Nonfiction Memoir

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than 60 years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects.

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith.

★ THE KIWI GOLFER WHO TOOK ON A RIDICULOUS AND BEAUTIFUL CHALLENGE ★ Bestselling author Justin Brown ('UK on a G-String' and 'Bowling Through India') has the idea to tour the U.S and play golf with whoever is on the front page of the newspaper in every town he visits. Amazingly, he's not arrested. With charm and wit, Justin blags his way into meeting clowns, a young Beto O'Rourke, Stevie Wonder impersonators, crocodile wranglers and drunken beauty queens. His journey is full of mayhem, self-discovery and as it turns out, very little golf. You'll laugh and cringe at the situations this ...

Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.

Memoir. Originally published in 2011 by Grand Central Publishing "An indie movie in print." In this bestselling memoir, NYT bestselling author Anne Frasier (The Body Reader, Play Dead) shares the deeply moving and personal story of her years on an apple farm. The Orchard is the story of a street-smart city girl who must adapt to a new life on an apple farm after she falls in love with Adrian Curtis, the golden boy of a prominent local family whose lives and orchards seem to be cursed. Married after only three months, young Anne finds life with Adrian on the farm far more difficult and ...

As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told, 'the best on the planet'?

This is the story of a confident young girl who became a lost teenager, wanted to disappear, started to find herself, discovered love, was wild, reckless, and confused, but ultimately found a way to be okay. Told in her words as she lived them through her diaries, journals, poetry, and letters. Quill says: Author Kirsten Pursell opens up her "memory vault" in a raw, honest, coming-of-age memoir set against the backdrop of the 80s, that is relevant for all generations." Online Book Club: "...Telling her story through journal/diary entries was fresh, unique, original, and rare...sincere and ...

Are you ready for a gripping true crime story that will keep you on the edge of your seat? Then look no further than "The Day Eva Dugan Died," by award-winning journalist and author, Rod Kackley. Eva Dugan is a woman with a past. Once a saloon singer and a prostitute in the wilds of the Yukon and the Klondike, she is now on the run, accused of murder. But did she really do it? That's what Jim McDonald, one of Arizona's last cowboy sheriffs, is determined to find out. With his voters demanding justice, McDonald sets out to capture Eva and prove her guilt. But as the story unfolds, it becomes...

Can you continue traveling as you get older or if you are disabled? On Two Legs and Three Wheels answers that with an emphatic, "Yes!" Multiple sclerosis disabled the legs of the author's wife twenty years ago, making her rely on a mobility scooter, and now both the author and his wife are in their seventies. But none of that stopped them from traveling. On two legs and three wheels, they have traveled to twenty countries and twenty states. Perseverance, ingenuity, and flexibility have enabled them to overcome virtually all obstacles. These characteristics are on full display in the two ...

Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin? Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape.

If you Google "how to write nonfiction" you'll get a bunch of useless listicles and very few hard and fast rules to writing a great book. That's often because great books are stylistic and personal: they have a strong narrative voice and compelling stories. But if you don't already have a big platform, shooting for a smash hit can be perplexing and demotivating... as you wade through the mire of what you want to say and wrestle with ideas. Many brilliant leaders or visionaries struggle to finish their nonfiction book, memoir or even a simple "how-to" or "self-help" project because they have...

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

Izzy Blizzard’s frank memoir covers six decades of her tumultuous life, beginning when she was nine years old. Here, in the preface to her book, Izzy warns readers they may not like her: “My mother told me the only way to truly cleanse one’s dirty laundry is to bring it out into the sunshine and air it. I’m giving that a try, airing the worst of my own dirty laundry. “For example, few things are less attractive than suicide or extra-marital affairs. I've attempted the former and have been involved in the latter—multiple times—so I'm well-acquainted with how people react to a ...

In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.

Welcome to Jeremy's farm. It's an idyllic spot, offering picturesque views across the Cotswolds, bustling hedgerows, woodlands and natural springs. Jeremy always liked the idea being a farmer. But, while he was barrelling around the world having more fun with cars than was entirely reasonable, it seemed obvious that the actual, you know, farming was much better left to someone else. Then one day he decided he would do the farming himself. After all, how hard could it be?

In the early 1900s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Lizzie Garret Anderson and Sophie Jex-Blake fought for a woman's place in the male-dominated medical field.

Marie Louise Bruce's engrossing account of Anne Boleyn charts the rise and fall of this remarkable young woman through the course of her short life, from her early days at Hever Castle, to the luxurious courts of France and England, to her terrifying last days in the Tower of London. By utilizing a wealth of primary sources, including the love letters between Henry and Anne along with innumerable documents written by courtiers and ambassadors, Bruce brings to life the splendor of the Tudor court and its most famous king and queen.

Chasing Slow models HGTV star Erin Loechner's journey to help you break out of the faster-better-stronger trap and make small changes to refresh your perspective, renew your priorities, and shift your focus to what matters most.

★ IT WAS THE BET OF A LIFETIME! ★ Overcome with patriotic fervour, New Zealander Justin Brown bets an Australian mate that the All Blacks will thrash the Wallabies in an up-coming rugby match. They don't. Forced to pay his debt, Justin has to busk his way around England until he earns enough money for his airfare home. THE DEAL If Justin's favourite team loses he must door-door-busk his way around the United Kingdom. If Justin's supposed best mate's favourite team loses he must streak at the Wimbledon Grand Final. THE OUTCOME Justin's teams loses. He is forced to go to the other side of...