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My best books of the year!

So many of us said we'd move to Canada after the 2016 election...Mahlena-Rae Johnson actually did it to seek a better life as a Black woman.

Storyteller Mike Ganino and his husband Phil survived the NICU in Mexico during COVID when daughter Viviana was born at 29 weeks.

When Lily Shaw was starting out as actress, her first agent told her, “If you only had the right look, you could be Sandra Bullock.”

Lisa Marie Simmons epitomizes post-traumatic growth. A singer-songwriter, poet, and writer, she uses her childhood trauma to power her art.

If you think about penguins, where they live, and what they go through to conduct their lives, it's pretty astonishing.

“The message sent to me was that this was not to be talked about…it didn't feel like a safe place to share…I wasn't going to be believed, be

Brigitte’s parents fled for safety. Her father carried his little brother on his back while they were fleeing Palestine.

“For years I lived with the guilt that I had done something wrong, that I had invited it in, that it was something to do with my behavior."

“Anyone who's Mormon will tell you there is Mormon. And then there's Utah Mormon. And then there is BYU, Utah Mormon.

Frontier Grit contains stories of women of color and all sorts of walks of life.

“It's hard for any child to be the only one in a category, and the more visible your category is, the more alienating it can be."

“It took a long time for the publishing industry to wake up to other countries as places people would want to read about.”

“I put pen to paper for the first time when I was 35, and I had my first novel published when I was 45."

“I don’t think people understand that when you go through loss after loss, after you see a heartbeat, it’s such a heavy grief.”

I have never felt like I belonged in any of my roles. I’ve never felt like I’ve belonged in an organization, and that needs to change.

"One of the things that motivated me the most in starting the band was pushing back against society’s messages about women and sexuality."

The humanity of America lives in the resilience of its people...which makes us realize America is full of angels.

Raina has an extensive grit story, but we mostly talked about her experience as a death doula and cannabis practitioner.

The Immigrant Story and the City of Beaverton present “DREAMs Deferred Live."