Nonfiction Memoir

Fresh with discovery of African rhythms, a beginning djembe player tries to fit in with the local jam group, bucking the convention of cover tunes led by frontmen with guitars. On the one hand, he’s emboldened by freedom’s mantra, “It’s all good.” But harmony is not a given, when anxiety and impatience meet ego and status. Leaning on the upbeat and offbeat, a compromise might be struck in the reggae mode, a Third World feel. One way or another, the drop-ins and old hands at the Friday Night Jam have to find a way to get along, and more: to find gold in the moment. Part prose riff ...

Helen Garner visits the morgue, and goes cruising on a Russian ship. She sees women giving birth, and gets the sack for teaching her students about sex. She attends a school dance and a gun show. She writes about dreaming, about turning 50 and the storm caused by The First Stone. Her story on the murder of the two-year-old Daniel Valerio wins her a Walkley Award.

This is an audiobook about a poet, about a poem, about a city, and about a world at a point of change. More than a work of literary criticism or literary biography, it is a record of why and how we create and respond to great poetry. This an audiobook about a poet, W. H. Auden, a wunderkind, a victim-beneficiary of a literary cult of personality who became a scapegoat and a poet-expatriate largely excluded from British literary history because he left.

Tim Rogers of You Am I has always been a complicated man: a hard-drinking musician with the soul of a poet; a flamboyant flâneur; a raconteur, a romantic and a raffish ne'er-do-well. In this offbeat, endearing memoir, Tim walks us through years jam-packed with love, shame, joy, enthusiasms, regrets, fights, family—and music, always music. A work of real grace and tenderness, Detours is often impossibly sad and beautiful—but also full of wit, wordplay and punching jolts of larrikin energy to make you laugh out loud.

Disclaimer: Previously published as Memoirs of a Doctor, by Dr Andrew C S Koh "From Stethoscope to Wisdom: A Doctor’s Reflection" offers an emotional exploration of a physician’s life at the intersection of science, humanity, and faith. In this engaging memoir, Koh recounts his inspiring journey—from a childhood dream to the tough realities of medical training, ultimately leading to a deep commitment to healing both bodies and souls. He shares valuable insights gathered from busy hospital wards, clinics, and personal moments of reflection and spiritual growth. Through engaging ...

James Marsh tells of his evolution from a troubled childhood to a long career in publishing that culminated in the creation of The Canadian Encyclopedia—what one reviewer called “the intellectual equivalent of the building of the CPR.” Through friendships, curiosity, the insights of a charismatic psychiatrist, his passion for books, and the intimate encounters with the authors he met, he championed a diverse and inclusive view of Canada, which was used to draw the great minds of an impossible nation together in a common national enterprise.

Dramatis Personae is a four part autobiographic collection, published by Yeats in 1936 and detailing incidents, events, and people he met who influenced his artistic development as a poet. The first section is Dramatis Personae and describes Yeats' meetings with Lady Augusta Gregory at Coole Park, Galway, which eventually led to the creation of the Irish National Theatre Society and the opening of the Abbey Theatre in 1904.

During Vietnam, the basic role of the USMC gunship squadrons was to protect the transport helicopters during medevac missions, troop insertions and extractions, resupply missions, and supporting the Marines on the ground during operations and patrols. Basically, whenever the Marines or South Vietnam friendlies got in trouble the gunships were dispatched to assist them.

In the early 1960s, Ann Garretson sparks an airmail romance with Lieutenant Jack Sigg, a West Point grad and tank commander on the German-Czech border. Ann and Jack's correspondence heats up, and they hatch a rendezvous in Europe for the summer of 1964 to seal their budding love. A match for the ages. Not so fast. Ann's best friend in college, Terry Marshall, helps her plan the escapade, but in the weeks leading up to her trip, they realize they are more than just friends.

In his last year of university, Will thought he knew everyone he cared to know. Openly gay and volunteering at an AIDS helpline at the start of the crisis, he had found community at a frightening time amongst the theatre students, writers, and visual artists. He also knew who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. Until one day Will was invited into a secret Yale society that brought opposites together. On his first day, he was faced with Chris Maxey - a physically imposing, loud, star wrestler who seemed to be uncomfortable around Will and embody everything he reviled and feared.

In February 2018, twenty-four members of Gulchehra Hoja's family disappeared overnight Among them were her elderly parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their spouses; everyone she had left behind in Ürümchi when she fled to a new life in the United States, arrested by the Chinese state as a direct retaliation for Gulchehra's investigations into the Uyghur plight for Radio Free Asia. For the Uyghur people, this kind of oppression is not unusual. A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs is Gulchehra's stunning memoir, an account of life under Chinese rule in East Turkestan.

The extraordinary story of the world's most influential, intriguing and surprising ruler, Queen Victoria. A fascinating, provocative and authoritative new biography of Queen Victoria that will make us see her in a new light, from one of Australia's most admired and respected journalists and commentators, Julia Baird.

Former townies Giles and Mary swapped city life for rural Wiltshire over thirty years ago, and they've each embraced it in their own very different ways. Mary has happily traded sophisticated London salons for monthly lectures at the Farmers' Club, competitive school quizzes, church interactions and local Auction House sales. While Giles has immersed himself in the catastrophic consequences of conventional farming, his organic no-dig veg-patch, the increasingly disproportionate response by local landlords to harmless trespassers and the strange death of the village house martins.

Two Brothers tells the story of a great sporting family, uncovering new details, exposing myths and placing Jack and Bobby Charlton in their historical context. It's a book about two English footballers but also about English football and England itself.

A poetic, prophetic pandemic memoir hailed by humans, AI, and future historians alike. When COVID-19 first struck, Jorah Kai was already locked down in Chongqing, China—an ancient, cyberpunk megacity predicted to become one of the first global epicenters of the storm. As a former journalist, DJ, philosopher, and English teacher, Kai turned to what he knew best: writing. What began as a personal diary evolved into a gripping, poetic chronicle of survival, fear, resilience, and humanity in a world turned upside down. The Invisible War is more than just a memoir—it's an immersive journey ...

The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos. Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Hilarious, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel...twice.

It is pure torture to watch a loved one slowly lose everything and know there is nothing that can be done for them It is so important to reassure your loved ones during the early stages of this disease. The more worked up they get, the more inept and useless they feel. Nobody should feel this way, especially those in the early stages of dementia. It’s not easy to be patient under normal circumstances. It’s even harder the fifteenth time you’re looking for a cell phone or car keys. You must force yourself to always exercise patience. If finding their phone is important to them, then it...

From a talented emerging writer comes a brave, honest, unforgettable memoir about mental illness, which breaks the silence and shatters the taboos to give hope to all those struggling to find their way through. One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she’d always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Antoine Lavoisier, who wrote the first modern chemistry textbook; Humphry Davy, who discovered 'laughing gas'; Charles Darwin, who changed people's ideas with his theory of evolution; Gregor Mendel, who first discovered the science of genetics; Louis Pasteur, who saved millions of lives by killing germs; Francis Crick, who helped to discover the structure of DNA.

Both reckless and lucky, this serial survivor seeks meaning in a life full of brushes with death and passing glimpses of fame. The life-threatening accidents and mishaps come in many shades: from full-fledged out-of-body experiences, to near misses and close calls, to highway mishaps, dodging bullets, edgy adventures, stupid risks, fights and wars; sometimes just witnessing disaster, or knowing others not so fortunate to escape it. The narrator emerges with a guarded view of the shadowland of death, and brief tastes of the wonderland of stardom. Always coming back home again, chastised and ...