Brittany K. Barnett was only a law student when she came across the case that would change her life forever--that of Sharanda Jones, single mother, business owner, and, like Brittany, Black daughter of the rural South. A victim of America's devastating war on drugs, Sharanda had been torn away from her young daughter and was serving a life sentence without parole--for a first-time drug offense. In Sharanda, Brittany saw haunting echoes of her own life, as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother. As she studied this case, a system came into focus in which widespread racial injustice forms the core of America's addiction to incarceration. Moved by Sharanda's plight, Brittany set to work to gain her freedom. This had never been the plan. Bright and ambitious, Brittany was a successful accountant on her way to a high-powered future in corporate law. But Sharanda's case opened the door to a harrowing journey through the criminal justice system. By day she moved billion-dollar deals, and by night she worked pro bono to free clients in near hopeless legal battles. Ultimately, her path transformed her understanding of injustice in the courts, of genius languishing behind bars, and the very definition of freedom itself. Brittany's riveting memoir is at once a coming-of-age story and a powerful evocation of what it takes to bring hope and justice to a system built to resist them both. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS
"A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love."--Janet Mock In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, "Mama, I'm not a girl. I am a boy." The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope's revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn't wide enough for her child's needs. In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution. From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer--and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron's prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn't just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.
The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love.
Praise for The Bold World "In The Bold World, Jodie Patterson makes a case for respecting everyone's gender identity by way of showing how she came to accept her son, Penelope. In tying that struggle to the struggle for race rights in this country during her own childhood, she paints a vivid picture of the permanent work of social justice."--Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree
"Beautifully written, complex, provocative, painful, genuine...an unforgettable memoir."--ROXANE GAY
"Wonderfully lyrical and uncomfortably honest in a way that is so rare, yet so needed."--JENNY LAWSON
"Disturbing and profound, this intimate book also reveals the sometimes-labyrinthine nature of the bonds that unite people in love...A provocative and memorable work."--Kirkus Reviews
After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage, writer Rebecca Woolf was finally ready to leave her husband. Two weeks after telling him she wanted a divorce, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Four months later, at the age of forty-four, he died.
In All of This, Woolf chronicles the months before her husband's death--and her rebirth after he was gone. With rigorous honesty and incredible awareness, she reflects on the end of her marriage: how her husband's illness finally gave her the space to make peace with his humanity and her own.
Stunning, compelling, and brilliantly nuanced, All of This is one woman's story of embracing the complexities of grief without shame--as a mother, a widow, and a sexual being--and emerging on the other side of a relationship with gratitude and relief.
Now updated with a new chapter! Includes the #metoo movement and the cultural revolution.
A groundbreaking manifesto from journalist Gretchen Carlson about how women can protect themselves from sexual harassment in the workplace and reclaim their power against abuse or injustice.
In BE FIERCE, Gretchen shares her own experiences, as well as powerful and moving stories from women in many different careers and fields who decided they too weren't ready to shut up and sit down. Gretchen became a voice for the voiceless.
In this revealing and timely book, Gretchen shares her views on what women can do to empower and protect themselves in the workplace or on a college campus, what to say when someone makes suggestive remarks, how an employer's Human Resources department may not always be your friend, and how forced arbitration clauses in work contracts often serve to protect companies rather than employees. Her groundbreaking message encourages women to stand up and speak up in every aspect of their lives.
Gretchen also discusses why this fight will require both women and men working together to ensure that our daughters and sons will have a brighter future.
BE FIERCE is a cultural movement and a motivating testament to what we can accomplish if we collectively decide to become warriors in the path for a better future.The time is now. Take back your life, your career, and your dignity.
Twitter: @GretchenCarlsonFacebook: @GretchenCarlsonInstagram: @therealgretchencarlson
A portion of each book sale will go towards Gretchen's Gift of Courage fund.
Using your voice and speaking your truth is a step toward freedom. Be a 'Fierce' force because that's what it takes to change the world.--Maria Shriver, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and founder of The Women's Alzheimer's Movement
Set against Nantucket's Great Fire of 1846, this sweeping, emotional novel brings together three courageous women battling to save everything they hold dear...
Nantucket in 1846 is an island set apart not just by its geography but by its unique circumstances. With their menfolk away at sea, often for years at a time, women here know a rare independence--and the challenges that go with it.
Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to return from a voyage. In desperation, she turns against her progressive ideals and targets Meg Wright, a pregnant free Black woman trying to relocate her store to Main Street. Meanwhile, astronomer Maria Mitchell loves running Nantucket's Atheneum and spending her nights observing the stars, yet she fears revealing the secret wishes of her heart.
On a sweltering July night, a massive fire breaks out in town, quickly kindled by the densely packed wooden buildings. With everything they possess now threatened, these three very different women are forced to reevaluate their priorities and decide what to save, what to let go and what kind of life to rebuild from the ashes of the past.
"A memorable story of friendship and courage." --Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris
An incisive exploration of ballet's role in the modern world, told through the experience of the author and her classmates at the most elite ballet school in the country: the School of American Ballet.
Growing up, Alice Robb dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. But by age fifteen, she had to face the reality that she would never meet the impossibly high standards of the hyper-competitive ballet world. After she quit, she tried to avoid ballet--only to realize, years later, that she was still haunted by the lessons she had absorbed in the mirror-lined studios of Lincoln Center, and that they had served her well in the wider world. The traits ballet takes to an extreme--stoicism, silence, submission--are valued in girls and women everywhere.
Profound, nuanced, and passionately researched, Don't Think, Dear is Robb's excavation of her adolescent years as a dancer and an exploration of how those days informed her life for years to come.
As she grapples with the pressure she faced as a student at the School of American Ballet, she investigates the fates of her former classmates as well. From sweet and innocent Emily, whose body was deemed thin enough only when she was too ill to eat, to precocious and talented Meiying, who was thrilled to be cast as the young star of the Nutcracker but dismayed to see Asians stereotyped onstage, and Lily, who won the carrot they had all been chasing--an apprenticeship with the New York City Ballet--only to spend her first season dancing eight shows a week on a broken foot.
Theirs are stories of heartbreak and resilience, of reinvention and regret. Along the way, Robb weaves in the myths of famous ballet personalities past and present, from the groundbreaking Misty Copeland, who rose from poverty to become an icon of American ballet, to the blind diva Alicia Alonso, who used the heat of the spotlights and the vibrations of the music to navigate space onstage. By examining the psyche of a dancer, Don't Think, Dear grapples with the contradictions and challenges of being a woman today.
Meet Mallory Weggemann: a Paralympic gold-medalist, world champion swimmer, ESPY winner, and NBC Sports commentator whose extraordinary story will give you the encouragement you need to rise up to meet any challenge you face in life.
On January 21, 2008, a routine medical procedure left Mallory paralyzed from her waist down. Less than two years later, Mallory had broken eight world records, and by the 2012 Paralympic Games, she held fifteen world records and thirty-four American records. Two years after that, a devastating fall severely damaged her left arm. But despite all of the hardships that Mallory faced, she was sure about one thing: she refused to give up.
After two reconstructive surgeries and extended rehab, she won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. And even better, she found confidence, independence, and persevering love. She even walked down the aisle on her wedding day against all odds.
Mallory's extraordinary resilience and uncompromising commitment to excellence are rooted in her resolve, her faith, and her sheer grit. In Limitless, Mallory shares the lessons she learned by pushing past every obstacle and expectation that stood in her way, teaching you how to:
Mallory's story reminds us that we can handle whatever challenges, labels, or difficulties we face in life, and we can do it on our own terms. Because when we refuse to accept every boundary that hems us in--physical, emotional, or societal--we become limitless.
Over It is a high-octane dose of encouragement, storytelling, and hard-won advice from Lolo Jones, three-time Olympian and world champion hurdler and bobsledder.
Lolo is perhaps better known today not for all the races she's won but for the millisecond mistake that cost her an Olympic gold medal over a decade ago. With stunning authenticity about her own struggles, longings, and losses, she shows us how to face our challenges head-on and keep working to overcome them.
Lolo challenges us to:
Growing up in a broken home, Lolo learned to shoplift at a young age just to eat at night and sometimes slept on the basement floor of the Salvation Army. While her father was in prison, her mother worked multiple jobs, and Lolo realized she needed to be self-motivated, singularly focused, and unwilling to quit if she wanted to succeed.
Reflecting on her own challenging spiritual journey, Lolo invites us to rest in God who can make all the difference in overcoming obstacles with both strength and joy.
From the iconic stylist and fashion provocateur whose designs transformed culture--bringing the glitz of Studio 54 and the sophistication of Sex and the City to the mainstream--comes a playful yet intimate memoir of a life spent challenging conventions.
Carrie Bradshaw's pairing of a tutu with a tank top is one of the most iconic outfits ever seen on television--and a look that turned avant-garde New York designer and stylist Patricia Field into a household name. But before she was crowned the fairy godmother of haute couture, Field was the owner of the longtime East Village emporium Pat Field, a haven for drag queens, club kids, starving artists, NYU freshmen, and creative visionaries alike. Presiding over downtown with her distinctive vermillion hair and a constantly lit cigarette, Patricia was a rock 'n' roll den mother to everyone from Amanda Lepore to Lady Bunny to Patti Smith, with her store providing the city's eccentrics with a place to discover a sense of family, home, and a rhinestone bedazzled bustier or two.
In Pat in the City, Patricia describes her journey from scrappy Queens kid peddling men's pants to the fashion world's most notorious renegade. As the daughter of immigrant parents, Field learned the principles of glamour from her entrepreneurial mother, and applied her NYU lessons on democracy to inform a fashion ethos that would reach millions. From her Studio 54 disco-glam styling to her award-winning work in The Devil Wears Prada and Sex and the City to today's buzzy costuming in Emily in Paris, Field's inimitable styling has pushed the envelope and created trends that have become the culture standard. Now in her seventies, Patricia Field is ready to tell her story--not to take a final bow, but to spread her credo of challenging convention and filling the world with joy and dancing.
A Bustle Most Anticipated Debut of the Year
"Freshly fascinating. [Lawton] is a particularly astute observer of the psychological dislocation caused by growing up mixed race... and she writes beautifully about questions of identity and belonging, so central to each of us in finding our particular place in the world." -New York Times Book Review
From The Guardian's Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed--through the author's own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black.
Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina's insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was.
It was only after her father's death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage--and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe--the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Morocco--and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves.
Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one's identity.
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Pick
"Secrets of the Sprakkar is a fascinating window into what a more gender-equal world could look like, and why it's worth striving for. Iceland is doing a lot to level the playing field: paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and broad support for gender equality as a core value. Reid takes us on an exploration not only around this fascinating island, but also through the triumphs and stumbles of a country as it journeys towards gender equality."
--Hillary Rodham Clinton
Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman--but why?
For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that makes many women's experience there so positive? Why has their society made such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world's first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? And how can we learn from what Icelanders have already discovered about women's powerful place in society and how increased fairness benefits everyone?
Eliza Reid, the First Lady of Iceland, examines her adopted homeland's attitude toward women--the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Reid's own experience as an immigrant from small-town Canada who never expected to become a first lady is expertly interwoven with interviews with dozens of sprakkar ("extraordinary women") to form the backbone of an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman, and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as "equal" than we may understand. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.
LEARN THE RECIPE FOR STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
For the first time ever, founder of Sprinkles cupcakes, Candace Nelson, is sharing the recipe for success in her new book, Sweet Success. She will walk you through the steps she took to build a globally beloved brand, so you can do it too. Although she deals in frosting, there's no sugarcoating here. Candace pushes back the kitchen door to reveal mistakes, misses, and lessons learned the hard way. Readers will learn how to:
In a time of unprecedented disruption and innovation, people are rethinking career and professional purpose. It's never been a better time to start a business. Sweet Success dispels the myth that entrepreneurship is reserved for an elite few and is a must-read for anyone with a passion needing a place to start or a push along the way.
At a career crossroads, instead of going to business school like her peers, Candace Nelson reflected on what she really wanted to do--and did what nobody, including Candace herself, would have expected. She poured her passion and life savings into creating the world's first cupcake bakery. Today, Sprinkles Cupcakes and its Cupcake ATMs have become a globally recognized brand, celebration mainstay and inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere.
As Kroeger chronicles the lives of journalists and newsroom leaders in every medium, a larger story develops: the nearly two-centuries-old struggle for women's rights. Here as well is the collective fight for equity from the gentle stirrings of the late 1800s through the legal battles of the 1970s to the #MeToo movement and today's racial and gender disparities.
Undaunted unveils the huge and singular impact women have had on a vital profession still dominated by men.
In this spellbinding memoir, popular CNN anchor Zain E. Asher pays tribute to her mother's strength and determination to raise four successful children in the shadow of tragedy.
Awaiting the return of her husband and young son from a road trip, Obiajulu Ejiofor receives shattering news. There's been a fatal car crash, and one of them is dead.
In Where the Children Take Us, Obiajulu's daughter, Zain E. Asher, tells the story of her mother's harrowing fight to raise four children as a widowed immigrant in South London. There is tragedy in this tale, but it is not a tragedy. Drawing on tough-love parenting strategies, Obiajulu teaches her sons and daughters to overcome the daily pressures of poverty, crime and prejudice--and much more. With her relentless support, the children exceed all expectations--becoming a CNN anchor, an Oscar-nominated actor--Asher's older brother Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)--a medical doctor, and a thriving entrepreneur.
The generations-old Nigerian parenting techniques that lead to the family's salvation were born in the village where young Obiajulu and Arinze meet with their country on the brink of war. Together, they emigrate to London in the 1970s to escape the violence, but soon confront a different set of challenges in the West.
When grief threatens to engulf her fractured family after the accident, Obiajulu, suddenly a single mother in a foreign land, refuses to accept defeat. As her children veer down the wrong path, she instills a family book club with Western literary classics, testing their resolve and challenging their deeper understanding. Desperate for inspiration, she plasters newspaper clippings of Black success stories on the walls and hunts for overachieving neighbors to serve as role models, all while running Shakespeare theatre lines with her son and finishing homework into the early morning with Zain. When distractions persist, she literally cuts the TV cord and installs a residential pay phone.
The story of a woman who survived genocide, famine, poverty, and crushing grief to rise from war torn Africa to the streets of South London and eventually the drawing rooms of Buckingham Palace, Where the Children Take Us is an unforgettable portrait of strength, tenacity, love, and perseverance embodied in one towering woman.
Each chapter is unique, from a unique Imagineer's perspective and experience. These women spent their careers telling stories in three dimensions for the public. Now they've assembled their stories in print, with the hope that their experiences will continue to entertain and illuminate.
Going beyond platitudes and shallow Insta-inspiration, this inspiring and empowering book provides a blueprint for feeling less stressed and genuinely making the most of your every day.
Eschewing trendy self-care fixes or the latest health fads, Your Time to Thrive is the revolutionary guide to living and working based on Microsteps--tiny, science-backed changes. By making them too-small-to fail, we can incorporate them into our daily lives right away, and begin building healthier ways of living and working. This book is a Microstep bible. With chapters dedicated to sleep, nutrition, movement, focus and prioritization, communication and relationships, unplugging and recharging, creativity and inspiration, and purpose/meaning, Your Time to Thrive shares practical, usable, research-supported mini-habits that will yield huge benefits and empower people to truly thrive in all parts of their lives.
- Slam Your Imposter Syndrome
- Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Grow Your Mindset And more! From building up the courage to do what scares you the most to persisting when all you want to do is give up, get ready to claim your confidence and get the life you want.
"Embrace the Work, Love Your Career is for women who want to fall back in love with their work and design a career action plan grounded in confidence and clarity." --Forbes
YOU ARE DESERVING OF A CAREER YOU LOVE.
Fran Hauser, best-selling author of The Myth of the Nice Girl, follows up with a workbook for women who want to get more out of their careers. Embrace the Work, Love Your Career combines accessible advice, time-tested strategies, creative prompts, and thoughtful exercises into one holistic resource.
Stemming from years of experience in senior leadership at Time Inc.'s People, InStyle and Entertainment Weekly as well as AOL and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Hauser centers her career guidance around six main actions:
Each chapter starts with practical advice and includes prompts and exercises to help readers create their own personal career action plans. Palate-cleansing meditations and coloring breaks conclude each chapter, offering chances for calming reflection. Through simple, inspiring, and actionable tools, Embrace the Work, Love Your Career teaches women to be empowered to focus on the things that truly matter, set boundaries and, ultimately, realize their full potential.
"Embrace the Work, Love Your Career couldn't have arrived at a better time." --PopSugar
"From the author of The Myth of the Nice Girl, an instructional workbook to help you find professional satisfaction and achieve your goals." --People
PRAISE FOR FRAN HAUSER:
Named one of the "6 Most Powerful Women in NYC's Tech Scene" by Refinery29
"Is it possible to be both kind and a total badass? Yes--and Fran Hauser tells us how." --goop
"Fran gets into the mess--and gets specific--explaining how she has learned to handle all kinds of uncomfortable moments with authenticity and grace" --Refinery29