Award Winner: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
Glenn Close says: "Another Kind of Madness is one of the best books I’ve read about the cost of stigma and silence in a family touched by mental illness. I was profoundly moved by Stephen Hinshaw’s story, written beautifully, from the inside-out. It’s a masterpiece."
A deeply personal memoir calling for an end to the dark shaming of mental illness
Families are riddled with untold secrets. But Stephen Hinshaw never imagined that a profound secret was kept under lock and key for 18 years within his family—that his father’s mysterious absences, for months at a time, resulted from serious mental illness and involuntary hospitalizations. From the moment his father revealed the truth, during Hinshaw’s first spring break from college, he knew his life would change forever.
Hinshaw calls this revelation his “psychological birth.” After years of experiencing the ups and downs of his father’s illness without knowing it existed, Hinshaw began to piece together the silent, often terrifying history of his father’s life—in great contrast to his father’s presence and love during periods of wellness. This exploration led to larger discoveries about the family saga, to Hinshaw’s correctly diagnosing his father with bipolar disorder, and to his full-fledged career as a clinical and developmental psychologist and professor.
In Another Kind of Madness, Hinshaw explores the burden of living in a family “loaded” with mental illness and debunks the stigma behind it. He explains that in today’s society, mental health problems still receive utter castigation—too often resulting in the loss of fundamental rights, including the inability to vote or run for office or automatic relinquishment of child custody. Through a poignant and moving family narrative, interlaced with shocking facts about how America and the world still view mental health conditions well into in the 21st century, Another Kind of Madness is a passionate call to arms regarding the importance of destigmatizing mental illness.
FORTY GAVELS is the ground-breaking story of Illinois AFL-CIO President Reuben Soderstrom (1930-1970) and the American Labor Movement he helped build. For over four decades, Soderstrom led one of the nation's largest labor organizations through the most challenging, exciting, and impactful events of the twentieth century. From the depths of depression and war to the boom of postwar prosperity, through the birth of both the AFL-CIO and the Civil Rights Movement, Soderstrom was there, forging a legacy as one of organized labor's most prolific voices. Adopting a year-by-year study of these years, this three-volume biography follows Reuben to the front line of violent strikes, rowdy union meetings in Chicago, and policy summits at the White House, making Forty Gavels one of the most in-depth studies of the American Movement ever made.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
Former New York Times correspondent John N. Herbers (1923-2017), who covered the civil rights movement for more than a decade, has produced Deep South Dispatch: Memoir of a Civil Rights Journalist, a compelling story of national and historical significance. Born in the South during a time of entrenched racial segregation, Herbers witnessed a succession of landmark civil rights uprisings that rocked the country, the world, and his own conscience. Herbers's retrospective is a timely and critical illumination on America's current racial dilemmas and ongoing quest for justice.
Herbers's reporting began in 1951, when he covered the brutal execution of Willie McGee, a black man convicted for the rape of a white housewife, and the 1955 trial for the murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. With immediacy and first-hand detail, Herbers describes the assassination of John F. Kennedy; the death of four black girls in the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing; extensive travels and interviews with Martin Luther King Jr.; Ku Klux Klan cross-burning rallies and private meetings; the Freedom Summer murders in Philadelphia, Mississippi; and marches and riots in St. Augustine, Florida, and Selma, Alabama, that led to passage of national civil rights legislation.
This account is also a personal journey as Herbers witnessed the movement with the conflicted eyes of a man dedicated to his southern heritage but who also rejected the prescribed laws and mores of a prejudiced society. His story provides a complex understanding of how the southern status quo, in which the white establishment benefited at the expense of African Americans, was transformed by a national outcry for justice.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
During her final semester of college, Charita Brown suffered a psychotic episode frighteningly reminiscent of her grandmother's own breakdown and subsequent hospitalization. Afterward, she was diagnosed with an extreme form of bipolar disorder. Vowing to remain honest, Charita details her struggle after her diagnosis—a life full of love, hope, and success.
Charita Cole Brown earned a BA in English from Wesleyan University and an MAT in Early Childhood Education from Towson University in Maryland. She is now retired and lives in Baltimore with her two daughters.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
In 1991, Wallace Jeffs was coerced to become an FLDS polygamist.
In 2011, Wallace rebelled against the sect, and the FBI helped him reclaim his kidnapped children.
Then an "accident" put Wallace into a forty-five-day coma.
Growing up as half-brother to future Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saint prophet Warren Jeffs, Wallace tried to follow FLDS teachings. After he built a successful business, the church required him to marry a second wife. Wallace fathered twenty children, but he never felt comfortable with polygamy or many other FLDS beliefs.
As his prophet-brother increasingly manipulated him, Wallace started hearing about FLDS atrocities. On the day the FBI arrested Warren Jeffs for child rape, the prophet was en route to reclaim Wallace's second wife for himself. Wallace defied the prophet and soon ended up in a coma. Though Wallace fears FLDS sabotage caused his car crash, he keeps fighting the sect.
With today's movement against male abusers, Wallace's story reminds us that power and position don't corrupt all men. In 2018, Wallace found resolution by marrying an LDS woman in the Salt Lake Temple. At the same time, he renews our concern for the thousands who still live under FLDS control, including some of Wallace's own children.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
Fugitives from a man as alluring as he is violent, Andrea Jarrell and her mother develop a powerful, unusual bond. Once grown, Jarrell thinks she’s put that chapter of her life behind her?until a woman she knows is murdered, and she suddenly sees that it’s her mother’s choices she’s been trying to escape all along. Without preaching or prescribing, I’m the One Who Got Away is a life-affirming story of having the courage tobecome both safe enough and vulnerable enough to love and be loved.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
Inspired by a brother’s high school science project—a perpetual motion machine that could save the world? The Perpetual Motion Machine is a memoir in essays that attempts to save a sibling by depicting the visceral pain that accompanies longing for some past impossibility. The collection has been a science project in its study of memory, in the calculation and plotting of the moments that make up a childhood. The preparation has been “in the field” in that it is built upon the gathering of lived experience; the evidence is photo albums, family interviews, and anecdotes from friends. The project has been one giant experiment—to see if they can all make it out alive.
Award Finalist: 2018 Best Book Awards Autobiography/Memoirs
Six general anesthetics! Yes six! That is the astonishing number of anesthetics the average American will experience in a lifetime. Yet most people are blissfully unaware of its consequences – lulled into a false sense of security – believing that sleep rather than chemically-induced coma is the outcome. Inherently dangerous, anesthesia has matured into an essentially safe practice. It was not always so. Nor in every instance – things can still go terribly wrong. Before the advent of general anesthesia in 1846, very few surgeries were performed. When done at all, operations were limited in scope, and often as a last resort – with death as a common outcome.
Since then, the evolution of anesthetic practice has allowed increasingly complex surgery to be performed on ever-sicker patients. This anesthesiologist’s record tells the story. Drawing on personal experience, while tracing historical and scientific developments, Dr. Berend Mets chronicles the stories of innumerable notable individuals such as Drs. William Morton, Virginia Apgar and Christiaan Barnard in the past, and Drs. Archie Brain, Atul Gawande and Mehmet Oz in the present, illustrating the practice of anesthesiology along the way.
Tapping parallels with aviation to reveal how anesthesia has been engineered to become ever-safer, this book will not put you to sleep. Rather it will wake you up! Wake you up to the magic and mystery of anesthesia and its consequences.
Who was Fay Abrahams Stender? A giant among Movement lawyers from the McCarthy Era to the 1970s intent on forcing society to change. Friends could easily picture her as the heroine of a grand opera. A child prodigy, she abandoned the concert piano to become a zealous advocate for society's most scorned and vilified criminal defendants: from the Rosenberg espionage case during the Cold War to militant black clients, Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton and revolutionary prisoner George Jackson, to prisoners in the "Dachau" of maximum security. Stender achieved amazing legal successes in criminal defense and prison reform before she ultimately refocused with similar zeal on feminist and lesbian rights.
In May 1979, an ex-felon invaded her home and shot her execution-style after forcing her to write a note saying she betrayed George Jackson. She barely survived. Wheelchair bound and under 24-hour police protection, she then became the star witness in her assailant's prosecution. Awaiting trial in a secret hideaway in San Francisco, Fay told the few friends she let visit her there to "call me Phaedra," a tragic heroine from Greek mythology. Shortly after the trial, like Phaedra, she committed suicide.
Set against a backdrop of sit-ins, protest marches, riots, police brutality, assassinations, death penalty trials and bitter splits among Leftists, this book makes for a compelling biography. Yet it delivers on a broader goal as well - an overview of the turbulent era in which Fay Stender operated under the watchful eye of the FBI and state officials. We not only relive Stender's story, but that of a small cadre of committed Bay Area activists who played remarkable roles during the McCarthy Era, Civil Rights Movement (including Mississippi Freedom Summer), the Free Speech Movement, Vietnam War protests, and the rise of Black Power.
Before his rise to superstardom portraying Detective Steve McGarrett on the long-running police drama Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord was already a dedicated and versatile actor on Broadway, in film and on television.
His range of roles included a Virginia gentleman planter in Colonial Williamsburg (The Story of a Patriot), CIA agent Felix Leiter in the first James Bond movie (Dr. No) and the title character in the cult classic rodeo TV series Stoney Burke. Lord's career culminated in twelve seasons on Hawaii Five-O, where his creative control of the series left an indelible mark on every aspect of its production.
This book, the first to draw on Lord's massive personal archive, gives a behind-the-scenes look into the life and work of a TV legend.
"My Dearest Minnie" tells a detailed story of the journey of Rev. Caleb Richardson and his wife, Minnie Richardson from Orangeburg County, South Carolina to Philadelphia. It includes historical accounts of living and traveling in the Jim Crow South. The story spans a time from 1914 - 1985. It is an easy read that includes elements of history and humor. Great for people interested in African-American history and geneology.
During the Enlightenment, a now little-known Italian marquis, while in his mid-twenties as a member of a small Milanese salon, the Academy of Fists, wrote a book that was destined to change the world. Published anonymously in 1764 as Dei delitti e delle pene, and quickly translated into French and then into English as On Crimes and Punishments, the runaway bestseller argued against torture, capital punishment, and religious intolerance. Written by Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), an economist and recent law graduate of the University of Pavia, On Crimes and Punishments sought clear and egalitarian laws, better public education, and milder punishments. Translated into all of the major European languages, Beccaria’s book led to the end of the Ancien Régime.
Praised by Voltaire and the French philosophes, Beccaria was toasted in Paris in 1766 for his literary achievement, and his book—though banned by the Inquisition and placed on the Catholic Church’s Index of Forbidden Books—was lauded by monarchs and revolutionaries alike. Among its admirers were the French Encyclopédistes; Prussia’s Frederick the Great; Russia’s enlightened czarina, Catherine II; members of the Habsburg dynasty; the English jurist Sir William Blackstone; the utilitarian penal reformer Jeremy Bentham; and American revolutionaries John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. On Crimes and Punishments, decrying tyranny and arbitrariness and advocating for equality of treatment under the law, helped to catalyze the American and French Revolutions. In 1774, on the cusp of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress explicitly hailed Beccaria as "the celebrated marquis."
What happens when a vacation turns into tragedy 5,000 miles from home? Poco a Poco follows Michele Morris's courageous journey from her husband's shocking collapse in the Madrid airport to her heartbreaking loss six months later. Recounting her experience with brutal honesty and raw emotion, Morris invites readers to travel with her from Spain to Colorado on a journey of grief, loss, and recovery. While not religious, her spiritual journey will inspire others facing adversity, revealing how she found strength, hope, and unconditional love in the midst of tragedy. More than a memoir, Poco a Poco is a tribute to a love story that spanned forty years.
"Michele's story of shock, suffering, hope, caregiving, and strength provides boundless insight into how pain can provide opportunities to build strength, ultimately leading to inner peace. An important read for those suffering a sudden loss or illness."Rachel Blythe Kodanaz, author of Living with Loss, One Day at a Time
Shades of Grief recounts a unique personal odyssey following an ill-fated airplane flight, in which the author’s husband, the pilot, and three of his closest friends were killed upon take off.Adrift in grief, and without faith in the “eternal hereafter,” Susan’s journey led her through various shades of darkness and finally into a light of understanding.Along the way, she listened to the Buddhist monks chant to the deity Quan Yin, stood on historic battle fields, listened in isolation for the binary beat, screamed her heart out while acting on stage, visited psychics and came to wear the garb of the Crone.These were a few of the many experiences she experienced on her pilgrimage through the heart of sorrow. Susan’s journey led her on a path of discovery where she eventually found healing and peace. With a poignant voice and a humorous outlook Susan Williams shares her journey as she attempts to come to grips with one of life’s greatest mysteries.
If you’re feeling lost, uncertain, or just need a pick-me-up to help with an unplanned pregnancy, this is a book for you. God and Your Pillow shares Marianne’s experience that helps it’s reader by offering encouragement, inspiration, and a bit of laughter.
Marianne, at nineteen years old, felt God guiding her on an exciting journey. She had chosen a career and was on her way . . . until an unplanned pregnancy interrupted. Feeling she was a ‘good Christian’ came to a halt. Uncertainty surrounded her as an illegal secret erupted out of no where. Piece by piece, it became evident that God had lifted her up, holding her throughout the pregnancy and delivery, to then gently put her down into the new life, far above what she had even dreamed.
With honesty and a speck of humor, Marianne’s story shows how God can turn the life of someone who feels they are going through one tough soap opera into a good old fashion love story. God and her pillow - the only two who knew all her thoughts - helped her endure the trial that proved God’s plans are perfect.
Her grand adventure turned into a nightmare. After skiing 200 miles along California's John Muir Trail, Jean faces death from a mountaineering accident on Mount Whitney. Broken and bleeding on the highest peak in the continental United States, she vows to realize her greatest dreams if she lives until morning. Her escape from the Sierra Nevada Mountains turns into a five-day ordeal for survival. Jean's recovery is equally daunting. Her journey spans three decades and takes her from the depths of despair and chronic pain to the heights of the Himalayas. When the specter of Mount Whitney continues to shatter her world, Jean befriends Tibetan lamas. Their ancient wisdom guides her on a path beyond her wildest dreams.
Priscilla "Altoid" Giddings grew up in wild and scenic Idaho where she came from a heritage of strong women. Priscilla became a world champion powerlifter as a teenager, attended the United States Air Force Academy, and completed one of the world's toughest fighter-pilot training programs. Her experiences of developing physical strength, personal strength, and strength of character inspired her to continue serving in the fight for freedom at home as an Idaho state legislator. Her story flies you through the thrills of shooting a 30-millimeter cannon and the anguish of losing comrades in combat. You'll be inspired to build strength in your own life as you live through her experiences where she humbly bares the fears, pain, and trials of building courage, character, and strength. If you know a women on a journey of building strength, you'll want to share Priscilla's story of becoming "Curiously Strong."
When Lisa Steele-Maley began helping her father navigate the details of a life interrupted by dementia, she was in unfamiliar territory. As a wilderness traveler, she was accustomed to adapting to ever-changing situations, but as her father's health declined, the idea of finding stability seemed impossible. Only one thing was sure: her father was losing perspective--losing track of time, the slippers at his feet, and his ability to find his way home. Lisa wasn't sure she had the skills, experience, or patience to competently travel this path with him, but taking one step at a time, she found it was as simple--and as profound--as life in the wilderness: Be prepared, be present. Trust the process, stay close. Without a Map weaves together Lisa's experience of caregiving with lessons gleaned from decades of wilderness travel, rural living, and parenting. Revealing the uncertainty, wisdom, love and reciprocity of a caregiving relationship, this memoir contributes a deeply personal perspective to the subjects of dementia and aging.
A Candle for My Mother is an inspirational story of a young woman from the Midwest, Lorraine Newton, who longed to travel the world despite being the mother of four young children. “I’m going to see places, come hell or high water!” Lorraine remarked, and she made it happen. Lorraine’s stories in the book are told in her own words from tape recordings she made before she died, and letters saved by a friend, detailing Lorraine’s family’s amazing experiences in Iraq and travels in Europe. Into the bubbling political cauldron of the Middle East in the 1950s ventured an American family. Iraq was not necessarily what Lorraine had in mind, but the country fit exotic to a tee. It conjured up “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” markets filled with silks and gold, and travel in Europe on vacations. Lorraine was about to embark on a grand adventure.
Pamela Newton never felt closer to her mom than when she was traveling, sometimes logging over 100,000 miles a year: “Mom’s adventurous spirit was with me on every trip, in every country, encouraging me to make the most of each moment.” The things that Pamela experienced on her business trips often triggered a remembrance of her mother and her childhood. Those memories became the reflections and gratitudes that Pamela expresses at the end of each chapter when visiting churches across the globe to light candles for her mother, a tradition she began in Westminster Abbey.
For readers who may be reminded of exciting memories from their childhood, A Candle for My Mother has been designed with pages interspersed throughout for writing personal reflections. Here a son or daughter can add their favorite pictures, recount “Best Day Ever” times, write a thank you to their mom, or include poems, musings, or thoughts. It is designed to be a gift to oneself or one’s mom. Read it, write in it and then give it to your mother…with gratitude.
In his second book, Beyond the Opened Door: Grief as an Opportunity to Rediscover the Self, Yehuda Jacobi shares his experiences with grieving after the loss of his partner, friend and Teacher in the Taoist tradition. His psychologist recommended that he keep a grief journal to document his mourning process. Using those journal entries, he shares his dreams, life events, and commentaries, as well as his shock, anger and fury. He reveals his discoveries and challenges to achieving his eventual forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. There is a different focus with this memoir and it is that Death presents a challenge for everyone who mourns. After stripping all the labels of religion, culture, or sexuality, the one question that appears to be common for everyone is: how do we move on after the death of a loved one? The answer lies in the opportunity to rediscover the Self, a Self which is waiting beyond an opened door. The answers will be different for everyone who grieves so the self-discovery process is unique. One thing is certain: the answers will not reveal themselves until the mourner crosses the opened door. ‘Ann pulled me out of my reverie when she rushed up to me and asked if I had seen the quotation on the card I had selected. As I said, I hadn’t paid that much attention. She shoved the card under my nose. The card depicted a garden setting with an open iron gate. The quotation was from the Book of Revelations, Chapter 3, verse 8, and read, “Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” It was the perfect quotation.’
Donna called 9-1-1. David slipped into a coma. At that moment, Donna was thrust onto the path of caregiver for her best friend and the love of her life. In her debut memoir, Donna shares how a neurosurgeon said that David would make a "great organ donor." She writes of arrogant doctors, uncaring visitors, insensitive ambulance drivers, and problematic nurses. She also tells of the many compassionate doctors, nurses, therapists, staff, strangers, family members, and friends who helped them on their journey. Donna compellingly describes her ability to appear positive as she experiences the horror of making life-or-death decisions. As her world crashes, she credits laughter as her lifesaver. More than 13 years later, Donna and David are living a "new normal" together.
It is riffed with disturbing tales, moving recollections and reverence for ancient processes still practiced today.
How many food-borne illnesses are recorded in the US each and every year? Are we doing enough to protect the public from food-borne hazards? Can we do more? This book is a peek behind the food safety curtain in America. As someone who was destined not to follow instruction and allow life to take its own path, I documented that journey to provide a map for others producing, storing, and transporting food. Tasty Safety is a confection of life experiences on the path to a successful food safety career with the USDA... and as a concerned citizen. Be your own person. Defy convention. Protect the public in any way you can.
When nine-year-old Tali Stark from the Bronx stops to give directions to “The Man” in a white limousine, she unwittingly puts herself on a trajectory to emotional and spiritual turmoil that will take her decades to rise above. Blaming herself for the heinous crime that happened because she didn’t “go straight to school,” Tali is bound by invisible chains of secrecy, shame, and self-imposed isolation. Her harrowing and illuminating journey to recovery begins in her twenties with the support of her mentor, Dr. Daniel Benson, with whom she experiences deep love and then heartbreak. Feeling lost, Tali travels to Israel where Kabbalah sparks her spiritualism, and then to Africa where an arduous climb up Mount Kilimanjaro ignites a newfound feeling of empowerment. Only when Tali goes back to the Bronx and learns that her unreported crime scene has become the site of a rehabilitation center, does she understand that there is one more road to travel prior to reaching freedom.
It has been five days since her father’s death, and Liz still feels frozen in time. Left with twenty-one years of memories, Liz knows that John Frederick Smith was not a perfect man or father. She loved her father, but his drinking had always been a source of resentment. As she attempts to grapple with her grief and anger, Liz returns to her memories with the hope of finding the answers she so desperately needs.
Sixty-nine years earlier, little Fred Smith is born out-of-wedlock in the small town of Southport, North Carolina. As his life’s journey leads him from Southport to Virginia and then into the military, he eventually marries and starts a family. Still, he cannot escape the cloud of shame and rejection that secretly haunts him, sending his life in a downward trajectory that ultimately affects the lives of his children and grandchildren and leaves him wondering if he will ever find the inner-peace he craves.
In this poignant novel, the past intertwines with the present as an illegitimate child born during the early 1900s embarks on a dark journey fueled by a secret that creates generational challenges.
Anita grew up in the 3rd story apartment above her family’s Bohemian restaurant on Madison Street in Chicago's west side in the 50's and 60's. The daughter of a fireman and a housewife/frustrated writer, she befriended a ragtag brigade of children of immigrants and migrants. Together, they found both themselves and the world-at-large on their neighborhood’s streets. West Side Girl chronicles the colorful and oftentimes unpredictably eccentric characters and events of the area and time. Themes include social change, girls empowerment and the benefits of growing up in a diverse neighborhood. Seen through of the eyes of a child coming of age in the 1950's and 1960's, the stories of equality and nascent social justice are outrageous, insightful, funny, touching, inspiring and reflective.
Never Alone is a true story. It records the life of Juan Canales, including immigrating to the U.S. at 5-years-old, the physical and mental abuse he endured and his abandonment on the streets of L.A. at 8-years old. Even to the extent of coming face to face with his own death certificate. The book will leave the reader inspired and even challenged that no matter where they have been in life or what they have been through they are Never Alone!
Barb regards her husband with incredulity at the prospect of paddling down the entire length of the mighty Mississippi River in their recently completed tandem kayak. Paddle for a Purpose sweeps the reader into a journey of faith and personal discovery, as Barb and Gene feel called to volunteer with charity organizations in quaint river towns along one of the most scenic and powerful river systems in America. Against a backdrop of picturesque settings and the river's changing moods, exciting and often humorous accounts of adventure and mishap intermingle with inspiring stories of healing, renewal, beauty, compassion and trust in God.
Robert (Bobby) Charles grew up among “eagles and evergreens” in rural Maine. His enchanting, sometimes arresting, tales convey inspiration from place and people, love of a small town, influence of aging veterans. His stories take readers to unexpected places, often swirl to unexpected endings.
Over four seasons, he describes Maine half a century ago – smelting and rescuing ice houses, moose encounters and indoor ermine, raising mischievous rabbits and conversing with pigs, hunting a legendary “football-sized emerald” and learning from legendary World War II vets.
He takes readers down through thin ice, and up spires of one-match fires. He lollygags Dead River and confronts hair-raising disorientation out on the open sea. He rolls from distance running to downhill skiing, comedy to calamity, whimsy to courage with a fluid pen.
"Animals can and do make our lives better. This is my kind of book." --Bret Witter, #1 NYT bestseller co-author of Dewey [the Library Cat]"
The hu-amorous true story of an animal-phobic, city robotics engineer who learns too late that his new bride's dream is to have a farm where she can rescue ex-racehorses. When the newlyweds take a Meyers-Briggs Personality Test for fun, it tells them that their marriage is doomed. There is only one problem: they took the test after the wedding.
So whether he's chasing a cow named Pork Chop through the woods, getting locked in a tack room by the family pony, being snubbed by his wife's favorite dog, or unsuccessfully trying to modernize their barn using the latest technology, the odds are already stacked against him. It seems like everything on four legs is out to get him. Will the animals prove Meyers-Briggs right?
Enjoy the true, warm, and frequently hilarious stories of a man's journey along the bumpy road from his urban robotics lab to his new life on a rural Virginia farm.
This book of autobiographical short stories follows Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte's 2014 publication of "A Dollar Five: Stories From a Baby Boomer's Ongoing Journey." In "Running For The 2:10-More Stories From a Baby Boomer's Ongoing Journey," the discord of skin tone and racial prejudice often seep in to color the path, playing like an ever present low hum in the background of these coming of age tales. Set in Oakland, California, the road winds from family shopping trips to the local hardware store that activate the writer, to near derailing losses and finding alternative ways back to joy. In these stories, Bize-Boutte deftly describes how heartbreak can give way to hilarity and loss can make room for celebration. Be prepared to laugh, cry and gasp out loud, in no particular order.
YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS, at least not at your current age, but if you celebrate Christmas, you know there was a time when you believed with all your heart, a time when you weren’t quite sure, and a time when the truth became all too clear. The twelve stories that follow reflect a mix of those emotions and events, told by the man—then boy—who experienced them in the early 1950s. As anyone who has experienced Christmas morning can tell you, there will be joy and pain, disappointment and even heartbreak—the whole panoply of emotions on proud and not-so-proud display. Most of the stories are funny, and some are poignant; all are meant to remind you of your own stories of those halcyon days, when you laid in bed with tooth-picked eyes, trying with all your might to stay awake long enough to see the jolly old elf.
And so we begin. I am eight again, tugging on shoes too small and holey mittens warmed overnight on the living room radiator. I have already donned two pairs of pants and my only three shirts to brace myself against the cold. My mother appears beside me, young and pretty as always, insisting that I wear my Christmas scarf, a scratchy abomination as long as an anaconda, knitted loosely and tightly by my Aunt Louise, using a geometry known only to her. Despite my protests, she wraps Scarf Louisienne around my neck several times and nudges me toward the front door.
Outside, the world is white and still, the only sound the whisper of the falling snow. I lift my head to the snowy heavens, stick out my tongue, and accept winter’s cold communion.
Bill Cummings never aspired to be a billionaire and never acknowledged he was one until long after it happened. That's because it is not money that motivates him, but rather the immense enjoyment he gets from building and growing successful businesses. This fascinating autobiography shares not only how he got there, but also his singular dedication to giving back to the communities and institutions so vital to his success. In Massachusetts alone, the cash donations from Cummings entities to local charities already total more than $200 million. Through Bill's unique voice, readers experience his achievements and adventures, as well as his setbacks and personal tragedies. For anyone studying business, building a business, or running a business, Bill's journey also offers keen insights, cautionary observations, and the pioneering thinking that produced great prosperity and a multibillion-dollar enterprise. For everyone else, it offers a new and engrossing twist on the classic American success story. All proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to charity. This book has received praise from Melinda Gates, Dr. Paul Farmer and Ralph Nader.
On a Wednesday morning in May of 2010, 42-year-old Rocco Versaci dipped the rear tire of his bicycle into the Pacific Ocean and began to pedal, alone, across the country. He had what he thought was a simple idea-to sort out the story of his life, which had taken a couple of unexpected detours in recent years. That Hidden Road is a memoir of the two months he spent crossing the country by bike. It's a story of burning saddle sores, heart-popping climbs, and unleashed dogs with a taste for ankle. It's a story of America's less-traveled roads and the people who live there. And it's a story of rebuilding a life from fragments, the spirit of the whole journey captured in a question most of us ask at one point or another-Can I find my way home? Blending travel writing, memoir, and even comics, That Hidden Road-like Kerouac's On the Road, William Least Heat Moon's Blue Highways, and Cheryl Strayed's Wild-is an unforgettable story of being lost and found on the road in America.
An Unexpected Story of Hope and Perseverance... As a young child, it was obvious something was wrong with Michael. He lacked basic motor skills and was unable to follow simple instructions or answer questions. Testing revealed a diagnosis of autism with a low IQ. Experts insisted that leading an independent life would be impossible for him...and school was not an option. Supported by documentation and interviews, Michael's heartfelt memoir traces the sustained challenges and turbulent journey he faced. His life was plagued by failures, negative results, rejections from schools, an inability to complete simple karate moves or participate in activities-all of which confirmed the hopeless situation. But Michael was surrounded by support, and he was encouraged to keep trying no matter how many times he failed. Developmental progress was not always obvious, but Michael was finding his own unique path. What Autism Gave Me is a powerful reminder that the human drive to succeed is stronger than any diagnosis.
This memoir is a whirlwind journey that takes you through the throes of fighting cancer to an awakening of the metaphysical world, messages, visions, self-healing, and synchronized events of people put on her path to understanding our oneness.
The universal heart guided and embraced Kathy Collins through her *Doubting Thomas* phase and guided her to acquiescence through self-compassion. The creative nudges experienced provided the necessary building blocks that led Kathy to be of service to others. Upon entering her chaplain studies, Kathy s chaplain supervisor could not classify her with any one particular religion, so he referred to her as a mystic who lives the spirit of the word.
The spiritual healing of her heart, her physical body, and her thinking allowed her to be a bridge between dimensions. Today she uses her gifts to help those transitioning, at the end of life, to release the chains of fear regarding death. Her mystical approach to those left behind on the Earth Plane teaches them to know we are all closer than one thinks.
Chaplain Kathy asks us to be still and experience the unique connection of bringing Heaven and Earth together. The Divine Source resides and is waiting for all of us in the loving memory of our own beating heart.
Poignant, sad, tragic, funny, and compelling. At 29, Paul Thornton was married to his beautiful childhood sweetheart, a rising star at one of the world's largest companies, and gifted with a tall, commanding presence. But then a catastrophe left him without his wife, his career in jeopardy, and his life measured by the thin blade of a skilled surgeon. Affirmative action, corporate politics, the home media revolution, and medical ethics inform White Man's Disease, a book about one man's victory and a larger story about the power of human resilience, and the essential American Dream of realizing one's full potential.
How does a child who was born and raised as a Prince in an obscure spiritual order, survive to tell the story about his upbringing in a closed community, one that exposed him to a complex medley of behaviors and life events that were concurrently mysterious, ruthless, bizarre and beautiful? What happens when a youngster is a witness to mysticism, mediumship, fanaticism, sacred rituals, and spirit possession? How does he endure a peculiar environment that worshipped the Most High God of the Sun and espoused unconditional love for all while it turned a blind eye to indecency, cruelty, and the spiteful deeds of its religious zealots? And what kind of childhood does he have as an eyewitness to physical beatings and excommunication while the leader of this secret Order, a fascinating woman of color who possessed paranormal abilities and a plan to resurrect an ancient culture of metaphysical masters, enchanted his being with the tales of UFO’s, life on other planets, the awakening of the kundalini, and the supernatural aspects of Judaism? This ultra-religious kid who truly believed in the spiritual mission of his leader, and embraced what he was taught about his unearthly magical abilities, became an adult in the secular world, abandoned the spiritual order of his youth, discarded most of its teachings, and concealed the story of his unconventional rearing for most of his life. It’s time to tell his story… a story that few people will believe.
Healing ourselves is the greatest gift we can give to future generations.
When Christina's second marriage came to a heartbreaking end, she found herself on an unexpected path of discovery—a path that soon revealed the root of her lifelong avoidance of the mirror, her lack of personal boundaries, her mystery illness, and her belief that she was never quite good enough. By digging in—and for the first time, taking a very honest look at the childhood events that shaped her adult life—Christina found her truth.
This candid, touching, sometimes funny and other times heart-rending collection of true stories is based on the life of Christina Beauchemin, contributing author to the #1 Amazon bestseller Ready, Set, Live; Empowering Strategies for an Enlightened Life.
You will not only enjoy these honest and entertaining stories and the insightful discoveries that are shared after each chapter, you will also have the opportunity to begin reflecting on your own life path through a series of thought-provoking questions and the naturally accessible process that sparked Christina's healing and transformation.
Let My Legacy Be Love is a one-of-a-kind journey toward understanding, forgiveness, and peace.
Pidge and Jamie grew up in the peaceful last days of the Victorian Age. Each thought their ordered lives would follow a predictable future. But with the onset of World War I their lives were drastically changed. Intensely patriotic, both were determined to join the war effort. Pidge went first, to the war zone of north-eastern France. Living eight miles behind the firing line, through a bitter winter, she experienced conditions of heartbreak and destruction she never could have imagined. Interwoven with her relief work is the story of her involvement in the capture of two German spies. Shortly after Pidge's return, Jamie was sent to the same war-torn north-eastern part of France, where some of the heaviest fighting was taking place. He too, was overwhelmed by the total destruction the Germans had left behind. Home again Jamie and Pidge picked up their lives together and put into practice much of what the war had taught them, principally the value of devoting one's life to the public service of others.
From Liberty to Magnolia: In Search of the American Dream vividly recounts the journey of an African-American woman from rural, segregated Mississippi through academia, corporate America, and politics. It is the story of how she triumphed even when, more often than not, the ugly realities of racism and sexism tried to deter her.
This book tells the broader story, too, of how her life epitomizes what the Civil Rights Act and Equal Rights Amendment have meant and have not meant for blacks and women as she has lived through their maturation during the last 50 years.
What better time than now to examine how these two seminal and defining events played out in the life of an ordinary African-American woman who believed in all of America’s promises? What better moment than today to look deeply at the life of a woman who prepared herself and worked tirelessly to achieve her goals only to realize that many lay beyond her reach and that of most women and most blacks.
From Liberty to Magnolia shows readers, especially aspiring women and minorities—with whom her story will have special resonance—how to navigate and ultimately embrace the challenges at every major crossroads and be triumphant.
When a seemingly routine medical procedure results in her mother's premature death, Anne Panning is left reeling. In her first full-length memoir, the celebrated essayist and short story writer draws on decades of memory and experience, piecing together hard truths about her own past and her mother's.
We follow Panning's winding path from rural Minnesota to the riverbanks of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. A stark, poignant tale of two women deeply connected, yet forever apart, Dragonfly Notes is a testament to the prevailing nature of love, whether in the form of a rediscovered note, a sudden moment of unexpected recall, or sometimes, simply, the sight a dragonfly flitting past.
On September 11, 2001, Alison Lanza Falls had a great career as a Wall Street banker, a caring and supportive family, and an enormous secret. She was silently and profoundly unhappy. Nine years after watching smoke billow from the World Trade Center where she was heading for a meeting, Alison began an incredible journey of personal transformation, with guidance from David Prudhomme, mind coach and founder of Mederi Wellness.
While chronicling the evolution of her remarkable life, Alison shares her unique experiences and important life lessons using Prudhommes framework, The Best Me NOW!, that guided her through an experiential process on how to choose emotions, let go and feel free, practice forgiveness, release deep-seated fears, love herself and others unconditionally, and accept and embrace her uniqueness. Alisons story reveals simple, practical lessons for anyone interested in improving self-talk, applying universal truths in a professional setting, and preparing the mind for excellence, proving that positive change is not only possible, but also that it follows a specific path of perception, awareness, and choice.
Be Happy NOW! combines two unique voices to share an inspiring story of transformation and life lessons intended to guide others on how to attain authentic happiness and a true understanding of self.
Sometimes we experience something so traumatic in our lives, it changes us forever…
Renee Johnson has found herself in the midst of turmoil. She has made nothing but a complete mess out of her life and nothing could prepare her for the path laid out before her. An unexpected turn of events plunges her into the most challenging situation she has ever faced. With her best friend, Miah Hunter at her side, Renee must traverse a course that most would not even dare.
Chase Randall, Renee’s new love interest and her light in a dark world, has been challenged by something he never expected. A surprise situation sure to test his resolve and ultimately, his humanity. Despite the negative impact of their plight on their lives, Chase weather’s the storm, only to face the biggest tribulation in the end.
Together, Renee and Chase withstand the beating, leaving them to face a new world in the aftermath of their tragic loss.
Subjected to the indecision of medical professionals who insist on perpetuating a practice they claim is safe, every woman should learn to question them. Doctors are human too and are far from perfect, but patients tend to say nothing, never challenge their practices, and therefore things will never change. The events described in this memoir were either a direct or indirect result of a doctor’s dismissal of signs of impending difficulties, or their failure to act in a timely fashion using interventions that could have otherwise made a difference. In A Flash calls them all into question and, with any luck, will force them to at least look into what appears to be the source of devastating loss for thousands of women everywhere. End the madness: Question their motives, stand up for your rights, and never allow them to disregard even the slightest concern.
“Seinfeld meets Sedaris in the Snapchat Age.” - Jill Dearman, The Great Bravura
Whether they’re trembling before an invasive squirrel, giving the straight dope to an errant call-girl or enduring a #MeToo moment with a handsy waiter on their Roman honeymoon, Kyle and Julius are just the kind of gay married couple who didn’t see the 2016 election coming.
In this variegated book of vignettes, flash scenes and personal essays, award-winning author Kyle Thomas Smith documents the peculiarities of life in his home, his borough, his chiropractor’s office and these times.
Lucky from Virgin, an unlikely story, is about a small town kid who failed and stumbled his way into an amazing career as a journalist/storyteller. It's about adventure, far, far away places and unforgettable people, both good and bad. It's about the stories behind the stories. What it takes to get there is often the more interesting than what makes it on the air. These are real stories with a beginning, middle and end, with twists and turns where the bad guy is not as bad as we thought and the good one not as good. Some tales are inspirational. Some are troubling. It's a fascinating world out there. The author grew up in a tiny Mormon town where he didn't quite fit. His career has had more bumps and turns than many of the people he met.
Dying Well is an inspiring love story telling of how a man celebrated life while facing his death with grace and dignity. His widow guides you through decisions made and actions taken on their nine-month journey from diagnosis through celebrations and goodbyes, to a peaceful death free of fear and regret. She shares lessons learned as their family came to terms with her husband's impending death and found ways to make this last stage of his life as loving and joyous as possible. This uplifting end-of-life story offers a thought-provoking perspective on dying, one that may help you and those you love achieve what's most important at the end of your lives.
