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Sarah's War: A Novel
by Eugenia Lovett West1777 is a pivotal year in the United States. The Revolutionary War has long since begun, with no end in sight. George Washington and his untrained militia struggle to survive. The thirteen states are torn apart by politics. Amidst all this chaos, Sarah Champion—a beautiful young Patriot and parson’s daughter whose twin brother was killed in the Battle of Long Island—is sent from rural Connecticut to live with a rich Loyalist aunt in Philadelphia. There, she is plunged into a world of intrigue and treachery. She spies on British officers enjoying festivities in winter quarters. She goes to Valley Forge with information about a plot to kill Washington.As the war drags on, Sarah digs deep for the strength, courage, and wits to overcome the numerous deadly threats she faces, driven on by her determination to realize one dream: being part of the efforts to form a new and independent country.
A Smoke and a Song: A Memoir
by Sherry SidotiJanuary 2021, ten months into the global pandemic, Sherry Sidoti’s mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer—so Sherry prioritizes a trip to Manhattan over long-awaited empty-nesting and her “second chance” with fiancé Jevon. With new life blooming and loss looming, she is beckoned to answer the question that has haunted her since childhood: is freedom found in “letting go,” as the spiritual teachers (and her mother) insist—or is it found by digging our heels deeper into the earth and holding on to our humanness?A Smoke and a Song is Sherry’s story of her quest to make meaning from the memories homed in her body. Told with tenacity, tenderness, and wry humor, Sherry stumbles towards self-actualization, spiritual awakening—and, despite it all, love. This is a story steeped in art and spirituality that explores the complexities of transgenerational maternal bonds, attachment, loss, and leaning in to our wounds to find the wisdom.
To Walk It Is To See It: 1 Couple, 98 Days, 1400 Miles on Europe's GR5
by Kathy ElkindIn 2018, Kathy Elkind and her husband decided to take a grown-up “gap year” in Europe and walk the 1,400-mile Grande Randonnée Cinq (GR5) across The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.At fifty-seven, Kathy has chosen comfort over hardship: Unlike the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail, the GR5 winds from village to village instead of campsite to campsite. She and Jim get to indulge in warm beds and delicious regional food every night and croissants in the mornings. The GR5 is not all comfort. Walking day after day for ninety-eight days bring sickness, accommodation struggles, language barriers, and storm-shrouded mountains in the Alps. Meanwhile, Kathy finds herself reflecting on difficult topics—primarily, her struggles with dyslexia, overeating, and shame. But she also finds that the walking becomes a moving meditation and the beauty of the landscape heals; she begins to discover her own wise strength; and as the days unfold, she comes to the gratifying realization that a long marriage is like a long trail: there are ups and downs and it takes hard work to keep going, but the beauty along the way is staggering.Written with raw honesty and compassion, and rich with dazzling scenery, To Walk It Is To See It will inspire you to lace up your walking shoes and discover your own path.
Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood
by Jill ChristmanUntil the 1960s, infants were plucked from orphanages and maternity wards and used as “practice babies” in college home economics department across the country. Award-winning writer Jill Christman was determined to find out what happened to them. Along the way, five months pregnant herself, with her hormones (and anxiety) raging, she also hoped to discover what it means to be a mother.
The Worst Thing We've Ever Done: One Juror's Reckoning with Racial Injustice
by Carol MenakerIn May of 1976, twenty-four-year-old Carol Menaker was impaneled with eleven others on a jury in the trial of Freddy Burton, a young Black prison inmate charged with the grisly murders of two white wardens inside Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison. After being sequestered for twenty-one days, the jury voted to convict Mr. Burton, who was then sentenced to life in prison without parole.For more than forty years, Menaker did what she could to put the intensely emotional experience of the sequestration and trial behind her, rarely speaking of it to others and avoiding jury service when at all possible. But the arrival of a jury summons at her home in Northern California in 2017 set her on a path to unravel the painful experience of sequestration and finally ask the question: What ever happened to Freddy Burton—and is it possible that my youth and white privilege were what led me to convict him of murder?The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done is Menaker’s inspirational account of journeying back in time to uncover the personal bias that may have led her to judge someone whose shoes she never could have walked in.
Wanderlust: Extraordinary People, Quirky Places, and Curious Cuisine
by Karen GershowitzKaren Gershowitz is officially a travel addict—one with more than ninety countries under her belt. In these engaging stories, she brings readers along as her companions as she explores, laughs, and marvels at the richness of other cultures. Whether she’s picking through the worst meal ever in the wilds of Tanzania, eating a transcendent strudel in Vienna, meeting the locals in an isolated opal mining hamlet in Australia’s outback, or learning to make noodles in a Chinese village, she invites you to share in her experiences.Whatever kind of traveler you are, novice or experienced, or even if you prefer sitting in your armchair, these stories will transport you deep into other ways of living in the world—and, hopefully, inspire you to set out on your own journeys!
Those the Future Left Behind: A Novel
by Patrick MeischThe ever-increasing socioeconomic disparity between people on Earth has grown to the point that governments are now implementing a radical program: submit your life for “Collection” at a young age, and you’ll gain access to immediate wealth—with some strings attached. For many from marginalized communities, this is barely a choice, as they would rather live an abbreviated life fulfilling their dreams than an elongated one scratching out a meager existence in the gutter. Unpackaged from the first-person account of a neurodiverse Collector, an employee of the government who is charged with the execution of contracted individuals upon the conclusion of their allotted time, Those the Future Left Behind is a work of speculative science fiction that explores what life might be like on an Earth suffering from resource depletion and overpopulation—an Earth plagued by the same problems we continually brush off today on the chance that others will solve them for us tomorrow.
Walking on Fire: A Novel
by Kathryn CrawleyGreece. Politics. Love. Danger. Reeling from a failed marriage and spurred on by a burgeoning sense of feminism, twenty-five-year-old Kate accepts a position as a speech therapist in a center for children with cerebral palsy in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is 1974, and the recent end of Greece’s seven-year dictatorship has ignited a fiery anti-American sentiment within the country. Despite this, as her Greek improves, Kate teaches communication to severely disabled children, creates profound friendships, and finds a home in the ancient and historied city. From a dramatic Christmas pig slaughter to a mesmerizing fire walking ceremony, her world expands rapidly—even more so when she falls in love with Thanasis, a handsome Communist. Through Thanasis, Kate meets people determined to turn a spotlight on their former dictators’ massacre of university students, as well as their record of widespread censorship and torture of dissidents. The more she learns, the more her loyalty to her country and almost everything she was taught in her conservative home state of Texas is challenged. Kate is transformed by her odyssey, but when her very safety is threatened by the politics of her lover, she must choose: risk everything to stay with Thanasis and the Greece that has captured her heart, or remove herself from harm’s way by returning to her homeland?
Tinderbox: One Family's Story of Adoption, Neurodiversity, and Fierce Love
by Lynn AlsupLynn watched her beloved Clare, newly adopted from Haiti, crawl the house in a frantic search for her lost mother. Preschool Clare enchanted with belly laughs and shining smiles. Also, thrashed and wailed in her room as Lynn crouched on her own bed—pillow clutched over her head—her past trauma triggered. A pre-teen trip to Haiti brought sunshine, ruby red hibiscus blooms, and the music of Haitian Creole. Back at home, Clare shattered mirrors into shards on the subway tiles of their bathroom. And just before her thirteenth birthday, as she and Lynn walked hand in hand through their neighborhood, Clare calmly detailed her plan to die.Over the next years, Lynn and her family walked through psychiatric hospitals, along the Appalachian Trail, and in and out of residential placements, marriage, faith, and sanity barely surviving the journey. But then Lynn learned about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)—a source of neurodivergence in one in twenty American children—and discovered the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model, a strengths-based approach to celebrating and accommodating neurodiversity. It was a discovery that transformed them all.At times joyous, at times harrowing, but always full of love, Tinderbox is a mother’s story of brokenness, unrelenting resilience, and hope.
Blood Divided: The Felserpent Chronicles: Book Two (The Felserpent Chronicles)
by Katie KeridanKyra Valorian and Sebastian Sayre have finally remembered their pasts as the former Felserpent Queen and King, and now it’s time for them to change the future—by reuniting the realms and bringing peace to Astrals and Daevals. But tensions between Aeles and Nocens have never been higher, and those of silver and gold blood are more divided than ever.In addition to improving her recovrancy abilities and completing internship, Kyra is determined to uncover her father’s role in the evil Astral experimentation program, no matter the danger. As Sebastian learns to be in a relationship, he finds himself facing the traumas of two very different pasts, forcing him to make tough decisions about his chosen profession and who he wants to be. Meanwhile, Tallus, arch-enemy to the Felserpent monarchy, has also returned—and it will take help from Cyphers, as well as friends both old and new, to find and stop him. As Kyra and Sebastian struggle to navigate the differences between their past and current relationship, one thing’s clear: part of fulfilling their destiny means accepting their fate. The choices they make will reach all the way into Death in this thrilling found family sequel to Reign Returned.
The Mother of All Field Trips: Homeschooling Two Kids in 14 Countries
by Jeannie RalstonWhen her two boys were 9 and 11, this adventure journalist and her National Geographic photographer husband decided to hell with boring old school: what better way to learn about history, culture, languages—and each other—than traveling together around the world? So the family set out on what turned into a three-year adventure that included the Great Wall of China, Egypt during the Arab Spring, leopard-spotting in Serengeti, the heights of Machu Picchu, World War II landmarks in Normandy, a civil rights lesson in Selma, and so much more. By the end, not only were they closer as a family, they became true global citizens and explorers, bonded by a priceless trove of memories and experiences.
The Opposite of Never: A Novel
by Mary Kathleen MehuronLife is mostly a mixed bag. Devastated when they lose their spouses, both Kenny Simmons and Georgia Best carry on for the sake of their children, although they are certain that the best part of their lives is long over. Then Georgia and her lifelong companions, Linda and Yvonne, meet Kenny while walking down a dusty Vermont country road, and the four of them hit it off. Soon, Kenny becomes a regular part of their hiking group, and he and Georgia grow more than fond of each other. Kenny’s stepdaughter, Zelda, and Yvonne’s teenage son, Spencer, also fall in love—at first sight. Through surprisingly relatable circumstances, they are drawn into opiate use, shocking everyone, and the two of them struggle through the torment of addiction together. In an impulsive and daring attempt to create a grand finale out of difficult times, Kenny takes Georgia off to vacation in Cuba just as it is opening up to Americans—and what they discover in the golden light of Old Havana is another startling surprise.
Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing
by Linda Joy MyersIn Journey of Memoir you will find lessons on how to write a great scene; information on the difference between freewriting and outlining, and why you need both; timeline and turning point exercises to help create structure; and much more. This unique workbook gives you the tools you need to begin, develop, and complete your memoir.
The Seeing Garden: A Novel
by Ginny Kubitz MoyerSet on a lavish California estate, The Seeing Garden is “a moving story with strong female characters” (Kirkus Reviews) for fans of Edith Wharton and Downton Abbey.It’s 1910, and Catherine Ogden is aching to live a creative and meaningful life. That’s not easy to do when her aunt and uncle—and all of New York society—consider a good marriage to be the pinnacle of feminine achievement. But when Catherine visits Oakview, the Northern California estate of handsome bachelor William Brandt, she thinks that it might be possible to satisfy her family’s hopes as well as her own. In that beautiful place, she finds the promise of a new start and the opportunity to use her artistic gifts in designing the garden. But as Catherine is drawn into William’s hidden life, as well as the secrets of his estate staff, she discovers that Oakview holds both more opportunity and more risk than she ever imagined. It will take all her courage—and the lessons of some shocking revelations from the past—to choose the path that leads to real freedom. Full of rich period detail and complex characters, and set against an unforgettable backdrop, The Seeing Garden explores what it takes for a woman to discern the path to her most authentic life.
Paper Airplanes: A Novel
by Tabitha ForneyIt’s the end of summer, 2001. Erin O’Connor has everything she’s ever dreamed of: good friends, a high-powered career at a boutique Manhattan firm, and a husband she adores. They have plans for their life together: careers, children, and maybe even a house in the country. But life has other plans. Daniel works on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center.Erin is drinking margaritas on a beach in Mallorca, helping her best friend get over a breakup, when she hears a plane has crashed into Daniel’s building. On a television at the smoky hotel bar, she watches his building collapse. She makes her way home with the help of a stranger named Alec, and once there, she haunts Ground Zero, nearby hospitals, and trauma centers, plastering walls and fences with missing-person flyers. But there’s no trace of Daniel.After accepting Daniel’s death, Erin struggles to get her life back on track but makes a series of bad decisions and begins to live her life in a self-destructive fog of booze and pills. It’s not until she hits rock bottom that she realizes it’s up to her to decide: Was her destiny sealed with Daniel’s? Or is there life after happily ever after?
The Goodbye Year: A Novel
by Kaira RoudaAs featured in: Working Mother * Woman's Day * Redbook * Chico's * Sunset magazine * Coastal Living * SheKnows * Woman's World * Yahoo! Beauty * Fox 28 * The Berry Melanie, a perfectionist mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can’t believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college is cracking the carefully cultivated façade of her life. Will and his wife are fine—as long as he follows the instructions on the family calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren, the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter in the senior class). Told from the points of view of both the parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer pressure, what it’s like for young people to face the unknown of life after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a couple’s second act together—empty nesting—might possibly be the end.
Watching for Dragonflies: A Caregiver's Transformative Journey
by Suzanne Marriott2023 Living Now Book Awards Bronze Medal Winner for Mature Living/Caregiving“I found it unique and inspiring that the couple worked hard to keep their love alive and their sex life active while facing serious health challenges. . . . What a highly inspiring and impactful book!” —Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review“Spirituality is a central theme throughout the memoir. . . . A moving story of love, loss, illness, and the beauty that persists.” —Kirkus ReviewsSuzanne’s story begins with a phone call from her husband, Michael, telling her he has collapsed on the job. They soon learn he has multiple sclerosis. Despite the negative patterns threatening their marriage, she is determined to handle the caregiving tasks suddenly thrust upon her. Through love, psychological insights, and spiritual inquiry, she cultivates her abilities—and gains the courage to confront a medical system that often saves her husband but at other times threatens his life. As time progresses, Michael undergoes many hospitalizations; he also makes miraculous recoveries that allow adventure back into their lives, including a numinous experience with dragonflies. When Suzanne faces her own medical crisis, their world is shaken once again—but throughout it all, love is their bond, one even death cannot sever.In Watching for Dragonflies, Suzanne reaches out to other caregivers and anyone who has experienced a life-changing crisis, inviting them to explore the many avenues of growth and transformation that uninvited change can bring. Often poignant, at times funny, and always riveting, Watching for Dragonflies will bring comfort—and inspiration—to readers as they navigate their own transformative journey.
The Wrong Sister: Stories
by Caroline LeavittCritically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt explores the family ties that bind—and garrote—in two haunting stories. In “The Wrong Sister,” a younger sister yearns to be like her elder one, right down to cozying up to her boyfriend, with startling results. In “The Last Vacation,” a family finds itself imploding during a sunny Cape Cod vacation, and nothing will ever be the same. Moody, funny, and full of insights about what makes a family.
All's Fair and Other California Stories
by Linda FeyderIn 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.
Life Dust: A Novel
by Pam WebberNettie and Andy have been soul mates since childhood. While planning their wedding, Andy receives orders from the Army to deploy immediately to South Vietnam for a year.Anxious about Andy’s safety, Nettie dives into her work as a nursing intern in the hospital emergency room. When she inadvertently walks in on a nursing supervisor and surgeon during a late-night tryst, the vengeful lovers initiate a campaign to end her career before it starts. Nettie’s only respite is an elderly patient who has everything money can buy—except the one thing he wants.In Southeast Asia, Andy is leading a long-range reconnaissance squad in an unforgiving jungle when he receives orders to escort a high-ranking female freedom fighter, Bien, to a clandestine meeting with an enemy officer who wants to defect. Previously raped, beaten, and left for dead by North Vietnamese soldiers, Bien is suspicious of the enemy officer’s motives, but she also thinks he may be the younger brother her attackers conscripted into their army as a child. Andy, meanwhile, believes his unit is walking into a trap that could cost them everything.Struggling to survive in different worlds, Nettie and Andy navigate the best and worst of human nature as they try to find their way back to each other.
Blue Flame: Book Two in the Daemon Collecting Series
by Alison LevyWhile introducing Leda Morley, last of an ancient line of gatekeepers, to the ins and outs of her daemon-collecting work, Rachel Wilde encounters something far more dangerous than any daemon: a young boy who stands alone against an unseen yet terrifying enemy that has invaded his home—an inhuman creature who, hellbent on revenge for a minor slight, intends to harm the boy’s oblivious family. Meanwhile, Leda’s brother, Simon, is feeling left out of his maternal family legacy but is coping partly by helping Rachel’s friend Bach—a previously homeless man with unusual mental abilities—get his life back on track. In the midst of all of this, Bach unintentionally but serendipitously makes contact with a capable otherworldly being who, with great reluctance, agrees to help Bach and his friends take on the dangerous creature that’s just become their problem to solve. Together, this group of unlikely allies must put aside their differences to save an innocent child, and his family, from a monster—before it’s too late.
Bittersweet Manor: A Novel
by Tory McCaggAfter a four-month estrangement from her family, thirty-two-year-old Emma Michaels visits The Harbor View Assisted Living Home to tell her grandmother, Gussie, that she has made a decision: she’s going to sell the family property—her inheritance. Sitting on the dock of Poquatuck Village, Connecticut, looking across the harbor to their family’s longtime home, the two women debate over Emma’s choice—and their conversation lays the framework for the book, which flows over the decades, all the way back to Gussie's youth and marriage, then forward through the lives of her three children, Auggie, Livy, and Alyssa, whose hopes and talents are warped by their mother’s influence and disappointed expectations. Expectations passed down through the generations. Subtle. Unspoken. Implacable. As Emma and Gussie remember the choices and dynamics that have produced the complicated tapestry that is their family’s history, Emma makes a number of surprising discoveries about her loved ones—and herself—and she prepares to do what no one else in her family has dared: let go of the past to make room for the future, though doing so will destroy the thing her grandmother holds most dear.
The Goddess Twins: A Novel
by Yodassa Williams“ . . . an impressive, commanding novel about black girl magic . . . The Goddess Twins is an emotive and powerful feminist novel that inspires the innate goddess in every girl..” —Foreword Reviews “Family bonds create the magic in this stirring fantasy.” —Kirkus Reviews It’s days before your eighteenth birthday, but your mother is missing and suddenly you have supernatural powers. What are you willing to face to discover the truth of who you really are? After years of traveling the world, black identical twins Aurora and Arden think they’ve settled into normalcy in Ohio. But days before their eighteenth birthday, the snarky twins develop powers in telekinesis and telepathy―at the same time that their famous mother, who’s on tour in London, disappears. Searching for answers and determined to rescue her, the sisters unearth truths that threaten to extinguish their bond and demolish their strength as individuals. Can they trust their beguiling, newly discovered British cousins when they barely trust one another? Should they heed the warnings of their immortal grandmother, a Patoi-chatting goddess, who says she’s friendly with The Fates and can see inside a person’s very soul? In order to succeed in their quest, these goddess twins must work together, master their powers, and unveil a horrifying, century-old family mystery. Otherwise, they may not live to see eighteen―or their mother again.
The Legends of Orkney: The Complete Trilogy
by Alane AdamsExperience the Legends of Orkney trilogy—the entire series all together for the first time. In The Red Sun, you’ll be introduced to middle school student Sam Baron, who gets the shock of his life when a strange dwarf shows up with the claim that Sam is from a magical realm called Orkney. Then Sam’s friends are taken prisoner, and he follows their captors to Orkney—embarking upon a journey to rescue his friends, uncover the truth about his past, and combat an ancient curse that threatens to destroy the land. In Kalifus Rising, it’s Sam who’s in trouble this time: Imprisoned by Catriona, leader of the Volgrim Witches, he finds the darker side of his half-god, half-witch heritage released, and he fears he might destroy the very land he’s just saved. He believes his only hope for salvation lies with his three best friends and a mystical artifact known as the Moon Pearl; other forces are at work in Orkney's shadows, however—forces that could help free Sam, or condemn him to the darkness forever. Finally, in The Raven God, an army of red giants gather in the Eighth Realm of Musspell, determined to destroy Orkney—and it’s all Sam’s fault. After all, he took Odin’s life with an ancient cursed dagger, and now mankind has lost its protector. Once again, it’s up to Sam and his friends to prove that they can find the courage to do what’s needed when the odds are stacked against them, and the sacrifice asked is greater than any of them could imagine. Fast-paced and spell-binding, the Legends of Orkney trilogy is a magical adventure not to be missed.
Shadows We Carry: A Novel
by Meryl AinIn this eagerly anticipated sequel to Meryl Ain’s award-winning post-Holocaust novel The Takeaway Men, we follow Bronka and JoJo Lubinski as they find themselves on the cusp of momentous change for women in the late 1960s. With the United States in the grip of political and social upheaval, the twins and a number of their peers, including a Catholic priest and the son of a Nazi, struggle with their family’s ancestry and how much influence it has on their lives. Meanwhile, both young women seek to define their roles as women, and as individuals. Enlightening and evocative, Shadows We Carry explores the experience of navigating deeply held family secrets and bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II in the wake of revolutionary societal changes.