Memoir > Giveaways

[close] ~Signed Copies!~ In 2013 over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's Disease, it will cost the nation over $200 billion, and hardly any family in the USA will avoid being effected. Worldwide, nearly 36 million people are believed to be living with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.

Read about Dr. Moss' 40 year odyssey to bring a simple, affordable, and ground breaking drug to Alzheimer's patients in spite of the challenges and set backs from bureaucracies and big pharma. Furthermore, see what possibilities may lead to this drug reaching the market and helping millions of people retain the best quality of life they can have in the grips of this horrible disease.

Donald Moss is recently retired from University of Texas at El Paso, with more than 100 articles, abstracts and presentations at national and international meetings having to do with his research in Alzheimer's and related memory disorders. He has dedicated his retirement to bringing this proven effective treatment to market. [close]

[close] She’s just stumbled out of yet another dating workshop at a Mormon (LDS) singles conference when a new guy, tall and good-looking, walks through the door. Hope rises—could he be the one?—but is dashed a minute later, when she sees hordes of women descending upon him. It’s like watching a pride of lionesses bearing down on an oblivious young gazelle.

Lots of single women are looking for Mr. Right. But what does one do at age 32, when the pool of eligible men is tiny and she should have been married long before now? Diary of a Single Mormon Female is the wry and moving memoir about coping without Mr. Right in a church focused on marriage and family.

Scripture juggling, a virtual albino Chinese teenager, chastity lines, the virgin lips club, Brazilians (not that kind), a pink flamingo date messenger, an elusive guitarist in Malta, an open-minded parrot, a Swiss lumberjack, Icelandic Mormons, a marriage flowchart and dozens of awkward conversations ...it’s all here. Chapters include The Hunk of Burnin’ Love; Was I Weak-Butted?; Who Talks About Grandpa’s Migraine Headaches on a Dream Date??; Virgins, in This Day and Age! and Do You Think I Have Nerves of Steel? Actual diary pages and photos accompany the text.

As an awkward, home-schooled Mormon teenager, she dreamed of the day she would find the man of her dreams, have a temple marriage and live happily ever after. But it hasn’t happened. Is there truly someone out there for her? And will she succeed in reconciling her beliefs with her reality? Some days it feels like it would take nothing less than a fairy godmother and a magic wand. [close]

[close] AUTOGRAPHED COPY!

"The Narrow Way is the beautifully written and profound account of the difficult path Chris Lemig took to discover that we are all deserving of love and capable of true freedom. We can all find ourselves in, and benefit from, his journey."

~Sharon Salzberg, Author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

"In the Narrow Way, Chris Lemig fearlessly slams his cinematic memoir down on your altar. He may go to India, but this ain't Eat, Pray, Love. The Narrow Way demands that you face the great secret: you cause your own suffering. But there's hope. Don't wait for the movie. Read this book!"
~Clayton Gibson, Founder of MyOutSpirit.com

"I really, sincerely, wholeheartedly recommend The Narrow Way by Chris Lemig. Buy yourself two copies: one for you, one for a friend…"

~Karen Maezen Miller, author of Mama Zen: Walking The Crooked Path Of Motherhood

For more info visit www.thenarrowwaybook.com
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[close] "His name was Carlos. Carlos Louis Salazar. And when his mother had troubles, I more or less stole him. Or that’s what I always said. He was the son I wanted, and I did get him for a while. "So begins A THOUSAND VOICES. At its deepest level, it is a love story about language. It traces the grand adventure, the whimsy, the confusion and sorrow of one boy’s third of a century, recounted by the woman who teaches him and takes him in. Tender without being sentimental, it is a book that changes people’s lives.
The story unfolds against the rich imagery of Utah’s high deserts and snow-swept mountains, the alpine forests of Idaho, and the wide boulevards of Montreal in the last decades of the last century. Jeri meets Carlos in Utah when he is ten and she is twenty-four. They interest each other. He is wildhearted and free-spirited, traits she applauds in herself and has only slightly subdued. He is a hellion; so was she. There are differences as well, and they point to the underlying themes of the book. He doesn’t know language; she teaches it. He was born deaf; she could always hear. He lives in a low-lying part of town she has never ventured into; she is up in the foothills, across several economic strata. Where his opportunities are circumscribed by ethnic background as well as economic disadvantage, hers are wide
Their acquaintance becomes an indispensable connection for both of them. She helps him learn to talk. In turn, she finds Carlos has much to teach her, and their communication is marked by a nuance, grace, and richness beyond words. The book closes on a note of compassion and acceptance as Jeri stands by Carlos as friend and guardian when the struggle for his life overtakes everything.
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[close] The Disciple is a compelling biography about Jesus’ birth, childhood and death. Simon Hay, after a life-altering encounter with spirit, revisits and remembers his past life as the disciple, Judas, and his role in Jesus’ life. Simon’s story will amaze and challenge 2000 years of belief. [close]

[close] Receive a signed copy of one of Amazon's top selling Memoirs!

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Within weeks of arriving as a volunteer in a remote corner of South America, Crawford got a lot more than he bargained for: a narrow escape from a kidnapping plot hatched by the people he was sent there to help. Then things only got stranger.

In his quest to find adventure, Crawford undertook a savage journey of danger, drugs, sex, and alarming illness. What resulted is The Gringo: one part literary tale of two lonely years in the Amazon jungle and one part gonzo-journalism account of life in the Peace Corps, an agency wandering aimlessly through the twenty-first century. Filled with sharp humor and eye-opening observations about the human condition, this is an unforgettable story that grabs the reader and doesn't let go. [close]

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“A rollicking good ride.” —Jay Winik, bestselling author of April 1865

It’s the middle of a heat wave, and Charlie Schroeder is dressed in heavy clothing and struggling to row a replica eighteenth-century bateau down the St. Lawrence River. Why? Months earlier, Schroeder realized he knew almost nothing about history. But he wanted to learn, so the actor—best known for his role as Mr. Pussy on Sex and the City—spent a year reenacting it.

Man of War is Schroeder’s hilarious account of the time he spent chasing Celts in Arkansas, raiding a Viet Cong village in Virginia, and flirting with frostbite en route to “Stalingrad” in Colorado. Along the way, he illuminates just how much the past can teach us about the present. [close]

[close] Garden of Bliss begins on the French Riviera, where Moffitt, despite her glamorous European lifestyle, feels empty. Realizing that financial success doesn't necessarily equate to happiness, she looks inside herself and decides to make some changes.

The message of her journey is simple: bliss is a destination that exists within all of us. Using the metaphor of a secret garden, Moffitt encourages her readers to manifest this space in the physical world and connect with the divine feminine through nature. Garden of Bliss can be read as a stand-alone book or as a companion text to Moffitt's award-winning debut, Awake in the World.


"Like Eat, Pray, Love without the whine!" --Janna McMahan, best-selling author of Anonymity and The Ocean Inside [close]

[close] WIN A FINISHED COPY OF COLIN BRODERICK'S LATEST MEMOIR 'THAT'S THAT'


From the author of 'Orangutan,' 'That's That' is the first book to paint a detailed depiction of Northern Ireland's Troubles, presented against a personal backdrop and told in the wry, memorable voice of a man who's finally come to terms with his past.

"What poverty is to ANGELA'S ASHES political turmoil is to THAT'S THAT, Colin Broderick's stirring coming-of-age memoir of growing up Catholic in the North during the so-called Troubles. Written with verve and raw honesty, the book is both a captivating saga of personal discovery and the eye-opening story of how one boy experienced this shocking chapter in Irish history." --Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate [close]

[close] On June 19, 2001, Ryan Corbin, grandson of Pat Boone and son of Lindy Boone Michaelis, accidently stepped through a skylight and fell three stories onto a cement floor.

As Ryan lingered between life and death in intensive care, Pat and Lindy decided to take action, in a big way: they went on Larry King Live, shared their faith, and asked millions of TV viewers to pray for Ryan. And so, millions prayed!

Heaven Hears is the amazing story of what happened next. You won’t want to miss this story of tragedy and triumph from the Boone family. It’s a story of the immovable faith of a mother, the incredible power of prayer, and the undeniable evidence that heaven hears us.

Heaven Hears includes a foreword by Pat Boone, an afterword by Debby Boone, and is endorsed by Rick Warren, Stormie O'Martian, Larry King, Dodie Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Dr Daniel Amen, Pastor Jack Hayford, and Roma Downey. [close]

[close] ENTER TO WIN A FREE ADVANCE COPY!

In this inspiring, delightful memoir, a young woman decides to escape the daily grind and turn her “what if” fantasy into a reality, only to find work—and a man—she loves in one fell swoop, all in a secondhand bookstore in a quaint Scottish town.

Jessica Fox was an ambitious twenty-six-year-old filmmaker, but she was stuck in a rut and couldn’t take it anymore. Living in Hollywood and working a high-stress job at NASA, she was seized by a moment of inspiration one night and typed “second hand bookshop Scotland” into Google. She clicked on the first link she saw. A month later, she crossed the Atlantic to the west coast of Scotland, and knocked on the door of the bookshop she would be calling home for the next year…

The rollercoaster journey that ensued—involving Scottish Hanukkah, a swoon-worthy love story, yoga on Galloway’s West Coast, and a waxing that Jessica will never forget—would both break and mend her heart. It would also teach her that before we can write our own stories, we must have the courage to travel the path less taken.

If you’ve ever wondered how you could change the course of your life, Jessica’s charming story will entertain, enlighten, and inspire you to begin your own journey of self-discovery. [close]

[close] Touted by Publisher's Weekly as "required reading for those women who struggle with body-image issues—and even those who don’t," Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall belongs on your summer reading list.

When Kjerstin Gruys became engaged to the love of her life, she was thrilled—until it came time to shop for a wedding dress. Having overcome an eating disorder years before, Gruys found herself struggling to maintain a positive self-image as her pending nuptials imposed a new set of impossible beauty standards. She decided to embark on a bold plan for boosting her self-esteem while refocusing her attention on the beautiful world around her. A memoir of discovery, Mirror Mirror Off the Wall charts Gruys’ awakening as she vows to give up mirrors and other reflective surfaces, relying instead on her friends and her fiancé to help her gauge both her appearance and her outlook on life. The result? A renewed focus on what truly matters, regardless of smeared makeup, crooked eyebrows, or messy hair.

In the honest, witty, self-aware voice that has made her blog so popular, Gruys explores what it means to be a feminist in a society where femininity is subject to destructive ideals of beauty and sex appeal. Having worked in the fashion industry before becoming a sociologist, Gruys draws on her frontline expertise to explore the gender inequities created by society’s obsession with a flawless female body image. Putting a human face on an important issue with humorous and poignant scenes from Gruys’ life, Mirror Mirror off the Wall sparks important conversations about body image and reclaiming the power to redefine beauty. [close]

[close] Jonathan, Sam, Schulz, and Eric usually spend their summers skateboarding at the park and dreaming about the time when they’ll finally move out of the suburbs. But in the summer of 1994 the four teenagers find a small fortune hidden inside an abandoned house, and that changes everything. The money was a dream come true, but it couldn’t last. Stress, drugs, and dwindling funds raise the stakes and also raise some serious questions about the future. Eighteen years later, Jonathan returns to that life-changing summer to tally up the cost of that discovery and explain how one broken dream led to a totally renewed sense of purpose.

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[close] From a young age, Amanda identified with her father, a heavy smoker with food issues who starved himself until he was skeletal. She, in turn, developed a severe case of anorexia that led to hospitalization. A year after she recovered, he died of lung cancer. Desperate to escape his ghost, Amanda fled San Diego to pursue acting and writing in Manhattan, where she eventually became so obsessed with and disturbed by the concept of language that she suffered a mental breakdown and moved back into her mother’s house. After a year of ineffective psychotherapy, she felt intuitively pulled to study massage therapy and, while massaging a cancer survivor, discovered that easing the pain of others was a powerful way to find reprieve. Amanda moved back to New York to resume creative pursuits but soon found herself lost again. Frantically searching for inner peace, she left to travel alone through ten cities in India and Nepal. As a tourist amidst extreme poverty, exotic beauty and charged spirituality, internal whirlwinds raged. After weeks of constant motion and changing scenery, Amanda landed in a quiet Indian ashram surrounded by green fields, mountains and endless sky. There, as she trained to become a yoga teacher, she reflected deeply on mortality and the workings of her mind, learning to let go and surrender to the present moment. [close]

[close] *SIGNED COPY*

"Heaven. It's there. It's real. It's the same as on earth, but different."

These are some of the first words this middle-aged man slowly whispered after coming out of a twelve day coma following cardiac arrest and triple-by-pass surgery.

Imagine There's a Heaven is more than a glimpse of Heaven. It's an abstract, personal account of a non-churchgoing man who journeyed to Heaven—no filler, no fluff—making it a shorter read. Jim Austerman is a self-published author who documented his journey of what he saw, heard, felt, and did in the vast dimension of Heaven.

Excerpt:
As my spirit lingered in the casket, I came to realize, I was not who I thought I was. I was not my body. My spirit was conscious—aware of the events taking place. I realized I was my spirit. As I gazed at myself lying there, I knew that my body was dead—a most peculiar discernment. Suddenly, I felt movement and quickly hovered near my body. The casket was set in motion as I watched flashes of white light speed by. It was like traveling at the speed of light, but strangely, somehow, it felt as if it wasn't moving at all. Almost as swiftly as it began, the movement stopped. My spirit continued hovering over my body, as if it were protecting me—watching—waiting to see what would happen next. No sound was heard—nothing but silence.

Words of the Author:
"During and after recovery I wrote down all my memories of Heaven. I'm not a Pulitzer Prize writer by any stretch of the means, but I've tried my best to take you through my journey. I hope you find some inspiration in this book and find God, as I did." [close]

[close] The dark and empty world of Renee becomes painfully clear and is suffered in silence no more. Lacking the love and support that Renee should have been given at home, Renee turns to drugs, shoplifting, and violence. Inspired by no one, Renee relies to her vivid imagination and fantasies of one day living a better life to stay alive. Suffocated by negativity and surrounded by the living dead, what will happen to Renee?

In this shocking page turning, unforgettable account of child abuse and neglect, Makaila Renee invites you on a journey that reveals the different ways children cope with the most desperate of circumstances. This heart-stopping memoir is for anyone who searches for the motivation to overcome the past.
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[close] This is an ARC.

A hilariously irreverent and poignant story of one woman’s unusual quest for motherhood.

Breeding in Captivity takes us on Stacy Bolt’s journey to have a child at "advanced maternal age," first with the help of a Really Expensive fertility specialist, and then ultimately through a local adoption agency. But this isn’t your typical serious memoir about struggling with infertility; it’s an entertaining, witty read that perfectly balances humor with its more poignant moments.

Breeding in Captivity is about a quirky, lovable couple that you root for through their fertility struggles and adoption adventures. It's about the hundreds of Internet message boards where annoyingly perky women from Kappa Alpha Fruitcake refer to sex as "babydancing" and sprinkle virtual "baby dust" on each other. It’s about meeting birthmothers and deciding on open adoptions. It’s about being chosen and then having a birthmother change her mind. But ultimately, it’s about hope, how life can surprise you, and laughing through the insanity.

More and more women today are waiting to have children—whether intentionally or due to circumstances beyond their control. But when they do, the desire to have a child can be both overwhelming and intimidating. Breeding in Captivity illuminates the experience of infertility and adoption, offering readers an inside look at the process while simultaneously captivating them with an extraordinary—often hilarious—story of what it means to become a mother.

"Stacy Bolt has written the perfect memoir-one that is so smart and funny and full of heart that it transcends what it's about and becomes instead, quite simply, a book about all of us. Breeding in Captivity is a dazzling, wise, beautiful debut. -Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

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[close] The story of a young man's outrageous adventures in China and his search for identity in the most unexpected of places.

Mitch Moxley came to Beijing in the spring of 2007 to take a job as a writer and editor for China Daily, the country's only English-language national newspaper. The Chinese economy was booming, the Olympics were on the horizon, and Beijing was being transformed into a world-class city overnight. Moxley planned to stay only through the Olympics and then head back to Canada.

But that was six years ago. In that time, Moxley fed a goat to a lion, watched a lingerie-wearing bear ride a bicycle, and crisscrossed the country writing stories. He also appeared as one of Cosmopolitan's one hundred most eligible bachelors in China, acted in a state-funded Chinese movie, and was paid to pose as a fake businessman.

During Moxley's journey of self-exploration, his comic adventures and misadventures in China gave way to the creation of his alter ego—Mi Gao, or Tall Rice. A funny and honest look at expat life, Apologies to My Censor also depicts the ways a country can touch and inspire you. [close]

[close] *autographed paperback copy*

A Hundred Thousand White Stones is the fearlessly told, unvarnished story of life as a Tibetan woman and refugee. Kunsang Dolma writes from her heart of the hardship and struggle she experienced as a girl in Tibet, as a woman in India, and as an immigrant refugee in America. Yet despite the many moments of sadness her story contains, she manages to find hope and levity in her memory of even the worst of circumstances.

A Hundred Thousand White Stones offers an honest, first-person assessment of what is gained in pursuing life in the developed world, and what is lost.

digital ARCs available at NetGalley.com [close]

[close] Nik Wallenda, "King of the High Wire," doesn't know fear. As a seventh generation of the legendary Wallenda family, he grew up performing, entertaining, and pushing the boundaries of gravity and balance.

When Nik was four years old, he watched a video from 1978 of his great grandfather, Karl Wallenda, walking between the towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico, stumbling, and falling to his death because of improper rigging. When Nik heard his father quote his great-grandfather-"Life is on the wire, everything else is just waiting"-the words resonated deep within his soul and he vowed to be a hero like Karl Wallenda.

Balance is the theme of Nik's life: between his work and family, his faith in God and artistry, his body and soul. It resonates from him when performing and when no one is looking. When walking across Niagara Falls, he prayed aloud the entire time, and to keep his lust for glory and fame in check, Nik returned to the site of his performance the next day and spent three hours cleaning up trash left by the crowd.

Nik Wallenda is an entertainer who wants to not only thrill hearts, but to change hearts for Christ. Christ is the balance pole that keeps him from falling. [close]

[close] This is an ARC!

Excerpt: "I imagine a place where girls are made. Some roll off the assembly line shiny and wet, wheat colored hair sewn into their beautiful heads like dolls. Other girls are assembled from spare parts, pieces the shiny girls refuse—a leg here, an elbow there—our maker scavenging for anything to use. Building girls like me is lonely work, no reward for the journeyman, no bright fame. Inside the girl factory, it is dark as midnight, the workers toiling away, unable to see their hands. There are so many mistakes to be made, which is why I know there must be girls like me out there somewhere. I’m the glass thrown onto the cullet belt with a smash. I break into a hundred sharp pieces. The belt leads underground, where girls like me are melted, poured into molds so the maker can try again, try to get it right this time. But I keep coming out flawed—cold crizz, chip finish, bird swing. I look whole, yet crumble with a touch. I’m thrown back to the cullet, back to the melting pot, where I keep trying to come out right."

It’s 1985 in a small factory town near Pittsburgh. Eight-year-old Karen’s parents are lifelong workers at the Anchor Glass plant, where one Saturday, an employee goes on a shooting spree, killing four supervisors, then himself. This event splits the young girl’s life open, and like her mother, she begins to seek comfort in obsessive rituals and superstitions.
This beautifully evocative memoir chronicles the next fourteen years, as Karen moves through girlhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. It illuminates small-town factory life; explores a complicated mother-daughter bond; thoughtfully unfolds a smart, but insecure girl’s coming of age; achingly recounts her attempts to use sex to fit in; and ultimately uncovers the buried secret from her childhood—a medical file with an unbearable report.
The Girl Factory deftly travels the intersections of memory and origin. Karen’s body remembers details her mind has tried to control. As the young woman mines her interior landscape for answers, certain questions persist. Where does memory live—in the body or the mind? And can you rewrite the story of your past?


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[close] A true love story about the kind of closeness everyone wants.
This memoir explores a fundamental question: How would you and the love of your life make the most of every day if you knew you had only two years left together?
Told with humor, pain and intimate detail, a compelling read about passion, commitment and, ultimately, hope. [close]

[close] Cracked Open is Miriam Zoll's eye-opening account of growing into womanhood with the simultaneous opportunities and freedoms afforded by the U.S. women's movement and new discoveries in reproductive technologies. Influenced by the pervasive media and cultural messages suggesting that science had eclipsed Mother Nature, Zoll--like millions of women around the world--postpones marriage and motherhood. She embarks on an exciting career, travels the globe, and eventually marries in her mid-30s. By 40, she has finally overcome her fears of being an unfit mother and is ready to embrace motherhood but nature does not cooperate.

In accordance with the times, she and her husband sign up for fertility treatments but neither one is prepared for the science-fiction world they have entered; a world full of medical seduction, capitalist conception and bioethical quagmires. Desperate to conceive, they turn into fertility junkies drawn into the cold, sterile world of the laboratory, where they increasingly find themselves disconnected from nature, their values, and each other. Eventually, they realize that the unregulated multi-billion-dollar U.S. fertility industry has promised her and millions of other couples far more than it can deliver. [close]

[close] As an ocean sailor, combat helicopter pilot, police officer, narcotics detective, DEA task force officer, and intelligence agent, Russell Jones experienced a life of adventure, risks, and struggles against man, machine, and nature. He served in Vietnam, Iran-Contra, and the War on Drugs, yet constantly questioned the policies that were taking the lives of those who were serving honorably. One of those wars continues today, and Russell Jones pulls the veil away on what is happening in the War on Drugs.

Honorable Intentions was released Jan, 2012. [close]

[close] Stemma Books, Ltd. is proud to present 5 autographed copies of debut author Jo Ann V. Glim's book BEGOTTEN: With Love for the goodreads May Giveaway!

This memoir will make you laugh... it will make you cry. It will make you laugh until you cry!

"My family is a writer's dream," Glim said, "Filled with remarkable characters but then every family has its share of dreamers and doers, cowards and cads, heroes and heroines. I hope after reading BEGOTTEN: With Love you will love my family as much as I do... warts and all. More than that, I hope you will love your family even more!" [close]

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Long before "The Perfect Storm" and Hurricane Sandy, the 1935 August Gale roared Northeast. The surf raged along the New York and New Jersey shores as the gale whirled toward Newfoundland. Waves as tall as three-story houses swamped ships; monster combers broke masts in two and swept every man on deck into the raging sea. Scores of fishermen disappeared when the "divil" descended on that August evening, and one Newfoundland village would never be the same.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara Walsh takes readers on an unforgettable voyage into her family history and her quest to face the storms she encounters there. Like "The Perfect Storm," August Gale is a dramatic story of the sea and the courageous men who fished for a living. A book that you won't want to put down and a terrific choice for book clubs and gifts. [close]

[close] INFERTILITY Road to Hell and Back


To my dear readers,

This is probably one of the most intimate
and private memoirs you will ever read. I hope that you will do so with consideration and that you will understand why I have decided to share the most important phase of my life with you. I did not write this book to seek sympathy nor because I am a very outspoken person. It all started as a personal journal, many years ago. I decided to publish this book for the following reasons:

To remind myself on a daily basis not to take life for granted.
Because I know that there are so many people out there with similar problems.
Maybe you know someone who is going through infertility now, and you don’t know what to say to them, or maybe you are even unable to understand them.
Most importantly for me is: If you are thinking of aborting your baby. Please read my book and THINK AGAIN!
On reading this memoir, you will know that you are not alone and that there are hope and deliverance in every situation. You might learn something from my experiences, who knows. Perhaps you bought the book to compare your own treatment or journey with mine. It might be out of curiosity. If that is your reason, I hope that you enjoy reading it. For the ones that know me, I hope you learn a different side to me, a side you never knew. Perhaps you will understand me better than before.

If I can touch one person's life with my story, I will have succeeded in the objective that I set out to achieve when I made the decision to publish it. This was not my mission when I started writing my journal.

When I was experiencing infertility, I felt like the loneliest person alive. All my friends around me were getting pregnant. None of them were going through what I was. They couldn't understand my frustration, pain, and longing. Back in 1999, I also found that people didn't really want to talk about their infertility problems. This was hard for me, because I didn't have anybody who understood what I was going through, or what I was emotionally dealing with. I had support from my family and friends, but they never really understood and most of the time tried to avoid me, especially when I was on treatment. I turned to the Internet and made wonderful friends there. There were women who were in a similar situation and who felt exactly like I did. I learned a lot about all the treatments and got to understand why women would sometimes go a bit nuts when they were on the treatment. I wasn't always myself when I was on treatment. In the beginning, I thought I was the only person in the world who felt this way. I soon realized that I had Internet support systems and friends who were going through the same dilemma.

These days, it is much easier to talk about infertility, because today more and more women are experiencing it. I am not qualified to comment on the reason for this, but the percentage of infertile women is increasing every year.

What I want you to realize is that you are not alone. You might not know me, but by just reading my memoir, you will realize that there are people out there who can and will support you and understand you.

I am glad that I kept on writing during this sad, unhappy part of my life, because today I can share my infertility memoir with you.
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[close] Autographed copies will be given.

"Take your writing seriously, even when nobody else does. Especially when nobody else does."

That’s the message that writers need to hear when their passion for writing wanes in the face of what often seems like nonstop resistance from life, the universe, and everything. With empathy and humor, this book provides a kind of tent revival for writers, helping them to jump start their writing again. More of a why-to than a how-to, this book nonetheless provides practical tips—some of them unorthodox—on what writers can try when they find more and more excuses not to sit down at their desks and do the work they used to love. If you’re slogging through a creative drought, this book may provide just the inspiration you need. [close]

[close] A LIFE THAT MATTERS is a fascinating and profoundly moving new book by a surgeon who has devoted his life to helping the world's most unfortunate children grow up with faces that allow them to know they are part of the human community-assured that they are ordinary in the very best way and fully capable of being loved.

We present ourselves to the world foremost with our faces, Dr. Ken Salyer explains, and the people we meet initially look to our faces to ascertain who, in fact, we are. Dr. Salyer is a fiercely intelligent, energetic, insatiably inquiring, and deeply compassionate man whose life has been one of service. As he writes in his introduction to A LIFE THAT MATTERS, he is "convinced that possessing a face you aren't forced to hide is a fundamental human right-as important to a fully lived life as freedom from fear or want." And in clinics and operating room around the world, today Dr. Salyer continues a groundbreaking forty-year career whose nexus melds cutting-edge medicine with humanitarian aid offered to profoundly unfortunate children.

A LIFE THAT MATTERS focuses on the moving stories of the children whose lives have been transformed and their moving personal testaments to how precious their "normalcy" now is. It is these children who inspired Dr. Salyer to found the World Craniofacial Foundation and establish clinics across the globe that now offer hope for good lives to hundreds of poor children in still-developing countries who otherwise would be shunned, locked away, or abandoned. In a voice that's compelling, eloquent, and always impassioned, he issues a call for a new worldwide understanding of the rights of the terribly disfigured, and he encourages readers to be inspired by the lives of these children and to transform our own challenges into triumphs. [close]

[close] Musician and songwriter Phil Madeira turns his talent for evocative lyricism from the stage to the page as he invites us to wander with him on his relentless search for God. From a joke involving a glass eye in a family that doesn't always see eye-to-eye, a judgmental "Grandmonster" who makes an (almost) redeeming connection in her final moments, or a crumbling marriage and the surprise of new love, Madeira's raw and tender stories illustrate the journey we all share, along with wise reflections to get through it.

Roaming from his evangelical roots to discover a successful career in Americana music, Madeira boils away the detritus of religion to discover a faith "on the rocks": sometimes leaving him stranded on the rocky shore, sometimes savored like a smooth drink on a summer's day, but always leading to a God "not worrying about changing or chastising his broken children, but singing in a low, guttural hymn, forged in the heat of his passion for humans, a God almighty love song." Just like a sweet old hymn can rekindle even a doubting cynic's longing for God, Madeira's beckoning voice can turn a wandering heart toward home with laughter and hope.
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