“Don’t You Know Who I Am?” has become the mantra of the famous and infamous, the entitled and the insecure. It’s the tagline of the modern narcissist. Health and wellness campaigns preach avoidance of unhealthy foods, sedentary lifestyles, tobacco, drugs, and alcohol, but rarely preach avoidance of unhealthy, difficult or toxic people. Yet the health benefits of removing toxic people from your life may have far greater benefits to both physical and psychological health. We need to learn to be better gatekeepers for our minds, bodies, and souls. Narcissism, entitlement, and incivility have become the new world order, and we are all in trouble. They are not only normalized but also increasingly incentivized. They are manifestations of pathological insecurity—insecurities that are experienced at both the individual and societal level. The paradox is that we value these patterns. We venerate them through social media, mainstream media, and consumerism, and they are endemic in political, corporate, academic, and media leaders. There are few lives untouched by narcissists. These relationships infect those who are in them with self-doubt, despair, confusion, anxiety, depression, and the chronic feeling of being “not enough,” all of which make it so difficult to step away and set boundaries. The illusion of hope and the fantasy of redemption can result in years of second chances, and despondency when change never comes. It’s time for a wake-up call. It’s time to stem the tide of narcissism, entitlement, and antagonism, and take our lives back.

I Am helps women end the barrage of negative self-talk and replace it with an empowering new narrative. You'll exchange lies for truth, insecurity for a rock-solid identity, and break free from the distorted messages that have held you hostage for too long. From the moment a woman wakes until she falls, exhausted, on her pillow, one question plagues her at every turn: Am I enough? The pressure to do more, be more has never been more intense. Online marketing. Self-help books. Movies, magazines, and gym memberships. Even church attendance and social media streams have become a means of comparing ourselves to impossible standards. Am I pretty enough? Hip enough? Spiritual enough? We fear the answer is "No." When a brutal bout with cancer changed how she looked, talked, and lived, Michele Cushatt embarked on a soul-deep journey to rediscover herself. The typical self-esteem strategies and positivity plans weren't enough. Instead, she needed a new foundation, one that wouldn't prove flimsy when faced with the onslaught of day-to-day life. With raw personal stories, profound biblical teaching, and radical truths on which to rebuild your life, I Am will help you: Refuse to ride the rollercoaster of others' opinions and start believing what God says about you. Stop agonizing over past regrets and failures and make peace with God's sovereign plan for your life. Leave insecurity behind as you exchange temporary fixes for an identity established on God's unchanging affection. I Am reminds us that our value isn't found in our talents, achievements, relationships, or appearance. It is instead found in a God who chose us, sent us, and promised to be with us--forever.

Earl M Middleton (b 1919) has prospered in ways few African Americans have in the rural South. A World War II veteran, and as a owner of a successful business that cuts across racial lines and as a political leader in the cause of civil rights, Middleton has garnered hard-won recognition. This work tells his story.

Wherever she goes the popular South African recording artist and celebrity Nianell offers this important, inspiring message: Every one of us should love ourselves. When we learn how to love ourselves unconditionally, we will be able to experience a life worth living and also inspire and touch the people around us. Then we not only make a difference in our own lives, but also in the lives of others. In her first book, Knowing Who I Am, Nianell tells how she has learned to love herself. She takes the reader on a journey through her life, from being a shy, withdrawn schoolgirl to becoming the acclaimed singer/songwriter she is today. Like most people, Nianell has had to face challenges, and she offers an honest and unpretentious account of her personal experience of suffering, the struggle to belong, love, womanhood, being a mother of triplets, and being a star. Her personal stories, many shared with the public for the first time, illustrate how she discovered who she really is and how she came to the point of accepting herself and her worth. Nianell’s descriptions of her experiences will touch your heart, inspire you, and help you realize the value of accepting and loving yourself as you are. Knowing Who I Am is an enjoyable combination of biography and inspiration. It is a reading and growing experience that will remain with you long after you have finished the book. The eBook comes with a special link so you can download some of Nianell’s most inspiring songs.

In Changepower! 37 Secrets to Habit Change Success, author Meg Selig guides readers through a step-by-step process that will help them achieve any habit change goal. Whether the reader wants to break a hurtful habit like smoking or overeating, or build a healthy habit like exercising or speaking up, Changepower! provides a springboard for change. Selig helps habit-changers move beyond willpower and succeed with changepower - the synergy that comes from combining willpower with other resources, useful outside supports, and wise strategies. In Changepower!, she shows habit-changers how to beef up both their willpower and their changepower to achieve habit change success. The key is revving up motivation. Selig reveals the most powerful motivators for change - pain motivators, the Eight Great Motivators, and even not-so-noble motivators. Research has shown that most changes take place in stages rather than overnight. Selig provides a step-by-step plan for each stage, leaving plenty of room for flexibility depending on each person’s needs. First-person stories, pithy quotes, and how-to exercises provide inspiration, humor, and encouragement as readers embark on their habit change journeys.

AN ELLE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AN O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE MUST-READ LGBTQ BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ELECTRIC LIT BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION OF THE YEAR A GRINDR QUEER BOOK OF THE YEAR A THE ADVOCATE LGBT+ Book You Absolutely Need to Read "Riveting… Every lie reveals itself so exquisitely that the parallels become an added pleasure, as soon as we uncover the ways they diverge." —New York Times Book Review "Dazzling. Here is a confident, psychologically astute new writer with a bold new vision." —Garrard Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Boy Erased Throughout this striking debut collection we meet characters who have lied, who have sometimes created elaborate falsehoods, and who now must cope with the way that those deceptions eat at the very fabric of their lives and relationships. In the title story, the narrator, desperate to save a love affair on the rocks, hires an actor to play a friend he invented in order to seem less lonely, after his boyfriend catches on to his compulsion for lying and demands to know this friend is real; in "Aim for the Heart," a man's lies about a hunting habit leave him with an unexpected deer carcass and the need to parse unsettling high school memories; in "Rorschach," a theater producer runs a show in which death row inmates are crucified in an on-stage rendering of the New Testament, while being haunted daily by an unrequited love and nightly by ghosts of his own creation. In I Know You Know Who I Am, Kispert deftly explores deception and performance, the uneasiness of reconciling a queer identity with the wider world, and creates a sympathetic, often darkly humorous, portrait of characters searching for paths to intimacy.

Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.