Flashpoint Books

Alexandra Chan thinks she has life figured out until, in the Year of the Ram, the death of her father—her last parent—brings her to her knees, an event seemingly foretold in Chinese mythology.

A left-brained archaeologist and successful tiger daughter, Chan finds her logical approach to life utterly fails her in the face of this profound grief. Unable to find a way forward, she must either burn to ash or forge herself anew.

Slowly, painfully, wondrously, Chan discovers that her father and ancestors have left threads of renewal in the artifacts and stories of their lives. Through a long-lost interview conducted by Roosevelt’s Federal Writers’ Project, a basket of war letters written from the Burmese jungle, a box of photographs, her world travels, and a deepening relationship to her own art, the archaeologist and lifelong rationalist makes her greatest discovery to date: the healing power of enchantment.

In an epic story that travels from prerevolution China to the South under Jim Crow, from the Pacific theater of WWII to the black sands of Reynisfjara, Iceland, and beyond, Chan takes us on a universal journey to meaning in the wake of devastating loss, sharing the insights and tools that allowed her to rebuild her life and resurrect her spirit. Part memoir, part lyrical invitation to new ways of seeing and better ways of being in dark times, the book includes beautiful full-color original Chinese brush paintings by the author and fascinating vintage photographs of an unforgettable cast of characters. In the Garden Behind the Moon is a captivating family portrait and an urgent call to awaken to the magic and wonder of daily life.

Have you “tried everything” to change your body, but nothing seems to work anymore? Do you often blame “willpower” for your inability to stay consistent? 

From #1 bestselling author and registered dietitian Megan Hansen comes an actionable, step-by-step guide to help you lose weight—for good this time—by combining biology and neuroscience. Whether you’re looking to jump-start your health journey or revamp your existing one, Hansen will walk you through her road-tested Metabolism Makeover program to supercharge your body in this holistic, yearlong workbook. 

Following the same steps Hansen has used to guide thousands of happy clients to lasting success, this workbook gives you exclusive access to the tools you’ll need to build a fully customized program, including: 

• the science behind how your body truly works 

• easy-to-implement micro habits that lead to long-term improvement 

• delicious recipes and menus to help you maintain steady blood sugar levels 

• exercises based on your unique strength goals that work with your existing schedule 

• interactive check-ins to track your progress and help you feel supported 

• real-life examples based on Megan’s more than eight thousand past clients—people just like you 

Become one of Hansen’s thousands of success stories with this science-backed road map designed to empower you to make the best decisions possible for your body—and get the self-confidence, strength, and joy you deserve. 

•  Learn the science behind the six key pillars of the Metabolic Ecosystem—blood sugar control, muscle, movement, stress management, good sleep, and a healthy gut—and how to adjust each pillar to fit your lifestyle.

• Master the art of long-term weight loss by understanding how to get your subconscious mind on board with change instead of relying on willpower to follow through.

• Use the informed intuitive-eating approach to predict a craving before it starts, manage it once it hits, or prevent it from ever happening in the first place

• Apply the Next Best Choice framework so you can handle anything that pops up, including the Diet Danger Zones (such as vacations and holidays), without going into “f*ck it” mode.

Becky Margiotta is the cofounder of the Billions Institute and host of the podcast Unleashing Social Change. She has trained thousands of people the world over on how to design and lead large-scale social change.

Margiotta directed the 100,000 Homes Campaign for Community Solutions, which mobilized 186 cities to permanently house more than one hundred thousand people who had previously been living on their streets. Her work has been profiled on 60 Minutes, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the Harvard Business Review. A graduate of West Point, she also served for nine years as an officer in the US Army, both in Special Operations and Special Mission Units. She earned a master’s degree in organizational change management from The New School University and has received a White House Champion of Change award, the Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year award, and the National Conference on Citizenship’s HOOAH award. She lives in Claremont, California, with her wife and their two kids. 

2022 INDIES Winner

Gold, Career (Adult Nonfiction)

The world is on fire and in desperate need of volunteer firefighters. If you’ve ever wondered if you have a purpose, if there’s a place in the world in need of your unique genius, the answer is yes. And the right time to step into your purpose and explore the path of your potential is now. But you don’t have to do this work alone—and you shouldn’t do it without taking care of yourself first. Burnout rates in the helping professions are off the charts, but we won’t make progress “out there” until we take full ownership of whatever we’re feeling “in here.”

Becky Margiotta’s Impact with Integrity: Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself is a call to action, but also an invitation to reclaim your agency and mobilize your creativity in order to enact meaningful, efficient, and effective social change. With authenticity, grit, and grace, Margiotta lays out a proven step-by-step framework for doing the inner work that is necessary for advancing social change. Examining yourself is key to supercharging your power to make the world a better place. In this essential guide, she weaves joy and well-being into the work of sustainable and transformational leadership. 

Not just for nonprofit leaders, social workers, activists, educators, and health professionals, Impact with Integrity is for all of us inspired to do good and make effective change in the world.

Let’s face it—modern life is stressful. With constant demands on your time and attention, it’s not surprising that you’ve neglected what used to be your North Star: your relationship. You might feel disconnected from each other and stuck in a cycle of go-nowhere arguments. Perhaps you miss the spark that made you excited to see one another at the end of the day. You might long for the time when the two of you were in sync on most things and could laugh at misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Fire It Up is the solution to relationships that are struggling, feeling stale, or just in need of a little extra care. Experienced couples therapist Carolyn Sharp outlines a clear four-step process to bring back the love, connection, and vitality to any marriage, with humor and authenticity. She’ll help you understand how relationships work—and why your partner does that annoying thing. Get to the heart of the problem and empower yourself with the knowledge to make lasting change in your relationship.

From the bestselling author of Veil of Doubt and The Grays of Truth comes a riveting tale of political intrigue, romance, and betrayal set in antebellum Virginia.

John “Jack” Mason McCarty and his second cousin Armistead Mason are proud sons of the Virginia aristocracy—and as different as two men can be. Deeply ambitious and politically minded, Armistead has his sights on Congress and demands a level of respect he may not deserve. Jack, too, longs to make a name for himself, if he can stop gambling and drinking long enough to use his considerable wit to his advantage. Jack has little patience for Armistead’s arrogance, while Armistead views Jack as a debaucherous adolescent unworthy of honor or respect—and neither is afraid to voice his opinion of the other.

A poisonous animosity begins to fester between the two men, fueled by political schemes, illicit affairs, and scandalous reports in the press. Though the women who love them urge restraint, their bitter dispute nevertheless sets into motion a devastating chain of events that risks much more than their honor.

The first book in the Fields of Honor series and based on the true events behind the 1819 Mason–McCarty duel, Masque of Honor is a story of valor, conviction, and the cost of sacrificing one life to forge another.

Based on true events from the American Regency era, this riveting sequel to Masque of Honor explores the thin line between power and integrity, love and lust, honor and death.

Though the twisted scars on his arm still tell the tale, Jack McCarty has worked hard to put his duel with Armistead Mason in the past. He’s one of Virginia’s brightest young lawyers, married to the love of his life, and poised once again for political stardom—an opportunity he thought he’d lost when forced to face Armistead on the field of honor.

Lucinda Lee has also moved forward, closing the door on the betrayal that almost ended her courtship with Jack. But even as she and Jack begin to build a seemingly charmed life, Lucinda watches the women who fawn over him with suspicion—and bristles at the brazenness of her sister, Fanny, a hopeless flirt.

When a horrible tragedy binds Fanny and Lucinda together in ways they never imagined, and Jack falls prey to a disastrous lapse in judgment, the family struggles to keep scandal at bay. As Jack is swept up in dramatic court cases and festering disputes, he once again finds himself at the wrong end of a dueling pistol. Is the man he has worked so hard to become slipping out of his reach?

Quiet your mind, and the silence will help you hear your inner voice—the one that says, “Stay strong enough to forgive, to heal, and to have hope.”

In her stirring, vulnerable memoir, Karena Dawn reveals what it was like to grow up with a mother suffering from severe mental health issues, and how, during her teenage years, she desperately tried to escape her own inner demons. Addicted to pain-numbing drugs and crippled by severe depression, Karena learned how to use grief as a teacher, releasing herself from guilt and shame and finding the inner strength to go from abandonment to forgiveness, from hopelessness to healing. 

Karena’s bold and brave memoir shows us how staying silent about mental illness only reinforces the stigma. At the heart of her story is the eternal struggle we all share—how to move past the pain and suffering of our personal battles to experience life’s joys. Through the healing power of nature, meditation, and fitness, Karena was able to forge a path to self-discovery and find peace. 

Ultimately, The Big Silence reveals how a journey of self-love can lead to a renewed sense of identity and a life filled with hope and optimism.

Near the death zone on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, Lisa Thompson searched for the strength to continue climbing. Her choices were clear: give in to her doubts and descend or push past her own limits and continue up the mountain’s steep face. 

Defiance had provoked Thompson to enter the male-dominated world of high-altitude mountaineering, but defiance could only take her so far. After a harrowing battle with cancer, Lisa realized she needed to understand what motivated her to take greater and greater risks in the mountains. Finding Elevation chronicles Thompson’s path from novice climber to world-class mountaineer, as she becomes the second American woman to summit K2, which is considered by many to be the most dangerous mountain in the world. 

More than a climbing memoir, Finding Elevation is a deeply personal examination of motivation and the human spirit. It is a story of what can happen when we finally stop letting others define our limits and instead trust that we are capable of more. In this inspiring book, Thompson reaches beyond the mountain to tell a story of heartbreak, resilience, and the discovery that we are responsible for defining our own boundaries, finding our own happiness, and facing our fears head-on.

Get older without getting old—and make SuperAging a part of your life with this hands-on, easy-to-follow workbook.

In their groundbreaking book, SuperAging, David Cravit and Larry Wolf challenged everything you thought you knew about aging. In seven simple concepts—Attitude, Awareness, Activity, Accomplishment, Autonomy, Attachment, and Avoidance—Cravit and Wolf gave readers everywhere a path to a better, stronger future. Filled with prompts, activities, and challenges, this engaging and actionable workbook allows readers to create and follow their own personal approach to SuperAging, one step at a time.

From bestselling historical true-crime author Sharon Virts comes a gripping tale of murder and deceit. 

In Reconstruction-era Baltimore, members of the city’s elite keep turning up dead. Below the polished surface of high society, there are illicit affairs, jilted lovers, financial hardships, and countless motives for murder. When Jane Gray Wharton’s husband, Ned, dies unexpectedly while overnighting at his brother’s home, Jane has no reason to question the circumstances of his death. But on a visit to the same house a few weeks later, both Jane and her daughter fall gravely ill, and Jane begins to suspect foul play. 

Though a trained chemist and former nurse, Jane is haunted by a history of delusion, loss, and institutionalization. As the unexpected and devastating deaths begin to multiply, Jane’s grip on reality starts to slip. When a respected army officer falls terribly ill after visiting the Whartons’ Baltimore home, Jane’s greatest fears become all too real. The time has come to act—but who will believe her? And can she even trust her own mind? 

Inspired by true events involving one of Baltimore’s most powerful families, The Grays of Truth is the story of one woman’s quest for answers in her fight for redemption—and to save the man she loves. 

Camille Delaney returns with another investigation—and this time it’s personal.

Shackled to her bed against the pleas of the medical staff, Charli Zhao gives birth to a beautiful daughter she names Willow. Charli had been transported to the hospital from prison, where she is serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. Within hours of the birth, the unthinkable happens: the newborn is abducted, leaving Charli devastated and wondering if she’ll ever find her child, even after she gets free.

Attorney Camille Delaney isn’t used to the inside of women’s prisons—she works in courtrooms. But when a local legal aid group recruits her to help with a case on the inside, she feels drawn to these women’s stories. They are often so similar—a lifetime of trauma culminating in the heartbreaking and often permanent loss of custody of their children, even after they’ve served their time and gotten clean.

When Camille meets Charli, it’s been years since Willow was abducted, and the case has gone cold. But there’s something about Charli’s story—and Charli herself—that Camille can’t refuse. With the help of her trusted friend and private investigator Trish Seaholm, Camille begins a dogged pursuit to find Charli’s daughter and bring the man who framed Charli to justice. As Camille’s quest for the truth takes her team from Seattle to the San Juan Islands to the mountains of Olympic National Park, she must reckon with a system that routinely dismisses the rights of convicted mothers—and has their children pay the price.

A Betches pick of “Novels That Healed Me Faster Than Any Self-Help Book”

Ten years after her mother’s death, Eliza Levinger never imagined she’d hear from her again. But then The Letter arrived. 

Eliza’s world broke apart when she was sixteen and her mom died of cancer. Now, years later, she has rebuilt her life to include a director-of-development job at a nonprofit, a Manhattan apartment, and an easy-on-the-eyes bedroom buddy—just the kind of no-strings relationship she wants, even if it’s less than her best friend, Mo, thinks she deserves. But when Eliza’s dad dies unexpectedly, her beloved aunt Claude arrives at the shiva with a letter from her mom—to be opened only after her father’s death. Inside the letter? A bombshell. 

Suddenly, all of Eliza’s relationships are upended. Her brother is angry, her stepmother is threatening to disinherit her, and Mo—who has always been her rock—doesn’t seem to understand what she’s going through. But as Eliza struggles to cope with the shocking news, she finds an unexpected ally—her brother’s best friend, Josh—her high school crush, whom she’s tried hard to forget. It’s not in Eliza’s nature to trust . . . but maybe it’s time for that to change.

Perfect for fans of Emily Giffin, Katherine Center, and Jennifer Weiner, Dear Eliza explores the meaning of family, the complexities of grief, and the beauty in finding your way again. 

As seen on BABYLIST

Mom's Choice Award Winner

From the CEO of Mommy’s Bliss comes a book for new moms that’s not about the baby. It’s about you, mama.

You might be just a few days out of the hospital or months into your sleep-deprived postpartum journey when the realization hits you: life as you know it—your whole identity—will never be the same. Mom Your Way will guide you through this fundamental shift into new motherhood. With a healthy dose of humor and comforting best-friend energy, Yasmin Kaderali shares judgment-free wisdom for navigating your postpartum life.

Based on Yasmin’s years serving moms at the helm of the wellness brand Mommy’s Bliss—and her own experience as the mom of two little boys—Mom Your Way dishes the dirt on what to expect in your postpartum months and offers useful advice on caring for your new self, from managing sleep and emotions to dealing with body changes that no one really talks about. You’ll learn about building your support network, setting boundaries with family and friends, resisting labels, and banishing mom guilt. Throughout, Yasmin offers relatable anecdotes, simple tips, trusted product recommendations, and journaling prompts to help you thrive in the fourth trimester and beyond.

Curl up by the window with this gorgeous, illustrated activity book and enjoy the beauty of birds in winter.  

With dozens of word searches on resident and migrating birds and cozy winter themes, The Christmas Bird Search celebrates the wonders of the season—and the birds that bring it to life. Throughout, find fascinating bird facts, tips on watching and supporting your resident winter birds, and journal prompts to hone your powers of observation and bring your focus to the unique seasonal joys that surround you. And when you spot a feathered friend taking refuge in your area, you can record it in the book’s handy bird-tracking chart.  

Offering moments of calm and contemplation, The Christmas Bird Search is perfect for bird lovers, bird-watchers, and anyone who relishes the turn of the seasons.