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Two Eyes Are Never Enough: A Minimum-Wage Memoir
by Sonya HuberSonya Huber’s memoir takes us behind the scenes in one of the most invisible professions in the United States: direct care. Huber went into the field of direct care work in mental health hoping to make a difference in the lives of teenagers, and planning for a career in social work. What she encountered was startling and revealing—dangerous and unhealthy conditions, poverty wages, and work that took a heavy emotional toll. Melding reporting with personal experiences, she searches for possible solutions for workers and clients alike, bringing to light a profession that serves our most vulnerable population with some of the most stressed-out workers. Humane and beautifully written, this memoir will make everyone stop and think about how we care for each other in this culture.
Guidance from the Universe: Hopeful Messages for Everyday Challenges
by Jill Amy SagerFor fans of Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements and Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Living comes a stunning self-help memoir about how Tarot reader Jill Amy Sager achieved enlightenment and self-acceptance by tapping into guidance from the universe."In a style akin to Anne Lamott, Jill opens up her life for us to join her on the journey of transformation.”—David Trotter, publisher of Awakened Magazine Each eye-opening chapter in this self-help memoir highlights Tarot reader Jill Amy Sager’s self-discovery after unexpectedly channeling wisdom from the Universe. What she learned ignited profound change: she went from having grown up physically disabled and believing she is unlovable to feeling confident and content in her own skin. We all want to feel good about ourselves. Yet we can struggle far longer than we need to, unable to remove blocks getting in the way. We often feel stuck and forget to give ourselves the grace, acceptance, and compassion we so readily give to others. Here, Sager shares thirty insightful messages from a sage source she calls “Guidance” alongside illuminating personal stories that showcase how these teachings have improved her life. There are also thought-provoking questions to encourage your spiritual journey. This book is a wake-up call—a nourishing reminder that each of us matters, and therefore treating ourselves with kindness, love, and respect is essential. Guidance shows us how to relax into our natural state of being, feeling more at ease in our vast and beautiful hearts, and Sager’s stories illustrate just how attainable this state of being is. Ultimately, we discover that this enlightened life-changing shift is key to the happiness we seek and the welcomed harmony the world needs.
Serenade: A Novel
by Emily KiebelLorelei Clark's only concern was her future as a classically trained soprano, that is, until the day her father was tragically killed. Shattered by his death, she hesitantly accepts an invitation from a mysterious aunt to visit her lavish oceanside home in Cape Cod. She quickly discovers that her aunt and the two women who live with her are harboring a frightening secret they are sirens, terrifying mythical creatures responsible for singing doomed sailors to their deaths. Even more astounding, Lorelei is one of them. In this new world where water comes alive at her touch and an ancient power pulses beneath the tide, the most important rule Lorelei must learn is that a siren never interferes with fate. When she breaks this rule by rescuing a handsome sailor who should have died at sea, the sirens vow she must finish the job or face grave consequences. Finding herself inexplicably attracted to him, she must fight to keep him safe from the others, even if it means risking her own life and her heart in the process.
A Tiny Piece of Blue: A Novel
by Charlotte WhitneyFor fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds and Lisa Wingate’s Shelterwood comes a heartwarming historical novel following a homeless young girl as she struggles to survive during the Great Depression.Rural Michigan, 1934. During the throes of the Great Depression, thirteen-year-old Silstice Trayson finds herself homeless, abandoned by her parents after a devastating house fire. Nearby, aging midwestern farmers Edna and Vernon Goetz are pillars of the community, but when do-gooder Edna takes up Silstice’s cause, Vernon digs in his heels, displaying his true nature as an ornery curmudgeon. Theirs is a quiet-seeming community, but danger lurks beneath the bucolic façade. With so many youngsters leaving home to make it on their own, child trafficking has grown rampant, and Silstice and her two spirited young brothers soon find themselves in the sights of a ring of kidnappers that’s exploiting local children into forced labor—and worse. Meanwhile Vernon finds himself at risk of losing everything. Narrated by Silstice, Vernon, and Edna, A Tiny Piece of Blue sets the customs and traditions of rural Michigan against a backdrop of thievery, bribery, and child-trafficking—weaving a suspenseful yet tender tale that ultimately winds its way to a heartwarming conclusion.
Beautiful Girl: A Novel
by Fleur PhilipsSeventeen-year-old Melanie Kennicut is beautiful. Her entire life revolves around this beauty because her overly controlling mother has been dragging her to casting calls and auditions since she was four years old. According to Joanne Kennicut, Melanie was born to follow in her footsteps. But Melanie never wanted this life. When a freak car accident leaves her with facial lacerations that will require plastic surgery, she can't help but wonder if this is the answer to her prayers. For the first time in her life, she has a chance to live like a normal teenager?at least for a little while?away from the photo shoots and movie sets that have dominated her entire existence. But after Melanie allows her best friend to come to the house to see her, Joanne decides to hide her daughter in Montana for the remainder of the summer. There, Melanie won't be seen by anyone they know, and her face will heal in time for the scheduled surgery in late August. Joanne’s plan backfires, however, when Melanie meets Sam, a Native American boy hired by the home's owner to tend to the property. Sam is nothing like the Hollywood boys Melanie knows?he¹s poor, his father's a drunk who possesses a bizarre gift inherited from a Kootenai Shaman, and his only brother disappeared into the mountains after the death of their mother eight years before. What transpires over a mere 36 hours after Sam and Melanie meet changes both of their lives in ways they never thought possible. USA Best Book Awards: Fiction: Young Adult, Finalist
Side Effects Are Minimal: A Novel
by Laura EssayWhen ambitious attorney Claire Hewitt is asked to represent the Satoris, one of Philadelphia’s most prominent families, in a lawsuit over the death of their daughter, she is thrust into an opioid nightmare with deadly impact—and not for the first time. Claire’s guilt for not saving her sister, Molly, has not subsided in the twenty years since Molly’s almost certainly opioid-related death. Now, with this new assignment, her guilt comes full circle. Who was really at fault in Molly’s death? And who is at fault now? What begins as a quest for truth becomes infinitely more complicated as Claire struggles to balance her desire for justice with the Satoris’ thirst for revenge. She knows she needs to expose the greed that transforms legal opioid production into illicit fabrications and the neglect that is the breaking point between physicians and their patients. But there are powerful people who will seemingly stop at nothing to prevent these truths from seeing the light of day, and she is sabotaged at every turn. Can she push past the obstacles in her way to build a winning case?Based on true events, Side Effects Are Minimal is about a corrupt pharmaceutical industry, the guilt of physicians prescribing the opioids that kill, and the pain experienced by families who’ve lost loved ones to an epidemic that has brought the United States to its knees.
The Risotto Guru: Adventures in Eating Italian
by Laura FraserNYT-bestselling author Laura Fraser journeys from the SpaghettiOs of her American childhood to savor the best of Italian cuisine and the culture that cooked it up. Using the same dreamy, delicious prose that made An Italian Affair a best-selling memoir, these essays will delight readers who loved that book, and all who love Italian food and culture. Sumptuous descriptions of Italian meals—and the passion that goes into them—make this e-book a mouthwatering, uplifting pleasure. In “Italy in 17 Courses,” Fraser uses the pace and order of the dishes in a wedding feast to muse on her own introduction to Italian food, and how it changed her from a diet-obsessed vegetarian to a pasta and pancetta connoisseur. “An Affair to Remember” explores themes of food and nostalgia, and how a good meal can lift the spirit. In “The Risotto Guru,” Fraser writes a funny spoof of New Age gurus as she searches to perfect her own risotto. Warning: Do not read on an empty stomach.
Hold: A Medical Murder Mystery
by Amy S. PeeleSarah Golden and Jackie Larsen promised their partners they were out of the detective business. They declared “game over” after both of them almost lost their lives trying to solve their last medical mystery, and they’re happy with that decision: Sarah has finally allowed love and romance into her life, Jackie’s marriage is solid, and Jackie’s son, Wyatt, is still doing great with his year-old kidney transplant. So when they go on their dream trip to Cuba, they are not looking for trouble. But all their plans go out the window when a desperate plea from a Cuban transplant surgeon puts the duo in serious danger with the Cuban government on the same day the four most prominent immunologists in the world—doctors who were on the verge of solving the huge rejection issues that have plagued the transplant community for over fifty years—are killed in a car accident in Chicago. Soon, Sarah and Jackie find themselves dragged into the bowels of investigating venture capitalists and corporate greed—a terrain they know nothing about. As they uncover suspect clinical trials at major US transplant centers, including Sarah’s, their usual friends Biker Bob and Officer Handsome aren’t able to help them much, but they do receive assistance from an unlikely source: Sergio, who they helped to land in prison in Florida (and who is trying to win back his girlfriend), offers his help from the inside. Sarah and Jackie are armed with smarts, humor, and enough persistence to help them face the white-collared demons of corporate America—but with dangerous players gunning for them and death threats being made against their families, will they be able to solve this mystery before someone else gets hurt?
The Inward Outlook: Conscious Choice as a Daily Practice
by Laura BashaEvery day, we take in data from the world around us and store that data in our intellect. Then, without conscious awareness, we listen to that data—a process we call “thinking”—and use what it tells us to inform our decisions. But living our lives this way means always living in the past, and it limits us more than we think.In The Inward Outlook, psychologist Laura Basha shares how to discern this habitual way of thinking from the innate wisdom and common sense that we all have available to us at all times. Once we can see this distinction between personal thinking from the past and in-the-moment, impersonal, diffuse thinking, we are awakened to the conscious choice point, which allows us to make choices with awareness and to release judgment of ourselves and of others. We then consciously create ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can be: our authentic, powerfully creative, compassionate selves. A powerful guide to accessing one’s own innate health, well-being, and wisdom, The Inward Outlook is an accessible exploration of a principle-based paradigm that educates people in the role thought plays in creating their experience of reality—and a road map to cultivating inspired focus, accomplishment, and peace of mind in one’s life.
Wendy Darling: Volume 1: Stars
by Colleen Oakes“A dark twist on a familiar tale that readers will have difficulty putting down.” (School Library Journal)Wendy Darling has a perfectly agreeable life with her parents and brothers in wealthy London, as well as a budding romance with Booth, the neighborhood bookseller's son. But one night, while their parents are at a ball, the charmingly beautiful Peter Pan comes to the Darling children's nursery, and—dazzled by this flying boy with god-like powers—they follow him out of the window and straight on to morning into Neverland, an intoxicating island of freedom. As time passes in Neverland, Wendy realizes that this Lost Boy's paradise of turquoise seas, mermaids, and pirates holds terrible secrets rooted in blood and greed. As Peter's grasp on her heart tightens, she struggles to remember where she came from—and begins to suspect that this island of dreams, and the boy who desires her, have the potential to transform into an everlasting nightmare.
The Alienation of Courtney Hoffman: A Novel
by Brady G. StefaniFifteen-year-old Courtney wants to be normal like her friends. But there’s something frighteningly different about her—and it’s not just the mysterious tattoo her conspiracy-obsessed grandfather marked her with when she was a child. The last thing Courtney wants to do is end up crazy and dead like her grandfather—but what about the tattoo? And the alien scouts who visit Courtney in her bedroom at night, claiming to have shared an alliance with her grandfather? With her new friend Agatha’s apocalyptic visions, Courtney begins connecting the dots between the past, present, and future—of her bloodline, and the ancient history that surrounds it. So is she going mentally insane, like her family claimed her grandfather did, or is she actually a “chosen one” with ancestral connections to another world? Either way, Courtney has a mission: untangle her past, discover the truth, and stop the apocalypse before anyone from school finds out she’s missing.
Rain Dodging: A Scholar's Romp through Britain in Search of a Stuart Queen
by Susan J. GodwinScholar Susan Godwin is hooked when she comes across the captivating story of Mary of Modena—a seventeenth-century Italian princess who was only fourteen when coerced into marriage with the future king of England, James II, yet went on to cultivate a court full of women writers in an age when female authorship was rare. How did Mary achieve such a feat? Rain Dodging is Susan’s creative nonfiction account of the years-long search upon which this question—and her own unquenchable curiosity—launched her. Godwin travels through both space and time, solo adventuring through Britain in pursuit of truth and, in a spicy parallel arc, chronicling her own cluttered but resilient feminist path. From schizophrenic lovers to out-there musicians to one unhinged mother, Susan tells the story of her personal enlightenment even as she visits the palaces and manor houses in England and Scotland Mary once inhabited and pores over materials in Oxford’s stunning 400-year-old Bodleian Library, finding moments of transcendence and unexpected delight along the way. Join Susan in this irreverent and illuminating journey—a fascinating account of the late Stuart monarchy, the progression of feminist history, and the unexpected connection between the two.
The Twenty: One Woman's Trek Across Corsica on the GR20 Trail
by Marianne C. BohrGreat for fans of: Suzanne Roberts’s Almost Somewhere, Juliana Buhring’s This Road I Ride.Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica—the GR20, Europe’s toughest long-distance footpath—to challenge what it means to grow old. Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The Twenty is a journey across a rugged island of stunning beauty little known outside Europe. From a chubby, non-athletic child, Bohr grew into a fit, athletic person with an “I’ll show them” attitude. But hiking The Twenty forces her to transform a lifetime of hard-won achievements into acceptance of her body and its limitations. The difficult journey across a remote island provides the crucible for exploring what it means to be an aging woman in a youth-focused culture, a physically fit person whose limitations are getting the best of her, and the partner of a husband who is growing old with her. More than a hiking tale, The Twenty is a moving story infused with humor about hiking, aging, accepting life’s finite journey, and the intimacy of a long-term marriage—set against the breathtaking beauty of Corsica’s rugged countryside.
You Make Your Path by Walking: A Transformational Field Guide Through Trauma and Loss
by Suzanne AndersonIn this beautifully crafted blend of memoir and guidebook, Suzanne Anderson invites you to walk with her through the brutal landscape of trauma and loss in a way that is profoundly transformational. Whether you are going through a personal dark night or struggling with these uncertain and disruptive global times, this book offers a proven pathway to allow the breaking down to be the breaking open into a whole new way of living, loving, and leading. Structured into three distinct parts, Part One sets the stage and walks us through the shocking event of her husband’s suicide and the dismantling of her life. Using compelling personal stories throughout, Part Two explores how to embody each of the eight critical capacities of resilience, and Part Three provides some of the inner tools, rituals and broader perspectives needed. Drawing from her years of exploration into the development of human potential and the personal, shattering journey of loss , Suzanne guides you to make your own path through the darkest of times—and to become a light in the world that others can look to in their own times of need.
Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief
by Jill SmoloweWhen journalist Jill Smolowe buried her husband, sister, mother, and mother-in-law in the space of seventeen months, she assumed that it was only a matter of time before she fell apart. That’s what all the movies and memoirs say will happen, after all. But when she never “lost it”—and when friends began to insist that her strength was amazing and unusual—she began to think there might be something freakish about her way of grieving, so she did what any self-respecting journalist would: she researched it. In Four Funerals and a Wedding, Smolowe jostles preconceptions about caregiving, defies clichés about losing loved ones, and reveals a stunning bottom line: far from being uncommon, resilience like hers is the norm among the recently bereaved. With humor and quiet wisdom, and with a lens firmly trained on what helped her tolerate so much sorrow and rebound from so much loss in her own life, she offers answers to questions we all confront in the face of loss, and ultimately reminds us all that grief is not only about endings—it’s about new beginnings.
Clear Lake: A Novel
by Nan Fink GefenRebecca Lev, a Chicago psychotherapist, is balancing a heavy workload, two demanding kids, and an unhappy second marriage—so when she learns that her father, Charlie, is in trouble, it’s just one more worry to deal with. Charlie’s moved into a grand home in the Bay Area with his new wife, Vicky, and Rebecca’s convinced that her new stepmother is physically abusing her father—but Rebecca and Charlie have grown apart, and he rejects her offers of help. Years after marrying Vicky, Charlie dies of a cerebral hemorrhage, and Rebecca strongly suspects that his wife is implicated. Feeling guilty that she didn’t better protect her father, she returns to the Bay Area to investigate, vowing to find out what really happened. After finding herself frustrated at every turn in the Bay Area, Rebecca flees to Clear Lake, the scene of some of her happiest childhood memories. She collapses there, unable to go further, and finally confronts the emotional chaos that has been building within her. There at Clear Lake, she reaches a place of peace and resolution within herself—and it gives her the strength to both end her failed marriage and make the final push to discover the startling truth about her father.
Fish Heads and Duck Skin: A Novel
by Lindsey SalatkaOn the advice of a five-dollar psychic, Tina Martin, a zany, overworked mother of two, quits her high-powered job and moves her family to Shanghai. Tina yearns for this new setting to bring her the zen-like inner peace she’s always heard about on infomercials. Instead, she becomes a totally exasperated fish out of water, doing wacky things like stealing the shoes of a shifty delivery man, spraying local women with a bidet hose, and contemplating the murder of her new pet cricket. It takes the friendship of an elderly tai chi instructor, a hot Mandarin tutor, and several mah-jongg-tile-slinging expats to bring Tina closer to a culture she doesn’t understand, the dream job she never knew existed, and the self she has always sought. Fish Heads and Duck Skin will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered who they are, why they were put here, and how they ever lived before eating pan-fried pork buns.
Portrait of a Woman in White: A Novel
by Susan WinklerFrance, 1940. Nazi forces march towards Paris. Lili Rosenswig's wealthy and eccentric family is ensconced in their country chateau with their sumptuous collection of arts and antiques. The beloved Matisse portrait of Lili's mother has been brought from their Paris salon for safety. It is the day before young lovers Lili and Paul are to be married that they are forced to flee and their fortunes change irrevocably. Lili and her family escape but Paul must stay behind to defend his country. In their struggle to adapt to changing circumstances in an unpredictable world, all are pushed to reinvent themselves. When top Nazi Hermann Göring loots their Matisse portrait, their story is intertwined with the fate of the painting. PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN IN WHITE is a moving family saga, an obsessive search for lost love and lost art and how far we will go to survive.
Deepest Blue: A Novel
by Mindy TarquiniIn a magical city seen only at twilight, resentful second son Matteo unlocks secrets which could cause his world’s star to set. For fans of Neil Gaiman and Paulo Coelho comes “a haunting lyrical fantasy dealing with love, loss, and political turmoil.” (Publisher’s Weekly) In Panduri, an enchanted city seen only at twilight, everyone's path is mapped, everyone's destiny decided, their lives charted at birth and steered by an unwavering star. Everyone has his place, and Matteo, second son of Panduri's duca, is eager to take up his as Legendary Protector—at the border and out from under his father's domineering thumb. Then Matteo's older brother pulls rank and heads to the border in his stead, leaving Panduri's orbit in a spiral and Matteo's course on a skid. Forced to follow an unexpected path, resentful and raw, Matteo is determined to rise, to pursue the one future Panduri's star can never chart: a life of his own.
Coming Up Short
by Laurie MorrisonBea’s parents think she can accomplish absolutely anything—and she’s determined to prove them right. But at the end of seventh grade, on the same day she makes a gutsy play to send her softball team to the league championships and Xander, the boy she likes, makes it clear that he likes her too, a scandal shakes up her world. Bea’s dad made a big mistake, taking money that belonged to a client. He’s now suspended from practicing law, and another lawyer spread the news online. To make matters worse, that other lawyer is Xander’s dad. <P><P> Bea doesn’t want to be angry with her dad, especially since he feels terrible and is trying to make things right. But she can't face the looks of pity from all her friends, and then she starts missing throws in softball because she’s stuck in her own head. The thing she was best at seems to be slipping out of her fingers along with her formerly happy family. She's not sure what's going to be harder—learning to throw again, or forgiving her dad. How can she be the best version of herself when everything she loves is falling apart?
Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication
by Richard CampbellGet to the heart of the AI revolution and brush up on your media literacy skills as you explore the media landscape of today, and where it all came from, using the current and relevant research found in Media & Culture.
The Third Day: Living the Resurrection
by Tom Berlin Mark A. MillerOn the third day, he rose again.In The Third Day: Living the Resurrection, Tom Berlin uses his gifts of storytelling and understanding the Scriptures to connect the reader to the experiences of several individuals around Jesus in his final days, focusing on new life and redemption rather than loss.Join Peter, Mary Magdalene, and Thomas as they feel the despair of losing Jesus and the surprise and joy that awaits them in the resurrection. This study traces events around these characters, along with Paul and the disciples at Emmaus, and how the resurrection transforms their lives.The book can be read alone or used for a six-week group study and church-wide Lenten program. Components include a comprehensive Leader Guide and video teaching sessions featuring Tom (with closed captioning).
Everyday Epiphanies: Meeting Christ in the Ordinary Moments of Life
by James A. HarnishEpiphanies are everywhere.An epiphany is a powerful insight, a revelation that can strike at any moment, in any place, and to anyone. An epiphany enlightens us, provides a deep understanding of reality, and can profoundly impact our lives. Often arising from simple yet impactful experiences, these moments can catch us off guard with a sudden clarity we may have otherwise overlooked. What if these extraordinary moments result from everyday insights that sharpen our ability to see God’s revelations in a new light? In Everyday Epiphanies: Meeting Christ in the Ordinary Moments of Life, James A. Harnish invites you to see the presence of Christ in the everyday moments of our lives. In seven chapters, he takes you through the moments in the gospels where ordinary people experienced the extraordinary revelation of Jesus as the Son of God. As you read this book, you’ll learn to pay attention to the ordinary epiphanies in your own life, the small revelations of Christ that point to God’s dramatic self-revelation to the world.
The Quick and Easy Guide to United Methodist Polity Second Edition
by Thomas W. Jr. Anne L. BurkholderPolity and purpose for ordering our lives for God’s mission.Transform your understanding of United Methodist Church governance with this newly updated guide, reflecting the pivotal changes from the 2020/2024 General Conference. Whether you're a seasoned pastor or new to church leadership, this comprehensive resource illuminates the path forward in our shared mission to transform the world for Christ.This invaluable companion features:* Over 250 alphabetized entries, thoughtfully curated from "Accessibility" to "Youth Ministry"* Inspiring quotes from John Wesley and Methodist luminaries that connect our past to our present* Clear, practical explanations that bridge theological foundations with everyday church leadership* Precise cross-references to the Book of Discipline, ensuring confident decision-making* Essential tools including a quick-start guide and comprehensive acronym indexPerfect for everyone from local pastors to bishops, this guide transforms complex church polity into clear, actionable insights. It''s more than a reference—it's your partner in ministry, helping you lead with wisdom, understanding, and purpose in our evolving denominational landscape.