Books That Deserve To Be Read
There are more than half a million books published each year in the US alone. Not all of them make the best seller lists. We are on a quest to find the books that deserve to be in the best seller list.
Abandoned in Death
The woman’s body was found in the early morning, on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child.
Eve Dallas turns to the department’s top profiler, who confirms what seems obvious to Eve: They’re dealing with a killer whose childhood involved some sort of trauma—a situation Eve is all too familiar with herself. Yet the clues suggest a perpetrator who’d be roughly sixty years old, and there are no records of old crimes with a similar MO. What was the trigger that apparently reopened such an old wound and sent someone over the edge?
When Eve discovers that other young women—who physically resemble the first victim—have vanished, the clock starts ticking louder. But to solve this case she will need to find her way into a hidden place of dim light and concrete, into the distant past, and into the cold depths of a shattered mind.
Blindsided: A Best Friends to Lovers Standalone
What happens when an almost thirty-year-old virgin agrees to let her Scottish footballer best friend give her some lessons in seduction?
Lots of banter, awkwardness, jealousy, and heat.
Midfielder Maclay “Mac” Logan is a loud-mouthed, tattooed ginger content with focusing on football. But when an adorable, freckled seamstress comes barreling into his life, he finds Netflix-And-Bickering with her to be his new favorite pastime.
Freya Cook is used to being the invisible woman with a needle and thread, offering cheeky punchlines as she helps dress London’s finest. She’s plus-sized in body and spirit, and other than her friendship with Mac, talking to the opposite sex is one skill she never mastered.
However, after one innocent game of Never Have I Ever, Mac offers to play Love Coach for Freya.
What neither of them see coming are the feelings that develop when the clothes come off.
Now they’re both about to learn the biggest lesson of all: Don’t fall in love with your best friend.
Family Money
Alex Mahan is married to his high school sweetheart, Taylor. They have two daughters and a beautiful home, and Alex’s startup business is about to explode thanks to massive private funding from his compassionate and supportive father-in-law, Joe. With millions more to come, all is perfect—until Joe is abducted and murdered during a family trip in Mexico.
Alex’s world is about to be turned upside down. He can’t bear to tell his grieving wife why. The man they’ve both idolized has been keeping secrets. The pledged millions are nowhere to be found. The source of the original investment is a mystery, even to Joe’s financial adviser. No one, it seems, has any idea who the man they knew, loved, and trusted really was.
As Alex digs deeper into Joe’s shadowy life, the most shocking surprises are yet to come. Deadly ones, too, because every lie that Alex uncovers in Joe’s dark past puts his family in more danger.
Teddy’s Game
Teddy’s Game is the new book by SM Russell!
This is a story about the freedom to choose, and how choices can be used, misused, and abused.
He, that is Arbogast, looked around and saw the world had changed, and not at all for the better!
The fire had mostly gone out of politics, of internet discourse, of people!
A world without racism, without fear of scientific overreach, without the vicious and rapid struggle that had marked out life in the world. What had happened?
The boards happened. Teddy happened.
Arbogast wanted revenge, more than anything, or did he?
He lived in a world where the very choices we make are suspect.
Teddy’s world. Teddy’s game.
Will he play the game to the end?
Run, Rose, Run: A Novel
Every song tells a story.
She’s a star on the rise, singing about the hard life behind her.
She’s also on the run. Find a future, lose a past.
Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. And destroy her.
Run, Rose, Run is a novel glittering with danger and desire—a story that only America’s #1 beloved entertainer and its #1 bestselling author could have created.
Hook, Line, and Sinker: A Novel
King crab fisherman Fox Thornton has a reputation as a sexy, carefree flirt. Everyone knows he’s a guaranteed good time—in bed and out—and that’s exactly how he prefers it. Until he meets Hannah Bellinger. She’s immune to his charm and looks, but she seems to enjoy his… personality? And wants to be friends? Bizarre. But he likes her too much to risk a fling, so platonic pals it is.
Now, Hannah’s in town for work, crashing in Fox’s spare bedroom. She knows he’s a notorious ladies’ man, but they’re definitely just friends. In fact, she’s nursing a hopeless crush on a colleague and Fox is just the person to help with her lackluster love life. Armed with a few tips from Westport’s resident Casanova, Hannah sets out to catch her coworker’s eye… yet the more time she spends with Fox, the more she wants him instead. As the line between friendship and flirtation begins to blur, Hannah can’t deny she loves everything about Fox, but she refuses to be another notch on his bedpost.
Living with his best friend should have been easy. Except now she’s walking around in a towel, sleeping right across the hall, and Fox is fantasizing about waking up next to her for the rest of his life and… and… man overboard! He’s fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. Helping her flirt with another guy is pure torture, but maybe if Fox can tackle his inner demons and show Hannah he’s all in, she’ll choose him instead?
Nightwork: A Novel
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts introduces an
unforgettable thief in an unputdownable new novel…Greed. Desire. Obsession.
Revenge . . . It’s all in a night’s work. Harry Booth started stealing at
nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head, slipping into luxurious,
empty homes at night to find items he could trade for precious cash. When
his mother finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago—but kept up his
nightwork, developing into a master thief with a code of honor and an
expertise in not attracting attention?or getting attached. Until he meets
Miranda Emerson, and the powerful bond between them upends all his rules.
But along the way, Booth has made some dangerous associations, including
the ruthless Carter LaPorte, who sees Booth as a tool he controls for his
own profit. Knowing LaPorte will leverage any personal connection, Booth
abandons Miranda for her own safety—cruelly, with no explanation—and
disappears.But the bond between Miranda and Booth is too strong, pulling
them inexorably back together. Now Booth must face LaPorte, to truly free
himself and Miranda once and for all. Read more
A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales Book 4)
The final book in the Wall Street Journal bestselling series!I thought
once we released the curse, I’d only have one enemy to contend
with.Wrong.The queen lives. Not only that, but she knowingly hid herself
from me and the rest of this kingdom until the moment the curse was broken.
Now she is back, and her desires aren’t clear. Neither are her motives.Will
she try to take the throne for herself?We can stop her…unless she had a
hand in that curse. In which case, will we need to battle her and the demon
king before we can finally live in peace? Or has this all been for
naught?Regardless, we have very little time before the demon king returns
to wipe us out. Read more
Every Summer After
“A radiant debut.”—Emily Henry,#1 New York Times bestselling author of
Book LoversTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Named One of the Hottest Reads of
Summer 2022 by Today ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ USA Today ∙ SheReads ∙ BuzzFeed
∙ BookBub ∙ Bustle ∙and more!Six summers to fall in love. One moment to
fall apart. A weekend to get it right. They say you can never go home
again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake
of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering
summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish
apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe
distance from her heart.Until she receives the call that sends her racing
back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never
thought she’d have to live without.For six summers, through hazy afternoons
on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and
curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and
work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been
inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something
breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart. When Percy returns
to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable
as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made
and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know
whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their
past. Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After
is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that
mark us forever. Read more
It’s Not Summer Without You
Soon to be a streaming series in Summer 2022! Belly finds out what comes
after falling in love in this follow-up to The Summer I Turned Pretty from
the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
(now a major motion picture!), Jenny Han.It used to be that Belly counted
the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and
Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad
stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart,
leaving Belly wishing summer would never come. But when Jeremiah calls
saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things
right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of
them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly
is the last summer, it should end the way it started—at Cousins Beach. Read more
Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell
Former Republican political operative Tim Miller answers the question no
one else has fully grappled with: Why did normal people go along with the
worst of Trumpism? As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC
“autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of
the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy,
desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest
reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the
contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a
straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican
political class’s Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
From ruminations on the mental jujitsu that allowed him as a gay man to
justify becoming a hitman for homophobes, to astonishingly raw interviews
with former colleagues who jumped on the Trump Train, Miller diagrams the
flattering and delusional stories GOP operatives tell themselves so they
can sleep at night. With a humorous touch he reveals Reince Priebus’
neediness, Sean Spicer’s desperation, Elise Stefanik and Chris Christie’s
raw ambition, and his close friends’ submission to a MAGA psychosis. Why We
Did It is a vital, darkly satirical warning that all the narcissistic
justifications that got us to this place still thrive within the Republican
party, which means they will continue to make the same mistakes and
political calculations that got us here, with disastrous consequences for
the nation. Read more
Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel (Random House Large Print)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • ONE OF
NPR’s BEST BOOKS OF 2022 A must-read debut! Meet Elizabeth Zott: a
one-of-a-kind scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour
when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this
novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you
that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book
Review).“It’s the world versus Elizabeth Zott, an extraordinary woman
determined to live on her own terms, and I had no trouble choosing a
side…. A page-turning and highly satisfying tale: zippy, zesty, and
Zotty.” —Maggie Shipstead, best-selling author of Great CircleChemist
Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be
the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But
it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute
takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans;
the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in
love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. But like science,
life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds
herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most
beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking
(“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”)
proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy.
Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook.
She’s daring them to change the status quo. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly
observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters,
Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist. Read more
The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
A bold new book reveals how we can tap the intelligence that exists beyond
our brains—in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships.Use your
head.That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a
difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got
it exactly backwards. What we need to do, says acclaimed science writer
Annie Murphy Paul, is think outside the brain. A host of “extra-neural”
resources—the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in
which we learn and work, and the minds of those around us—can help us focus
more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively.The
Extended Mind outlines the research behind this exciting new vision of
human ability, exploring the findings of neuroscientists, cognitive
scientists, and psychologists, and examining the practices of educators,
managers, and leaders who are already reaping the benefits of thinking
outside the brain. She excavates the untold history of how artists,
scientists, and authors—from Jackson Pollock to Jonas Salk to Robert
Caro—have used mental extensions to solve problems, make discoveries, and
create new works. In the tradition of Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind or
Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, The Extended Mind offers a
dramatic new view of how our minds work, with practical advice on how we
can all think better. Read more
Swamp Spirits (Miss Fortune Mysteries)
Ghost of a chance?Fortune is thrilled when Ben Harrison, her former CIA
partner, and his fiancée, Cassidy, decide to leave DC and move to the
Louisiana bayous. They’ve already secured jobs and are only lacking a place
to live, so everyone is excited when they quickly find a home. There’s only
one problem—the house has a reputation. It’s haunted.Fortune doesn’t
believe in ghosts, but when Cassidy starts seeing a woman in white inside
her house and can’t determine how she’s entering or exiting, Fortune knows
she’s got to figure out what’s going on before things get worse. As Swamp
Team 3 takes on the “spirited” case, they dive into a decades-old mystery
of love, money, voodoo curses, and a missing woman. But can they get
answers before Ben and Cassidy give up the ghost and go back to DC? Read more
We Never Die: Secrets of the Afterlife
From America’s top psychic medium and the author of When Heaven Calls
comes a new book that unveils the secrets of the afterlife, the truth about
heaven, and why we never truly die.Psychic medium Matt Fraser, author of
When Heaven Calls, is back to unpack the number one question folks ask him:
“What happens after death?” Although we might expect a complicated answer,
it’s actually pretty simple: We never die! Drawing from thousands of
conversations with Spirit, Matt pulls back the curtain on life’s hidden
revelations: -What happens when we cross over -The beautiful realities of
heaven and eternal life -The guardian angels who keep us safe on Earth
(including our pets who have passed) -The role of dreams and how souls
appear to the living -Love, romance, and soul mates beyond life -Ghosts,
hauntings, negative souls, energy vampires, and psychic protection
-Destiny, free will, and second chances -Regrets, amends, and forgiveness
from heaven -Figuring out your gifts and purpose -Karma, kindness, and
living in the divine flow -How to recognize the signs and messages our
loved ones send us from heaven As Matt explains, “We all have our own
‘phone line’ to communicate with heaven. All we have to do is figure out
how to use it.” Revealed through never-before-told stories and Matt’s
conversations with the dearly departed, the wisdom in We Never Die is
perfect for anyone seeking uplifting answers about life’s biggest
questions. Discover the healing and fulfillment that await us and our loved
ones in the afterlife—plus how these truths can bring us comfort, meaning,
and guidance in our earthly lives. Read more
Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel
*NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING MILA KUNIS* Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on
the Train will thrill at this “perfect page-turner” (People)—that Reese
Witherspoon describes as “one of those reads you just can’t put down!” This
instant New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel follows an
unforgettable young woman striving to create the perfect life—until a
violent incident from her past threatens to unravel everything and expose
her most shocking secret.HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE As a teenager at
the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public
humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a
glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s
this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve. But
Ani has a secret. There’s something else buried in her past that still
haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the
surface and destroy everything. With a singular voice and twists you won’t
see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so
many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges
and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart
that’s bigger than it first appears. The question remains: will breaking
her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last,
set Ani free? Read more
Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships
Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary
memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming
relationships, including her beautiful friendship of nearly fifty years
with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Four years before Nina
Totenberg was hired at NPR, where she cemented her legacy as a prizewinning
reporter, and nearly twenty-two years before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was
appointed to the Supreme Court, Nina called Ruth. A reporter for The
National Observer, Nina was curious about Ruth’s legal brief, asking the
Supreme Court to do something revolutionary: declare a law that
discriminated “on the basis of sex” to be unconstitutional. In a time when
women were fired for becoming pregnant, often could not apply for credit
cards or get a mortgage in their own names, Ruth patiently explained her
argument. That call launched a remarkable, nearly fifty-year friendship.
Dinners with Ruth is an extraordinary account of two women who paved the
way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers.
It is also an intimate memoir of the power of friendships as women began to
pry open career doors and transform the workplace. At the story’s heart is
one, special relationship: Ruth and Nina saw each other not only through
personal joys, but also illness, loss, and widowhood. During the
devastating illness and eventual death of Nina’s first husband, Ruth drew
her out of grief; twelve years later, Nina would reciprocate when Ruth’s
beloved husband died. They shared not only a love of opera, but also of
shopping, as they instinctively understood that clothes were armor for
women who wanted to be taken seriously in a workplace dominated by men.
During Ruth’s last year, they shared so many small dinners that Saturdays
were “reserved for Ruth” in Nina’s house. Dinners with Ruth also weaves
together compelling, personal portraits of other fascinating women and men
from Nina’s life, including her cherished NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and
Linda Wertheimer; her beloved husbands; her friendships with multiple
Supreme Court Justices, including Lewis Powell, William Brennan, and
Antonin Scalia, and Nina’s own family—her father, the legendary violinist
Roman Totenberg, and her “best friends,” her sisters. Inspiring and
revelatory, Dinners with Ruth is a moving story of the joy and true meaning
of friendship. Read more
You Owe You: Ignite Your Power, Your Purpose, and Your Why
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “You Owe You is full of insight and guidance
for those seeking their inner selves.”—MICHAEL B. JORDAN No matter your
story or your struggle, Eric Thomas—celebrated motivational guru, educator,
and problem-solver to many of the top athletes and business leaders—will
“help you work harder, discover your real motivation, and crack the code of
enduring success” (Ed Mylett, #1 bestselling author of The Power of One
More)If you feel like success is for others, that only certain people get
to have their dreams fulfilled, Eric Thomas’s You Owe You is your wake-up
call. His urgent message to stop waiting for inspiration to strike and take
control of your life is one he wishes someone had given him when he was a
teenager—lost, homeless, failing in school, and dealing with the challenges
of being a young Black man in America. Once he was able to break free from
thinking of himself as a victim and truly understand his strengths, he
switched the script. And now, with this book, Thomas reveals how you, too,
can rewrite your life’s script. With support, he recognized that his unique
gift is being able to capture the attention of all kinds of people in all
kinds of settings—boardrooms, locker rooms, churches, classrooms, even the
streets—thanks to his wealth of experiences and command of language. Today,
Thomas considers himself blessed to speak to an audience that is as large
as it is diverse, from the rich and famous to kids struggling in school to
young men in prison hoping for a new start. Thomas’s secrets of success
have already helped hundreds of thousands on their journey, but this is his
first guide to show you how to start today, right now. These critical first
steps include deeply understanding yourself and the world around you,
finding your why, accepting that you may have to give up something good for
something great, and constantly stretching toward your potential. No matter
where you are on your journey toward greatness, you owe it to yourself to
become fully, authentically you. And Eric Thomas’s You Owe You can help get
you there. Read more
Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity
In the latest book in the multimillion-selling Killing Series, Bill
O’Reilly and Martin Dugard tell the larger-than-life stories of Elvis
Presley, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali.The King is dead. The Walrus is
shot. The Greatest is no more.Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Muhammad Ali.
These three icons changed not only the worlds of music, film, and sports,
but the world itself. Their faces were known everywhere, in every nation,
across every culture. And their stories became larger than life―until their
lives spun out of control at the hands of those they most trusted.In
Killing the Legends, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard explore the lives,
legacies, and tragic deaths of three of the most famous people of the 20th
century. Each experienced immense success, then failures that forced them
to change; each faced the challenge of growing old in fields that privilege
youth; and finally, each became isolated, cocooned by wealth but vulnerable
to the demands of those in their innermost circles. Dramatic, insightful,
and immensely entertaining, Killing the Legends is the twelfth book in
O’Reilly and Dugard’s Killing series: the most popular series of narrative
history books in the world, with more than 18 million copies in print. Read more
Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (The Stoic Virtues Series)
In his New York Times bestselling book Courage is Calling, author Ryan
Holiday made the Stoic case for a bold and brave life. In this
much-anticipated second book of his Stoic Virtue series, Holiday celebrates
the awesome power of self-discipline and those who have seized it.To master
anything, one must first master themselves–one’s emotions, one’s thoughts,
one’s actions. Eisenhower famously said that freedom is really the
opportunity to practice self-discipline. Cicero called the virtue of
temperance the polish of life. Without boundaries and restraint, we risk
not only failing to meet our full potential and jeopardizing what we have
achieved, but we ensure misery and shame. In a world of temptation and
excess, this ancient idea is more urgent than ever.In Discipline is
Destiny, Holiday draws on the stories of historical figures we can emulate
as pillars of self-discipline, including Lou Gehrig, Queen Elizabeth II,
boxer Floyd Patterson, Marcus Aurelius and writer Toni Morrison, as well as
the cautionary tales of Napoleon, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Babe Ruth.
Through these engaging examples, Holiday teaches readers the power of
self-discipline and balance, and cautions against the perils of
extravagance and hedonism. At the heart of Stoicism are four simple
virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Everything else, the
Stoics believed, flows from them. Discipline is Destiny will guide readers
down the path to self-mastery, upon which all the other virtues depend.
Discipline is predictive. You cannot succeed without it. And if you lose
it, you cannot help but bring yourself failure and unhappiness. Read more
The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters
“Readers will be inspired by Gaines’ desire to find strength in
self-discovery.” —Publishers WeeklyJoanna Gaines invites us on an authentic
and vulnerable journey into her story, a story of doubt and belief, shame
and acceptance; a journey from insecurity to self-discovery, and finding
truth on the other side of lies.Star of Fixer Upper and New York Times
bestselling author, Joanna grew up in a multiracial family, the product of
a unique and beautiful love story between her Korean mother and her
American father. Experiencing regular teasing as a child because of what
made her different, it wasn’t until later in life that she started to see
those differences as the most beautiful part of her story.From stories that
brought shame and her soul’s deepest insecurities to the page to stories
about healing and hope and having just a little bit more fun, join Joanna
as she journeys through the years of becoming a wife, mother of five, and
business owner—looking back to mend what’s broken and gain clarity in
places that are cloudy so she can look forward with grateful and certain
eyes, believing that every chapter has its purpose. The Stories We Tell
reminds us that every piece of our story matters to who we are today and
who we’ll become tomorrow.”This book is not an autobiography. I still have
too much to learn and discover about myself, and I feel as though I am only
halfway there. This book also is not a how-to, because I certainly don’t
have all the answers. What I hope this book is for you is an invitation to
come as you are. To join me, with a vulnerable and open heart, as we
connect the chapters of our life stories, and figure out where we go next,
learning to move forward from within.The only way to break free was to
rewrite my story. Because something would happen every time my pen stopped:
it was like my soul was coming back to my body. Like the deepest parts of
me that got knocked around and drowned out by all the crap I let the world
convince me about who I was came back to the surface. And what was left was
only what was real and true. I was, finally, standing in the fullness of my
story. I felt hopeful. I felt full. Our story may crack us open, but it
also pieces us back together. I’m grateful to have found truth on the other
side of lies. Vulnerability on the other side of fear. Empathy on the other
side of pain. This is how I know that every season has a purpose, and that
holding, even when it leads to letting go, is what clues us into the bigger
story being told.”—Joanna Gaines Read more