Best of
Illness

2020

His First Love (Ivory Peaks #1)


Liz Isaacson - 2020
    He's back in town after finishing a degree at MIT, ready to start his job at the family company. Can Hunter and Molly find their way through their pasts to build a future together?On his first Sunday back in Ivory Peaks after finishing his technology degree at MIT, Hunter Hammond comes face-to-face with Molly Benson. He's just lost track of his little brother, but the old flame he's harbored for Molly since she ended their high school relationship a decade ago is rekindled instantly.Molly Benson, after succumbing to parental pressure and wanting to explore other options for a boyfriend, did break-up with Hunter back in high school. She's never forgotten him though, even when she married another man. Now that she's divorced, she carries emotional scars and personal feelings of unworthiness from a marriage she should've never agreed to.Hunter's kissed a lot of girls since his teenage relationship with Molly, just like his uncle once advised him to do. He inherited his two billion from his father when he turned 21, earned a degree in bioinfotronics from MIT, founded an organization to help injured military personnel and police officers, and fell in love with another woman—all while wearing his cowboy hat in Cambridge.Their paths diverged, and when Hunter finishes up his work with his foundation, he returns to Ivory Peaks to start working in the labs at HMC, the family company.Through it all, his heart has never recovered the piece he gave to Molly all those years ago... Can his first love be the one that becomes forever?Get more Hammond family saga and amazing inspirational cowboy romance in HIS FIRST LOVE, a brand new novel that starts a brand new series in beautiful, mountainous Ivory Peaks!

The Cabin


Jasinda Wilder - 2020
    One year ago, I held his hand and said goodbye. Now I spend most of my days lost somewhere between trying to remember every smallest detail of our lives, and trying to forget it all. I fill my hours with work until I’m too exhausted to remember him, to feel anything at all. One year, 365 days—and then one knock at my door changes everything. A letter from him, a last request, a secret will: My dearest Nadia,Trust me, my love. One last time, trust me. Sometimes the epilogue to one story is the beginning of another.

Wink


Rob Harrell - 2020
    Not to have a rare eye cancer, not to lose his hair, not to have to wear a weird hat or have a goopy eye full of ointment. Just normal. But with a sudden and horrifying diagnosis, Ross can't help standing out. His new life is medical treatments that feel straight out of a video game, vision loss in one eye, disappearing friends who don't know what to say to "the cancer kid," cruel bullying, and ultimately, friendships new and old that rise above everything.Just when Ross starts to feel like he's losing his footing, he discovers how music, art, and true friends can change everything. Filled with Rob Harrell's comic panels (Batpig for the win!) and spot art, this novel brings effortless humor and hope to an unforgettable, uplifting story of survival.

Warrior Blue


Kelsey Kingsley - 2020
    Between working full-time as a tattoo artist and caring for his disabled twin brother Jacob, his plate is more than full - and he prefers it that way. But his meticulous planning is turned on its head when he meets the upbeat and beautiful Audrey Wright and her butterfly tattoo. Now, through a complicated maze of coincidence and fate, Blake begins to question if maybe there could be more to his life than just work and Jacob. That is, if the guilt doesn't eat him alive first. With the help of Dr. Vanessa Travetti and a girl he doesn't think he deserves, can Blake convince himself that even the bad guy deserves a happy ending?

The Bright Side Running Club


Josie Lloyd - 2020
    In the vein of Mary Ellen Taylor’s Honeysuckle Season this “amazing, breathtaking, and inspiring” (Jenny Colgan) novel is full of hope and heart.When Keira first receives her breast cancer diagnosis, she never expects to end up joining a running group with three women she’s only just met. Totally blind-sided, all she can think about is how she doesn’t want to tell her family or step back from work. Nor does she want to be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.And yet it’s running – hot, sweaty, lycra-clad running in the company of brilliant, funny women all going through treatment – that unexpectedly gives Keira the hope she so urgently needs. Because Keira will not be defined by the C-word. And now, with the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim everything: her family, her identity, and her life.One step at a time.Moving, uplifting and full of hope, this is a beautifully crafted novel about love, family and the power of finding your tribe.

Clouds: A Memoir


Laura Sobiech - 2020
    “Okay, Lord, you can have him. But if he must die, I want it to be for something big. I want someone’s life to be changed forever.” This is what Laura Sobiech prayed when she found out her seventeen-year-old son had only one year to live. With this desperate prayer, she released her son to God’s will.At that point, Zach Sobiech was just another teenager battling cancer. When his mother told him to think about writing goodbye letters to family and friends, he decided instead to write songs. One of them, “Clouds,” captured hearts and changed lives, making him an international sensation.This story is a testament to what can happen when you live as if each day might be your last. It’s a story about the human spirit. It shows how God used a dying boy from a small town in Minnesota to touch the hearts of millions—including top executives in the entertainment industry, major music artists, news anchors, talk show hosts, actors, priests and pastors, and schoolchildren across the globe. And above all, it’s an example of the amazing things that happen when someone shares the most precious thing he has—himself.  “I’m not a musician; I’m just a filmmaker, and my prayer is that you get an opportunity—both through the reading of this beautiful book and the watching of our film based on it—to experience what I will fail to put into words: the magic and inspiration of Zachary David Sobiech.”—Justin Baldoni, filmmaker and director of Clouds

The Mysteries of Pemberley


Amy D'Orazio - 2020
    And so she did, for four years, until the boy's guardian, Fitzwilliam Darcy showed up in Meryton, insisting on removing the boy from his aunt, his life and everything he knew, to be raised at Pemberley.Elizabeth, determined to honor Jane, insists on going with them, soon finding herself installed at Pemberley as an unwanted guest of Mr. Darcy and his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. It's the year without a summer and Pemberley is austere and ghostly, with shadows and secrets lurking in every corner. With too much time to herself, Elizabeth soon finds herself wondering about Mr. Darcy’s past and the identity of a young lady who she reads about in the lady’s journal.She soon thinks she has a faithful sketch of Mr. Darcy’s character until one key truth emerges which shatters all her prepossessions. Bit by bit the mysteries of Pemberley unravel—but what will she find at the end of it?This Pride and Prejudice variation is written in the style of gothic novels of the regency era, such as Northanger Abbey. The beloved characters of Jane Austen in scenarios of the author's imagining.

Hold On Edna!


Aneira Thomas - 2020
    This heartbreaking, heartwarming, true story following the history of a family in Wales is one of the most important books ever written. The birth of the National Health Service - the UK's greatest asset - coincided with the birth of one little girl in South Wales, Aneira 'Nye' Thomas, the first baby to be delivered by the NHS.Nye's story follows generations of her family who battled to survive before the NHS was launched, through to those who went on to dedicate their lives to working for the NHS - and also, ultimately, to be saved by it.An emotive, extraordinary and yet uplifting reminder of a time not so long ago, when the value of your life came down to how much you had in your pocket. It is a touching and entertaining human drama, but more importantly - a fierce defence of the most important accomplishment this country has ever and will ever achieve.

Five Things About Ava Andrews


Margaret Dilloway - 2020
    On the inside, she bubbles with ideas and plans. On the outside, everyone except her best friend, Zelia, thinks she doesn’t talk or, worse, is stuck-up. What nobody knows is that Ava has invisible disabilities: anxiety and a heart condition.Ava hopes middle school will be a fresh start, but when Zelia moves across the country and Ava’s Nana Linda pushes her to speak up about social issues, she withdraws further. So Ava is shocked when her writing abilities impress her classmates and they invite her to join their improv group, making up stories onstage. Determined to prove she can control her anxiety, she joins—and discovers a whole new side of herself, and what it means to be on a team.But as Ava’s self-confidence blossoms, her relationship with Zelia strains, and she learns that it isn’t enough just to raise your voice—it’s how and why you use it that matters.

Unseen: The secret world of chronic illness


Jacinta Parsons - 2020
    Doctors couldn’t explain why, and Jacinta wondered if it might be in her head. She could barely function, was frequently unable to eat or get out of bed for days, and gradually turned into a shadow of herself. Eventually she got a diagnosis: Crohn’s disease. But knowing this wouldn’t stop her life from spiralling into a big mess of doctors, hospitals and medical disasters.What’s most extraordinary about Jacinta’s story is how common it is. Nearly half of Australians live with a chronic illness, but most of these conditions are not obvious, often endured in secrecy and little understood. They are unseen.With compelling candour, Jacinta trains a microscope on the unique challenges of living with an invisible condition. She lays bare the struggles with shame, loss of identity, the threat of mortality, and the profoundly complex relationships between the chronically ill and their own bodies, as well as with those around them. It’s a story of trying to fix an unfixable illness, getting beaten down then clawing back up, and how that experience can shape a life.

My Life as an Album Series


L.J. Evans - 2020
    And when loss hit, they all had to learn to live again...To find joy...To find redemption...To find love... MY LIFE AS A COUNTRY ALBUM ― a boy-next-door, coming-of-age romance. Tomboy Cam's diary-style coming-of-age story about growing up loving the football god next door. She vowed to love him forever. But when fate comes calling, will she ever find a heart to call home? Warning: Tears may fall.MY LIFE AS A POP ALBUM ― a road-trip, rock-star romance. Bookworm Mia is trying to put behind years of guilt when soulful musician, Derek Waters, strolls into her life and turns it upside down. Once he's seen her, Derek can't walk away unless Mia comes with him. But what will happen when their short time together comes to an end?MY LIFE AS A ROCK ALBUM ― a second-chance, antihero romance. Recovering addict, Seth Carmen, is a trash artist who knows he's better off alone. But when he finds and loses the love of his life, he can't help sending her a series of love letters to try and win her back. Will Seth prove to PJ they can make broken beautiful?MY LIFE AS A MIXTAPE ― a single-dad, rock star romance. Lonnie's always seen relationships as a burden instead of a gift and having to pick up the pieces his sister leaves behind is just one of the reasons. When Wynn enters his life just as her world is disintegrating, their mixed-up pasts give way to new beginnings neither of them saw coming.THIS LIFE WITH CAM ― a box set exclusive novella. Written as a response to Cam's story in Country Album, Blake shares what it was like growing up in the shadow of Cam's first love. Discover the exact moment he fell for the tiny football referee with her lopsided braids and popsicle-stained lips.This award-winning series from LJ Evans should come with a warning label: Do NOT read unless you are prepared to invest your heart and soul. It's about finding yourself and your path on this wild ride called life while overcoming loss, heartbreaks, and illness. It's about family and hope and love. Each book can be read as a STANDALONE novel but comes with spoilers for the first book in the series.

The Matchmaker's Billionaire


Maria Hoagland - 2020
    . . Oops! Welcome to Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove were billionaires go to disappear for days, weeks, or months. Off the grid, exclusive and remote, it's a place unlike any other. Best-selling spy novelist Grantham Robbins returns to the quirky small town he grew up in to get away from it all, only to end up right in the middle of all kinds of other drama.Especially when the matchmaker his personal assistant hires for him is the town's busybody--the one who knows everyone--including him. A little too well.Why is it Emily Wood can't find his match for love? Because when a matchmaker fails, there are consequences . . . ♥ Pick up your copy of this sweet contemporary romance today! A second-chance homecoming romance inspired by Jane Austen's Emma. ♥

Natural Killer: A Memoir


Harriet Alida Lye - 2020
    There are no known survivors. There were no known survivors.Fifteen years after Harriet's diagnosis, she became pregnant, despite having been told that her chemotherapy treatment would likely make conception impossible. To be a mother is to make a death, as death is bound up in life. She knew her body had the ability to create death. She never trusted, was told to not even imagine, that it also had the power, that magical banality, to create life.Weaving in source material from the year she spent in hospital, written by both of her parents and her teenage self, this personal reflection is told through a seamless blend of narrative, snapshots, journal entries, and blog updates posted for friends and family.With probing lyricism and searing honesty, Natural Killer explores what it's like to live with a life-threatening illness and survive it; what it means for a body to turn against itself, to self-destruct from within; and what it takes to regain trust in a body that has committed the ultimate betrayal.

The Last Act of Adam Campbell


Andy Jones - 2020
    Particularly when it's your last.Adam had a good life: a job he enjoyed, a nice house, a loving partner and a bright six-year-old daughter. Then he cheated on his partner. Then she kicked him out of their home. And then he was given approximately twelve months to live.Despite the devastating news, Adam is determined to turn his life around before it finally runs out. Help comes in the form of an ex-junky, a cantankerous train driver, a nun experiencing a crisis of faith, and a teenager intent on losing her virginity - all living on borrowed time, all desperate to feel alive before their time is up.Praise for Andy Jones:'What happens the morning after the night before, when the night before was when you did the most reckless thing of your life? I loved Andy Jones's stylish portrayal of four people who make way too much history in one night, and just couldn't put it down until I found out the fate of each of them' Catherine Isaac'Andy Jones continues to be one of my favourite authors' Bella Magazine

No Pressure, No Diamonds: Mining for Gifts in Illness and Loss


Teri A. Dillion - 2020
    But once diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and told to get her affairs in order before facing total paralysis, she finds all smug psychology and easy equanimity no match for her harrowing new prognosis. With a humorous and nuanced exploration of the colorful landscapes of alternative medicine and self-help culture, No Pressure, No Diamonds recounts Teri’s powerful healing journey while shining a light on the fragile blessings of embodiment in general. As she grows disillusioned with toxic positivity and bypassing spiritual gurus in her determined pursuit of a miraculous cure, she’s forced to define her own deepest beliefs about hope, meaning-making, and healing.Inspiring, entertaining, and deeply moving, this memoir will resonate with anyone forced to grapple with chronic or terminal illness. Teri’s story teaches us how the most brilliant jewels of meaning and resilience can be found not in conventional narratives of triumphant recovery, but in what we painstakingly and lovingly carve for ourselves out of life’s roughest blows.

Murder, Forgotten


Deb Richardson-Moore - 2020
    Even this is not something Julianna’s mind can hold on to, and every day her assistant has to break the heart-wrenching news all over again.Julianna is desperate to know what happened to her husband. As she battles her failing mind to investigate, a detail of the murder surfaces that makes Julianna question everything she’s ever known. Somehow she must fight to find the truth, even though her grip on reality is fading…

Babygirl for Christmas


Rory Reynolds - 2020
    All I want for Christmas is one stern daddy.Heartbroken and alone is not the way I want to spend the holidays.Little did I know Santa has other ideas.

The Path to Us


Jennifer Van Wyk - 2020
    She thought I was her hero, but I was just Beau Aikin, small town boy.Eventually we became more than classmates. We were best friends. When tragedy strikes, I don’t think twice about stepping in to help. To once again be Addy’s hero.Not just hers, her five-year-old daughter’s, too.Only now, I want her. More than anything.Friendship isn’t enough anymore. But she's off limits for so many reasons.Love.Lust. Guilt. It all haunts me and it feels like everything is against us.But I’ll do anything to make her mine.This is our story of the path to us.

Wild Ride Home: Love, Loss, and a Little White Horse, a Family Memoir


Christine Hemp - 2020
     Christine Hemp's debut work of nonfiction, Wild Ride Home, is a brilliant memoir, looping themes of finding love and losing love, of going away and coming home, of the wretched course of Alzheimer's, of cancer, of lost pregnancies, of fly fishing and horsemanship, of second chances, and, ultimately, of the triumph of love and family--all told within the framework of the training of a little white horse named Buddy. Wild Ride Home invites the reader into the close Hemp family, which believes beauty and humor outshine the most devastating circumstances. Such optimism is challenged when the author suffers a series of blows: a dangerous fiancé, her mother’s dementia, unexpected death and illness. Buddy, a feisty, unforgettable little Arabian horse with his own history to overcome, offers her a chance to look back on her own life and learn to trust again, not only others, but more importantly, herself. Hemp skillfully guides us through a memoir that is, despite devastating loss, above all, an ode to joy.

My Own Blood: A Memoir of Madness and Special Needs Parenting


Ashley Bristowe - 2020
    But what happens when your child is disabled, and sacrificing all you've got and more is the only hope for a decent future? Full of rage and resilience, duty and love, Ashley Bristowe delivers a mother's voice like no other we've heard. When their second child, Alexander, is diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, doctors tell Ashley Bristowe and her husband that the boy won't walk, or even talk--that he is profoundly disabled. Stunned and reeling, Ashley researches a disorder so new it's just been named--Kleefstra Syndrome--and she finds little hope and a maze of obstacles. Then she comes across the US-based "Institutes," which have been working to improve the lives of brain-injured children for decades. Recruiting volunteers, organizing therapy, juggling a million tests and appointments, even fundraising as the family falls deep into debt, Ashley devotes years of 24/7 effort to running an impossibly rigorous diet and therapy programme for their son with the hope of saving his life, and her own. The ending is happy: he will never be a "normal" boy, but Alexander talks, he walks, he swims, he plays the piano (badly) and he goes to school.This victory isn't clean and it's far from pretty; the personal toll on Ashley is devastating. "It takes a village," people say, but too much of their village is uncomfortable with her son's difference, the therapy regimen's demands and the family's bottomless need. The health and provincial services bureaucracy set them a maddening set of hoops to jump through, showing how disabled children and their families languish because of criminally low expectations about what can be done to help.My Own Blood is an uplifting story, but it never shies away from the devastating impact of a baby that science couldn't predict and medicine couldn't help. It's the story of a woman who lost everything she'd once been--a professional, an optimist, a joker, a capable adult--in sacrifice to her son. An honest account of a woman's life turned upside down.

How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic


Bill Hayes - 2020
    A neighborhood restaurant turned to-go place where one has a shared drink-on either end of a bar-with the owner. These scenes, among many others, became the new normal as soon as the world began to face the COVID-19 pandemic.In How We Live Now, author and photographer Bill Hayes, with his signature insight and grace, captures these moments of life in real time-as things unfold day-by-day, hour-by-hour, in this strange new world we're now in (for who knows how long?), with its new sets of rules and guidelines, its suddenly deserted streets, shuttered restaurants, bars, shops, and stores. As he wanders the increasingly empty streets of Manhattan, Hayes meets fellow New Yorkers and discovers stories to tell, but he also shares the unexpected moments of grace and gratitude he finds from within his apartment, where he lives alone and-like everyone else-is staying home, trying to keep busy and not bored as he adjusts to enforced solitude with reading, cooking, reconnecting with loved ones, reflecting on the past-and writing. Featuring Hayes's inimitable street photographs, How We Live Now chronicles an unimaginable moment in time, offering a long-lasting reminder that what will gets us through this unprecedented, deadly crisis is each other.

Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End: A Memoir


Liz Levine - 2020
    But it turns out, I’m not alone. In November of 2016, Liz Levine’s younger sister, Tamara, reached a breaking point after years of living with mental illness. In the dark hours before dawn, she sent a final message to her family then killed herself. In Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End, Liz weaves the story of what happened to Tamara with another significant death—that of Liz’s childhood love, Judson, to cancer. She writes about her relationship with Judson, Tamara’s struggles, the conflicts that arise in a family of challenging personalities, and how death casts a long shadow. This memorable account of life and loss is haunting yet filled with dark humor—Tamara emails her family when Trump is elected to check if she’s imagining things again, Liz discovers a banana has been indicted as a whistleblower in an alleged family conspiracy, and a little niece declares Tamara’s funeral the “most fun ever!” With honesty, Liz exposes the raw truths about grief and mourning that we often shy away from—and almost never share with others. And she reveals how, in the midst of death, life—with all its messy complications—must also be celebrated.

Trowbridge Road


Marcella Pixley - 2020
    Months after her father’s death from complications from AIDS, her mother has stopped cooking and refuses to leave the house, instead locking herself away to scour at the germs she believes are everywhere. June Bug threatens this precarious existence by going out into the neighborhood, gradually befriending Ziggy, an imaginative boy who is living with his Nana Jean after experiencing troubles of his own. But as June Bug’s connection to the world grows stronger, her mother’s grows more distant — even dangerous — pushing June Bug to choose between truth and healing and the only home she has ever known. Trowbridge Road paints an unwavering portrait of a girl and her family touched by mental illness and grief. Set in the Boston suburbs during the first years of the AIDS epidemic, the novel explores how a seemingly perfect neighborhood can contain restless ghosts and unspoken secrets. Written with deep insight and subtle lyricism by acclaimed author Marcella Pixley, Trowbridge Road demonstrates our power to rescue one another even when our hearts are broken.

A Doll for Grandma: A Story about Alzheimer's Disease


Paulette Bochnig Sharkey - 2020
    They play dress up. They paint their nails. They make cookies for picnics with Kiera's doll. But then Grandma starts to change. She starts misplacing items and forgetting how to do everyday tasks. Soon she has to move out of her home into a memory-care center for people with Alzheimer's. She starts calling Kiera by a different name. Then Kiera has an idea and finds a new way to enjoy time with her Grandma.A Doll for Grandma poignantly and sensitively tells the story of a girl's empathy and kindness in the face of her grandmother's growing dementia. Perfect for children grappling with their changing relationship with a family member who has dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Not One of These Poems Is About You


Teva Harrison - 2020
    She plunges deep into her inner world, shadowing the progression of the disease. Reality takes on sharp edges: the swell of cancer and its retreat with chemo. Her inner corporeal reality versus her outer manifestation of health, vitality, and femininity. Holding fast to the great love of her life, while preparing to leave him behind. Contemplating who she was before cancer, and who she is now.Starkly honest and wholly profound, Not One of These Poems Is About You distills life to its essence. Teva Harrison continues to gift the world with her clear-eyed insight and her open heart.

The Perfect Shelter


Clare Helen Welsh - 2020
    Then they told me my sister was sick.But together we’ll ride out the storms. And today is the perfect day to build a shelter and be together.A beautiful, powerful and uplifting story, exploring the complicated emotions we feel when someone we love is diagnosed with cancer.

Radical Spirits: India's First Woman Doctor and Her American Champions


Nandini Patwardhan - 2020
    At the time there were no schools for girls in India. Also, the few doctors (who were all male) could not treat female patients. Having witnessed the suffering of women, Anandi hoped to help create a culture that saw women as deserving and capable of equality with men.Anandi faced critics in India and skeptics in America. Her mentor was her husband Gopal, who tutored her and fostered her ambition. Her American champion was Theodocia Carpenter, a New Jersey housewife who initiated a three year correspondence with Anandi, offering “all possible help.”With her determination and grace, Anandi won the support of all—Indians, Americans, as well as British—who crossed her path. Three thousand supporters attended her 1886 graduation from the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia.Based on original letters, university archives, and newspaper accounts, RADICAL SPIRITS draws a textured portrait of British India and post-Civil War America. Exploring the relationships that Indian, British and American individuals forged by bridging cultural, political, and class boundaries is sure to be a rich and rewarding experience.

All That You Are


Elicia Roper - 2020
    This novel tells the story of Athena and Caiden.Caiden is strong willed and self-less, he puts the needs of his family and friends above his own.Athena is a firecracker with a kind-hearted soul.As they go through the journey of life you will see how Athena and Caiden bring comfort to each other, as they learn to cope and mend with the pain of loss and heartbreak.

Spice Apothecary: Blending and Using Common Spices for Everyday Health


Bevin Clare - 2020
    In Spice Apothecary, author Bevin Clare combines her training in herbalism and nutrition to guide readers in a return to the kitchen spice cabinet for better health and healing. Focusing on 19 common culinary spices that are easy to source and prized for their flavour, this practical guide highlights the health benefits of each spice for supporting wellness goals, with information on the best preparation for medicinal benefit, storage recommendations, and daily dosage guidelines. To bolster the immune system, chilli, garlic, ginger, and mustard are best. Kidney health is supported by celery seed, parsley, and sage, while the respiratory system benefits most from ginger, mint, and thyme. Formulas for dried spice blends that amplify the effectiveness of individual flowers, roots, leaves, and seeds accompany recipes for delicious dips, soups, sauces, and even sweets that deliver flavour and healing. This approachable exploration of the world of spices puts at everyone’s fingertips new creative and impactful ways to incorporate key health-boosting spices into everyday life.

What We Didn't Expect: Personal Stories about Premature Birth


Melody Schreiber - 2020
    are preemies. But that one word, "preemie," encompasses a range of medical and cultural experiences. There are textbooks, medical-ish guidebooks, and the occasional memoir to turn to ... but no book that collects personal experiences from the many people who have parented, cared for, or been preemies themselves.Until now. In What We Didn't Expect, journalist Melody Schreiber brings together a chorus of acclaimed writers and thinkers to share their diverse stories of having or being premature babies. The stories here cover everything from life-changing tests of faith to navigating the red tape of healthcare bureuacracy; from overcoming unimaginable grief to surviving and thriving against all odds.The result is a moving, heartfelt book, and a crucial and informative resource for anyone who has, or is about to have, the experience of dealing with a premature birth.

The Only Card in a Deck of Knives


Lauren Turner - 2020
    Within these poems, Lauren Turner aims to reclaim the "hysterical" label given to sick women throughout history. Rather than shying away from the emotional urgency and raw vulnerability surrounding a terminal diagnosis, Turner shines an interrogative light upon it. These fierce poems are written from the perspective of a twentysomething female speaker with a terminal disease, a speaker who is preoccupied with maintaining the illusion of health, but then refers to herself as "dying" in the next line. Fascinated and repelled by the societal impulse to gussy up diseases that take violent, and sometimes deadly, tolls upon women's bodies, Turner uses these lyric poems to juxtapose the violence of a gendered illness with the violence encountered by women and non-binary people in society. The Only Card in a Deck of Knives unpacks society's impulse to pull away from sick women and examines why we discredit their professed pain, symptoms and emotions.

The Polio Pioneer: Dr. Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine


Linda Elovitz Marshall - 2020
    Jonas Salk is one of the most celebrated doctors and medical researchers of the 20th century. The child of immigrants who never learned to speak English, Jonas was struck by the devastation he saw when the soldiers returned from battle after WWII. Determined to help, he worked to become a doctor and eventually joined the team that created the influenza vaccine. But Jonas wanted to do more. As polio ravaged the United States--even the president was not immune!--Jonas decided to lead the fight against this terrible disease. In 1952, Dr. Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine, which nearly eliminated polio from this country. For the rest of his life, Dr. Salk continued to do groundbreaking medical research at the Salk Institute, leaving behind a legacy that continues to make the world a better place every day.This compelling picture book biography sheds light on Dr. Salk's groundbreaking journey and the importance of vaccination.

My Mother's Choice


Ali Mercer - 2020
    Absolutely nobody. I have no idea what she was like. I’d always thought they kept quiet about her because they were sad. But what if it was because they were guilty?I watch them at the school gates, all the mothers with their daughters. I see the hugs and all those thoughtful little adjustments to scarves and ponytails. How their love seems to overflow, they have so much of it to give.And then I walk home to my aunt’s cold house, where there are a hundred rules for me to follow and only a single photograph of my mother to look at.She is never spoken about in this house. They tell me that it will be easier if I don’t think about her.It is strange though, isn’t it? That I know nothing about my own mother?But they don’t know about the diary I’ve found up in the loft. Maybe they even forgot it was there. It doesn’t matter anymore if they won’t tell me anything. Because within these pages is what I’ve waited fourteen years to find out. And maybe some things I wish I could forget.All I wanted was to bring our family closer together, but could what I find tear us apart instead?A heartbreaking and powerful novel about family secrets and how we live with decisions we never thought we would have to make. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Kate Hewitt and Amanda Prowse.

Gentle on My Mind: In Sickness and in Health with Glen Campbell


Kim Campbell - 2020
    The two performers from small Southern towns quickly fell in love, a bond that produced a thirty-four-year marriage and three children.In Gentle on My Mind, Kim tells the complete, no-holds-barred story of their relationship, recounting the highest of highs—award shows, acclaimed performances, the birth of their children, encounters with Mick Fleetwood, Waylon Jennings, Alan Jackson, Alice Cooper, Jane Seymour, and others—and the lowest of lows, including battles with alcohol and drug addiction and, finally, Glen’s diagnosis, decline, and death from Alzheimer's.            With extraordinary candor, astonishing bravery, and a lively sense of humor, Kim reveals the whole truth of life with an entertainment giant and of caring for and loving him amid the extraordinary challenge of Alzheimer's disease. This is a remarkable account of enduring love, quiet strength, and never-faltering faith.

Dead Inside


Alexander Ward - 2020
    Tears and blood. Life’s never been easy for Alex. Pushed to become a male prostitute and also having to deal with trauma and abuse in the relationship with his boyfriend, doesn’t help a 19-year-old stay sane. In his struggle and desperation to get out of that toxic environment, he soon finds himself in the middle of something much worse.Caught between two powerful Russian organizations, a broken man and his abusive lover, Alex has to make a decision and he must choose quickly. But when he starts spiraling out of control, the lines between life and death begin to blur and his steps seem to take him towards what might very well be his end.Warning: Book contains triggers and approaches subjects such as abuse, self-harm, PTSD and suicide.

The Wholistic Healing Guide to Cannabis: Understanding the Endocannabinoid System, Addressing Specific Ailments and Conditions, and Making Cannabis-Based Remedies


Tammi Sweet - 2020
    She explains the physiology of the body’s endocannabinoid system and how it is affected by ingesting cannabis, as well as the chemistry of the whole plant. Based on research and her own clinical experiences, Sweet provides instructions for the best preparation techniques and specific dosage recommendations for addressing a wide range of conditions including stress, chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, and more. This book will be extremely valuable to healthcare professionals, practitioners of the healing arts, dispensary workers, and medical cannabis users who want to understand the science of cannabis and its effects on the whole body.

As Fast As I Can


Penny Tangey - 2020
    Dealing with themes around chronic illness, persistence and acceptance.One girl. One dream. A few hurdles.Ten-year-old Vivian is determined to win a medal at the Olympic Games one day. Problem is, she hasn’t found a sport she’s any good at yet. But everyone says if you work hard enough you can achieve anything, right? So when Vivian discovers she has a talent for cross country running, finally, her Olympic dream might actually come true.But then a family illness is uncovered and all of Vivian’s plans begin to unravel. Can she keep her dream alive? Or will she be stopped in her tracks?A funny, heartfelt novel about resilience, acceptance and dreaming big.

Hinge


Molly Spencer - 2020
    In myth and memory, through familiar stories reimagined, she constructs poetry for anyone who has ever stumbled, unwillingly, into a wilderness. In these alluring poems, myth becomes part of the arsenal used to confront the flaws and failures of our fallible bodies. Shadowing the trajectory of an elegy, this poetry collection of lament, remembrance, and solace wrestles with how we come to terms with suffering while still finding joy, meaning, and beauty.   Spencer alternates between the clinical and the domestic, disorientation and reorientation, awe and awareness. With the onset of a painful chronic illness, the body and mental geography turn hostile and alien. In loss and grief, in physical and psychological landscapes, Spencer searches the relationship between a woman’s body and her house—places where she is both master and captive—and hunts for the meaning of suffering. Finally, with begrudging acceptance, we have a hypothesis for all seasons: there is suffering, there is mercy; they are not separate but are for and of one another.

The Pleasure Plan: A Sexual Healing Odyssey--1 Woman, 6 Sex Problems, 30 Curative Adventures


Laura Zam - 2020
    Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the blame, shame, and embarrassment of feeling bedroom broken.  For her, delving between the sheets meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her late forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self.    This is her brave and bawdy plan to triage her flaccid romantic life, stepping into a void where intimacy, self-love, and playfulness could be experienced--the full monty of Eros that had been missing from her existence. The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited 15 healers and tried 30 pleasure-enhancing methods: from dilators and dildos, to hypnosis and hosting a sex brunch, to cleansing chakras, to making love to her husband in front of a geriatric Tantric goddess. Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this book chronicles Zam’s insight as she confronts many issues—from mismatched libidos to female erection enlightenment. Throughout this journey, she and her husband grow as individuals and as a couple, both in and out of the bedroom. Fearlessly honest and full of inspiration, Zam peels back the layers—or covers—and exposes her foibles, insecurities, and eventual wisdom as she excavates past traumas, accepts and embraces her worth, and claims her right to be completely alive.  Today, Laura works as a sexuality educator, wellness coach, and speaker helping other women who suffer from sexual dysfunction, the effects of trauma, or those who would simply like more pleasure (of all kinds) in their lives. She also consults with health care providers so they may better assist their clients in achieving sexual well-being.   While The Pleasure Plan is Zam’s personal narrative, it demystifies pervasive taboos, encouraging women to make pleasure a priority, while teaching them how to claim (or reclaim) the power of their sexual selves. It also shows men how they can support their partners in this #Metoo era. Healthy, sultry intimacy is a right; it is time for women to learn—through glorious trial and error—how to embrace the sensual side of themselves. . . exuberantly and unabashedly.

Colton 911: Family Defender


Tara Taylor Quinn - 2020
    Now that single passionate night produced a surprise Riley never imagined -- a baby! His paternal and investigative instincts kick in when their growing family comes under fire. As sparks fly, Riley and Charlize work together to track and capture a criminal...who will stop at nothing to destroy everything they hold dear.Mills & Boon Romantic Suspense -- Danger. Passion. Drama.

The Burden of Darkness (The Marcie Kane Thriller Collection, #5)


Barry Finlay - 2020
    Although part of a series, The Burden of Darkness stands alone. Like the other books in the series, this one tackles a subject of social significance. Marcie Kane's FBI consultant husband, Nathan Harris, is battle weary and suffering from PTSD from previous cases. He eventually seeks counseling with the help of Marcie, but is it too late? He has everything to gain by trying. Owen Strand has nothing to lose. He has been fired from a job, sued by a partner and now he has been handed a death sentence by a doctor. Seeking last minute notoriety, he compiles a list of people he deems to have harmed him and travels around North America picking them off with drones one by one. One person on the list is someone close to Nathan. Nathan and Owen are on opposite sides of a bridge in the most significant battles of their lives. Only one can emerge successful, but both stand to lose far more than they may have to give.

The Pangaea Solution: Solve the Equation, Save the World


Charles Jacobs - 2020
    Further digging leads Blum to Kay Westfield, a charming bank executive who once witnessed a bizarre explosion on Feldmann's experimental farm.As Blum and Westfield begin to unravel the labyrinth of funding behind the professor's research center, a picture emerges of a monstrous plot by a shadowy international think tank to infect millions of people.Meanwhile, Feldmann's assistant, a math prodigy with past ties to a violent, white-supremacist movement is busy optimizing the virus's distribution--fulfilling the Pangaea Solution.

Ruthless Love


Penelope Bloom - 2020
     That is, until I move next door to Parker High’s most eligible bastard, Tristan Blackwood. He’s gorgeous. Eyes as cold as moonlight. Lips made for cruel kisses. The entire town knows it, too. Apparently being able to throw a football elevates you to god status around here. He could have anything he wanted. Anyone. But somehow, all he wanted was to torment me. Me, trapped in my mom’s protective bubble: homeschooled and invisible, stuck in a wheelchair and saddled with more medical issues than I could count. Normal? I might as well wish to be a fairytale princess. There aren’t any princesses or knights in my fairytale. Just the dark prince who lives next door. Parker High royalty in the flesh. My very own devil in a letterman jacket. His life should be a dream, but the only thing he cares about is becoming my nightmare. And when my pride isn’t enough for him, he decides he wants my body. He wants my heart. He wants every last inch of me to himself.

Breaking the Rules


Jodi Payne - 2020
    A recent CU graduate, he’s also a Dom, and has many friends his age in the scene. Saul’s an old soul, and even at twenty-five, he’s had enough experience to understand his own desires. He’s had plenty of lovers and he’s played the role of part-time Dom, but he’s never found the perfect combination of lover and sub in one man.Troy Finch lost his lover in a rodeo accident twenty years ago, moved to Boulder, and has worked as a line cook in his friend Carter’s diner ever since. He’s attended many parties at Carter’s home with couples in the BDSM lifestyle and feels comfortable in a submissive role, but without a Dom of his own, Troy hasn’t explored what that really means to him. He has needs he doesn’t entirely understand and finds his only outlet at the hands of Carter’s husband, Geoff, a tattoo artist who has used Troy’s skin as a canvas for as long as they’ve known each other, covering Troy in colorful, intricate triskelia.Troy doesn’t know what he was thinking accepting a dinner invitation from a kid half his age, but everything feels right about their evening together, including Saul’s Dominant side. The rules for a twenty-five year old gay cowboy from years ago, though, are totally different than for a twenty-five year old college grad in Boulder now, and despite Saul’s confidence, Troy isn’t sure whether they can make it work.Saul and Troy manage to bend a good many rules in the name of caring and compromise, but in the name of love, there are some rules they’re just going to have to break.

Sin Bin Series: Box Set


Dahlia Donovan - 2020
    Each book features hot rugby players and the men who steal their hearts.Welcome to the Sin Bin.For years, these rugby players have fought side by side—sometimes against one another—on the pitch until their beloved game abandoned them to the sidelines permanently. What happens to those gloried for performances on the field once they’re no longer able to play? Follow BC, Tens, Scottie, and their friends as they struggle through figuring out life post rugby.Can they find themselves?Will they find love?The Sin Bin Series Box Set features every book—seven in total—from The Wanderer to Haka Ever After. Plus, enjoy the three bonus shorts to catch up with the incredible Sin Bin characters.

Everywhere to Hide


Siri Mitchell - 2020
    She admirably deals with her mother’s death, mounting student debt, dwindling job opportunities, an abusive boyfriend, and a rare neurological condition that prevents her from recognizing human faces.But witnessing a murder might be the crisis she can’t overcome.The killer has every advantage. Though Whitney saw him, she has no idea what he looks like. He knows where she lives and works. He anticipates her every move. Worst of all, he’s hiding in plain sight and believes she has information he needs. Information worth killing for. Again.As the hunter drives his prey into a net of terror and international intrigue, Whitney’s only ally, Detective Leo Baroni, is taken off the case. Stripped of all semblance of safety, Whitney must suspect everyone and trust no one—and fight to come out alive.“A heart-stopping ride . . . Mitchell’s deft hand with characterization and the twist y plot made this a compelling read i couldn’t put down.” —Colleen Coble, USA TODAY bestselling author of One Little Lie and the Lavender Tide series

Recovery


Angelique Jurd - 2020
    At six o’clock every night Connor starts watching the door for him. Like clockwork, every night the guy with the sad eyes comes into the bar, orders a single drink, and leaves again. He never speaks. Never smiles. Just drinks and leaves.Until the night he orders a second drink and Connor finally gets him to speak.After the brief conversation, Connor is more intrigued than ever – but it’s not until a chance meeting after work one evening that he even learns the guy’s name.Two years ago, a fire left Lucas with emotional and physical scars he is still receiving treatment for. A year ago, his partner, unable to cope with the aftermath of the event, left him.Battling nightmares, depression, and guilt, Lucas is turning more and more to vodka for company.Until he drops his pizza order and the guy who steps in to help him is the cute bar tender who has been serving his drinks for the past year.Can Connor understand the true horror of what happened to Lucas? Can Lucas accept Connor’s feelings and start looking to the future instead of the past?Recovery is a stand-alone contemporary gay romance.(Originally published as individual short stories – Phoenix, Dove, and, Eagles – Recovery compiles all three stories and expands the story with new material to a full-length novel.)