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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 -
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 -
Wounds fester and spread in the darkness of silence. The First Signs of April explores the destructive patterns of unresolved grief and the importance of connection for true healing to occur. The narrative weaves through time to explore grief reactions to two very different losses: suicide and cancer. Author: Mary-Elizabeth Briscoe Publication Date: September 5, 2017 -
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 -
2016 Next Generation Finalist in Women’s Issues 2016 Best Book Award Finalist in Women’s Issues 2017 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite in Women’s Issues In 1998, after having been married to Duncan—a bully who’s been controlling her for the fourteen years they’ve been together—Karen E. Lee thought divorce was in the cards. But ten months after telling him that she wanted that divorce, Duncan was diagnosed with cancer—and eight months later, he was gone. Lee hoped her problems would be solved after Duncan’s death—but instead, she found that without his ranting, raving, and screaming taking up space in her life, she had her own demons to face. Luckily, Duncan had inadvertently left her the keys to her own salvation and healing—a love of Jungian psychology and a book that was to be her guide through the following years. In The Full Catastrophe, Lee explores the dreams she had during this period, the intuitive messages she learned to trust in order to heal, and her own emotional journey—including travel adventures, friends, and romances. Insightful and brutally honest, The Full Catastrophe is the story of a well educated, professional woman who, after marrying the wrong kind of man—twice—finally resurrects her life. Author: Karen E. Lee Publication Date: April 5, 2016 -
Why is it easier for a woman to be a muse than to have one? Are security and inspiration mutually exclusive? Can one be fully creative—in art or life—without the inspiration of erotic love? These are the questions asked in THE GEOMETRY OF LOVE, a novel set in New York in the 1980s, then fast-forwarding to Northern California 20 years later. Julia, an aspiring poet, is living with her British boyfriend Ben, a restrained professor at Princeton, when she is thrown off-balance by a chance meeting in Manhattan with Michael, a long-ago friend. A complex and compelling composer, Michael was once a catalyzing muse for her, but now returns as a destabilizing influence. Julia longs to become involved with Michael, but feels enormous guilt at the thought of betraying Ben and giving up the security of that relationship. When Michael signals he is too wounded to make a commitment, Julia turns her triangular situation into a square by setting him up with a cousin. In the process she discovers, as Pascal once said, that “the heart has its reasons which reason does not know.” This deeply psychological tale explores the surprising ways we make romantic choices. Author: Jessica Levine Publication Date: April 8, 2014 -
At thirty-one, Kirsten has just returned to San Francisco from a bohemian year in Rome, ready to pursue a serious career as a writer and eventually, she hopes, marriage and family. When she meets Steve Beckwith, a handsome and successful attorney, she begins to see that future materialize more quickly than she’d dared to expect. Twenty-two years later, Steve has turned into someone quite different. Unemployed and addicted to opioids, he uses money and their two children to emotionally blackmail Kirsten. What’s more, he’s been having an affair with their real estate agent, who is also her close friend. So she divorces him—but after their divorce is finalized, Steve is diagnosed with colon cancer and dies within a year, leaving Kirsten with $1.5 million in debts she knew nothing about. It’s then that she finally understands: The man she’d married was a needy, addictive person who came wrapped in a shiny package. As she fights toward recovery, Kirsten begins to receive communications from Steve in the afterlife—which lead her on an unexpected path to forgiveness. The Ghost Marriage is her story of discovery — that life isn’t limited to the tangible reality we experience on this earth, and that our worst adversaries can become our greatest teachers. Publication Date: April 20, 2021 Author: Kirsten Mickelwait -
2017-18 Reader Views Literary Award, Spirituality: Finalist “Munn’s debut memoir tells of her own journey of self-discovery after learning of a parent’s terminal illness. Rather than give in to grief, she embarked on what she calls a 'heart-opening journey'―one that she deftly and intensely recounts in this memoir. Throughout this book, the author skillfully describes the nuances of her visits with her mother as well as the deepening of their relationship. A remembrance that effectively captures the profound love between a mother and daughter.” —Kirkus Reviews Have you faced the loss of a parent, struggled with how to say good-bye? Have you felt the depth of pain of the loss, not knowing where to turn or how to cope? Have you questioned your faith and let fear take over in times of loss? Are you comfortable in your skin or still try to fit in? Rebecca Whitehead Munn, a mother of two children under the age of five, is going through a divorce when she discovers that her mother, 3,000 miles away, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In The Gift of Good-bye, she shares how this experience led to a heart-opening expansion, and encourages readers to believe that they, too, can form new beliefs and new connections and elevate their difficult experiences to a higher level of authenticity. The story is her account of living through two major life transitions within a three-year span, and the resulting shift she made in the process—due to the lasting gift of love from her now-deceased mother, her courage, and the choice she made to expand into more of who she was at her core as everything about life as she knew it changed. Author: Rebecca Whitehead Munn Publication Date: July 18, 2017 -
Can a mother be both loving and selfish? Caring and thoughtless? Deceitful and devoted? These are the questions that fuel psychologist Dr. Judy Rabinor’s quest to understand her ambivalence toward her mother. While leading a seminar exploring the importance of the mother-daughter relationship, Dr. Judy Rabinor, an eating disorder expert, is blindsided by a memory of a childhood trauma. Realizing how this buried trauma has resonated through her life, she sets off to heal herself. The Girl in the Red Boots weaves together tales from Rabinor’s psychotherapy practice and her life, helping readers understand how painful childhood experiences can linger and leave emotional scars. In the process, Rabinor traces her own journey becoming a wounded healer and ultimately making peace with her mother, and herself. Not a traditional self-help book outlining “steps” to reconcile or forgive one’s mother, The Girl in the Red Boots is a poignant memoir filled with hard-won life lessons, including the fact that it’s never too late to let go of hurts and disappointments and develop compassion for yourself—and even for your mother. Publication Date: May 4, 2021 Author: Judith Ruskay Rabinor, PhD -
What do we do when life ends? How do we honor the past while moving into an unimaginable, uncertain future? This tender, bracingly honest memoir explores how Jenny, a young widow, navigates the sudden loss of Tris, her beloved spouse of eighteen years. With Tris gone, Jenny suddenly finds herself a single mom to a teen daughter and adult stepson. The newly splintered family finds ways to celebrate “milestone firsts” —including birthdays and other holidays that, without Tris, now feel hollow and bittersweet. Jenny finds herself drawn to new people, including other widows and psychic mediums, and becoming open to different kinds of connections based on sharing and spirituality. She also embarks on a halting quest for new romantic love. Initially, as she endures awkward first dates and unpleasant interactions with self-proclaimed “nice guys,” she resists her new reality —but over time, she finds someone unexpectedly comforting, blending the pain of loss with the pleasure of closeness. For readers who have also lost a loved one, The Good Widow offers both a comforting guide to grief and a form of companionship; for everyone, it’s a beautiful example of how even after death, love endures. Author: Jennifer Katz Publication: August 10, 2021 -
“Jill Dearman is the New Queen of Noir.” —Go Magazine “Brutal and magical and sexy as hell. Dearman’s noir voice shatters boundaries I never knew existed.” —Augusten Burroughs, author, Running With Scissors. “With the illusion of a good magic show and the captivating edge of the early 20th century, The Great Bravura spellbinds readers in its twisted tale.” —RT Reviews Since adolescence, Bravura and salt of the earth Susie have been partners in magic and best friends, as well as occasional bedmates. But when the two performers hire the mysterious and alluring Lena as a third banana to jazz up the act, Bravura falls madly in love. Lena believes in magic—and not just the rabbit-out-of-a hat kind. She encourages Bravura to believe in her own supernatural powers, and when Susie balks, conflict ensues. Things really go south during the classic “Disappearing Box” act, when Susie disappears for real. With her pal presumed dead, and Bravura the prime suspect, the magician must act quickly to find Susie—hopefully alive! To prove her innocence, Bravura must uncover the holes in her own story—even if it means incriminating herself, and her precious Lena, in the process. Author: Jill Dearman Publication Date: November 3, 2015 -
Consumed by a myth about Zeus, a magic sword, and soul mates, Greek-American professor Thair Mylopoulos-Wright has spent much of her life searching for her Other Half. At thirty-one, she spends a summer in Greece; there, alone on a tranquil island, she begins writing stories about her grandmother’s experiences in 1940s Egypt, her mother’s youth in 1960s Greece, and finally, her own life in contemporary America—trying to make sense of her future by exploring the past. Spanning Thair’s life from thirty-one to thirty-six, The Greek Persuasion explores human sexuality, the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, and the choices women of different generations make when choosing—or settling—for “Mr. (or Ms.) Good Enough.” Will Thair ever find that missing part of her that Zeus chopped off with his magic sword? Or is the concept of The One just one big fairy tale that has left her searching for someone who doesn’t exist? Author: Kimberly K. Robeson Publication Date: April 30, 2019 -
Jill G. Hall, bestselling author of The Black Velvet Coat and The Silver Shoes brings readers another dual tale of two vibrant women from different eras trying to discover their true identities. Anne McFarland, a modern-day, thirty-something San Francisco artist in search of spiritual guidance, buys a corset in a Flagstaff resale boutique—a purchase that results in her having to make a decision that will change her life forever. One hundred and thirty-five years earlier, in 1885, naïve Sally Sue Sullivan, a young woman from the Midwest, is kidnapped on a train by a handsome but dangerous bank robber. Held prisoner on a homestead in Northern Arizona’s Wild West, Sally Sue discovers her own spunk and grit as she plots her escape. Ultimately, both Anne and Sally Sue face their fears and find the strength to journey down their designated paths and learn the true meaning of love and family . . . with a little push from the same green lace corset. Author: Jill G. Hall Publication Date: October 13, 2020 -
Forty-one-year-old Natalie Greene lost her mom and her childhood memories in a car crash two decades ago. What remains is a haunting feeling that she was responsible for her mother’s death. After her husband leaves for another woman, Natalie accompanies her famous stepsister, Isabel Walker (aka “The Happiness Guru”) on a retreat to the Cayman Islands. There, a late-night collision triggers Natalie’s long-buried trauma and a heightened sense of guilt. Upon returning home to Boston, Natalie tries to settle back into her life as a food photographer and single mother to a teenage daughter—but then, one day, an anonymous email arrives about the Cayman accident that suggests foul play. In her search for the truth, Natalie must deal with a mix of fear, confusion, and suspects. With the help of Isabel and an attractive journalist, she uncovers a trail of deceit that begins on that deserted Caribbean road, circles back home, and ends in the most unexpected of places. Publication Date: May 18, 2021 Author: Nicole Bokat -
Royal Palm Literary Awards Finalist in Published Book-Length Mainstream Genre Secrets, lies, and murder haunt The House on the Forgotten Coast, a magical novel set in Apalachicola, Florida, in the late 1980s. The novel begins with the beautiful Annelise Lovett Morgan, who, powerless in the face of her southern heritage, is forced to marry the mature Coulton Morgan instead of the young man who has captured her heart, artistic Seth Mitchell. But seventeen-year-old Annelise dies on her wedding day in 1879, never to live in the remarkable house built as a wedding gift from her father—and her story ends there, until Elise Foster’s parents buy the historic house in 1987. When this happens, the house becomes a portal whereby Annelise and Elise, two young women from very different centuries, meet to solve a murder that occurred 100 years earlier. Author: Ruth Coe Chambers Publication Date: September 19, 2017 -
Our family legacies, both positive and negative, are passed down from one generation to the next in ways that are not fully understood. This secondary form of trauma, which Gita Baack calls “Inherited Trauma,” has not received adequate attention—a failing that perpetuates cycles of pain, hatred, and violence. In The Inheritors, readers are given the opportunity to reflect on the inherited burdens they carry, as well as the resilience that has given them the power of survival. Through engaging stories and unique concepts, readers will learn new ways to explore the unknowns in their legacies, reflect on questions that are posed at the end of each chapter, and begin to write their own story. Author: Gita Arian Baack Publication Date: June 13, 2017 -
Many counseling clients find comfort and meaning in their spiritual lives, in the context of religious affiliation or the diverse viewpoints of the “spiritual but not religious.” But counselors and psychotherapists often lack training for work in this territory and may be wary of opening the door. The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality is an exploration of the subtle, fluid relationship between psychology and spirituality that offers valuable perspectives and suggestions for embracing spirituality and religion in the helping professions. Drawing on Jungian, transpersonal, and integral perspectives, Hepburn highlights personal and cultural styles, spirituality as a therapeutic resource, and the potential for psychospiritual growth. She also emphasizes the importance of focusing on metaphors, stories, and direct experience rather than beliefs. Thoughtful attention is given to potential psychospiritual problems, ethical dilemmas, and diagnostic challenges. There are also frequent opportunities for personal reflection. Unique features of the book include consideration of the potential relationship of spirituality to therapeutic themes such as attachment, trauma, subpersonalities, and somatic experience, as well as application of the concepts in the stories of nine fictional characters based on the Enneagram. Thoughtful and thought provoking, The Interplay of Psychology and Spirituality is a valuable resource for helping professionals, spiritual directors, and for general readers with a particular interest in the subject. Author: Alexandra M. Hepburn, PhD Publication Date: October 1, 2019 -
Winner of the 2016 Gold Medal for Best Regional Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Awards 2016 IndieFab Finalist in Historical Fiction Winner of the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Awards Silver Medal in Fiction: Historical, Event/Era In Boston at the turn of the century, two indigent adolescent boys, Aidan and Charles, are brought together by a common desire: earning enough money each day to feed themselves (and, in Aidan’s case, his mother and sister). Together, they achieve this goal by robbing drunken sailors in the brothel district of the city—until one night they accidently kill their victim. To avoid arrest, they leave the city, conning their way into an island school that only accepts boys with squeaky-clean pasts. But the pressure of keeping their stories straight soon fractures their friendship—and when the cracks begin to show, they find out that they are not as safe from the law as they had hoped. Author: Connie Hertzberg Mayo Publication Date: October 13, 2015 -
Yamini Redewill is an Uber driver in San Francisco—one of a growing number of rideshare drivers around the world. What makes her unique is that she’s a seventy-nine-year-old single woman who views her Uber driving as a form of spiritual practice! The Joy of Uber Driving chronicles the unexpected corkscrew twists and turns Redewill encounters on the road to love and happiness. How could she know that all those fabulous dreams she cherished as a younger woman were just illusions on the way to reality and would vanish like dust in the wind? But ultimately, her wild ride through life—which includes obsessive love on Catalina; sex, drugs, and alcohol in Hollywood; eleven years of celibacy in Buddhism, and Tantric sex and spirituality in India—helps her wend her way to her authentic self and to creative fulfillment in the winter of her life. In The Joy of Uber Driving, Redewill shares the wisdom that comes from living a full life of heart-centered passion, as well as the self-awareness that has allowed her to be the happy, confident, creative, and young “old broad” she now finds herself to be. Author: Yamini Redewill Publication Date: June 25, 2019 -
Twenty-six-year-old Lavinia Lavinia is burdened by her unknown heritage—but her uncle Sal, who raised her in San Francisco, has always kept silent, refusing to reveal the devastating secret of her origin. And now, following the death of his wife, he’s left for Italy. In the wake of her uncle’s departure, Lavinia has quit school. Now she works as a personal laundress to a diverse cast of San Francisco residents—people with stories as complicated as her own. As time progresses, through the sacred ritual of washing clothes—and with the help of a friend and her nurturing, flamenco dancing mother—Lavinia begins to recover memories of her mother. Gradually, her gifts of receptivity multiply, and she communes with nature, finding messages from birds and the leaves of her garden’s fig tree. And when she recovers Raggedy, a beloved doll that accompanied her from Naples when she was four years old, she experiences a tangible connection to her mother. Even as Lavinia makes these discoveries, she is busy building new relationships—discovering healing dance with her lover, a barista in a North Beach coffee shop; learning to understand time and forgiveness with an elderly client; and even getting to know her father, a man who has never been a part of her life. Poetic and poignant, The Laundress is a coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever sought to understand where they came from in order to figure out who they’re meant to become. Author: Barbara Sapienza Publication Date: May 19, 2020 -
Margaret Carlyle is searching for an epic love as she heads to college in 1979 after the loss of her beloved mother to cancer. When a charismatic boy named Anders rapes her on their first date, she wants nothing more than to forget it ever happened. But as the years pass, each life decision she makes seems driven by what happened that night. When Anders becomes famous as an actor, Margaret can no longer ignore her past—and she must make choices that will affect everyone around her, most notably her husband, Douglas, and Fitz, the man who has loved her patiently since college. This deeply moving novel is a window into class and privilege, the mysteries of marriage, and the destructive power of secrets—and an examination of what happens when we try to bury the past, as well as the consequences of confronting it. Publication Date: July 20, 2021 Author: Susan Schoenberger -
In 1661 Madrid, Ana is still grieving the loss of her husband when her niece, sixteen-year-old Juliana, suddenly vanishes. Ana frantically searches the girl’s room and comes across a diary. Journeying to southern Spain in the hope of finding her, Ana immerses herself in her niece’s private thoughts. After a futile search in Seville, she comes to Juliana’s final entries, and, discovering the horrifying reason for the girl’s flight, abandons her search. In 1992 Missouri, in her deceased mother’s home, Rachel finds a packet of letters, and a diary written by a woman named Juliana. Rachel’s reserved mother has never mentioned these items, but Rachel recognizes the names Ana and Juliana: her mother uttered them on her deathbed. She soon becomes immersed in Juliana’s diary, which recounts the young woman’s journey to Mexico City and her life in a convent. As she learns the truth about Juliana’s tragic family history, Rachel seeks to understand her connection to the writings—hoping that in finding those answers, she will somehow heal the wounds caused by her mother’s lifelong reticence. Author: Rebecca D'Harlingue Publication Date: September 8, 2020 -
Early days of motherhood can be overwhelming. The initial weeks are fraught with a lack of confidence in parenting abilities, heightened by the absence of sleep. Once the multitude of visits die down, new mothers and their partners can slip into isolation, facing very real day-to-day problems of child rearing on their own. Parenting chat sites and blogs are becoming a popular source of information and community for some new parents. Yet, the plethora of information can inadvertently contribute to increases in stress. How, in this modern age, can new mothers and their partners nurture their own parenting confidence? The Little A–Z is here to help. This curated, wholistic treasure trove of parenting advice is organized alphabetically with a tab system so that information is literally at your fingertips. It assumes that medical issues confronting you and your baby are not to be treated in isolation to personal questions of well-being, relationships, and going back to work. You will find tips, tricks, and advice on issues ranging from diaper rash to travel to negotiating reentry with your boss. Compiled from the author’s own experience as a working mother, and complemented by input from friends across the globe, this book is a must-have for any new mother asking herself how to navigate childrearing, a career, and loving relationships in this busy, modern and highly digitized age of parenting. Author: Rachel Perks Publication Date: May 19, 2020 -
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
