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Dr. Sarah Whitaker has always been an obedient overachiever, but she is burned out. Training to be a surgeon is stressful. So when her fiancé, David, offers a solution―take a break year at a hospital in Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro together―she jumps on board. When he backs out, she embarks on the adventure alone. Sarah quickly falls in love with Tanzania, a land of gentle people, exotic wildlife, and stunning natural beauty, from the sands of Zanzibar to the peaks of Kilimanjaro. She also develops great respect for new Tanzanian friends: strong African women who strive to serve an overwhelming need for health care. Shocked by the high rate of maternal mortality and the scourge of female genital mutilation in the country, Sarah begins to speak out against FGM and develops an experimental program to train tribal birth attendants in a remote mountain village. Conditions are primitive there, and life is fragile. The separation takes its toll on her relationship with David, and she fights against feelings for another man. As the months pass, one thing becomes clear: if Sarah survives this year, her life will never be the same again. Author: Gayle Woodson Publication Date: October 8, 2019 -
As far as Alix is concerned, she has no past—she only has today, and her plans for the future: raising a dynamic string of racehorses that will take the 1830s British racing world by storm by storm. Enter Lily, Alix’s estranged twin sister, spoiled, defiant and recently married for money and social status. As Alix is forced into a position that threatens to alter the course of her future, she begins to remember details about the mysterious events surrounding her father’s death when she was a child. When Alix seeks her uncle’s help, it sparks his dangerous return to France to reclaim the lives they left behind long ago. Author: Diane Shute Publication Date: September 16, 2014 -
Thirty-six-year-old Gabriella Stevens is living a quiet and content fairy tale as a devoted housewife to Simon—just as her traditional Filipino mother has always told her to do—when, after sixteen years of marriage and twenty years together, he tells he wants a divorce. Simon has been Gabby’s everything since they were kids; without him, her world implodes. But as she navigates her way through the wreckage of the marriage she thought would last forever, she becomes determined to make a life on her own. With New York City as her backdrop, Gabby—single for the first time since she was a teenager—goes back to school, gets her first real job, and faces unfamiliar reality with determination. Gabby’s life takes another turn when she falls in love with her mysterious but utterly beautiful creative writing professor, Colt. Being with Colt is exhilarating for her—something new, something exciting and beyond understanding. He is almost seven years her junior, and a literary genius. But he is also battling demons of his own: a tragic past that may have made him incapable of love. Is Gabby destined for another heartbreak—or will her connection with Colt be what unbreaks her? Author: Maan Gabriel Publication Date: October 5, 2021 -
After legendary Hollywood star Finn Forrester proposed to philosopher Ella Sinclair on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the couple captivated the press and public with their real-life fairy tale. Now they vow to prioritize their romance and live an adventure of their own making. Ella moves into Finn’s Beverly Hills mansion and must adjust to his world. Finn, secretly afraid of losing Ella, is determined to make everything perfect for his betrothed. Meanwhile, Ella wants nothing more than to retain her own identity as they build their new life together. All the while, she is writing a philosophical treatise on love, exploring the question: when we love so deeply, where do we end and where does the other begin? In this highly anticipated follow-up to The Location Shoot, will Ella and Finn finally live the life they’ve dreamed of? See how their epic romance unfolds, after the red carpet.
Author: Patricia Leavy Publication date: September 3, 2024 -
After nearly fifty years as settled constitutional law, the federally protected right to an abortion in America is now a thing of the past. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has left Americans without a guaranteed right to access abortion—and the cost of that upheaval will be most painfully felt by individuals who already struggle with access to resources: the poor, black and brown communities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ population.
Pulling together the experiences, expertise ,and perspective of more than 30 writers, thinkers, and activists, Aftermath: Life in Post-Roe America offers a searing look at the critical role Roe has played in improving women’s and pregnant people’s lives, what is at stake as it is overturned, what a future without Roe may look like, and what options exist for us to secure reproductive freedom in the future.
With contributions from Jessica Valenti, Soraya Chemaly, Michele Goodwin, Alyssa Milano, Ruby Sales, Heather Cox Richardson, Robin Marty, and others, this anthology is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of reproductive rights in America—and beyond.
Publication Date: October 12, 2022 Author: Elizabeth G. Hines -
If sexual shenanigans disqualified candidates for Congress, the U.S. would have no government. But what if the candidate was a pro-choice Republican supported by feminist groups—and a college rapist whose secret could be exposed by a leading women’s rights advocate? Again and Again tells the story of Deborah Borenstein—as an established women’s rights leader in 2010 Washington, DC, and as a college student, thirty years earlier, whose roommate is raped by a fellow student. The perpetrator is now a Senate candidate who has the backing of major feminist groups . . . which puts Deborah in a difficult position. Torn between her past and present, as the race goes on, Deborah finds herself tested as a wife, a mother, a feminist, and a friend. Author: Ellen Bravo Publication Date: August 11, 2015 -
Marta and Kevin discover each other early in their lives, coming of age in the ’70s, only to be separated just when they are on the cusp of realizing the power of their young love. When Kevin’s family moves away, Marta grapples with this loss, as well as their dashed dreams. After high school, she journeys from her small farm in New Jersey a place where she was always out of step with those around her and on to college and a career. She works hard to remake herself and live a life with more sparkle and spontaneity something she only ever experienced effortlessly with Kevin. But even as she focuses on achieving the goals she believes will ensure her safety and happiness, she remains haunted by what might have been and wonders at what might have been if only she had been a brave enough to seize it.
A chance encounter with a channeler who can transport people back to a juncture in their lives to reveal their road not taken has Marta jumping at the opportunity. But will she be brave enough to channel back to Kevin? Discover what happens as Marta learns that sometimes one must lose something important to truly embrace who they are meant to be.
Author: Andrea Ezerins Publication Date: September 3, 2024 -
Alfa Foxtrot 586, a P-3 Orion turboprop, was conducting a sensitive Cold War mission off the Kamchatka Peninsula on October 26, 1978, when a propeller malfunction turned into four engine fires and the pilot—Loreen Grigsby’s husband, Jerry—was forced to ditch into remote, mountainous seas churned by a frigid North Pacific storm. The aircraft sank within ninety seconds, taking one of the three rafts with it—which left thirteen men to huddle together in the remaining two rafts, the smaller of which soon began to leak. Told from Loreen’s perspective as a navy wife at home as well as through the eyes of the men who survived the disaster, All Eternity Lies Before Me weaves a gripping tale of struggle, uncertainty, grief, and heroism. It shares Loreen’s terror as she receives notifications about her husband’s crew’s desperate battle against wind, seas, and biting cold. It details the ad hoc search and rescue mission, a valiant effort to rescue the men before time runs out. And, tragically, it tells how a young Navy wife becomes a widow and single mom. But Jerry’s death is not the end of Loreen’s story—and in the years following his loss, she discovers resilience, strength, and even new love with one of the accident survivors, Matt Gibbons. As she begins her journey toward a brighter future, she’s inspired by the camaraderie and brotherhood forged between the survivors and their rescuers—and ultimately, the long-term lessons learned by all involved become part of the lasting legacy of this event. Author: Loreen Gibbons Publication Date: January 7, 2025 -
Emil, a Jewish man in 1930s Germany, loves Deta, a Lutheran, but Nazi racial purity laws forbid their marriage. Desperate to find a place where their love can survive, they must separate to get away. Deta leaves for England, but Emil has to overcome red tape, resistance from his aging parents, and his own ambivalence before he can embark for America. With only telegrams and letters from Deta to sustain him, he does all he can to bring her and his family to America. But the clock is ticking as the war breaks out and the Nazis tighten their stranglehold. From the heartbreaking news of November 10, 1938 (Kristallnacht) to the horrific revelations after the German surrender in 1945, Emil’s story runs the course of the war. Can he make his way in this new world? Will he be reunited with his beloved Deta? And will he ever see his family again? Told by Emil’s daughter with the help of letters and historical documents, All for You is a true story about love overcoming despair and the impact the Holocaust continues to have on the rising generation. Author: Dena Rueb Romero Publication Date: May 7, 2024 -
As a young girl growing up in the Midwest, Sunny is taught to think differently. Her parents are the founders of a small Christian school that practiced Socratic Discourse and encouraged its students to question everything—a lesson Sunny embraces wholeheartedly. As Sunny grows older, she begins to build the life she’s always wanted: she marries, buys a house, enrolls in graduate school, and soon has a baby on the way. But when she experiences the psychological phenomena of orgasmic labor, it triggers a chain of bizarre events, and she gradually descends into a world of delusion and paranoia. As Sunny struggles to separate the real from the unreal, she relies upon friends and family to ground her in truth and love—and keep her from going over the edge into madness. Author: Sunny Mera Publication Date: November 10, 2015 -
The incidence of cancer continues to rise—but despite how many lives have been touched by cancer, hearing of a loved one or friend’s diagnosis still invokes such fear that it is hard to know what to do next. In All of Us Warriors, Rebecca Whitehead Munn paints a realistic picture of the impact cancer has on an individual’s life, and she attempts to demystify the experience by sharing heartfelt stories from twenty survivors and their loved ones, men and women, with seven types of cancers and all stages of the disease, as well as advice regarding how to approach someone you love living with cancer and tips and tricks for helping others feel joy in the midst of pain. This inspirational book provides a positive outlook of strength and perseverance, reinforcing the idea that the reader is stronger than cancer and not alone, and offering real strategies that cannot be found in online medical sites. Like a conversation with a new best friend (or twenty of them), All of Us Warriors is full of understanding, acceptance, and practical advice gained from personal experience. Author: Rebecca Whitehead Munn Publication Date: September 1, 2020 -
“With grace and keen wit Miriam Weinstein provides a survivor’s manual for all who face loss. Colleagues, friends, and loved ones die frequently in her account. This book is a love letter to them, as well as a guide to those left behind. Weinstein teaches us how to mourn as well as how to embrace the gift of life that is still ours.” —Daniel Jacobs, Director, Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies When Miriam Weinstein’s good friend died unexpectedly—and other losses followed close behind—it led to a year of introspection and black outfits. All Set For Black, Thanks features the practical concerns that go along with funerals, from how to write and deliver a eulogy (Including endearing, down-to-earth details like “she always burned the garlic bread” or “he never could figure out the remote” bring the subject to closer to life) to larger questions, like why we bring casseroles to the grieving—and what might be a better response. With wit and deep feeling, Weinstein confronts the rough bargain of human existence: no one gets out of here alive, but we live as if the lives of our loved ones have no end. In stories and portraits, she shows how we can both let our dead go and keep them with us as we go on living. Author: Miriam Weinstein Publication Date: September 13, 2016 -
“A striking, sensitive record of voyages and acceptance.” —Kirkus Reviews A sweeping exploration of beginnings and endings, loss and letting go. All the Ghosts Dance Free takes readers on a journey through author Terry Cameron Baldwin’s life: from her childhood in a privileged but unstable enclave on the coast of Southern California, through her adolescence in Palm Springs and coming of age in San Francisco at the height of the sixties psychedelic revolution, and ultimately to her life as an ex-pat in Mexico. Struggling to deal with the death of her parents, as well as questions about her own mortality. Baldwin embarks upon a pilgrimage to a small town in Morocco—where, she finds, all of the ghosts dance free. Author: Terry Cameron Baldwin Publication Date: October 13, 2015 -
“Love blooms just as war tears two people apart... Kricorian’s rendering makes good on its promise of drama [and]... her heroine’s resilience is exciting.” —The New York Times “Moving... With a bittersweet love story, examples of everyday heroism, and a community refusing to give in to tyrants, Kricorian’s work sheds even more light on the German occupation of France.” —Library Journal “Kricorian’s treatment of family dynamics and love under extreme circumstances creates an emotional read.” —Publishers Weekly On the day the Nazis march down the rue de Belleville, fourteen-year-old Maral Pegorian is living with her family in Paris, where, like many other Armenians who survived the genocide in their homeland, her parents have come to build a new life. The adults immediately set about gathering food and provisions, bracing for the deprivation they know all too well—but Maral, her brother Missak, and their close friends Zaven and Barkev are spurred to action of another sort, finding secret and not-so-secret ways to resist their oppressors. When Zaven and Barkev flee to avoid conscription, Maral finally realizes that the Occupation is not simply a temporary outrage to be endured—and when only one brother returns after many fraught months, the contours of Maral’s world are changed irrevocably. Author: Nancy Kricorian Publication Date: October 7, 2014 -
Five college friends have arrived at forty in very different circumstances, but with at least one thing in common: they are among the most privileged in society. Elizabeth and Sara are lawyers, Martha is a doctor, Carmen is a wealthy and well-educated homemaker, and Heather, the most successful, is a famous tech executive—and after more than two decades of friendship, they know one another better than anyone. Then Heather writes a women’s advice book detailing the key life “mistakes” of her four friends—opting out, ramping off, giving half effort, and forgetting your fertility—that becomes wildly popular, and Elizabeth, Sara, Martha, and Carmen all feel the sting of Heather’s cruel words. Despite their rarified status, these women face everyday obstacles, including work problems, parenting challenges, secondary infertility, racism, sexism, financial stress, and marital woes—and as they weather their fortieth year, each one can’t help but wonder if their life might have been different if they had followed Heather’s advice. But as these friends are continually reminded, life is complex, messy, disappointing, and joyful, often all at once—and no one can plan her way out of that reality. In the end, all five women must embrace the idea that their lives are shaped not just by their choices but also by how they handle the obstacles life inevitably throws at us all. Author: Laura Jamison Publication Date: August 4, 2020 -
In September 2007, Christine Ristaino was attacked in a store parking lot while her three- and five-year-old children watched. In All the Silent Spaces, Ristaino shares what it felt like to be an ordinary person confronted with an extraordinary event—a woman trying to deal with acute trauma even as she went on with her everyday life, working at a university and parenting two children with her husband. She not only narrates how this event changed her but also tells how looking at the event through both the reactions of her community and her own sensibility allowed her to finally face two other violent episodes she had previously experienced. As new memories surfaced after the attack, it took everything in Ristaino’s power to not let catastrophe unravel the precarious threads holding everything together. Moving between the greater issues associated with violence and the personal voyage of overcoming grief, All the Silent Spaces is about letting go of what you think you know in order to rebuild. Author: Christine Ristaino Publication Date: July 9, 2019 -
All the Sweeter tells the stories of families who have adopted one or more children from the US foster care system. Each of the twelve families interviewed has a dedicated chapter in which at least one representative tells their family’s adoption story. Woven through these stories are topical chapters that explore the common challenges these families face, including the complications that accompany transracial adoptions, helping children understand adoption, relationships with birth parents, and raising a traumatized child. Each year, over 50,000 children are adopted from the US Foster Care System. Informative and diverse in scope, All the Sweeter provides a resource to families considering adoption, families in the process of adoption, and families who have already adopted children from foster care—with the ultimate goal of facilitating a better life for the children they bring into their lives. Publication Date: May 7, 2019 Author: Jean Minton -
Despite having everything she could ask for, Janet Wilson couldn’t shake a sense of emptiness in her life—or her desire to return to the continent of her birth. After much back-and-forth, she and her husband reached an agreement: they would embark on a daring adventure, driving 25,000 miles across Africa. What they couldn’t anticipate then was how this trip would challenge almost every belief, opinion, and value they held. Over the course of their journey, Janet and her husband collided with the world and each other. There were tears and laughter. They shared thrilling highlights and challenges that forced them to negotiate and cooperate with one another. And after a heartbreaking tragedy and Janet’s arrest, they made critical decisions that transformed their relationship, bringing them to a level of trust and commitment they had never before experienced. Ultimately, this led them to a deeper understanding about their place in the world—and each other’s lives. A suspenseful and emotional true account that explores themes of love, commitment, resilience, and the power of forgiveness in the face of adversity, All You’ll See is Sky is a memoir of a woman’s transformation from brokenness to wholeness and a couple's transformation from breakdown to breakthrough. Author: Janet Wilson Publication Date: April 16th, 2024 -
In present-day Southern California, a diverse group of characters seeks the fulfillment and connection this sunny state has always promised. They come with hopes for a better lifestyle, for a change of perspective, or for the dry, mild West Coast weather. A couple moves to Palm Desert from New York for the arid, warm climate a doctor prescribes and they manage both illness and homesickness. The woman makes an unlikely friend in a young albino boy who teaches her a harsh lesson about the margin for cruelty that resides in us all. A young Mexican woman migrates to California and marries an American man—only to be deserted. A young man is disqualified from the Naval Aeronautical program and returns to his sister’s home, where he struggles with his identity and sexuality. After years of estrangement, a teenage girl travels to California from New York to spend the summer with her father. Between each of the thirteen stories in this collection are interspersed several “snapshot” stories—poetic pauses—that blend a set of images into an artistic visual unit, much like a brief cinematic experience. Every character in this collection is distinct from the next, but all of their stories unfold under the glare of the same Southern California sun—a western desert light so clear and unfiltered that it reveals everything. Author: Linda Feyder Publication Date: September 28, 2021 -
Liz Millanova has stage four cancer, a grown daughter who doesn’t speak to her, and obsessive memories of a relationship that tore apart her marriage. She thinks of herself as someone who’d rather die than sit through a support group, but now that she actually is going to die, she figures she might as well give it a go. Mercy’s Thriving Survivors is a hospital-sponsored group held in a presumably less depressing location: a Nordstrom’s employee training lounge. There, Liz hits it off with two other patients, and the three unlikely friends decide to ditch the group and meet on their own. They call themselves the Oakland Mets, and their goal is to enjoy life while they can. Together, Dave, a gay Vietnam vet, Rhonda, a devout, nice woman who’s hiding a family secret and finds peace in a gospel choir, and snarky Liz plan outings to hear jazz, enjoy nature, and tour Alcatraz. In the odd intimacy they form, Liz learns to open up and get close, acknowledge and let go of the dysfunction in her marriage, and repair her relationship with her daughter. They joined forces to have a good time—but what they wind up doing is helping one another come to grips with terminal cancer and resolve the unfinished business in their lives. Author: Ann Bancroft Publication Date: May 28, 2024 -
Raw and wickedly funny, this debut memoir details one woman’s recovery from her emotional eating disorder, while navigating divorce, discrimination, motherhood, and the madness that is Tinder dating. A riot of dark humor beginning with her dysfunctional childhood in outback Australia, Jane McGuinness details her recovery from an emotional eating disorder with dry wit, discovering that hers is something of a curious social experiment. Exploring themes of patriarchy and discrimination against the overweight, Jane walks away from her long-term marriage, returns to grad school while raising her three children in a foreign country, and transforms her health. Hiking the Camino de Santiago through Spain and adventures in Greece are regaled with self-deprecating fervor, while horrifying post-divorce Tinder dating will leave the reader amused and aghast in equal measure. This debut memoir is truly a transformative journey in every sense, as Jane discovered that it was never food that she hungered for after all. Author: Jane McGuinness Publication Date: October 14, 2025 -
For fans of Natasha Trethewey and Maggie Smith, a mother-daughter story of multigenerational trauma, grief, discovery, and love, with the backdrops of an historic American tragedy and an iconic family business, written in lyrical, fragmented form. In 1960, six years before Marty Ross-Dolen was born, her maternal grandparents were killed in an airline disaster involving the collision of two commercial jets over New York City. They were traveling from Columbus, Ohio, to seek placement for their family’s iconic magazine, Highlights for Children, on the newsstands. Their daughter—Marty’s mother—was fourteen years old at the time. This genre-bending memoir tells Marty’s story of being raised by a mother in protracted mourning. The fragmented narrative explores Marty’s journey, from personal ways of coping as a child to the evolution of a mother-daughter relationship that matured over time. It is also about her longing to know her maternal grandmother, and through saved letters and photographs from her grandmother’s life, she enters a fantastical relationship that serves to replace one that otherwise could never exist. Ultimately it is about the discovery of truth, in unearthing the story of her grandparents’ deaths and her mother’s acute loss, in freeing her grandmother’s image from the weight of a tragic death, and in Marty’s own delivery from darkness. Beyond that, it is about universal life choices, the ways human beings unknowingly determine their destinies, and the healing powers of truth and love. Author: Marty Ross-Dolen Publication Date: May 6, 2025 -
Growing up in middle-class India, Rajika Bhandari had seen generations of her family look westwards, where an American education meant status and success. But she resists the lure of America because those who left never returned, flies trapped in honey in a land of opportunity. Yet, Bhandari soon heads to a U.S. university to study, following her heart and a relationship. When Bhandari’s relationship ends and she fails in her attempt to move back to India as a foreign-educated woman, she finds herself in a job where the personal suddenly becomes political and professional: she is immersed in the lives of international students who come to America from over 200 countries, the universities that lure them, and the tangled web of immigration that a student must navigate. Bhandari’s unflinching and insightful narrative explores the global appeal of a Made in America education that is a bridge to America’s successful past and to its future, bringing millions of the world’s brightest students to the U.S., from Barack Obama’s father and Kamala Harris’s parents to Nobel Prize winners and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. A deeply personal story of one young woman’s search for her place and voice, America Calling is also an incisive analysis of America’s relationship with the rest of the world through the most powerful tool of diplomacy: education. At a time of growing nationalism, a turning inwards, and fear of the “other,” America Calling is ultimately a call to action to keep America’s borders and minds open. Author: Rajika Bhandari Publication Date: September 14, 2021 -
A week after Easter 1973, Lily Vida Wallace is dropped like an immigrant into Greenville, South Carolina, following the lynching of Black church sexton Sam Jefferson. Returning home to Manhattan, Lily toddles further outside her familiar world while continuing theological studies in anticipation of the overturn of a centuries-old, males-only priesthood and struggling anew with her erratic engagement. When her fiancé flees following discovery of professional impropriety and Atlanta attorney Rodney Davis lands in her path, love growing between the two accelerates Lily's understanding as it challenges her naïveté about race. Some two decades later, high-profile interracial nuptials in Oakland, California, become the occasion for a reunion between the now Reverend Vida and Lucius Clay, the fiery journalist she met in South Carolina. Within weeks of their re-meeting, Lucius is dispatched to cover Black church burnings, beginning with Lily’s hometown in Texas. Writer Hilton Als recently commented: “We need to wake up to the fact that America is not one story. It is many, many, many stories.”American Blues offers no neat resolution. Instead, its timely story invites, as it tangles with, readers’ own assumptions and complex experience of race and gender in America. Author: Polly Hamilton Hilsabeck Pub Date: April 12, 2022 -
“A nuanced portrait of what it means to be a family, with a bit of melodrama but plenty of heart.” ―Kirkus Reviews “A poignant literary pageant of custody battles, alchoholism, religious restraint and family turmoil, this tremendously moving read will leave you in bouts of feels all summer long.” ―Redbook “An emotionally gripping read that explores the deepest of cracks in a dysfunctional family, this poignant book belongs in the hands of every parent this summer.” ―Working Mother Richard and Michael, both three years sober, have just decided to celebrate their love by moving in together when Richard—driven by the desire to do the right thing for his ten-year-old-daughter, Brady, whom he has never met—impulsively calls his former father-in-law to connect with her. With that phone call, he jeopardizes the one good thing he has—his relationship with Michael—and also threatens the world of the fundamentalist Christian grandparents who love Brady and see her as payback from God for the alcohol-related death of her mother. Unable to reach an agreement, the two parties hire lawyers who have agendas far beyond the interests of the families—and Brady is initially trusted into Richard and Michael’s care. But when the judge learns that the young girl was present when a questionable act took place while in their custody, she returns Brady to her grandparents. Ultimately, it’s not until further tragedy strikes that both families are finally motivated to actually act in the “best interests of the child.” Author:Catherine Marshall-Smith Publication Date: June 13, 2017 -
2013 IndieReader Discovery Awards: Winner, Best Travel Writing When an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of the Cotswolds, they’re hoping for an escape from their London lives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against a backdrop of village fêtes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed. Part memoir, part travelogue—and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswold walks–Americashire is a candid, compelling tale of marriage, illness, and difficult life decisions. Author: Jennifer Richardson Publication Date: March 4, 2013 -
Set in the early 1900s, Among the Beautiful Beasts is the untold story of the early life of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, known in her later years as a tireless activist for the Florida Everglades. After a childhood spent in New England estranged from her father and bewildered by her mother, who fades into madness, Marjory marries a swindler thirty years her senior. The marriage nearly destroys her, but Marjory finds the courage to move to Miami, where she is reunited with her father and begins a new life as a journalist in that bustling, booming frontier town. Buoyed by a growing sense of independence and an affair with a rival journalist, Marjory embraces a life lived at the intersection of the untamed Everglades and the rapacious urban development that threatens it. When the demands of a man once again begin to swallow Marjory’s own desires and dreams, she sees herself in the vulnerable, inimitable Everglades and is forced to decide whether to commit to a life of subjugation or leap into the wild unknown. Told in chapters that alternate between an urgent midnight chase through the wetlands and extensive narrative flashbacks, Among the Beautiful Beasts is at once suspenseful and deeply reflective. Publication Date: June 1, 2021 Author: Lori McMullen -
In 1999, Juliet Cutler leaves the United States to teach at the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa. Captivated by the stories of young Maasai women determined to get an education in the midst of a culture caught between the past and the future, she seeks to empower and support her students as they struggle to define their own fates. Cutler soon learns that behind their shy smiles and timid facades, her Maasai students are much stronger than they appear. For them, adolescence requires navigating a risky world of forced marriages, rape, and genital cutting, all in the midst of a culture grappling with globalization. In the face of these challenges, these young women believe education offers hope, and so, against all odds, they set off alone―traveling hundreds of miles and even forsaking their families―simply to go to school. Twenty years of involvement with this school and its students reveal to Cutler the important impacts of education across time, as well as the challenges inherent in tackling issues of human rights and extreme poverty across vastly different cultures. Working alongside local educators, Cutler emerges transformed by the community she finds in Tanzania and by witnessing the life-changing impact of education on her students. Proceeds from the sale of this book support education for at-risk Maasai girls. Author: Juliet Cutler Publication Date: September 10, 2019 -
Though twenty-one-year-old Karla Most manages to bag Saxton Perry, a virtual prince thirty years her senior, she has no idea how to live happily ever after, with or without him. Karla cannot get past her anger at having been deceived by her single, now-dead mother, Mutti, who—supposedly a “Holocaust victim,” complete with tattooed numbers—was in fact a German Christian who got into the United States by falsifying her background. So what does that make her daughter? Before she can answer that question, Karla must track down the actual story of her own existence. Author: Ann Z. Leventhal Publication Date: August 22, 2017 -
2015/2016 Sarton Women’s Book Award Shortlist in Historical Fiction 2017 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Historical “In her well-researched novel, Fillmore vividly portrays Amsterdam, Rachel, and her family… An intense tale that gives the tragedies of history a Dutch dwelling and a family name.” ―Kirkus Reviews Rachel Klein hopes she can ignore the Nazis when they roll into Amsterdam in May 1940. She’s falling in love, and her city has been the safest place in the world for Jewish people since the Spanish Inquisition. But when Rachel’s Gentile boyfriend is forced to disappear rather than face arrest, she realizes that everything is changing, and so must she—so, although she is often tired and scared, she delivers papers for the underground under the Nazis’ noses. But after eighteen months of ever increasing danger, she pushes her parents to go into hiding with her. The dank basement where they take refuge seems like the last place where Rachel would meet a new man—but she does. An Address in Amsterdam shows that, even in the most hopeless situation, an ordinary young woman can make the choice to act with courage—and even love. Author: Mary Dingee Fillmore Publication Date: October 11, 2016 -
Powerful Circe, daughter of the sun-god Helios, is sad to see Odysseus, King of Ithaca, depart from her island, Aeaea—but her heartbreak is eased after dolphins take her to Delos, where she explores a new love relationship. Circe has a strained relationship with her mother, Perse, but when she finally listens to Perse’s encouragement to seek out the amphibian god Glaucus, she’s glad she’s heeded her advice. Together, the two embark on underwater adventures, and Circe shares with Glaucus her knowledge about the healing and harmful power of herbs. While in Delos, she also meets and befriends Skylla, a local beauty with whom Glaucus is enthralled, although the girl is indifferent. Circe eventually returns to Aeaea, but one day she learns, upon consulting her scrying mirror, that there is trouble in Delos that requires her immediate action. In the turbulent world of gods mingling with mortals, our heroine shifts shapes, flies, and uses her superpowers to reverse the course of evil. In a tangle of love, hate, vengeance, and the final righting of wrongs, a cast of irresistible characters weaves an adventure laced with beauty and terror in An Unexpected Ally—a newly woven set of tales that brings to life ancient Greek myths and revives issues familiar to contemporary readers. Author: Sophia Kouidou-Giles Publication Date: October 3, 2023 -
Faced with the possibility of losing their three-day-old second child when she contracts meningitis, Norman and Rita Angelini experience all five stages of grief. Terrified for their daughter, they bargain, plead, and beg for a miracle—and they get one, but it isn’t what they expected: though KiKi survives, her illness results in severe brain damage, and she is ultimately diagnosed with cerebral palsy. In the aftermath of this diagnosis, denial and anger take over. Rita fights to keep her vision of who she thinks KiKi could be, and she channels her energy into searching for a procedure—some therapy—that would change KiKi’s outcome. In pursuit of a cure, the Angelini family treks across the United States and abroad—but somewhere along the way, acceptance of and joy in who KiKi is prevails over the idea of “fixing” her. A memoir of unending hope, faith lost and rediscovered, and unconditional love, An Unexpected Normal offers other parents of children born with a disability hope that joy is always within reach—even in the most challenging of circumstances. Author: Rita T. Angelini Publication Date: March 4, 2025 -
For fans of Kate Quinn’s The Rose Code and Jacqueline Winspear’s The Consequences of Fear comes a gripping novel, set in post–WWII San Francisco, about a young female newspaper publisher and a story that could change the course of her city’s future. In the jubilant aftermath of Japan’s surrender in World War II, San Francisco erupts in celebration. But for Sandy Zimmer, the thirty-two-year-old widow publisher of the Prospect newspaper, the revelry masks a darker truth. In the chaos of the VJ Day Peace Riot, eleven deaths and six rapes take place. Driven by journalistic integrity and battling her own instincts to maintain peace, Sandy directs her paper to investigate the riot. Her quest for truth pits her against formidable adversaries: her controlling civic-leader father-in-law, the newspaper’s resistant board, and authorities desperate to bury the scandal as they vie to attract the United Nations Headquarters to San Francisco. Based on little-known historical events, An Unlikely Prospect follows Sandy’s fight to find her voice in the male-dominated world of 1945 journalism. As she navigates power dynamics, gender roles, and the steep price of printing the truth, Sandy must confront her own transformation from a people-pleasing widow into a determined publisher willing to challenge the status quo.Author: Shelley Blanton-Stroud Publication Date: August 19, 2025 -
When Lidia, a blocked Latinx artist in her sixties, goes on a group tour of Namyan, a fictional Southeast Asian country reopened to the world after a long dictatorship, she gets much more than the vacation she thinks she’s signed on for. Against a backdrop of pagodas and enigmatic customs, she and the disparate crew of eighteen Americans on the tour encounter one adventure after other experiences that challenge their assumptions about their host country’s placid surface of beautiful pagodas and wandering Buddhist monks. Along the way, Lidia finds companionship and sexual pleasure with Haynes, a Black man seeking adventure even danger in Namyan. On a nighttime excursion among mysterious ancient buildings, they watch the nighttime sky. Lidia remarks that the stars look upside down–a metaphor for Namyan as a foreign place and for her. She enjoys being with Haynes but is conflicted. The final chapter reveals a secret, the source of her conflict, and her steps towards new freedom. An Upside-Down Sky is cast of characters, including their Namyanese guide, mirrors America: straight, gay, gender-fluid, black, brown, white, progressive, conservative, artistic, repressed, old, young. Some of them accept Nanyam’s charming façade at face value, while others seek to understand the country’s brutal repression by the military and ongoing ethnic conflicts. And most, resistant as they might be to change, are transformed by their time there. Author: Linda Dahl Pub Date: April 19, 2022 -
Anarchy in High Heels is not a state of dress; it’s a state of mind. A San Francisco porno theater might be the last place you’d expect to plant the seed of a feminist troupe, but truth is stranger than fiction. In 1972, access to birth control and a burn-your-bra ethos were leading young women to repudiate their 1950s conservative upbringing and embrace a new liberation. Denise Larson was a timid twenty-four-year-old actress wannabe when, at an after-hours countercultural event, The People’s Nickelodeon, she accidentally created Les Nickelettes. This banding together of ¬¬like-minded women with an anything-goes spirit unlocked a deeply hidden female humor. For the first time, Denise allowed the suppressed satirical thoughts dancing through her head to come out in the open. Together with Les Nickelettes, which quickly became a brazen women’s lib troupe, she presented a series of feminist skits, stunts, and musical comedy plays. In 1980, The Bay Guardian described the group as “nutty, messy, flashy, trashy, and very funny.” With sisterhood providing the moxie, Denise took on leadership positions not common for women at the time: playwright, stage director, producer, and administrative/artistic director. But, in the end, the most important thing she learned was the power of female friendship. Publication Date: July 27, 2021 Author: Denise Larson -
Sixty-year-old Frances Pia lives alone on a thirty-foot sailboat anchored near Sausalito, where she communes with the fog, sea lions, cormorants, and two sailor friends, Otto and Russell. She performs random acts of public defacement—painting drainpipes, public restrooms, and murals on the sides of houses—which she believes are beautification projects, and struggles with bouts of depression and mania. Frankly, she’s a bit of a nutcase. But Frances wasn’t always this way. She was once a Catholic nun with a sister, Anne, who loved her dearly. But then she slept with her brother-in-law, Greg—and ashamed and pregnant, she fled, leaving Anne, her art, and her vocation behind. When she also lost her baby, Nicola, in a freak accident, she lost faith in God and became a keeper of sorrows. Through a series of wacky adventures, including bouts with the cops and the sea, Frances opens her heart to love for the first time in years—and begins to really paint the town, redeeming herself with Anne and freeing herself from her guilt over Nicola’s death along the way. Author: Barbara Sapienza Publication Date: April 25, 2017 -
After 27 years of motherhood, Rita Lussier’s youngest child heads to New York City and Rita drives home to what she thinks will be the calm after the storm only to find no comfort, nothing familiar. Welcome to the Great Big Empty Nest! The parenting mission that had infused Rita’s days and nights with so much purpose has abruptly changed leaving her lost and confused, not an ideal state of mind to begin the messy and uncomfortable process of reinventing her life. Rekindling her marriage and friendships. Kickstarting her career. Making difficult choices about her house, finances and future all the while adjusting to the ever-changing demands of growing-up children and aging parents. And Now, Back to Me invites readers along as Rita recreates nearly every aspect of her life at a time when she thought she’d be kicking back to enjoy it. As a columnist for The Providence Journal, it was precisely these types of personal glimpses that endeared readers to her column making it a popular feature of the newspaper for a dozen years. In her book, Rita shares her experiences with the issues that not only confront her at this crossroads, but millions of parents as well. Author: Rita Lussier Publication Date: March 25, 2025 -
“The day after my son died, a bird walked into my house. That tiny sparrow wouldn’t leave me alone. It kept knocking on my door and showing up in my dreams, until it finally sparked a light within me, and then, something so much more.” Linda Broder loses everything when her fifteen-year-old son Brendan dies—her music, faith, and hope. When a bird walks into her house, her husband and children embrace it as a sign from Brendan. But not Linda; she’s too logical to believe in signs. Still, birds keep clinging to Linda’s windows, whispering in her dreams, and showing up in unexpected places, pulling her back to her music and showing her how to stay open to wonder. Full of hope and resilience and the healing magic of music, And Still the Bird Sings is a story about finding sacred wonder in the midst of unimaginable loss, and a reminder of the many ways we can still connect with the ones we’ve lost. This unforgettable memoir will leave you filled with peace and wonder. Author: Linda Broder Publication Date: November 8, 2022 -
If Jake Laurent is the “human equivalent of Friday,” Kat Green is “Monday.” Nevertheless, the two shared a secret (if casual) affair during the pandemic, and now, almost exactly one year later, they’ve reunited in Copenhagen, the “city of fairy tales.” Only neither one of them is living a fairy tale. Jake is a young actor who’s cracking under the public pressure that comes with rising celebrity. Kat is a single mother at the top of her career who believes she’s holding it all together but is barely living. Each one is a simple escape for the other—until the security Kat has worked so hard to build for her tiny family comes under threat, and Jake has to decide if he can keep Kat a secret even if it’s at the expense of his own fame. And They Had a Great Fall is the story of two people who are going through the motions in life—until they finally look inside themselves to figure out what it takes to find a happily ever after. Author: Shelby Saville Publication Date: March 11, 2025 -
Andrea Hoffman is an overeducated, underemployed, and unmotivated recent college graduate—until an unexpected robbery blasts her out of her funk and into a job in the finance world of early-1980s Chicago. At first, it seems like a bad fit. But the world of finance has its own weird charm, and she grows increasingly fascinated by the strange language of trading, the complexity of the stock market, and her colleagues, who navigate it all with a ruthless confidence. Even though she has two strikes against her—Jewish and female—Andrea’s quick wit and strong work ethic propel her into an actual sales job and her career takes off. But this is the Wall Street of the eighties, and along with making a lot more money, Andrea adopts a new, fast life of cocktails, cocaine, and casual sex. Drunk on her achievements, she gradually realizes that at some point, she’s going to have to decide what success really means to her. Author: Diane Cohen Schneider Publication: August 30, 2022 -
From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47. Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, she—along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party—finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements—and her own demons—as she envisions a new life in California? Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love. Author: Ashley E. Sweeney Publication Date: May 19, 2020 -
After her mother’s death, Gabrielle Robinson found two diaries her grandfather had kept while serving as doctor during the fall of Berlin 1945. He recorded his daily struggle to survive in the ruined city—“I creep out at 10 o’clock at night to the clinic under whistling grenades and bombs, a wilderness of fire and dust, behind it, although already high in sky, the blood red moon”—and attempts to do what little he could for the wounded and dying without water, light, bedding, and medications. But then the diaries revealed something that had never been mentioned in her family, and it hit Robinson like a punch to the stomach: Api, her beloved grandfather, had been a Nazi. In this clear-eyed memoir, Robinson juxtaposes her grandfather’s harrowing account of his experiences during the war with her memories of his loving protection years afterward, and raises disturbing questions about the political responsibility we all carry as individuals. Moving and provocative, Api’s Berlin Diaries offers a firsthand and personal perspective on the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich—and the author’s own inconvenient past. Author: Gabrielle Robinson Publication Date: September 15, 2020 -
Samantha—the fashionable wife of a successful businessman and doting mother of one—struggles to negotiate the spheres of intimacy between her husband and her family of origin. Samantha loves her husband, Richard, and she loves her sister, Elizabeth. But the two of them can barely exist in the same room, which has caused the entire family years of emotional distress. Yet it’s not until Samantha’s sister is diagnosed at age forty-three with lung cancer that her family and her marriage are tipped into full-blown crisis. A story of love, loss, forgiveness, learning to live with grief, and healing, Appearances will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced tension in their familial relationships—even as it serves as a poignant reminder that no amount of privilege can protect us from family conflicts, marital difficulty, or mortality. Author: Sondra Helene Publication Date: April 9, 2019 -
2016 USA Best Book Awards: General Fiction Finalist “Appetite examines the different ways we seek satisfaction in our lives―some of us are hungry for power, others for love, and some find comfort in duty and tradition. This realistic and engrossing portrait of two generations is a promising first novel with wide appeal.” ―Booklist When Jenn Adler returns from a year in India, she has a surprise for her parents: a young guru from Bangalore whom she intends to marry. Her father, Paul, is wary of this “beggar” Jenn has brought home—who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter—while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away her only child, her focus in life. In the months leading up to the backyard wedding, Maggie is forced to reevaluate her virtues as she casts about for support, and Paul faces an unexpected threat at work—one that Maggie could help him meet, if he would only ask. But even with these distractions, the two parents are focused on one primary question: Can they convince their daughter she is making a terrible mistake before the wedding takes place? Author: Sheila Grinell Publication Date: May 17, 2016 -
Stacy Halloran has lived most of her life in 1950s-era housing development Arboria Park. But her beloved neighborhood may not survive much longer. Despite her parents’ entreaties to “stay in the yard where it’s safe,” the Park is where young Stacy roams in quest of “real life.” Through her wanderings, she learns about the area’s agricultural history; meets people from backgrounds different than her own; watches her siblings develop interracial and same-sex relationships; helps launch the local punk-rock scene; and finally, settles as a wife and mother. As the neighborhood declines (along with her relationship with her mother), Stacy considers moving on to rescue herself and her daughter. But then a massive highway project threatens the ever-resilient Park—and it’s Stacy’s task to rally family, friends, and neighbors to save it. Author: Kate Tyler Wall Publication Date: May 2, 2017 -
2016 USA Best Book Awards: Narrative Non-Fiction Winner 2016 Foreward INDIE Awards: War and Military Finalist “Written in an unencumbered, conversational style, this book is partly a personal memoir and partly a study of the ways in which civilians make noble sacrifices out of patriotic commitment. Especially given the United States’ many military engagements around the world, this is a timely and thoughtful offering . . . An Army wife’s absorbing testament to the power of family and faith to weather difficult times.” ―Kirkus Reviews Army Wife: A Story of Love and Family in the Heart of the Army begins in the summer of 1969 when the author meets West Point Cadet Dick Cody. A schoolgirl crush and six years of dating turns into an enduring love story and over thirty years of marriage. Vicki is by Dick’s side every step of the way on his path from lieutenant to four-star general and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. From the last days of the Vietnam War to the present-day war on terrorism, this memoir honors not just commitment between spouses but a commitment to military life. While the couple raise their two sons, Vicki learns to juggle everyday challenges with everything the Army throws at them: emotional ups and downs, long separations, and many moves. As she comes to embrace the uniqueness of her circumstances over more than three decades in an Army family, she finds joy, self-fulfillment, and pride and never loses sight of who she is as a woman. When their two sons enter the Army after September 11, 2001, Dick is in one of the top leadership positions in the Pentagon. It is all of their years of experiences and their love for each other, that gives them the strength to handle the stress and fear of their sons’ combat deployments. This is also a story about a father and his two sons who follow in his footsteps. Author: Vicki Cody Publication Date: August 16, 2016 -
When Alana and Roland, a spirited Canadian couple with an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest, embark on an epic yearlong travel adventure around the world with their newborn son and ten-year-old daughter, they think they’re prepared for whatever might come their way. They soon discover that this is not entirely true. This charming family love story, sure to inspire wanderlust, is peppered with funny parenting mishaps, thrilling adventures, breathtaking sceneries, unforgettable monuments, and culinary bliss. However, as you are taken through the temples of Southeast Asia, the pyramids of Egypt, the rolling hills of Tuscany, and the African plains, you will also be exposed to the world as experienced by a biracial, blended family. Around the World in Black & White is a tale of self-discovery, racial awakening, resilience, and deeper understanding. This bold, witty, and heartfelt memoir will have you rethinking how you travel, how you see the world, and how the world sees you. Author: Alana Best Pub Date: August 29, 2023 -
Art keeps good alive in the worst of times. In the face of ugliness, pain, and death, it’s art that has the power to open us all to a healing imagining of new possibility; it’s art that whispers to the collective that even in the ashes of loss, life always grows again. That’s why right now, in this tumultuous time of war and pandemic, we need poets more than we need politicians. In response to the multitude of global crises we’re currently experiencing, editor Stefanie Raffelock put out a much-needed call to her writing community for art to uplift and inform the world, and the authors of She Writes Press answered. Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis—a sometimes comforting, sometimes devastating, but universally relatable collection of prose, poetry, and art about living through difficult times like these—is the result. Addressing topics including grief and loss, COVID-19 and war in Ukraine, the gravity of need and being needed, the broad range of human response to crisis in all its forms, and more, these pieces explore how we can find beauty, hope, and deeper interpretation of world events through art—even when the world seems like it’s been turned inside out and upside-down. Any and all royalties from Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis will be donated to World Central Kitchen. Publication Date: June 7, 2022 Editor: Stephanie Raffelock Foreword By: Brooke Warner
