Thomas Giacomaro

Natasha Stoynoff

Tom Giacomaro, the "King of Con" shares his story, with exclusive details about his life and scandals.

How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale

The King of Con

Dana Liesegang

From the time Dana Liesegang could walk, she was out looking for adventure, and she never stopped. As a fearless child in the Pacific Northwest, she climbed trees, caught frogs, and held her own with any boy in town. She brought that true-grit, fire-in-her-belly attitude to the Navy . . . and to her recovery from the unthinkable. At the age of 19, she was sexually assaulted by a fellow sailor and thrown off a cliff, left for dead. She survived--but woke up in a hospital hours later paralyzed from the neck down, with doctors giving no hope for recovery.They underestimated the spirit and stubbornness of their patient.In Falling Up: My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victory, Dana recounts her agonizing and sometimes comical struggle from total dependence to doing the impossible: walking again. With equal parts humor and rawness, she brings us along on her wild ride, as she navigates her new world, hurtles through rocky relationships, deals with family secrets, and returns to her love of sports and the outdoors. In the process, she learns the importance of forgiveness, discovers the awe-inspiring power of belief and perseverance, and transforms herself from silent victim to outspoken advocate and inspiration for people everywhere.After all, sometimes an unexpected fall can lead a person to reach for magnificent heights.

My Wild Ride from Victim to Kick-Ass Victory

Falling Up

Amy Newmark

Emme Aronson

Barbie comes in a curvy model now, Sports Illustrated features full-size swimsuit models, and fashion designers are focusing more on curvy women. There’s a healthy conversation going on now about body image and self-esteem, and Chicken Soup for the Soul is part of it, with this collection of 101 stories celebrating all the different body types that women have and how we can all be curvy and confident—fit and fabulous within the body types we were issued at birth! Supermodel EMME, the world’s first curvy supermodel, an advocate for women and a spokesperson for all the curvy and confident women out there, shares her own story and introduces us to women who have learned to be fit, happy, and confident about their bodies. These personal stories from 100 different women will leave you feeling empowered, beautiful, and loving your look. You’ll read stories about how women developed their confidence and dealt with societal and media pressures, about attitude adjustments and acceptance, and about being healthy and loving yourself just the way you are!

101 Stories about Loving Yourself and Your Body

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Curvy & Confident

Scarlett Lewis

fürsorgliche heilende Liebe schrieb der sechsjährige Jesse seiner Mutter Scarlett Lewis auf die Küchentafel, bevor er in der Grundschule von einem Amokläufer erschossen wurde. Wie diese Worte ihr über den schrecklichen Verlust hinweghalfen, ihr Trost und Hoffnung gaben und ihr erlaubten, zu Liebe und Vergebung zu finden, darüber berichtet sie in ihrem außergewöhnlichen Buch "Ich hab dich immer lieb". Sie möchte damit allen helfen, die selbst einen geliebten Menschen verloren haben. Als der sechsjährige Jesse Opfer eines Amokläufers wird, der 20 Kinder in einer Grundschule errschießt, ist seine Mutter Scarlett Lewis am Boden zerstört. Aber Jesse hat ihr eine Botschaft hinterlassen, die ihr hilft, zurück zu Liebe und Vergebung zu finden angesichts des Bösen, das plötzlich über ihre Welt hereingebrochen ist. Mit ihrem Buch möchte sie ihre heilende Erfahrung mit allen Menschen teilen, die Trost suchen, um nicht an der Welt zu verzweifeln.

Wie ich meinen Sohn verlor und für immer wiederfand

Ich hab dich immer lieb

Rita Gigante

Rita Gigante grew up in a world swirling with secrets, lies, and multiple sins. Her father, notorious Mafia boss Vincent "the Chin" Gigante, was the leader of the Genovese crime clan and the head of all five New York crime families for decades. But until she was 16, she was kept in the dark about his underworld activities. She unknowingly hung out at mob headquarters and witnessed her dad’s whispered meetings around the dinner table, but only knew what she was told by her mother and siblings about his odd behavior: Dad’s sick. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t talk about the family. Living with the family secret—and other shocking betrayals she was to uncover, then instructed to conceal—plunged Rita into emotional and physical turmoil for years. And then there was the blockbuster secret she herself kept hidden away: As the youngest girl in an old-fashioned, devout Catholic family, how could she confess to the unforgiving Godfather that she was a lesbian? They were all going to hell, she figured . . . unless she could find a way to embrace the truth and find redemption. In The Godfather’s Daughter, Rita details her spiritual journey as she unravels the mysteries of her family and herself, and learns what it means to live in the truth she finds. It’s a real-life father-daughter tale of betrayal and faith, violence and love—and how a young woman escaped from a spiraling darkness to reach the light. And in the end, with his daughter’s healing help, even the Godfather finally learns to live in the light and atone for his sins.

Natasha Stoynoff

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