Tag: Women’s Fiction

Looking Pastby Katharine E. Smith

Looking Past is a tale of family, friendship, love, life and death – not necessarily in that order. This book will strike a chord with mothers, daughters, and daughters-in-law, everywhere.

"Without offering coping mechanisms or advice, this is ultimately an uplifting story about being true to yourself and becoming a mother on your own terms." Today’s Child Magazine

Sarah Marchley is eleven years old when her mother dies. Suffering an acute sense of loss, she and her father continue quietly, communicating far too little.

At university, Sarah begins her first serious relationship. Along with her new boyfriend comes his mother, the indomitable Hazel Poole. Despite some misgivings, Sarah finds herself drawn into the matriarchal Poole family. She discovers that gaining a mother figure in her life brings mixed blessings but she also realises her own mother’s love has never died.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journeyby Jill Bolte Taylor

The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

The Amber Project: A Dystopian Sci-fi Novel (The Variant Saga Book 1)by J.N. Chaney

200 years after the world ends, their future begins.

In 2157, a mysterious gas known as Variant spreads across the globe, killing or mutating most organic life. The surviving humans take refuge in an underground city, determined to return home. But after generations of failures and botched attempts, hope is beginning to dwindle. That is, until a young scientist makes a unique discovery–and everything changes. Suddenly, there’s reason to hope again, and it rests within a group of genetically engineered children that are both human and Variant.

Terry is one of these children, modified and trained to endure the harsh conditions of a planet he cannot begin to understand. After years of preparation, Terry thinks he knows what to expect. But the reality is far stranger than anything he can imagine–and what he will become is far more dangerous.

Experience the critically acclaimed, bestselling series from J.N. Chaney. If you’re a fan of Ender’s Game, the Handmaid’s Tale, or Fallout, you’ll love this dystopian scifi thrill ride.

Being Authentic: A Memoirby Morhaf Al Achkar

⚠ Our existence is fragile. I learned that in many intricate ways, so I do not take today for granted. I do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not even know if tomorrow will come. ⚠

◆ On the eve of Thanksgiving 2016, I received the diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Next to dying, I fear the spread of cancer to my brain and losing my ability to think, speak, or write. This loss would be devastating to me. ◆

• The fragility of our life made me want to be authentic. Therefore, I am writing this memoir to be authentic–we become our true selves when we author who we are.
• I am afraid of being forgotten. Death does frighten me. But more than dying, I am scared of having no one remember me or, even worse, of being recognized differently from who I was. At the same time, I have never thought that I was entitled to ask others not to forget me. But, not to be forgotten is precisely what I yearn for. ★
• While I am writing for the other, I am simultaneously writing for myself. I am one of the readers and will test the subject as it gets written. My criteria are stricter. I want to say, “This is my narrative.” 

♥ I need to be able to say, “This is my narrative.” ♥

Leif J. Erickson Sci-Fi and Thriller Bundle: Winter Falls – Magic Eyes – The Darkness of Truthby Leif J. Erickson

The Darkness of Truth

This is a Vampire Horror Book and a Vampire Thriller

Anna Negru had always enjoyed her simple life in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Living with her parents in a small apartment above their used book store, Anna dreamed of running the store as she spent her free time reading the books contained within. When her parents were killed in a car accident, Anna’s life took a dramatic turn.

Winter Falls

As the conspiracy deepens, and more people murdered, the detectives are faced with only unanswered questions and dead ends. A vast network of lies and deceit has been cast to derail the investigation and prevent the people who’ve committed the crimes from facing justice. With people blaming the system and arguing for it to be taken offline and undergo more testing, the detectives soon learn that, while artificial intelligence needs to be closely monitored, the people operating that technology are the ones to lookout for.

Magic Eyes: A Great Murder Mystery Novel That Will Keep You Guessing Until The Final Trick

What would an old murder mystery and a strange magician possibly have in common?

What other emotions and memories could a return of a best friend bring besides joy and happiness?

How would you find the answers to a murder mystery of your best friend’s family, and mysteries disappearance of your father?

How far would you push to get your answers?

A mysteries magician, his last public show, and his greatest trick to reveal all the answers to a great murder mystery novel… would you take part of it?

Salt in the Wounds: A Yorkshire Coast Crime Thriller (Michael Brady Book 1)by Mark Richards

His best friend has been murdered, his daughter’s in danger.

There’s only one answer. Going back to his old life.

The one that cost him his wife…

Michael Brady was a high-flying detective, working on a high-profile case.

And much too close to the truth.

Someone arranged a hit-and-run.

But they missed Brady. And hit his wife.

And after six months sitting by her bed, he took the only decision he could take. He turned the machine off.

Now he’s back home in Whitby. Trying to rebuild his life. And be a good dad to his teenage daughter.

But when his best friend is murdered Brady – unwillingly at first – is drawn into the investigation.

And when the only people he has left are threatened, he finds there’s only one answer.

Going back to his old life…

Salt in the Wounds is the first novel from award winning writer and blogger Mark Richards. It’s set in Whitby, on the North Yorkshire coast, and tells the story of former Detective Inspector Michael Brady. His wife’s dead and he’s back in his home town – trying to rebuild his life and be a good dad to his 13 year old daughter.

So I had to make the decision. For my daughter. Her life was on hold. And she needs someone. At least I’ve got a sister here. God knows Ash isn’t going to ask me if she has a problem with her periods.

But then Brady’s best friend is murdered. And if he’s going to stop the wrong person going on trial, there’s only one option. He has to act.

He couldn’t let someone else control his life. Especially when ‘someone else’ was Bill Calvert. He owed it to Grace, to Ash. Most of all he owed it to himself. He hadn’t asked for this. But he had to deal with it. Sort it out, find the killer. And then start his new life. ‘I love you, Grace,’ he said. And walked back down the cliff path…

…And finally, Brady has to risk everything.

This was the moment to turn back. Wait for some uniforms. Say, ‘He’s down there. At the end of the pier.’ Leave it to someone younger, fitter. Someone without a daughter. But Gorse was waiting. And he had Carl. And he knew. He knew who’d killed Grace…

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore: A Novelby Matthew Sullivan

When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this “intriguingly dark, twisty” (Kirkus Reviews) debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs–the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. “Both charming and challenging” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review), Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a “multi-generational tale of abandonment, desperation, and betrayal…inventive and intricately plotted” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Dying Daysby Armand Rosamilia

Sunny Florida, beautiful beaches, no traffic on A1A… Zombies roaming the dunes in search of the living… Darlene Bobich in a fight to survive, find food, safety and ammo for her Desert Eagle before its too late… the undead are coming to exterminate the human race…

Dying Days are upon us… The Undead Roam the Earth… Searching for the living in an apocalyptic wasteland

Now includes both “Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer” and the first “Dying Days” zombie novellas in one release!

Raven Transcending Fearby Terri Kozlowski

Raven Transcending Fear is part memoir, part self-help guide. It’s the authors’ raw and personal story of childhood abuse and diving deep into her terror before ultimately getting comfortable with fear and transcending it. Though Terri had loving people in her life, her mother was abusive and enabled others to traumatize her. To get drugs, her mother allowed strangers to assault her 11-year-old body sexually. She then left her and her sister alone on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Terri’s childhood left her filled with fear until she embarked on a spiritual journey and learned the skills of empowerment, which have allowed her to transcend the fear and regain a connection with the Divine. Everyone is born fearless and knowing who they are and what their purpose is. However, life experience or abuse may instill fear and break the connection with our authentic selves. Through this memoir, readers will go on the journey with her as Terri moves from a life ruled by fear to fearlessness.

What’s Left Untoldby Sherri Leimkuhler

“What’s Left Untold is a heartfelt and surprising examination of friendship, honesty, and whether ‘love is love.'” Cara Sue Achterberg, national bestselling author of Girls’ Weekend

“I stayed up half the night reading this book, nearly one-more-chaptering myself to death!” Suanne Schafer, author of Hunting the Devil

Every secret has its price.

Anna Clark and Lia Clay were unlikely best friends in high school, but their yin-and-yang personalities drew them together in a sister-like bond. Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.

Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school–a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia’s letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.

As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Recreational Suffering: …and how to choose a better hobby (Feel Good Now Book 1)by Barry Friesen

Our Emotional Design has all the hidden levers and buttons we need to let go of emotional baggage and feel good. This book reveals where they are and how they work, so we can live with feelings consciously and joyfully.

The Postmortal: A Novelby Drew Magary

• Finalist for the Philip K. Dick and Arthur C. Clarke Awards •

The gripping first novel by Drew Magary, Deadspin columnist, GQ correspondent, and author of The Hike

"An exciting page turner. . . . Drew Magary is an excellent writer. The Postmortal is . . . even more terrifying than zombie apocalypse." — Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

John Farrell is about to get "The Cure."
Old age can never kill him now.
The only problem is, everything else still can . . .

Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors. Witty, eerie, and full of humanity, The Postmortal is an unforgettable thriller that envisions a pre-apocalyptic world so real that it is completely terrifying.

Asperby Rhonda Smiley

A mission to avenge her father’s murder turns to a harrowing quest for 16-year-old Milla to save two worlds from a tyrannical queen. But when a spell her father cast to suppress her memories begins to wane, Milla discovers her entire life is a lie. Shattered, she’s left questioning everything. What is good? What is evil? And more importantly, what is she.

Being Authentic: A Memoirby Morhaf Al Achkar

Our existence is fragile. I learned that in many intricate ways, so I do not take today for granted. I do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not even know if tomorrow will come.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2016, I received the diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Next to dying, I fear the spread of cancer to my brain and losing my ability to think, speak, or write. This loss would be devastating to me.

The fragility of our life made me want to be authentic. Therefore, I am writing this memoir to be authentic–we become our true selves when we author who we are.

I am afraid of being forgotten. Death does frighten me. But more than dying, I am scared of having no one remember me or, even worse, of being recognized differently from who I was. At the same time, I have never thought that I was entitled to ask others not to forget me. But, not to be forgotten is precisely what I yearn for.

While I am writing for the other, I am simultaneously writing for myself. I am one of the readers and will test the subject as it gets written. My criteria are stricter. I want to say, “This is my narrative.”

I need to be able to say, “This is my narrative.”

ROADS TO MEANING AND RESILIENCE WITH CANCER: Forty Stories of Coping, Finding Meaning, and Building Resilience While Living with Incurable Lung Cancerby Morhaf Al Achkar

The book tells the stories of 39 patients with incurable lung cancer. It aims to help patients, families, and healthcare providers understand the experience of living with cancer. It also invites reflections on the essential questions of meaning, resilience, and coping with adversity in life. The author is a family doctor, teacher, and researcher who is also a stage 4 lung cancer patient himself. He is patient #40.
Patients with cancer often have an urgency to find meaning in life. They struggle with the illness, its emotional impact, and the consequences of treatments. However, with time, reflection, and support from others, they develop resilience. Cancer patients often are not passive. Instead, they choose different strategies to maintain and restore their health. They also leverage a variety of approaches to cope better with their struggle.
The book is for cancer patients who are tarrying at the limits of time. It is also for those who live around patients with cancer: caregivers, families and friends, and health care providers. People who struggle with other illnesses will also find aspects of their story reflected here. Also, the ones who have experienced a crisis of identity will discover elements of their story here as well. By sharing the experiences of the forty authentic individuals, the book opens the space for them to teach others. This book is about the essence of the human experience at its limits. It is for every reader.

Raven Transcending Fearby Terri Kozlowski

Raven Transcending Fear is part memoir, part self-help guide. It’s the authors’ raw and personal story of childhood abuse and diving deep into her terror before ultimately getting comfortable with fear and transcending it. Though Terri had loving people in her life, her mother was abusive and enabled others to traumatize her. To get drugs, her mother allowed strangers to assault her 11-year-old body sexually. She then left her and her sister alone on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Terri’s childhood left her filled with fear until she embarked on a spiritual journey and learned the skills of empowerment, which have allowed her to transcend the fear and regain a connection with the Divine. Everyone is born fearless and knowing who they are and what their purpose is. However, life experience or abuse may instill fear and break the connection with our authentic selves. Through this memoir, readers will go on the journey with her as Terri moves from a life ruled by fear to fearlessness.

What’s Left Untoldby Sherri Leimkuhler

“What’s Left Untold is a heartfelt and surprising examination of friendship, honesty, and whether ‘love is love.'” Cara Sue Achterberg, national bestselling author of Girls’ Weekend

“I stayed up half the night reading this book, nearly one-more-chaptering myself to death!” Suanne Schafer, author of Hunting the Devil

Every secret has its price.

Anna Clark and Lia Clay were unlikely best friends in high school, but their yin-and-yang personalities drew them together in a sister-like bond. Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.

Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school–a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia’s letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.

As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life: Create Your Path to Financial, Physical and Personal Transformationby Richard Kelley MD

For over a quarter of a century caring for patients in the ER, as well as teaching the principles of fitness-based weight-management to thousands of men and women, Richard Kelley, M.D. has acquired a treasure trove of wisdom and experience which comes only with time in the trenches.  

As the author of ‘The Fitness Response…21 Steps to Model Your Way to a Fit, Fabulous Body,’ and multiple Amazon eBooks, Dr. Kelley delivers ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power for Life’ as an inspirational resource for those seeking a springboard to a healthier, more meaningful and prosperous life.

In his new book, Dr. Kelley takes you on a journey of lessons learned throughout the course of his life, while aspiring to reach his own potential in the areas of financial, physical and spiritual prosperity.

No matter where you find yourself today in the realm of realizing your own aspirations and dreams…through ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life,’ Dr. Kelley wants to open your eyes, not only to the unprecedented times in which we’re living today, but also to awaken your understanding of the potential that resides within you, and give you the push to move toward the greatest expression of your life possible.

As a physician, author, and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Kelley wants to give you a ringside seat view into the successes and failures that have shaped his life over the past four decades, and inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and ‘Swing the Bat.’

In ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life’ you’ll hear stories of triumph, inspiration and loss, and you’ll learn what it takes to keep going when times get tough.

In the pages of this book you’re going to discover…

-Why most people can’t simply rely on ‘a job,’ if they wish to thrive financially and to prosper, and why the best investments you can make are ultimately the ones you make in yourself.

-The intangibles of wealth that you already possess, that lie beyond the realm of financial assets. 

-Why it’s not only OK to desire and seek financial freedom and prosperity…it’s a mental shift that you can and must cultivate daily to avoid complacency and to move your life forward on multiple levels.

-That YOU have one or more superpower which could be the key to creating a greater, more expansive life for you and your family.

-How you can explore and resurrect dreams, aspirations and goals from your past, that may hold a key to your future.

-Why using Social Media to ‘just be social,’ may represent an enormous mistake for millions of people worldwide.

-Why prioritizing your health and fitness is a foundational necessity for creating success in other areas of your life.

-How the world as we know it has rapidly changed and why your ability to pivot, educationally as well as in the realm of entrepreneurship, may define your opportunities for the future.

-Why your ingrained attitudes regarding money and wealth will dictate your ultimate level of financial prosperity over the course of your life.  

-How you can reinvent yourself at any age and create the physical, financial and spiritual life you’ve always desired.

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chefby Gabrielle Hamilton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.

Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life: Create Your Path to Financial, Physical and Personal Transformationby Richard Kelley MD

For over a quarter of a century caring for patients in the ER, as well as teaching the principles of fitness-based weight-management to thousands of men and women, Richard Kelley, M.D. has acquired a treasure trove of wisdom and experience which comes only with time in the trenches.  

As the author of ‘The Fitness Response…21 Steps to Model Your Way to a Fit, Fabulous Body,’ and multiple Amazon eBooks, Dr. Kelley delivers ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power for Life’ as an inspirational resource for those seeking a springboard to a healthier, more meaningful and prosperous life.

In his new book, Dr. Kelley takes you on a journey of lessons learned throughout the course of his life, while aspiring to reach his own potential in the areas of financial, physical and spiritual prosperity.

No matter where you find yourself today in the realm of realizing your own aspirations and dreams…through ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life,’ Dr. Kelley wants to open your eyes, not only to the unprecedented times in which we’re living today, but also to awaken your understanding of the potential that resides within you, and give you the push to move toward the greatest expression of your life possible.

As a physician, author, and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Kelley wants to give you a ringside seat view into the successes and failures that have shaped his life over the past four decades, and inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and ‘Swing the Bat.’

In ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life’ you’ll hear stories of triumph, inspiration and loss, and you’ll learn what it takes to keep going when times get tough.

In the pages of this book you’re going to discover…

-Why most people can’t simply rely on ‘a job,’ if they wish to thrive financially and to prosper, and why the best investments you can make are ultimately the ones you make in yourself.

-The intangibles of wealth that you already possess, that lie beyond the realm of financial assets. 

-Why it’s not only OK to desire and seek financial freedom and prosperity…it’s a mental shift that you can and must cultivate daily to avoid complacency and to move your life forward on multiple levels.

-That YOU have one or more superpower which could be the key to creating a greater, more expansive life for you and your family.

-How you can explore and resurrect dreams, aspirations and goals from your past, that may hold a key to your future.

-Why using Social Media to ‘just be social,’ may represent an enormous mistake for millions of people worldwide.

-Why prioritizing your health and fitness is a foundational necessity for creating success in other areas of your life.

-How the world as we know it has rapidly changed and why your ability to pivot, educationally as well as in the realm of entrepreneurship, may define your opportunities for the future.

-Why your ingrained attitudes regarding money and wealth will dictate your ultimate level of financial prosperity over the course of your life.  

-How you can reinvent yourself at any age and create the physical, financial and spiritual life you’ve always desired.

What’s Left Untoldby Sherri Leimkuhler

“What’s Left Untold is a heartfelt and surprising examination of friendship, honesty, and whether ‘love is love.'” Cara Sue Achterberg, national bestselling author of Girls’ Weekend

“I stayed up half the night reading this book, nearly one-more-chaptering myself to death!” Suanne Schafer, author of Hunting the Devil

Every secret has its price.

Anna Clark and Lia Clay were unlikely best friends in high school, but their yin-and-yang personalities drew them together in a sister-like bond. Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.

Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school–a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia’s letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.

As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Being Authentic: A Memoirby Morhaf Al Achkar

Our existence is fragile. I learned that in many intricate ways, so I do not take today for granted. I do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not even know if tomorrow will come.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2016, I received the diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Next to dying, I fear the spread of cancer to my brain and losing my ability to think, speak, or write. This loss would be devastating to me.

The fragility of our life made me want to be authentic. Therefore, I am writing this memoir to be authentic–we become our true selves when we author who we are.

I am afraid of being forgotten. Death does frighten me. But more than dying, I am scared of having no one remember me or, even worse, of being recognized differently from who I was. At the same time, I have never thought that I was entitled to ask others not to forget me. But, not to be forgotten is precisely what I yearn for.

While I am writing for the other, I am simultaneously writing for myself. I am one of the readers and will test the subject as it gets written. My criteria are stricter. I want to say, “This is my narrative.”

I need to be able to say, “This is my narrative.”

ROADS TO MEANING AND RESILIENCE WITH CANCER: Forty Stories of Coping, Finding Meaning, and Building Resilience While Living with Incurable Lung Cancerby Morhaf Al Achkar

The book tells the stories of 39 patients with incurable lung cancer. It aims to help patients, families, and healthcare providers understand the experience of living with cancer. It also invites reflections on the essential questions of meaning, resilience, and coping with adversity in life. The author is a family doctor, teacher, and researcher who is also a stage 4 lung cancer patient himself. He is patient #40.
Patients with cancer often have an urgency to find meaning in life. They struggle with the illness, its emotional impact, and the consequences of treatments. However, with time, reflection, and support from others, they develop resilience. Cancer patients often are not passive. Instead, they choose different strategies to maintain and restore their health. They also leverage a variety of approaches to cope better with their struggle.
The book is for cancer patients who are tarrying at the limits of time. It is also for those who live around patients with cancer: caregivers, families and friends, and health care providers. People who struggle with other illnesses will also find aspects of their story reflected here. Also, the ones who have experienced a crisis of identity will discover elements of their story here as well. By sharing the experiences of the forty authentic individuals, the book opens the space for them to teach others. This book is about the essence of the human experience at its limits. It is for every reader.

Raven Transcending Fearby Terri Kozlowski

Raven Transcending Fear is part memoir, part self-help guide. It’s the authors’ raw and personal story of childhood abuse and diving deep into her terror before ultimately getting comfortable with fear and transcending it. Though Terri had loving people in her life, her mother was abusive and enabled others to traumatize her. To get drugs, her mother allowed strangers to assault her 11-year-old body sexually. She then left her and her sister alone on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Terri’s childhood left her filled with fear until she embarked on a spiritual journey and learned the skills of empowerment, which have allowed her to transcend the fear and regain a connection with the Divine. Everyone is born fearless and knowing who they are and what their purpose is. However, life experience or abuse may instill fear and break the connection with our authentic selves. Through this memoir, readers will go on the journey with her as Terri moves from a life ruled by fear to fearlessness.

LOST IN MANHATTANby Moreen Littrell

What would you do if your life turned upside down in a New York minute?

Pink-slipped at 9 a.m. and hit by a drunk driver by midnight, 24-year-old aspiring actress, Eve Foster, moves to Manhattan where Pavlos (her 38-year-old boyfriend), lives. Just one problem: He doesn’t remember inviting her. He’s been forgetting a lot since the accident. And so, Eve arrives in New York City, ghosted. From the moment she touches down (with a broken wedding ring finger, no less), Eve’s initiation into the City that Never Sleeps is more like a hazing. From the Fashion District to Chelsea to Central Park, Eve’s efforts to make Manhattan her new home are fraught with upending encounters with the vanguard of the city. One in particular, the “Queen of Knitwear,” may just break her.

In a world drawn from Moreen Littrell’s first six months of Manhattan in the mid-1990’s, Lost in Manhattan is a riotous, cautionary tale — and roman à clef — of a wide-eyed heroine thrown into a “Sex and the City” universe. Unlike ‘insider’ Carrie Bradshaw, Eve Foster is an outsider. Eve doesn’t know a Louboutin from a Choo.

A Long Petal of the Sea: A Novelby Isabel Allende

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

“One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende’s] long career.”–The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Esquire • Good Housekeeping • Parade

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, Roser and Victor embark for Chile on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.” As unlikely partners, the couple embraces exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, they face trial after trial, but they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they might go home. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers.

Praise for A Long Petal of the Sea

“Both an intimate look at the relationship between one man and one woman and an epic story of love, war, family, and the search for home, this gorgeous novel, like all the best novels, transports the reader to another time and place, and also sheds light on the way we live now.”–J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Saints for All Occasions

“This is a novel not just for those of us who have been Allende fans for decades, but also for those who are brand-new to her work: What a joy it must be to come upon Allende for the first time. She knows that all stories are love stories, and the greatest love stories are told by time.”–Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author of Let the Great World Spin

Buddhism for Pet Lovers: Supporting our closest companions through life and deathby David Michie

The bonds we share with our pets go beyond words and are often deeper than many of our human relationships. What is the nature of these close connections? And what if our influence on pets, both in life and especially through sickness and death, is far more powerful than we ever conceived?

David Michie draws on ancient Buddhist wisdom, supported by contemporary science, to provide fascinating insights into animal consciousness. He proposes that the pets with whom we share our lives are not there by accident. Whether your animal companion has fur, feathers or fins, he offers a treasury of practical tools to enhance your relationship with them in everyday life, as well as during times of challenge.

Written with humour and compassion, and including extraordinary true stories from around the world, Buddhism for Pet Lovers reveals how our animal companions may indeed be among our most precious partners. For in helping them, our own lives are incomparably enriched too.

‘If you have ever deeply loved an animal, this is, without doubt, the book for you.’ Gail Pope, BrightHaven

‘Our pets offer us one of our greatest opportunities to add compassion to the world. This book helps direct us to a path toward the blossoming of that opportunity.’ Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words, and What Animals Think and Feel

Neighbors: A Novelby Danielle Steel

In Danielle Steel’s gripping new novel, a reclusive woman opens up her home to her neighbors in the wake of a devastating earthquake, setting off events that reveal secrets, break relationships apart, and bring strangers together to forge powerful new bonds.

Meredith White was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last fifteen years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then, on a muggy late summer day, a massive earthquake strikes Northern California, plunging the Bay Area into chaos. Without a moment’s hesitation, Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors into her mostly undamaged home as the recovery begins.

These people did not even realize that movie star Meredith White was living on their street. Now, they are sharing her mansion, as well as their most closely kept secrets. Without the walls and privacy of their own homes, one by one, new relationships are forged. For every neighbor there is a story, from the doctor whose wife and children fear him, to the beautiful young woman dating a dishonorable man, to the aspiring writer caring for a famous blind musician.

In the heart of the crisis, Meredith finds herself venturing back into the world. And thanks to the suspicions and the dogged detective work of a disaster relief volunteer, a former military officer named Charles, a shocking truth about her own world is exposed. Suddenly Meredith sees her isolation, her estranged family, and even her acting career in a whole new light.

Filled with powerful human dramas, Neighbors is a penetrating look at how our world can be upended in a moment. In a novel of unforgettable characters and stunning twists, acts of love and courage become the most powerful forces of all.