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At the Narrow Waist of the World: A Memoir
by Marlena Maduro Baraf“With sensitivity and candor, Baraf examines mental illness, immigration, forgiveness, and community—all framed within the precocity of her life’s circumstances.” —Ms. Magazine “At the Narrow Waist of the World is a compelling account of what it is like to live through turbulence and come out on the other side.” —Foreword Clarion Review “Deftly written, impressively candid, insightfully presented, At the Narrow Waist of the World is an extraordinary and memorable read.” —Midwest Book Review “By the end of At the Narrow Waist of the World, we have come to know, admire and even cherish its author in a way few memoirists manage to achieve . . . . ” —Jewish Journal Raised by a lively family of Spanish Jews in tropical and Catholic Panama of the 1950s and 1960s, Marlena depends on her many tíos and tías for refuge from the difficulties of life, including the frequent absences of her troubled mother. As a teenager, she pulls away from this centered world—crossing borders—and begins a life in the United States very different from the one she has known. This lyrical coming-of-age memoir explores the intense and profound relationship between mothers and daughters and highlights the importance of community and the beauty of a large Latin American family. It also explores the vital issues of mental illness and healing, forgiveness and acceptance. At the Narrow Waist of the World examines the author's gradual integration into a new culture, even as she understands that her home is still—and always will be—rooted in another place.
The ABCs of Being Mom: Advice and Support from the Mom Next Door, Birth through Kindergarten
by Karen BongiornoMoms enter the world of motherhood with no sense of the impact that entry will have upon them. They need orientation and guidance to get through this bewildering maze—and The ABCs of Being Mom, with its abundance of wisdom acquired directly from the trenches of motherhood struggles, is that roadmap. In this instructive guide, Karen Bongiorno addresses the changes parenthood brings and how to manage them, the importance of being part of a supportive community and taking time for personal care and restoration, the need for equal participation from spouses or partners, and more, with a steady voice of encouragement and understanding that will get moms through even the toughest of times. The wise friend every mom needs to accompany her in her new role, The ABCs of Being Mom offers mothers everything they need to feel confident in managing motherhood so they can rid themselves of useless worry and have more time and energy to enjoy their early years of “Being Mom.”
Out of the Bronx: A Memoir
by Irene SardanisIrene Sardanis was born into a Greek family in the Bronx in the 1940s in which fear and peril hovered. Her mother had come to New York for an arranged marriage. Her father drank, gambled, and enjoyed other women—and then, when Irene was eleven, abandoned her family altogether. Faced with their mother’s violent outbursts in the wake of this betrayal, Irene’s older siblings found a way out, but Irene was trapped, hostage to her mother’s rage and despair. When she finally escaped her mother as a young adult, she married a neighbor, also Greek, who controlled and dominated her just like her mother always had. But Irene wasn’t ready to let her story end there. With therapy, she eventually found the courage to leave her husband and pursue her own dreams. Out of the Bronx is her story of coming to terms with the mother and past that terrified and paralyzed her for far too long—and of how she went on to create a new life free of those fears.
The Beauty of What Remains: Family Lost, Family Found
by Susan Johnson HadlerWhere are they now, the lost, the forgotten? With the love in her mother’s silence as her guide, Susan Johnson Hadler began a quest to find out who the missing people in her family were and what happened to them. The search led her to Germany, where her father was killed just before the end of WWII; then to a Buddhist monastery in France, where she learned new ways to relate to life and death; and ultimately to a state mental hospital in Ohio, where the family abandoned her mother’s older sister years earlier. She believed that her aunt had died—but Hadler, to her great surprise, found her still alive at age ninety-four. And the story didn’t end there. Captivating and often heartwrenching, The Beauty of What Remains is a story of liberating a family from secrets, ghosts, and untold pain; of reuniting four generations shattered by shame and fear; and of finding the ineffable beauty in what remains.
Altared: A Tale of Renovating a Medieval Church in Tuscany
by Kyle Tackwell BallWhen Kyle Tackwell Ball’s search for a quaint country home near Florence, Italy, in move-in condition somehow led to the purchase of an abandoned church in a small borgo near Greve-in-Chianti called Le Convertoie, she ended up with much more than a project to overcome her newly contracted “empty nest syndrome.”Ball soon found herself starring in a “Stones and Bones Classic”; the ruin she’d purchased would require years of renovation and an endless amount of money before it would become habitable. But her journey had unexpected rewards, too: she reconnected with some wonderful friends, made new ones, learned the language of her newly adopted home country, and became experienced in the Italian knack of getting around the system. Most importantly, she learned to appreciate Italian culture, food and wine, and how rewarding it is to give new life to a beautiful old building. Ball’s renovation was featured in the March 2010 “Before & After” issue of Architectural Digest, beautifully documented by Kim Sargent of Sargent Architectural Photography.
After Happily Ever After: A Novel
by Leslie A. Rasmussen“Smart and funny, After Happily Ever After is an exciting debut.” —Laura Dave, international best-selling author of The Last Thing He Told MeWhat if you had the chance to relinquish the life you’ve built and begin again?At the age of forty-five, Maggie Dolin is grappling with the realities of aging. Nearly two decades ago, she made the decision to leave her career in publishing to devote herself to raising her daughter, Gia—but now that Gia is about to leave for college, Maggie is confronted with uncertainty about her own identity and purpose. Having spent so many years caring for others, she struggles to remember the last time someone cared for her.Meanwhile, Maggie’s husband of nineteen years, Jim, seems distant and preoccupied, leading her to suspect that he is keeping secrets from her; her mother is self-absorbed and judgmental; and her brother harbors resentment toward her. And to compound matters, the one constant in Maggie's life, her father, is facing serious health challenges, leaving her feeling adrift without his unwavering support.As Maggie embarks on a daunting journey of self-discovery, she finds herself drawn toward decisions that challenge the life she has always known. After Happily Ever After deals with love, marriage, family dynamics, the empty nest, aging parents, and what happens when they all come crashing down at the same time.
Light Radiance Splendor: A Novel
by Leah ChytenGold Medal IPPY Winner in Religious Fiction Finalist in the novel/fiction category of the Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner: Best Religious Fiction, International Book Award 2017 2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Religious 2017 International Book Awards Winner in Fiction: Religious The Divine Shekinah seeks deliverance from exile to heal a world desperately in need of Her wisdom. Her chosen mission keeper, three generations of kabbalists from places as diverse as a 19th century shtetl and modern day Israel/Palestine, must grapple with profound injustices and the shadows of humanity. If they choose the path of righteousness, love, and forgiveness, Her light can return to the world. Will the mission succeed? Will the divine feminine return to the world? The Shekinah calls to all of us to find our own way to ‘knit the world back together.’
The Parrot's Perch: A Memoir
by Karen KeiltThe Parrot’s Perch opens in 2013, when Karen Keilt, age sixty, receives an invitation to testify at the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN in New York. The email sparks memories of her “previous life”—the one she has kept safely bottled up for more than thirty-seven years. Hopeful of helping to raise awareness about ongoing human rights violations in Brazil, she wants to testify, but she anguishes over reliving the horrific events of her youth. In the pages that follow, Keilt tells the story of her life in Brazil—from her exclusive, upper-class lifestyle and dreams of Olympic medals to her turmoil-filled youth. Full of hints of a dark oligarchy in Brazil, corruption, crime, and military interference, The Parrot’s Perch is a searing, sometimes shocking true tale of suffering, struggle—and survival. Karen Keilt lived through the darkest days of Brazil’s military dictatorship. In her courageous and compelling memoir, Keilt narrates an emotionally honest reckoning of her desire to find true happiness. Forbidden by her wealthy family to even mention her imprisonment, torture, and rape, Keilt is forced to make a change that will affect the rest of her life. Seen through her testimony to the Brazilian National Truth Commission at the UN, readers become witnesses to both her vulnerability and her quiet strength.
Edna's Gift: How My Broken Sister Taught Me to Be Whole
by Susan RudnickWhen they were young, Susan and Edna, children of Holocaust refugee parents, were inseparable; Edna was Susan’s first love and constant companion. But as they grew up and Edna’s physical, and mental challenges altered the ways she could develop, a gulf formed between them. Susan’s life became even more complicated when, just short of her sixteenth birthday, she learned that she’d been born without a uterus and would never menstruate or give birth to children. As she coped with this trauma, Edna continued loving her unconditionally, as she always had. In her adult years Edna lived a life of dignity in a spiritual community, becoming a model for how Susan could live hers. In her forties, Susan realized her dream of motherhood when she adopted a daughter. Throughout, Edna remained a teacher and loving presence in her sister’s life. Encompassing Susan and Edna’s lifelong, complex, intertwining relationship, Edna’s Gift has a powerful message: life may be unpredictable, even traumatic—but if you remain open, strength and wisdom will come to you from surprising and unexpected sources.
Not a Poster Child: Living Well with a Disability—A Memoir
by Francine Falk-Allen2019 Living Now Book Awards Gold Medal Winner in Inspirational/Memoir (Female) 2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards finalist in Memoir Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2018 2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards Silver Medal in Memoir Francine Falk-Allen was only three years old when she contracted polio and temporarily lost the ability to stand and walk. Here, she tells the story of how a toddler learned grown-up lessons too soon; a schoolgirl tried her best to be a “normie,” on into young adulthood; and a woman finally found her balance, physically and spiritually. In lucid, dryly humorous prose, she also explores how her disability has affected her choices in living a fulfilling (and amusing) life in every area—relationships, career, religion (or not), athleticism, artistic expression, and aging, to name a few. A clear-eyed examination of living with a handicap, Not a Poster Child is one woman’s story of finding her way to a balanced life—one with a little cheekiness and a lot of joy.
Eliza Waite: A Novel
by Ashley E. Sweeney2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award After the tragic death of her husband and son on a remote island in Washington’s San Juan Islands, Eliza Waite joins the throng of miners, fortune hunters, business owners, con men, and prostitutes traveling north to the Klondike in the spring of 1898. When Eliza arrives in Skagway, Alaska, she has less than fifty dollars to her name and not a friend in the world—but with some savvy, and with the help of some unsavory characters, Eliza opens a successful bakery on Skagway’s main street and befriends a madam at a neighboring bordello. Occupying this space—a place somewhere between traditional and nontraditional feminine roles—Eliza awakens emotionally and sexually. But when an unprincipled man from her past turns up in Skagway, Eliza is fearful that she will be unable to conceal her identity and move forward with her new life. Using Gold Rush history, diary entries, and authentic pioneer recipes, Eliza Waite transports readers to the sights sounds, smells, and tastes of a raucous and fleeting era of American history.
The Wiregrass: A Novel
by Pam WebberReminiscent of the stories and styles of Harper Lee, Sue Monk Kidd, and Jan Karon, Pam Webber’s The Wiregrass is an extraordinary tale about a magical time in an ordinary place full of lovable and unlovable characters. Infused with laughter, tears, love, loss, and hope, the story follows fourteen-year-old cousins Nettie, J.D. Eric, and Sam as they navigate the summer of their discontent, struggle with the physical and emotional turbulence of puberty and disappearing childhood, feel the excitement of first love, and run for their lives after they uncover an evil secret hidden in the shadows of the small town they love. Their story promises to stay with you a lifetime.
Once You Go In: A Memoir of Radical Faith
by Carly GelsingerCarly Gelsinger is an awkward and lonely thirteen-year-old when she stumbles into Pine Canyon Assemblies of God, the cracked stucco church on the outskirts of her remote small town. She assimilates, despite her apprehensions, because she is desperate to belong. Soon, she is on fire for God. She speaks in tongues, slays demons, and follows her abusive pastor’s every word―and it’s not until her life is burnt to the ground that she finds the courage to leave. Raw and illuminating,Once You Go In is a coming-of-age tale about the beauty and danger of absolute faith, and the stories people tell themselves to avoid their deepest fears.
Reclaiming Home: Diary of a Journey Through Post-Apartheid South Africa
by Lesego MalepeReclaiming Home is the diary of Lesego Malepe’s travels in South Africa in 2004, the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy. The book begins with Malepe taking the bus from Pretoria, where she grew up, to Cape Town, where she visits Robben Island—the prison where her brother served a life sentence during apartheid days. She interrupts her travels to return to Pretoria, where she attends the ceremony marking the official settlement of land claims for her parents’ property and her grandmother’s property in Kilnerton, Pretoria, which were confiscated by the apartheid government when Malepe was four, forcing her family—along with the rest of their community—to move to Mamelodi township for Africans. Over the course of her travels, Malepe traverses much of her home country, visiting locales including Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Thohoyandou, the University of Venda, and Giyani. Ultimately, hers is a sprawling, revealing journey that illuminates the ways South Africa has changed—and the ways it has remained the same—since the end of apartheid.
The Blue Witch: The Witches of Orkney, Book One (The Witches of Orkney #Bk. 1)
by Alane Adams2020 IPPY Awards Bronze Winner in Cover Design, Fiction 2019 American Fiction Awards: Best Cover Design: Children's Books—Finalist 2019 American Fiction Awards: Juvenile Fiction—Winner 2019 Readers' Favorite Awards Gold Medal Winner in Children's Mythology/Fairy Tale 2019 Moonbeam: Gold Medal Winner in Pre-Teen Fiction/Fantasy “An enchanting new book full of magical mischief and adventure, Alane Adams’s The Blue Witch is guaranteed to please” —Foreword Clarion Reviews Before Sam Baron broke Odin's curse on the witches to become the first son born to a witch and the hero of the Legends of Orkney series, his mother was a young witchling growing up in the Tarkana Witch Academy. In this first book of the prequel series, the Witches of Orkney, nine-year-old Abigail Tarkana is determined to grow up to be the greatest witch of all, even greater than her evil ancestor Catriona. Unfortunately, she is about to fail Spectacular Spells class because her witch magic hasn't come in yet. Even worse, her nemesis, Endera, is making life miserable by trying to get her kicked out. When her new friend Hugo's life is put in danger by a stampeding sneevil, a desperate Abigail manages to call up her magic―only to find out it's unlike any other witchling's at the Tarkana Witch Academy! As mysteries deepen around her magic and just who her true parents are, Abigail becomes trapped in a race against time to undo one of her spells before she is kicked out of the coven forever! Rich in Norse mythology, The Blue Witch is the first of a fast-paced young reader series filled with magical spells, mysterious beasts, and witch-hungry spiders!
Butter Side Up: How I Survived My Most Terrible Year & Created My Super Awesome Life
by Jane Enright“A world changing book on health and wellness for this millennium.” —Living Now Book AwardsSometimes, in the blink of an eye, the unthinkable can happen; events in your life that cause you to ask Why me?Inspired and inspiring, award-winning author Jane Enright’s extraordinary, uplifting memoir captures her journey as she survives three life-altering events in the span of a year, losing almost everything, and comes out the other side stronger, more resilient, and happier than ever before. Compelling and thought provoking, Butter Side Up is not only a feel-good story that everyone can relate to and learn from, but also proof there can be happiness and joy after the unexpected—and a super awesome life, too.
The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life
by Virginia A. Simpson2015-2016 Sarton Story Circle: Memoir Winner 2016-2017 Readers Views Award: Memoir/Autobiography/Biography Winner, West Pacific Regional Winner 2017 Independent Press Award: Relationships Winner 2017 Northern California Publishers and Authors Second Place in Book Cover 2017 Northern California Publishers and Authors Second Place in Memoir 2017 Readers' Favorite Book Award Bronze Winner 2017 International Book Awards: Autobiography/Memoir Finalist 2016 National Indie Excellence Awards: Memoir Finalist Everyone has or had a mother. Dr. Virginia A. Simpson did too. She thought they had a wonderful relationship and had worked out all of their issues when a life-threatening illness necessitated her mother, Ruth, come live with her. When her mother moved in, she brought with her all their old issues and during the six years they lived together, they added more. Although an expert in the field of death, dying, and bereavement, Virginia often found herself overwhelmed by her caregiving role as her mother’s health continued to decline. She also felt herself on a race against time to heal their relationship before her mother died. Described as “stunning, beautiful, and honest,” The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life offers an intimate window into the challenges of being a caregiving while also providing important information about the realities of end of life care. The Space Between gives us hope that even the most contentious relationship can be healed. By the end of Ruth’s life, the only space between Virginia and her mother was filled with love.
You Can't Buy Love Like That: Growing Up Gay in the Sixties
by Carol E. AndersonA young lesbian girl grows beyond fear to fearlessness as she comes of age in the ’60s amid religious, social, and legal barriers. Carol Anderson grows up in a fundamentalist Christian home in the ’60s, a time when being gay was in opposition to all social and religious mores and against the law in most states. Fearing the rejection of her parents, she hides the truth about her love orientation, creating emotional distance from them for years, as she desperately struggles to harness her powerful attractions to women while pursuing false efforts to be with men. The watershed point in Carol's journey comes when she returns to graduate school and discovers the feminist movement, which emboldens her sense of personal power and the freedom to love whom she chooses. But this sense of self-possession comes too late for honesty with her father. His unexpected death before she can tell him the truth brings the full cost of Carol's secret crashing in compelling her to come out to her mother before it is too late. Candid and poignant, You Can't Buy Love Like That reveals the complex invisible dynamics that arise for gay people who are forced to hide their true selves in order to survive and celebrates the hard-won rewards of finding one's courageous heart and achieving self-acceptance and self-love.
A Promise Given: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series)
by Michelle Cox“Mixing Romance and Mystery in a Fizzy 1930s Cocktail!”“Series fans will cheer the beginning of Clive and Henrietta’s private investigation business in an entry with welcome echoes of Pride and Prejudice.” ― Publishers Weekly“The mix of sleuthing and aristocratic life pairs well with Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness series.” ― Booklist “A story full of family secrets, twisted plots, and a striking English setting, A Promise Given is the perfect novel for fans of Sherlock Holmes.” — Brit + Co.This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English countryside and back.Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. When the long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose—a situation that grows increasingly dark and confused as time goes on.As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion—and Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting news from home.Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate forever.
House on the Forgotten Coast: A Novel
by Ruth Coe ChambersLike a monarch surveying her domain, the house has stood for over a hundred years in the fishing village of Apalachicola on Florida’s northwest coast. She has known life. She has known passionate love. She has known brutal death. But she has guarded her secrets well . . . Then eighteen-year-old Elise Foster and her parents arrive from Atlanta in their silver Jaguar, bringing with them their own secrets and desires. Seeking friendship in their new community, they find instead that the townspeople resent their intrusion. But this intrusion on the house’s privacy also provides a pathway for the past and the present to merge—and for the truth behind an unsolved murder to finally be brought to light. As you strive to solve the mystery, you and the Fosters are forced to address two critical questions: What is real? What is delusion?
Hidden Treasure: How to Break Free of Five Patterns that Hide Your True Self
by Alice McDowell2018 Readers' Favorites Book Awards Bronze Medal in Non-Fiction—Motivational National Indie Excellence Awards Winner - Personal Growth Body, Mind and Spirit Awards Finalist - Spiritual Psychology and Self-help categories Are you looking for more personal growth or feel like you want something more from life, but you’re not sure where to start? In this award-winning book, author Alice McDowell, PhD, reveals how powerful, deeply embedded behavior patterns—often the result of wounds suffered early in life—can influence every aspect of your life and identity, and hide your true self. Hidden Treasure offers tools you will use again and again to help soften and heal these patterns, make sense of your life and relationships, and begin to live a full and radiant life.
Being Ana: A Memoir of Anorexia Nervosa
by Shani RavivShani Raviv is a misfit teen whose peer-pressured diet spirals down into full-blown anorexia nervosa—something no one in her early-nineties, local South African community knows anything about. Fourteen-year-old Shani spends the next six years being “Ana” (as many anorexics call it), on the run from her feelings. She goes from aerobics addict to Israeli soldier to rave bunny to wannabe reborn, using sex, drugs, exercise and, above all, starvation, to numb out everything along the way. But one night, at age twenty, Shani faces the rude awakening that if she doesn’t slow down, break her denial, and seek help, she will starve to death. Three years later, her hardest journey of all begins: the journey to let go of being Ana and learn to love herself. Being Ana is an exploration into the soul and psyche of a young woman wrestling with anorexia’s demons—one that not only exposes the real horrors of a day in the life of an anorexic girl but also reveals the courage it takes to stop fighting and find healing.
Second Chance: A Mother's Quest for a Natural Birth After a Cesarean
by Thais Nye DerichOn the joyful day of her son’s birth, Thais Derich never questioned going to the hospital. A week later, she walked out physically, spiritually, and emotionally injured, and fully disabused of the idea that the medical field would ever put her best interests before protocol, money, and legal concerns. The next three years of her life were spent recovering from that day, and preparing herself to do things her way when she became pregnant again. And then she did get pregnant again—and that resolve was put to the test. A universal story about betrayal and trust and the roller coaster ride in between, Second Chance illuminates the many ways in which our healthcare system is broken when it comes to helping women give birth, and gives a voice to all the mothers who have walked away from their delivery experiences wondering what the hell just happened.
Newcomers in an Ancient Land: Adventures, Love, and Seeking Myself in 1960s Israel
by Paula WagnerAt eighteen, Paula is already a seasoned traveler, having begun life in England, crisscrossed the US as a young child, and survived a year in a London boarding school, immersed in her mother’s heritage. But when, at eighteen, she leaves home for Israel to explore her father’s Jewish roots and learn Hebrew on a kibbutz ulpan (a work/study program on a collective farm), her quest will change her life forever. Seduced by her love of language, she continues the journey to France for several years before returning at last to settle to Israel. As she navigates her odyssey from vision to reality, she will learn much more than two new languages—and realize that if she is ever to forge her own identity, she must also separate from her twin sister and follow her own path.
Soul Psalms: Poems
by U-Meleni Mhlaba-AdeboSoul Psalms, a collection of poems from Zimbabwean American poet U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo, is filled with lyrical and vivid imagery that takes you on a emotional journey toward finding self. Exploring themes of family, love, body image, acceptance, and belonging, Mhlaba-Adebo’s words flow melodically and powerfully, bringing readers to a place of peace. The themes in Soul Psalms may be personal, but they appeal to a universal pull: the desire to become.