The world knows Candace Payne as "Chewbacca Mom," the wife and mother of two from Dallas who captured the hearts of nearly 200 million people around the world with nothing but a toy Chewbacca mask, a smart phone, and infectious laughter. Candace's viral moment of simple joy became Facebook Live's top video. But what the video doesn't show is Candace's storied journey of daunting obstacles on the way to the joy-filled life-extreme poverty, past trauma,...

Draws on research with hundreds of interviewees to identify the pervasive influence of cultural shame, discussing how women can recognize the ways in which shame influences their health and relationships and can be transformed into courage and connectivity.

Shame can take on many forms. It hides in the shadows of the most successful, confident and high-achieving woman who struggles with balancing her work and children, as well as in the heart of the broken, abused and downtrodden woman who has been told that she will never amount to anything. Shame hides in plain sight and can hold us back in ways we do not realize. But Christine Caine wants readers to know something: we can all be free. "I know. I've...

From a woman who has been there and back, the first inside look at the devastating effects evangelical Christianity's purity culture has had on a generation of young women--in a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir. In the 1990s, a "purity industry" emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual "stumbling...

"Class Mom meets Small Admissions in this wryly observed debut about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High--the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle--and the fallout for each of them when that bubble finally bursts. Isobel Johnson can't stand helicopter parents like Julia Abbott, a stage mom whose world revolves around interfering in her children's lives. Julia resents teachers like Isobel,...