At The Heart Of It

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her latest book, Brené Brown writes, “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.” Don’t miss the five-part HBO Max docuseries Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart! In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection. Over the past two decades, Brown’s extensive research into the experiences that make us who we are has shaped the cultural conversation and helped define what it means to be courageous with our lives. Atlas of the Heart draws on this research, as well as on Brown’s singular skills as a storyteller, to show us how accurately naming an experience doesn’t give the experience more power—it gives us the power of understanding, meaning, and choice. Brown shares, “I want this book to be an atlas for all of us, because I believe that, with an adventurous heart and the right maps, we can travel anywhere and never fear losing ourselves.”

Delving into the everyday lives of real, everyday people, Walt Harrington skillfully draws the reader into an intimate relationship with the men and women profiled in this powerful collection of stories--people like V. I. Smith, a homicide detective; Deane Guy, a stock car racer; Jackie Jordan, a social worker in family services; and Sheri D'Amato, a girls' soccer coach. Originally appearing in the Washington Post Magazine, these stories, which capture a cross section of Americans, stand out in the field of journalism because of the unique way in which Walt Harrington uses unheralded, individual lives to elaborate on the great human issues of the day. In "Mothers and Daughters" three generations of women discuss how society affected the choices they made and who they became. "The Mystery of Goodness" follows a Harvard-educated lawyer who handles death-row cases for very little money because he feels the system is unfair to African Americans. In "To Have and Have Not" a young couple with two small children struggle to make ends meet. Harrington describes in detail the creation of a poem by Rita Dove, then United States Poet Laureate, in "The Shape of Her Dreaming." Harrington has adeptly combined sociology and journalism into beautiful prose. As "literary journalism," the stories employ scene, dialogue, and physical description within a narrative framework. At the same time, they also adhere to all the traditional journalistic standards of accuracy, fairness, and balance. As a result, At the Heart of It represents a subgenre that is rarely practiced and seldom understood even within the profession of journalism. All of these stories are snapshots, pieces of everyday life in America that are intended to be a mirror held to the lives of readers. These are not stories about which you can remain neutral; even the most casual readers will be moved by the glimpses Walt Harrington provides us of ourselves.

The structure of the African American family has been a recurring theme in American discourse on the African American community. The role of African American mothers especially has been the cause of heated debates since the time of Reconstruction in the 19th century. The discourse, which often saw the African American family as something that needed fi xing, also put the issue of women’s reproductive rights on the political agenda. Taking a long-term perspective from the 1920s to the early 1990s, Anne Overbeck aims to show how normative notions of the American family infl uenced the perspective on the African American family, especially African American women. The book follows the negotiations on African American women’s reproductive rights within the context of eugenics, modernization theory, overpopulation, and the War on Drugs. Thereby it sets out to trace both continuities and changes in the discourse on the reproductive rights of African American women that still infl uence our perspective on the African American family today.

On Certain Days, the Hurt Feels Brand New Most people love the music computer in Sara's brain. Earworm lyrics. Trivia and connections. Obscure cover versions. She knows it all. Only one person knows the obsession behind Sara's knowledge. And the heartache she hides. Can a break with the past show Sarah a new future? Originally appeared in Obsessions: An Anthology of Original Fiction, Stark Publishing, 2020 An excerpt from At the Heart of It All: The Day All Her Best Defenses Fail Sarah may have been born with the computer, but her father had at least installed the software and optimized it for music. The massive database she'd been filling as long as she could remember. Anything that changed after that hadn't been his fault. "Not now. Not while you're in this traffic." She took advantage of a dead stop on the highway and called up Jimi Hendrix and Crosstown Traffic to distract herself. Keeping the calendars out of her office helped some with this dreadful, painful month. Same with turning off the displays on her phone and her computers at work. Even if she'd followed her occasional impulse and spent all of October in some sort of technology and communication void, she'd know. Some part of Sara knew exactly what day it was. Every single year.

In April 2002, I went to New York with four co-workers to volunteer at Ground Zero for a week. At the time I was the director of an AmeriCorps program in Wisconsin. I announced this opportunity to the AmeriCorps members serving in my program and then coordinated the trip for those who were able to come. I knew this experience would change my life so I brought a journal with me to record my thoughts and experiences. I wanted to remember what it was like when I was there, so I brought the journal with me everywhere I went and wrote in it every opportunity I had. Reading it can be difficult for me, but I do it when I feel the need to reflect. I wanted to write out the notes of my journal because I needed to release my feelings from Ground Zero. I also felt it was important to share this experience with others. Many of my loved ones asked me what it was like volunteering at Ground Zero but I couldn't verbalize it; this memoir is a recollection of what I experienced while in New York, based on my journal. I changed some of the names to respect the privacy of those I met. To separate the time I spent exploring New York, and time at Ground Zero, boldface type highlights time spent at Ground Zero. Because it was such an emotional experience for me, and because I experienced a lot, some details are fuzzy, but this is how I remember New York and Ground Zero. This is my experience, from the bus trip, to volunteering at Ground Zero,and exploring New York.

"For anyone who believes, as I do, that the best hope for our fractured country is local, not national, Christian Kiefer’s new novel The Heart of it All will provide a welcome balm for the spirit. Here are people worth spending time with, not because they’re perfect, but because they’re not. What’s wrong with them isn’t nearly as consequential as how hard they fight for a better life, and not just for themselves. You set the book down and think, ‘This is what we’re made of.’ Or should be."—Richard Russo, author of Somebody’s Fool A small, declining town in Ohio. A family bereaved by terrible loss. A searing narrative about how American lives touch each other across divides both real and imagined... Set in failing small town in central Ohio, The Heart of It All asks how one manages, in an America of increasing division, to find a sense of family and community. Focusing on the members of three families: the Baileys, a white family who have put down deep roots in the community; the Marwats, an immigrant family that owns the town’s largest employer; and the Shaws, especially young Anthony, an outsider whose very presence gently shakes the town’s understanding of itself. A gorgeous, stirring novel in the classic vein of Richard Ford, Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, and Kent Haruf, The Heart of It All asks the reader to consider an America both divided and bound by its differences.