Battle for Grace is about a seven-year-old girl who sees Funny Girl and has a dream. To act, to dance and to sing. It's also about how she becomes a woman whose life is virtually destroyed by a crippling mystery illness and how she fights the institutions that failed her. A woman who has lived an almost impossible love story that began before her illness. Somehow she and the man who is her reason for living, her caregiver and her partner in life have managed to stick together for more than thirty difficult years. Battle for Grace tells how she reinvents herself and turns tragedy into triumph for millions of women worldwide. At the same time, she transforms her life into something more beautiful and meaningful than her original dreams of stardom. Ballerina Cynthia Toussaint's promising career ended abruptly when a rehearsal injury that caused excruciating pain remained undiagnosed for thirteen years. This left her bedridden for a decade, unable to speak for five of those years and often reduced to uncontrolled violence. Throughout all of this, Toussaint's claims of pain were discounted by her HMO as being all in her head-a frequent occurrence with women and their doctors. Many people with her illness-sometimes called the Suicide Disease-take their lives instead of contending with the pain. Toussaint's story is about her refusal to be a victim. She not only fought to survive, she has taken on the role of activist and aggressively challenges the HMOs and pharmaceutical companies that put profit ahead of patient care. Wheelchair bound, she founded a nonprofit and entered the political arena as an advocate for women in pain. Toussaint's memoir takes the reader on the roller coaster life of a woman who sees every no as a future yes. Despite pain, setbacks, abuse and betrayal, she holds her ground, finding in the process the spotlight she'd always coveted. And a deeper meaning in life than she ever expected.

It may start with a chance meeting or a casual smile. It could begin at work, on a blind date, or at the end of a relationship or a marriage. Every year, 3.4 million Americans are stalked by former partners, by co-workers, by strangers. Despite these epidemic numbers, all too often victims' complaints continue to be ignored. Meanwhile, both the stalking dynamic and the toll it takes continue to be misunderstood. National journalist, bestselling writer and stalking expert Linden Gross provides all the necessary tools readers need to know to handle inappropriate obsessive attention. Readers will discover how to control their natural reactions (which often put victims at a disadvantage), how to stop feeding the obsessive interaction that perpetuates stalking situations, and how to protect their privacy and safety. Gross explains how these dangerous obsessions begin, the patterns they take, how targets can protect themselves, and what potential victims can do before the nightmare becomes a reality. Knowledge is power. Armed with information and perspective, stalking victims can make the decisions and choose the course of action that makes sense for them. If you're a victim, Surviving a Stalker will teach you: How to recognize and control actions and reactions that put you at risk How to handle inappropriate attention online and off How to protect your privacy and safety as well as the privacy and safety of your loved ones How to break the stalking cycle and regain control of your life If you're a professional who deal with stalking, the multitude of case studies in Surviving a Stalker will provide you with a clearer understanding of the crime and the devastating impact it has on its targets. In addition to profiling stalkers and their victims, Surviving a Stalker delves deeper into the subject, offering critical insights on how best to handle stalking while also covering police and legal issues, behavioral and psychological patterns that lead to an escalation of violence. The author was aided in her research by the prominent Los Angeles security advisor, Gavin de Becker, who wrote the book's foreword. De Becker, author of the national bestseller The Gift of Fear, is widely regarded as our nation's leading expert on stalking. His work has earned him three Presidential appointments, as well as a position on a congressional committee on stalking.

Stalking may seem like something that happens only to celebrities. In fact, it is an overlooked, yet extremely prevalent form of domestic violence--far more widespread than many people suppose. Now journalist Linden Gross provides all the necessary tools readers need to know to handle inappropriate obsessive attention. Readers will discover how to control their natural reactions (which often put victims at a disadvantage), how to stop feeding the obsessive interaction that perpetuates stalking situations, and how to protect their privacy and safety. Gross explains how these dangerous obsessions begin, the patterns they take, and what potential victims can do before the nightmare becomes real. Surviving a Stalker also draws on the expertise of psychologists and offers secrets from personal security professionals.