We are so thrilled to feature the lovely Paolina Milana on this week’s edition of Inspired By. Get to know a little more about the books that have inspired Paolina most as an author.

What I Thought I Knew: A Memoir by Alice Eve Cohen

Alice Cohen was happy for the first time in years. After a difficult divorce, she had a new love in her life, she was rais­ing a beloved adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Then she started experiencing mysterious symptoms. After months of tests, x-rays, and inconclusive diagnoses, Alice underwent a CAT scan that revealed the truth: she was six months pregnant.

Looking Up: A Memoir of Sisters, Survivors and Skokie by Linda Pressman

In a book that’s both funny and somber, and a story universal in its scope, Linda Pressman creates an unforgettable world of adolescent angst and traumatized parents amid the suburban world of the 60s and 70s.

A Year of Writing Dangerously by Barbara Abercrombie

In this collection of anecdotes, lessons, quotes, and prompts, author and writing teacher Barbara Abercrombie provides a delightfully varied cornucopia of inspiration — nuts-and-bolts solutions, hand-holding commiseration, and epiphany-fueling insights from fellow writers, including Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners and Abercrombie’s students who have gone from paralyzed to published.

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying gives hope for a better world. It is a story told through sharing her inspiring and honest journey, which will leave you feeling kinder towards yourself and others, and more determined to live the life you are truly here to live. This delightful memoir is a courageous, life-changing book.

Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O’Connell

Whether laughing to tears reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great or clamoring for more unmistakable “me too!” moments in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, girls all over the world have been touched by Judy Blume’s poignant coming-of-age stories.