A Poetic Odyssey of Proclamations

by Peju Abuchi, AWBS International Women’s Club

A Poetic Odyssey of Proclamations and is a rich journey exploring the power of our words to transform our world for the better. It highlights how choosing our words strategically, purposefully and kindly influences change and makes a huge difference – one conversation after another, one person to another, and so on.

Here are a few testimonials: 

“This book is rich in creative responses to the challenges and phases of life.” 

Mark Moody-Stuart (Former Vice Chair of the UN Global Compact and former Chair of the Global Compact Foundation)

“This is a beautiful piece of work I can see myself coming back to over and over again. I love how it is bursting with proclamations, affirmations, and declarations.”

 Maxine Nwaneri (Bestselling Author & Founder of The Future is Greater)

 “I loved how each proclamation is followed by a ‘Pause & Ponder’ section, prompting us readers to reflect on our own experiences and circumstances and fostering a strong sense of personal empowerment.”

 Simona Barbieri (HubDot Founder & Creative Director)

“Her book is a thoughtful and practical guide designed to help almost anyone unleash their potential, one step at a time.”

Lau Ciocan (TEDx Speaker and Founder of Mentoring Advocacy Network (MAN))

“This book weaves together inspiration with firm but gentle nudges that invite the reader to participate and experience a revolutionary change! I love It!”

 Anyima Quarm Okundi (Executive Coach)

 Available on Amazon.

Everything is Not Enough 

by Lola Akinmade, AWC Stockholm

A Jennette McCurdy Book Club Pick, a Washington Post, Sunday Times and Amazon Editors’ Pick and a nominee for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature.

Available on Amazon.

In Every Mirror She's Black 

by Lola Akinmade, AWC Stockholm

A Good Morning America (GMA) Buzz Pick, Apple Editors’ Pick, Amazon Editors’ Pick, Independent UK “Best Thought-provoking Story”; shortlisted for the Bad Form Review Book of the Year.

Available on Amazon.

Lagom: The Swedish Secret of Living Well

by Lola Akinmade, AWC Stockholm

An international bestseller, available in over 15 languages.

Available on Amazon.

Due North: A A Collection of Travel Observations, Reflections, And Snapshots Across Colors, Cultures and Continents

by Lola Akinmade, AWC Stockholm

Recipient of the 2017 Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book.

Available on Amazon.

Secrets of a Summer Village
by Saskia E. Akyil, IWC Munich

This young adult-general fiction crossover coming-of-age story follows Rachel Guo as she travels far away from her home and family in Olympia, Washington to spend her summer with a host family in Turkey. ISBN-13: 978-1463740115. Available at Amazon Worldwide and Barnes&Nobles.com

Joyful Moments Unlocked: A 52 Week Dementia Activity Book

by Dr. Lucy Andrews, AW Acquitaine

As a doctoral prepared nurse and dementia care expert, Dr. Andrews has dedicated her career to helping both professional caregivers and family members provide the best quality of life for those affected by dementia. In Joyful Moments Unlocked, she shares a full year of research-based activities designed to engage patients and ease the burden on caregivers, ensuring meaningful, fulfilling lives together. Dr. Andrews’s nurturing approach and clear, scientific explanations make this book an invaluable resource for anyone caring for someone with dementia.

Available from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Das Jahr ohne Worte (English title: Five Seasons of Love)

by Syd Atlas, AWC Berlin 

An overwhelming story. An unbelievable story. And yet a true one. It all begins with a great love in a café in Prenzlauer Berg where Syd meets Theo. They fall in love, have a child together, experience the ups and downs of normal life. But then Theo receives a devastating diagnosis: ALS. The same disease Stephen Hawking battled. Every day, there’s less of the man Syd fell in love with. Yet she fights for him, determined to preserve what’s left of their happiness. Until one day, she makes an incredible discovery.

Available from multiple sources.

Es war einmal in Brooklyn (English title: The Darlings)

by Syd Atlas, AWC Berlin

It’s the hot summer of 1977 in Brooklyn. Juliette and David are 17 years old and next-door neighbors. They’ve been best friends since they were kids and put T.rex and Barbie on the grill to watch them melt. But after this summer, life will be different for both of them. Juliette is leaving for college, while the seriously ill David doesn’t know how much time he has left. When Juliette shows up one evening with the charming pizza delivery boy Rico, David realizes he must act: because he loves Juliette, and he has nothing left to lose... But as she experiences her first kiss and David watches the Yankees game alone on his small TV, suddenly everything goes dark. The massive blackout plunges New York into chaos. When the lights return after 25 hours, everything has changed.

Available (in German only) from multiple sources.

Sustainability Stories: The Power of Narratives to Understand Global Challenges

by Brigitte Bernard-Rau, AWC Hamburg

 This is a collective book of short stories reporting the individual and collaborative efforts of 42 authors across five continents – Asia, Africa, North and South America (including the Caribbean) and Europe – for a more sustainable future.

With Sustainability Stories, you will dive into inspiring lived experiences, observations and provocative thoughts! The book covers traditional environmental and social issues, such as climate change and gender diversity, as well as current challenges and innovative solutions, including AI (artificial intelligence), corporate governance, compliance, impact investing, philosophy of consideration and ecology, offering sources of hope for the common good and a sustainable future.

As we navigate the path towards sustainability, be inspired by the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince: “Here is my secret. It is very simple. The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart.” By looking with our hearts and embracing the power of narratives, we can create a future where all human beings can flourish, and our planet can thrive.

Available from the publisher’s website and from multiple retailers, including Amazon.

Underwater Vibes 

By Mickey Brent, AWC Brussels 

Underwater Vibes is an unforgettable, quirky tale that takes place in Brussels, Belgium. It is a contemporary romance with an LGBTQ twist, showcasing multilingual, multicultural characters with plenty of humor. Its talented author, Mickey Brent, created this highly entertaining piece of literary fiction to entice all kinds of readers. The idea for Underwater Vibes came as an assignment for a college English composition course. The story was about a plump, shy girl—a loner—who learned to swim in a lake one summer. Mickey Brent’s teacher loved the story and urged her to keep writing. Years later, while taking a creative writing course in Brussels, Belgium, Mickey remembered that original essay. Each day, as she biked through Brussels, she jotted down new ideas for the story. Despite minor accidents with light poles and a parked car, she kept up her pace until she had birthed a unique, humorous novel. 

Available online or at the author's website. 

Broad Awakening

By Mickey Brent,  AWC Brussels 

“This wonderful story introduced me to complex characters who whisked me away to Brussels for a much-needed vacation! Broad Awakening is a beautifully rich story that reminds us all why we love to fall in love.” – Lucy J. Madison

After kissing at the Belgian coast during a romantic sunset swim, Hélène and Sylvie find ruts in their road to eternal bliss. In this sequel to Underwater Vibes, Hélène struggles to avoid Sylvie, her sexy Greek swimming coach. Attempting to shun her deepest emotions to save her marriage, inner turmoil makes Hélène react in bizarre ways. An intimate dinner turns sour,  and Sylvie wonders why she keeps falling for women who are wrong for her. When Sylvie heads to the airport with a mysterious, gorgeous woman, and a psychic reveals unexpected news, Hélène must face up to her feelings or risk losing Sylvie forever. When disaster strikes, both women must decide how important being true to yourself, and to love, really is.

Available online or on the author's website.  

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno

by Ellen Bryson, AAWE Paris

Set in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in the New York of 1865, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is a novel about human appetites and longings and what it means to be profoundly unique. Bartholomew Fortuno, the World’s Thinnest Man, believes that his unusual body is a gift. Hired by P.T. Barnum to join live performances by Barnum’s cast of freaks and oddities, Fortuno has reached the pinnacle of his career. But when a carriage pulls up outside the museum in the dead of night bearing a mysterious veiled woman, Fortuno ends up questioning everything he believes.

Available on Amazon.

Exiled South

by Harriet Cannon, FAUSA

Harriet Cannon is a member of FAUSA with roots in South Carolina. As a psychotherapist, she served as a consultant to The Boeing Company, International Schools, and worked for the US State Department in Chile. Harriet is co-author of Mixed Blessings: A Guide to Multicultural and Multiethnic Relationships. Exiled South is her debut novel. Harriet and her husband live on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and have two grown children.

Exiled South Lizbeth Gordon, a high school counselor famous for conflict resolution in everyone’s life but her own, returns home to South Carolina after twenty years in the Pacific Northwest. She expects to find solace walking the winter beach and energy to reinvent herself after a personal tragedy. But an elderly aunt hints of Civil War family scandals; spies on the Island of Nassau, a blockade runner hunted as a traitor and a mixed-race child. Lizbeth is struck by the parallels between her current search for home and belonging and that of her ancestors who fled the American South. She embarks on a quest that takes her from Charleston to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she finds descendants of her nineteenth century family.

Lizbeth learns the truth about exiled Gordons and a path to heal wounds that split her family for generations.

Available on Bookshop.org, Indie Bound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and on Kobo.

Miss Morgan's Book Brigade

by Janet Skeslien Charles, AAWE Paris

In 1918, as the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen – children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears. Based on the extraordinary, little-known history of the women who received the Croix de Guerre medal for courage under fire, the novel is a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, the power of literature, and ultimately the courage it takes to make a change.

Due out May 2024.

The Paris Library

by Janet Skeslien Charles, AAWE Paris

The Paris Library was an instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today bestseller. It is based on the true story of the heroic Parisian librarians during World War II. “A love letter to Paris, the power of books, and the beauty of intergenerational friendship” (Booklist), The Paris Library shows that extraordinary heroism can sometimes be found in the quietest places. It has has been translated into 38 languages.

Available from multiple sources.

Renegale Tales

by Laurel Colless, AWC Finland

A Peter Blue series novel: fast-paced science fantasy novel for middle-grade readers and adventure lovers of all ages.

When 11-year-old Peter Blue and his team are sent on a quest to catch a group of Renegale imps (bad baby gales) they have no idea where to start – how do you catch the wind? But Peter’s mentor Agent Fleur has enough to worry about with a toxic yellow fog attack on seven cities. Then Wanda Shore gets a big idea to fix the fog even though she’s totally unqualified and just flexing to her followers – says her soon-to-be roommate Riva du Lac. The adventure takes them to an active volcano, where they soon figure out that the yellow fog and the Renegales are connected. But digging too deep will be dangerous and may also bring to light a dark and unwelcome secret from Peter’s past that he’s not going to like.

Available on Amazon. 

Eye of the Stormlord

By Laurel Colless, AWC Finland

Middle-grade thriller meets climate change: Kirkus Reviews says “Colless has created a kind of Hogwarts that operates on the magic of environmental awareness." At Spiral Hall, school for the eco-demically gifted, the race is on to make the top adventure team, and eleven-year-old Peter Blue is in the running. But when Peter learns that his dad, thought dead for five years, might still be alive, he and his friends are drawn into a larger test of courage going far beyond the contest lines, and forcing Peter to become the hero he is destined to be.

Laurel Colless brings together a background in environmental business and journalism to create a new kind of myth-making that reflects the climate reality of today’s children – think monsters birthed out of garbage dumps that show up as killer weather. Laurel Colless is an Al Gore Climate Reality Leader, who is actively pursuing virtual author visits to schools and organisations to explore these urgent themes through eco-education and book readings. Please send an email to  or get in touch through her author website. Laurel’s first book, the Sleeping King, which is a prequel to Eye of the Stormlord, won the 2018 Children’s Moonbeam Gold award for Pre-teen Fiction. The third book in the series will be out in spring 2023.

Available wherever you get your online books.

Among the Maasai

by Juliet Cutler, FAUSA

In 1999, Juliet Cutler left the United States to teach at the first school for Maasai girls in East Africa. Captivated by the stories of young Maasai women determined to get an education in the midst of a culture caught between the past and the future, she seeks to empower and support her students as they struggle to define their own fates.

Cutler soon learns that behind their shy smiles and timid facades, her Maasai students are much stronger than they appear. For them, adolescence requires navigating a risky world of forced marriages, rape, and genital cutting, all in the midst of a culture grappling with globalization. In the face of these challenges, these young women struggle to gain an education that they know will change their lives.

All book proceeds support education and safety for at-risk Maasai girls.

Among the Maasai won the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, one of the highest national honors in the United States for small presses and independently published books. It also won the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award (gold medal for multicultural nonfiction) and the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award (winner for multicultural nonfiction).

To learn more, visit www.julietcutler.com.

Available on Amazon Worldwide and wherever books are sold.

Diary of the First Trip Around the World (Diario del primo viaggio attorno al mondo)

by Anna d'Albertis, IWC Genoa

I had the good fortune of finding a handwritten diary of the first journey round the world, made in 1878 by
my great-great-uncle, Enrico d’Albertis. Without changing a word, I published a stunning review of this
adventurous journey to a British-ruled India, a wild Australia, a famine-stricken China, a beautiful Japan, a
quickly developing America. This uncle of mine was an extraordinary character: a lover of the sea, dedicated to natural science, astronomy, archaeology, ethnography, and I don’t know how many other disciplines.
Should you like to know more about him, I wrote his biography some years ago, and you can still find it
online (in Italian): Marinaio gentiluomo – La vita avventurosa di Enrico d’Albertis by Anna d’Albertis).

Available online.

The Taste of Forever

by Meredith Escudier, AAWE Paris

Meredith Escudier’s food memoir journeys from an upbringing in northern California to a village in southern France, with a good thirty years of Parisian life sandwiched in between. From the school hot dog of her early days to the many ingenious uses of a baguette, the memoir celebrates the little moments that surround the discovery and enjoyment of food. Defined by her adult life in France – marrying a Frenchman and raising a family – the author shifts fluidly between participant and observer, tenderly deconstructing the French relationship to food, while rendering a host of personal stories around the pleasures of the table – some nostalgic, others instructive, most of them charmed. Two talented home cooks feature prominently: an American mother and a French husband.

Available from multiple sources.

Frenchisms for Francophiles

by Meredith Escudier, AAWE Paris

The life of a language – its vibrancy, pathos, humor and taste – lies in its many idiomatic expressions and images built over time and layers of culture. Such expressions simplify, accelerate and sum up explanations that might otherwise become wordy or cumbersome. Like a reliable friend, they fit in, greasing the wheels and adding the social glue that allow speaker and listener alike to take a welcome shortcut.

Frenchisms for Francophiles presents fifty of those typical expressions, giving them context and meaning. In authentic but playful vignettes, Meredith Escudier – teacher, translator and inveterate French-watcher – presents each expression with affectionate detachment while giving voice to the originality of the French themselves.

Available at AbeBooks and Better World Books.

Scene in France

by Meredith Escudier, AAWE Paris

When it comes to getting to know the French a little better, Scene in France…from A to Z is sure to delight. It’s an insider’s look at the people who make the French the French, told through stories that the author has encountered in her 30-odd years living, loving, working and raising a family in France.

From the A of Anglais to the Z of Zis and Zat, Meredith Escudier will take you on a tour that no travel guide could match. Her unique and engaging portrait of the French is at once thorough and thoughtful, charming and humorous.

 Available on Amazon.

Heat 2

by Meg Gardiner, FAUSA

Heat 2 projects its dimensional and richly drawn men and women into whole new worlds – from the inner sanctums of rival crime syndicates in a South American free-trade zone to transnational criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia. The novel brings you intimately into these lives. In Michael Mann’s Heat universe, they will confront new adversaries in lethal circumstances beyond all boundaries.

Heat 2 is engrossing, moving, and tragic – a masterpiece of crime fiction with the same extraordinary ambitions, scope, and rich characterizations as the epic film.

Available on Amazon.

Piano Girl: A Memoir
by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne

“Goldsby has seen it all from her piano and she dishes it up with a true storyteller's gusto. As refreshing as a frozen daiquiri . . .” Jeff Yanc, Book Sense Picks and Notables

"Goldsby has a wicked sense of humor and a keen eye for the absurd. Big-hearted, funny, truly eye-opening memoir.” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Backbeat Books.ISBN-13:978-0879308827. Available from Amazon.

Waltz of the Asparagus People: The Further Adventures of Piano Girl

by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne

Waltz of the Asparagus People follows the hero of Piano Girl, Robin Meloy Goldsby, and her family to Europe, recounting their adventures and frustrations as they learn a new language, adapt to a new culture, and find new friends. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, and always insightful, Goldsby’s lyrical stories reveal the trials and triumphs of an expatriate musician’s life, as Goldsby connects her music to family, friends, and home, past and present.
“Goldsby’s tales are often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes poignant, and always abundantly human.”
Kathy Parsons, MainlyPiano.com

Bass Lion Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1456477547. Available from bookstores everywhere and Amazon. Also available in all e-book formats.

Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life

by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne

Publishing date: June 18, 2021

A pianist in lounges and lobbies around the world, Robin Meloy Goldsby tells her warm-hearted stories by linking people she has met with places she has played. Along the way, she connects the humanity of her audiences—princes and paupers, dreamers and doers, moguls, mobsters, wanna-bes, and has-beens—with the quiet soundtrack of her peripatetic, melodic life. Goldsby's autobiographical stories and essays deliver insights into the art and craft of piano playing, the merits of live music, and how the right song at the right moment can add color and depth to a drab, one dimensional world. Music, it turns out, connects us in unpredictable ways.

Available for order on Amazon.

Rhythm: A Novel
by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne

Meet teenage drummer Jane Bowman. She’s fifteen, funny, and wounded by the loss of her famous percussionist mother. Robin Meloy Goldsby’s touching and humorous coming-of-age musical odyssey invites us to tap our toes in time to Jane’s powerful music — cheering her on as she mends her shattered heart, finds her groove, and discovers the tragic beauty of human resilience.
“Goldsby, who marries the pathos of her plot line with the whimsy and near-magical-realism of her characters, deserves comparison with John Irving, a modern master.” Marion Winik, NPR commentator and author of First Comes Love

Told with great passion and a marvelous sense of humor, Rhythm illustrates the obstacles a woman encounters in the male-dominated world of jazz. Bass Lion Publishing. ISBN-13: 978-1419699399. Available from bookstores everywhere and Amazon. Also available in all e-book formats.

Manhattan Road Trip: Short Stories

by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne

In Robin Meloy Goldsby’s musical tales of passion, wild success, and gut-wrenching regret, a classical pianist battles middle age and Rachmaninoff; a bebop saxophonist struggles with a varmint sharing her New York City apartment; and a cellist performs Mozart for her mentally ill mother. Filled with the biting humor and razor-sharp honesty familiar to Goldsby’s Piano Girl fans, thirteen sparkling fictional stories illuminate the not-so-public lives of musicians. Fragile, feisty, courageous, but sometimes just plain world-weary, Goldsby’s unbreakable protagonists push aside little injustices, dodge the slings and arrows of their tone-deaf neighbors, and keep playing the music they love.

Available from Amazon. Also available for Kindle.

Getting His Game Back

by Regina Joan Grange, AAWE Paris (writing as Gia de Cadenet)

Khalil Sarda went through a rough patch, but now he’s nearly back to his old self. Real men don’t have depression and go to therapy – or at least they don’t admit it. He’s ready to focus on his growing chain of barbershops, take care of his beloved Detroit community, and get back to being the ladies’ man his family and friends tease him for being. It’ll be easy . . . until Vanessa throws him completely off his game. Vanessa Noble is too busy building a multimillion-dollar tech career as a Black woman before age thirty to be distracted by a relationship. Her friends often remind her, she’ll never find a man who checks all the boxes on her famous List. Yet when she desperately needs a shape-up and happens upon one of Khalil’s barbershops, he makes her reconsider everything.

Available from multiple sources.

Not the Plan

by Regina Joan Grange, AAWE Paris (writing as Gia de Cadenet)

Isadora Maris is damn good at her job. If all goes according to her meticulous plan, she’ll soon be managing her boss’s successful campaign for US representative and finally land her dream role: congressional aide in Washington, DC, where she can really make a difference.

But Isadora’s cool professionalism is knocked off kilter when she meets Karim Sarda. Karim is gorgeous and brilliant and seems to share many of her ideals. So why is he working for the California senate’s most detestable scumbag? Given their bosses’ fierce political rivalry, Isadora finds she can’t risk tarnishing her reputation by flirting with the enemy, and she’s been betrayed enough times to want to keep people at a distance. So she deems Karim off limits – no matter how flustered she feels whenever he enters the room…

Available from multiple sources.

South Plantation School

by Cynthia Holden, AWC Central Scotland (writing as Celeste Morningside)

The death of a child can create a nation of warriors… 
Cora, a slave and the main housekeeper at South Plantation, didn’t know how they would pay, she just knew they would! But she would damn well do her part to make sure! A Scottish teacher comes to South Plantation to teach former slaves and gets taught along the way thanks to Cora.

Women – different colors, sizes, cultures, attitudes and backgrounds but still women – come together to learn and save a plantation that once condemned them. All because they can.

Cora stood on the porch and watched Bishop as he rode his horse toward the north field. Probably looking for some young one to hurt. The horse reared and he fell. He looked around, got back on his horse and rode away. Before he left her sight, he fell again. She smiled, not a smile of pleasure or satisfaction but of pure malice. She thought, is evil still evil when it is done to the devil? She thought for a moment, patted her pocket and smiled, I reckon evil it is. I guess I can do some part time work for the devil. She cackled loudly as this, gave the porch one last sweep and walked back into the kitchen.

Due out in early 2024. Preorder at .

It’s a Lot to Unpack

by Dina Honour, AWC Berlin

What happens when you give up your dreams to follow your partner’s job around the world? It’s a Lot to Unpack is the true story of an occasionally reluctant partner who struggles to find value amid all the moving parts that make up a globally mobile life. With wit, humor, and unflinching honesty, Honour details her journey from New York City badass to expat housewife, and the struggle to find the balance between the two – all while raising a family in places she never expected to be.

Available from multiple sources.

There's Some Place Like Home

by Dina Honour, AWC Berlin

There’s nothing quite like stepping foot in a new country and declaring yourself home. There’s Some Place Like Home is a front row seat to the sometimes crazy, sometimes lonely, but never boring life of an expat.

If you’ve ever lived abroad, Honour’s heartfelt and humorous observations and stories will be instantly recognizable. And if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to pack up and move across oceans or time zones, these stories, spanning a decade of life abroad, are a revealing window into a life lived outside the familiar.

Available on Amazon.

Odyssey of Love: A Memoir of Seeking and Finding

by Linda Jämsén, AWC Finland

Originally from New York and Boston, writer-musician Linda Jämsén lives in Finland. Her debut book, Odyssey of Love, was released on June 1st, 2021.

When Linda doesn’t receive the marriage proposal she had expected on her 41st birthday, she reluctantly visits a psychic, who predicts she will soon be leaving her boyfriend for a romantic and music-filled Odyssey in Europe. There, a “Russian icon” will lead to her future husband, a “tall man with glasses."

Eager to reignite her passion for music, Linda moves to Budapest, land of her idol, Franz Liszt. She reinvents herself as an English teacher and performs at the Liszt Music Academy. During her travels, she is tempted by romantic close calls, but vows to “settle down, not settle for.” During a last-minute trip to Finland, she wonders if her Odyssey is over or just beginning.

Available on Amazon or www.lindajamsen.com.

The Drinnglennin Chronicles

by K.C. Julius,AIWC Düsseldorf

Award-winning author K.C. Julius has been a member of the AIWC-Düsseldorf since 2012. The Drinnglennin Chronicles, her best-selling epic fantasy series, is available in paperback, hardcover and digital editions in all Amazon stores, and the recently released audiobook version of the first book of this quartet can be found on Kobo, AppleBooks, Google, and 40+ subscription outlets worldwide.

Step Into an Epic World Where Dragons and Mortals Bind ~

The realm of Drinnglennin hangs poised on the cusp of chaos, for Urlion Konigur, the High King, is dying and has yet to name an heir. Rumors abound that the Helgrins, Drinnglennin’s bitterest foes, are preparing their longboats to raid the Isle’s shores, while the roving å Livåri folk, for whom the island kingdom is the last sanctuary, are strangely disappearing. And in distant Belestar, the fabled dragons are stirring from their self-imposed exile.

Drinnglennin’s hopes lie with the wizard Morgan, who must gather together and safeguard the king’s possible heirs, all three of whom are coming of age. Yet a dangerously powerful house seeks the succession for one of their own, even if it means disrupting the fragile peace of the realm.

One thing is certain: whoever next sits on the Einhorn Throne will determine the fate not only of Drinnglennin, but of all who dwell in the Known World.

The Drinnglennin Chronicles is an action-packed epic medieval quartet, replete with all the elements fantasy lovers crave—dragons & wizards, sword & sorcery, romance, intrigue and betrayal.

Omnibus edition available on Amazon. More information also at the author's website.

Portents of Chaos (Book 1/4)

by K.C. Julius, AIWC Düsseldorf

Notable Amazon Reviews:

"Julius' lush descriptions bring alive a world that is painted with rich details, layered with nuances, and peopled with memorable characters. Her prose and world-building put this series in the ranks of Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Thad Williams and other legends in this genre."

“Four teenagers from different backgrounds... thrust into a world of chaos, magic and danger. A mysterious old wizard... Warring nations. A hidden kingdom of elves. An elderly king unwilling to name his successor. More than a nod to medieval times and customs. And dragons! All elements familiar to readers of fantasy series... given a refreshing new outing in The Drinnglennin Chronicles. The writing flows beautifully and makes for an easy read... If you are a fan of writers like JRR Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, or George RR Martin, then you will love the writing of K C Julius. Highly recommended.”

Available on Amazon also as an audiobook (complete series will release in the coming months).

A Realm at Stake (Book 2/4)

by K.C. Julius, AIWC Düsseldorf

Notable Amazon Reviews:
“From the first page, A Realm at Stake casts its spell. The characters who seek love, adventure, and glory draw you in, and those who thrive on hate, revenge, and terror make you recoil. Yet both are inextricably intertwined. The struggle is full of beauty and darkness—a compulsive read from beginning to end.”

"The interplay of fantasy and royal politics... is redolent of well-known multi-volume fantasies such as George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones saga. However, the intrigues and adventures of [Julius's] characters are entirely original..." —The BookLife Prize 2020.

Available on Amazon.

Bindings of Peril (Book 3/4)

by K.C. Julius,AIWC Düsseldorf

Notable Amazon Reviews:
"Intrigue and suspense deepen in this third book of The Drinnglennin Chronicles. Our favorite characters travel... further afield, exploring new lands, encountering increasingly difficult and dangerous challenges. The outcomes are not always what we'd expect or hope for. Prepare for loss as well as love. Desperate to find out how everything will be resolved in Book Four! Highly recommended.”

Available on Amazon.

The Wings of Dread (Book 4/4)

By K.C. Julius,AIWC Düsseldorf

Notable Amazon Reviews:
“Well, it has been worth the wait! The final book in this series manages to fulfil all expectations, drawing together all the many threads of intrigue, political alliances, romantic liaison, powerful enemies, and astonishing wizardry. The courage of the young characters we have come to know and love is never thrown into doubt, but a successful outcome to the battle between good and evil often is. There are dark forces at work indeed and our suspense is kept on a knife-edge throughout, making this the most compelling of all the Chronicles! Highly recommended!”

Available on Amazon.

WWII Voices: American GIs and the French Women Who Married Them

by Hilary Kaiser, AAWE Paris

This collection of oral histories, poems, letters and essays gives voice to both American veterans who fought in Europe, particularly in France, during World War II, as well as to French women who lived through the war, met and married GIs, emigrated to the United States and learned to adapt to life in America in the 1940s. The stories and words of these men and women are diverse and engaging and will inspire readers of all generations.

Available on Amazon. 

French War Brides: Mademoiselle and the American Soldier

by Hilary Kaiser, AAWE Paris

Following both World Wars I and II, about 6,500 Franco-American marriages took place between French mademoiselles and American soldiers, be they “doughboys” or GIs. These women, who came from different parts of France and diverse backgrounds, would later cross the Atlantic to join husbands, settle in various corners of America, suffer culture shock, and adapt to marriage in a foreign land of postwar plenty with varying degrees of success. Despite these difficulties, like many other immigrants, they got on with it and survived. As the compelling oral histories in this book show, most of them did, in their own way, live the American dream.

Available on Amazon. 

I Displace the Air as I Walk

by Marjorie Kanter, AWC Madrid

Marjorie Kanter’s work is fresh, ironic and impregnated with a subtle humor and sensitivity. Her free style of writing captures events and personal experiences of real life in different cultural and geographical environments. She plays with words and grammar, mixes languages, and uses other techniques to give the right tone to her short literary pieces. Reading this book is a unique experience.

Available from multiple sources.

Small Talk

by Marjorie Kanter, AWC Madrid

Small Talk plays like jazz music, with improvisations, melody and different tempos. Marjorie Kanter fills the texts with irony, humor and sensitivity. To read her pieces is an expanded experience that changes every time you read them. Small Talk is a compilation of her work, imagined, experienced, written
and rewritten over years.

Available from multiple sources.

Field Notes/Notas de Campo

by Marjorie Kanter, AWC Madrid

Field Notes/Notas de Campo by Marjorie Kanter, in a bilingual edition, is a creative experiment, hybrid in nature, in which Kanter transmits, in her particular way, a series of experiences and reflections that take
place in several countries where the author has lived. Through text/poems, her life-stories are expressed with irony and humor. Everything is written in an attractive, fun way with creative twists.
Delgado Guitart’s illustrations accompany and complement each piece, making this a unique book to see and read.

Available from multiple sources. 

Basel: A Cultural Experience
The first book available in English about Basel and its culture
by editor Shirley L. Kearney, AWC Basel

Shirley, member of AWC Basel was featured in Beyond Borders: Portraits of American Women around The World. 272 pages, with 90 color photos, 29 color illustrations, 101 b/w photos, 90 b/w illustrations, hardcover, thread sewing, with bookmark. ISBN 3-908142-23-7

This book is a unique perspective of Basel - its waters, history, people, churches, architecture, traditions, legends, and more - as portrayed by several Americans and Swiss, all of whom have experienced a special relationship with the city. An easy-to-read, non-academic text, based on the 1986 publication, corroborated by Basel experts in the museum, art history and cultural environments; personalized with historical images, photos and original artwork. Here is Basel as it has never been seen before, as it was yesterday and is today, with the people and forces that have influenced its development.

Join us on a short journey through its history and traditions as we go behind doors and windows, opening your eyes and revealing an unknown and fascinating picture of Basel. This book will make us all members of the FCB - the FAN CLUB of BASEL. For non-English speakers, a bonus is offered; the opportunity to improve your knowledge of English, while learning about Basel in a new light. The book is now available on Amazon.co.uk.

An original concept and production! The author's honorarium of SFRs 20,000 was offered directly to The FAWCO Foundation Awards Fund.

Sukulainen

by Meritta Koivisto, AWC Finland

A night shift nurse is killed in a psychiatric care facility on the outskirts of Stockholm. The same night, a young patient escapes from the closed ward. The case is also being investigated by Harriet Jaatinen, a 31-year-old criminal detective with a Finnish background who is on sick leave from her work for the Stockholm police. Someone seems to want Harriet to investigate the crime – but why? 

Sukulainen is an intense thriller where the secrets of a family that have accumulated over the decades are finally beginning to unfold. It tells of distorted family relationships across borders and people blinded by power.

Sukulainen was the most listened to audio/e-book on Storytel in 2020. It is the first part of the powerful Ledermann family saga set in Stockholm. 

It is available as a paperback online: avain.net, suomalainen.com, prisma.fi, adlibris.com, akateeminen.com. Also available as audiobook and e-book in Finland and Sweden via Storytel.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers: Portraits of Human Trafficking Survivors and Change-Makers

Photographs by My-Linh Kunst, AWC Berlin, Essay by Robin Meloy Goldsby, AIWC Cologne, and Mary Adams, AWC The Hague

This book was originally conceived to support the 2016 Stand Up Against Human Trafficking Symposium sponsored by FAWCO and The FAWCO Foundation.

Survivors of human trafficking – and the change-makers who walk alongside them – turn to hope for inspiration and courage. In the shadowy world of modern-day slavery, hope comes in small, powerful packages – and often appears in unlikely locations. For the men and women battling the tragedy of human trafficking, hope can change lives. The change-makers in Portraits of Hope return dignity to survivors by inspiring hope in them. Portraits and essays include social workers, social enterprises, safe houses, hospitality sector employees, activists, and policymakers

To continue to give survivors hope, this e-book is available for download for a donation of $20. Your donation will support the Breaking the Cycle FAWCO Foundation Human Rights Development Grant.

Contact to order the book.

Beyond Borders
by My-Linh Kunst, AWC Berlin

Beyond Borders features inspiring FAWCO women making a difference to the world around them. This beautiful photography book makes a perfect gift for your women friends and as a speaker’s gift for your Club. Order online from Amazon.

Down to Earth Cooking: Quick, Delicious and Nutritious Plant-based Recipes

by Shireen Longva and Sara Hendey, AWC Stockholm

Down to Earth Cooking is a must-have for both veg-curious and experienced cooks looking for a fresh approach to putting plants on the center of the plate. Here you will find sweet and savory treats, soups, salads, main dishes and desserts, all free from refined sugar, dairy and eggs. In the growing shift towards a plant-based diet, delicious and nutritious cooking is a breeze.

The cookbook is available in-store at Örtagubben in Stockholm, Sweden or at Davolls General Store in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. For inquiries about the cookbook, please contact AWC Sweden member Sara Hendey, .

Harvesting Stones
by Paula Lucas, FAUSA

Congratulations to Paula Lucas, FAUSA member and the founder of Americans Overseas Domestic Crisis Center, on the publication of her memoir Harvesting Stones! From victim to victor, Paula weaves you through her astonishing life journey for the first time since her escape almost fifteen years ago from an abusive husband in an exotic foreign land. Harvesting Stones is available on Amazon, paperback or Kindle.

What is a Perfect World?

by Nancy Lynner, AWC Central Scotland, illustrated by Tharien van Eck, AWC Antwerp, designed by Joyce Halsan, AWC Central Scotland and produced by Amanda Drollinger, AWC Central Scotland

This children’s book allows readers to share and discuss eleven world issues with young children and show them what work awaits. The title asks a question, and each page, through pictures and text, demonstrates an answer for a perfect world.

The whimsical watercolor characters include 22 children from multicultural backgrounds and abilities, and there are seven adult characters who are parents or helpers. The text asks the readers to help us make the world perfect together, and finishes with a soft surprise. The book is geared for the age group 3-8 years. Net proceeds from the book will be donated to the FAWCO Target Program, in perpetuity.

Available within the EU contact Tharien van Eck, within the UK contact Nancy Lynner. Also availbale on Amazon UK and Amazon US. See this article for more details.

The Engraver’s Secret 

by Lisa Medved, AWC The Hague

Two women, a mysterious map, and a family secret spanning hundreds of years: The Engraver’s Secret by Lisa Medved is an art history thriller set around the life, times and feuds of the artist Peter Paul Rubens. The story juxtaposes the lives of an engraver’s daughter, Antonia, in seventeenth-century Antwerp, and that of an art academic, Charlotte, in modern-day Antwerp. Revolving around family secrets, the story looks at the devastating consequences that occur when secrets remain hidden, loyalty is questioned, and trust is broken.

“An inspired blend of history and suspense … This wonderful debut novel will inhabit your dreams.” 

— Dominic Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos and Return to Valetto

“Art and history collide in this sumptuous novel of dark secrets, family, violence and treachery.” 

—Karen Brooks, bestselling author of The Good Wife of Bath, The Brewer’s Tale and The Escapades of Tribulation Johnson

The Engraver’s Secret will be published by HarperCollins Australia on April 3, 2024.

The Engraver’s Secret is available as a paperback, e-book and audio book from multiple sources: https://lisamedved.com/books/

Modern Resin Jewellery

Be impressed by the ease and versatility of resin jewellery making

by Sara Naumann, AWC Hamburg

In How to Make Resin Jewellery, craft designer Sara Naumann guides you through simple techniques for making over 50 stylish jewellery projects with resin epoxy! Beginners are welcome—Sara demonstrates how easy resin jewellery is to make, providing tips, inspiration and step-by-step instructions.

The process is simple: Mix the two-part resin together and pour into a mould, bezel or pendant to make rings, pendants, bracelets and other pieces. You can combine resin with patterned paper and travel memorabilia, photos or maps, or embed various items in the resin, such as dried flowers or glitter; or use dyes and coloured inks. All relevant safety information is included, along with a troubleshooting section. Create a broad range of fresh, stylish projects to make your own bespoke wearables or fabulous gifts—easily, with guidelines, instructions and advice from Sara!

Available from Search Press in the UK.

A Daughter of the King

by Catherine Pettersson, AWC Stockholm

Paris, 1663. King Louis XIV sanctions a program to send destitute women to Quebec to settle his new colony; they are called “daughters of the King.” Jeanne Denot is one of them. Of noble birth, she assumes a false identity and boards a ship to Canada, narrowly escaping death at the hands of those closest to her. But when Jeanne encounters a mysterious stranger onboard, the course of her life is altered forever. After braving turbulent seas and hardship in the New World, she decides to risk everything to reclaim what is rightfully hers.

Available on Amazon.

Secondary

by Tracey Rosenberg, AWC Central Scotland

Secondary is the debut full-length collection of an insightful and compassionate poet.

Starting with the hopelessness of unrequited love, a theme which twines through medieval France, the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and the cruelty of a Time Lord choosing yet another companion, the poems move to the agonies of cancer told from a myriad of perspectives. Even in despair, though, miracles are found— in gardens and the stars, in the loyalty of dogs and the trust of a man in a Black Watch kilt.

The book is available on Red Squirrel Press.

Where the Rivers Meet

by Jawahara Saidullah, AIWC Düsseldorf

In 1976, a 17-year-old’s gang rape was hushed up. Aastha was forced to marry her rapist. Nearly 30 years later, Aastha struggles to come to terms with a life full of bitterness, emotional solitude and compromises. The rape made her cold to her son Prayag;the secrecy and shame kept his mother distant. In an attempt at redemption, Aastha tries to help Reshma, an impoverished young woman, inadvertently thrusting Reshma on the path of mortal danger.

Aastha’s unwillingness to expose the past puts Prayag in the path of danger as well. The lives of Aastha, Prayag, Reshma, the four rapists, and those around them all fracture and intersect everywhere. As the roots of hatred, love and the meaning of family get brutally exposed by a religious riot, Aastha’s determination to finally make her own choices and reveal long-held secrets may hold the keys to life.

Available from AbeBooks.

We Are Warrior Queens

by Jawahara Saidullah, AIWC Düsseldorf

Sexually abused as a young girl in a society that rendered children without a voice, Jawahara Saidullah drifted through life, certain the trauma she’d suffered as a child meant she wasn’t worthy to take part in living. Through her identification of India’s warrior queens, Jawahara eventually found the strength to face her trauma.

Like these historical women who saved their thrones, lineage and countries in male-dominated societies that considered them too weak to rule, Jawahara’s lifelong connection to her country’s warrior queens inspired a determination to succeed that became the foundation of strength she fought to pass along to her adopted daughter.

Available on Amazon. 

The Burden of Foreknowledge

By Jawahara Saidullah, AIWC Düsseldorf

In 16th century India, when Nadee is swept away by the Yamuna, her life itself becomes a journey; a journey that takes her from her devastated village, Zameerpur, to the burning ghats of Kashi, to the courts of Agra and then on to the city of dreams, Fatehpur-Sikri. This book traces her journey until she finally achieves what has been predestined.

Available online. 

Jeanne: Seeds of Infinity

by Mary Bruton Sandifer, AWA Aquitaine

Mary Bruton Sandifer was born in Washington DC where she earned her university degree in Literature.After a peripatetic life in New York, London and Paris, home is now a hilltop above the Dordogne River where she works with her husband and children making wine.

Jeanne is set in rural France in a time when traditional customs persist, and the wisdom of herbal healers is respected; a place where Nature still unfolds her magic.But trusted institutions have been violated and the delicate balance is fractured.Sources for ancient remedies are destroyed and the knowledge of farmers and botanists is banned and prosecuted.When Jeanne’s family stands against this tide to preserve seed sovereignty, they lose verything.Barely into adulthood, Jeanne is called against her will to fulfill her ancestor’s promise: protect the miracle hidden in the forest.

Praise for this novel from Pamela Hogan, Emmy Award winner, Women, War & Peace: “This beautiful novel is a love letter to the French countryside and its secrets. Jeanne is a heroine for the ages, and I loved her.”

Available on Amazon.

Pinecraft

by Maggie Scannell (Maggie Repp), AWC Berlin

The school summer holidays are doomed to be a disaster for Josh Greenback after his village is flooded and everything in his home is destroyed. His mum sends him to Scotland for three weeks, to stay with his eccentric granny. Three weeks! In Ochtermuddy!! What is he going to do??

But things take an unusual turn when Josh has a chance encounter with a beaver called Timb, who lives in a lodge not far from his granny’s house. The two discover that although they are very different, they also have many things in common, including the same hobby – building.

Josh describes his cool Lego creations and tells Timb about his favorite computer game, Minecraft. Timb can hardly believe the similarities, and describes his analogue version of the game, which the beavers call Pinecraft. And so begins a wonderful friendship and a summer full of fun and adventure.

Available in the UK at Troubador Books; in the rest of the world - Amazon and most online bookshops.

The Prehistoric Rock Art of Morocco:
A Study of Its Extension, Environment and Meaning
by Susan Searight, AIWC Casablanca

This study analyses almost 300 known prehistoric rock art sites dating from c.2500 BC set within their environmental context. Susan Searight discusses the themes and motifs represented, comprising anthropomorphs, human hands and feet, weapons, agricultural tools, chariots and geometric forms, and their distribution. ISBN-13: 978-1-84171-659-6- Available through Amazon Worldwide.

Pineapples in Paris: My Sweet French Life

by Vernetia Couty Smith

A straightforward, sassy African-American woman falling in love with an uptight Frenchman may seem like an unlikely combination, but life is full of unexpected surprises. Pineapples In Paris: My Sweet French Life is a heart-warming memoir of love, grief and resilience. It illustrates the power of changing direction for a happier life when you believe in love.

Little did I know when I moved to Paris with a few suitcases and a heart filled with dreams that I would not only fall head over heels in love with Paris, but I’d also lose my heart to a sexy and reserved Frenchman named François. Was this the chance for the fresh start I needed? Come with me on my journey and experience the City of Light with fresh eyes.

As the famed Edith Piaf sang, “Non, je ne regrette rien!” — No, I don’t regret anything.

Available on Amazon.

Hostage in Havana
by Ann Somerhausen, AWC Brussels

Ann Somerhausen, an ambassador's wife recounts a year of diplomatic life in Cuba culminating in the terrifying ordeal of her husband being kidnapped by an armed and desperate dissident. Ann Somerhausen was born in Connecticut and grew up in New York City. After graduation from St. Lawrence University, she married Jean Somerhausen, a Belgian diplomat. In the course of her husband's long career she lived in seven different countries spread out over four continents. In addition to her duties as a diplomat's wife, she pursued her own vocation for writing. Short stories and articles have appeared under her name in various publications in the United States and in Belgium. The experience in Cuba had haunted her for many years before she finally was able to write about it in this memoir. She currently lives in Brussels, Belgium. Available at Amazon Worldwide.

Saving Sara 

by Sara Somers, AAWE Paris

Saving Sara chronicles Somers’s food addiction from childhood to adulthood, beginning with abnormal eating as a nine-year-old. As her addiction progresses in young adulthood, she becomes isolated, masking her shame and self-hatred with drugs and alcohol. Time and again, she rationalizes why this time will be different, only to have her physical cravings lead to ever-worse binges, to see her promises of doing things differently next time broken, and to experience the amnesia that she – like every addict – experiences when her obsession sets in again.

Even after Somers is introduced to the solution that will eventually end up saving her, the strength of her addiction won’t allow her to accept her disease. Twenty-six more years pass until she finally crawls on hands and knees back to that solution, and learns to live life on life’s terms

A raw account of Somers’s decades-long journey, Saving Sara underscores the challenges faced by food addicts of any age – and the hope that exists for them all.

Available on Amazon.com. Or search under "Saving Sara A Memoir of Food Addiction" at Amazon.fr, Amazon.uk.co, or in the US at Bookshop.org.

Exile Music

by Jennifer Steil, AAWE Paris

Exile Music explores an overlooked slice of World War II history, following a family of Jewish musicians who flee Nazi-controlled Vienna in 1939 to seek refuge in the Bolivian Andes. Orly, the young protagonist, is heartbroken to leave her soul-friend Anneliese behind, as well as her beloved brother. As she grows up in La Paz, her journey speaks to the plight of immigrants and refugees worldwide, faced with having to reimagine their entire lives in a new country, culture, and language. When Orly stumbles upon the queer German trilogy The Scorpion, she recognizes her sexuality in its pages, while simultaneously recognizing its impossibilities. 

The novel’s structure mirrors that of Mahler’s Third Symphony, underscoring the ways in which each character uses music to help find a way through grief and loss. The novel won the Grand Prize in the 2020 Eyelands Book Awards and the awards for both Multicultural and Historical novel at the 2022 International Book Awards and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Lesbian Fiction Award, the Bisexual Book Award, and the Annie Award. 

Available on Amazon.

The Ambassador’s Wife

by Jennifer Steil, AAWE Paris

From a real-life ambassador’s wife and the acclaimed author of Exile Music comes a harrowing novel about the kidnapping of an American woman in the Middle East and the heartbreaking choices she and her husband each must make in the hope of being reunited.

When bohemian artist Miranda meets British ambassador Finn in the ancient stone streets of an Islamic city, the course of her life alters in extraordinary ways. Their marriage gives her the luxury to paint whenever she wants, a staff to wait on her, and a young daughter she adores, but she loses the freedom to wander where she likes and to meet the Muslim women she is secretly teaching to paint. Her husband also makes Miranda a target: One sunny afternoon while hiking in the mountains, she is brutally kidnapped.
 
As Finn struggles to save his family and his career, and Miranda grows close to a stranger’s child in captivity, the secrets he and Miranda have each sought to hide place them and those who trust them in peril. Not even freedom could restore the happiness that once was theirs.

Available on Amazon.

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky

by Jennifer Steil, AAWE Paris

In a world fraught with suspicion between the Middle East and the West, it’s hard to believe that one of the most influential newspapers in Yemen – the desperately poor, ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, which has made has made international headlines for being a terrorist breeding ground – would be handed over to an agnostic, Campari-drinking, single woman from Manhattan who had never set foot in the Middle East. Yet this is exactly what happened to journalist Jennifer Steil.
 
Restless in her career and her life, Jennifer, a gregarious, liberal New Yorker, initially accepts a short-term opportunity in 2006 to teach a journalism class to the staff of The Yemen Observer in Sana’a, the beautiful, ancient and very conservative capital of Yemen. Seduced by the eager reporters and the challenging prospect of teaching a free-speech model of journalism there, she extends her stay to a year as the paper’s editor-in-chief. In teaching the basics of fair and balanced journalism to a staff that includes plagiarists and polemicists, she falls in love with her career again. In confronting the blatant mistreatment and strict governance of women by their male counterparts, she learns to appreciate the strength of Arab women in the workplace. And in forging surprisingly deep friendships with women and men whose traditions and beliefs are in total opposition to her own, she learns a cultural appreciation she never could have predicted.  What’s more, she just so happens to meet the love of her life.

Available on Amazon.

Subtle Differences, Big Faux Pas
by Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly, AWC Antwerp

Your home country is a very large comfort zone. What can you do now to help you cope with the many differences of life overseas? It’s human nature to think that if something is different, it may be wrong. Subtle Differences, Big Faux Pas will introduce you to some of the many differences you may encounter living in a country not of your origin. ISBN-13: 978-1904881667. Available at Amazon Worldwide.

Ryder Stephens

by Veronica Ventura, AWC Bern

For her entire life, things were easy: school, the violin, making friends, keeping the peace. Ryder Stephens is a popular and accomplished girl who tumbled through her thirteen years with effortless ease.

That is, until her center falls. After witnessing her mother’s death, Ryder takes to the streets to right the wrongs thrust upon her by an unjust world. Hardships lead to foolish decisions, which snowball fast. Starving and failing, pieces of Ryder’s shattered ego spill onto the NYC streets. All is lost until that one freezing morning, peeking from behind the stone lions at the central library, she spots Jack.

When he invites her into his home, Ryder makes a decision: no more flashbacks, no more grief. With one click, she deletes her past. As different and complicated as Jack’s family is, a fake family is a good deal better than no family at all. Then, the unthinkable happens.

Ryder Stephens is far more than a story of a young girl lost; it is about family and resilience; it’s about how society steps in to take care of its own. Ryder Stephens is a must-read book for those who enjoy novels with heart.

Available on Amazon.

Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet

by Chelsea Wald, AWC The Hague

Chelsea Wald is a science and environmental reporter who started writing about toilets more than a decade ago. Her 2021 book Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet —about the future of the toilet—was recently named one of three finalists for the National Association of Science Writers Science in Society awards. She has also written for Nature, New Scientist, Wired, and other publications, and was interviewed on the “99 Percent Invisible” podcast and “Fresh Air” radio show.

Most of us give little thought to our bathrooms, but the toilet is an unexpected paradox. It is a modern miracle that has helped add decades to the human lifespan by reducing disease. It is also a tragic failure because less than half the world’s population can access a toilet that safely manages body waste. Environmentally, toilets squander clean water as well as any nutrients, energy, and information in the stuff we flush away. In her book, Chelsea takes us on a world tour from a composite toilet in Haiti to a plant in the Netherlands that salvages used toilet paper from sewage. Pipe Dreams shows us how this sanitation revolution can reduce inequalities, mitigate climate change and water scarcity, improve agriculture and optimize health. Grab a copy – it is time for potty talk!l

Available online at Simon & Schuster. More information on the author's website.

Parenting Adventures through Paris, Germany and America: A Multicultural, Instructive Memoir

by Marlane Nigbur (Wingo), AWC Hamburg

What's the ultimate goal for every parent? To raise a happy, independent child. Marlane was dumbfounded with German child-rearing techniques. When she moved to Hamburg, she could not understand their logic behind feeding their children mounds of bread and dessert. And why hasn’t anyone heard of sleep training? As an American living abroad, a new mom in a new country sets out to make sense of different parenting styles from Europe and America. She sports her cultured-colored sunglasses and ventures out with her son to playground playdates and gelato meet-ups. Geographically speaking, she assumed parenting tactics would be similar, but they often clash. After seeing past the stereotypes and gracefully collecting herself from embarrassing cultural mishaps, she maneuvers toward optimum results to raise her young gentleman. Let Marlane lead you into a real-life fairy tale where moms can take showers daily and wash their hair every three to four days. She believes babies can sleep through the night at three months; in return, both parents and child receive a good night’s sleep. And Brussels sprouts are not only served on the grown-ups’ table. Although Marlane does not pressure Alec with Suzuki piano lessons, she is determined to bring up a model UN citizen who is multilingual. Other advice and “this is how we do it in my country” are sprinkled throughout the book from parents around the world. Parenting Adventures through Paris, Germany and America is a chance to explore other cultures’ lives where Google Maps and drones might reach but cannot comprehend.

Available through Amazon and also available for Kindle.

Further information about FAWCO Member authors:

Juliet Cutler

K.C. Julius

My-Linh Kunst

Robin Meloy Goldsby

Chelsea Wald