Blog Archives
I’ve Made Plans
Mia J. Hanks’s I’ve Made Plans chronicles the author’s life after leaving a twenty-nine-year marriage marked by coercive control, emotional abuse, and covert narcissism. Beginning with the finalization of her divorce, Hanks shifts the focus from the dissolution of the marriage to the demanding work of creating a life beyond it. Her account follows a series of practical and emotional turning points, including confronting intimidation, rebuilding self-worth, establishing boundaries, managing isolation, and rediscovering personal freedom. When she leaves the courtroom with the realization that “My future now belonged to me,” the statement becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
The memoir’s greatest strength is its use of specific, everyday experiences to illustrate the lasting effects of abuse. A compromised storage unit, a bag of circus peanuts, a solo road trip, a broken thermometer, and an airplane journey all become meaningful markers of recovery. These episodes show how control can shape seemingly ordinary decisions and how reclaiming those decisions can restore confidence. Hanks writes in a candid, accessible voice that gives the book the intimacy of a personal conversation while maintaining a clear sense of purpose. Her willingness to examine her own people-pleasing, fear, guilt, and complicity in maintaining appearances adds depth to the narrative.
Each chapter is organized around a lesson, such as “Self-care is not selfish,” “Boundaries are necessary,” or “Freedom is priceless,” and many conclude with a journal prompt. This structure makes the book both a memoir and a reflective guide for readers navigating divorce, trauma, or major personal change. The later glossary, diagnostic criteria, list of covert narcissistic traits, and support resources extend its practical value. Some ideas recur across chapters, but the repetition reflects the gradual nature of recovery and reinforces the central themes of self-trust, autonomy, and deliberate healing.
I’ve Made Plans is ultimately a grounded account of reconstruction. Hanks presents healing as a collection of choices rather than a single transformative moment, and the construction of her new home provides an effective final metaphor for rebuilding her identity. Her concluding reflection, “I already love this life not because it is perfect, but because it is mine,” captures the memoir’s emotional center. Honest, encouraging, and thoughtfully structured, the book offers survivors a recognizable portrait of life after abuse while showing how freedom can be strengthened through boundaries, faith, self-care, and purposeful action.
Pages: 92 | ASIN : B0GX31KVYT
The Call I Almost Missed: 365 Days Without a Cell Phone and What It Taught Me About Love, Presence, and the Lies We Live
Tommy Short’s The Call I Almost Missed is a yearlong spiritual and emotional memoir told as a sequence of short letters to his daughters, and that shape gives the book its heartbeat. The premise is simple enough to hook you fast: a father turns off his cell phone for 365 days after his daughter asks, “Daddy, why are you always on your phone?” But the book quickly grows beyond experiment or stunt. It becomes a running conversation about attention, fatherhood, ambition, fear, faith, and the private ways people drift away from themselves. The letter format keeps the book intimate, and the repeated “What if” chapter titles give it a reflective rhythm that feels less like an argument and more like a man thinking out loud in real time.
What makes the book work is that Short writes with the urgency of someone who knows he’s been sleepwalking and doesn’t want to waste the wake-up call. He’s strongest when he ties his big ideas to ordinary scenes: a bedtime routine, a haircut gone sideways, a walk with his wife, a quiet panic attack, a rainy stop at the park before school. Those moments keep the book grounded. When he writes, “Presence isn’t proximity. It’s attention,” he lands on the book’s central claim in a way that feels real, not packaged. That line keeps echoing because the whole book is an effort to prove it, one family moment at a time.
The book is also a self-portrait of a man shedding identities that once made him feel valuable. Short writes about officiating basketball, speaking work, masculinity, control, and the reflex to stay reachable at all times. That gives the memoir a real arc. It isn’t just about removing a device. It’s about watching performance fall away and seeing what survives. I liked that he understands this process as both tender and disruptive. The book keeps returning to the cost of becoming more honest, especially in marriage, family life, and faith. Even when he gets intense, there’s a real vulnerability underneath it, and that’s what keeps the book from feeling abstract.
Stylistically, this is a devotional memoir with a motivational streak. Some readers will find the repetition calming; others may find it a bit much, but the repetition is part of the design. The book wants to ponder, not rush your thinking. Short’s best image for that approach comes early, when he says, “This book is not a map. Maps promise routes and destinations. But life rarely works that way.” That line explains the whole reading experience. You don’t move through this book to gather a neat system. You move through it to sit with its questions, and to notice how often it asks you to reconsider the life you’re building while you’re busy trying to manage it.
What I liked most is how clearly the book knows what it wants to be: a record of choosing presence on purpose. It’s a father’s testimony, a spiritual inventory, and a collection of letters meant to outlast the season that produced them. By the end, the phone itself almost feels secondary, which is exactly the point. The real subject is a human life becoming more awake. If you like memoirs that lean into reflection, family, and hard-won tenderness, this one has a lot to offer. It feels personal without being sealed off, and sincere without hiding its rough edges.
Pages: 294 | ASIN : B0GNX3WK9Q
One Last Question Before You Go: Why You Should Interview Your Parents
Kyle Thiermann’s One Last Question Before You Go is part memoir, part field guide for emotional courage. It begins as a practical project, recording conversations with his parents before it’s too late, but evolves into a moving exploration of love, misunderstanding, and reconciliation. Thiermann opens his life with remarkable honesty, describing a childhood shaped by idealism, tension, and unconventional choices. His storytelling blurs the line between instruction and confession, reminding readers that asking questions can be both a form of preservation and an act of healing.
Thiermann’s writing balances clarity and lyricism. He recounts moments from his youth in Santa Cruz with humor and unease: surf sessions laced with danger, family debates over truth and science, and a mother whose belief in conspiracy theories fractures their bond. When he writes, “Now when my mom and I look up at the same blue sky, she sees chemtrails, where I see clouds,” the simplicity of the line reveals something profound about distance and love. It’s this honesty, direct, unsentimental, but deeply felt, that gives the book its emotional weight.
His reflections on interviewing parents are both practical and philosophical. Thiermann treats listening as a skill that requires humility and patience. His advice to start with simple questions, to let silence breathe, feels genuine and attainable. He doesn’t posture as an expert but as someone learning in real time. When he describes forcing himself to write “bad questions” until something true appears, it captures the imperfect process of reaching toward another person.
The book’s rhythm is conversational yet purposeful. Thiermann alternates between intimate family vignettes and broader reflections on communication, mortality, and forgiveness. He resists the urge to offer neat resolutions, allowing discomfort and ambiguity to remain. That restraint makes his insights resonate more deeply.
One Last Question Before You Go manages to be both instructive and profoundly human. It’s a reminder that asking hard questions is not about control or closure, it’s about connection. This is a book for readers who value sincerity over polish, who want to bridge emotional gaps with their own parents, or who simply wish to understand their family stories before time takes them. Thoughtful, unguarded, and deeply affecting, Thiermann’s work lingers long after the final page.
Pages: 156 | ASIN : B0FR8JLM98
Journey Back to Ourselves
Don’t Disappoint Daddy shares with readers your story of growing up in a household filled with trauma, abuse, and believing you had to earn God’s love, to discovering a path of healing and the true meaning behind the Gospel and God’s love. Why was this an important book for you to write?
This book was important to write to share out loud that religion often confirms the lie we believe – that God is a bigger version of our unhealed daddy.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
It surprises me that the hardest thing to write about was that God never spoke to me about what I thought must’ve taken tremendous effort for Him to forgive, because I know it will trigger outrage from religious systems. Yet, if I agree with them, we’ll both be wrong.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
Each of us is on a journey back to ourselves—an adventure filled with peril and intrigue.
Our original identity doesn’t come from our parents, environment, or upbringing. Our identity originated in the mind of a good, kind, loving Father.
Unlearning lies we believe about God and ourselves is a crucial and liberating path toward healing an identity crisis.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
I hope readers extend grace to themselves and others as we navigate one of life’s most pressing questions: Who am I?
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Religion said she was a dirty, rotten sinner.
THEY WERE BOTH WRONG.
DON’T DISAPPOINT DADDY is an award-winning, raw and redemptive true story of Elisha Janine’s journey from childhood abuse and secrecy to healing and acceptance in the arms of a loving God. Marked by trauma, teen abortions, and the desperate need to earn love, she lived believing she had to serve God to pay Him back for forgiving her. But what she discovered was life-changing: experiencing the gospel isn’t about changing God’s mind about us—it’s about changing our minds about how we view Him and how we view ourselves.
This book is for every woman who’s ever felt disqualified by her past or afraid that God is disappointed in her. If you’ve been wounded by religion or life itself, Don’t Disappoint Daddy will lead you back to the truth: you are beloved, you are accepted.
What Readers Will Gain from Don’t Disappoint Daddy:
Healing for Deep Hurts
Readers will feel seen in their pain and begin to understand that their past does not disqualify them from love, purpose, or belonging.
Freedom from Shame
The book gently uncovers how shame distorts how we see ourselves and God—and shows how to shed that shame in light of God’s true heart.
A New Lens on God
Many will be surprised and comforted to learn that God isn’t angry, distant, or waiting to punish—but near, gentle, and deeply invested in our healing.
Relatable, Hopeful Storytelling
The story offers real-life validation that the journey from trauma to wholeness is possible, especially for those who’ve believed they’re beyond repair.
Permission to Rest, Not Perform
Readers will discover that God isn’t asking them to earn forgiveness—He’s offering restoration freely, inviting them to live from love, not for it.
A Sense of Belonging
The book invites readers to a deeper understanding of their identity as God’s beloved, not by achieving something, but by simply being who they are.
This is not a story of perfection—but of relentless, redeeming love from God who never counts our sins against us.
Don’t Disappoint Daddy: A Story of Abuse, Abortion and Acceptance in the Beloved
This memoir is a raw and unflinching account of childhood trauma, faith, survival, and eventual healing. It follows Elisha through her early years in a military household, where her father’s tyranny casts long shadows over every corner of life. Woven through beatings, verbal degradation, emotional confusion, and heartbreaking loneliness, the story also reveals slivers of hope through her bond with her mother, her growing relationship with God, and the slow, painful process of understanding her own worth.
Elisha’s writing is sharp, honest, and often devastating in its simplicity. She doesn’t try to dress up pain or smooth over the ugly parts. Her memories come to life with vivid emotional detail, pulling you into the child’s perspective. It’s not just a story, it’s an experience. Her use of humor, especially in moments of horror or confusion, is disarming. At times, I caught myself laughing through tears. The book doesn’t try to follow a clean arc or perfect structure, and that’s part of what makes it feel so real. It’s fragmented the way trauma is, and deeply reflective without being preachy.
I found myself angry. A lot. Angry for the child who was never protected. Angry at a society and a church that turned its head from abuse while preaching virtue. But I also felt proud. Watching her grow through those memories, learning to play piano, lead a choir, explore her voice, and find healing, was incredibly moving. Elisha doesn’t write from a place of self-pity. She writes from a place of survival, of transformation. There’s a quiet power in her words. She’s not begging for sympathy. She’s sharing so no one else feels alone.
This book is not for the faint-hearted. But if you’ve ever struggled with a difficult parent, spiritual confusion, or the long road of self-forgiveness, this memoir will speak to you. I’d recommend it for survivors, for adult children of abusive parents, for anyone working through religious trauma, and especially for those who feel like their story might be too ugly to tell. It’s not. Elisha proves that there is strength in telling the truth.
Pages: 143 | ASIN : B0D276HND1
God Is For Us and Not Against Us
A New Song is a deeply personal, spiritual, and practical guide to reviving love and connection within a Christian marriage. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I wrote this book to dig into my life to rediscover and clarify my experience of the Lord’s work in my life and marriage – what He had taught, and was continuing to teach me about myself, and how He had worked, and was continuing to work in my marriage. We go along from day to day, and it is easy to lose the details of the past. It can be important to go back and recapture and articulate them not only for ourselves, but to share them with others. I had completed a certification program to be a life coach. I wanted to focus on helping Christian women who were struggling in their marriages, as I had. I had always wanted to write a book. This was the perfect opportunity.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you wrote your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The hardest thing for me to write about was probably my mother’s death and its impact on me. It was very personal, but its impact was so strong and far reaching, I couldn’t leave it out. Our past shows up in our present giving us an opportunity for healing.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
The three most important ideas for me to share in this book were the three main topics. The first was that we create our own reality – the reality we experience – by how we think and what we focus on. The second was the importance of releasing everything, including our spouse, to God. Letting go, getting out of the way and trusting Him fully to work. The third was to then focus on our self and our growth – to become more and more the person God is calling us to be in our life and marriage.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
I hope readers take away that there is hope. That God is for us and not against us and that if we release our relationship to Him, He will do amazing things!
Author Links: Facebook | Facebook 2 | Website
Do you love the Lord and seek to follow Him in all areas of your life, including your marriage? In A New Song, Miriam Hampton outlines a path to God’s peace, love, and harmony in your relationship with your spouse.
Are you wondering what went wrong after your marriage began so well? If you’re feeling alone, frustrated, unloved, or unsupported, A New Song shares a message of faith for your life. Using biblical principles, this book will guide you to refocus, release, and renew your central relationship.
In your journey through the pages of A New Song, you will discover how to be the catalyst for new love and life in your marriage by:
Returning to love through refocusing
Abiding in the peace of God’s presence, letting go, and letting Him work in ways you could not imagine!
Growing into the fullness of who God made you to be and keeping your marriage growing
Author Miriam Hampton, a certified life coach, has fifty years of experience in her own marriage. Walking with God through Christ, she has seen their marriage grow from a codependent/alcoholic relationship to the happy, healthy one it is today.
Bring new life into your most important relationship today!
Available in Kindle and paperback. Click ‘Look Inside’ to begin reading now.
A New Song
Miriam Hampton’s A New Song is a deeply personal, spiritual, and practical guide to reviving love and connection within a Christian marriage. Drawing from her own journey through addiction, depression, and the slow rebirth of intimacy with her husband, Hampton delivers not just advice, but lived experience. The book is structured around three powerful phases: Refocus, Release, Renew, each meant to bring clarity, healing, and transformation. It’s not your usual “how-to” manual. It’s more of a heart-to-heart, with God right at the center.
One of the most striking aspects of Hampton’s writing is her unflinching honesty. From the very beginning, she invites readers into the idealistic early days of her marriage in the 1970s, an era of creativity and youthful optimism. Yet, she does not shy away from revealing how swiftly those dreams were tested by the realities of addiction, emotional isolation, and personal despair. Her vulnerability is both poignant and powerful. In the chapter titled “Our Past in Our Present,” Hampton recounts a moment so raw, admitting she sometimes wished her husband wouldn’t return home due to his drinking, that it’s impossible not to feel the weight of her anguish. And yet, the transformation that follows, born of faith, reflection, and persistent emotional work, feels deeply authentic and profoundly moving.
I also really loved the section about “refocusing.” Hampton goes deep into the psychology of our thoughts and emotions, especially our brain’s negativity bias. She writes, “What we focus on expands and creates the reality we live in.” It’s such a simple truth, but she explains it with warmth and clarity, not fluff or preachiness. The example she gives, where she catches herself in a negative thought pattern and instead chooses to respond with love, was practical and made me feel like I could do it too.
What surprised me was how seamlessly Hampton mixes neuroscience, scripture, and practical coaching tools. In “Your Brain and You,” she breaks down how subconscious programming affects marriage dynamics without sounding like a textbook. Her conversation around “ANTS” (Automatic Negative Thoughts), inspired by Dr. Daniel Amen, was spot on. I found myself underlining whole paragraphs, especially when she described the spiritual tug-of-war for our focus and how affirmations and gratitude can help us rewire our reactions. It’s the kind of stuff you want to stick on your fridge or journal about.
A New Song is as much about personal transformation as it is about marriage. I’d recommend it to anyone, especially women, who feel like they’re stuck in relational patterns that keep repeating. It’s faith-based, no doubt, but even if you’re not Christian, the emotional truths ring clear. This is for people ready to stop pointing fingers and start looking inward. It’s honest, hopeful, and filled with grace. It gave me not just insight, but courage.
Pages: 208 | ASIN : B0BRBKWP9N
