The Things We Don't Talk About: A Memoir of Hardships, Healing, and Hope
The Things We Don't Talk About: A Memoir of Hardships, Healing, and Hope

Author: Stacy Joy Bernal

Publisher:

Published: 2020-01-28

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9780578637808

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From Failure to Finisher, from Once-a-Bartender to Now-a-Board-Member, Stacy's story of triumph and transformation is one that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt like they were at Rock Bottom. In 2009, Stacy was a three-time divorced, three-time college dropout, single mom to a son with autism and a daughter living out-of-state with her dad. On government assistance and barely able to pay bills, Stacy's world was falling apart around her. That same year, she ran her first marathon and the trajectory of her entire life changed the instant she crossed the finish line. Determined to turn her life around, Stacy enrolled in college for a fourth time. The more she learned about the world around her, the more she turned inward to reflect on the life she had lived. For the first time in decades, she unearthed the memories she had long ago buried- of the abuse by her father, the loss of her religion, the baby she had placed for adoption- and the enormous weight of shame she had carried through the years. Slowly, Stacy started opening up about her past. What she expected to find was judgment and isolation; what she actually found was acceptance and connection. Fueled by a newfound confidence, Stacy began speaking about her hardships at events around the country and soon discovered no matter where she went, there was always ALWAYS someone who told her, "Me, too." Her company, See Stacy Speak LLC, was born. Her platform was based on teaching people that the very things that hold them back- fear, shame, insecurity- are the very things that can be used to fuel them. A self-proclaimed Ambassador of Badassery, Stacy's motto is, "I see the Badass in YOU, and I help you see it, too." "The Things We Don't Talk About" is a humorous and heartfelt story of hardships, healing, and hope. Sassy, sweet, and a little sarcastic, Stacy courageously shares her own shortcomings as proof that through pain there is purpose and through our weaknesses we can become warriors. This book will make you laugh and make you cry, and leave you inspired to share your own story, too.

All the Things We Don't Talk About
All the Things We Don't Talk About

Author: Amy Feltman

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2022-05-24

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1538704714

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A “big-hearted, lively, and expansive portrait of a family” that follows a neurodivergent father, his nonbinary teenager, and the sudden, catastrophic reappearance of the woman who abandoned them (Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author). Morgan Flowers just wants to hide. Raised by their neurodivergent father, Morgan has grown up haunted by the absence of their mysterious mother Zoe, especially now, as they navigate their gender identity and the turmoil of first love. Their father Julian has raised Morgan with care, but he can’t quite fill the gap left by the dazzling and destructive Zoe, who fled to Europe on Morgan’s first birthday. And when Zoe is dumped by her girlfriend Brigid, she suddenly comes crashing back into Morgan and Julian’s lives, poised to disrupt the fragile peace they have so carefully cultivated. Through it all, Julian and Brigid have become unlikely pen-pals and friends, united by the knowledge of what it’s like to love and lose Zoe; they both know that she hasn’t changed. Despite the red flags, Morgan is swiftly drawn into Zoe’s glittering orbit and into a series of harmful missteps, and Brigid may be the only link that can pull them back from the edge. A story of betrayal and trauma alongside queer love and resilience, ALL THE THINGS WE DON’T TALK ABOUT is a celebration of and a reckoning with the power and unintentional pain of a thoroughly modern family.

Still Waiting
Still Waiting

Author: Ann Swindell

Publisher: NavPress

Published: 2017-04-04

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1496419006

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What if God wants you to wait? Most of us know what it’s like to wait for God to change our circumstances. But, whether we’re waiting for physical healing, emotional breakthrough, or better relationships, waiting is something we usually try to avoid. Why? Because waiting is painful and hard. The truth is, it’s also inevitable. In Still Waiting, Ann Swindell explores the depths of why God wants us to wait by chronicling her own compelling story of waiting for healing from an incurable condition. She offers a vibrant retelling of the biblical account of the Bleeding Woman that parallels her story—and yours, too. Let Ann help you see the promise that is hidden in the ache of waiting and the hope of what God can—and will—do as you wait on him.

Being Seen
Being Seen

Author: Elsa Sjunneson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-10-26

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1982152419

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A deafblind writer and professor explores how the misrepresentation of disability in books, movies, and TV harms both the disabled community and everyone else. As a deafblind woman with partial vision in one eye and bilateral hearing aids, Elsa Sjunneson lives at the crossroads of blindness and sight, hearing and deafness—much to the confusion of the world around her. While she cannot see well enough to operate without a guide dog or cane, she can see enough to know when someone is reacting to the visible signs of her blindness and can hear when they’re whispering behind her back. And she certainly knows how wrong our one-size-fits-all definitions of disability can be. As a media studies professor, she’s also seen the full range of blind and deaf portrayals on film, and here she deconstructs their impact, following common tropes through horror, romance, and everything in between. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, part history of the deafblind experience, Being Seen explores how our cultural concept of disability is more myth than fact, and the damage it does to us all.

Long Division
Long Division

Author: Kiese Laymon

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-06-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1982174838

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Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Fiction From Kiese Laymon, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Heavy, comes a “funny, astute, searching” (The Wall Street Journal) debut novel about Black teenagers that is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi. Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend and love interest, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these items with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet to protect his family from the Ku Klux Klan. City’s two stories ultimately converge in the work shed behind his grandmother’s house, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance. Brilliantly “skewering the disingenuous masquerade of institutional racism” (Publishers Weekly), this dreamlike “smart, funny, and sharp” (Jesmyn Ward), novel shows the work that young Black Americans must do, while living under the shadow of a history “that they only gropingly understand and must try to fill in for themselves” (The Wall Street Journal).

The Things We Don't Talk About
The Things We Don't Talk About

Author: Stacy J. Bernal

Publisher:

Published: 2019-08-31

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 9781688378780

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From Failure to Finisher, from Once-a-Bartender to Now-a-Board-Member, Stacy's story of triumph and transformation is one that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt like they were at Rock Bottom. In 2009, Stacy was a three-time divorced, three-time college dropout, single mom to a son with autism and a daughter living out-of-state with her dad. On government assistance and barely able to pay bills, Stacy's world was falling apart around her. That same year, she ran her first marathon and the trajectory of her entire life changed the instant she crossed the finish line. Determined to turn her life around, Stacy enrolled in college for a fourth time. The more she learned about the world around her, the more she turned inward to reflect on the life she had lived. For the first time in decades, she unearthed the memories she had long ago buried- of the abuse by her father, the loss of her religion, the baby she had placed for adoption- and the enormous weight of shame she had carried through the years. Slowly, Stacy started opening up about her past. What she expected to find was judgment and isolation; what she actually found was acceptance and connection. Fueled by a newfound confidence, Stacy began speaking about her hardships at events around the country and soon discovered no matter where she went, there was always ALWAYS someone who told her, "Me, too." Her company, See Stacy Speak LLC, was born. Her platform was based on teaching people that the very things that are holding them back- fear, shame, insecurity- are the very things that can be used to fuel them. A self-proclaimed Ambassador of Badassery, Stacy's motto is, "I see the Badass in YOU, and I help you see it, too." "The Things We Don't Talk About" is a humorous and heartfelt story of hardships, healing, and hope. Sassy, sweet, and a little sarcastic, Stacy courageously shares her own shortcomings as proof that through pain there is purpose and through our weaknesses we can become warriors. This book will make you laugh and make you cry, and leave you inspired to share your own story, too.

Karamo
Karamo

Author: Karamo Brown

Publisher: Gallery Books

Published: 2020-02-18

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1982111984

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An insightful, inspiring, “candid and warm” (Booklist) memoir from Karamo Brown—beloved culture expert from Netflix’s Queer Eye—as he shares his story for the first time, exploring how the challenges in his own life have allowed him to forever transform the lives of those in need. When Karamo Brown first auditioned for the casting directors of Queer Eye, he knew he wouldn’t win the role of culture expert by discussing art and theater. Instead he decided to redefine what “culture” could—and should—mean for the show. He took a risk and declared, “I am culture.” After all, Karamo believes culture is how people feel about themselves and others, how they relate to the world around them, and how their shared labels, burdens, and experiences affect their daily lives in ways both subtle and profound. Seen through this lens, Karamo is culture: his family is Jamaican and Cuban; he was raised in the South in predominantly white neighborhoods and attended an HBCU (Historically Black College/University); he was trained as a social worker and psychotherapist; he overcame personal issues of colorism, physical and emotional abuse, alcohol and drug addiction, and public infamy; he is a proud and dedicated gay single father of two boys, one biological and one adopted. In “this soul-soothing memoir” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Karamo reflects on his lifelong education. It comprises every adversity he has overcome, as well as the lessons he has learned along the way. It is only by exploring our difficulties and having the hard conversations—with ourselves and one another—that we are able to adjust our mind-sets, heal emotionally, and move forward to live our best lives. “During every episode of Queer Eye, there’s at least one touching moment where Karamo Brown drops some serious wisdom about self-love and makes everybody cry. His moving memoir about overcoming adversity captures that feeling in book form” (HelloGiggles).

Denial
Denial

Author: Jessica Stern

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-06-07

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 006162666X

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Hailed by critics and readers alike, Jessica Stern's riveting memoir examines the horrors of trauma and denial as she investigates her own unsolved adolescent sexual assault at the hands of a serial rapist. Alone in an unlocked house, in a safe suburban Massachusetts town, two good, obedient girls, Jessica Stern, fifteen, and her sister, fourteen, were raped on the night of October 1, 1973. The rapist was never caught. For over thirty years, Stern denied the pain and the trauma of the assault. Following the example of her family, Stern—who lost her mother at the age of three, and whose father was a Holocaust survivor—focused on her work instead of her terror. She became a world-class expert on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder who interviewed extremists around the globe. But while her career took off, her success hinged on her symptoms. After her ordeal, she no longer felt fear in normally frightening situations. Stern believed she'd disassociated from the trauma altogether, until a dedicated police lieutenant reopened the case. With the help of the lieutenant, Stern began her own investigation to uncover the truth about the town of Concord, her own family, and her own mind. The result is Denial, a candid, courageous, and ultimately hopeful look at a trauma and its aftermath.

About What Was Lost
About What Was Lost

Author: Jessica Berger Gross

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-12-26

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1440627398

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In this intimate anthology, twenty writers explore the grief and sadness—and hope—that living through a miscarriage can bring. Featuring such notable writers as Pam Houston, Joyce Maynard, Caroline Leavitt, Susanna Sonnenberg, and Julianna Baggott, among many others, About What Was Lost is the only book that uses honest, eloquent, and deeply moving narrative to provide much-needed solace and support on the subject of pregnancy loss. Today, as many as one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. And yet, many women are surprised to find that instead of simply grieving the end of a pregnancy, they feel as if they are mourning the loss of a child. Taken aback by their sorrow, they seek solace in similar perspectives—only to find that a silence and lingering stigma surrounds the topic. Revealing a wide spectrum of experiences and perspectives, this powerful collection offers comfort and community for the millions of women (and their loved ones) who experience this all-too-common kind of loss every year.

What My Bones Know
What My Bones Know

Author: Stephanie Foo

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2022-02-22

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0593238117

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A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life “Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Mashable, She Reads, Publishers Weekly By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. Both of Foo’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she’d moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD. In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don’t move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it. Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman’s ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.