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In accordance with her Sicilian Catholic family’s unspoken code, Paolina Milana learned at an early age to keep her secrets locked away where no one could find them. Nobody outside the family needed to know about the voices her Mamma battled in her head; or about how Paolina forged her birth certificate at thirteen so she could get a job at The Donut Shop; or about the police officer twenty-six years her senior whose promise to her Papà to “keep an eye on her” quickly translated into something sinister. And perhaps that’s why no one saw it coming when—on the eve of her sweet sixteen, pushed to edge—Paolina attempted to take her own mother’s life. Raw and compelling, The S-Word is the true story of a girl who nearly suffocates in the silence she was taught to value above all else—until she finally finds the strength to break free of the secrets binding her and save herself. Author: Paolina Milana Publication Date: May 5, 2015 -
Ever since a childhood tragedy bonded Jessica Jensen to Oregon’s mighty Nesika River, she has seen herself as its guardian. Now a courageous field biologist, Jess has just finished gathering scientific evidence that could bring about the dismantling of the massive hydro dam that threatens to destroy her river. But then Jess discovers that her boss is suppressing her scientific evidence―and as she digs deeper into the reason for her boss’s actions, she learns that the dam’s fate is at the mercy of a dark and far-reaching government and corporate conspiracy. Even worse, her live-in boyfriend, Jeff, who is supposedly on her side, may not be the man she thought he was. As Jess’s life spirals out of control, she mysteriously starts to make contact with Piah, a Native American Molalla woman who lived on the riverbanks of the Nesika 200 years before Jess. Piah, too, faces a terrible threat that could destroy all that’s left of her world. As the veil between their two worlds begins to lift, each woman learns important lessons from the other about how to love and rekindle their faith in the future, even in the face of tragic loss and uncertainty. Author: Lisa Reddick Publication Date: October 9, 2018 -
It’s 1910, and Catherine Ogden is aching to live a creative and meaningful life. That’s not easy to do when her aunt and uncle—and all of New York society—consider a good marriage to be the pinnacle of feminine achievement. But when Catherine visits Oakview, the Northern California estate of handsome bachelor William Brandt, she thinks that it might be possible to satisfy her family’s hopes as well as her own. In that beautiful place, she finds the promise of a new start and the opportunity to use her artistic gifts in designing the garden. But as Catherine is drawn into William’s hidden life, as well as the secrets of his estate staff, she discovers that Oakview holds both more opportunity and more risk than she ever imagined. It will take all her courage—and the lessons of some shocking revelations from the past—to choose the path that leads to real freedom. Full of rich period detail and complex characters, and set against an unforgettable backdrop, The Seeing Garden explores what it takes for a woman to discern the path to her most authentic life. Pub Date: May 9, 2023 Author: Ginny Kubitz Moyer -
2016 USA Best Book Award: Parenting & Family, Finalist “Burton’s instructional guide to self-care for mothers is full of tips and techniques, and long on understanding and empathy.” ―Publisher’s Weekly Combining the thoughtful and expert narrative of a veteran mom of four children with the voices of hundreds of moms she surveyed, The Self-Care Solution offers insightful answers to poignant questions about how mothers take care of themselves, their relationships, and their jobs while raising their children—and how they don’t. Here, mothers reveal their struggles with self-care, and the consequences of neglecting themselves and their relationships, and share successful strategies to combat these issues. Each chapter also includes reflective self-assessment questions for mothers to gauge where they are from a self-care standpoint, as well as lists of tried and true tools they can employ to achieve more balance, and ultimately more satisfaction, within themselves and in their relationships. Inspirational yet practical, The Self-Care Solution will dramatically impact women who are navigating the critical responsibility of motherhood while attempting to stay true to themselves. Author: Julie Burton Publication Date: May 3, 2016 -
Mother was an emotionally damaged woman shrouded in depression and dark secrets. Father was a man plagued by alcoholism who lived in a state of drunken evasion for many years before jumping ship. Kathleen was born into this family who masqueraded as ordinary and merged with a lineage and community plagued by toxic male aggression, submissive women, wannabe Mafia brutes, charlatan holy men and women, and lurid and criminal goings–on, all made possible by cheek–turners, complicit and fearful enablers, and the ever–present overarching code of silence. The Seller of Secrets tells a story of the admission of long-held secrets of trauma, leading to a poignant heroine’s journey to seek deep healing through truth, nature, various forms of energy medicine, and a longing to rediscover the authentic self. After a shocking deathbed confession is revealed, the healing path merges with an investigation into a shadowy past where the puzzle of long-hidden family secrets is painstakingly assembled. Kathleen recognizes how adverse childhood experiences shape a fractured life with limitations and how the importance of acknowledging the truth and freeing oneself from fear and the muteness of shame is the key to true freedom. Author: Kathleen Rose Morgan Publication Date: June 11, 2024 -
At age fifty, Susan Morris is diagnosed with breast cancer—and she’s floored. Desperate to pinpoint the cause, one night she decides to type a question into her search engine: “What are the risk factors of getting breast cancer?” She’s surprised to discover research showing that long-term exposure to stress and traumatic childhood experiences can both increase the risk of breast cancer. The Sensitive One is a braided memoir that alternates between Morris’s childhood—as a sensitive child and then teenager who shouldered the burden of caring for her younger siblings as her dad’s alcoholism tore at the threads of their home life—and an adult who for a decade-plus has been living a trauma-free life with a caring husband and rewarding career in nursing . . . only to be diagnosed with breast cancer. This is a story of redemption—of a woman who manages to escape harrowing circumstances and start anew—but it’s also a story of how our legacy lives within us, and how healing from the adverse effects of childhood can truly take a lifetime. Author: Susan F. Morris Publication Date: August 24, 2021 -
As a little girl, Teressa’s father dotes on her and little sister, Karen, while mercilessly mocking her older sister, Debbie. Teressa thinks its Debbie’s fault—until she gets a little older and he begins tormenting her, too. Soon enough, his verbal abuse turns physical. Her sergeant father brings his military life home, meeting each of his daughters’ infractions with extreme punishment for them all. Meanwhile, their mother watches silently, never defending her daughters and never subjected to physical abuse herself. Terrified to be at home and terrified to tell anyone, Teressa seeks solace in books, music, and the family she can find outside of her home: a best friend, a kind neighbor, and a doting grandfather. At first cowed by her father’s abuse and desperate to believe that maybe, one day, things will change, Teressa ultimately grows into a young woman who understands that if she wants a better life, she’ll have to build it for herself—so she does. Author: Teressa Shelton Publication Date: August 11, 2020 -
A suspenseful tale stretching from Spain to Hollywood, from a small Jewish community in South Carolina to a crumbling hacienda in the Yucatan, The Serpent Bearer carries readers into the lives of a glamorous British aristocrat, a Jewish gambler, and a beautiful Hollywood screenwriter—all swept up by dangerous political currents during WWII. Solly Meisner, a Spanish Civil War veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, has barely settled in after his return home when he discovers powerful Nazi sympathizers are working behind the scenes in his new hometown of Pennington, South Carolina. Determined to stop them, he signs on with the Coordinating Office of Information (COI), a newly formed US spy agency. His first assignment: travel to the Yucatan and infiltrate a group of German spies and collaborators—including Estelle, a beautiful British woman he fell in love with in Spain, and whom he fears may have betrayed him. In the Yucatan Solly encounters a band of European exiles, not all of them who they claim to be. With his contacts dropping like flies, danger lurks at every turn. But with the Nazis only a few hundred miles from the US coast and making plans for an invasion, there is no time to lose, and no one Solly trusts to track them down and stop them but himself. If he fails, the world he once knew will be gone forever—and the people he loves with it. Author: Jane Rosenthal Publication Date: March 11, 2025 -
When Alicia Rodriguez, a successful entrepreneur recovering from divorce and loss, accepts an invitation to Ecuador to help a friend who is studying with a shaman, she has no idea how profoundly the decision will change her life’s course.
In Ecuador Alicia meets Napo, a powerful shaman, and they begin an extraordinary relationship that spans two continents and eight years. As their connection deepens, Alicia learns the principles of shamanism and witnesses Napo’s remarkable healing abilities. Confronted with the illusion of her life in the United States, she decides to move to Ecuador to be with him, and they make plans to build a healing center together on the coast. Within a short time, however, she realizes that she has surrendered her power and agency to Napo, who now wields it as a weapon against her. After years of inner struggle, Alicia finally finds the courage to leave Ecuador and moves to Portugal, where she finds peace . . . until an unexpected phone call rekindles old memories.
An extraordinary memoir steeped in spirituality, shamanism, and metaphysics, The Shaman’s Wife is the story of a woman who, through a daring journey of self-discovery, reclaims and embraces her feminine wisdom—and realizes that love is the answer to her lifelong spiritual quest.
Author: Alicia Rodriguez Publication date: September 10, 2024 -
“Wit and wisdom are the accompanying guides in Hollis Giammatteo's well-written and fully engaging memoir about aging and death. Richly spiritual yet solidly grounded, the author guides us through her quirky and humorous vignettes of self-discovery. As we travel together we find ourselves maturing along with the author into these perennial truths. This book is highly recommended for anyone seeking deeper understanding of our basic human condition.” —Rodney Smith, Buddhist teacher and author of Lessons from the Dying and Awakening: A Paradigm Shift of the Heart When Hollis Giammatteo sought a job working with the elderly, she did so with the intention of finding models of healthy aging. And she failed. In The Shelf Life of Ashes, Giammatteo chronicles her experiences with her wards, as well as the trip she embarks upon when her mother, who is convinced she is dying, entreats her to come “home.” Trips back, traumas triggered, identity in crisis, equanimity gained—this quasi-comic, concentrated journey engages the reader in the process of naming and facing the tasks involved in growing old, while asking a simple but weighted question: Can aging be done well? Author: Hollis Giammatteo Publication Date: May 10, 2016 -
This is the story of Rebecca Stirling’s childhood: a young girl raised by the sea, by men, and by literature. Circumnavigating the world on a thirty-foot sailboat, the Stirlings spend weeks at a time on the open ocean, surviving storms and visiting uncharted islands and villages. Ushered through her young life by a father who loves adventure, women, and extremes, Rebecca befriends “working girls” in the ports they visit (as they are often the only other females present in the bars that they end up in) and, on the boat, falls in love with her crewmate and learns to live like the men around her. But her driven nature and the role models in the books she reads make her determined to be a lady, continue her education, begin a career, live in a real home, and begin a family of her own. Once she finally gets away from the boat and her dad and sets to work upon making her own dream a reality, however, Rebecca begins to realize life is not what she thought it would be—and when her father dies in a tragic accident, she must return to her old life to sift through the mess and magic he has left behind. Author: Rebecca Stirling Pub Date: July 26, 2022 -
Success as a warrior is one of the few paths to advancement in early medieval Britain and Stefan, a young Saxon peasant, has fought his way up to the rank of captain, serving under an earl who in turn serves the king of Atheldom. Returning from a series of hard-won battles, he hopes for further promotion. Instead, his command is taken from him and given to a better-born rival, while he is sent off to serve as the sheriff of an impoverished shire in the furthest corner of the kingdom. Stefan arrives in Codswallow to learn that, between marauding brigands, corrupt local officials, and a hostile populace, no sheriff has stayed longer than a single season. Determined to defeat the outlaws and gain control over the shire, Stefan forms an alliance with the keeper of the shire’s inn, a Briton with a mysterious past, but is frustrated to find that even with that clandestine aid his efforts are stymied. When he is summoned to join the search for Princess Aleswina, the betrothed bride of the king of a neighboring realm, he jumps at what he sees as his chance to get an army command back—only to be drawn into the web of intrigue that lies behind the princess’s disappearance. Author: A.M. Linden Publication Date: May 14, 2024 -
In her second novel, Jill G. Hall, author of The Black Velvet Coat, brings readers another dual tale of two dynamic women from two very different eras searching for fulfillment. San Francisco artist Anne McFarland has been distracted by a cross-country romance with sexy Sergio and has veered from her creative path. While visiting him in New York, she buys a pair of rhinestone shoes in an antique shop that spark her imagination and lead her on a quest to learn more about the shoes’ original owner. Almost ninety years earlier, Clair Deveraux, a sheltered 1929 New York debutante, tries to reside within the bounds of polite society and please her father. But when she meets Winnie, a carefree Macy’s shop girl, Clair is lured into the steamy side of Manhattan—a place filled with speakeasies, flappers, and the beat of “that devil music”—and her true desires explode wide open. Secrets and lies heap up until her father loses everything in the stock market crash and Clair becomes entangled in the burlesque world in an effort to save her family and herself. Ultimately, both Anne and Clair—two very different women living in very different eras—attain true fulfillment . . . with some help from their silver shoes. Author: Jill G. Hall Publication Date: June 19, 2017 -
“Judy Gruen writes with down-to-earth warmth and humor about her personal spiritual journey. As she navigates family, friendship, love, loss, parenting, and community, you will root for her like you would cheer on a new best friend―someone who you just know somehow cares for and understands you, too.” —Lori Palatnik, founding director of the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project As Judy Gruen walked down the aisle and into her Orthodox Jewish future, her bouquet quivered in her shaky hand. Having grown up in the zeitgeist that proclaimed, “If it feels good, do it,” was she really ready to live the life of “rituals, rules, and restraints” that the Torah prescribed? The Skeptic and the Rabbi is a rare memoir with historical depth, spirituality, and fresh feminine humor. Gruen speaks with refreshing honesty about what it means to remain authentic to yourself while charting a new yet ancient spiritual path at odds with the surrounding culture, and writes touchingly about her family, including her two sets of grandparents, who influenced her in wildly opposite ways. As she navigates her new life with the man she loves and the faith she also loves—surviving several awkward moments, including when the rabbi calls to tell her that she accidentally served unkosher food to her Shabbat guests—Gruen brings the reader right along for the ride. Reading this wry, bold and compelling memoir, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and when you’re finished, you may also have a sudden craving for chicken matzo ball soup—kosher, of course. Author: Judy Gruen Publication Date: September 5, 2017 -
Thirty-five-year-old Rae Sullivan owns a thriving home décor shop in the San Francisco Bay area, near majestic Mt. Tamalpais (to locals, The Sleeping Lady). But when her business partner, Thalia, confides that she has a lover in France, Rae’s comfortable life start to unravel. Soon, an anonymous note-writer threatens to reveal the affair, and Thalia—who, unswayed by Rae’s warnings, insists on confronting the blackmailer—turns up dead in Golden Gate Park. The police, convinced the crime was a random mugging, are dismissive of Rae’s story of blackmail. Then a scandal from Rae’s past job comes to light, and the police start to eye her as a suspect. To clear her reputation and ensure justice for Thalia, Rae decides it’s up to her to unmask the murderer—despite her husband’s objections. Rae’s sleuthing leads her to France, where she enlists the help of Thalia’s handsome half brother. As they collaborate to catch the killer, sparks fly between them, and Rae has to contend with these newly aroused feelings—even as she strives to outmaneuver a cold-blooded murderer who wants to silence her. Author: Bonnie C. Monte Publication Date: June 12, 2018 -
A classical pianist, desperate to recapture her lost magic, must face the possibility of losing everything—and everyone—she treasures as she seizes an unexpected chance for redemption and acclaim. Susannah’s career has been on hold for nearly sixteen years, ever since her son was born. An adoptee who’s never forgiven her birth mother for not putting her first, Susannah was determined to put her own child first, no matter what. But now, offered a chance at the very thing she thought she’d renounced forever, Susannah’s longing is reawakened. There’s just one problem: somewhere along the way, she lost the power and the rapture. And she needs to get them back. Now. Her quest—what her husband calls her obsession—turns out to have a cost Susannah didn’t anticipate. One by one, her relationships begin to disintegrate, and even her hand betrays her as she learns she has a progressive hereditary disease that’s making her fingers cramp and curl—a curse waiting in her genes, legacy of a birth family that gave her little else. As her now-or-never concert draws near, Susannah is catapulted back to memories she hasn’t been able to purge—and forward, to the country-and-western sister she’s never known. Publication Date: April 6, 2021 Author: Barbara Linn Probst -
Now a USA TODAY BEST-SELLER, The Sound of Wings is a masterfully crafted tale of love, friendship, betrayal, and the risks we take in the pursuit of justice. Seventy-year-old Goldie Sparrows faces declining finances, questionable health, and a late husband who torments her from the beyond. She seeks refuge in her butterfly garden, which is filled with voices and memories from long ago. Jocelyn Anderson is a struggling writer who finds escape from her custody battle in the journal of her late mother-in-law. As she gets pulled through the pages of time, Jocelyn discovers her own husband has a hidden history she knows nothing about. Is this secret now Jocelyn’s to keep? Krystal Axelrod is living a life she never dreamed she could have. And yet the demons of a dysfunctional childhood and mean girl culture from her cheerleading days cast their shadow over her ability to feel whole, capable, and worthy. Does Goldie hold the key to Krystal’s path to freedom? Publication Date: May 4, 2021 Author: Suzanne Simonetti -
2015/2016 Sarton Story Circle Winner in Memoir 2017 Independent Press Awards Winner in Relationships 2017 Reader Views Awards Winner in Best from West Pacific As a bereavement care specialist, Dr. Virginia Simpson has devoted her career to counseling individuals and families grappling with illness, death, and grieving. But when her own mother, Ruth, is diagnosed in 1999 with a life-threatening condition, Virginia is caught off guard by the storm of emotions she experiences when she is forced to inhabit the role of caregiver. In a quest to provide her mother with the best care possible, Virginia arranges for Ruth to move in with her—and for the next six years, she cares for her, juggling her mother’s doctor’s appointments, meals, medication schedules, transportation needs, and often cranky moods with her own busy schedule. In The Space Between, Simpson takes readers along for the journey as she struggles to bridge the invisible, often prickly space that sits between so many mothers and daughters, and to give voice to the challenges, emotions, and thoughts many caregivers experience but are too ashamed to admit. Touching and vividly human, The Space Betweenreminds us all that without accepting the inevitability of death and looking ahead to it with clarity, life cannot be fully lived. Author: Virginia A. Simpson Publication Date: April 5, 2016 -
Are you highly sensitive? Empathetic? Empathic? An empath? The Space in Between captures the essence of what it means to live as an empath—and demonstrates how an ordinary person can open up to living an extraordinary life. Longtime spiritual counselor and seasoned guide Signe Myers Hovem takes readers on a journey through her life, demystifying empathic receptivity and revealing that it is not a “gift” or “power” but a feature of one’s sensory perception and intuition, an ability that allows us to live in extended communication with nature and humanity. She elucidates the difference between having empathic traits and sensitivities and actually having the skills and abilities of an empath. And she explores the five different landscapes and fields of consciousness that provided her with insight and movement as she traveled her own path of discovery—Field of Reflection, Field of Definition, Field of Sensing, Field of Awareness and Experience, and Field of Mystery—helping readers to dismantle long-held beliefs, illuminating the intentional path towards balance and belonging, and encouraging us all to rediscover what it means to live a truly authentic life. Written for persons who identify as highly sensitive, as empathic, or as empaths, The Space in Between is a road map to cultivating both self-awareness and connectivity with the greater world. Author : Signe Myers Hovem Publication Date: October 12, 2021 -
"Maureen reminds us to pay attention and follow the signs and signals of the Universe that lead us to the life of our dreams. To remember, even in the midst of the depths of despair, that endings are always beginnings, that we are writing our own stories in collaboration with the Divine Creator that lives within us, to never give up when the chips are down, because the Goddess will burn down our limited expectations and deliver something bigger, badder, and bolder than we could ever dream of ourselves." —Cathy Richardson, lead singer Jefferson Starship This story begins with an ending: the day Maureen Muldoon realized the devastating fact that her husband was having an affair—and leaving her for Miss Universe. Miss freaking Universe! How does this even happen? An intimate examination of Muldoon’s unraveling in the face of this betrayal, A Spiritual Vixen’s Guide to An Unapologetic Life takes a fresh, funny and fearless look at loss, denial, anger, grace, and liberation. Muldoon reveals the strength that comes from facing one’s fears, the humor that arrives in the darkest hours, and the miracles that happen when you least expect them in this grand tapestry of tales from the dark side. Ultimately, with wit and wisdom, she walks herself out of hell in a pair of sexy stilettos and manages to do what the all the king’s horse and all the king’s men could not: she puts herself back together. And in doing so, she comes to find more beauty and strength in the fractured places than anyone would have ever imagined. Author: Maureen Muldoon Publication Date: November 20, 2018 -
“Michael's memoir, The Sportcaster's Daughter, cozies up to you and breaks your heart. It's a long, deep look at family dysfunction in the suburbs and the devastation of an unrequited love for a family. You'll find echoes of Karr and Walls--read it.” —Stephanie Jay Evans, author of Faithful Unto Death Cindi Michael appears to live a charmed life: she’s happily married, has a successful career, and is a loving mom to two wonderful children. Yet she longs for a father who hasn’t spoken to her in twenty years, and even secretly watches him on TV when the longing becomes unbearable. When Cindi was eleven, her father fought for sole custody of her and her siblings, raising three children on his own despite being a bachelor and rock ’n’ roll DJ in New York. But with his rising fame as the host of the popular show Sports Machine, his 80-hour-a-week work schedule, and his second marriage, the close relationship Cindi shared with her father began to crack; she did everything to earn his love and attention, but for perfectionist George, it was never enough—and when she was eighteen and a freshman in college, in a burst of anger he told her never to come home again. As the years went on, Cindi struggled to steel her heart while still remaining hopeful that they would one day reconcile, just as her father did with his own dad, and transcend painful family patterns that span generations. Candid, moving, and ultimately hopeful, The Sportscaster’s Daughter is a family story of forgiveness, faith, and strength. Author: Cindi Michael Publication Date: August 23, 2016 -
The Stark Beauty of Last Things is set in Montauk, the far reaches of the famed Hamptons, an area under looming threat from a warming climate and overdevelopment. Now outsider Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old claims adjuster scarred by his orphan childhood, has inherited an unexpected legacy: the power to decide the fate of Montauk’s last parcel of undeveloped land. Everyone in town has a stake in the outcome, among them Julienne, an environmentalist and painter fighting to save the landscape that inspires her art; Theresa, a bartender whose trailer park home is jeopardized by coastal erosion; and Molly and Billy, who are struggling to hold onto their property against pressure to sell. When a forest fire breaks out, Clancy comes under suspicion for arson, complicating his efforts to navigate competing agendas for the best uses of the land and to find the healing and home he has always longed for. Told from multiple points of view, The Stark Beauty of Last Things explores our connection to nature—and what we stand to lose when that connection is severed. Author: Céline Keating Pub Date: October 24, 2023 -
Following the unexpected death of her alcoholic mother, and worn down by the unceasing taunts of “bastard” from her hostile and mentally unstable stepfather, plucky sixteen-year-old Terry Sue sets out to find her biological father—believing this man, whom she has never met, could change her life for the better. But before she can find him, she must identify him, and the unfamiliar names on her birth certificate perplex her. She comes to realize that tenacity must run in her family, for as determined as she is to find her father, he appears equally determined to remain hidden. In The Strongbox, Terry Sue offers readers a forthright and inspirational account of her challenges, as well as her against-all-odds successes. This decades-long personal journey reads like a detective novel, full of setbacks, false leads, jaw-dropping discoveries, and heartening triumphs. The narrative’s twists and turns also pull back the curtain on many of today’s inconvenient truths: child abandonment, multigenerational alcoholism, sexism, economic inequality, domestic violence, mental illness, and illiteracy. Undaunted by the many blind alleys she encounters, Terry Sue forges on in her hunt for the loving care and emotional support she never received from her parents, and she ultimately finds it—but it arrives in forms she never expected. Author: Terry Sue Harms Publication Date: October 27, 2020 -
Foreward Reviews Indie Fab Finalist in Historical Fiction USA Book Reviews Best Books of the Year Finalist Nominated by the A.L.A. for The Sophie Brody Award in Fiction Early in The Sweetness, an inquisitive young girl asks her grandmother why she is carrying nothing but a jug of sliced lemons and water when they are forced by the Germans to evacuate their ghetto. “Something sour to remind me of the sweetness,” she tells her, setting the theme for what they must remember to survive. Set during World War II, the novel is the parallel tale of two Jewish girls, cousins, living on separate continents, whose strikingly different lives ultimately converge. Brooklyn-born Mira Kane is the eighteen-year-old daughter of a well-to-do manufacturer of women’s knitwear in New York. Her cousin, eight-year-old Rosha Kaninsky, is the lone survivor of a family in Vilna exterminated by the invading Nazis. But unbeknownst to her American relatives, Rosha did not perish. Desperate to save his only child during a round-up of their ghetto, her father thrusts her into the arms of a Polish Catholic candle maker, who then hides her in a root cellar─putting her own family at risk. The headstrong and talented Mira, who dreams of escaping Brooklyn for a career as a fashion designer, finds her ambitions abruptly thwarted when, traumatized at the fate of his European relatives, her father becomes intent on safeguarding his loved ones from threats of a brutal world, and all the family must challenge his unuttered but injurious survivor guilt. Though the American Kanes endure the experience of the Jews who got out, they reveal how even in the safety of our lives, we are profoundly affected by the dire circumstances of others. Author: Sande Boritz Berger Publication Date: September 23, 2014 -
When her charismatic mentor, Ernesto, publicly chooses her as his professional partner, all indications are that Vera’s bodywork career is about to ignite. There is just one glitch—no, make that two. Vera—single mother of savvy, smart teenage India and her scruffy mutt, Francisco—is fucking Ernesto. As for her new promotion . . . Ernesto took it from his wife, Jean, in order to give it to her. As Vera becomes increasingly embroiled in Ernesto and Jean’s dark shenanigans, she quickly realizes that what seemed like an exciting opportunity is more like a deal with the Devil. Confronted with the consequences of her own yearning for male validation, it takes India, a glamorous and aristocratic client named Grace, and the mysterious goddess White Tara, Tibetan Goddess of compassion, to teach Vera the virtues of a sustainable path to self-authority. A fast-paced, humorous tale, The T Room is sure to prove irresistible to every adventurous woman familiar with that Saturday-morning-bookstore trajectory that starts with Self-Help, diverts into Romance, and lands heartfirst in Spirituality. Author: Victoria Lilienthal Pub Date: July 19, 2022 -
“I’ll kill the first person who comes through this door.” My father grips a baseball bat in his meaty hands. It is 1962 and Diane is three years old when her violent father moves their family—her, her pregnant mother, and her six siblings—to a remote farm in Upstate New York. There, she grabs the reader by the hand and takes them to the broken-down barns, barren fields, and rows of bunk beds in her rat-infested attic bedroom as she questions all that feels wrong about her new world. She watches her ever-pregnant mother grow emotionally colder with each new baby and wonders, Where is she when he swings his fists, his steel-toed boot, or a crowbar? Forced to perform adult manual labor in between the erratic beatings she and her siblings pound on one another to release their own aggressions, she asks herself, Is this what we’ve become? What I’ve become? Narrated in the ever-hopeful voice of a child, The Taste of Anger explores in raw, unflinching detail how years of isolation, oppression, and the threat of retaliation create an environment in which family secrets are guarded at all costs. Tension is palpable with the turning of each page, ensuring that the reader won’t let go of Diane’s hand until she gets an answer to her most urgent question of all: Who will rescue us? Author: Diane Vonglis Parnell Publication Date: June 25, 2024 -
Body art can tell personal stories.. When linked to a difficult or traumatic life, it can even restore one’s sense of well-being. As director of a community health center for twenty-seven years and as a nurse practitioner for over forty years, Donna Torrisi became fascinated with the stories behind her patients’ tattoos. When she began to ask her female patients about their markings, themes of trauma, pain, and loss emerged, and it became clear that the art indelibly marked on their bodies had played a part in their healing and redemption. The women featured in Tattoo Monologues demonstrate vulnerability and courage as they share both their personal tattoo narratives and photos of the images on their bodies. These women represent diverse cultures, ethnicities, and professional contexts, but they are united by their use of tattoos as a tool for processing traumatic life experiences. The images, stories, emotions, and journeys in this book collectively tell a compelling story. A story of skin and ink. A story of trauma and adversity. A story of courage and resilience. Author: Donna L. Torrisi, John R Giugliano PhD, Kenneth Kauffman Publication Date: October 19, 2021 -
When Linda I. Meyers was a little girl in the 1940s, she had a recurring dream: she was an astronaut, accidentally separated from the mothership, and doomed to float alone in the darkness of space until she died. Years later, when she became a psychologist, she realized that the dream harbored both the wish to detach from her mother and the fear that such a separation would mean death—a fear that was worsened by her mother’s constant threats that Linda and her father would be “the death of her,” and accusations that they “wouldn’t be happy until she was six feet under.” On December 17, 1970, Linda’s mother, for the fifth time that day, called her. Now twenty-eight and busy raising three little boys of her own, Linda began to feel like she was being dragged once again into the undertow of her mother’s depression, she did something she had never done before: she begged her to please let her go. The next day, her mother killed herself. Severed from the mothership, staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, and determined to give meaning to her mother’s death, Linda realized it was time to change her life—and she set out to do just that. Written with irony and humor as a series of stand-alone essays that build upon one another, The Tell is one woman’s touching, inspirational, and often funny story of Before and After—and, ultimately, of emancipation and purpose. Author: Linda I. Meyers Publication Date: June 19, 2018 -
After losing her college scholarship, Arden Firth—with the help of Justin Kirish, a law student with a mysterious past—becomes the reluctant leader of a movement to ban corporations. South Dakota Ballot Initiative 99 is Arden’s last hope to save her grandmother’s farm from foreclosure; but as the movement grows, shadowy forces conspire to quash it, and Arden sees “99” begin to spiral out of her control. A novel charting the intersection between idealism, extremism, and forgiveness, fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Margaret Atwood will love The Third Way—the story of a young woman struggling with her own demons while trying to articulate a vision that could change the world. Author: Aimee Hoben Publication Date: August 23, 2022 -
2015 International Book Awards Finalist in Self Help “If you want to take your life to the next level of thriving, fulfillment, inner peace, love, joy, and all the important things we want in life and still be more effective at work, read The Thriver's Edge. I promise you'll be glad you did.” —Jack Canfield, New York Times best-selling author of The Success Principles and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series Are you more afraid of success than failure? Do you undervalue your worth? Are you unaware of the limitations that keep you from flourishing in your life, work, and relationships? A major reason why people don’t thrive is because we’re focusing on the wrong things―on keeping up rather than waking up to what matters most. In The Thriver’s Edge, master executive coach and transformational leadership expert Dr. Donna Stoneham uses her powerful THRIVER model to help readers uncover the beliefs and fears holding them back from more fully expressing their gifts. Page by page, Dr. Stoneham explores the many ways to develop and integrate the seven keys—trust, humility, resilience, inner direction, vision, expansiveness, and responsibility—that lead to thriving, illustrating her points with personal stories and inspirational examples of various people who have flourished in the midst of adversity. At the end of each chapter, powerful reflection questions and practices encourage readers to put these seven keys into practice. Practical, practicable, and transformative, The Thriver’s Edge is a “coach in a book” that teaches readers to unleash their potential, fulfill their dreams and offer their best to the world. Author: Dr. Donna Stoneham Publication Date: May 5, 2015 -
2017 International Book Awards Finalist in Literary Fiction 2017 International Book Awards Finalist in Best New Fiction 2017 National Indie Excellence Book Awards Winner in Suspense Recently widowed and adapting to the challenges of single motherhood, Mercedes Bell is a paralegal at Crenshaw, Slayne & McDonough when she meets Jack Soutane, a dashing San Francisco lawyer who has recently begun leasing office space from the firm. It’s the 1980s. The crack epidemic, homelessness, and AIDS explode on the scene, Jack’s law practice booms—and the Crenshaw firm eagerly shares his bounty. Meanwhile, despite all the warning signs, Mercedes falls under Jack’s spell. When calamity strikes and Jack succumbs to his own dark surprise, Mercedes finds herself in a race to survive and to protect her daughter. In order to do so, she must make sense of wildly inconsistent information—and face the truths that emerge. Compelling and full of suspense, The Tolling of Mercedes Bell is a story about honesty in the face of deception, courage in the pursuit of happiness, and the unexpected places that quest can lead. Author: Jennifer Dwight Publication Date: May 3, 2016 -
In The Trail to Tincup: Love Stories at Life’s End, a psychologist reckons with the loss of four family members within a span of two years. Hocker works backward into the lives of these people and forward into the values, perspective, and qualities they bestowed before and after leaving. Following the trail to their common gravesite in Tincup, Colorado, she remembers and recounts decisive stories and delves into artifacts, journals, and her own dreams. In the process the grip of grief begins to lessen, death braids its way into life, and life informs the losses with abiding connections. Gradually, she begins to find herself capable of imagining life without her sister and best friend. Toward the end of the book Hocker’s own near-death experience illuminates how familiarity with her individual mortality helps her live with joy, confidence, and openness. Author: Joyce Lynnette Hocker Publication Date: May 15, 2018 -
A young, determined woman figures out life and love while staying true to herself in this whip-smart and genuinely witty debut. Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Spencer wants nothing more than to change everything about her life. After ten years of living in cities, Nathan Wild has just moved back home to Vermont and doesn’t want to change anything about his. Recently laid off from her depressing job in Boston and ready for a challenge, Hannah heads to Vermont for the summer to take care of her sister’s kids and do some serious soul searching. There, against the stunning landscape of the Green Mountains, she embarks on an ambitious project: building a treehouse for her niece and nephew. As she hammers away, she formulates a plan to jump-start her life with a new job out West. But will Nathan-next-door complicate her desire to change course? A witty, romantic, and inspiring story of a young woman taking control and making tough choices about love and work to build the life she wants, The Treehouse on Dog River Road will have you rooting for Hannah every step of the way. Author: Catherine Drake Pub Date: May 10th, 2022 -
Veronica thinks she’s happy. But with fight after fight, night after night, she knows that something isn’t right anymore. Then her husband busts her researching witchcraft―and her picturesque suburban life is turned upside down. As her marriage falls apart, she knows that for her own sake and for the sake of her small daughter, something has to change. The Trouble With Becoming A Witch is about what happens when a woman decides to stop living the life everyone has told her she is supposed to lead and starts living a life true to her desires. But seizing your own magic isn’t easy―and as Veronica’s marriage spirals downward, she’s forced to look deeply into who she wants to be-come. Is risking the security of life as she knows it worth becoming the witch―and woman―she knows she truly is? Author: Amy Edwards Publication Date: October 22, 2019 -
Fascinated by a young woman’s performance of “The Lost Child” in Guanajuato’s central plaza, painfully shy expatriate Callie Quinn asks the woman for a trumpet lesson — and ends up confronting her longing to know her own lost child. When Callie became pregnant in 1960s rural Missouri over thirty years ago, her outraged father, with her mother’s acquiescence, insisted that no one know—and Callie complied. She went away, and she gave up her baby. She did it to protect the baby’s father—a black teen—from the era’s racist violence. When Pamela, the trumpeter whose music flows from her heart, enters Callie’s life, Callie begins to dream of opening her own heart. But instead she remains silent, hiding her longing and risking giving up everyone she dares to love in order to safeguard her secret. Callie tells herself she does so to protect her daughter, but ultimately, in order to speak, she must confront the deepest reasons for her silence—the ones she’s been concealing even from herself. Author: Dianne Romain Publication Date: September 24, 2019 -
Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica—the GR20, Europe’s toughest long-distance footpath—to challenge what it means to grow old. Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The Twenty is a journey across a rugged island of stunning beauty little known outside Europe. From a chubby, non-athletic child, Bohr grew into a fit, athletic person with an “I’ll show them” attitude. But hiking The Twenty forces her to transform a lifetime of hard-won achievements into acceptance of her body and its limitations. The difficult journey across a remote island provides the crucible for exploring what it means to be an aging woman in a youth-focused culture, a physically fit person whose limitations are getting the best of her, and the partner of a husband who is growing old with her. More than a hiking tale, The Twenty is a moving story infused with humor about hiking, aging, accepting life’s finite journey, and the intimacy of a long-term marriage—set against the breathtaking beauty of Corsica’s rugged countryside. Pub Date: June 6, 2023 Author: Marianne C. Bohr -
For fans of Rachel Kushner and Gillian Flynn, a gritty contemporary debut novel that puts Katniss Everdeen into Euphoria. Casch Abbey is a waitress, single mom, and recreational boxer who falls in love twice: first with a veteran who secretly grows pot on a rich man’s land in Vermont’s Green Mountains, and then with a painkiller that eases her long-buried pain. After her foot is crushed under the wheel of a station wagon, Casch loses her waitressing gig and goes broke—and the meds for her foot are her only source of relief. But when the drug is recalled due to outcries of widespread addiction, Casch’s dependence imperils her already tenuous life, as cravings lead her into her small town’s simmering netherworld. Intimate and exhilarating, The Untended will upend your every assumption about who is a hero and who is worthy of love. Author: Mattea Kramer Publication Date: May 6, 2025 -
Llwddawanden is a hidden sanctuary where remnants of a once-powerful pagan cult carry on their ancient ritual practices, supported by a small but faithful following of servants, craftsmen, and laborers. Cut off from the outside world by both geography and conviction, the Druids of Llwddawanden continue to venerate the Great Mother Goddess and to view themselves as the first-born and favorite of Her mortal children. While the belief that the most important of all divine beings gave birth to their ancestors and that Her spirit inhabits the body of their highest priestess is a tenuous conclusion in view of their reduced lot in life, the Druids of Llwddawanden believe it and are, for the most part, committed to carrying on the traditions handed down to them by their forbears. Herrwn, the shrine’s chief priest and master bard, has the responsibility of overseeing the education of Caelym, the orphaned son of the cult’s previous chief priestess, as well as keeping the peace within the upper ranks of their order—two tasks that grow more difficult as the rivalry over which of the three highest priests will claim Caelym as his disciple grows, and as mounting conflicts between the current chief priestess and her only living daughter threaten to rend the fabric of a society that has endured for more than a millennium. Author: A.M. Linden Pub Date: June 28, 2022 -
Christina Vo has always struggled with the concept of “home.” The daughter of an emotionally distant father and a mother who died when she was just fourteen, she continues to grapple with that legacy of loss and her constant quest to, as a fortysomething, find a reconciliation with the shape her life has taken. In January 2021, feeling a call to be closer to the land, she decides to leave San Francisco—this time permanently, she hopes—and set off on a road trip with one of her closest friends, David. Christina and David begin their journey with an ayahuasca ceremony in Santa Barbara, then continue on to Ojai and ultimately Santa Fe—two magical lands that serve as deep portals for healing. Throughout their travels, Christina reflects on the recent and distant past: her relationships, her past experiences in Santa Barbara and Ojai (where she stayed for nine months around her fortieth birthday, two years ago) and her evolving understanding of her relationship with her parents. All the while, she ponders how the past has shaped her current identity as a single, childless, and motherless woman in her forties. Within the context of intimate friendship, she discovers how thin the veil between worlds can be, and gradually comes to realize that her mother’s spirit has accompanied her since day one of her journey. Deeply reflective and ultimately joyful, Vo’s memoir takes us on a journey between two worlds—the physical and the spiritual—that eventually brings her to a newfound understanding of how to deepen connections with others, as well as to a place of peace and home within herself. Pub Date: April 25, 2023 Author: Christina Vo -
2017 IPPY Awards: Best First Book/Fiction, Silver ". . . a masterpiece. . . . Incandescent, pitch-perfect, and destined for greatness." ―Library Journal, starred review The Velveteen Daughter reveals for the first time the true story of two remarkable women: Margery Williams Bianco, the author of one of the most beloved children’s books of all time—The Velveteen Rabbit—and her daughter Pamela, a world-renowned child prodigy artist whose fame at one time greatly eclipses her mother’s. But celebrity at such an early age exacts a great toll. Pamela’s dreams elude her as she struggles with severe depressions, an overbearing father, an obsessive love affair, and a spectacularly misguided marriage. Throughout, her life raft is her mother. The glamorous art world of Europe and New York in the early 20th century and a supporting cast of luminaries —Eugene O’Neill and his wife Agnes (Margery’s niece), Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Richard Hughes, author of A High Wind in Jamaica—provide a vivid backdrop to the Biancos’ story. From the opening pages, the novel will captivate readers with its multifaceted and illuminating observations on art, family, and the consequences of genius touched by madness. Author: Laurel Davis Huber Publication Date: July 27, 2017 -
Kathy is a virgin in her twenties trying to navigate the blurred lines between sex and love even as outside forces attempt to detach her from her sexual autonomy. At home, her adoptive mother’s eyes investigate her body for evidence of sexual promiscuity and, despite her protests, she is called a putana; a whore for her perceived sexual debauchery. At work, meanwhile, she is sexually harassed by male managers who slap her butt, tell her they want Greek for lunch (wink, wink), and fill out recommendation forms about her sexy qualities. A young girl on the cusp of womanhood, she encounters a version of her self as men experience her: hyper sexualized and objectified. As if this is not enough, Kathy enters the dating scene in search of love only to find herself fending off young men who want her just for sex. In each relationship, Kathy uncovers her own strength and conviction as she fights for the kind of sex she wants instead of the kind of empty sex boys seem to require of girls. The more demands they make, the more determined she is to hold out for love even if it means losing a guy or going home single and alone. Raw and empowering, The Virgin Chronicles sends the message that love is worth waiting for and sex is better when it’s paired with self-actualization. Author: Marina DelVecchio Pub Date: April 26, 2022 -
2017 Independent Reader Discovery Awards: Winner - Health/Medicine 2016 Reader's Favorite Award: Gold Medal Winner (Non-Fiction - Health - Medical) 2016 The Beverly Hills Book Awards: Winner - Health Are you confused about vitamins? Unsure of which ones you need for optimal health, and what levels are safe? You’re not alone. Many people’s health issues could be improved with vitamins—if they only knew how to use them. In this award-winning book, The Vitamin Solution, Drs. Romy Block and Arielle Levitan provide a common-sense, medically sound approach to using vitamins to improve your diet, exercise plan, and overall health. In clear, accessible, language, they explain which vitamins and supplements can be helpful, which can be harmful, and which are altogether unnecessary; explore health topics including migraine, hair loss, fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, hot flashes, and more; and address preventive care, providing insights on topics such as screening tests, weight loss, and preserving memory. Illuminating and accessible, The Vitamin Solution is an indispensable guide to safely incorporating vitamins and supplements into any lifestyle—one that will leave readers educated, informed, and armed with simple, everyday strategies for bettering their health. Author: Romy Block and Arielle Miller Levitan Publication Date: November 17, 2015 -
Accused of dressing as a boy to study in the prestigious galleries of eighteenth-century Italy, child prodigy Angelica Kauffman has set high goals for herself. She is determined to become a history painter, a career off-limits to women. To ensure her success, she has vowed never to marry. When a new patron invites her to London, Angelica befriends famous artists, paints portraits of Queen Charlotte and other royalty, and becomes a founding member of the Royal Academy. While still in London, an alluring but mysterious Swedish count makes her an offer that may be too tempting to resist. Then, upon returning to Italy, she meets Wolfgang von Goethe. Time and time again, Angelica faces the insurmountable obstacles and great personal sacrifices that come with being an independent woman. The vows she makes, big and small, are repeatedly challenged. Will she break free from the traditional male/female binary and the many oppressive social dictates of her time and learn to “paint with her soul” . . . or is a vow of a different sort necessary if she is to answer the deepest call of her heart? Author: Jude Berman Publication Date: October 15, 2024 -
2016 Nautilus Book Awards: Gold Winner, Women’s Category 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist, Women’s Issues 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist, Self-Help What if you knew that limiting beliefs—feeling that who you are is not enough, that your real value is based only on what you do, or that you’ll never make a real difference in the world—were holding your innate potential hostage? In The Way of The Mysterial Woman, women’s leadership development pioneers Suzanne Anderson and Dr. Susan Cannon use their five-step source code—The Mysterial Sequence—along with complementary tools and practices, to help readers liberate their natural genius. Using nine case studies of women drawn from fifteen years of running university certificate leadership programs, Anderson and Cannon show how Empowered Radiant Presence, Joyful True Authority, and Alchemical Authenticity can be cultivated to ignite a profound ‘internal operating system’ upgrade. They also reveal how the Mysterial Sequence predicts the essence of the six major cultural stages that have emerged throughout history, and, in a fascinating twist, make some grounded predictions for a postmodern future—one far friendlier to, and more influenced by, women. Inspiring, groundbreaking, and evocatively written, The Way of The Mysterial Woman offers women an elegant, comprehensive map to unlock their greatest potential. Author: Susan Cannon and Suzanne Anderson Publication Date: April 12, 2016 -
When David approaches his New Hampshire cabin one cool October night to find it engulfed in flames, he knows his girlfriend Hope set the fire. At least, he’s pretty sure he knows. David first decides to upend the creature comforts of his post-collegiate life and try roughing it for a year after he inherits two acres of land and a rustic cabin from his deceased grandfather. Life at the cabin proves to be more difficult than expected, however, and it all starts with the woman he loves—Hope—whose dark past is written in the twisting pink scars covering her body. Their relationship is challenged after his car slides through an intersection one dark night and, later, his realization that someone is out there, watching him through the trees. Over the course of five seasons, David struggles to maintain his relationship with Hope. Ultimately, in an attempt to understand the sacrifices she has had to make, he decides to rewrite their story. In doing so, he explores the lessons he’s left with--after everything he thought mattered is gutted or burned away—and the surprising bits of wisdom he finds in the ashes. Author: Christine Meade Publication: April 14, 2020 -
As Josie Belle Gore, daughter of a Louisiana train engineer and Texas seamstress, journeys with her itinerant family through the deserts of the boom-and-bust American West and revolutionary Mexico, she learns that in her life, two things are constant: water is precious, and her role in her family is to save it. When unforeseeable events force the separation of her family, Josie begins an odyssey that takes her from New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto to Bisbee, Tucson, Los Angeles, and finally post-WWI San Francisco—experiencing betrayal, pandemic, and survivor’s guilt, as well as the compassion and generosity of friends and strangers, along the way. Once she lands in San Francisco, like a river meeting the sea, Josie has nowhere else to run—and she realizes that she must make peace with the past and good on her promise to the family she loves. Inspired by the author’s family lore, The Ways of Water is a lyrical tale of loss, hope, and forgiveness set in the rugged beauty of the turn-of-the-century Southwest that, like Josie, is growing up in fits and starts. Author: Teresa H. Janssen Pub Date: November 7, 2023 -
There is a common belief that an ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness, as Diana did as a child and as an adult. Even as a young child, she endured and survived unspeakable traumas and adversities. As a national expert on child abuse and neglect, Diana English is uniquely qualified to write this deeply personal memoir. The Well of Sorrow follows Diana and her young siblings in their determination to survive the household their mother deemed “too violent” to stay in. Diana’s childhood is one of violence and trauma but also a story of healing and survival sustained by sibling connection, serendipity, random acts of kindness, grit, and a will to survive. Author: Diana English Publication Date: April 29, 2025 -
What is wonder? Wonder is curiosity and awe put together. We are born with our wonder intact. Why? What? How? Wow! Look at that rainbow! What makes a rainbow? Wonder is what we need to survive and thrive, not just as individuals but also as a civilization. It’s what’s lauded and honored by our society in young children. Until it isn’t. The Wild Why calls for an illuminating end to this endemic crisis of self, and a return to what we know at birth and need to reclaim. This is a book of teaching, and teaching-spirited stories, all centered on how to find our true self-expression and the wonder that spawns it. Author: Laura Munson Publication Date: April 8, 2025
