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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 -
A haunting, emotionally charged novel about the burden of being a woman, the grip of childhood trauma, and a mother’s fight to reclaim her life before losing her daughter—and herself—forever. When Delia lands a coveted spot with a prestigious New York ballet company, she steps into a world of beauty, betrayal, and brutal ambition—while her mother, Victoria, is left behind to confront the wreckage of her own unrealized dreams and long-buried trauma. A cryptic prophecy shadows their lives and as Delia’s path toward womanhood is marred by injury and manipulation, Victoria embarks on a tender, midlife metamorphosis—rekindling her own desire and learning, too late, that letting go is not the same as giving up. Told with lyrical grace and unflinching honesty, this haunting, feminist portrait of art, sacrifice, and rebirth reminds us: life dances on, a tragic ballet. Author: Janette DeFelice Publication Date: July 14, 2026 -
Gracie is a serious, sensitive, aspiring writer; Jannie, her autistic younger sister, is passionate about birds. As children, they were taken by their mother on a senseless trip through Europe that ended in their mother’s suicide. Now, in Berkeley, their father works tirelessly to find ways to engage Jannie, while Gracie unwilling to reveal the truth about her mother’s suicide or her sister’s autism to anyone outside her family weaves a web of lies around herself that isolate her even as Jannie, in part through her relationships with and understanding of birds, begins to speak, interact, and emerge. Narrated by Gracie and alternating back and forth between 2002, when the sisters are still children/adolescents, and 2017, when they are in their early adulthood, The Language of Birds is a story of coming to understand what seems unfamiliar and indecipherable, and of finding authentic ways to be with the people you love. Author: Anita Barrows Pub Date: May 17, 2022 -
For fans of the series Finding Your Roots, a compelling memoir about how land connects us all—and how, if we are to mend our relations to each other and the earth, we must first reckon with our past, no matter how distant, shameful, or tragic. When Jill Swenson returns to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, she finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership. In searching for answers, Jill meets the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick. Over weeks, months, and years, a friendship forms between them, and Jill gradually discovers what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land. Estranged from her father, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their farm in upstate New York, and now grieving her mother’s death, Jill has spent decades trying to put the past behind her—but discovers the only path forward is to reckon with history. Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal, The Land of Everlasting Sky is a compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other. Author: Jill D. Swenson Publication Date: June 2, 2026 -
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 -
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 -
Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the vast Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish. Marriage at age sixteen takes her west to Colorado Springs, where her young husband chases a phantom cure for tuberculosis. When tragedy strikes, Mary Agnes finds herself alone again, dreams shattered. But she is determined to forge her own path, and after securing work as a chuckwagon cook at a rugged Colorado ranch, she discovers a newfound sense of purpose and identity. Torn between desire for her ranch boss—who is neither Irish nor Catholic—and propriety, Mary Agnes returns to Chicago, her future uncertain. There, resilience and resolve become her constant companions as she faces yet another tragedy: her family, newly arrived from Ireland, disowns her. Digging deep within, Mary Agnes discovers strength and worth as she redefines what it means to belong while grappling with the clash of heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Author: Ashley E. Sweeney Publication Date: December 10, 2024 -
Every day, we take in data from the world around us and store that data in our intellect. Then, without conscious awareness, we listen to that data—a process we call “thinking”—and use what it tells us to inform our decisions. But living our lives this way means always living in the past, and it limits us more than we think. In The Inward Outlook, psychologist Laura Basha shares how to discern this habitual way of thinking from the innate wisdom and common sense that we all have available to us at all times. Once we can see this distinction between personal thinking from the past and in-the-moment, impersonal, diffuse thinking, we are awakened to the conscious choice point, which allows us to make choices with awareness and to release judgment of ourselves and of others. We then consciously create ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can be: our authentic, powerfully creative, compassionate selves. A powerful guide to accessing one’s own innate health, well-being, and wisdom, The Inward Outlook is an accessible exploration of a principle-based paradigm that educates people in the role thought plays in creating their experience of reality—and a road map to cultivating inspired focus, accomplishment, and peace of mind in one’s life. Pub Day: April 4, 2023 Author: Laura Basha, PhD -
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 -
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 -
When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch's home, setting a mystery in motion that will take decades to uncover. At the age of seventy-two, Lee falls ill and on her deathbed asks Sandy to write her story. The only problem is, Sandy doesn’t know the story. Embarking on a quest to honor Lee’s final wishes, Sandy takes an emotional and thrilling journey, unveiling shocking truths not only about her beloved housekeeper but also her own upbringing. As she digs further, she learns that Lee came to her family’s sprawling estate in Barrington, IL, harboring a secret past. For decades, she’s been in hiding. But Lee is not the only one with secrets; Sandy’s quest forces her to grapple with her own family history as well, and to finally confront the effects of the psychological abuse she suffered as a child. Both a chilling and exciting personal tale of love and survival, The Housekeeper’s Secret is a gripping saga that illuminates the resilience of the human spirit. Author: Sandra Schakenburg Publication Date: December 3, 2024 -
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 -
For fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, a memoir for daughters who recognize that to truly understand themselves and the patterns of their lives, they must first understand their mothers and the forces that shaped these women. When Margaret Whitford’s mother was dying, she told those present that her daughter “had her history.” This was true; Margaret had conducted interviews with her mother during the last decade of her life. But this didn’t end their estrangement, and Margaret chose not to return to her mother’s side during her final days. In this memoir, Margaret confronts this decision by unearthing in her mother’s traumatic history the roots of the emotional distance between them. She explores how a history marked by the devastation of World War II in Europe, a violent childhood home, and sexual assault accumulated into complex PTSD that shaped her mother and the way she parented Margaret as her firstborn and as a daughter—and, in turn, how Margaret carried her mother’s trauma forward in her sense of self, in her relationships to others, and in the ways she navigated her world. Indeed, Margaret not only had her mother’s history—she embodied it. Ultimately, The History We Carry confronts the legacy of intergenerational trauma with wisdom and compassion, revealing how familial history shapes each of us but need not be wholly determinative of whom we become and how we choose to live. Author: Margaret Whitford Publication Date: June 2, 2026 -
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 -
What is the half-life of O’Toole family secrets? In 2013, Saige is stuck living with her Granny Rosamond in her beige wasteland of a hometown. Desperate for a diagnosis and cure for her mysterious ailments, she uncovers more than she bargained for—a hot rock that shouldn’t exist and a past Rosamond refuses to explain. That past takes place in the 1940s, when 50,000 people move to an eastern Washington town that doesn’t exist to build something they can’t name. Rosamond is one of them, eager to do her bit for the war effort—and find a husband. When she falls for a charming engineer, she envisions a perfect life. But as the hot war turns cold and her ever-expanding family becomes increasingly troubled, she discovers this nuclear town is no utopia, and she must decide whether to cling to the destructive facade of domestic bliss or face the truth that could save them all. When Rosamond’s past collides with Saige’s search for healing, half-buried secrets—from the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere to the wounds within their own family—can no longer be ignored. Can Saige discover the truth and heal herself without destroying her grandmother’s life? Author: Shannon St. Hilaire Publication Date: October 6, 2026 -
Who is the father of Brenna’s daughter? When Brenna Riley and Dennis Griffin meet on the Stanford rowing team, they are immediately and inexorably drawn to each other. Their attraction leads to an ill-fated hookup. For Brenna, that’s the end of the relationship. But for Dennis, it’s the beginning of an obsession. What follows is a nearly forty-year preoccupation for Dennis. Everything about Brenna, from her relationships to the strands of hair in her brush, is at the center of his thoughts. But as his efforts to win her over escalate and fail, Dennis focuses his attention on what he’s come to think of as the next best thing: her daughter, Sadie. A haunting, thrilling story about what happens when strong attractions are ignored, The Handyman follows Dennis and Brenna through marriages, addictions, and even an untimely death. Author: Maura K. Deering Pub Day: September 26, 2023 -
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 -
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 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 -
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 -
What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children? Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University. Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn’t initially understand her children—or how to help them—she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out. The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It's a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won't see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it's an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success. Pub Date: April 18, 2023 Author: Irena Smith -
For fans of Glennon Doyle and Tara Brach, this groundbreaking guide shatters the myths that keep us divided, offering a radical path of sacred activism, abundance, and limitless love—a call to reclaim wholeness and step into our fullest power. Think the goddess is just for women? Think again. In The Goddess Remedy, Suzin Green shatters this misconception, revealing how goddess wisdom is essential for everyone—especially now, as patriarchal systems create unprecedented ecological and social upheaval. Drawing on decades as a musician, writer, meditation teacher, and therapist, Green illuminates how the goddess paradigm offers a revolutionary approach to healing our most painful divides: doing vs. being, mind vs. body, and masculine vs. feminine—divisions that keep us out of balance and disconnected from ourselves and the world. Weaving myth with memoir, yogic philosophy, and soul-centered psychology, The Goddess Remedy is both a practical handbook and manifesto of love. Green provides tangible tools for anxiety relief and trauma recovery while simultaneously charting a path of sacred activism, shadow work, and self-care. The book culminates in six transformative practices—the Goddess Rules—guiding readers to unleash their power, embody their truth, and love without limits. Author: Suzin Green Publication Date: January 20, 2026 -
Patti Eddington always knew she was adopted, and her beloved parents seemed amenable enough to questions—but she never wanted to hurt them by expressing curiosity, so she didn’t. The story of her mother cutting off and dying her hair when she was a toddler? She thought it was eccentric and funny, nothing more. When she discovered at fifteen that her birthday wasn’t actually her birthday? She believed it when her mother said she’d changed it to protect her from the “nosy old biddies” who might try to discover her identity. It wasn’t until decades later, when a genealogy test led Patti to her biological family (including an aunt with a shocking story) and the discovery of yet another birthday, that she really began to interrogate what she thought she knew about her origins. Determined to know the truth, she finally petitioned a court to unseal records that had been locked up for almost sixty years—and began to put the pieces of her past together, bit by painstaking bit. Framed by a brief but poignant 1963 “Report of Investigation” based on a caseworker’s one-day visit to Patti’s childhood home, The Girl With Three Birthdays tells the story of an adoptee who always believed she was the answer to a couple’s seventeen-year journey to become parents, until a manila envelope from a rural county court arrived and caused her to question . . . everything. Author: Patti Eddington Publication Date: May 7, 2024 -
Fifteen-year-old Elena lives in a church attic in San Francisco’s Richmond neighborhood, where she is cared for by her guardian, a kind Russian priest named Father Al. Six days a week, Father Al sends her out of Our Lady, across the meadows and ponds of Golden Gate Park, and all the way to Baba Vera’s house on Taraval Street for Baba’s version of school. Unlike regular school, however, Elena’s learning is unnerving. Baba Vera’s preposterous demands, dizzying antics, and house—which is full of skeletons, brooms, strange implements, and guinea pigs, among other oddities—seem straight out of a Russian fairy tale Father Al used to read to Elena . . . not life in 2020. If not for her beloved doll, Kukla—bequeathed to her by the mother she never got to know, but of whom she often dreams—Elena would be overwhelmed. Yet she works hard at every task given her, understanding intuitively that there is a purpose to every one of her grandmother’s strange assignments. Frank, a young taxi driver, enters Elena’s world on the day he delivers a strange, witch-like woman named Anya to Our Lady. Upon meeting Anya and Elena, a dream-world begins to spin for him—and he feels a deep, protective pull toward Elena. In the days that follow, Frank devotes himself to saving her from the harm he is sure Anya intends toward her. What he comes to understand, as he enters more deeply into Elena’s story, is that she has magic of her own. He thought he was supposed to save her—but in the end, the two of them may just save each other. Pub Date: July 25, 2023 Author: Barbara Sapienza
