Sorry Not Sorry

Alyssa Milano’s sharply observed, uproarious, and deeply intimate ode to the life she has lived and the issues that matter most. Alyssa Milano, actress and activist, delivers here a collection of powerful personal essays that get to the heart of her life, career, and all-out humanitarianism. These essays are unvarnished and elegant, funny and heartbreaking, and utterly real. A timely book that shows in almost real time the importance of taking care of others, it also gives a gut-punch-level wake-up call in an era where the noise is a distraction from what really needs to happen, if we want to live in a better world. These are stories of growing up in celebrity, of family and of friends, of connections and breaking apart. They have teeth on the page and come from the heart. And they are stories that offer a direct line into the thoughts and life of one of the most visible, hard-working humanitarians we have. A bestselling children's book author, Alyssa's finally giving her fans worldwide what they really want to hear directly from her about: the life she has lived, the things she's seen and experienced, and the way she lives in and with the world.

"First published in 2019 by Bookouture, an imprint of StoryFire Ltd."--Copyright page.

A compelling #ownvoices story about friendship, rivalry, and sacrifice, original for our Point line. Janelle and Alyssa used to be friends.Best friends. They knew each other's deepest secrets and went through the hardest times together. But that was then.Now? Their status is somewhere between frenemies and full-on rivals. Janelle is all about making a difference in her community, while Alyssa reigns over the shallowest girls in school. Until the day Alyssa collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Suddenly, everyone knows about her declining health and race against time. And, in a stunning twist of fate, the only person who might be able to save Alyssa's life -- is Janelle. But will the girls' bitter past get in the way of their futures? With a fresh, unforgettable voice, Jaime Reed spins a riveting and empowering story of female friendship and how the difficult choices we make -- or don't make -- can change our lives.

Funny and deeply personal, Sorry Not Sorry recounts Glee star Naya Rivera's successes and missteps, urging young women to pursue their dreams and to refuse to let past mistakes define them. Navigating through youth and young adulthood isn't easy, and in Sorry Not Sorry, Naya Rivera shows us that we're not alone in the highs, lows, and in-betweens. Whether it's with love and dating, career and ambition, friends, or gossip, Naya inspires us to follow our own destiny and step over--or plod through--all the crap along the way. After her rise and fall from early childhood stardom, barely eking her way through high school, a brief stint as a Hooters waitress, going through thick and thin with her mom/manager, and resurrecting her acting career as Santana Lopez on Glee, Naya emerged from these experiences with some key life lessons: Sorry: - All those times I scrawled "I HATE MY MOM" in my journal. So many moms and teenage daughters don't get along--we just have to realize it's nothing personal on either side. - At-home highlights and DIY hair extensions. Some things are best left to the experts, and hair dye is one of them. - Falling in love with the idea of a person, instead of the actual person. Not Sorry: - That I don't always get along with everyone. Having people not like you is a risk you have to take to be real, and I'll take that over being fake any day. - Laughing at the gossip instead of getting upset by it. - Getting my financial disasters out of the way early--before I was married or had a family--so that the only credit score that I wrecked was my own. Even with a successful career and a family that she loves more than anything else, Naya says, "There's still a thirteen-year-old girl inside of me making detailed lists of how I can improve, who's never sure of my own self-worth." Sorry Not Sorry is for that thirteen-year-old in all of us.

Why don't white people understand that Converse tekkies are not just cool but a political statement to people of colour? Why is it that South Africans of colour don't really 'write what we like'? What's the deal with people pretending to be 'woke'? Is Islam really as antifeminist as is claimed? What does it feel like to be a brown woman in a white media corporation? And what life lessons can we learn from Bollywood movies? In Sorry, Not Sorry, Haji Mohamed Dawjee explores the often maddening experience of moving through post-apartheid South Africa as a woman of colour. In characteristically candid style, she pulls no punches when examining the social landscape: from arguing why she'd rather deal with an open racist than some liberal white people, to drawing on her own experience to convince readers that joining a cult is never a good idea. In the provocative voice that has made Mohamed Dawjee one of our country's most talked-about columnists, she offers observations laced with acerbic wit. Sorry, Not Sorry will make readers laugh, wince, nod, introspect and argue.

Bullies aren’t born mean—through the vicious cycle of mean, bullies are made. According to the Ambassadors 4 Kids Club, one out of every four students is bullied—and 85% of these situations never receive intervention. Parents, students, and teachers have amped up solving the bullying problem for a networked generation of kids. Written by bestselling author Nancy Rue, each book in the Mean Girl Makeover trilogy focuses on a different character’s point of view: the bully, the victim, and the bystander. The books show solid biblical solutions to the bullying problem set in a story for tween girls. Sorry I’m Not Sorry tells the story of Kylie Steppe, former queen bee of Gold Country Middle School. After bullying a fellow GCMS student, Kylie has been expelled—and she has to attend mandatory counseling. Without her posse to aid her and other peers to torment, Kylie focuses on the person who stole her GVMS popularity crown: Tori Taylor. As Kylie plots revenge on Tori, she attends therapy sessions, where she reveals a few details that might explain why she finds power in preying on her middle school peers. After a rough year with bullying backfire, will Kylie decide to become more empathetic with her peers? It's hard for tweens to imagine why a bully acts the way she does. Sorry I’m Not Sorry shows girls that they hold the power to stop bullying through mutual understanding and acts of love.

'Oh my gosh, this book is laugh-out-loud hilarious, I was cracking up the entire time! The jokes are great! The banter is awesome! I’m in love!' Crocklife, 5 stars New Year’s Eve. The most over-rated night of the year, right? I have to get through a night of enforced fun, drink all the prosecco and talk about new beginnings. But I don’t want new beginnings. I want my old beginning back. It’s been ten days, two hours and forty-three minutes since Tansy got dumped. Two heartbreaking weeks since Renzo, who made her weak at the knees and dizzy with excitement, found out Tansy’s secret – and ended it on the spot. Since then, she’s spent every evening scrolling through their old photos, drunk texted him twenty-six times (he stopped reading after five), and lost count of how many packets of Kleenex she’s cried her way through. That’s where Operation Get Renzo Back comes in. She ropes in a new wing-woman, maxes out her credit card and accidentally-on-purpose bumps into him at every opportunity. Oh, and she finds a fake boyfriend, as you do… But while she’s busy pretending, Tansy’s plan is thrown a major curveball. She has to learn the hard way that it’s not her, it’s him – and that sometimes, a break-up can end up being the making of you. A fresh, funny and fabulous novel for anyone who has been dumped, got a post-break-up haircut, stalked an ex on Facebook, and then realised they were WAY better off without them. Fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Matt Dunn will love this laugh-out-loud read. Readers absolutely love It’s Not You It’s Him: ‘OMG I loved it. Sophie Ranald has done it again. I could not put the book down.’ NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars ‘I absolutely loved this book. I devoured it in less than a day.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Let me just say I LOVED this so much.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘This book is absolutely amazing and you can't help but binge read all the words… Couldn’t put it down.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘I absolutely loved this book! Sophie Ranald has managed to perfectly balance romance, comedy and some pretty serious topics.’ Goodreads Reviewer ‘Had me laughing, crying and I simply couldn’t put it down. I raced through it in a few hours. And I simply loved it.’ Goodreads Reviewer ‘Amazing and hilarious… I had a blast reading it… It’s a straight-up five-star read for me!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars 'I adored this book!... I loved every hilarious, emotional and romantic moment (and had to stay up long past my bed time to finish!)... Brilliant.' NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars ‘I could not put this book down!! I was in love from the first page. The main character was someone I want to have coffee with. It was like talking to your girlfriends... Amazing!!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Totally hooked me in… I loved the humor… I am excited to recommend this book to my friends!’ NetGalley Reviewer ‘Seriously funny… I cannot recommend this book highly enough and will be telling all the patrons that come into my library for a good summer read to get this!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘I was constantly saying I'm just going to read a little longer until I finally looked up and it was 2:00 in the morning and I had finished the book.’ NetGalley Reviewer ‘Genuinely made me laugh out loud! Perfect.’ Goodreads Reviewer ‘A feel-good, laugh-out-loud rom com that is hugely relatable.’ Goodreads Reviewer ‘Absolutely gorgeous… Sharp humour, witty characters, real dialogue and lots of laughs sewn together with awkward and heartfelt moments. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘I struggled to put this book down!... Sophie Ranald really brought all the feels… Definitely pick up this book!’ Dream Come Review

“In these soaring, open-hearted essays, Vanessa Zoltan writes with fierce brilliance about suffering, survival, and the kind of meaning in life that can withstand real scrutiny.”—John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars and The Anthropocene Reviewed A deeply felt celebration of a classic novel--and a reflection on the ways our favorite books can shape and heal us. Our favorite books keep us company, give us hope, and help us find meaning in a chaotic world. In this fresh and relatable work, atheist chaplain Vanessa Zoltan blends memoir and personal growth as she grapples with the notions of family legacy and identity through the lens of her favorite novel, Jane Eyre. Informed by the reading practices of medieval monks and rabbinic scholars from her training at the Harvard Divinity School and filtered through the pages of Jane Eyre as well as Little Women, Harry Potter, and The Great Gatsby, Zoltan explores topics ranging from the trauma she has inherited as the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors to finding hope, meaning, and even magic in our deeply fractured times. Brimming with a lifelong love of classic literature and the tenderness of self-reflection, the book also reveals simple techniques for reading any work as a sacred text--from Virginia Woolf to Anne of Green Gables to baseball scorecards. Whether you're an avowed "Eyrehead" or simply a curious reader looking for a richer connection with the written word, this deeply felt and inspiring book will light the way to a more intimate appreciation for whatever books you love to read.