“Fascinating and insightful . . .”
—Booklist, Starred Review
Uncovered follows her as a young teen who left her secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew. Ultimately we see her as a forty-something woman who has to abandon the only world she’s know for thirty years for the sake of her personal freedom. Lax details her experiences in the Hasidic fold in understated, crystalline prose—arranged marriage, cult-like faith, endless motherhood without birth control—all the while exploring how creative, sexual, and spiritual longings simmered beneath the surface throughout her time there.Uncovered is the first memoir of a gay woman in the Jewish orthodox world, the moving story of her long journey toward finding a home where she truly belongs.
In Uncovered, Leah Lax tells her story—beginning as a young teen who left her liberal, secular home for life as a Hasidic Jew, and ending as a forty-something woman who has to abandon the only world she’s known for thirty years in order to achieve personal freedom. In understated, crystalline prose, Lax details her experiences with arranged marriage, cult-like faith, and motherhood during her years with the Hasidim, and explores how her creative, sexual, and spiritual longings simmer beneath the surface throughout her time there.
The first book to tell the story of a gay woman who spent thirty adult years in the Hasidic fold, Uncovered is the moving story of Lax’s long journey toward finding a home where she truly belongs.
Author: Leah Lax
Publication Date: August 28, 2015
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2016 International Book Award Finalist in Cookbooks: International 2016 Best book Award Finalist in Cookbooks: International Recipes for Redemption: A Companion Cookbook for A Cup of Redemption provides the promised recipes—both French and American—culled from the pages, the times, and the regional influences found in the historical novel A Cup of Redemption. Told through the voices of the three main characters—Marcelle, Sophie and Kate—the recipes are carefully taught in the way these women learned them: at the knees of their mothers or grandmothers. Whether “cuisine pauvre” (peasant cooking), “war food” from WWII, American fare, or simply a family favorite, each recipe is carefully described and footnoted with interesting, often amusing culinary notes. Flavored with witty repartee and slathered with common sense, this cookbook is filled with heart, soul, humor, and delectable delight. Author: Carole Bumpus Publication Date: August 18, 2015 -
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 -
2016 Indie Book Award Finalist in Spirituality 2016 IPPY Silver Medal Winner in Spiritual/Inspirational 2016 International Book Award Finalist in Spirituality: General When Margaret Bendet is told to interview an Indian holy man, she thinks it’s just another assignment—but after speaking with him, she decides to accompany him back to his ashram, hoping to find enlightenment. In Learning to Eat Along the Way, Bendet enters a world that many have wondered about but few have seen: the milieu of a spiritual master. Subtle experiences prompt her to embark on this journey with “the swami,” as she calls the holy man, and to enter into the ashram—but once there, she deals with a host of psychological issues, including intense infatuation and life-threatening anorexia. “Each person comes to the ashram in order to receive something,” the swami tells her, “something to take with you when you leave—something you can eat along the way.” Bendet finds this to be truer than she could have imagined. Clear-eyed and candid, Learning to Eat Along the Way is an honest and often surprising account of one woman’s experience with spiritual work. Author: Margaret Bendet Publication Date: August 11, 2015 -
“Dunn’s clear prose and lively recall of her calamities make for an effortless read.” ―People “Witty, smart, droll, moving, and always entertaining, Dunn’s book is nothing short of a thoroughly enjoyable triumph . . .” ―The Oregonian “I loved this book.” ―Rosie O’Donnell Samantha Dunn used to live for the feeling of wind blowing in her hair and the powerful intoxication of her horse’s steady gallop. A tug of Harley’s leathery reins could instantly eradicate mounting bills, unfinished work, and the reality of a troubled marriage from her mind. But one day, as she was leading Harley across a stream in a picturesque California canyon, he panicked, knocked her to the ground, and trampled her—nearly severing her leg in the process. Dunn had always been “accident prone”—but in the aftermath of this incident, she began to analyze the details of her life and her propensity for accidents. Was she really just a klutz? Or could there be some underlying emotional reason she was always putting her life in danger? A blend of personal narrative and of research about what drives some people to have more accidents than others, Not by Accident is an insightful, incisive memoir that helps bridge the gap in understanding that exists on the concept of accident proneness. Author: Samantha Dunn Publication Date: August 11, 2015 -
“A beautiful blend of heart and journalism, The Butterfly Groove is an ethereal portrait of innocence, loss, and a young woman's unwavering curiosity surrounding her mother's past. Barraco's writing is witty and profound, and she has an undeniable skill for breathing new life into the most intimate of memories.” —Charlee Fam, author of Last Train to Babylon In 1999, as a twelve-year-old girl in sunny Southern California, Jessica Barraco loses her mother, Dianne, to cancer complications. Not knowing much about Dianne’s past, Jessica grows more and more curious about her mother’s story each year—especially because her immediate family does not seem to know much more about her mother than the Internet does. A decade after Dianne passes away, now armed with a journalism degree, Jessica unlocks a memory of her mother telling her that she loved her old ballroom dance partner, and she sets out on a two-year quest to find him—along with anyone else who can tell her about Dianne. Part mystery, part coming-of-age story, The Butterfly Groove is a heart-warming exploration of how our pasts tell our truths, and how love survives all of us. Author: Jessica Barraco Publication Date: August 4, 2015 -
2016 International Book Award Finalist in Health: Death & Dying and Finalist in Memoir/Autobiography/Biography 2017 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist in Memoir “This tenderly rendered addition to the literature on hospice care deserves the widest possible audience.” —Kirkus Reviews Twenty-one people of different ages have one thing in common; they’re within six months of their deaths. They’ve endured the battle of the medical system as they sought cures for their illnesses, and are now settling in to die. Some reconcile, some don’t. Some are gracious, some not. As Nina Angela McKissock, a highly experienced hospice nurse, goes from home to home and within the residential hospice, she shares her journey of deep joy, humorous events, precious stories, and heartbreaking love. Free of religiosity, dogma, or fear, From Sun to Sun brings readers into McKissock’s world—and imparts the profound lessons she learns as she guides her beloved patients on their final journey. Author: Nina Angela McKissock Publication Date: August 4, 2015 -
2016 International Book Award Finalist in Fiction: Historical Nettie has spent every summer of her life in the Southern Wiregrass town of Crystal Springs, Alabama. This year, she hopes the small town’s relaxed pace will give her a break from the unrelenting physical and emotional changes of puberty. But a chance encounter with Mitchell, a seductively handsome yet secretive young man, turns Nettie’s summer plans and her heart upside down. As their relationship grows, Nettie realizes Mitchell is harboring a dark and dangerous secret—one that, when revealed, rocks the core of the sleepy little town and has Nettie and those she loves running for their lives. Author: Pam Webber Publication Date: August 4, 2015 -
2016 International Book Awards: Finalist, Health: Psychology & Mental Health “[H]onest, brave, and soul-baring in its exploration of grief and clinical depression.” —Colorado Review Two weeks before his college graduation, Kelley Clink’s younger brother Matt hanged himself. Though he’d been diagnosed as bipolar as a teenager and had attempted suicide once before, the news came as a shock—and it sent Kelley into a spiral of grief and guilt. After her Matt’s death, a chasm opened for Kelley between the brother she’d known and the brother she’d buried. She kept telling herself she couldn’t understand why he’d done it—but the truth was, she could. Several years before he’d been diagnosed with bipolar, she’d been diagnosed with depression. Several years before he first attempted suicide by overdose, she had attempted suicide by overdose. She’d blazed the trail he’d followed. And if he couldn’t make it . . . what hope was there for her? A Different Kind of Same traces Kelley’s journey through grief, her investigation into what role her own depression played in her brother’s death, and, ultimately, her path toward acceptance, forgiveness, resilience, and love. Author: Kelley Clink Publication Date: June 9, 2015 -
2016 Indie Excellence Winner in Literary Fiction “A sensitively told exploration of layers of loss, isolation, motherhood, and marriage. Diamond knows there are no easy answers and her portrait of Sarah is drawn by a skillful, compassionate hand.” —Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and An Invisible Sign of My Own Since the death of her infant daughter, lawyer-turned-stay-at-home mom Sarah Shaw has struggled to keep it together for her two young sons and law professor husband. With her husband burying himself in his career and her friendships all having withered, she is lost in a private world of grief. Then one day walking in L.A., Sarah’s heart catches at the sight of a young homeless woman pushing a baby in a stroller—and saving them becomes her mission. An unlikely bond grows between Sarah and the mother, Josie, whose pride and strained relationship with her own mother prevent her from going home to Oakland. Through her friendship with Josie, Sarah slowly learns that those we love are never far, even in death—and that sometimes it is the people we set out to save who save us. Shelter Us speaks to the quiet joys and anxieties of parenthood, and illuminates the place all parents know: that shadowy space between unconditional love and fear of unbearable loss. Author: Laura Diamond Publication Date: June 8, 2015 -
In Benediction for a Black Swan, Mimi Zollars explores the topics of childhood, children, marriage and divorce, alcoholism, and the sensual world in a series of edgy, seductive, irreverent, and ethereal poems. Incorporating elements of magical realism, Zollars’ sexy, darkly beautiful works embrace the miraculous as ordinary—and turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Author: Mimi Zollars Publication Date: June 2, 2015 -
2016 Indie Excellence Winner in Relationships “Insatiable is an extraordinary memoir. It is not only heartfelt, it brings to life a complicated disorder. Through Hauer’s story we can really see what love addiction is and how painful it is. But this is more than a story about the problem, this is a story of recovery and redemption. I highly recommend this book. It is a must-read if you are struggling with this disorder or have a loved one who is suffering and need to know what to do.” —Susan Peabody, author of Addiction to Love In her professional life, Shary Hauer was a confident, successful, high-caliber executive coach who advised big-time corporate leaders around the globe—but her personal life was an entirely different matter. When it came to love, she was insecure, clingy, desperate, willing to do anything and everything to win and keep a man. Because without a man by her side, what good was she? In Insatiable, Hauer fearlessly chronicles her emotional journey from despair to hope, rejection to redemption, and self-hate to self-love, one man at a time. In candid detail, she relates what it is like to be trapped in the torturous cycle of love addiction—what it’s like to be forever searching, needing, obsessing, scheming, and agonizing for love, suffering from a hunger that never ceases—and what it takes to break free of that cycle. An intimate, soul-baring tale that sheds much-needed light on one of the least understood and talked about addictions, Insatiable is the story of one woman’s journey through the hellish, the humiliating, and the humbling in her single-minded pursuit of the most addictive drug of all: love. Author: Shary Hauer Publication Date: May 20, 2015 -
“An insightful guide to navigating life's complexities.” —Melody Beattie, bestselling author of Codependent No More, The Language of Letting Go. Being caring and compassionate is important—but too many women allow the weight of others’ needs to press so hard on them that they find they often fail to speak up for what they want and need. And women do this all the time. It’s time for these women to stop worrying quite so much about everyone else—and start taking care of themselves. In Stop Giving It Away, therapist Cherilynn Veland utilizes her twenty-plus years of counseling experience to untangle what binds so many women to other people’s needs, wants, and expectations, and to build a case for what these women can do to make changes that will help them live more fulfilling personal and professional lives. Illustrating her points with real-life stories of women who—to the detriment of their relationships and personal happiness—have given away too much at home and at work, Veland provides readers with a toolkit for recognizing and analyzing unhealthy behaviors, developing healthy relationship strategies, and setting good personal boundaries. Accessible, entertaining, and illuminating, Stop Giving It Away is a book for every woman who tends to put everyone else first—and herself last. Author: Cherilynn Veland Publication Date: May 17, 2015 -
Numerous women in our culture have experienced shame, degradation, and despair as a result of having been sexually traumatized early in life. Some of these women end up in unhappy marriages or abusive relationships; some fall prey to a variety of addictions, silently or publicly; and some find themselves working in the sex industry. And for many survivors, their situations—and the situations that have brought them there—are secrets that have no voice. In Singing with the Sirens, experts Ellyn Bell and Stacey Bell address the long term complex trauma that results from the sexual abuse and exploitation of girls and young women, drawing on their personal and professional experiences to explore the link between the sexual abuse of children, issues of attachment and safety, and the commercial exploitation of young people. But this is not strictly a scholarly book or a memoir of personal experience; rather, the authors address this problem from a perspective of self-realization and transformation, taking the reader on a journey through mythological tales toward finding healing from within. Poetic, hopeful, and powerful, Singing with the Sirens is a call for wounded women everywhere to reclaim their own truth, spirit, and to sing with their authentic voice. Author: Ellyn Bell and Stacey Bell Publication Date: May 13, 2015 -
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 -
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 -
“A thought-provoking, gimlet-eyed satire of contemporary motherhood in the guise of a romantic comedy, Wishful Thinking is a Trojan horse of a novel, delivering incisive social commentary while it entertains and delights you. I devoured every word of this funny, brilliant book.” —Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train “Wishful Thinking is funny, tender, perceptive―I tore through it with delight.” —Gretchen Rubin, best-selling author of The Happiness Project and Happier At Home Jennifer Sharpe is a divorced mother of two with a problem just about any working parent can relate to: her boss expects her to work as though she doesn’t have children, and her children want her to care for them as though she doesn’t have a boss. But when, through a fateful coincidence, a brilliant physicist comes into possession of Jennifer’s phone and decides to play fairy godmother, installing a miraculous time-travel app called Wishful Thinking, Jennifer suddenly finds herself in possession of what seems like the answer to the impossible dream of having it all: an app that lets her be in more than one place at the same time. With the app, Jennifer goes quickly from zero to hero in every part of her life: she is super-worker, the last to leave her office every night; she is super-mom, the first to arrive at pickup every afternoon; and she even becomes super-girlfriend, dating a musician who thinks she has unlimited childcare and a flexible job. But Jennifer soon finds herself facing questions that adding more hours to her day can’t answer. Why does she feel busier and more harried than ever? Is she aging faster than everyone around her? How can she be a good worker, mother, and partner when she can’t be honest with anybody in her life? And most important, when choosing to be with your children, at work, or with your partner doesn’t involve sacrifice, do those choices lose their meaning? Wishful Thinking is a modern-day fairy tale in which one woman learns to overcome the challenges—and appreciate the joys—of living life in real time. Author: Kamy Wicoff Publication Date: April 21, 2015 -
“Tammy Flanders Hetrick’s novel Stella Rose proves to the reader that Love is not just stronger than Death, but stranger. Succumbing to illness, a brilliant woman bequeaths her teenager daughter, their home, and a series of instructions for life while grieving, to her best friend. Hetrick deftly studies the ties that bind, unraveling mysteries that complicate and, finally, enrich intimacy.” —Verandah Porche, author of Sudden Eden and recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Marlboro College Before her death, Stella Rose asks her best friend, Abby, to take care of her sixteen-year-old daughter, and Abby does the only thing she can: she says yes. After Stella’s death, Abby moves to Stella’s house in rural Vermont and struggles to connect with Olivia, who immediately begins to engage in disturbing behavior—starting with ditching her old group of friends for a crowd of dubious characters. As the fog of grief lifts, Abby reconnects with old friends, enlists the aid of Olivia’s school guidance counselor, and partners with Betsy, another single mom, in an effort to keep tabs on the headstrong teenager she’s suddenly found herself responsible for—but despite her best efforts, she is unable to keep Olivia from self-destruction. As Abby’s journey unfolds, she grapples with raising a grieving teenager, realizes she didn’t know Stella as well as she thought, falls in love—twice—and discovers just how far she will go to save the most precious thing in her life. Author: Tammy Flanders Hetrick Publication Date: April 21, 2015 -
2015 Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in General Fiction 2015 USA Book Awards Finalist in Women’s Fiction 2016 International Book Award Finalist in Fiction: Literary It happens without warning: At a folk-rock show at her son’s college, Lily becomes transfixed by the guitarist’s unassuming onstage presence and beautiful playing—and with his final note, something within her breaks loose. After the concert, Lily returns to her comfortable life—an Upper West Side apartment, a job as a videographer, and a kind if distracted husband—but she can’t stop thinking about the music, or about the duo’s guitarist, JJ. Unable to resist the pull of either one, she rashly offers to make a film about the band in order to gain a place with them on tour. But when Lily dares to step out from behind her camera, she falls deep into JJ’s world—upsetting the tenuous balance between him and his bandmate, and filling a chasm of need she didn’t know she had. Captivating and provocative, Play for Me captures the thrill and heartbreak of deciding to leave behind what you love to follow what you desire. Author: Céline Keating Publication Date: April 21, 2015 -
As a young girl in the Midwest, Constance Hanstedt was consumed by fear—of her parents, especially her disapproving mother, of social situations, and of people in general. Unable to connect with those around her, she embraced perfectionism as a substitute for love. Raising her own family eased some of Hanstedt’s self-doubt, but even as an adult, she remained guarded around her mother, avoiding conflict with her at all costs. Still, when her mother developed Alzheimer’s, Hanstedt did what the perfect daughter she’d always struggled to be would do: she returned to the Midwestern town where she was raised to care for a mother who could no longer care for herself. In Don’t Leave Yet, Hanstedt recounts her journey toward facing her fears and rising above the past; her mother’s unrelenting bitterness toward life, even as she loses her memories of it; and her unexpected discovery of an emotion that reaches beyond familial duty: compassion. Author: Constance Hanstedt Publication Date: April 21, 2015 -
Who would you be if you lost everything? Hollye Dexter and her husband Troy woke one night to find their house ablaze. To escape the fire, they had to jump from their second-story window with their toddler son—and then watch their house and home-based businesses burn to the ground. Over the next two years, the family went bankrupt, lost their cars and another home, and got dropped by their best friends. As the outer layers of her life were stripped away, Dexter began to unravel emotionally; but then she found herself on the brink of losing her marriage, and she realized that if she was going to save her family, she would have to pull herself back together somehow. As she fought to reassemble the pieces of the life she’d had, Dexter discovered that a shattered heart has the ability to regenerate in a mighty way; that even in the midst of disaster, you can find your place; and that when everything you identify with is gone, you are free to discover who you really are. Poignant and inspiring, Fire Season is a story for anyone who has ever lost hope—and found it again. Author: Hollye Dexter Publication Date: April 14, 2015 -
2015 National Indie Excellence Award Winner in Autobiography 2015 Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards Winner in Non-Fiction “What makes this book particularly valuable is its vivid depiction of the abhorrent consequences of legalized segregation. What gives it heart is the window it opens to the personal journeys of mother and daughter. An important, riveting history lesson that, unfortunately, is still relevant today.” —Kirkus Reviews In 1967, when Jo Ivester was ten years old, her father transplanted his young family from a suburb of Boston to a small town in the heart of the Mississippi cotton fields, where he became the medical director of a clinic that served the poor population for miles around. But ultimately it was not Ivester’s father but her mother—a stay-at-home mother of four who became a high school English teacher when the family moved to the South—who made the most enduring mark on the town. In The Outskirts of Hope, Ivester uses journals left by her mother, as well as writings of her own, to paint a vivid, moving, and inspiring portrait of her family’s experiences living and working in an all-black town during the height of the civil rights movement. Author: Jo Ivester Publication Date: April 7, 2015 -
Forward INDIEFAB Gold Medal for Literary Fiction and Bronze Medal for Historical Fiction Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal for Literary fiction IPPY (Independent Publishers Book Awards): Gold Medal for European Fiction Spanning a century and three continents, Even in Darkness tells the story of Kläre Kohler, whose early years as a dutiful daughter of a prosperous German-Jewish family hardly anticipate the often-harrowing life she faces as an adult—a saga of family, a lover, two world wars, a concentration camps and the unconventional life she builds in post-war Germany. As the world changes around her, Kläre makes boundary-crossing choicesin order to protect the people she loves—and to save herself. Based on a true story, Even in Darkness highlights the intimate experience of Kläre’s reinvention as she faces the destruction of life as she knew it, and traces her path beyond survival to wisdom, meaning, and—most unexpectedly—love. Author: Barbara Stark-Nemon Publication Date: April 7, 2015 -
2015 International Book Awards: Finalist, Travel: Guides and Essays 2015 IPPY: Silver Medal, Autobiography/Memoir (coming of age/family legacy/travel) “With writing that’s as persuasive as a legal brief and as funny as your favorite relative’s best stories, Carol Merchasin captures the daily confusion of living in Mexico, a country filled with local characters reminiscent of Peter Mayle’s rustic French neighbors. Smart. Witty. Warm. Engaging and enlightening, this is a brilliant gem of a memoir.” —Mark Saunders, author of Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak This is Mexico is a collection of essays on the often magical and mysterious—and sometimes heartrending—workings of everyday life in Mexico, written from the perspective of an American expatriate. By turns humorous and poignant, Merchasin’s stories provide an informed look at Mexican culture and history, exploring everything from healthcare, Mexican-style, to religious rituals, and from the educational role of the telenovela to the cultural subtleties of the Spanish language. Author: Carol M. Merchasin Publication Date: March 3, 2015