Relationships and families: advice, topics and issues Books

Book SynopsisWhen she was twenty, Patricia Reis’s mother asked, “What about your spiritual life?” Years later, this question drives her midlife quest to reconcile the desires of her body with the mandates of her spirit. Motherlines is a candid and compelling story of sex with men and with women, of celibacy, illegal abortions, making vows and breaking them, dreams, body wisdom, creative ambition, and inspiring relationships with memorable characters. This unflinching memoir illuminates the unvarnished truth of growing up female in the 1980’s a rich and fertile period in American history when gender roles were undergoing a revolution, a time that includes feminism, the women’s spirituality movement and liberation theology. In her soul-searching quest for meaning, and longing for maternal connection, Reis discovers an unlikely confidante in her aunt, a free-spirited Franciscan nun. Their letters and relationship are a thread that weaves throughout this memoir – an increasingly intimate and honest exchange between two women who are living very different lives yet are both kin and kindred spirits. A spiritual journey and a creative tour de force, this memoir is a potent and tender love song to the Motherlines that connect us all.Trade Review“Motherlines is a deep treasure written in the inimitable voice of a woman whose work was a lighthouse for me when I first wrote Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. There is pure gold healing in these pages. Let it touch and heal you.” —Christiane Northrup, MD, OB/GYN physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers Goddesses Never Age; Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom; and The Wisdom of Menopause “Dreams, body wisdom, sexual awakening, inspiring relationships—Patricia Reis possesses a deep capacity to hear the soul’s call and the courage to follow it. A spiritual journey and a creative tour de force, this is a potent and tender love song to the motherlines that connect us all.” —Tina Stromsted, PhD, Jungian analyst, dance/movement therapist, and cofounder of the Authentic Movement Institute in Berkeley, California “Looking for a book that will feed your mind and your heart? Insight waits on every page of Patricia Reis’s Motherlines —as do real-life characters who will inhabit your memory and remain friends and advisors long after you close the cover.” —Mary Johnson, author of An Unquenchable Thirst, named one of the Best Books of the Year by Kirkus Reviews “A maternal aunt—a nun—who, on three continents and in a series of socio-political challenges, becomes an unexpected hand for Reis to hold. Despite leading very different lives, the two women are surprisingly similar in their yearning and search for what matters most to heart, soul, and spirit.” —Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of This is Paradise and the New England Book Award–winning Sundays in America “Motherlines is a riveting memoir. Patricia Reis’s masterful telling of her soulful experience of being lost and found in the dark and light mysteries of midlife is a remarkable story. Motherlines is soul food for all.” —Sister Karol Jackowski, author of Forever and Ever, Amen: Becoming a Nun in the Sixties “This memoir of a searching American woman and her aunt, a liberationist Franciscan nun living in Central America, tells an intertwined story. In tandem they move through layers of spiritual exploration and women's truth to arrive in a knowing sense of fulfillment.” —cofounder of the US Green Party movement “Patricia Reis is a fierce and fearless writer. Motherlines is an intimate, movingly honest story about women who seek and yearn for the fullest expression and connection. Grounded and transcendent.” —Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great Man and Blue Plate Special

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Book SynopsisOn a bus trip to a Catskill Mountain ashram, Rifka Kreiter recollects her past as she travels to meet Swamiji, another new guru on the scene in the bustling spiritual marketplace of 1976. Memories abound of an eventful childhood with an unstable mother on New York’s Upper West Side and in LA, of dancing the Twist at Manhattan’s Peppermint Lounge, and of sitting in against the war—as well as getting tear-gassed in Mississippi, surviving broken love affairs, and more. A checkerboard ride through the fifties, sixties, and early seventies, Home Free is powered by Kreiter’s passionate drive for pleasure, self-knowledge, and—above all—freedom from limitations, whether psychological, political, or spiritual. Ultimately, it is a joyful trip, as she strives to bust free, be it with drugs, therapy, political activism, or meditation. At last, she arrives at a destination as unexpected as it is transformational.

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Book SynopsisLife in a middle-class Italian American-Catholic neighborhood in the 1950s Bronx was not supposed to include divorce, Judaism, classical music, political discourse, or poverty in the social construct. So, in the absence of friends, young Barbara takes comfort in the minutiae, the small details available to her in her everyday life that seem to be overlooked by others. But that appreciation for the inanimate world leads her on a path to the acquisition of objects and a quest for identity that dominates her choices—from her marriage and family life to her constant striving for more and more. Barbara’s chosen nursing career offers validation and some affirmation, but falls short of providing her what’s most elusive—self–esteem—until finally, at age fifty, she abruptly abandons her conventional role of mother, wife, nurse, and neighbor to attempt a three-hundred-mile bike ride from Boston to New York. Poorly prepared, she takes only what she needs to flee her life, and a fierce determination that finally allows her to discover her place in the world—and to find true belonging.Trade Review“A witty and thoughtful account that’s a portrait of a mother-daughter bond as much as it is a search for love. The drama alone (a broken engagement, angry creditors, infidelity) keep the reader engaged . . . ” —Kirkus Reviews “One woman’s challenging tale to fi nd herself is full of emotion and stark, uncomfortable truths . . . revealing a vulnerability that is as painful as it is endearing. The conversational, relatable writing style is enough to captivate readers and keep the pages turning.” —BookLife “Santarelli’s memoir is like a friend telling you a good story. Her conversational voice draws you in and keeps you there. The plucky kid from the 1950s working-class Bronx stays nestled in the heart of the protagonist as she makes her way into adulthood—always keenly observing, yearning to belong, resilient —and at last finds her true place in the world. Full of humor and heart.” —Sarah Saffian, LMSW, MFA, author of Ithaka, A Daughter’s Memoir of Being Found “Barbara Santarelli’s character development is excellent. You’ll find yourself identifying with her search for self-esteem and freedom from her past.” —Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Song of the Plains and Don’t Call Me Mother “Nurses will be captivated by Santarelli’s fascinating memoir of courageous self-exploration and fulfillment in life as a nurse.” —Joan Edelstein, R. N, M.S.N, Dr.PH, President,National Association of School Nurses

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Book SynopsisIt Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters explores the complex challenges and unexpected rewards of aging mothers in their relationships with their midlife daughters. Based on interviews with women between 65 and 85, it illuminates issues of closeness, distance, longing, and need that arise. Mothers speak openly about the ongoing effects of the past on the present, the cultural, familial, and interpersonal conflicts that remain, and the varied and often invisible ways they continue mothering. As mothers enter the last decades of their lives, their roles with their daughters often shift and change in complicated ways. Now that they are no longer central in caring for them as they once were, many experience a recalibrating of authority, autonomy, and independence. Their courage is apparent as they reflect on the mistakes they’ve made, acknowledge their regrets, and search to come to terms with their relationships as they now are.Trade Review2018 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Psychology 2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist inHealth: Aging/50+ “An insightful look at the relationships between senior mothers and their middle-aged daughters . . . An important personal and sociological perspective on women’s lives.” —Kirkus Reviews “A brave book, and one that I admire—a book that will help many aging mothers feel less alone and lead to more open exploration, both in literature and in life.” —Ellen Bass, poet and author of Like a Beggar and coauthor of The Courage to Heal “A rich, thoughtful, multi-layered look into the ways that mothers experience their relationships with their middle-aged daughters variously with love, joy, fulfillment, sorrow, anguish, and longing . . . a warm, clearly written, sorely needed exploration of a topic of profound importance.” —Paula J. Caplan, PhD, author of The New Don’t Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship and Associate, W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute, Harvard University “A book to learn from and savor. The complex, nuanced stories of these women’s relationships with their adult daughters over time form the core of this revealing book as the authors probe the mothers’ yearnings for intimacy, issues of distance and alienation, and modes of forgiveness and renewal.” —Joyce Antler, author of You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother and Professor Emerita, Brandeis University “An important work. For every second-wave feminist, this book is a continuation of the consciousness started in the 1960s, and an expansive and intimate story for anyone who has been or intends to be a mother.” —Ruth Rosen, author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America

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Book Synopsis“Who do you thank you are, the Quane of Anglund?” That’s what Grace Marie’s father used to say to her whenever he thought she was getting out of her place. In her fifties now, Grace Marie is a college professor living in a beach town in California, and when she gets a phone call telling her that her father is dead, she is glad. She hopes her return for his funeral will be her “last trip home.” As a young girl Grace Marie struggled to escape from poverty, her father's lecherous, controlling grip, and a husband in the Klan. Determined to get an education, she clawed her way to a comfortable life and a home with indoor toilets—but her most unexpected struggle turned out to be survivor’s guilt, so she kept returning home to “fix” her family and the sharecropper shack. After her father’s funeral, Grace Marie burns down the family home—only to discover that she has unexpected ties to both the land and the people in her community. She realizes she will never have a “last trip home.”Trade Review"An emotionally astute account of the oppressive confines of an unhappy family life." —Kirkus Reviews “With a writer’s voice that is sassy and vibrant, Wanda Maureen Miller’s gripping narrative took me by the heart and the scruff of my neck into regions I would never otherwise have explored.” —Nancy Bacal, creator and leader of The Writer’s Way workshops, editor of Leonard Cohen’s anthology, Stranger Music, and writer/producer of RAGA, starring Ravi Shankar and George Harrison “An outrageous story of love and redemption set in the not-so-gracious South, from an exciting and completely original new voice. Last Trip Home is for people who like their sanity skewed.” —Terri Cheney, author of the New York Times bestseller Manic and blogger for Psychology Today “A candid, piercing, and often funny reveal of how kith and kin in an Arkansas sharecropper shack can both maim and love. Miller is a literary sharpshooter whose memoir of her impoverished family eking by on squirrel provides riveting redneck rubbernecking.” —Gali Kronenberg, former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune “In post–World War II Arkansas, Grace Marie escapes her insular past with its strict behavior codes for females. Scrubbing away drawl and shame, she is now an emancipated woman in California. Yet she feels compelled to return home repeatedly when her family desperately needs help. The tone is often dark, yet there is redemption in her rise above poverty, shameful secrets, and a violent, out-of-bounds father. The story takes the clichéd ‘you can’t go home again’ theme and turns it into a more complicated look at community bonds, family love, and sense of duty.” —Sharon Steeber, professor of English at Santa Monica College, author of The Jews, and coauthor of the Reading Faster and Understanding More series “As a black American, I approached Last Trip Home with trepidation but couldn’t stop reading. I remember my parents’ stories about violence from the Texas Ku Klux Klan. The characters are gut wrenchingly real, presented with both brutal honesty and humor. I got an insight into a way of thinking and living diametrically opposed to all that I’ve known and respected; yet I felt pity and empathy. I cheered when Grace Marie burned her husband’s KKK sheet. This book shows how the world of reading can open up a young mind. I profoundly appreciate the insight and hope represented.” —Judy Francis, former diplomat for the US Department of State

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Book SynopsisIn The Trail to Tincup: Love Stories at Life’s End, a psychologist reckons with the loss of four family members within a span of two years. Hocker works backward into the lives of these people and forward into the values, perspective, and qualities they bestowed before and after leaving. Following the trail to their common gravesite in Tincup, Colorado, she remembers and recounts decisive stories and delves into artifacts, journals, and her own dreams. In the process the grip of grief begins to lessen, death braids its way into life, and life informs the losses with abiding connections. Gradually, she begins to find herself capable of imagining life without her sister and best friend. Toward the end of the book Hocker’s own near-death experience illuminates how familiarity with her individual mortality helps her live with joy, confidence, and openness.Trade Review“Yes, grief is personal, grief consumes, grief comes in uncontrollable waves, and grief fades, but everyone experiences grief at some point in their lives, and this book should be your guide. Hocker’s writing is inspiring, her reflections brave and wise.” —The Missoulian

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Book SynopsisWhat could be cooler, thinks teen Elizabeth Garber in 1965, than to live in a glass house designed by her architect dad? Ever since childhood, she’s adored everything he loves—his XKE Jaguar, modern art, and his Eames black leather chair—and she’s been inspired by his passionate intensity as he teaches her about modern architecture. When Woodie receives a commission to design a high-rise dormitory—a tower of glass—for the University of Cincinnati, Elizabeth, her mother and brothers celebrate with him. But less than twenty years later, Sander Hall, the mirror-glass dormitory, will be dynamited into rubble. Implosion: Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter delves into the life of visionary architect Woodie Garber and the collision of forces in the turbulent 1970s that caused his family to collapse. Soon after the family’s move into Woodie’s glass house, his need to control begins to strain normal bonds; and Elizabeth’s first love, a young black man, triggers his until-then hidden racism. This haunting memoir describes his descent into madness and follows Elizabeth’s inspiring journey to emerge from her abuse, gain understanding and freedom from her father’s control, and go on to become a loving mother and a healer who helps others.Trade Review2019 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Memoirs (Other) 2018 International Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir 2018 Kirkus Best Books “…poetic and incisive…Many readers will see aspects of their own family histories in this powerful saga of trauma and healing. An alternately wistful and searing exploration of a troubled legacy.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Garber’s extraordinary debut memoir tells the story of her abusive father, architect Woodie Garber….and steadily charts his and her family’s descent into chaos and madness, as Woodie’s commissions dry up and he ceases to receive the recognition he believes he deserves….Recommended for survivors of abuse and those interested in knowing more about the ways in which great professional success often comes at the sacrifice of one’s own family and private life.” —Library Journal “I was riveted by this story of an adoring daughter struggling to escape the dominance of her brilliant, charismatic father. Garber writes beautifully about the layered complications of family love.” —Monica Wood, author of The One-in-a-Million Boy, When We Were the Kennedys, Any Bitter Thing, and Ernie’s Ark “In Implosion: The Architect's Daughter, Elizabeth Garber has voyaged far into the complexities of memory, navigating the treacherous currents of shame and confusion, and returned, rowing stroke by stroke, sentence by sentence, with a beautiful, clear, heartbreaking tale. Courageous, horrible, terrible, and wonderful, this is a dark and tragic beauty of a memoir that could only be written by someone determined to be fiercely honest in her remembering and her art.” —Richard Hoffman, author of Half the House and Love & Fur “Few books have narrated the personal dimension of modernism like this one. The contradictions that bedeviled modern architecture—a passionate yet impersonal elegance—were played out in a glass house dominated by Elizabeth Garber's father, Woodie, a midwestern modern architect extraordinaire. How his daughter made her way through the tangles of his imperious faith makes for fascinating reading. What was it like to live from day to day in the self-conscious embrace of the modern? Elizabeth Garber has the insight and tenacity to tell us that and more.” —Baron Wormser, former Poet Laureate of Maine, author of ten books of poetry, books on writing craft, two novels, and one memoir, The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet's Memoir of Living Off the Grid “This poignant, very personal memoir by the daughter of one of Cincinnati’s premier modern architects traces his ascent and decline, as they parallel those of his style and discipline at the same moments in time. Elizabeth Garber’s exquisite prose compliments the love of art and architecture she learned from her father. Her forthrightness and honesty resemble the direct, unpainted, and undecorated aesthetic her father promoted, but her gentle sensitivity is all her own. This is a book about something even more complicated than the most difficult art—family life.” —Jayne Merkel, architectural historian and author of Eero Saarinen “Implosion is a remarkable feat. Garber allows us to revile her brilliant and destructive architect father as fully as she did when she was coming of age in the 1960s. She also allows us to forgive him as she ultimately does in this wise, searching book. Her story is an echo of the tumultuous cultural revolutions that define her generation. As an architect does, Garber constructs her story room by room, filling the space with both shadow and light. This is a beautiful book, written by a new and exciting writer.” —Meredith Hall, author of Without a Map “Elizabeth Garber writes with searing clarity about the years she spent living under the oppressive reign of her father. But this isn't just a book about a deeply troubled father-daughter relationship. Rather, it's a story about a family, an art form (architecture), a generation, and a decade in American history that we're still trying to understand. By reading Implosion, one not only gains access to the intimate, tragic details of Garber's broken youth but also to the public world outside her father's realm: one of parallel turmoil, complexity, and yes: implosion. A finely wrought narrative by a brave, unflinching writer.” —Jaed Coffin, author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants: A Memoir “Elizabeth Garber’s memoir drives as well as her dad’s fine sports car: sleek, modernist sentences, high-power clarity of perception, bold telling it like it was. Garber never loses touch with the forms of pain caused by her dad’s illness. She honors the vulnerability of the whole family in the grips of it, including him. In the end, at the heart of the matter is compassion and the kindness of unconditional love, in spite of it all. And the simple beauty of gathering stones found on a clean, sandy beach.” —Alexandra Merrill, international women’s leadership consultant "…un-put-downable….Elizabeth, a poet, acupuncturist, and mother, has, like an architect—ecologically using salvage materials—taken the shock and trauma of the family’s disintegration and built from them a powerful narrative you are reluctant to leave." —The Architectural Record

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Book SynopsisLinda I. Meyers was twenty-eight and the mother of three little boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, killed herself. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Linda believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother’s death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the seventies, she left her marriage, went to college, started a successful family acting business, and established a fulfilling career. Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, The Tell is one woman’s inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose.Trade Review“In this vivid and immensely enjoyable memoir, we encounter the lost world of Jewish Brooklyn, crazy parents, a crazy husband, and a protagonist/narrator who can’t help being a good girl. Woody Allen and Ralph Lauren make appearances: somehow it all fits.” —Philip Lopate, essayist and film critic “The Tell is a compelling coming-of-age story told with grit, humor, and a fine sense of atmosphere. From growing up with a mobster father and an unstable mother to waiting in a Catskill bungalow colony for a phone call from the future Ralph Lauren (né Lifshitz), to becoming a psychoanalyst, Meyers covers a lot of ground in this vivid portrait of resilience.” —Mindy Greenstein, PhD, author of The House on Crash Corner and Lighter as We Go “With cutting humor and an ear for dialogue, Linda I. Meyers mines the crevices of family secrets to disclose some glittering gems as the narrator, a single mother of three, struggles to break free from a web of lies, guilt, and betrayal. A gripping read from a damn good writer.” —Mindy Lewis, author of Life Inside: A Memoir "With beautiful observations of human nature, The Tell serves as an appreciation of the complexity of family." —Foreword Reviews

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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 SynopsisAt 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.Trade Review2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Non-Fiction - Women's

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Book SynopsisLost Without the River is an elegantly wrought memoir of resilience, courage, and reinvention. A portrait of nature at its most beautiful and demanding, it is the story of a girl whose family struggled against Depression-era hardship and personal tragedy to carve out a small farm in rural South Dakota. The youngest of seven, Barbara wrestles against the expectations of her family, the strictures of the church, and the limits imposed by a male-dominated culture. Eager for adventure, she leaves the farm—first for the Peace Corps and ultimately for the unknown environs of Manhattan’s Upper East Side—but she never truly escapes. Lost Without the River demonstrates the emotional power that even the smallest place can exert, and the gravitational pull that calls a person back home.Trade Review2020 International Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir 2019 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Adult Nonfiction: Grief/Grieving 2019 Best Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir 2019 Readers' Favorite Awards Finalist in Nonfiction (Memoir) 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist in Memoir (Historical/Legacy Career) 2019 Foreword Indies Finalist in Adult Non-Fiction: Grief/Grieving “. . . this volume of reminiscences charts not just the stories of [Scoblic's] youth, but also the ways those things have shaped and weighed on her throughout her adulthood. The author’s prose is lyrical and highly observant . . .” —Kirkus Reviews “With its map of the family farm, its photograph of the Whetstone river, and its portrait gallery, Scoblic's memoir is both a microhistory of her tiny corner of South Dakota and an oral-history-toned chronicle of the Hoffbeck family from the 1920s onward . . . . Scoblic's picturesque language . . . keeps sentimentalism at bay . . .” —The New York Times “. . . Scoblic has captured something universal here . . . [she] mines the theme of the power of place, specifically the river that traced through their farm. None of the kids remained in South Dakota, and she rightly notes it takes ‘a great deal of emotional courage to return to that spot where we grew up,’ what with how the agricultural economy has foundered. Writing this memoir was no doubt an act of quiet courage, and Scoblic strikes that careful balance between objectivity and love that is essential to preserving such stories.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Her large farming family was always in flux, hardworking and bone weary, yet there is a quiet intimacy conveyed in the lean prose of Barbara Scoblic’s memoir, where simple gestures, like ironing blouses before a sister leaves for college, carry unspoken love and yearning.” —Elizabeth Garber, author of Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect's Daughter “There are some writers who can sing the song of even a small and remote place and through some magic transform it into a siren call. Barbara Scoblic is one of those writers!” —Lewis Frumkes, director of The Writing Center at Hunter College “Enter Barbara Scoblic's world, where opera reigns in the kitchen on Saturday afternoons, the winter is long, and loss is real. Her writing beautifully teases up the questions of life, love, and how much of a hold our past really has on us.” —Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life “Barbara Scoblic’s Lost Without the River is a virtual literary symphony fusing memoir, history, and geography. Her descriptions of South Dakota's farms, rivers, and glacial lakes are as vivid as her portraits of three generations of her family and their relationships. She may have achieved a modern classic.” —Sidney Offit, author of Memoir of the Bookie's Son

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Book SynopsisAn Amazon Bestseller Jo’s mother, Babe, liked to drink, dance, and stay up very late. When the husband she adored went on sales calls, she waited for him in the parking lot, embroidering pillowcases. Jo grew up thinking that the last thing she wanted was to be like her mother. Then it dawned on her that her own happiness was derived in large part from lessons Babe had taught her. Her mother might have had tomato aspic and stewed rhubarb in her fridge, while Jo had organic kale and almond milk in hers, but in more important ways they were much closer in spirit than Jo had once thought. At a turbulent time in America, Never Sit If You Can Dance offers uplifting lessons in old-fashioned civility that will ring true with mothers, daughters, and their families. Told with lighthearted good humor, it’s a charming tale of the way things used to be—and probably still should be.

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Book SynopsisThe 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.

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Book Synopsis“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.Trade Review2019 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Adult Nonfiction: Autobiography & Memoir “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

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Book SynopsisMany Hands Make Light Work is the rollicking true story of a family of nine children growing up in the college town of Ames, Iowa in the ’60s and ’70s. Inspiring, full of surprises, and laugh-out-loud funny, this utterly unique family champions diversity and inclusion long before such concepts become cultural flashpoints. Cheryl and her siblings are the offspring of an eccentric professor father and unflappable mother. Mindful of their ever-expanding family’s need for cash, her parents begin acquiring tumbledown houses in campus-town, to renovate and rent. Dad, who changes out of his suit and tie into a carpenter’s battered white overalls, like Clark Kent into Superman, is supremely confident his offspring can do anything, whether he’s there or not. Mom, an organizational genius disguised as a housewife, manages nine children so deftly that she finds the time—and heart—to take in student boarders, who stir their own offbeat personalities into this unconventional household. The kids, meanwhile, pour concrete, paint houses, and, at odd moments, break into song, because instead of complaining, they sing as they work, like a von Trapp family in painters caps. Free-wheeling and contagiously cheerful, Many Hands Make Light Work is a winsome memoir of a Heartland childhood unlike any other.

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Book SynopsisWhen Janice Morgan, a divorced college professor living in a small town in Kentucky, learns that her son has been arrested for possession of a stolen firearm and drug charges, she feels like she’s living a nightmare. Dylan’s turbulent period as a college student in Cincinnati before this should have warned her, but it’s only now that she realizes how far he has drifted into substance abuse and addiction. As Dylan passes through the judicial system and eventually receives a diversion to drug court, Morgan breathes a sigh of relief—only to find that she, too, has been sentenced right along with him. In the months to follow, she leads a double life: part of it on campus, the rest embarking upon what she calls “rescue missions” to help Dylan stay in the program. But resilience, dark humor, and extreme parenting can only carry you so far. Eventually, Morgan discovers that she needs to gain a deeper understanding of the bipolar and addiction issues her son is dealing with. Will each of them be able to learn fast enough to face these complexities in their lives? Clearly, Dylan isn’t the only one who has recovery work to do.

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Book SynopsisBorn in the Netherlands at a time when girls are to be housewives and mothers and nothing else, Hendrika de Vries is a “daddy’s girl” until her father is deported from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to a POW camp in Germany and her mother joins the Resistance. In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey. As time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister” betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But they survive it all—and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers the woman she wants to become.

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Book Synopsis• As of 2016, an estimated 44.7 million adults had some form of mental illness. • Bipolar disorder affects about 5.7 million US citizens 18 and older.• Approximately 15.1 million adults struggle with Alcohol Use Disorder. • More than 60 US hospitals have adopted Reiki as part of patient services, and Reiki education is offered at 800 hospitals. More than 30,000 nurses in U.S. hospitals use touch practices every year. AUDIENCE:• Women ages 20–90 who enjoy tales of courage and humor, especially those who dare to live their lives the way they want to. • Families of those with mental illness• Families of those struggling with addiction• Mental health workers and physicians • Those dealing with their own mental illness • The global Reiki community• Those interested in the feminist movement of the ’60s and ‘70s• Those fascinated with New Orleans cultures

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Book SynopsisAs a horny little kid, Holly Lorka had no idea why God had put her in the wrong body and made her want to kiss girls. She had questions: Was she a monster? Would she ever be able to grow sideburns? And most importantly, where was her penis? The problem was, it was the 1970s, so there were no answers yet. Here, Lorka tells the story—by turns hilarious and poignant—of her romp through the first fifty years of her life searching for sex, love, acceptance, and answers to her questions. With a sharp wit, endearing innocence, and indelible sense of optimism, she struggles through the awkward years (spoiler: that’s all of them) and discovers that what she thought were mistakes are actually powerful tools to launch her into a magical—and ridiculous—life. Oh, and she discovers that she can buy a penis at the store, too.Trade Review2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner Memoirs (Overcoming Adversity/Tragedy) “Lorka’s ability to balance life’s harshness alongside its ridiculousness and to poke fun at herself make for a read that’s never disingenuous or boring. . . . A delightful remembrance that’s brimming with honesty and wit.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Book SynopsisApproximately 1 in 7 women suffer from postpartum depression after having a baby. Many more may experience depression during pregnancy, postpartum anxiety, OCD, and other mood disorders. Postpartum depression is, in fact, the most common pregnancy-related complication—yet confusion and misinformation about this disorder are still widespread. And these aren’t harmless myths: the lack of clarity surrounding mothers’ mental health challenges can have devastating effects on their well-being and their identities as mothers, which too often leads to shame and inadequate treatment. In this one-of-a-kind anthology, thirty mothers break the silence to dispel myths about postpartum mental health issues and explore the diversity of women’s experiences. Powerful and inspiring, Mothering Through the Darkness will comfort every mother who’s ever felt alone, ashamed, and hopeless—and, hopefully, inspire her to speak out.

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Book SynopsisI’m So Glad You’re Here is the story of a family disrupted by ramifications of a father’s mental illness. The memoir opens with a riveting account of Gay, age eighteen, witnessing her father being bound in a straitjacket and carried out of the house on a stretcher. The trauma she experiences escalates when, after her father has had electroshock treatments at a state mental hospital, her parents leave her in a college dorm room and move from Massachusetts to Florida without her. She feels abandoned. Both her parents have gone missing. Decades later, when Gay and her three much-older siblings show up for their father’s funeral, she witnesses her sundered family’s inability to gather together. Eventually, she is diagnosed with PTSD of abandonment and treated with EMDR therapy—and finally begins to heal. Poignant and powerful, I’m So Glad You’re Here is Gay’s exploration of the idea that while the wounds we carry from growing up in fractured families stay with us, they do not have to control us—a reflective journey that will inspire readers to think about their own relational lives.Trade Review2020 Best Book Awards Finalist in Narrative: Non-Fiction“In this debut memoir, a father’s death reunites a mother and daughter but reignites familial tensions. Gay is a perceptive and compassionate narrator who manages to explore the gaps in everyone’s stories, including her own. She uses poetry, journal entries, and literary epigraphs to create an engaging metanarrative that explores how writing was vital to her process of overcoming trauma.” —Kirkus Reviews“An inherently interesting and impressively candid personal story . . .”—Midwest Book Review“In I’m So Glad You’re Here, Pamela Gay takes us on a psychological journey through which she heals her own trauma while discovering compassion and empathy. Gay’s prose is lyrical and moving. I guarantee once you start reading, you won’t be able to put this book down.”—Maria Mazziotti Gillan, author of American Book Award winner All That Lies Between Us“An honest and moving account built upon her father’s mental illness and death and her yearning to be close to her mother. Gay details the repercussions of his illness on her family members and herself, giving us a brave and close-up view of how she coped with grief and trauma.”—Roberta Allen, author of The Princess of Herself and The Dreaming Girl“In this psychological travelogue, Pamela Gay fractures the surface of memory to peer into the depths of a family in all its complex dysfunction: shock treatment, alcoholism, feuding siblings, hissing turkey dinners, home burial, and yes, recipes—a surprising semiotic assemblage masterfully crafted at the crossroads of tragedy and comedy.”—Mindy Lewis, author of Life Inside: A Memoir“Pamela Gay dramatically illustrates that while wounds we carry from growing up in fractured families stay with us, they do not have to control us.”—Susan Anderson, author of The Journey from Abandonment to Healing

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Book SynopsisJudy Gaman was so busy making a name for herself that she barely took the time to meet a stranger, enjoy life, or simply stop to breathe. Immersed in her job as the director of business development for a high-profile medical practice—a job that required her to write health and wellness books and host a nationally syndicated radio show—she spent every day going full speed ahead with no looking back. That is, until the day she met Lucille Fleming. While writing a book on longevity, Judy interviewed Lucille, an elegant and spirited woman who had just recently turned 100. Lucille had the fashion and style of old Hollywood, but it was all hidden behind the doors of her assisted living center. What began as a quick meeting became a lasting friendship that transformed into an inseparable bond. Lucille brought incredible wisdom and great stories to the table, while Judy provided an avenue for excitement and new opportunities. Together, the two began living life to the fullest, and meeting the most interesting people along the way (including Suzanne Somers). But then Lucille’s life came to an end through unexpected and unfortunate circumstances—and the very first lesson she ever taught Judy proved to be the most important one of all.

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Book SynopsisFly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants mom Jennifer Magnuson knew her spoiled suburban brood needed a wake-up call—she just couldn’t find the time to fit one in. But when her husband was offered a position in India, she saw it for what it was: the perfect opportunity for her family to unplug from their over-scheduled and pampered lives in Nashville and gain some much-needed perspective. What she didn’t realize was how much their time in India would transform her as well. A combination of Eat, Pray, Love and Modern Family, with a dash of Chelsea Handler thrown in for good measure, Peanut Butter and Naan is Magnuson’s hilarious look at the chaos of parenting against a backdrop of malaria, extreme poverty, and no conveniences of any kind—and her story of rediscovering herself and revitalizing her connection with those she loves the most. In India, after years of parenting under a cloud of anxiety, Magnuson found a renewed sense of adventure and fearlessness (a discovery that was totally worth the many months of hiding anti-malarial medication in her kids’ morning oatmeal), and started to become the mother she’d always hoped to be. Hers is a story about motherhood that will not only make you laugh and nod with recognition—it will inspire you to fall in love with your own family all over again.Trade Review“In this thoughtful, often hilarious book, Magnuson crosses parenting cultures with her husband and five children, gaining insight into herself, and ultimately finding her tribe. A powerful debut, Magnuson has the gift of conversational prose laced with a quick wit.” —Marcelle Soviero, Editor in Chief Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers “Jennifer Hillman-Magnuson places readers in India through evocative details and scenes, and introduces us to characters who breathe. We journey with her as she navigates mothering five children in this vastly different culture, and it is an entertaining, illuminating and enjoyable ride.” —Erin Byrne, award-winning writer of travel, fiction, poetry and film “Peanut Butter and Naan is equal parts hilarious, moving and inspiring. Jennifer Hillman Magnuson's journey through India with her brood makes me want to hop on a plane with my kids and live life to the fullest!” —Deva Dalporto, MyLifeSuckers.com “Honest, hilarious, heart-warming. Jennifer Hillman-Magnuson avoids a universal set of motherhood do's and don'ts and tells instead a refreshing tale of how far she was willing to go - literally across the globe - to teach her children, and ultimately herself, what it is to live a meaningful life.” —Glenys Loewen-Thomas, contributor to Cup of Comfort book series

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Book SynopsisCandid, relatable stories by established and emerging women writers about being discarded by someone from whom they expected more: a close female friend. There are 161 million women in America today, and our friendships are still as primary and universal as back when Ruth and Naomi, Elizabeth and Susan B., and Thelma and Louise made history. When a romantic relationship breaks up, no problem—there’s an Adele song for that. Health concerns; problems in school; issues at the workplace? We’ve got our chums to prop us up. Until we don’t. When our most sustaining relationships dissolve—those with the women friends in our lives—there’s never been the fanfare that accompanies the loss of other relationships society deems “more important.” Until now. In Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women, twenty-five established and emerging writers—including Jacquelyn Mitchard, Ann Hood, Carrie Kabak, Jessica Handler, Elizabeth Searle, Alexis Paige, and editor Nina Gaby—explore the fragile, sometimes humorous, and often unfathomable nature of lost friendship. These, like your own, are stories that stay with you—maybe for a lifetime.Trade Review“Dumped touches a nerve from page one. It touches on a subject that all women know too well, yet is complicated and painful to articulate: the mourning, and sometimes redemption, that comes from being dumped by a sister-like friend. For every woman who has ever drowned her sorrows in a pint of ice cream over the loss of a close friend—or simply needs to know she is not alone—this book is for her.” —Elisa Batista, publisher of MotherTalkers.com, a Daily Kos community “This remarkable collection provides an exhilarating range of voices exploring what happens when female friendships falter. Wise, compassionate, and smart, each of these essays is a revelation. Give your best friend a copy along with a warm, thankful hug.” —Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer “I think Nina Gaby should be handed best collection of the year for this brilliant, charming, heart-breaking, truth-telling, soul-bearing extraordinary book. I defy any woman to not identify with at least one of the stories. My god, there is nothing worse than when a woman—a friend—breaks your heart because you don't know where to go to pick up those broken pieces. I myself have been dumped by more women than I care to share or say (out loud), but let me say that this little book, this magical WOManifesto, is a priceless babe-bible for all women. Ann Hood broke my heart in pieces, left me on the floor; Judith Podell slayed me; and Jacquelyn Mitchard had me at some friendships die by negligent homicide. Each writer is stunning, each story worthy, each friendship tale—universal. Every woman should own this book. This isn't a loaner book, this is a keeper book. A loaner book you may never get back, a keeper book stays right on the night table reminding you that we are all imperfectly perfect creatures who sometimes lose keys, lose our marbles, and lose friends.” —Amy Ferris, author of Marrying George Clooney “This very honest, very human, and often very hilarious book made me laugh, cry, nod, squirm, and think anew about friendships gone by. Big applause to Nina Gaby, and all the contributors, for crystallizing so finely the inescapable life experience that is the end of a friendship.” —Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of This Is Paradise: An Irish Mother's Grief, and African Village's Plight, and the Medical Clinic That Brought Fresh Hope to Both “The essays in Dumped are ferocious and loving, devastating and hopeful, insightful and perplexing. A savage, thorny look at friendship . . . and a rare, uncensored, sometimes terrifying glimpse into the female psyche.” —Neil White, author of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts and publisher

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Book Synopsis

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