When the tide of hidden truths and an unsteady body collide, one woman’s search for home becomes a journey of reclamation, resilience, and the enduring power of forgiveness.

What do you do when the foundations of your life—family, identity, and health—begin to crack beneath your feet? In Unfixed, Kimberly takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the uncharted waters of family secrets, chronic illness, and the relentless search for truth and forgiveness.

When Warner’s seemingly stable world begins to unravel, she discovers that her father—a figure both present and painfully absent—harbors a long-buried secret. This revelation propels her into an emotional labyrinth of discovery, forcing her to confront the ghosts of her past and redefine the meaning of home, family, and self.

Set against the backdrop of Warner’s battle with an elusive and debilitating illness, Unfixed is a deeply intimate exploration of resilience and vulnerability. Warner masterfully weaves together threads of personal struggle and universal themes, painting a portrait of a life in flux that will resonate with anyone who has ever sought clarity in chaos.

At its heart, Unfixed is a story of reckoning—not only with the haunting specter of a lost father but also with the body’s betrayal and the limits of medical certainty. With the lyricism of Dani Shapiro’s Inheritance and the rich emotional depth of Where the Crawdads Sing, Warner crafts a narrative that is both gripping and profoundly moving.

Through luminous prose and unflinching honesty, Unfixed reveals the beauty and heartbreak of uncovering truths that were never meant to be found. It is a celebration of the human spirit’s capacity to adapt and thrive in the face of the unknown, offering readers a poignant reminder that even in the most unfixed of lives, there is room for hope, connection, and self-discovery.

Perfect for readers who find solace in stories of resilience and transformation, Unfixed invites you to walk alongside Warner on a journey of uncovering, unraveling, and ultimately rebuilding.

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Kevin Fredericks (aka KevOnStage) is a viral stand-up star, an NAACP Image Award–winning comedian, the founder of KevOnStage Studios, a New York Times bestselling author, and a superstar on social media. But his path to success wasn’t always smooth. As a kid, Kevin noticed something useful: If he made people laugh, the grown-ups would let him stay up late. In church plays, his commitment to the role of Goliath led to a busted lip, and the audience couldn’t get enough. He dreamed of becoming a performer, of finding that big break that would launch him into the bright lights of pop culture fame. But as he soon found, the road to the life we want is longer, weirder, more embarrassing, and more entertaining than we think it will be.

In Successful Failure, the comedian recounts hilarious stories and sincere insight from his adventures (and misadventures) trying to make it in life. From performing under an alias to avoid getting fired from his suit-and-tie day job to breaking a chair onstage and quitting stand-up for six months, from pooping his pants on a bus next to his future wife to starting a clothing line called Dreams Don’t Die (they sure do if the merch doesn’t sell), Kevin reminds readers that while we might not be The Rock, Warren Buffett, or Kevin Hart, we’re all out here trying, and that’s okay.

Laugh-out-loud in one moment and perceptive in the next, Successful Failure is a wild ride from one of America’s funniest comics and a sendup of our ideals around hustle culture and success.

Read Marriage Be Hard by Kevin & Melissa Fredericks!

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An August 2025 Reading Is a Lifestyle Subscription Book Pick

Join bestselling author Amber Rae on the unexpected, heart-healing journey of a woman learning to trust herself.

Good wives don’t fall in love with other men. That’s what Amber Rae told herself when, in the midst of building a home with her husband in Mexico, she met the man she knew she was meant to spend the rest of her life with.

Maybe in another life, she thought. But the truth was, for years, she smiled and strived her way through a sexless and lonely marriage, never admitting her unhappiness to anyone—not even to herself. She thought that if she just tried harder, everything would fall into place. But as the voice inside her grew louder, she realized she had two choices: keep pretending everything’s fine and her needs don’t matter, or confront everything she thought she knew about love, loyalty, and her own limits.

LOVEABLE is a raw and intimate journey of a woman breaking free from the roles that confined her. This memoir isn’t about trading one life or one man for another—it’s about the painful, beautiful process of coming home to oneself. And this isn’t just Amber’s story-it’s a rallying cry to stop being good so you can start being free.

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Becoming Girlilla is an unfiltered, inspiring memoir of Jennie Smythe’s rise from unlikely beginnings to digital marketing powerhouse, showing readers how resilience, authenticity, and passion can make a real impact both online and off.

What would you do with your life if you knew it was half over?

It was the question that faced Jennie Smythe during a pivotal point in her early adult life. Becoming Girlilla answers that question and more, as this digital marketing trailblazer candidly shares her path to success, full of sometimes surprising and oftentimes laugh-out-loud moments.

Jennie’s career in music started with a job interview set up by a stripper in Los Angeles. Her experiences at Elektra, Disney’s Hollywood Records, YAHOO! Music and beyond evolved into a high-powered role as CEO of her own Nashville-based firm, Girlilla Marketing. Along the way, she navigated an industry that often underestimated her, fought through personal and professional hurdles, and rose to the top of her field.

Jennie’s inspiring journey, full of raw grit and humor, unfolds through—

• Her battles with career uncertainty
• The loss of her estranged father
• Her courageous fight against breast cancer
• The challenges of entrepreneurship, including the lean, early days of Girlilla Marketing and the path from acquisition to regaining control of her company
• Lessons for young professionals, including how who you know can often be more important than what you know
• Practical insights for creating a digital presence with purpose and authenticity
• Discovering new ways to use social media for good

The post Becoming Girlilla first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

This book is more than a reflection—it’s an intimate look at the pull grief has on every aspect of life, how it reshapes identity, and the slow, uncertain steps toward healing. Through honest storytelling and deep personal insight, Tatayanne offers a space for readers to sit with their grief, acknowledge its weight, and find hope amid sorrow.

For anyone who has ever lost someone they love, The Gravity of Grief reminds us that while we may never “get over” our losses, we can learn to live with them, honor them, and move forward—one step at a time.

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On the wedding night of her first arranged marriage, fifteen-year-old Jaha learned that she had undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as an infant. That painful discovery, coupled with her experiences with a second arranged marriage, set Jaha on her path as an activist—a courageous mission that would require her to brave hostility in her community and family, and even attempts on her life.

Despite the challenges, and with ever-growing determination, Jaha founded Safe Hands for Girls, an organization that succeeded in having FGM banned in Gambia. She is now working to eradicate FGM and forced child marriage worldwide by 2030 and running to be the next President of The Gambia.

I Will Scream to the World! recounts Jaha’s ongoing, uphill journey to be seen as a survivor, activist, but most of all as a human. She dives into her childhood to show the root causes of her crusading, shares her personal and professional life, and explores, as only a survivor can, a practice that while violent and troubling, is often culturally misunderstood.

Above all, Jaha’s unflinchingly honest memoir is a story of resilience and extraordinary fearlessness, of the strength that comes with learning to love oneself, and of the power within everyone to create meaningful and lasting change.

Story Locale: The Gambia (past and present-day), New York (past and present-day).

The post I Will Scream to the World : My Story. My Fight. My Hope for Girls Everywhere. first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

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Renowned journalist Don Lemon always had a complicated relationship with God. He cherished the Southern Black church he was raised in, but struggled with the fundamentalist rejection of his right to exist as a gay man—one who wanted to marry his longtime love in a church wedding with all the traditional trimmings. In his work as a reporter, moreover, he saw his fellow Americans losing faith in a higher power, in institutions, and in each other.

Setting out to understand the place that religion has in our lives today, Don turned a journalistic eye on ancient stories and found connections that sparked memories, conversations, and chance encounters. Then, suddenly, his world unraveled: In a blaze of inglorious headlines, Don was ousted from his high-profile network news job and tasked with redefining his role in the shifting media landscape. But through a year of personal changes and professional whiplash, he kept his “eyes on the prize” and ultimately found what he was seeking: grace, within himself and in this nation we call home.

Rich with humor and Louisiana realness, I Once Was Lost is a prayer for a country that reflects the multifaceted image of God and a clarion call to those who believe in our common humanity enough to fight for it.

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By the time Marian Schembari was diagnosed with autism at thirty-four years old, she had been labeled with Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, and depression. Therapists suggested she was a highly sensitive person, offered breathing techniques, and instructed her to practice gratitude journaling. None of this helped. She spent years hiding tics and frequently shutting down, wondering why she couldn’t just act like everyone else. It wasn’t until she witnessed a friend’s diagnosis and sought out professional testing that the pieces clicked into place. She wasn’t just odd or socially awkward, but actually autistic.

Today, more people than ever are being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder later in life. Improvements in the ability to recognize the signs have made it easier to properly identify neurodivergence, especially women and girls who have learned to mask their differences. But it’s still all too easy to go decades feeling broken.

A Little Less Broken is Schembari’s unflinchingly honest story of self-consciousness and doubt, frustration and anger, but also love, motherhood, and self-fulfillment. From the time in second grade when she hid in a closet, carefully writing down notes as her friends explained why they no longer liked her, to an adulthood where she can confidently ask for the accommodations at work and at home, Shembari offers solidarity for all those finding freedom while finding themselves.

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After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that’s made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he’s been up to for the past twenty years—and it isn’t pretty.

Elwood has worked for a murderer’s row of clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar—namely, the bad guys. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public—not shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career.
This is a piercing look into the corridors of money, power, politics, and control, all told in Elwood’s disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator’s son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator’s wife a glowing profile in Vogue at the same time the Arab Spring broke out. And he reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and ultimately cover for politicians, dictators, and spies—the industry-secret tactics that led to his rise as a political PR pro.

Along the way, Phil walks the halls of the Capitol, rides in armored cars through Abuja, and watches his client lose his annual income at the roulette table. But as he moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it all—until Elwood receives a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Elwood his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, Elwood decides to change his ways, and his clients, and to tell the full truth about who is the worst human.

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