Sweet Mary A Novel
By Liz Balmaseda
Simon&Schuster ISBN: 9781416542964

In this mesmerizing debut novel by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Liz Balmaseda, one woman's hunger for justice becomes a journey into darkness -- and a punishing, soul-searching test of priorities.

Dulce Maria "Mary" Guevara is a woman with nothing left to lose. Wrongly accused of being a cocaine queen, she has lost her job, her reputation, and -- worst of all -- custody of her son. Even after the charges are dropped, suspicion lingers. Desperate to get it all back, she takes what she considers the only path open to her: She goes on a hunt for the real drug queen. Unfortunately, the one person she believes can help her is the last person she wants to see again: Joe Pratts, her ex-fiancé, a man whose connections to the drug world once ended their relationship.

Trying not to fall for Joe again is just the beginning of Mary's challenges, however. Her search leads her through the most deceiving of jungles: suburbia. There, she comes face-to-face with disturbing realities that challenge everything she thinks she knows about her formerly tranquil life. Mary's final dilemma hits closer to home than she ever imagined.

Sweet Mary is a gripping, heartrending story with a noir soul and plenty of surprising twists -- an assured debut from a writer with tremendous experience and talent.

I Am My Father's Daughter
Living a Life Without Secrets
By Maria Elena Salinas, Liz Balmaseda
HarperCollins ISBN: 9780060765064

Five nights a week, María Elena Salinas looks into a television camera and delivers the news to millions of television viewers. But when the newscast is over, she is like so many other women across the country: a wife and a mother, struggling to find balance between her personal and professional life. When María Elena accidentally discovers her recently deceased father had once been a Catholic priest, all she knew was suddenly thrown into question. Turning her investigative eye on herself for the first time, she begins a long, arduous journey for answers.

In I Am My Father's Daughter, María Elena tells the amazing story of her journey to the top amid her struggle to come to terms with family secrets. From her childhood in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Los Angeles and her adolescent years spent working in a sweatshop, to her astonishing break into network television, along with her coverage of some of the world's major events and disasters, Salinas frames her life behind the camera in the same warm and straightforward tone that is her on-air trademark.

Waking Up in America
How One Doctor Brings Hope to Those Who Need it Most
By Dr. Pedro José Greer Jr., Liz Balmaseda
Simon&Schuster ISBN: 0684835479

Waking Up in America is the compelling, inspirational autobiography of a man who has emerged as a pioneer in the field of caring for the growing population of impoverished and homeless Americans, and as a force for social change.

Dr. Pedro José Greer, the son of Cuban immigrants and the founder of Miami's Camillus Health Concern, has traveled from the trash-littered, drug-infested streets of one of America's toughest neighborhoods to the offices of corporate and political power brokers. Throughout his odyssey he has become known for his tireless efforts to bring health care to society's "untouchables" -- homeless drug addicts, hookers, alcoholics, runaways, or people who have simply lost their way. Many of them are in need of medical care, but all of them are in need of compassion, and "Dr. Joe" dispenses both for free.

As a young intern, Dr. Greer watched helplessly as a homeless, nameless man died of a curable illness -- curable if one can get the treatment that had eluded this patient. Galvanized by this incident, and convinced of a need to bring basic health care to those who are not part of "the system," he founded the Camillus Health Concern. Once a one-room storefront operation in Miami's Overtown district, Camillus has now grown into a clinic treating more than 10,000 indigent men, women, and children each year. At the same time, he has become an active and outspoken critic of our current system of health care and welfare reform.

Waking up in America is not only Dr. Joe's story, it also holds the emotion-filled stories of the people whose lives he has changed forever. His message is simple: stop thinking of members of the underclass as "screwups" and start thinking of them as human beings. By putting a human face on poverty -- by gently urging us to take responsibility through simply offering a kind word or a smile, instead of always looking the other way -- Dr. Greer proves that hope exists for every person, no matter, how dire his or her circumstances.