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Squirrels in the Wall: A Novel in Stories
by Henry HitzSquirrels in the Wall—a novel told in stories by a collection of interspecies voices—presents a unique and darkly hilarious blend of human and animal perspectives in a single setting on a Wisconsin lake. The stories provide a kaleidoscope of heartbreak among both human and animal characters as they confront abuse and death. “They call me Herziger, but my real name is Woof,” one of the stories opens. “They call me a dachshund, but in reality, I am just a dog. I live with my mother among a pack of wild humans in a big house on a lake.” In the second story, “Squirrels in the Wall,” Herzie’s “human,” Barney Blatz, experiences a fire in that house when he is just four. The stories follow Barney from infancy to death, tracing the epic, ongoing conflict between him and Father—a bumbling tyrant guilty of shocking abuse but also capable of poignant redemption. On this rollicking journey, we meet a suicidal toad, a cat, two mice, a bee, Grandfather’s ghost, and a turtle who possesses Barney in a climactic tale of environmental activism gone awry. Other stories reflect the points of view of Barney’s mother, sister, and older brother; together, they construct a collage of spectacular family dysfunction—and of healing love.
Affliction: Growing Up With a Closeted Gay Dad
by Laura HallIn 1937, at the age of nineteen, Ralph Hall, suicidal, revealed his sexual orientation to his grandmother, knowing she would comfort him. He was out for three years afterwards, until an indiscretion sent him back into the closet. At twenty-four, while in the army, he met and married Irene. The couple made their home on the San Francisco Peninsula and had four children. Ralph was an attentive husband and father—albeit with an intense interest in interior design, flower arranging, and fine objects—and a diligent worker who rose to payroll accountant at Standard Oil. It wasn't until 1975 that Ralph came out to his middle daughter, Laura, telling her that he had once considered his sexuality an aberration, an affliction. She was shocked, as the possibility her father might be gay had never crossed her mind. Irene had known Ralph’s secret for eighteen years, but the two remained married until she died. It was only then that this charismatic man and devoted father, by now in his eighties, could freely express his authentic, gay self.Here, Laura paints a vivid and honest portrait of her beloved father and the effect his secret had on her own life.
Breathe: A Memoir of Motherhood, Grief, and Family Conflict
by Kelly KittelKelly Kittel didn’t know the true meaning of the phrase “in the wrong place and the wrong time” until she fell victim to just such a circumstance—and lost her infant son as a result. In the wake of their son’s death, Kittel and her husband are overcome with grief—and they’re still trying to make sense of their loss when, a mere nine months later, their family doctor makes a terrible mistake during Kittel’s pregnancy and they are forced to bury a second child. And when they decide to press malpractice charges, things only get worse: they end up having to battle not only the medical system but also their own family in a court of law, all while raising their other three children and trying to heal from the pain of living through the deaths of two sons. Achingly raw and beautifully narrated, Breathe is a story of motherhood, death, family, and conflict—and, ultimately, how to embrace love, honesty, and joy even in the face of tragedy.
Bright Eyes: Surviving Our Monsters and Learning to Live without Them—A Memoir
by Bridey Thelen-HeidelFans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died will root for Bridey Thelen-Heidel as she struggles to unshackle herself from her mother’s chaos in this triumphant debut memoir.Bridey is tethered to her mom’s addiction to dangerous men who park their Harley-Davidsons in the house and kick holes in all their doors. Raised to be her mother’s keeper, rescuer, and punching bag, Bridey gets used to stuffing her life into black trash bags, hauling them between Alaska and California, and changing schools every time her mom moves in a new monster—or runs away from one. Desperately seeking the normal life she’s observed in sitcoms and her friends’ families, Bridey earns her way into a fancy, private college, where she tries to forget who she is—until her mom calls with a threat that drops Bridey to her knees. Watching doctors and police interrogate her mother at the hospital, Bridey realizes her mom has become a monster herself . . . and she doesn’t want to be saved. But Bridey does. Bright Eyes is about the indomitable spirit of a young girl forced to be brave, required to be resilient, and conditioned to be optimistic, and how she ultimately uses the same traits that helped her to survive her mother’s chaos to create her own happily-ever-after.
Firewall: An Emma Streat Mystery
by Eugenia Lovett WestFormer opera singer Emma Streat has survived the murder of her husband and the destruction of her beautiful old house. Now a full-time single mother, she struggles to move forward and make a home for her two sons. Because of her detection skills, she has become a go-to person for help—so, when her rich, feisty, socialite godmother is blackmailed, she turns immediately to Emma. Soon, Emma founds herself thrust into the dark world of cybercrime. Mounting challenges take her to exclusive European settings where she mixes with top people in the financial and art collecting worlds and has intriguing and emotion-packed experiences with men—including her dynamic ex-lover, Lord Andrew Rodale. When she is targeted by a cybercrime network using cutting-edge technology, it takes all of Emma’s resilience and wits to survive and bring the wily, ruthless criminal she’s hunting to justice. Action-packed and full of twists and turns, this third book of the Emma Streat Mystery series does not disappoint!
Dancing into the Light: An Arab-American Girlhood in the Middle East
by Kathryn K. Abdul-BakiSet against the backdrop of the early American presence in Iran under the Shah, and the burgeoning years of Kuwait’s early oil boom, Dancing into the Light is Kathryn Abdul-Baki’s memoir of growing up within both the expatriate Western communities and the larger Middle Eastern society of Kuwait and Jerusalem. Hers is a story of belonging to two vastly different cultures and finding her place within both, and the search to find the inherent harmony in worlds at odds with each other. She is already caught in both the joys of and the struggle to be both Arab and American, yet not fully either, when her young life of promise is disrupted by tragedy. But instead of derailing her life, her mother’s death opens the door to deeper love and support from other places within Kathryn’s family. Dancing into the Light is a story of love, loss, and renewal, and of overcoming devastating early trauma through music, dancing, and the love and devotion of strong American and Arab women.
Feral City: Scenes from a Second Marriage
by Alison LutermanIn Feral City, poet and essayist Alison Luterman combines her talents to explore a topic near and dear to her heart: love partnerships. These five chapters explore her own experience going through an early and exciting marriage, divorcing, spending many years alone, and then opening up to a new partner and marrying again at age 50. The stories are set in Luterman’s funky Oakland, California, neighborhood, and tackle the tough and tender issues of relationships, from fighting to making up to figuring out whose turn it is to feed the abandoned kittens in the basement. An entertaining collection, full of honesty, empathy, and humor.
Elk Love: A Montana Memoir
by Lynne Spriggs O'ConnorHaving spent ten summers on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation near Glacier National Park, part of her doctoral fieldwork for a PhD in Native American Art History, forty-two-year-old Lynne Spriggs thinks of Montana as her healing place. When she moves to “Big Sky Country” from the East Coast in a quest to reset her life, she has high hopes for what awaits her. Great Falls, a farming and military town in central Montana, is not what Lynne imagined when she decided to leave city life behind. But her dream of being more connected to nature in the American West comes alive when she meets Harrison, a handsome rancher thirteen years her senior. Wary but curious, with her dog Willow by her side, she leans into the seasonal rhythms of Harrison’s hidden valley and opens her heart to a wild language that moves beyond words. In a modern world where listening is rare, Elk Love explores an intimate place where loneliness gives way to wonder, where the natural world speaks of what matters most.
Promenade of Desire: A Barcelona Memoir
by Isidra Mencos“A brave and unblinkingly honest portrait of a young woman’s sensual and sexual awakening in the face of censure and repression, and her refusal to be held back by the constraints of her family, culture, and religion. The same joyful spirit that expresses itself in Mencos’ love of dancing shines through in her story of her own personal dance into a brave new world beyond the one her mother prescribed for her. Her story is shameless, in the very best sense of the word.”—Joyce Maynard, New York Times best-selling author of Labor Day, To Die For, and Count The Ways María Isidra is a proper Catholic girl raised in 1960s Spain by a strong matriarch during a repressive dictatorship. Early sexual trauma and a hefty dose of fear keep her in line for much of her childhood, but also lead her to live a double life. In her home, there is no discussing the needs of her growing body. In the street, kissing in public is forbidden.Upon the dictator’s death in 1975, Spain bursts wide open, giving way to democracy and a cultural revolution. Barcelona’s vibrant downtown and its new freedoms seduce María Isidra. She dives into a world of activism, communal living, literature, counterculture, open sexuality, and alcohol.And yet she knows something is missing. Longing to reconnect with her body—from which she has felt estranged since childhood—she finds a surprising home in a rundown salsa club, where the lush rhythm sparks a deep wave of healing. Transformed, she sets off on a series of sexual and romantic misadventures, in search for what she has always found painfully elusive: true intimacy.Promenade of Desire is a rich journey into the life of a woman once contained, who finds a way to set herself free.
The Housekeeper's Secret: A Memoir
by Sandra SchnakenburgFor fans of stranger than truth stories, Sandy Schnakenburg is uncovering rattling and unprecedented revelations in this powerful memoir of love, secrets, and survival.When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch's home, setting a mystery in motion that will take decades to uncover. At the age of seventy-two, Lee falls ill and on her deathbed asks Sandy to write her story. The only problem is, Sandy doesn’t know the story. Embarking on a quest to honor Lee’s final wishes, Sandy takes an emotional and thrilling journey, unveiling shocking truths not only about her beloved housekeeper but also her own upbringing. As she digs further, she learns that Lee came to her family’s sprawling estate in Barrington, IL, harboring a secret past. For decades, she’s been in hiding. But Lee is not the only one with secrets; Sandy’s quest forces her to grapple with her own family history as well, and to finally confront the effects of the psychological abuse she suffered as a child. Both a chilling and exciting personal tale of love and survival, The Housekeeper’s Secret is a gripping saga that illuminates the resilience of the human spirit.
Social Media Isn't Social: Rediscovering the lost art of face-to-face communication
by Al MaagWith humor and insight born of decades of experience, Al Maag shares what he learned during his Chicago childhood in the 1950s and 60s, a stark contrast to the current C-generation that has grown up with electronic gadgets. Social Media Isn't Social shows why online social media cannot replace face-to-face human connection, and reveals the critical real-life social skills you need to succeed today in business and in life.
Swimming for My Life: A Memoir
by Kim FairleyIn 1970s Cincinnati, Kim’s overwhelmed, financially stressed parents dragged her and her four younger siblings into swimming—starting with a nearby motel pool—as a way to keep them occupied and out of their way. When Kim was eleven, they began leaving the kids at home with a sitter while they traveled the Midwest, where they sold imported wooden ornaments from their motorhome. But when Kim’s six-year-old brother crashed his new Cheater Slick bike and the babysitter deserted the children, what started as an accident became a pattern: Mom and Dad leaving for weeks at a time and the kids wrestling with life’s emergencies on their own. As Kim coped in the role of fill-in mother while dealing with the stresses of elite swimming, she struggled to shape her own life. She eventually found strength, competence and achievement through swimming—and became the second female swimmer to win a full ride to the University of Southern California, where she earned two national titles. Swimming for My Life is a peek into the dark side of elite swimming as well as a tale of family bonds, reconciling with the past, and how it is possible to emerge from life’s toxic and lifesaving waters.
The Longest War: A Psychotherapist's Experience of Divorce, Custody, and Power
by Catherine HarringtonAs a naive freshman, Catherine meets Walter, a senior and Big Man on Campus whose sophistication, confidence, and wealth both intimidate and excite her. A three-year absentee courtship follows, during which time the idea of Walt tethers Catherine to safety. She was programmed to marry someone like him, so she ignores the warning signs that they might not be a good match. Hoping to please her mother and seeking refuge from her fraught childhood, she marries and has children with him—but the marriage doesn’t last. Once divorced, Catherine finds herself in a war with Walt over money, and then over access to her children—and suddenly, she can no longer ignore her childhood trauma. The high stakes of her battle with her ex-husband forge her like steel, finding every vulnerability where she needs to heal. Gradually, she develops a backbone, relinquishes her trauma-induced, people-pleasing ways, and steps into her own power. Honest and unflinching, The Longest War reminds us that there’s always a way through when we access the courage within ourselves. No matter how painful life’s difficulties, they offer us the opportunity to heal ourselves and evolve into more open, loving, compassionate people. The choice is ours.
You Are Worthy: Change Your Money Mindset, Build Your Wealth, and Fund Your Future
by Kelley HollandFrom a former business editor at The New York Times, “a cleareyed and narrative-driven approach to rethinking one’s financial story.” (Kirkus Reviews)“What makes You Are Worthy such a superpower of a tool is that Kelley helps you uncover, acknowledge—and, where necessary, heal—your money story and money relationship.” —Manisha Thakor, CFA, CFP, founder of MoneyZen and author of On My Own Two Feet and Get Financially Naked Many women live in silence, holding fear and shame about their finances. Many know they could feel better financially but are unsure how to even begin to change. In You Are Worthy, Kelley Holland, a former New York Times business editor and award-winning financial journalist, goes to the heart of women’s money challenges—shining a light on problem areas, providing solutions, and instilling the confidence and skills you need to take charge of your money and achieve financial well-being.In this accessible, easy-to-follow resource, Holland leverages her professional experience and more than 100 interviews with women around the country, taking you step by step through the process of transforming your relationship to money. You will shed outdated beliefs about your abilities; you will be inspired to put your money to work; and you will come away with skills and knowledge to create an integrated financial plan to help you achieve your goals.Affirming and empowering, You Are Worthy will leave you feeling as if you’ve just had a thorough, reassuring money conversation with a trusted guide. After reading this book, you will feel less alone in your money challenges. You will build vital financial skills and knowledge. And you will come away with greater confidence, clarity, and hope—not just about money but about your whole life.
Hope, a History of the Future: A Novel
by G.G. KellnerOne quiet afternoon in 2037, Joyce Denzell hears a thud in her family’s home library and finds a book lying in the middle of the room, seemingly waiting for her—a book whose copyright page says it was published in the year 2200. Over the next twenty-four hours, each of the Denzell family members discovers and reads from this mystical history book from the future, nudged along by their cat, Plato.As the various family members take turns reading, they gradually uncover the story of Gabe, Mia, and Ruth—a saga of adventure, endurance, romance, mystery, and hope that touches them all deeply. Along the way, the Denzells all begin to believe that this book that has seemingly fallen out of time and space and into their midst might actually be from the future—and that it might have something vitally important to teach them.Engaging, playful, and thought-provoking, Hope is a seven-generation-spanning vision of the future as it could be—based on scientific projections, as well as historical and legal precedence—that will leave readers grappling with questions of destiny, responsibility, and the possibility for hope in a future world.
Songs My Mother Taught Me: A Novel
by Eva IzsakSongs My Mother Taught Me follows protagonist on her final voyage to see her dying mother, who is hissing and kicking all the way to the grave. Having spent decades trying to escape her heritage by constantly moving around the globe—Tokyo, New York, then Paris—the narrator finds herself back in the house she grew up in. She is confronted with the epigenetical endowment inherited from her parents’ experiences and has to come to peace with the looming shadows of the past. An epic and lyrical tale that spans from Transylvania in the 1930s through Scarsdale, NY to present-day Europe, Songs My Mother Taught Me touches upon questions of identity, immigration, and PTSD transmitted down the generations—giving voice to those who grew up in the aftermath of their parents’ trauma.
Cakewalk: A Fully Baked Memoir
by Susan Katein Carole Algier Kathy LanyonThree sisters gathered after 9/11 to open a liqueur-infused cake business in this hilarious memoir, which spans farmers markets to Rachel Ray and appeals to fans of foodie memoirs and the Food Network.Born to a depressed, exhausted mother and an abusive father who uses his seven children as cheap labor for his business schemes, Sue, Carole, and Kathy raise themselves in their chaotic household. The sisters all marry young; two divorce quickly. But despite the obstacles they face, the three women grow into confident businesswomen and remain extremely close as they build families and recover from their toxic childhood. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the sisters gather over chilled martinis to take a serious look at the future and decide they should be together—in business. Bring on the cake. Liqueur-infused cake, that is. They soon start handing out samples of their inventions at farmers markets like seasoned carnival barkers, and soon a Food Network producer who’s stopped by their table invites them to New York City—sparking a hilarious adventure involving one-way streets, security guards, and the NYPD, all in an effort to get their cake into the hands of the producers at The Food Network and Rachel Ray.
Across the Kitchen Table: A Mother and Daughter Turn Tragedy into Peace
by Carla SeaquistFor readers suffering from family estrangement or hoping to repair broken familial bonds, this mother-daughter memoir, written in a unique letter format, touches on the timely theme of politically divided families.Fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died will love this true story of a damaged primal bond between mother and daughter that, after decades of estrangement, was finally repaired. The conflict began when Carla, as a preteen, stepped in to defend her father against what she perceived as her mother’s harsh treatment—a move that destroyed the warm love she and her mother had for each other and began an “ice age” between them. Forty years later, determined that this mother and daughter not end as tragedy, Carla uses every tool available to her—psychology, diplomacy, humanity, wit, patience—to try to repair their bond. Finally, over her mother’s kitchen table, they melt the ice and find their way back to laughter and closeness. Too often today, problem relationships are labeled “toxic,” with the idea it is “healing” to offload a relationship no longer serving you. This loving, grounded memoir shows that rebuilding a primal bond is doable—and will prompt readers to ask themselves, Could I do the same? What if I reached out, today?
The Brill Pill: A Novel
by Akemi C. BrodskyIn the not-so-distant future, organs can be re-grown from a handful of stem cells.For patients who can afford the treatment and hang on to life support for long enough, the prognosis is good. Even the most complex organ of all can be reproduced in the lab with nearly perfect accuracy. Nearly. Patients of brain regeneration face a wide range of problems, from loss of motor functions or intelligence to sociopathy. Spurred by personal tragedy, research scientist William Dalal works feverishly to improve the lives of those he has had a hand in saving. For every success, however, there is a consequence, and eventually a question arises in his mind: Are they worth it? His desire to help fades as he comes to realize a shocking truth: the monsters he has created are taking over.As Will walks a fine line between altruism and ambition, acquaintances and events change the way in which he perceives the world and the extent to which he is willing to compromise in order to make his mark on it. As the situation escalates, he finds himself dealing brain-enhancing drugs and developing life-altering treatments. In their deliverance, he sees his own—but is he deluding himself?
Model Behavior: Friends for Life
by Susannah BianchiCamille, Rosanna, and Joanne are three former models who’ve been the best of friends since their runway days. They may have gained a little cellulite, but they’ve also packed on a whole lot of wit and savvy. Their Sex and the City–like escapades in Manhattan’s high-end hotel bars, their heartbreaks and delicious revenge schemes, and their spot-on observations about everything from nips and tucks to midlife sex will make you laugh out loud. Ultimately, these chronicles are a moving tribute to lifelong friendship, as the women face more serious issues with kindness, humor, and love.
Impervious: A Sean McPherson Novel, Book 3 (A Sean McPherson Novel)
by Laurie BuchananIn the village of Fairhaven—nestled between Washington state’s Bellingham Bay and the Cascade Mountains, home to writers’ retreat Pines & Quill,—friends and family have gathered for the union of Sean McPherson and Emma Benton. Sean has been working with the FBI and local police to help solve crimes, particularly murders bearing the mark of crime boss Georgio “The Bull” Gambino. Emma, who has just learned to walk again, has begun to feel at home and hopes to one day raise a family. But just as the festivities begin and corks fly, an explosion shatters everything, killing one and injuring others. From Bellingham to San Francisco and New Orleans, the chase is on to discover who’s dead set on ensuring the newlyweds don’t live happily ever after. The writers currently in residence at Pines & Quill include a vineyard owner, a Bryn Mawr College professor, a special education teacher accompanied by her seeing-eye dog, and an intuitive who can’t—or won’t—identify the killer. Gambino has a knack for finding people in even the most inaccessible places to do his bidding. Could one of the writers be on his payroll?
Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen
by Judith NewtonTasting Home is the history of a woman’s emotional education, the romantic tale of a marriage between a straight woman and a gay man, and an exploration of the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, intimate relation, and political community. Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped author Judith Newton’s life, Tasting Home takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through 2011, complete with recipes.
Faint Promise of Rain: A Novel
by Anjali Mitter DuvaShortlisted for the 2016 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing It is 1554 in the desert of Rajasthan. On a rare night of rain, a daughter is born to a family of Hindu temple dancers just as India’s new Mughal Emperor Akbar sets his sights on their home, the fortress city of Jaisalmer, and the other Princely States around it. Fearing a bleak future, Adhira’s father, the temple’s dance master—against his wife and sons’ protests—puts his faith in tradition and in his last child for each to save the other: he insists that Adhira is destined to “marry” the temple’s deity and to give herself to a wealthy patron. Thus she must live in submission as a woman revered and reviled. But Adhira’s father may not have the last word. Adhira grows into an exquisite dancer, and after one terrible evening she must make a choice—one that will carry her family’s story and their dance to a startling new beginning.
Tree Dreams: A Novel
by Kristin KayeWhen seventeen-year-old Jade Reynolds witnesses a violent clash between a protesting tree sitter and a local logger, she runs as far as she can from the battles that plague her home and from the mysteries of the redwood forest. But the ancient redwoods are embedded in her psyche—she feels their call even in the dark and forgotten back alleys of Portland, Oregon where she’s hiding out. She soon becomes entangled with a lovable misfit and a band of radical slackers, environmentalists, and anarchists, and finds herself living 100 feet high in the canopy of a redwood grove, trying to decide whose side she’s on: the logging community she’s known her entire life or the environmentalists who are risking their lives for the future of the forest. To find a way beyond the division between Us and Them, Jade turns to the ancient trees themselves—and the thread-thin web that connects us all. Tree Dreams is an eco-literary, coming of age novel relevant for teenagers and adults alike, for this rite of passage asks the same of us all—whatever our age or life stage, we each must discover our one true voice, and learn how to offer it to the world.
Loveyoubye: Holding Fast, Letting Go, And Then There's The Dog
by Rossandra WhiteLoveyoubye opens when Rossandra White’s husband of twenty-five years disappears, leaving behind a cryptic, hastily-written note on the kitchen counter, and then returns weeks later, offering few details about where he went. This sequence of events has played out before. Despite knowledge of at least one affair, she trusts he is being true to her and that their tumultuous marriage will endure. But this time is different. A subsequent confluence of crises rattles Rossandra’s core, shedding light on both the dark elements of their marriage and the direction her life must follow if she decides to leave her husband. In South Africa, land of her birth, Rossandra’s younger brother, whose physical and mental disabilities have stricken her with a lifetime of guilt, needs her help, and she answers the call. She returns to California where her dog Sweetpea, who for years has served as a vital emotional link between Rossandra and her husband, has begun to succumb to a fatal illness.