The Long Way Home: a Journey to Recovery and Redemption


Book Description

This story begins with the exciting and unpredictable journey of a young man as he comes of age as a traveling musician and poet. His journey takes him across the country through various subcultures and the musical underworld. He experiences the thrill of adventure and discovery but also succumbs to substance abuse and addiction, emotional and relational issues, brushes with the law, and eventually, a near suicide. Through spiritual healing and a long and hard look at the truth about himself and his purpose, he learns to live and love again. He comes to understand that life is about using the experiences God had brought him through—the hard times and the good, the graceful ones and the talents, and the knowledge He has provided—to live a life with true purpose, meaning, and peace.




Road Trip to Redemption


Book Description

Brad Mathias thought everything in his family was fine. A busy, contented dad, he had vaguely noticed that Bethany, his middle child, had become withdrawn and moody, but he assumed it was part of being a "teen" and didn't look any deeper. Until the night God spoke clearly to Brad and his wife: Ask her to reveal what she has hidden. They did--and learned the secret Bethany had been carrying, one that rocked their family to the core. In a desperate attempt to reach their daughter and to reconnect as a family, Brad and his wife piled everyone into the car and embarked on a wild, crazy, seven-thousand-mile, what-are-we-thinking trip across the country. As they drove, they realized how far apart they'd drifted, found unexpected blessings along the way--and journeyed together from pain and loss to recovery and redemption. In this book, Brad shares stories from the road about God's grace, gives practical tips on what he learned about reconnecting as a family, invites you to consider your own epic journey as a mother or father, and calls you to trust wholeheartedly in the amazing love God has for your kids.




My Journey: The Long Way Home


Book Description

Over thirty-five years ago, Doug Fortenberry was near fatally injured in a motorcycle accident with a car attempting a U-turn on top of a steep hill. The accident left Doug paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, along with painful lifelong injuries he continues to struggle with to this day. This collection of essays and anecdotes explores Doug's journey to recover from his injuries and embrace his new life as a paraplegic. Since that accident changed Doug's life, he doesn't dwell on the unanswerable question of, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" In an attention-getting style, he presents the possibilities of the future by asking, "Now that this has happened, what shall I do about it?" His no-nonsense story makes a powerful impact, helping people meet the challenge of adversity through his formula for success: faith + attitude + action + accountability = success and excellence. His compelling adventure reveals how he has turned a combination of liability and disability into an asset and personal strength. If you are willing, he is able to help anyone become their best.




Sacred Housekeeping


Book Description

An honest autobiography of a courageous woman and social worker, who took an interest in the unpopular cause of helping incarcerated Jewish men re-enter society and made it her lifes passion. From that passion was born Beit TShuvah, a once tiny halfway house that has grown exponentially into a renowned treatment organization. Her voyage is remarkable and an inspiration to all people. This is the personal story of the obstacles she surmounted and the successes she encountered. This book also tells the unconventional love story of Harriet Rossetto and her husband, Rabbi Mark Borovitz.




A Secret Refuge


Book Description

Daughter of Twin Oaks, Sisters of the Confederacy, The Long Way Home.




Home Is Within You


Book Description

In this deeply personal memoir, Nadia Davis addresses her three sons with brutal honesty, hope, and strength, revealing both her childhood and adult traumas that led to issues with addiction and dysfunctional relationships, as well as to discuss transformational healing, spirituality, intensive trauma therapy, chronic pain management, healthy co-parenting and intimacy, preventing learned toxic masculinity, and more. As a young high-profile lawyer, school board member in Southern California, county supervisor in the Bay Area, recipient of state and national public service awards, and former wife of California's attorney general and treasurer, Nadia Davis has been a public figure in California for over two decades. Her experience with addiction in the trenches of a non-marital highly publicized and abusive relationship led Davis through the challenges of public shaming, injustice, arrests, mandated treatment, and a total lack of privacy for personal issues. Home Is Within You details her courageous journey towards wholeness and health as a woman, mother, and former spouse/co-parent in a powerful homage to finding one's truth and worth. It is also a defense of privacy and motherhood, as well as a call to action against shaming of women and ineffective, often damaging policies towards families struggling with mental health and addiction, with suggestions for more compassionate methods of treatment and restorative justice enabling those struggling to ultimately find their personal truth and strength within.




Redemption Road


Book Description

Sometimes the best cure for a wounded soul is a really long walk . . . One June morning, Fr. Brendan McManus stepped out for a much-needed walk—to be exact, a 500-mile hike on Spain’s renowned Camino de Santiago. A few years earlier, his brother had committed suicide, and the tragedy left Brendan physically, psychologically, and spiritually wounded. Something radical was required to rekindle his passion for life and renew his faith in God. Redemption Road is the story of a broken man putting one foot in front of the other as he attempts to let go of the anger, guilt, and sorrow that have been weighing him down. But the road to healing is fraught with peril: steep hills and intense heat, wrong turns and blistered feet. Worse still, a nagging leg injury could thwart Brendan’s ultimate goal of reaching the Camino’s end and honoring his brother in a symbolic act at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Constantly tempted to quit his quest, Brendan relies on the principles of Ignatian spirituality to guide him on his journey from desolation to consolation. For anyone going through the process of grieving, Redemption Road offers real hope— not that the path to peace will be easy, but that Christ, who himself suffered and died, will be with us every step of the way and lead us at last to wholeness and healing.




Long Way Home


Book Description

A “gripping" memoir (Rolling Stone) of one man’s descent into the depths of addiction and self-destruction—and his successful renewal of family ties that had become almost irreparably frayed. On the surface, Cameron Douglas had everything: descended from Hollywood royalty (son of Michael Douglas, grandson of Kirk Douglas), he was born into a life of wealth, privilege, and comfort. But by the age of thirty, he had become a drug addict, a thief, and—after a DEA drug bust—a convicted drug dealer sentenced to five years in prison, with another five years added while he was incarcerated. Through supreme willpower, a belief in himself, and a steely desire to alter his life’s path, Douglas began to reverse his trajectory, to understand and deal with the psychological turmoil that tormented him for years, and to prepare for what would be a profoundly challenging but successful reentry into society at large.




From Reel to Real


Book Description

Utterly compelling and deeply personal, From Reel to Real is the true life account of a Hollywood art director's journey through success, failure, and the devastating effects of addiction.




Long Walk Out of the Woods


Book Description

A physician shares the darkest depths of his depression, suicidal ideation, addiction, and the important lessons he learned through years of personal recovery. Pediatric oncologist and palliative care physician Dr. Adam B. Hill suffered despair and disillusionment with the culture of medicine, culminating in a spiral of depression, alcoholism, and an active suicidal plan. Then while in recovery from active addiction, he lost a colleague to suicide, further revealing the extent of the secrecy and broken systems contributing to an epidemic of professional distress within the medical field. By sharing his harrowing story, Dr. Hill helps identify the barriers and obstacles standing in the way of mental health recovery, while pleading for a revolutionary new approach to how we treat individuals in substance use recovery. In fighting stereotypes/stigma and teaching vulnerability, compassion, and empathy, Hill’s work is being lauded as a road map for better practices at a time when medical professionals around the world are struggling in silence.