Biography: general Books

Book SynopsisIn 1863, while living in Clarksville, Tennessee, Martha Ann Haskins, known to friends and family as Nannie, began a diary. The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams: A Southern Woman’s Story of Rebellion and Reconstruction, 1863–1890 provides valuable insights into the conditions in occupied Middle Tennessee. A young, elite Confederate sympathizer, Nannie was on the cusp of adulthood with the expectation of becoming a mistress in a slaveholding society. The war ended this prospect, and her life was forever changed. Though this is the first time the diaries have been published in full, they are well known among Civil War scholars, and a voice-over from the wartime diary was used repeatedly in Ken Burns’s famous PBS program The Civil War.Sixteen-year-old Nannie had to come to terms with Union occupation very early in the war. Amid school assignments, young friendship, social events, worries about her marital prospects, and tension with her mother, Nannie’s entries also mixed information about battles, neighbors wounded in combat, U.S. Colored troops, and lawlessness in the surrounding countryside. Providing rare detail about daily life in an occupied city, Nannie’s diary poignantly recounts how she and those around her continued to fight long after the war was over—not in battles, but to maintain their lives in a war-torn community.Though numerous women’s Civil War diaries exist, Nannie’s is unique in that she also recounts her postwar life and the unexpected financial struggles she and her family experienced in the post-Reconstruction South. Nannie’s diary may record only one woman’s experience, but she represents a generation of young women born into a society based on slavery but who faced mature adulthood in an entirely new world of decreasing farm values, increasing industrialization, and young women entering the workforce. Civil War scholars and students alike will learn much from this firsthand account of coming-of-age during the Civil War.

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Book SynopsisThe son of black sharecroppers, John Oliver Hodges attended segregated schools in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the 1950s and ’60s, worked in plantation cotton fields, and eventually left the region to earn multiple degrees and become a tenured university professor. Both poignant and thought provoking, Delta Fragments is Hodges’s autobiographical journey back to the land of his birth. Brimming with vivid memories of family life, childhood friendships, the quest for knowledge, and the often brutal injustices of the Jim Crow South, it also offers an insightful meditation on the present state of race relations in America.Hodges has structured the book as a series of brief but revealing vignettes grouped into two main sections. In part 1, “Learning,” he introduces us to the town of Greenwood and to his parents, sister, and myriad aunts, uncles, cousins, teachers, and schoolmates. He tells stories of growing up on a plantation, dancing in smoky juke joints, playing sandlot football and baseball, journeying to the West Coast as a nineteen-year-old to meet the biological father he never knew while growing up, and leaving family and friends to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta. In part 2, “Reflecting,” he connects his firsthand experience with broader themes: the civil rights movement, Delta blues, black folkways, gambling in Mississippi, the vital role of religion in the African American community, and the perplexing problems of poverty, crime, and an underfunded educational system that still challenge black and white citizens of the Delta.Whether recalling the assassination of Medgar Evers (whom he knew personally), the dynamism of an African American church service, or the joys of reconnecting with old friends at a biennial class reunion, Hodges writes with a rare combination of humor, compassion, and—when describing the injustices that were all too frequently inflicted on him and his contemporaries—righteous anger. But his ultimate goal, he contends, is not to close doors but to open them: to inspire dialogue, to start a conversation, “to be provocative without being insistent or definitive.”

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Book SynopsisPart cookbook and part memoir, Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking blends staples of farm-fresh, Appalachian cuisine with stories of life on a large farm in East Tennessee, where homemade biscuits and harvest vegetables were the fruits of hard work and meager earnings. Robert G. Netherland begins with the family farm: a sprawling sixty acres of fertile, rolling hills located in the small town of Surgoinsville, Tennessee, situated between bends in the Holston River. From there, Netherland guides the reader through threshing wheat, churning butter, sharecroppers and country doctors, hunting and hog killing, and all the while sharing updated versions of his family’s recipes for authentic farm-to-table food.From biscuits to cornbread, freshly shelled beans to red-ripe tomatoes, and savory meats to the sweetest cherry pies, Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking provides the home cook with recipes and historical asides to turn any trip to the farmer’s market into a delicious family affair. In sharing his experiences, Netherland reminds us of a time when prepackaged and plastic-wrapped food didn’t line our counters and fill our cabinets, but in its place were baskets of seasonal fruit, canned vegetables, fresh baked breads, and hot-from-the-oven cobblers. Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking is more than just a nostalgic memoir of farming and food, it’s also filled with healthy, simple, everyday eats for the modern cook.Trade ReviewIn Southern Appalachian Farm Cooking, a sixth-generation highlander writes from the heart and captures not only the food and culture of southern Appalachia but also the strength and leadership of highly acclaimed women. With its country biscuits, pear butter, and leather britches, Appalachia enjoys an amazing food tradition that is distinct from that of the wider South."" Mark Sohn, author of Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes; ""Robert Netherland has brought readers and cooks a book rooted in strong family ties and authentic Appalachian farm food. Traditions arise from what we eat and how we prepare it, and the Netherland traditions weave a delicious tale of farming, family, and foodways spanning the generations."" - Chef Walter Lambert, author of Kinfolks and Custard Pie

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Book Synopsis"When it comes to the issues confronting working people and their unions today, Phil Cohen knows what he's talking about as few people do . . . through knowledge born of bare-knuckle experience." --Si KahnThe Jackson Project is a dramatic, hard-hitting account of a brutal labor dispute at a West Tennessee textile mill. A historically accurate page turner, this is one of the few books about unions written by a frontline participant. In the spring of 1989, union organizer Phil Cohen journeyed to Jackson, Tennessee, to rebuild a troubled local and the problems were daunting: an anti-union company in financial disarray, sharply declining union membership, and myriad workplace grievances. In the tumultuous months ahead, as ownership of the plant twice changed hands, shutting down and then reopening to exclude union leaders and senior employees, he would risk his life and consider desperate measures to salvage the unions cause. In this riveting memoir, Cohen taken the reader from the union hall and factory gates to the bargaining table and courtroom, and ultimately to the picket line. We get to know the millworkers with whom he formed close bonds, including a stormy romance with a young woman at the plant. His up-close account brims with vivid descriptions of the negotiating process, the grinding work at the textile mill, the lives of its employees, and the grim realities of union busting in America. The last generation of the old south and it's textile subculture are portrayed as they come to terms with a changing economy, racial dynamics, and the introduction of hard drugs to their community. When the organizer's four year old daughter accompanies him to the field, a unique and unexpected dimension is added to the tale. The Jackson Project offers readers a rare insider's view of the American labor movement in action. Trade ReviewPhil Cohen is a hero of labor organizing in the South."- Damon Silvers: General Counsel, AFL-CIO"The Jackson Project takes readers inside the struggle, with vivid portraits of real people fighting for their lives and livelihoods in a rapidly changing environment. Reading much like a novel, Cohen combines the personal and the professional into a powerful message, from the frontlines of the battle between labor and management during an era of union busting."- Durham News & Observer "Great read. I knew a lot of residents who worked there for years and years."- Tom Britt, Anchor/Producer: WBBJ-TV, Jackson, TN "The official UCOMM Blog Book Club strongly suggests you read this book."- Union Communications Blog"Phil Cohen's compelling memoir.... offers an unusually vivid and accessible window into the practical operation of American labor law. The story is worth telling. Cohen humanizes the struggle without romanticizing it." - Routledge Press - History: Reviews of New Books"Phil Cohen became one of the leading union organizers in the South. Now, he is telling one of his most gripping stories in a memoir. The Jackson Project recounts his efforts to organize workers - as well as the workers' own stories, as they lived amidst dangerous working conditions and economic struggles."- Aaron Keck - Radio Host & Reporter: WCHL/News Around Town"Phil Cohen earned his nickname (Ninja Phil) by being one of the most effective labor organizers ever in a region that has never been kind to unions. The Jackson Project is powerful memoir that offers an uncommonly up close and personal look at the struggles of organized labor in the South. Cohen’s concern for factual accuracy makes it remarkable that he composed a memoir that flows so freely, much more story than history."- The Bitter Southerner

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Book SynopsisWilliam Strickland (1788–1854) was, in his day, among the most notable architects in the United States. An erstwhile student of Benjamin Henry Latrobe and a contemporary of Robert Mills, Strickland first entered the world of architecture at a young age in Philadelphia. But given that many of Strickland's buildings have not survived, and considering the sparse and dispersed collection of primary sources Strickland left upon his death, little contemporary scholarship has appeared concerning Strickland's significant contributions to the built environment of the early nineteenth century. In William Strickland and the Creation of an American Architecture , Robert Russell does much to rectify this underrepresentation of Strickland's notable architectural contributions in contemporary scholarship. In this first monograph detailing Strickland's life and works since 1950 Russell examines the architectural production of Strickland during the first half of the nineteenth century. Russell begins with the well-known Second Bank of the United States (Philadelphia)–the project that launched Strickland onto the national stage–eventually bringing his analysis to the south with an examination of the Tennessee State Capitol Building (Nashville). These two monuments bookended the American Greek Revival of the nineteenth century. Russell's careful descriptions and insightful analyses of William Strickland's work highlight the architect's artistic skills and contributions to American material culture over the course of fifty years. Ornamenting his examination with more than one hundred illustrations, Russell takes readers on a comprehensive journey through Strickland's architecture. Part biography, part architectural history, William Strickland and the Creation of an American Architecture is an invaluable resource for scholars and artists alike, illustrating Strickland's critical role in American architectural history and celebrating the icon behind buildings in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and beyond that are still admired and appreciated today.Trade ReviewWilliam Strickland and the Creation of an American Architecture is a significant contribution to the professional career of William Strickland and the history of architecture in the United States. Very little has been written about Strickland, one of the most important proponents of the Greek Revival style of architecture in the U.S. His work primarily in Philadelphia, but also elsewhere, was a major reason Greek Revival became known as the “National Style” in the first half of the nineteenth century.' - Norman R. Tyler, professor emeritus, Eastern Michigan University 'William Strickland and the Creation of an American Architecture is well researched and well written and filled with careful descriptions and insightful analyses of Strickland’s work.' - Michael W. Fazio, professor emeritus, Mississippi State University

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Book SynopsisMary McLeod Bethune was born on May 10, 1875, in a log cabin in rural Sumter County, South Carolina. She was the fifteenth child among seventeen siblings but the first born free of the bonds of slavery. As a child she attended a Presbyterian mission school in nearby Mayesville and Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina. After some years at Scotia she was admitted in 1894 to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Her two years of training at Moody did not lead to missionary work in Africa, as she had dreamed, but to missionlike teaching positions in the South and eventually her founding, in 1904, of the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls, in Daytona Beach, Florida. That institution would grow to the present-day Bethune-Cookman University.In this religious biography, author Yahya Jongintaba traces Bethune’s life of service in lively prose, structuring his book in a five-part framework that organizes his subject’s life in parallel with the Lord’s Prayer and virtues identified by Bethune herself: freedom, creativity, integrity, discipline, and love. With unfettered access to Bethune’s personal archive, Jongintaba paints a picture of a mother figure and mentor to generations, a nearsaint who lived “a blameless life for four-score years.” With deep empathy and the kind of “spiritual understanding” that Bethune had despaired of finding in a biographer in her own lifetime (despite attempts by publishers and herself to find just the right person), Jongintaba endeavors to achieve in his biography what Bethune wrote that she hoped to accomplish in an autobiography that never materialized: to “give to the world the real Mary McLeod Bethune’s life as I have lived it.”

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Book SynopsisMy Detroit is a unique blend of traditional ethnic memoir and a historian's account of the decline and fall of America's most populous industrial city. The interaction of American culture and ethnic consciousness is evident on almost every page. Archbishop Iakovos marches with Martin Luther King, Maria Callas becomes as famous as Marilyn Monroe. Greek diners become neighborhood hangouts. The reader is taken in ever widening circles from the particulars of Greek American culture to the core of an embattled Motor City awash in racism and corruption.

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Book SynopsisDespite growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area as the daughter of four lesbians, Kellen Kaiser envisioned her life working out, fairy tale–like, with a Prince Charming. When her possible prince did arrive, however, it was not without complications. Home on leave from the Israeli army, the man Kaiser picks doesn’t seem like a sure bet. Starting with some casual sex gone awry, they face a number of obstacles, not the least of which are war in the Middle East, long-distance romance, and differing views on sexuality and their approaching adulthood. But they find themselves most challenged by a more mundane concern: the upkeep of a relationship between two people. Funny and keenly observed, Queerspawn in Love is a story about identity, family, and figuring out, through loving someone else and failing, how to love yourself.Trade Review“In this wry, wise, and thoroughly terrific memoir, Kaiser handles the kind of thorny identity politics that make lesser writers quail with a light, lovely and seemingly effortless touch -- and she's hilarious to boot.” —Rachel Shukert, author of Everything's Going to be Great “Kaiser’s descriptively compelling, sweetly sensual, coming-of-age story transcends religions and geography.” —Booklist

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Book SynopsisStepmother tells the story of Marianne Lile, who met a man, fell in love, got married, and arrived home from the honeymoon with a new label: stepmom. It was a role she initially embraced—but she quickly discovered she was alone in a difficult situation, with no handbook and no mentor. Here, Lile describes the complexities of the stepmom position, in a family and in the community, and shares her experience wearing a tag that is often misunderstood and weighed down by the numerous myths in society. Candid and poignant, Stepmother is a story of love and like, resentments and exasperation, resignation and hope—and a story, ultimately, of family.Trade Review2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards:Winner in Motivational 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist in Self-Help (Non-Fiction) 15th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards:Finalist in Self-Help: General 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards: Winner in Mind & Spirit 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards: Finalist in Instructional & Insightful Non-Fiction “1 of 8 Best Books on Parenting in 2016” —Caring.com "This is a genuine love story that thoughtfully considers all the ways real-world obstacles conspire against a simple romance. A beautiful examination of a family and the sometimes-fragile ligatures that bind its members.” —Kirkus Reviews, selected by Indie Editors as a review in the Oct 2016 issues “As it wends from battling resentment to persevering to redefining the foundations of family, this memoir is an emotionally raw celebration of motherhood and all its forms.” —Working Mother, "21 New Books to Fall for This Autumn" ”Stepping into the role of motherhood is the bravest venture of any woman’s life — but taking on the role of stepmother requires even thicker skin . . . Readers will be left with a renewed and redefined understanding of motherhood and a substantially deeper respect for it.” —Brit+Co "...A straight-shooting, no holds barred description of life as a stepmom and I defy anyone not to get drawn in and hooked, not to experience a whole range of emotions. And I defy anyone who isn’t from a blended family not to sit up and take note, to start realizing that a stepmom is still a mom, still a big part of a family and, above all, she is a human being who deserves respect." —Readers' Favorite, five stars

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Book SynopsisPeggy Garrity began her life as a small-town Irish Catholic girl in the Midwest. Initially convent-bound, she became determined to escape a life like her mother’s, and in the mid-1970s she reinvented herself as a high-profile Los Angeles trial lawyer and single mother of four. At a time when there were virtually no women solo practitioners, she represented David against Goliath—and risked it all in the process. Including compelling courtroom dramas featuring would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore, celebrities Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, and Cheryl Tiegs, and some of Los Angeles’s most notorious murder cases, In the Game is the groundbreaking story of a thrill-seeking solo trial lawyer—and single mother—who beat the odds at a time when working mothers, especially those in male-dominated professions like the law, faced the gauntlet of discrimination.Trade Review“When Peggy Garrity began her career, fewer than 3 percent of lawyers were women, and fewer than 1 percent of lawyers were brilliant—and she was in both categories. A single mother, and a singular force in the courtroom, Garrity litigated cases with one would-be assassin, several murderers, many movie stars, and far too many domestic violence perpetrators. In the Game tells her stories the way Garrity does everything: compellingly.” —Gavin de Becker, best-selling author of The Gift of Fear “In the Game offers an insight into a high stakes legal world and a lawyer who fought in the trenches.” —Geri Spieler, author of Taking Aim At The President “You won’t be able to put this fast-paced memoir down. Garrity has you hooked by the first page with her exploits as one of the few female litigators in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Her humor and searing honesty reveals what it takes to stay In The Game in a legal system that underestimates women with a resolve like Garrity’s. A brilliant read.” —Maureen Murdock, author of The Heroine’s Journey “If you think that Courtroom trials are dull and boring, you haven't experienced the epee-like skills of Peggy Garrity, acting as a powerful legal advocate for her clients! In covering hundreds of trials, I have seen the many degrees of lawyering and legal wrangling, and Ms. Garrity is one of the best. In the Game is a great read, and a great ride . . . with a look into the many facets of a well-lived life and career.” —Mona Shafer Edwards, Courtroom Illustrator and author of Captured: Inside the World of Celebrity Trials “In the Game will shed light on the injustices of the justice system and the ways a strong, determined trial lawyer can make a difference in her client's life. When I first met Peggy Garrity, I was a broken woman fighting to protect my severely autistic child. Where other attorneys saw only obstacles and endless litigation, Peggy found opportunities and even showed me I could laugh again. To this day if she told me to 'do cartwheels in the courthouse hallway,' I would. Peggy Garrity saved our lives.” —Elaine Hall, author, Now I See the Moon: a Mother, A Son, and the Miracle of Autism, star of the Emmy –award winning HBO documentary Autism: The Musical “Peggy Garrity is a force of nature, one that has defied expectations her entire life. While she may best be known for single-handedly winning the toughest headline-grabbing cases against all odds, her real mark may well be in shredding all the stereotypes we have of lawyers as uncaring and manipulative mercenaries. Her story, In The Game, is a funny, and exceptional chronicle of how one brilliant woman, driven by an unerring drive for truth, can and does fight for and win at both law and life.” —Rod Stryker, author of The Four Desires and founder of Parayoga "In the Game is the riveting memoir of a trailblazing woman who blasted down the locked doors that had effectively shut women out of the practice of law since the writing of the Ten Commandments. Her strength, her spirit, and her brilliance shine through these pages and show how it took all of that to overcome the enormous obstacles put in her way.” —Marcia Clark, author of crime novel Blood Defense and former O.J. Simpson prosecutor “Garrity is further proof that women really do run the world.” —Redbook.com

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Book SynopsisWounds fester and spread in the darkness of silence. The First Signs of April, explores the destructive patterns of unresolved grief and the importance of connection for true healing to occur. The narrative weaves through time to explore grief reactions to two very different losses: suicide and cancer.Trade Review2019 IPPY Silver Medal Winner in LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction “Reading First Signs of April is like sitting in front of a fire with an old friend: Briscoe starts telling her story and all of a sudden the sun is up and you feel as if you haven't blinked once. This book will become that friend who stays with you for life.” —Melanie Braverman, author of East Justice and Red “The First Signs of April is an inspiring story of about life, death, and how connected we all remain—but only if we're open to listening to the wisdom waiting for us. Mary-Elizabeth Briscoe shows us the power of friendship, and the ways we can heal by embracing all life has to offer. —Linda Joy Myers, president National Association of Memoir Writers, and author of Song of the Plains: A Memoir of Family Secrets and Silence “By living and writing her truth, Briscoe shares her healing journey of loss and love. A compelling read that grabs your attention and will not let you leave.” —Priscilla A. Hutchins, licensed Psychologist-Doctorate, retired

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Book SynopsisWhen Leah Reinhart was six years old, her family moved to an unlikely neighborhood on a hill much like the country—a place where everyone dressed and lived like they were living a real-life Little House on the Prairie. Yet their new home was in Oakland, California, and everything surrounding Leah’s neighborhood was the polar opposite of their old-fashioned lifestyle. As an already scared little white girl in a predominantly African American city, Leah quickly learned that would have to face many of her fears—or get eaten alive. And in her search for love and belonging, she also found that things aren’t always as they appear. As she got to know her neighbors, most of whom belonged to the neighborhood church, she began to realize that the hood was sometimes much safer than the country. Over the course of her life—learning from the streets, a cult, trial and error, and many years of therapy—Leah developed an eye for patterns. She learned how the belief system she’d absorbed during her childhood manifested in her teenage years and young adulthood. Ultimately, she learned how to change her thoughts and accept herself—and in doing so, she broke free of the cycle she’d been imprisoned by.Trade Review"Reinhart writes in a conversational tone, as if she’s telling a juicy story to a good friend… A memoir that crafts a neatly resolved narrative” —Kirkus Reviews This is a raw and honest sharing about love, life, and success. Leah skillfully takes us through a story that gently teaches us that anything is possible if you always point yourself in the direction of love in your life. —Phyllis King, author of The Energy of Abundance "Who needs a guru? Leah’s raw, self-revelatory read shows how grit and grace led the author to her own truth and healing." —Donna Morrish, psychotherapist and energy healer

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Book Synopsis• When Saigon fell in 1975 there were 125,000 US-sponsored Vietnamese refugees.• In 2017 more than 1.3 million Vietnamese reside in the US • Today the nail industry is worth $8 billion, and 80 percent of nail technicians in Southern California are Vietnamese (51 percent across the US).AUDIENCE:• Immigrant women• Vietnamese women and women of Vietnamese descent• Women who get mani/pedis• Children of refugees/immigrants• Readers interested in the Vietnam War

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Book SynopsisA sweeping exploration of beginnings and endings, loss and letting go, All the Ghosts Dance Free takes readers on a journey through author Terry Cameron Baldwin’s life: from her childhood in a privileged but unstable enclave on the coast of Southern California, through her adolescence in Palm Springs and coming of age in San Francisco at the height of the sixties psychedelic revolution, and ultimately to her life as an ex-pat in Mexico. Struggling to deal with the death of her parents, as well as questions about her own mortality, Baldwin embarks upon a pilgrimage to a small town in Morocco—where, she finds, all of the ghosts dance free.Trade Review"A striking, sensitive record of voyages and acceptance.” —Kirkus Reviews “Terry Cameron Baldwin has written the definitive memoir on coming of age in 1960s Southern California. It’s all here: growing up in an Eden on the beach, beautiful, rich parents, divorce, suicide, drugs, alcoholism, the Haight, private jets, cigarette boats, Volkswagen buses, furious arguments, and the constant lure of the road and the next big thing. ‘The free, fresh wind in her hair, life without care . . .’ drew Baldwin around the world. From the mountains of Mexico to the souks of Morocco, from laissez-faire Christianity to a Muslim ex-husband, she rings the changes of an impulsive, insatiable curiosity. This woman writes prose poetry.” —Stephen M. Joseph, author of Children in Fear and Meditations, and co-author of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, The Me Nobody Knows “This is a wonderful read from a gifted writer. Baldwin paints vivid portraits of her characters and the world around them with a masterful use of language and syntax. It’s a captivating look not only at the colorful personalities that populate the author’s world but also the values, views, and quirks that distinguish them. In short, a fascinating glimpse at an extraordinary life of compelling relationships.” —Richard Daniel, book editor for the Beverly Hills Post “‘If you remember the sixties, you weren’t there,’ goes the joke. Terry Cameron Baldwin proves this canard radiantly wrong. We haven’t heard nearly enough from women about that era, a time when Baldwin says she was the freest she’s ever been. With a photographic memory, she introduces a cast of characters that glint in the imagination long after you close the book. And she evokes all the idealism, adventurousness, and self-denial of a generation too easily mocked and misunderstood. Muriel Rukeyser asked us what would happen if one woman told the truth about her life—the world would split open, she answered. Baldwin remembers how people in her world dressed and dreamed. She brings her ghosts back to life with exquisite prose as diamond sharp as the ring she donned in 1965.” —Lauren Coodley, author of Upton Sinclair California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual, California: a Multicultural Documentary History, and Napa: the Transformation of an American Town “All the Ghosts Dance Free tells the fascinating story of a woman striding confidently through a swiftly fluctuating world and how she and the world shape each other.” —San Francisco Book Review

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Book SynopsisThe aviation world is a man’s world—it always has been, and it continues to be so today. In fact, women make up a mere 5 to 6 percent of the total pilot population worldwide. But from the first time Erin Seidemann experienced what it was like to see the world from a small plane’s perspective, she was hooked—and she’s spent much of her time since then fighting her way into becoming one of that 5 to 6 percent. Postcards from the Sky: Adventures of an Aviatrix tells of the struggles and adventures one encounters as a woman in the male-dominated space of aviation. With humor and equanimity, Seidemann recounts her varied experiences as a female pilot—from the chauvinistic flight instructor she makes the mistake of falling in love with to the many, many customs agents who insist she can’t possibly be her plane’s owner (“Where’s your boyfriend?”)—while at the same time giving insight about just what makes flying so incredible . . . and so very addictive. Frank, funny, and full of adventure, Postcards from the Sky is an entertaining foray into a world few women have dared enter.

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Book SynopsisWhen Cynthia Trenshaw, recently widowed, moves to Berkeley, she thinks the reason she has transplanted herself is to earn her master’s degree in theology. But when, step by unexpected step, she is drawn into the cultural borderlands where society’s “invisible people” reside, she encounters dispossessed and demanding teachers not listed on any academic roster—and becomes immersed in a heady curriculum of helplessness and joy, wisdom and pain. A book that encourages readers to receive the generosity and reciprocity of the margins, Meeting in the Margins offers guidance for how we can all, as individuals, begin to repair the rift between the margins and the mainstream of society—simply by being profoundly present.Trade Review2018 IPPY Gold Medal Winner in Current Events II (Social Issues/Humanitarian) “Meeting in the Margins is a dangerous book. It will move you, shake you, change you, and leave you with a profound sense that you have been in the presence of the holy. Cynthia Trenshaw’s intention is to do just that. She is a brilliant writer. Simply by telling the truth in stories that she herself has lived, she takes us into touching distance of those whom Rabindrinath Tagore called ‘the poorest, the lowliest, and lost.’” —Pat Schneider, author of Writing Alone and With Others, and How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice, both from Oxford University Press “A beautifully written, challenging, and thought-provoking book, one that truly leads us to insights and recognitions that make it possible to contemplate a world that works for all. I haven’t seen anything like it. Trenshaw’s book contributes to helping us see the world at the margins with clarity.” —Margaret J. Wheatley, author of So Far From Home, Perseverance, Turning to One Another, and Leadership and the New Science “Cynthia Trenshaw is a gifted writer, massage therapist and pilgrim who has chosen to journey with those who are the most vulnerable in our society. As a writer she conveys in vivid and powerful prose the heart-wrenching details of life on the street. As a massage therapist she feels into the stories of those who live in the margins, and anoints their soul-wounds with compassion and courage. As a pilgrim she searches for meaning, her own and ours, with every encounter. This is a prayer-book as well as a text-book for those who choose to journey to the margins of society and be transformed.” —Mary Ann Finch, founder/director of Care Through Touch Institute, and author of Care Through Touch: Massage, the Art of Anointing “Cynthia Trenshaw gifts us with an extraordinary window into the soul of the marginalized among us. In exquisite detail of both inner and outer moments of meeting on the streets, the reality of presence she evokes communicates through her stories; it sparks our own celebration of that precious sense of presence. Prepare to be deeply touched. Prepare to remember what is truly important in our lives. This book is itself a gift from soul to soul. Through her open-hearted memories, Trenshaw offers us all a most generous and luxurious soul massage! ” —Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD, author of A Journey of Awakening, co-author of Religion Gone Astray, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith, and Judaism For Dummies “This well-written, often moving account of Trenshaw’s experiences among the homeless and other forgotten individuals at society’s margins evokes a range of responses: apprehension, admiration, revulsion, recognition, and perhaps shame in anyone who’s ever avoided the sight of a street person. Trenshaw, a chaplain and massage practitioner with a degree in theology, shares her experiences seeking out these invisible men and women and offering them not only massage (relaxing for both body and mind) but the greater gift of affirming their 'realness' and 'worth.'” —Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisAs a young girl growing up in the Midwest, Sunny experiences the shame and stigma of scandal when her father is banned from their church for having an affair with the pastor’s best friend’s wife. As Sunny grows older, she begins to build the life she’s always wanted: she marries, buys a house, enrolls in graduate school, and soon has a baby on the way. But when she experiences the psychological phenomena of orgasmic labor, it triggers a chain of bizarre events, and she gradually descends into a world of delusion and paranoia. As Sunny struggles to separate the real from the unreal, she relies upon friends and family to ground her in truth and love—and keep her from going over the edge into madness.Trade Review“What a vivid and riveting central image: the explosion of orgiastic feeling concomitant with childbirth—physicality that leads to a mental split between real and delusion to become an obsession that is almost like a religious stigmata. For the reader, the protagonist becomes lovable in her tenacious struggle. The precision of the description of her delusional states is very helpful, whether for a reader wanting to learn or a reader wanting to empathize.” —Judith Carrington, media and advocacy group chair, National Alliance on Mental Illness, New York City “The book enthralled from the beginning to the end. It impressed upon me Sunny's struggle to know "real" from "unreal." On a personal level, I feel proud to know her story.” —Sarah Kennedy McPhee, MPH, Sexuality Educator, New Hampshire “What is real and what's a delusion? An erotic, intimate, tantalizing journey through a life like no other.” —Grant Thorsson, author of Bipolar for Beginners “There is something in this memoir that will speak to each of us. The protagonist's development and upbringing is arresting, and the descent into psychosis is real, maddening, and mind-numbing. The difficulties that the protagonist faces and often surmounts, are laid out in an explicit manner that is unmistakably personal. There are insights in this novel that demand thoughtful consideration, especially about the ways and depth with which we affect each other.” —Frederick Naftolin, MD, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynocology and Director of Reproductive Biology Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynocology, New York University

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Book SynopsisA Mexican immigrant and rising star within the Christian community abandons his faith and comes out as a gay atheist In this exceptionally moving and soul-searching memoir, Fernando AlcÁntar recounts his incredible journey from poor Catholic boy on the dusty streets of Mexico to globetrotting missionary and high-profile Christian leader in the United States—where he eventually left his celebrated life behind to advocate for the liberating power of reason and equality. With heart-wrenching honesty, he shares stories of trauma, tragedy, prejudice, uncertainty, survival, and, ultimately, discovery. In the process, he gives a voice to thousands who are hiding in the shadows, afraid to publicly question their religious, cultural, or sexual identity for fear of isolation and retaliation. You will discover that his is not simply a Mexican story or an American story, a heterosexual's story or a homosexual's story, a Christian's story or an atheist's story. Rather, his is a universal story—one uniquely about and for our times. Trade Review"Alcántar provides a very compelling and griping personal narrative that is both a coming-of-age story and the story of a man who is transformed by the power of thought. This book is a page turner that . . . is a must read for all those who believe or have believed in the power of God and faith." David Tamayo, Founder, Hispanic American Freethinkers, Inc."This is as much an adventure and coming-of-age story as it is a coming-out story (both gay and atheist). It clearly shows how sincere and fervent religious belief erodes when logic and clear thinking creep in. Beware, Christian fundamentaliststhis book is dangerous to your beliefs, but is a secular blessing to the rest of us." Linda LaScola, co-founder, The Clergy Project; co-author, Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind"Fernando Alcántar has been on a remarkable journey that could easily have cost him his life. But as we learn in this challenging memoir, he has fought his way to the other side and came out whole with a clear understanding of his sexuality, his spirituality, and his mission in life. Fernando is an inspiration!" Eric Marcus, co-author, Coming Out to Play (with Robbie Rogers) and Breaking the Surface (with Greg Louganis)"We find ourselves in the presence of a master storyteller who has made a fine contribution to the growing library of works by ex-Christians who have valuable stories to tellto make the world a better place." David Madison, author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief

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