I Am Jennie

A memoir from the former porn star and addict Jennie Ketcham, whose stage name was Penny Flame.

In 1809, marriage was the best a spirited, healthy, and intelligent girl could hope for, especially if she was an orphan without a fortune. Jennie Hawthorne has been hustled to London by her well-meaning aunt to secure just such a marriage, though Jennie despises the prospective wife parade and yearns for her childhood home by the North Sea. All that changes when she falls for the dashing soldier Nigel Gilchrist, marrying him after a whirlwind romance. Nigel wastes no time whisking his bride to the Scottish Highlands where he will serve as manager to the family estate. In Scotland Jennie is faced with the realities of the Highland Clearances: tenant cottagers forcibly evicted from their homes by lairds to make way for sheep and grazing land. When Jennie learns that both Nigel and his brother are complicit in such clearances, she finds her heart warring with her conscience. She defies Nigel and his brother, doing what she can to help the cottagers, and helping Alick Gilchrist resist the clearances. But their efforts bring disaster: a tragic accident makes Alick a hunted fugitive, and Jennie is compelled by circumstance to throw her lot in with his as they face an arduous journey across mountains to ultimately escape the strife-ridden Highlands.

A frank account of the tempestuous life of the American mother of Britain’s most important twentieth-century politician. Brooklyn-born Jennie Jerome married into the British aristocracy in 1874, after a three-day romance. She became Lady Randolph Churchill, wife of a maverick politician and mother of the most famous British statesman of the century. Jennie Churchill was not merely the most talked about and controversial American woman in London society, she was a dynamic behind-the-scenes political force and a woman of sexual fearlessness at a time when women were not supposed to be sexually liberated. A concert pianist, magazine founder and editor, and playwright, she was also, above all, a devoted mother to Winston. In American Jennie, Anne Sebba draws on newly discovered personal correspondences and archives to examine the unusually powerful mutual infatuation between Jennie and her son and to relate the passionate and ultimately tragic career of the woman whom Winston described as having “the wine of life in her veins.”

The visionary behind the million-strong IF:Gathering challenges Christian women to discover what it means to do life with God rather than always striving to impress him, in this trade paperback edition of her perspective-shifting work, which now includes bonus material to enhance your book club experience, including discussion questions and easy-to-create recipes. All too many of us struggle under the weight of life, convinced we need to work harder to prove to ourselves, to others, and to God that we are good enough, smart enough, and spiritual enough to do the things we believe we should. Author and Bible teacher Jennie Allen invites us into a different experience, one in which our souls overflow with contentment and joy. In Nothing to Prove she calls us to… * Find freedom from self-induced pressure by admitting we’re not enough—but Jesus is. * Admit our greatest needs and watch them be filled by the only One who can meet them. * Make it our goal to know and love Jesus, then watch what He does in and through us. As you wade into the refreshing truth of the more-than-enough life Jesus offers, you’ll experience the joyous freedom that comes to those who are determined to discover what God can do through a soul completely in love with Him. * * * * * “These pages are what your soul is begging for" —Ann Voskamp “Nothing to Prove takes us on a journey toward freedom from the need to measure up.” —Mark Batterson We love this glorious and universally resounding message.” —Louie and Shelley Giglio “This book will help you take your eyes off your problems and put them back on God’s promises.” —Christine Caine

Never Let Me Go meets The Giver in this haunting debut about a cult on an isolated island, where nothing is as it seems. Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers -- chosen male descendants of the original ten -- are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires. The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly -- they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others. Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing. Gather the Daughters is a smoldering debut; dark and energetic, compulsively readable, Melamed's novel announces her as an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why am I here?” Recognize your calling, find your place of service, and follow God to a life of purpose. This 40-day journey is for you—and it might surprise you. What if God hasn’t hidden His purposes for your life from you? That life doesn’t have to be so exhausting and heavy and confusing all the time? That God has given you everything you need to live out the calling He has placed on your life right this minute as you read this? In Made for This, a beautiful blend of bestselling books Anything and Restless, join Bible teacher Jennie Allen on a 40-day interactive journey that takes you through a step-by-step process to guide you in answering life’s ultimate question. This unique book will help you: Stop living afraid and insecure by discovering how God can use your dreams and passions for a greater purpose Identify the threads in your life and how they intentionally weave together Trade control and safety for a life of God-honoring adventure by praying one prayer Discover how to fully surrender to God and identify the threads of gifts, passions, places, relationships, and sufferings in your life—not to get what you want, but to find what God wants of you.

There's a new player in the gig economy that's perfect for people who love books. It's called book coaching, and you really do get to read books all day and get paid for it. A book coach is a strategic professional who guides a writer through the creative process of developing a book -- helping them define the project, design the best narrative structure to tell their tale, and build both their confidence and their editorial skills as they write forward. Part project manager, part editor, part cheerleader, being a book coach is intellectually stimulating, soulful, satisfying work that you can do on your own time from the comfort of your own home. In Read Books All Day and Get Paid For It: The Business of Being a Book Coach, Jennie Nash, a multiple six-figure book coach and the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, shares the nuts and bolts of the book coaching business -- touching on everything from pricing and processes to marketing and mindset. Jennie has trained more than 50 book coaches in how to coach fiction and nonfiction writers, and now she is sharing her secrets about how to run a successful side hustle or full-time book coaching business.

This book is an inspirational, comical, and honest look at the dating scene through the eyes of a Christian woman who is trying to live up to God's standards in today's society.

A strikingly honest and disarming memoir from an ex-porn star and reality television personality who describes her descent into addiction to sex, drugs, and alcohol—and her ultimate path toward recovery. Drunk and high, holed up in a hotel room with a beautiful blonde she barely knew, Jennie Ketcham was thirty-six hours away from entering rehab. Her on-camera alter ego, Penny Flame, was a rising star. Her personal life, however, had been getting worse for years and finally hit an all-time low. After her parents’ divorce, she lost her virginity at thirteen and began a game of initiating boys her age into manhood. For the fleeting moments she spent in bed with them, she got to be the center of attention. Eventually, Jennie found porn—that enticing world of immediate gratification, endless drugs, and seemingly endless money—and became Penny Flame. Divorced from her feelings, tempted into a lifestyle she couldn’t afford, financially or emotionally, she entered Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew to boost her career. But when Dr. Drew and his staff insisted she appear using her real name, the once indestructible walls she had built around herself began to burn down. Jennie candidly recounts her struggles: confusing sex with self-worth, addiction with love, detachment with strength. Ultimately, I Am Jennie is a tale of a woman who considers herself a work in progress but who finally understands that the only person she can truly afford to be is herself.

Life doesn’t always go the way we hope it will. Whether it’s singleness, childlessness or some other big disappointment, it’s hard to be content when life lets us down. Author Jennie Pollock knows what it's like to feel discontent. With warmth and honesty, she answers common doubts that arise when life doesn't go the way we had hoped: Is God good? Is he enough? Is he worth it? She walks readers through the process of taking our eyes off the things we wish we had and instead enjoying the character of the God we do have—a God who is good, who meets all our needs, and whose promises are worth the wait. Drawing on encouragements from the Bible and the stories of others, this book helps readers to trust in God’s plan for their lives and enjoy true contentment through a genuine conviction that Jesus is better than even our most keenly-felt hopes and longings for this life.