Disability Memoir

What were you doing when you were 22? Where were you in the world? What did you want to do with your life? Ben Parkinson was a six-foot-four-inch paratrooper. He was in Afghanistan fighting for his country. He wanted to always be a soldier, to be a father and to get home in one piece. But we don't always get what we want. So the question is: how do we react when that happens? Easy: you find something new to fight for.

Dive headfirst into the urban symphony of "Smelling the Taste of Sound", a riveting memoir of a newly diagnosed, neurodivergent trainee lawyer. Her sensory issues are compounded by the sirens that punctuate the daily grind of a tough, inner-city law firm. Amidst encounters with eccentric characters and surreal personalities, our protagonist navigates the chaos and unorthodox office dynamics with comical observations and resilience.

Klim's journey to greatness began behind the Iron Curtain, in communist-era Poland. His family made a bid for freedom in the 1980s and immigrated to Australia, where swimming became his passport into a new culture and eventually led him to become one of his adopted country's great sporting heroes. His crowning moment came at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he captured the hearts of millions with his gold medal performances and world record-breaking swims. But being a champion athlete does not come without personal challenges.

A late bloomer’s coming-of-age memoir asks how does one accept and free themselves from visible and invisible disabilities and still retain their sense of connection and humor? Nothing Special is a disarmingly candid tale of two sisters growing up in the 1970s in rural Connecticut. Older sister Chris, who has Down syndrome, is an extrovert, while the author, her younger, typically developing sister, shoulders the burdens and grief of her parents.

One fine April day, Mary Ann Kenny’s husband died suddenly while jogging near their family home. In the months that followed, Mary Ann – who had no history of mental illness – began suffering from depression, and then from a terrifying succession of physical and psychological symptoms, including the delusion that her young children had been harmed by her medications.

What if you found out in mid-life that you were autistic? Kathleen was diagnosed in midlife with autism, and in her new book, U Don’t Seem Autistic, she bravely shares her personal story. This is a story of empowerment by the discovery of autistic identity, at last! By sharing the pitfalls she has experienced up to mid-life and their relationship to autism, she hopes to help others to seek a diagnosis, as she states women are missed or misdiagnosed due to the gender inequities of diagnosis.

This is Nadina LaSpina's story - from her early years in her native Sicily, where she contracts polio as a baby, a fact that makes her the object of well-meaning pity and the target of messages of hopelessness, to her adolescence and youth in America, spent almost entirely in hospitals where she is tortured in the quest for a cure and made to feel that her body no longer belongs to her, and to her rebellion and her activism in the disability-rights movement.

Connected at the chest by a band of flesh, Chang and Eng Bunker toured the United States and the world from the 1820s to the 1870s, placing themselves and their extraordinary bodies on exhibit as "freaks of nature". More famously known as the Siamese twins, they eventually settled in rural North Carolina, married two white sisters, became slave owners, and fathered 21 children between them. More than a biography of the twins, this is a study of 19th-century American culture and society that reveals how Americans projected onto the twins their own hopes and fears.

Twenty-three-year-old Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesn't have on designer shoes, boozy brunches, and weekends in NYC. Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. Then a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, and those two letters split her life into a Before and After.

What would you do if it happened to you? If you awoke one day when you were twelve years old to be informed that your life was suddenly over? Well . . . Here is what I did. If you became the wealthiest person you would ever know just three and a half years later? What would that be like? Well, this is what it was like when it happened to me.

Throughout our life, we all have different challenges, how can we allow these obstacles to facilitate growth and expansion, not contraction or fear? Cyrina Bullard PharmD, the author, will take you on a journey that begins with a lightning strike, jolting her to the ground. This was the first of the trilogy of nearly fatal episodes in her life. Personally revealing, authentic, and vulnerable, Cyrina shares some challenging details of her life, with the intention of inspiring you to enjoy your moments.

Jump in the passenger seat as I navigate you through my journey of blindness, sexual abuse, mental illness, and various other medical conditions and tragedies. I will take you on the twists and turns of single motherhood and dating with a disability, all while only having the use of one arm. Join me for an emotional, yet exciting, ride to see how I end up at my current destination.

Robert was a young man struggling to make it on his own when in 1990, he suffered a violent and traumatic experience when someone put a bullet through his brain. Robert tells the amazing story of survival during a time when life shriveled to dark emptiness and his future seemed hopeless.

In her memoir Do You Dream in Color?, Laurie Rubin looks back on her life as an international opera singer - who happens to be blind. From her loneliness and isolation as a middle school student to her experiences skiing, Rubin offers her young listeners a life story rich in detail and inspiration drawn from everyday challenges. Beginning with her childhood in California, Rubin tells the story of her life and the amazing experiences that led her to a career as an internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano.

The autobiography is told in an honest and very candid way, from the very first diagnosis in 2011 right up to the present day, showing how I was forced to crowdfund to have my leg amputated, what it took to overcome the struggles of four operations, and what it meant for me and my young family.

Monday, March 11, 2024, was remarkably uneventful—indeed, frankly dull—until around 5 p.m. that evening when Carl Davies collapsed in a heap. It was a day that would change his life forever. Stroke Me! Recounts the story of his recovery from a near-catastrophic brain haemorrhage. The author details, in often graphic detail, every step of his journey, from the stroke itself to the pain of physical and occupational therapy. He leaves no stone unturned as he describes the impact his illness has had on him and his family. Stroke Me!

Owen-known to his family as "little buddy" or "Little B"-has a rare genetic disorder that leaves him largely confined to a wheelchair. Before being united with Haatchi, Little B was anxious and found it difficult to make friends. Haatchi-an adorable Anatolian Shepherd puppy-was abused and left for dead on railroad tracks. He was struck by an oncoming train, and although his life was saved, his leg and tail were partially severed. Haatchi was left massively disabled and totally dispirited.

Rheumatoid arthritis was taking over my life. I could barely walk, dress myself, and perform simple daily tasks. I did everything I could to find healing. I tried all of the special diets; I was on all of the medications. Something wasn't right, and I was just getting sicker. This audiobook is about healing from the inside out. Your body is your greatest gift, dearest friend. The only difference between having a body that is your enemy and a body that is your friend is learning to speak its language. You can overcome chronic pain! You are worthy of a great life full of health and happiness!

Success is a Special Need is the powerful memoir of Jeffrey L. McCain, who shares his life story of overcoming dyslexia to build a successful business. With personal anecdotes and reflections, McCain recounts how he navigated his educational struggles, developed survival skills, and eventually achieved extraordinary success in the traffic signal industry. This inspiring tale is one of resilience, innovation, and determination in the face of adversity.

We think of perception as a passive, mechanical process, as if our eyes are cameras and our ears microphones. But as neurobiologist Susan R. Barry argues, perception is a deeply personal act. Our environments, our relationships, and our actions shape and reshape our senses throughout our lives. This idea is no more apparent than in the cases of people who gain senses as adults. Barry tells the stories of Liam McCoy, practically blind from birth, and Zohra Damji, born deaf, in the decade following surgeries that restored their senses.