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Elizabeth Tilton, a devout housewife, shares liberal ideals with her husband, Theodore Tilton, and their pastor and close friend Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, both influential reformers of the Reconstruction Era who promote suffrage for women and former slaves and advocate for the spiritual power of love rather than Calvinistic retribution. Elizabeth is torn between admiration for her husband’s stand on women’s rights and resentment of his dominating ways at home. When Theodore justifies his extramarital affairs in terms of the free love doctrine that marriage should not restrict other genuine loves, she becomes closer to Henry, who admires her spiritual gifts—and eventually falls passionately in love with him. Once passion for her pastor undermines the moral certainties of her generation, Elizabeth enters into uncharted emotional and ethical territory. Under what circumstances should she tell the truth? If she does, will she lose her children and her marriage? Will she destroy her own reputation and the career of the reverend who has done much good? Can a woman accustomed to following the leadership of men find her own path and define her own truth? Author: Barbara Southard Publication Date: January 28, 2025 -
Jaded New York City Public Defender Liana Cohen would give anything to have one client in whom she can believe. Dozens of hardened criminals and repeat offenders have chipped away at her faith in both herself and the system. Her boyfriend Jakob’s high-powered law firm colleagues see her do-gooder job as a joke, which only adds to the increasing strain in their relationship. Enter imprisoned felon Danny Shea, whose unforgivable crime would raise a moral conflict in an attorney at the height of her idealism―and that hasn't been Liana in quite a while. But Danny's astonishing blend of good looks, intelligence, and vulnerability intrigues Liana. Could he be the client she’s been longing for―the wrongly accused in need of a second chance? Is he innocent? As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arm’s length, Liana is forced to confront fundamental questions of truth, faith, and love―and to decide who she wants to be. Author: Reyna Marder Gentin Publication Date: November 13, 2018 -
“Theater fans will love the insiders’ stories culled from Sandra’s years on Broadway—but absolutely anyone, regardless of their familiarity with theater, can and will benefit from the lessons contained in these pages. It’s impossible to read this book and come out on the other side feeling anything but awakened.” —Jack Canfield, Coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series and The Success Principles™: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be Living a meaningful, satisfying life is an enigma for most people today. We feel stuck, small, without the self-confidence to move in the direction of what we really want. Or, if we do muscle through our fear in pursuit of our dreams, we exhaust ourselves working and striving and achieving and yet somehow, no matter our level of outer-world success, are left dazed and disheartened, asking ourselves, “Is this all there is?” After ten years on Broadway, Sandra Joseph—the longest-running leading lady in Broadway’s longest-running show, The Phantom of the Opera—knows one thing for sure: the only way to have a truly fulfilling life and achieve success that satisfies is to recognize that the journey up is no substitute for the journey in. In Unmasking What Matters, Joseph uses lessons learned on the road to Broadway, during her decade as Christine, and through the challenges she faced after walking away from the business to show readers how to courageously bring their inner voice to the outer world, stop seeking success for achievement’s sake and start creating the life they truly desire. With her hard-won wisdom, poignant personal stories, and practical, experiential exercises to guide them, readers will learn to shed their limiting masks, mindfully work through their fears, stand in their authentic power, and build a life rich with satisfaction, meaning, and significance. Warm, humble, encouraging, and inspiring, Unmasking What Matters can help anyone move from stuck, fearful, and playing it safe to embracing their passions, gifts, and opportunities and living life “full-out” today. Author: Sandra Joseph Publication Date: January 23, 2018 -
While recovering from a near fatal illness, Nancy Pressly discovers a treasure trove of family material stored in her attic. Haunted by images of her grandparents and her parents in their youth, she sets out to create a family narrative before it is lost forever. It takes several more years before she summons the courage to reconstitute a path back to her own past, slowly pulling back the veil of amnesia that has, until now, all but obliterated her memory of her childhood. In this sensitive and forgiving meditation on the meaning of family, Pressly unravels family dynamics and life in a small rural town in the 1950s that so profoundly affected her—then moves forward in time, through to her adulthood. With an eye attuned to visual detail, she relates how she came into her own as a graduate student in the tumultuous sixties in New York; examines how she assumed the role of caretaker for her family as she negotiated with courage and resilience the many health setbacks, including her own battle with pancreatic cancer, that she and her husband encountered; and evokes her interior struggle as a mother as she slowly traverses the barriers of expectations, self-doubt, and evolving norms in the 1980s to embrace a remarkable life as a scholar, champion of contemporary art, and nationally recognized art museum strategic planning consultant. Full of candor and art-inspired insight, Unlocking leaves the reader with a deep appreciation of the power of art and empathy and the value of trying to understand one’s life journey. Author: Nancy L. Pressly Publication Date: May 5, 2020 -
Dr. Pepper Hunt and Detective Beau Antelope team up again to investigate a tragic murder/suicide in a prominent ranch family in the small town of Farson, Wyoming. As they explore events leading up to the night of the disturbing crime they are drawn into the dark heart of a troubled family touched by a legacy of trauma. Author: J. L. Doucette Publication Date: November 23, 2021 -
A collection of sixty-four black-and-white photographs and sixty-two poems, Unfolding in Light offers a vision of hands as images, symbols, and archetypes, allowing the numinous to shine through the mundane. Sisters Joan Scott and Claire Scott provides an intimate pause that gives the reader a quiet moment to reflect on the meaning of everyday hands: an ill child’s hands; a dying woman’s hands; hands of lovers, young and old; hands at work, at play, in pain, in prayer, and in love. Author: Joan and Claire Scott Publication Date: November 17, 2015 -
Melanie Smith knows from experience how grief and trauma can feel complex and immovable. She used that experience to fuel her research into the issues of trauma, loss, and finding happiness, which led to the creation of Unfinished Business—an eight-step, actionable, step-by-step process that will help you uncover the story of your life from the perspective of heartbreaks, limiting beliefs, old patterns, and unconscious habits. As you work through this process, you will examine who your models and influencers were and are, as well as the relationships in your life that remain unresolved and incomplete; and you will learn to heal the past, forgive, and overcome long-held beliefs, patterns of behavior, negative self-talk, self-judgment, overwhelm, and misalignment that have held you back from succeeding in love, relationships, business, finance, and health. Through this work, you will come to know yourself at the deepest level, experience clarity of vision, and find complete self-awareness. Grounded in a scientifically supported and solution-based methodology, Melanie’s Unfinished Business system has already transformed many people’s lives through her one-on-one and small group coaching sessions; now everyone can access it—and change their lives once and for all. Author: Melanie Smith Pub Date: August 8, 2023 -
In the spirit of The Glass Castle and The Burning Light of Two Stars, Antonia Deignan delivers what New York Times best-selling author Julie Cantrell calls a “a heart-shattering memoir of painful truth and soulful healing.” As a child, Antonia perceived her father’s nighttime visits as special acts of love. On some deeper level, though, she knew what was happening wasn’t right. To escape, she began creating imaginary worlds and used dreams to transport her away from her fears. As she got older, Antonia traded those fantasies for dance—but despite her outlets she remained trapped underwater, without a lifeline to make her feel fundamentally safe. For years, Antonia silently navigated the dark fathoms of her internalized pain, which manifested in myriad self-destructive habits: disordered eating, drug and alcohol abuse. Only decades later, while recovering from a serious bike accident, did she finally stop running and start reflecting—giving her the power to fully accept what had happened to her in her early life and ultimately forgive the unforgivable. Raw and visceral yet gorgeously lyrical, Underwater Daughter masterfully conveys not only the rippling effects of childhood trauma but also the hope that with honesty and work, healing is possible. Pub Date: May 2, 2023 Author: Antonia Deignan -
Perfect for fans of State of Wonder, this lushly written debut novel offers up one dead body, two amateur sleuths separated by decades, a vividly depicted Caribbean setting, and years of long-buried family secrets. In 1942 Puerto Rico, the death of a middle-aged American woman in the heart of El Yunque Rainforest arouses little attention from anyone—except for the sixteen-year-old boy who finds her. Bright and introverted, Eduardo Colón initially shrinks from the publicity stirred up by his find. He has enough problems with his adoptive parents urging him to leave his sheltered life in Puerto Rico and study in the States. But when he learns the dead woman, Laura Morrison, was once his mother’s schoolmate, curiosity overcomes qualms and he searches island-wide for answers. What he discovers draws him into dangerous wartime intrigues and a tangle of disturbing personal connections. Decades later, Pamela Palmer sits on a balcony overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho, reminiscing about her years of teaching in Puerto Rico and the discovery of a grand-aunt who died there under mysterious circumstances. Playing amateur detective among her other roles of mother, divorcee, and island transplant, she eventually stumbles onto what really happened to Laura Morrison. Reaching across different times, places, and cultures, Eduardo and Pamela find answers about the enigmatic woman—answers that change their lives. Author: Kathryn L. Robinson Publication Date: June 16, 2026 -
A birch tree grows tall and arabesque in the front yard of Nancy Chadwick’s childhood home. Over time the tree becomes her buddy and first learned connection, synonymous with home— and one spring morning, she makes a discovery under its boughs that foreshadows the many disconnections within her family, relationships, jobs, and home that are to come. Through the chapters in her life, Chadwick’s search for home carries her through with unflinching honesty, but in the end, it is a story of survival and triumph over adversity. She does not wallow in selfpity but remains tenacious as she examines her life. An exploration of what it means to belong, Under the Birch Tree is a success story of finding home. Author: Nancy Chadwick Publication Date: June 19, 2018 -
“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 -
Tzippy is a wealthy widow, feisty, determined, vain and living in Florida. Her three children will be visiting for Tzippy’s 80th birthday celebration and will be bringing with them the old wounds that Tzippy did more than her fair share to inflict. As her birthday approaches, the death of a close friend as well as the aches, pains and daily indignities of aging are preying on her mind. Tzippy wonders how she will be remembered? Her relationship with her children is not good, particularly with Shari, her youngest and most screwed up. Shari is a problem drinker and still plagued by the eating disorder she’s had since adolescence. She always blamed her mother for her problems and lately Tzippy has had the uncomfortable feeling Shari may be right. On the day of the party, on edge and anxious, Tzippy decides on a shopping trip to Saks which is always her quick fix, and while there, sees a brooch she wants, but not enough to pay for it. It finds its way into her purse and as she is making her get away—unlike the other times—she is caught and hauled off to the police station. Now that Tzippy is turning 80, there is not an infinite amount of time left. Will She be able to repair the damage that has taken a lifetime to create? Author: Patricia Striar Rohner Publication Date: October 18, 2016 -
“You can quit waiting for the other shoe to drop: I’m in it for life.” Those are the fateful, repeated words that help convince Kathryn Taylor to remarry, retire from her thirty-year profession, sell her home, and relocate in support of her new husband’s career. But five years later, in a car packed with food she has carefully prepared to nourish her husband’s dying brother, the other shoe does drop. Taylor’s husband unexpectedly proclaims he is, “done with the marriage and doesn’t want to talk about it.” With this, the life Taylor has come to know is over. Relying on the strength of a lifelong friend who refuses to let her succumb to the intense waves of grief, she slowly begins to find her way out of grief. Over the course of two years, through appointments with attorneys and therapists, purging shared belongings, and pushing herself to meet new people and do new things, Taylor not only regains a sense of control in her life, she also learns to enjoy the new life she has built, the friendships she’s formed―and to savor her newfound strength. Author: Kathryn Taylor Publication Date: November 6, 2018 -
For fans of Colleen Hoover, this inspirational follow-up to Shooting Stars Above continues the love story between internationally best-selling novelist Tess and counterterrorism agent Jack as they both fight to overcome their deepest fears. Tess Lee is a wildly successful and world-famous novelist whose inspirational books explore our innermost struggles and the human need to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jack Miller is a federal agent who has spent decades working in counterterrorism—a violent world that has left an inevitable residue on his psyche. Two years into their marriage, as Tess and Jack both heal from past trauma, their epic love, fostered by their ability to truly see one another, has brought them profound happiness. When an anonymous threat is made against Tess’s life, however, everything changes. Will they learn to lean on each other, or will they fall apart into the darkness? In Twinkle of Doubt, the second Celestial Bodies Romance, Tess, Jack, and their chosen family explore the nature of doubt and the struggle to feel worthy of love. Author: Patricia Leavy Publication Date: March 24, 2026 -
What is it like to grow up as an adoptee and be raised with your identical twin? In this coming-of-age memoir, set in Chicago’s western suburbs during the 1960s to 1980s, adopted twin sisters Julie and Jenny become the oldest daughters in a big family made up of a mixture of adopted and biological children. The twins’ sisterly bond is tight as the two strive for individuality, identity, and belonging. But Julie’s parents’ continual addition of adopted and biological children to the family leads to a number of painful experiences: they encounter infertility, infant mortality, a child with special needs, and then, when Julie is sixteen, a sudden family tragedy. Faced with these challenges, Julie questions everything—who she is, how she fits in, the circumstances of her adoption, where she belongs, her faith and idea of family. As their family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds are tested, Julie realizes her adoptive family is held together by love, faith, support, and her parents’ commitment to each other and family. But the life her parents have constructed is not one that Julie wants for herself—and as she grows older, she realizes how her parents’ goals and dreams differ from her own, and how the experiences that have formed her have provided a road map for the person and mother she wants to be. Author: Julie Ryan McGue Publication Date: February 4, 2025 -
Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers—which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents—and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background. Julie’s search for her birth relatives spans eight years and involves a search agency, a PI, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker, and a genealogist. By journey’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest—one that unearths secrets, lies, and family members that are literally right next door. Publication Date: May 11, 2021 Author: Julie Ryan McGue -
In the late 1900s, Gordon Clark and his father, Si, sold their farm in rural Canada in search of the business of America. They found it in Seattle, Washington, and in 1929 Gordon and his brother Russ bought Genesee Coal and Stoker. Seattle life in the late 1920s was flourishing and businesses were booming —but within the year, the crash of the stock market would bring the Great Depression to the 1930s. Genesee survived, however, and during the 1940s, the Clark brothers adapted to the popular culture by adding heating oil to their coal service. The 1950s in Seattle spun good times for the heating oil business, but those happy days came to a screeching halt as competitive heating options arrived. The popular shift from heating oil to natural gas resulted in yet another change in business strategy for the second generation, led by Gordon’s son Don Clark. Through the decades that followed, Genesee Energy met each challenge, swaying with cultural and energy trends both locally and nationally. Now facing the current issue of climate change, Genesee Energy’s third generation, led by Steve Clark, is vectoring toward renewable energy to maintain its legacy. A narrative nonfiction saga of three generations of family, culture, and energy issues, Twentieth-Century Boys shows how relationships and values have carried one small company through near devastation time and again—from the 1920s to the present day. Publication Date: October 26, 2021 Author: Andrea Clark Watson -
Two worlds. One heart. Twelve hours. Bianca Maria Curtis is at the brink of losing it all when she meets Eric at a bar in Manhattan. Eric, as it turns out, is the famous Korean drama celebrity Park Hyun Min, and he’s in town for one night to escape the pressures of fame. From walking along Fifth Avenue to eating ice cream at Serendipity to sharing tender moments on top of the Empire State building, sparks fly as Bianca and Eric spend twelve magical hours far away from their respective lives. In that time, they talk about the big stuff: love, life, and happiness, and the freedom they both seek to fully exist and not merely survive. But real life is more than just a few exhilarating stolen moments in time. As the clock strikes the twelfth hour, Bianca returns back to the life she detests to face a tragedy that will test her strength and resolve—and the only thing she has to keep going is the memory of a man she loves in secret from a world away. Pub Date: April 18, 2023 Author: Maan Gabriel -
2017 IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Best Regional Fiction: South “This debut author has a knack for storytelling and great characters.” —Booklist After attending the funeral of her estranged friend Skip in Knoxville, Tennessee, Vrai (short for Vraiment), a forty-something art history librarian with sons of her own, rescues ten-year-old Jonathan, who has been abandoned with no shoes in the funeral home parking lot. The Blizzard of 1993 strands this unlikely duo at the Smoky View Motel, where, motivated in part by the unsolved murders of Jonathan’s parents, they begin to uncover the truth about Skip’s death. With elements of mystery and intrigue, True Stories at the Smoky View is primarily a novel about relationships: the love Vrai feels for her husband and sons, all of whom have left home; her friendship with Skip, which she begins to see in a new light; and her deepening bond with Jonathan. For Vrai and Jonathan, this is a story of mutual rescue—one that results in new lives for them both. Author: Jill McCroskey Coupe Publication Date: April 5, 2016 -
At first grateful to be able remodel the dining room of her family’s modest home in Connecticut to accommodate her eighty-six-year-old father for what everyone felt would be a short duration of care, Cindy Eastman ultimately experienced a whole gamut of feelings over the course of what turned out to be four years of caring for her dying dad. Caregiving impacts everyone, and this account—told in essays recorded before, during, and after the time Eastman’s father was with her—details that impact, not just on the primary caregiver but also the rest of the family.
One of the reasons Eastman committed to writing down her experiences was because she predicted that once her dad died, there would be a tendency to soften or even deny any of the negative and challenging times—and there were many. As of 2020, more than 53 million adults provide homecare in this country, and the reality of that arrangement is different for every family. It is not, as some might suggest, a “noble gesture” but rather an elegant conflict—an intricate reassembling of the family dynamic that many people don’t ever see coming. In these candid, often poignant essays, Cindy Eastman brings all the emotions of taking on the challenging responsibility of caregiving a parent at the end of their life to the surface.
Author: Cindy Eastman Publication date: September 17, 2024 -
In this lyrical and artfully woven memoir, a short road trip to California’s Central Coast becomes an epic journey through family history, loss, and connection. When three generations of women—a Gen X narrator, her seventy-seven-year-old mother, and her twenty-two-year-old Gen Z daughter—set out for a quick trip to California's Central Coast, what begins as a road trip soon transforms into something far richer: a modern-day Odyssey. Over the course of three days, the three women brave a severe winter storm, encounter ravenous ostriches, walk through an enchanted light exhibit, binge-watch White Lotus, hunt for coffee with plant-based milk, bicker, reconcile, and share stories. Troika braids the narrative of a three-day road trip with the longer strands of migration, memory, and motherhood, creating a layered meditation on distance traveled—geographic, generational, and emotional. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey that traverses the landscapes of identity and family history and stretches from the horrors of the second world war and an escape from Soviet Russia to adolescence and motherhood in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. As the narrative swerves from heartbreak to hilarity, from Homeric detours and Russian proverbs to internet memes, it weaves together an intimate, poignant, and darkly funny meditation on how we get from where we were to where we are—and what we carry with us along the way. Author: Irena Smith Publication Date: April 7, 2026 -
Years after suffering sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of her stepfather, Melanie is still haunted by her past. Her husband, Julius—a cop, and thus experienced in dealing with crime and punishment—struggles to understand his wife’s silent pain, but he can’t give her the closure she needs. Determined to exorcise her past, Melanie must choose between revenge and forgiveness. The first may destroy her marriage—but she’s not convinced that the second will bring her the peace of mind she so desperately yearns for. Haunting and hard-edged, Trespassers is an unflinching exploration of what happens to an individual—and a family—in the aftermath of abuse. Author: Andrea Miles Publication date: October 28, 2014 -
Since leaving home for Europe alone at age seventeen, Karen Gershowitz has traveled to more than ninety countries. In pursuit of her passion for travel, she lost and gained friends and lovers and made a radical career change. She learned courage and risk taking and succeeded at things she didn’t think she could do: She climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. She visited remote areas of Indonesia on her own and became a translator, though only fluent in English. She conquered her fear of falling while on an elephant trek in Thailand. And she made friends across the globe, including a Japanese family who taught her to make sushi and a West Berliner who gave her an insider’s look at the city shortly after the wall came down. An example that will inspire armchair travelers to become explorers and embolden everyone to be more courageous, Travel Mania is a vivid story of how one woman found her strength, power, and passion. Travel is Karen’s addiction—and she doesn’t want treatment. Publication Date: July 13, 2021 Author: Karen Gershowitz -
Transister is the story of a family in transition. Not a prescriptive narrative but an affirming one. A raw, honest, sometimes humorous account of author Kate Brookes’s journey as her young child grapples with gender identity and becomes her authentic self. Brookes has longed to become a mother for as long as she can remember. And for almost as long, she has harbored a fierce determination to parent her children differently—better—than her own mentally ill mom parented her. To create the “normal” family she’s always wished for. And when she gives birth to twins after two years of fertility struggles, she is, admittedly, hugely relieved that she’s found herself with two boys. There will be no need for her, a decidedly un-girly girl, to braid hair, buy Barbie dolls, or pick out party dresses for her kids. Boys. Easy. Right? But by the time her twins are eight, Brookes has had two realizations: 1) her obstetrician’s “it’s another boy” announcement was flat-out wrong, and 2) there is no such thing as a “normal” family—and that’s a beautiful thing. Author: Kate Brookes Pub Date: August 8, 2023
