Self Biography

David Glover unpacks his life’s path in his memoir Born Out of Pain. To understand how he arrived at his current place in his life, he had to go to the beginning. His only escape was a dysfunctional church and his rocky relationship with God. After he left his hometown, David was constantly plagued by his dreams about traumatic occurrences in his childhood and memories from his past that he suppressed. The memories he couldn’t deal with began to seep from the dark hidden places into the light of his consciousness, and his tormenting thoughts moved into his dreams.

In Our Brave Foremothers, discover an intergenerational, intercultural bouquet of Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous women lifted into the significance that they deserve. From Etel Adnan to Mary Jones, Thelma Garcia Buchholdt to Pura Belpré to Zitkála-Šá, here are 100 women of color who left a lasting mark on United States history. Including both famous and little-known names, the thoughtful profiles and detailed portraits of these women herald their achievements and passions.

In this witty, wise, heartwarming memoir, Blant Hurt, a 50-something flatlander with urban sensibilities, buys a ratty weekend cabin up in the dark heart of the Ozark Mountains. His new wife has a passing familiarity with this rugged area, but still. What are they doing? Their cabin is crudely built and lacks running water and electricity. Then there's the local land baron who aspires to build a giant sand mine on their doorstep.

"What constructs in your life must you unlearn to support inclusivity and respect for all?" This is a question that artist, actor, and activist Chella Man wrestles with in this powerful and honest essay. A story of coping and resilience, Chella journeys through his experiences as a deaf, transgender, genderqueer, Jewish person of color, and shows us that identity lies on a continuum - a beautiful, messy, and ever-evolving road of exploration.

In 2010, at the age of 37, he began feeling a constant ticking inside his body, not knowing that what he was feeling was a virtual time-bomb that could explode at any moment. Seven months later, he was diagnosed with a rare and malignant form of cancer. In From Fear to Faith, author Matt Talford takes you on a journey through his personal war on cancer and shares the physical, mental, and spiritual tools that inspired him to reverse what he referred to as “a slow death”.

Patented in 1917, Piggly Wiggly was by far the most influential self-service store of the early twentieth century. Before 1940 it was the only self-service chain with a national distribution network, but it was neither the first nor the only version. Beyond Piggly Wiggly reveals the importance of Piggly Wiggly in the invention of self-service and goes beyond the history of a single firm to explore the role of small business entrepreneurs who invented the first self-service stores in a grassroots social process.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution gives you great stories with practical ideas for today's times – for your mind, your body, and your wallet! Everyone makes resolutions – for New Year’s, for big birthdays, for new school years. In fact, most of us are so good at resolutions that we make the same ones year after year. They can be life-changing or really quite simple. Listen to real stories from real people about their year-round resolutions.

It's described as the greatest achievement the modern game has seen, and Ivan Cleary is the man behind it - the astonishing, historic benchmark of multiple back-to-back premiership wins by the Penrith Panthers in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In his own words, Cleary tells all about what he's learned and how he leads, informed by his decades as a player and coach—a playmaker, team builder, mentor and leader who understands that not everything counts, but everything matters.

Making a Quantum Leap: From There to Here, Vol. 1 takes you deep inside the mind of international best-selling author, Tom Nelson, as he goes from a maximum security prison cell to being a successful businessman, respected member of society, and father. Tom tells how he went from being a street thug and cocaine trafficker to owning the largest private fitness training facility in Los Angeles, being voted Trainer of the Year and Best Gym in Los Angeles.

After Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American student to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2021, she turned into an overnight sensation. People wanted to know who she was and how she'd achieved so much while so young. Zaila shares about her family, her accomplishments, her experience of being homeschooled, and so much more in order to motivate and uplift other kids who have small-, medium-, and even big-sized dreams.

Imposter syndrome can cause a constant fear of being found out that you aren't 'good enough' or called out for being a 'fraud'. It impacts people in different ways and can be debilitating and negatively affect relationships, personal life and careers. So what can you do about it? Love Your Imposter shows you how to take on your imposter self and use it as a driver to come out stronger.

From the suburbs of Leeds to the streets of Sydney, from the queer clubs of London to a quiet life by the sea, through love, family, friendship and heartache, join Roxy Bourdillon on a journey to work out exactly who she is. What a Girl Wants is the perfect listen for anyone who’s searched for their place in the world, for anyone who’s ever been catcalled, anyone who's despaired about their body, fallen in love, had their heart broken and found friends who can put it back together.

Here are 30 inspirational stories about words that changed lives, health challenges, and making every day special. The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive will encourage listeners to stay upbeat, because there's always a brighter way to look at life. This book continues Chicken Soup for the Soul's focus on inspiration and hope, reminding us that each day holds something to be thankful for.

Celina Caesar-Chavannes digs deep into her childhood and her life as a young Black woman entrepreneur and politician, and shows us that effective and humane leaders grow as much from their mistakes and vulnerabilities as from their strengths. Both memoir and leadership book, Can You Hear Me Now? is a funny, self-aware, poignant, confessional, and fierce look at how failing badly and screwing things up completely are truly more powerful lessons in how to conduct a life than extraordinary success.

In this nuanced mix of memoir, motivational musings, and wisdom, legendary celebrity stylist Ty Hunter recounts both the trying times and brightest moments of his life. Faced with physical, mental, and emotional obstacles that range from a gunshot wound to caring for his sick parents to simply existing as a Black, gay man in America, Ty channeled his energy into surmounting the unconquerable, along the way developing a resilient spirit—one that begs to be shared with the world.

Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job, traveling the world, and falling in love in a foreign land? Narrated by the author, Black Gypsy is the true story of Shawna Sharee, a 30-something inner-city black girl that did just that...After quitting her entire life following an ultimate betrayal, she makes her way traveling across three continents and six countries spanning seven months. This sometimes funny, sometimes spiritual, sometimes gritty, but always inspiring memoir is an urban fairytale and worldwide adventure filled with real life characters around every corner.

In

Surfacing, Siri Lindley opens up about her unique celebrity-dappled early life. When an NFL superstar notices her beautiful mother, her idyllic childhood is upended. Glitzy dinner parties and world travel pull her mother away, and Lindley grows up feeling alone and out of place. As her intense loneliness grows into anger, she lashes out against her New England life of privilege.

Mark Kenzer is familiar with suffering. In My Miserable Search for Enlightenment: A Quest for God and the Eternal Self, Mark details how he navigated past abuse, betrayal, and loss to begin on a path to enlightenment. He was born so ill that the doctor thought he would die, and he grew up suffering in a home with abusive parents. Despite his struggles, Mark continually worked to change his karma and learn more deeply about the true nature of existence. Through dreams, meditation, and trances, he began to perceive past the material world.

From surf-lifesaving to a hungover Army deployment, being broke with a gum infection in Europe, spooning Richie McCaw on a mountain, improvising make-up for Paul Holmes, running my first ultra-marathon and reinventing myself after redundancy: every wild, brilliant and hilarious experience has taught me something new. Whether it's how not to care about being judged, how to fake it till you make it, how to throw yourself into the unknown or how to push through the pit of despair, I've come to love that we are all works in progress. If I fail from time to time, that's okay too.

Being a champion is a choice. Bullies, self-doubt, failure, abuse, humiliation and setbacks plagued his life. Through a desire to keep pushing forward and the resilience of never quitting, MMA pioneer and Jiu Jitsu World Champion Chad George found a way to transform his self-destructive thinking to believing he can accomplish anything. In "A Champion's Mindset" he shares his journey of building the fighter within and how we all have to FIGHT for what we want in life.