Self Memoir

This heartfelt collection of letters written by eminent queer people across music, television, activism, comedy and politics, is a celebration of self-acceptance and an inspiring resource for anyone who has ever struggled with ‘growing up different’. Each letter is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and a powerful reminder that love transcends all.

Death is not for the faint of heart, and sometimes the best way to cope is through humor. No one knows this better than comedian Laurie Kilmartin. She made headlines by live-tweeting her father's time in hospice and her grieving process after he passed and channeled her experience into a comedy special, 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad. Dead People Suck is her hilarious guide to surviving (sometimes) death, dying, and grief without losing your mind.

A pioneering neuroscientist shares his story of growing up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and how it led him to his groundbreaking work in drug addiction. As a youth, Carl Hart didn't realize the value of school; he studied just enough to stay on the basketball team. At the same time, he was immersed in street life. Today he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist - Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences.

Metamorphosis is the true tale of how a bitter, traumatized woman transformed herself and her life to fulfill all her wildest dreams. No matter how you slice it, everyone has had adverse experiences in life, experiences they wish they could take back and do differently or even banish altogether. After a duo of traumatic events at age twenty-nine, combined with a chip on my shoulder from growing up as a black child in a small, very white town, I found myself years later living in the past and unable to move forward. Miserable and hating how my life was playing out at age thirty-four, I made ...

“Hardships create character in people like heat and pressure create diamonds in carbon.” This book describes the extraordinary journey of transformation for Dr. Andrew Motes from a life of poverty in the backwoods of Arkansas to becoming one of the World’s leading experts for laser technology—from studying by kerosene lamp to designing space-age technology. The author uses a story-telling style to describe his experiences as a sharecropper, trapper, grocery-store clerk, motorcycle mechanic, electronic technician, electronic engineer, military officer, computer software developer, ...

An insightful, candid, and inspiring memoir from Karamo Brown - Queer Eye’s beloved culture expert - as he shares his story for the first time, exploring how the challenges in his own life have allowed him to forever transform the lives of those in need. When Karamo Brown first auditioned for the casting directors of Netflix’s Queer Eye, he knew he wouldn’t win the role of culture expert by discussing art and theater. Instead, he decided to redefine what “culture” could - and should - mean for the show. He took a risk and declared, “I am culture.”

The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, in search of spiritual clarity.

The psychiatric emergency room, a fast-paced combat zone with pressure to match, thrusts its medical providers into the outland of human experience where they must respond rapidly and decisively in spite of uncertainty and, very often, danger. In this lively first-person narrative, Paul R. Linde takes listeners behind the scenes at an urban psychiatric emergency room, with all its chaos and pathos, where we witness mental health professionals doing their best to alleviate suffering.

Tragedy has a terrible way of hitting when one least expects it. This was the case for Roni Hollis, a small-town Missouri teacher, a wife and a mother, when her life changed forever on a normal December day. When a work-related accident killed her beloved husband, Mike, Roni found herself in the throes of grief and depression. She was left with bills she couldn’t pay, a farm she didn't know how to run by herself, a ten-year-old son to raise alone, and a heart completely shattered. Relying on her faith in God and believing in her ability to rise from the ashes, Roni found within herself a ...

This is the original interview between Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. Hill used this interview as the basis of his world famous book Think & Grow Rich.

Mike Hayes has lived a lifetime of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. He has been held at gunpoint and threatened with execution. He’s jumped out of a building rigged to explode, helped amputate a teammate’s leg, and made countless split-second life-and-death decisions. He’s written countless emails to his family, telling them how much he loves them, just in case those were the last words of his they’d ever read. Outside of the SEALs, he’s run meetings in the White House Situation Room, negotiated international arms treaties, and developed high-impact corporate strategies.

This is the first volume of the memoir of Rick L. Scifres, relating his early life and the first half of a twenty-year Naval career during the Cold War. The author was born in Texas, raised in New Mexico, and eventually reached maturity while serving in the U. S. Navy. He attained the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer before retiring as a CTOCS (NAC). He specialized in the field of Cryptologic Technician (Communications) and was qualified as a Naval Aircrewman. This volume chronicles part of his childhood and the first eleven and a half years of his career serving with the Naval Security ...

At the height of her success as an antiracism educator and writer, Austin Channing Brown reached a crossroads. “I love my work,” she writes, “and I am tired. Tired of protesting. Tired of ‘saving democracy.'” She began to ask, “What do I deserve, not just as a citizen but as a human?” Full of Myself is her answer to that question. Weaving personal narrative with perceptive social commentary, she offers a look at the mechanisms that limit who Black women are allowed to be—at work, at home, in community—and the defining moments when she decided that all the women within her should be free.

The Civil Rights movement brought author Alice Walker and lawyer Mel Leventhal together, and in 1969 their daughter, Rebecca, was born. Some saw this unusual copper-colored girl as an outrage or an oddity; others viewed her as a symbol of harmony, a triumph of love over hate. But after her parents divorced, leaving her a lonely only child ferrying between two worlds that only seemed to grow further apart, Rebecca was no longer sure what she represented. In this book, Rebecca Leventhal Walker attempts to define herself as a soul instead of a symbol.

As an associate of the Gambino family, Ferrante relied on his instincts to pull off some of the biggest heists in US history. By the age of 21, he had netted millions of dollars for his employers. His natural talent for management led Mafia bosses to rely on him. After being arrested and serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence, Ferrante went straight. He realized that the Mob's most valuable business lessons would allow him to survive and thrive in the real world.

A rich, penetrating memoir about the author's relationship with a flawed but influential figure—the painter Lucian Freud—and the satisfactions and struggles of a life lived through art.

Listen, Think, & Speak Like a Doctor is a witty, relatable, and honest book full of sage advice regarding the real-life challenges and practice demands of becoming and being a physician. Students graduate from medical school with a knowledge of body systems, disease processes, and care algorithms. They’ve learned to treat but not necessarily how to connect with patients as people. It’s these difficult-to-learn connection skills that trip doctors up and that patients need doctors to have to ensure the best outcomes. Dr. Thakur shares actionable wisdom through relatable, engaging ...

"The same energy that created stars and galaxies lies dormant within your belly." So begins Master Yan Ming Li's spell­binding memoir recounting the challenges of growing up as a spiritually gifted child in a land where exploration of the unseen realms was forbidden. Like a Chinese Harry Potter, Li found solace in a mysterious and power­ful force he called the Light. But this is not a work of fiction. It's a true story. In the minutes of this audiobook, we learn how all of us can gain access to this benevolent, healing, and boundless Light. It is, in fact, our birthright.

From the moment she nearly drowned in a tank of cold water at the age of three, Ingrid Honkala was aware of other dimensions of life than those most of us normally experience. She was also gifted with the wise input of mysterious “Beings of Light” who gave her invaluable insights and assistance as she faced the challenges of growing up, falling in love, and finding her professional destiny as a research scientist and oceanographer.

This is the true story of Amanda who, through no fault of her own, found herself caught up by the darkest most insidious corners of the criminal world of sex trafficking minors. Her husband, the man she loved and the father of her children, was a criminal. And when it all came down, she was left holding the pieces.