Life’s Companion, and The Circle Way

“We come to the support of our aging parents sometimes open-heartedly, sometimes reluctantly. Occasionally, though, we are able to see the strength and love in the contrary parent, knowing our own strength has come from just such a source. The author travels a contradictory journey with her mother toward an end that surprises even her.”
—Catherine Fransson, author of Loving the Enemy: When the Favorite Parent Dies First

“With compelling storytelling and great wit, Gretchen Staebler’s Mother Lode illuminates the valiant lives of the mostly forgotten and the nearly invisible: our elders and their caretakers.”
—Theo Pauline Nestor, author of A Writer’s Story of Finding Her Voice (and a Guide to How You Can Too)

“Staebler’s eye for just the right detail in just the right place is on full display throughout this beautifully rendered memoir about the infinitely puzzling and always complicated mother-daughter bond.”
—Katie Hafner, author of Mother Daughter Me and host of Our Mothers Ourselves podcast

“Gretchen Staebler has beautifully intertwined two love stories: her pure passion for the Pacific Northwest, and her complicated ties to her elderly and often exasperating mother. Staebler offers a remarkably candid and clear-eyed story of caretaking—depicting the frustration and power struggles as well as the break-through moments of joy and forgiveness. A compelling story from beginning to end.”
—Mary Lambeth Moore, author of Sleeping with Patty Hearst

“Kudos to Gretchen Staebler for one of the better caregiving memoirs I’ve read.”
—Paula Span, columnist of “The New Old Age” at the New York Times

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“Chappell’s courage and resilience, the support of loving parents, and a girl’s naivete and confusion evolving toward a strong womanhood is described in prose as clear as a Montana sky. In its deep respect for the land, this memoir also serves as an antidote to the ruinous behaviors of the modern age. Engaging, surprising, enlightening―it’s everything a fine read should be.”
―Roland Merullo, author of Breakfast with Buddha and 21 other works of fiction and non-fiction

“Annie Chappell has crafted a most heartfelt and searingly honest memoir of her passage through adolescence. Seeking to learn the ways of a minimal-impact, self-sufficient homesteading life, Annie learns she’s signed on to a loveless, even joyless, relationship with a man who was always right and would not put up with being questioned. Using her own diary entries and letters exchanged with her parents, Chappell deftly draws us into her troubled world with the restrained, controlled beauty of her prose as she experiences the wildness of Bill’s Montana homestead on the banks of the Flathead River.”
―Laura Waterman author of Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage

“Annie Chappell’s memoir leads to a time many readers will remember– that poignant period of adolescence when we don’t want to settle for anything less than our own path. Chappell carries us from life as a young, privileged Denver girl to a life with a charismatic mountain man in the wilds of northern Montana. While the relationship doesn’t persist, she opens herself, and us, to a remote place of wonder and beauty that guides her back to her family and her own way of living―simply and respectfully―both appreciative and realistic about the trade-offs we all must make as we become adults.”
―Gretchen Cherington, author of the multiple award-winning Poetic License: A Memoir

The post Away Up the North Fork appeared first on She Writes Press.

“With the Russian attack on Ukraine fresh in the imagination of readers, the wartime horrors of the siege and the emotional toll on the victims ring true. Parry has transformed her impressive research into a vigorous story of how love vanquishes despair.”
—Library Journal

“Set in 1941 Leningrad, this tension-filled, well-crafted WWII historical novel tells the harrowing story of Sofya Karavayeva, a widowed violinist, and Yelena, her spirited, young granddaughter. . . . Through masterfully created characters and vivid dialogue, this powerful, inspiring saga brings to the forefront the overwhelming challenges of the daily life of those ‘lost in Leningrad’ during one of the most treacherous periods in Russian history. . . . Lost Souls of Leningrad is a thought-provoking, disturbing, and compassionate portrayal of war’s impact and how the lives of ordinary people are forever changed.”
—Historical Novel Reviews

“This is historical fiction that feels ripped from today’s headlines . . . an engaging portrayal of love and survival in wartime.”
—Debra Dean, best-selling author of New York Times Editor’s Choice The Madonnas of Leningrad

“Lost Souls of Leningrad is a sweeping, heartbreaking, and life-affirming saga. . . . A remarkable and immersive book that belongs on the shelf with Life and Fate.”
—Kim Taylor Blakemore, best-selling author of The Companion and After Alice Fell

“With the devastating siege of Leningrad as the backdrop, a widowed violinist and her teenage daughter struggle to survive. In Suzanne Parry’s Lost Souls of Leningrad, the despair and brutality of war is evoked through a tender human story of love, family, music, and hope. A stirring novel I couldn’t put down!”
—Linda Kass, author of Tasa’s Song and A Ritchie Boy

“Lost Souls of Leningrad dives into the personal story of a family navigating one of the major atrocities of modern history. Told with the authority that only a scholar can provide, combined with the chops of a natural storyteller, this book is a can’t-put-down triumph.”
—Suzy Vitello, author of Faultland, The Empress Chronicles,and The Moment Before

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—Kirkus Reviews

“A compelling, moving memoir that shares how our heart connections never die.”

—Paul Denniston, founder of Grief Yoga and author of Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss into Empowerment

“If you’re struggling through grief over the loss of a loved one, then you’ll take tremendous comfort in reading this magnificent book. Linda’s inspiring true story will open your heart and mind to the power of endless love and finding hope again.”

—Shannon Kaiser, author of Return to You: 11 Spiritual Lessons for Unshakable Inner Peace

“And Still the Bird Sings explores the deepest connections we share in this world. Like the feathered friends who visit throughout this story, Broder asks us to stop and notice the ordinary, because in that lies the extraordinary. This emotionally complex book is a feast of hope and a testament to the power of love.”

—Windy Harris, author and storytelling coach

“And Still the Bird Sings is an inspiring memoir. Linda Broder’s story of her journey through profound grief considers the power of music as a pathway to healing and a door to soulful connections that cross the boundary between life and death. This memoir will bring hope to those struggling through grief. Her words will stay with me for a long time.”

—Susan Pohlman, author of Halfway to Each Other: How a Year in Italy Brought Our Family Home and A Time to Seek

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