For fans of Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, a daughter’s story of watching her mother’s itinerant and international life descend into addiction—and her own journey to recognize that she is powerless to save her. In this emotional memoir, Joya Taft-Dick retraces her mother’s life—from a childhood rooted in an idyllic Vermont town through her years as an “expat” and a “trailing spouse” as the family moves from one country to the next. While Joya’s father’s United Nations job moves them from places like Liberia to Chad to Sri Lanka, putting them in the way of challenges like evacuations, tsunamis, and Scorpion Season, her mother increasingly relies on alcohol to numb her deepening disconnection and loss of agency. Joya discovers evidence of wounding early on, and then watches as the tiny cracks they formed widen over time, exacerbated by a seemingly glamorous lifestyle and the learned ability to bury pain in resolute silence. In this uncovering of her mother’s story, Joya finally unearths compassion and love—not just for the entirety of who her mother once was but also for the hypervigilant child she herself was forced to be, and the woman she has since become.

For fans of Brain on Fire, a mom of two young children tells her story of finding strength through her love for her family as she battles a rare and incurable chronic pain disorder ominously—and aptly—nicknamed the suicide disease. At thirty-nine, recently retired Denice looked forward to a future full of possibilities with the love of her life and two young children. That is, until a coughing attack delivered a sudden shock of pain to her face so severe that it dropped her to her knees. The agonizing bolt of electricity lasted mere seconds. But the zaps kept coming—and soon, Denice was living in constant state of dread. Rare chronicles the emotional roller coaster Denice rode in the months following her diagnosis with trigeminal neuralgia—a condition that causes a pain so ferocious and life-consuming that it’s earned the moniker “suicide disease”—while she searched desperately for a solution to her pain. Through countless doctors, multiple procedures, and catastrophic surgical complications, and in the face of unimaginable suffering, Denice’s fierce devotion to her family was often the only thing that gave her the strength to carry on and continue to advocate for herself. A story of perseverance, resilience, and unbreakable love, Rare is a raw and inspiring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of hope—and one woman’s triumphant account of reclaiming her life.