School Memoirs

Adam Stern was a student at a state medical school before being selected to train as a psychiatry resident at one of the most prestigious programs in the country. His new and initially intimidating classmates were high achievers from the Ivy League and other elite universities. Faculty raved about the group as though the residency program had won the lottery, nicknaming them “The Golden Class”, but would Stern ever prove that he belonged? In his memoir, Stern pulls back the curtain on the intense and emotionally challenging lessons he and his fellow doctors learned.

For a decade, Jason Wright taught in the same inner-city primary school in a deprived area of Bradford, West Yorkshire. From the outset, Wright battles socially-deprived children, unruly parents, strange headteachers and never-ending piles of paperwork. Life in the School Lane is a true account of what it is really like to be a primary school teacher in the UK. There is no sugar-coating here. From the children who don't want to be at school and their parents who question his methods to the bullying tactics of his headteacher and the ever-present threat of Ofsted, Wright’s life becomes ...

The authors of the best-selling Competing on Internet Time (a Businessweek top-10 book) analyze the strategies, principles, and skills of three of the most successful and influential figures in business - Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs - offering lessons for all managers and entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy, and execution.

High school is the jungle. This is your field guide. Four Years in the Jungle is a coming-of-age memoir that doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. With unfiltered honesty and unforgettable stories, JJ takes you inside the real high school experience—cafeteria politics, sports pressure, hallway chaos, awkward dances, academic tournaments, and the deep, hilarious friendships that make it all worth it.

This is the story of one woman's journey to find herself. Armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of the 20th-century food writer M.F.K. Fisher, she travels from France to Italy, then the Congo, and back again. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon, and, ultimately, finds a path to life and joy.

The Best Life Stories by Reader's Digest are 150 of the best hand-picked real-life tales of resilience, joy, and hope - all in 150 words or less! People think I'm crazy for teaching middle schoolers.

The journalism teacher who inspired generations of teenagers to aim for excellence—not just on the high school newspaper but for the rest of their lives—provides the playbook and offers strategies for everyone to improve their writing skills. Part memoir, part instruction manual, former UPI reporter and magazine freelancer Kathleen Neumeyer explains how she inadvertently taught smart but spoiled teenagers how to manage billion-dollar companies, after an inadvertent midlife career change to advising student publications at one of America’s top prep schools. Praise for Kathleen Neumeyer...

Malala's memoir of a remarkable teenage girl who risked her life for the right to go to school is now abridged and adapted for chapter book listeners. Raised in a changing Pakistan by an enlightened father from a poor background and a beautiful, illiterate mother, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. Her story of bravery and determination in the face of extremism is more timely than ever.

A news-breaking memoir revealing the secret, high level negotiations that could soon transform the map of the Middle East. Why would a sitting head of state choose to write about the most explosive issues he faces? King Abdullah does so now because he believes we face a moment of truth: a last chance for peace in the Middle East. The prize is enormous; the cost of failure far greater than we dare imagine.

Now here at last, is McCourt's long-awaited audiobook about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs, and surprises he faces in public high schools around New York City.

Starting in 1902 at a country school that had an enrollment of fourteen, Frank Boyden built an academy that has long since taken its place on a level with Andover and Exeter. Boyden, who died in 1972, was the school's headmaster for sixty-six years. John McPhee portrays a remarkable man "at the near end of a skein of magnanimous despots who...created enduring schools through their own individual energies, maintained them under their own absolute rule, and left them forever imprinted with their own personalities."

You are with the author when he ejects from his burning Navy jet onto a karst ridge near Hanoi. What follows in this meticulously researched memoir is an account of one of the most implausible and heroic rescues of the air-war - and the aftermath. The events immediately following his rescue carry the author to a secret base in Laos and then to a makeshift hospital in Saigon. The larger story, however, is of the author’s complex relationship with Vietnam. It begins in Saigon, where he completes high school and comes to love the Vietnamese people.

"...hilarious, heartbreaking, and deeply relatable." - Becky Bain, Writer & EditorBrett Perkins tries to fit in but rarely succeeds. Living with his sister and single mother in 1970s Southern California, Brett continually finds himself in ridiculous situations of his own making. From nearly dyeing himself permanently green to getting himself shot in the head with an arrow, you'll either burst out laughing or turn red with second-hand embarrassment as this screwball navigates his elementary school years. Almost a Martian is a collection of stories for those who want to feel better about ...

In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school. A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed firsthand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, he reflects on the hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, describing the pain of homesickness and the appalling inescapability of it all.

Who are your five people? Find your unexpected heroes in grade school. In Grade School, Anthony Massucci shares a deeply personal and inspiring memoir about the transformative power of unexpected support. His childhood, marked by struggles at home, was illuminated by the unwavering kindness and encouragement of his grade school teachers. Their influence shaped his attitude, spirit, and future and serves as a beacon of hope for anyone facing challenges. At a time when many might retreat inward, Anthony chose to lean into the support system that formed around him.

The powerful stories told in And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown begin in San Francisco at the small school where Reverend Jim Jones enrolled the teens of his Peoples Temple church in 1976. Within a year, most of these kids had joined Jones and his other congregants in what Jones promised was a tropical paradise based on egalitarian values, but which turned out to be a deadly prison camp.

I got into medical school by saying I was black. I lied. Honestly, I am about as black as my sister Mindy Kaling. Once upon a time, I was an ethically challenged, hard-partying Indian-American frat boy enjoying my third year of college. That is until I realized I didn't have the grades or test scores to get into medical school. Legitimately.

Fred Sasakamoose, torn from his home at the age of seven, endured the horrors of residential school for a decade before becoming one of 120 players in the most elite hockey league in the world. He has been heralded as the first Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL. After twelve games, he returned home. When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir sheds piercing light on Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows this man's journey to reclaim pride in a heritage that had been used against him.

Growing up and living in Kibera, Kenya, Abdul Kassim was well aware of the disproportionate number of challenges faced by women due to the extreme gender inequalities that persist in the slums. After being raised by his aunts, his mother, and his grandmother, and having a daughter himself, he felt that he needed to make a difference. In 2002, Abdul started a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera (GSK), with the hope of fostering a supportive community and providing emotional and mental support for the young women in the town.

In The Jump, one of America's great sports writers follows high school phenom Sebastian Telfair on his quest for NBA stardom - and exposes all that big-time sports in America has become, the good and the bad. Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James - all became NBA superstars without playing a day of college ball. In 2004, Coney Island's 5-foot-11 Telfair became the first small player ever to jump straight from high school to the NBA when he signed contracts with the Portland Trail Blazers and Adidas worth $25 million.