For the past seven years, actor and activist Ashley Judd has kept poignant journals of her travels into the world’s human-rights hot spots, where as a global ambassador for PSI/Youth AIDS, she waded into slums, brothels, and war-torn villages on four continents, advocating programs to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. As part of her journey to help these victims, Judd was forced to take a deep look at her own life, and at the damaging issues she had been wrestling with for years.

All That Is Bitter and Sweet is a highly personal and powerful memoir about change, hope, and human transformation. It tells the stories of the people Judd encountered and reveals her own personal demons—from depression to obsessive compulsion and codependency—unearthed as a result of her journeys. Judd recently received a Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Watch the video trailer for the book. Book signing to follow.