The Glass Castle meets The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in this dazzlingly honest and provocative family memoir by former child actress and current Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis. When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world's most famous primetime soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. Despite her age, she was already a veteran actress, living a charmed life, moving from one Hollywood set to the next. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother, as fame and a mother's ambition pushed her older sister deeper into the shadows. Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is a fascinating account of life as a child star in the 1980's, and also a startling tale of a family under the care of a highly neurotic, dangerously competitive "tiger mother." But perhaps most importantly, now that Melissa has two sons of her own, it's a meditation on motherhood, and the value of pushing your children: how hard should you push a child to succeed, and at what point does your help turn into harm?

When ten-year-old Mollie Trisk disappears on her way home from school, it shakes up the small town of Petaluma, California. When she turns up deceased a week later in San Francisco’s Russian Hill it becomes a case for the SFPD to solve. After two more girls are abducted with the same signature, Captain Daniel Fritz has a serial kidnapper case to solve. Eerily, he notices a connection to the recent abductions and his fiancée Cassandra’s new job as the first woman hired by a road construction company in Sonoma and Marin. The Perfect Contractor in Russian Hill, which takes place from 1977 to 1979, is the final novel in a trilogy. This gripping psychological thriller is sure keep you guessing till the end.

The Brussacs were rich, powerful, blessed, and envied. Yet through their lives ran a thread of tragedy and heartbreak that could not be broken, forever linking them in a hellish alliance. This epic tale soars from Nob Hill to the Barbary Coast to the Los Angeles oil fields in a stunning story of the tangled lives of an extraordinary family. "V. J. Banis outdoes himself...all-stops-out historical romance. --"Publishers Weekly "A rip-roaring romantic novel." --Library Journal

In rhyming verse, Bella recalls the simple, spontaneous days spent with her daughter exploring their neighborhood in San Francisco and speaks to the special bond of love and trust that comes from taking the time to be together. Hand-drawn-painted in gorgeous watercolor by Amber Rae Malott; Includes an interactive section.

Although author Gertrude Atherton was born and died in her beloved home state of California, she spent a significant amount of time touring and living in Europe. In Ancestors, she puts her experience as a world traveler to good use, spinning an entertaining yarn about several aristocratic English ladies who decide to liven up their twilight years by touring the rough-and-tumble landscape of the American frontier.

The fifth installment of Fast’s bestselling Immigrants series, continuing the story of one of his most beloved characters, Barbara Lavette. Howard Fast’s immensely popular Immigrants saga spanned six novels and more than a century of the Lavette family history. The series was considered one of the crowning achievements of his long career. This New York Times bestseller is the fifth entry in the series and focuses on one of his most beloved characters, Barbara Lavette, whom Fast based on his first wife. At sixty, Barbara is living a quiet life in San Francisco, grieving after the death of a longtime male friend. However, her spirits revive when she mounts an unexpectedly competitive congressional campaign. After narrowly losing the election, Barbara begins to reconnect with her past as a journalist and human rights activist, two passions that reignite the spark of adventure in her life. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author’s estate.