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2015 IPPY: Gold: Contemporary Fiction, Winner After her farmhouse in Greenwich, Connecticut is destroyed, Lidia is thankful her teenage twins, Carly and Clarisse, are unharmed and that her friend Polly Niven has taken them in. Lidia, whose husband left her and the girls for another man, lost her job in the financial crisis. She fears more bad news and soon discovers a connection between her and Tina Calderara, the pilot who crashed into her home. In the midst of her troubles, she meets Harry Caligan, the FBI Special Agent assigned to her case. With Harry’s help, Lidia plunges into the family mystery linking her to Tina. Author: Jean P. Moore Publication Date: June 3, 2014 -
2015 International Book Awards: Finalist, Autobiography/Memoir 2015 INPE Best Book of the Year: Winner, Narrative Nonfiction 2015 Reader’s Choice International Book Awards: Finalist Kittel’s inspirational memoir, Breathe, tells the story of a family that suffers the unimaginable loss of an infant son as a result of the family being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Kittels’ pain is all consuming, and it’s enhanced by the fact that their extended family tries to point fingers and pass the blame. But the story moves from heartbreaking to horrific when, a mere nine months later, they are forced to bury yet another son when the doctor and her medical team make a terrible mistake during Kittel’s pregnancy. The narrative takes a third turn when the Kittels decide to press charges of malpractice, but the surprises don’t stop there. The Kittels end up having to battle not only the medical system but also their own family in a court of law, all while raising their other three young children and trying to heal from the pain of living through the deaths of two sons. Breathe is a story about motherhood, death, and a family in conflict. Although the pain Kittel suffers is tremendous, she narrates the story beautifully, and she ultimately shows readers how to embrace love, honesty, and joy even on the heels of tragedy. Author: Kelly Kittel Publication Date: May 14, 2014 -
2015 IPPY Winner: Silver (tie) Contemporary Fiction After a four-month estrangement from her family, thirty-two-year-old Emma Michaels visits The Harbor View Assisted Living Home to tell her grandmother, Gussie, that she has made a decision: she’s going to sell the family property—her inheritance. Sitting on the dock of Poquatuck Village, Connecticut, looking across the harbor to their family’s longtime home, the two women debate over Emma’s choice—and their conversation lays the framework for the book, which flows over the decades, all the way back to Gussie’s youth and marriage, then forward through the lives of her three children, Auggie, Livy, and Alyssa, whose hopes and talents are warped by their mother’s influence and disappointed expectations. Expectations passed down through the generations. Subtle. Unspoken. Implacable. As Emma and Gussie remember the choices and dynamics that have produced the complicated tapestry that is their family’s history, Emma makes a number of surprising discoveries about her loved ones—and herself—and she prepares to do what no one else in her family has dared: let go of the past to make room for the future, though doing so will destroy the thing her grandmother holds most dear. Author: Tory McCagg Publication Date: May 6, 2014 -
This book is not new-age magic: no candles, incense, or sage were used in the production of this work. Nor is it a religious treatise: anyone can benefit from this book’s teachings, regardless of their faith, culture, or background. What this book is—what it has to offer—is a set of tools and techniques that readers can use to cultivate more creative thoughts, gain a new perspective on life, and realign their mindset to experience the things they truly desire. For those who struggle with the day-to-day and want something better; for those who want to achieve their desires with less effort and greater success; for those who yearn for more meaning, flow, and joy in their life—author Francine Huss has a simple message: Think Better. Live Better. Author: Francine Huss Publication Date: August 22, 2014 -
In 1983, two outcasts are brought together by circumstance: nine-year-old Michael Nygaard, a Minnesota farm boy transplanted to suburban Chicago after his father dies, and Julia Parnell, a woman trying to begin again after a failed attempt to live openly. Michael doesn’t understand the new people around him: the wild girl across the street nurtures their friendship and then undermines it; her alcoholic father rockets between affability and rage; the bullies at school taunt him; and he adores his teacher, Miss Parnell, but knows she’s living a false life. When Julia’s secret is exposed, she faces a choice: accept herself for who she is or deny her true nature. Meanwhile, Michael must also choose whether to simply endure his new situation or fight back. Coming of age will take bravery from these two lost souls—and if they can’t find the strength to change, neither will have the life they long for. Author: Jessica Null Vealitzek Publication Date: April 22, 2014 -
Three Minus One: Parents’ Stories of Love and Loss is a collection of intimate, soul-baring stories and artwork by parents who have lost a child to stillbirth, miscarriage, or neonatal death, inspired by the film Return to Zero. The loss of a child is unlike any other, and the impact that it has on the mother, the father, their family, and their friends is devastating—a shockwave of pain and guilt that spreads through their entire community. But the majority of those affected, especially mothers, often suffer their pain in silence, convinced that their grief and trauma is theirs to bear alone. This anthology of raw memoirs, heartbreaking stories, truthful poems, beautiful painting, and stunning photography from the parents who have suffered child loss offers insight into this unique, devastating and life-changing experience—breaking the silence and offering a ray of hope to the many parents out there in search of answers, understanding, and healing. Author: Sean Hanish Publication Date: April 19, 2014 -
The collection of essays in Flip-Flops After Fifty will immediately amuse, enlighten, and provoke the reader to think about the topics that affect all of us. This writer has experienced some of life’s painful jabs and has come through it all with strength, humor, and having learned a lesson or two. And she’s happy to share these lessons with others. Who hasn’t dealt with the emotions from family events, stress from lousy jobs, or the bittersweet feelings when the kids leave home? Not to mention body image, high school reunions, and parenting. It’s all covered here in this first collection of personal and insightful essays. Chapters include: “Family”, “The Holidays” and “Fifty.” Eastman’s conversational style and easy humor tackle the sublime and the ridiculous, the sacred and the profane. After a certain age, and it’s no secret that it’s fifty, Eastman’s essays argue that attitudes change for the better. Making decisions gets easier, although there’s no guarantee that life does. Even so, her writing allows us to take a look at our own issues with the reassuring handholding of a confidante. This is a collection that you will want to keep for yourself as well as give to a friend. Author: Cindy Eastman Publication Date: April 8, 2014 -
"Magnificent ... an exquisitely honest book." ―Newark Star-Ledger "There are so many who would benefit from Smolowe's emotional intelligence, warmth and wisdom." ―Dr. Lloyd Sederer, Medical Director, NY State Office of Mental Health, Huffington Post "No one would envy Smolowe's ordeal. But the way she handled it and writes about it? Very much so." ―New Jersey Monthly Four loved ones, gone, in the space of seventeen months. Unimaginable. But as journalist Jill Smolowe buried her husband, then her sister, mother, and mother-in-law, she had no trouble imagining what would follow. Films and memoirs, after all, offer only one script for the newly widowed: you fall apart. To Smolowe’s surprise and relief, that day never arrived. When friends insisted that her strength was “amazing,” she began to wonder if there was something freakish about her grief. Delving into modern bereavement research, she discovered a stunning bottom line: far from being uncommon, resilience like hers is the norm. In a story laced with humor, insight, and love, Smolowe finally gives voice to this silent majority. With a lens firmly trained on what helped her tolerate so much sorrow and rebound from so much loss, Smolowe jostles preconceptions about caregiving, defies clichés about grief, and offers often counterintuitive answers to those questions all of us eventually confront: What do I say? How can I help? How would I cope if it were me? Deeply moving and quietly wise, Four Funerals and a Weddingreminds us that grief is not only about endings—it’s about new beginnings. Author: Jill Smolowe Publication Date: April 8, 2014 -
Loveyoubye opens when Rossandra White’s husband of twenty-five years disappears, leaving behind a cryptic, hastily-written note on the kitchen counter, and then returns weeks later, offering few details about where he went. This sequence of events has played out before. Despite knowledge of at least one affair, she trusts he is being true to her and that their tumultuous marriage will endure. But this time is different. A subsequent confluence of crises rattles Rossandra’s core, shedding light on both the dark elements of their marriage and the direction her life must follow if she decides to leave her husband. In South Africa, land of her birth, Rossandra’s younger brother, whose physical and mental disabilities have stricken her with a lifetime of guilt, needs her help, and she answers the call. She returns to California where her dog Sweetpea, who for years has served as a vital emotional link between Rossandra and her husband, has begun to succumb to a fatal illness. Author: Rossandra White Publication Date: April 8, 2014 -
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 -
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 -
“Her Name is Kaur pushes past the boundaries of romance to illuminate the love at the very heart of faith. In this groundbreaking book, Meeta Kaur has gathered a diverse and fresh group of stories of growing up Sikh and redneck, Sikh and queer, Sikh and daydreaming, Sikh and heartbroken, Sikh and deeply beloved. Whether discussing the everyday (mother-in-law conflicts) or the taboo (mental illness), these women writers share colorful, intense, and engaging adventures that range from Los Altos to Toronto to Chandigarh. This collection deserves a place on the shelf of everyone interested in South Asian cultures, women of America, and just good storytelling.” —Minal Hajratwala, author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents Sikh American women do the lion’s share of organizing and executing the business of the Sikh community, and they straddle multiple lives and worlds—cross-cultural, interreligious, intergenerational, occupational, and domestic—yet their experiences of faith, family, and community are virtually invisible in the North American milieu and have yet to be understood, documented, or shared. Until now. In Her Name is Kaur, Sikh American women explore the concept of love from many angles, offering rich, critical insight into the lives of Sikh women in America. Through a chorus of multi-generational voices—in essays ranging in tone from dramatic to humorous—they share stories of growing into and experiencing self-love, spiritual love, love within family, romantic love, the love they nurture for humanity and the world through their professional work, and more. Eye-opening and multifaceted, this collection of stories encourages its readers to take the feeling of love and turn it into action—practical action that will make the world a better place to be for everyone, regardless of their faith or creed. Author: Meeta Kaur Publication Date: June 17, 2014
