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Ya Gotta Eat!
Ya Gotta Eat! is a cozy hybrid of family memoir and community cookbook, where Catherine Ring Saliba braids together Italian, Syrian, and old-school New England dishes with stories about the people who cooked them and the kids who grew up eating them. Recipes for things like lamb-bone spaghetti sauce, Christmas lasagna, kibbeh, koosa, bacon rolls, and corned beef and cabbage sit alongside memories of her scientist father whose mantra gives the book its title, long-ago tablecloths, nursing-school nights in snowy Vermont, and grandchildren circling the kitchen. It feels less like a polished “chef” book and more like being handed the family recipe box and a stack of photo albums at the same time.
I really fell for Saliba’s voice. She talks the way a good home cook talks in the kitchen, with side comments and little detours and a lot of humor. She admits when something is fussy, when she cheats, when she never mastered mashed potatoes. I liked how often she lets herself wander for a page before getting to the “official” recipe, like the story about her father’s grapes before stuffed grape leaves, or the rant about the IRS and that catastrophic turkey wing before the lemony wing recipe. Those bits made me feel oddly cared for. I could hear the clatter of pans, the low family chatter in the background, the sense that food is what you reach for when you do not quite know how else to love people. The writing is simple, sometimes rambly, but it has a warm pulse.
I also felt a lot of affection for the way she treats the recipes themselves. They are specific enough to cook from, yet they keep a loose, older style that trusts the reader. There is plenty of “a dab of butter,” “a big scoop,” “as much as you like,” and jokes about not remembering why the wooden spoon matters, only that it does. The dishes can be rich and old-fashioned, full of bacon, lamb bones, George Washington seasoning, and long-simmering pots. For me, that gave the book real character and a strong sense of era and place. I sometimes wished for clearer cues on yield, timing, or substitutions, especially when she leans on products that are not as common now or skips steps a beginner might need spelled out. The balance tilts more toward “let me tell you how we do it in this family” than toward test-kitchen precision.
I would recommend Ya Gotta Eat! to readers who like cookbooks with a personal, lived-in feel and to home cooks who already know their way around a stove and want to add some deeply nostalgic Italian and Syrian American dishes to their rotation. It is a great fit for people who cook to remember their own families. If you are happy to read family stories, dog-ear pages, and let the house smell like sauce for hours, this book feels like good company.
Pages: 268 | ASIN : B0GDZB8RGG
Dangerous Choices
In Riding the White Bull, you share the experiences that shaped your life, from early fraternity politics to the early days of your military training. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book mattered to me because it traces the experiences that shaped my life, from fraternity politics and a reckless rodeo bet to the early days of Navy training. Those moments were not just adventures. They were tests. They forced me to confront fear, pride, ego, and responsibility. They forced me to recognize how lucky I am to have survived despite my sometimes dangerous choices.
I came to see that courage is not loud or theatrical. It grows quietly through experience, through mistakes, and through pushing past hesitation. I wanted to show how those early trials, whether on a bull in a dusty arena or under pressure in uniform, formed the foundation for the man I became. If readers feel as though they are sitting beside me while the story unfolds, then I have done what I set out to do.
I also wanted a little snapshot in time. A picture of a vanished era in American life, when there were no freeways and a couple of college boys could easily hitchhike across the West, when it was still possible for a diligent student to work his or her way through school by doing part-time jobs. Something that my great-great-grandchildren could read and understand something about their ancestor.
Is there anything you now wish you had included in your book?
There are always stories that stay behind when you close the manuscript. I sometimes wish I had given more space to the quieter moments, the people who influenced me without fanfare, the small decisions that changed the course of things in ways I only understood years later.
I also left out stories from my early growing-up years in rural Texas and my law practice in El Paso, during which I represented some outlandish clients and was compelled by court appointments to represent some truly evil people. I also have stories about teaching law at a major university. I set aside those stories for the sake of focus. Some of those memories still tug at me. Perhaps they belong in another volume.
What advice would you give someone considering sharing their memoir with readers?
Write honestly. Not just about what happened, but about what it meant to you. Facts alone do not carry a story. What stays with readers is the reckoning. And don’t back away from stories that show your own mistakes and vulnerability. That is, do not try make yourself the hero. The moments of doubt, embarrassment, and fear are often the most compelling. If you are willing to look at yourself without flinching, readers will respond to that.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from Riding the White Bull?
I hope readers come away with the understanding that courage is steadiness under pressure. It is not bravado. It is not braggadocio. It is the decision to stay present and force yourself to remain calm when everything in you wants to bolt.
Life will hand everyone a version of the white bull. The question is not whether fear appears. It is whether you meet it, learn from it, and walk away stronger and wiser than before. If the book encourages someone to face their own challenge with a little more resolve, that is enough for me.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
IMPACT: Your Ultimate Playbook for Life
IMPACT: Your Ultimate Playbook for Life led by Shar Moore feels like a glossy, curated “playbook for life” that you can dip into at random and still get something out of it. It is built like a coffee table collection, with short pieces from a wide mix of contributors. The chapters rotate through big themes like mastery, achievement, perseverance, inspiration, transformation, and creation, so the book reads more like a series of sharp snapshots than one long story. Along the way, it also pauses for a dedicated special feature on Destiny Rescue and the fight against child exploitation, which shifts the mood in a serious, gut-level way.
On the writing side, I liked the variety. It kept me awake. It kept me turning pages. Some entries are warm and chatty, like a friend telling you what they learned the hard way. The money piece from Rae Brent is a good example. It is plainspoken and kind of blunt, in a good way. It says the “boring” habits matter, and it does not pretend discipline is glamorous. I also appreciated the book’s confidence in its own vibe. The “golden thread” idea sets a hopeful tone, and the whole thing is clearly designed to be picked up, put down, and picked up again. The mix of voices gives the book real texture. Some pages were emotional while others act like a gentle boost, the kind of uplifting wallpaper you do not overthink but still enjoy. It keeps the tone fresh, and it lets different ideas land in different ways.
The ideas land best when they get specific. I felt that in the pieces about being a “safe space” for people, and choosing your impact with intention. And then the Destiny Rescue section comes in and, honestly, it jolts you. The story of the girl known as “Number 231” is haunting, and it makes the word impact stop being a slogan. The stats are emotionally stirring, too. Millions exploited, huge money involved, and children stuck inside those numbers. I also respected that the book shares practical details about how rescues happen, not just feel-good lines. Raids, covert work, border monitoring, plus real outcomes reported for 2023. It left me sad, then angry, then hopeful.
I see IMPACT as a high-energy sampler platter. It is best for readers who like quick hits of perspective, personal stories, and mindset nudges, plus a few moments that get genuinely real. I would recommend it to entrepreneurs, leaders, coaches, and anyone who enjoys reflective reading in small bites. It also works great as a gift book. The design-forward format helps. Last but certainly not least, the book’s design and layout are beautiful, exactly what you want from a coffee table book that’s going to catch someone’s eye. If you want a book that you can open anywhere and still find a spark, this one delivers.
Pages: 256 | ISBN : 978-1764037471
A Blueprint
The Bequest of John T. Ward uncovers the forgotten legacy of a formerly enslaved man who became an Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist. The word “bequest” carries weight. What did John T. Ward leave behind that felt most urgent to preserve?
What felt most urgent to preserve was not just what John T. Ward did, but what he proved. He left behind evidence that a formerly enslaved man could navigate legal systems, acquire land, fund institutions, advocate publicly, and move people toward freedom with intention and precision. His bequest is proof of lineage, continuity, and ownership, including the legacy of what is recognized as the oldest Black-owned business still in operation today. Preserving that truth matters because it challenges the false narrative that Black progress was rare, accidental, or undocumented. It was intentional, and it endured.
What aspects of his character stood out most to you while writing his bravery, his strategy, his compassion, or his vision?
What stood out most was his strategy. Bravery is often highlighted in abolitionist narratives, but strategy is what sustained survival. John T. Ward understood timing, geography, alliances, and the power of paperwork. He knew when to move quietly and when to speak publicly. His compassion fueled his work, but his vision ensured its longevity. He wasn’t reacting to oppression; he was planning beyond it.
How did uncovering your family’s history change the way you understand inheritance, beyond land or property?
It changed inheritance from something purely material into something instructional. I inherited methods for documenting, challenging power, and protecting legacy when systems are hostile. I inherited the understanding that survival itself can be a skill passed down. This history taught me that inheritance can be knowledge, foresight, and responsibility. What was passed to me was not just what was owned, but how to hold it with tools. This book is deeply rooted in the past, yet it feels urgent today.
What connections do you see between Ward’s fight and current struggles for justice?
The connection is documentation. John T. Ward lived in a time when Black existence had to be repeatedly proven through documents, witnesses, and records. Today, we see similar struggles around voting rights, land claims, citizenship, and whose stories are believed. The fight hasn’t changed as much as the language has. His work reminds us that justice is rarely handed down; it is built, recorded, defended, and revisited. That is why The Bequest of John T. Ward is not just history. It is a blueprint.
Author Website
In this deeply researched account, author Shanna Ward breathes life into her ancestor’s journey—an unsung legend whose story is brimming with courage, resilience, and unwavering dedication to justice. Each page reveals the clandestine routes, perilous escapes, and quiet triumphs that defined John T. Ward’s fight against oppression. More than a historical recount, this book invites readers to reflect on human endurance, the transformative power of hope, and the enduring impact one determined individual can have on the pursuit of freedom.
Filled with vivid storytelling, The Bequest of John T. Ward is a must-read for history enthusiasts, social justice advocates, and anyone looking for an inspirational tale of defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. Uncover the hidden legacy of this forgotten hero and discover why his life’s work remains a beacon of empowerment, community, and the belief that true liberation comes from standing up for what is right—no matter the cost.
The Bequest of John T Ward: Uncovering A Hidden Legacy in Black American History, Exploring Stories of Antebellum Resistance
The Bequest of John T. Ward traces the long arc of a family’s history from the violent beginnings of colonial Virginia to the fierce resistance of one man who chose courage over silence. The book follows John T. Ward’s journey from enslavement to manumission, then into his work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Alongside his story, the author weaves the deeper roots of the Ward lineage, exposing land grabs, plantation brutality, survival strategies, and the generational spirit that shaped a family determined to rise despite every force working against them. The narrative blends historical records with vivid storytelling that brings the past into sharp focus.
As I moved through the chapters, I felt pulled in by the immediacy of the writing. The author has a way of shifting from personal reflection to historical detail with a rhythm that feels alive. Sometimes the prose hit me hard, especially in sections that explored the emotional landscape of enslaved families. I found myself pausing, letting the weight of those moments settle before reading on. The writing shows how memory, trauma, love, and resistance lived in the same breath for people who had so little room to exist freely.
The voice jumps between past and present, and it carries a raw, personal tone that makes the history feel close and human. I liked that. It felt like someone talking directly to me about their family, not a distant academic piece. The intensity of the language sometimes crowded the quieter insights, and I wished for more calm pauses to let the facts open up on their own. Even then, the author’s passion gave the book a heartbeat. The ideas about inheritance, responsibility, and the duty to remember left me thinking long after I closed the file.
The book gave me a clearer picture of how individual lives fit into the larger struggle for freedom and how resistance did not start or end with famous names in textbooks. I would recommend this book to readers who want a deeply personal look at Black American history and to anyone who appreciates stories that mix truth-telling with emotional depth. It is especially fitting for people who enjoy family histories, hidden legacies, and accounts of courage that echo into the present.
Pages: 582 | ASIN : B0FBT3HTL8
Passion and Commitment
Creciendo Juntas: Narrativas de Empoderamiento de las Mujeres is an anthology of stories by women sharing their struggles, losses, revelations, and how they have rebuilt their world after significant challenges and changes in their lives. What was the process you used to collect the stories for this collection, and how did you decide which ones to include?
We came into this anthology with a spirit of openness. We were looking for diversity and honesty—to portray women in the rawness of their lives, with no intention other than to state that they are here and that their lives are valuable and rich. In that sense, we allowed the manuscripts we received to shape what the anthology would become. We did not want to preassign any boundaries that might prevent writers from crafting their work from the truth of their own experiences.
In most of the anthologies we’ve produced over our twenty years as publishers, there are specific criteria that must be met for a story to be included. This project was different. Here, it was the writers who shaped the anthology, not us. We deliberately gave up control and entrusted it to those who have lived the experience of being a woman in Latin America, as it should be. The guiding questions were simple: Are you a woman? Are you a writer? Do you understand that literature carries an ethical responsibility not to harm the reader? If so, you were in.
Have you received any feedback from readers that surprised or moved you?
Not directly, but the authors themselves have surprised us with the passion and commitment with which they have embraced, endorsed, and promoted the anthology. I think this speaks volumes about what the project has meant to them and, in turn, to their readers. It has been deeply moving to see how this book has differed from our other publications—it feels like a must-read for everyone.
The promotion of the anthology has not been directed toward a single type of reader, as is often the case with most books. Instead, it has reached across audiences, reinforcing the sense that this is an important work—one readers recognize as necessary. Seeing that response has been incredibly rewarding.
Will you be compiling a second collection of inspirational and motivational stories sharing the enduring spirit of women?
If the context allows for it, and if it once again feels like a necessity—as it did this time, when the first woman president in Mexico was about to assume office, and it felt essential for women to speak about the experience of being women—then it would be both lovely and exciting to do so.
At the same time, we are also interested in pursuing other projects. Women are always present in our work—talented women, talented writers—and that talent extends far beyond inspiration or motivation expressed only through stories explicitly about womanhood. The enduring spirit of women, like any enduring human spirit, is also revealed through creation, through writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, whether the work is about womanhood or about any other aspect of the vast human experience.
So in that sense, yes—we are planning to compile many collections that share the enduring spirit of women. They may not always be explicitly about the experience of being a woman, but they will be a testament to it nonetheless.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Estas son las historias de las mujeres que sustentan el cambio en cada palabra, en cada acción. La revolución también se hace en chiquito, en la cotidianidad, en las victorias y en los errores. En esta antología está escrita la historia del cambio, de cómo nuestras vidas, juntas, se convierten en una epopeya moderna.
Estas escritoras tejen una lucha en el tapiz de la libertad. Escribiendo juntas crecen con sus lectoras, quienes encontrarán en estas páginas una razón, aunque sea sólo una, para seguir adelante, pues todas compartimos, cada quien a su manera, el mismo arduo camino.
The Work in Between: A Memoir About Stepping Out of My Shadows
The Work in Between is a memoir that follows Gretchen Holmes through decades of illness, loss, trauma, and self-reinvention. She writes about her three rounds with thyroid cancer, her struggles with obesity and diabetes, a childhood marked by alcoholism and chaos, and the long climb toward emotional healing. The story moves through her early years in Michigan, her leap to New York University, her complicated family relationships, and the slow, steady work of understanding who she is and what she deserves in life. It is a book about survival, but also about learning how to live with intention instead of fear.
This is an emotionally stirring memoir. The writing feels honest. I found myself pausing and thinking about how she described fear and shame and the habit of keeping secrets. The scenes from her childhood hit hard. Her memories of her father’s drinking and the “dreads” that sat in her stomach felt painfully real. At the same time, the warmth of her family, especially her mother, shines through and softens the edges. I appreciated how she tells the truth without turning her story into a pity party. She owns her choices. She admits the messy parts. I liked that the book didn’t pretend healing happens neatly or quickly.
The parts about her medical journey brought out a different kind of emotion in me. The dismissal she faced from doctors, the exhaustion, and the way she pushed through school while barely able to swallow or breathe. I caught myself feeling frustrated for her. I also felt a weird sort of awe at her stubborn determination. When she talked about chaos being her comfort zone, I understood it more than I expected. The writing in these chapters has a steady rhythm that mirrors her resilience. Even when she writes about falling back into old patterns, I felt hopeful because she keeps showing up for herself. The mix of vulnerability and grit makes the book stick with you.
The Work in Between is not just a memoir about cancer or addiction or trauma. It is a memoir about the space between those moments and the quiet, uncomfortable work of changing your life from the inside out. I would recommend this book to anyone who has lived through hard stuff and is still trying to figure out what to do with it. It is also a good fit for readers who like personal stories that feel real and unpolished and full of heart.
Pages: 186 | ASIN : B0CZSHSJCL
Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice
Motion Dazzle is a memoir about a daughter trying to keep her life steady while everything around her seems to slide in unpredictable directions. The book shifts between her years as a competitive figure skater and the present day as she juggles early motherhood, a marriage, and the slow, heartbreaking decline of her own mother. The chapters move in short, vivid pieces that echo the idea of dazzle camouflage and the incomplete way memory works. What unfolds is a layered story of love, loss, identity, and grit. The author’s voice is warm and sharp at the same time, and the result feels honest in a way that hits straight in the chest.
I was pulled into her world. The skating scenes are full of pressure and sparkle and fear, and Jocelyn Jane Cox writes them with such clarity that I felt like I was watching from the rink boards. The early chapters show her constant push to perform, to smile when she is hurting, to carry herself with poise even when she feels anything but composed. Later, watching her try to shape a first birthday party while her mother is in the hospital had me tensing up in real time. The tiny details of the zebra books, the blue painter’s tape, the quiches cooling on the counter caught me off guard because they were so tender and so fraught at once. I could feel her heart splitting open as she tried to make something lovely for her son while her grief pressed in from the edges.
The portraits of her mother are what stayed with me the most. The way she describes their twenty-year daily phone call, the quiet jokes, the listening, the stories from childhood that finally spill out in fragments. Grief shows up in the book like a tide that rises slowly, then all at once, and I found myself rooting for her to catch her breath. The writing feels bright, then raw, then bright again, and I loved that. It felt real. Not polished grief, but grief that stumbles and snaps and softens. I could feel her longing for more time and her guilt and her fierce love drowning each other out in waves. It made me think about my own family more than I expected.
Motion Dazzle would be a powerful read for anyone who has cared for an aging parent or anyone who has tried to grow a new life at the same time another one is fading. It would also resonate with former athletes or anyone who knows what it means to chase perfection even when it costs more than it gives.
Pages: 273 | ASIN : B0FHF95RKB
