Southern Memoirs

When I attended Jefferson Elementary School in Charlottesville in 1960, I was selected to recite the poem "The Path" by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the noted black poet. That poem captured the story of my life. I had no idea when I first learned it by memory and recited it many times before the class that it would later have such a direct and dramatic application to my life. I recited the words not knowing their true meaning back then, but I know what they mean now, and who would have imagined how appropriate they would be.

When a squad of federal agents burst through her parents' front door, Victoria Fedden felt ill-prepared to meet them: She was weeks away from her due date, and her T-shirt wasn't long enough to hide her maternity undies. As for the question of how to raise a child when you've just discovered that your mother and stepfather have allegedly masterminded a pump-and-dump scheme? She was pretty sure that wasn't covered in What to Expect When You're Expecting.

Boxeadores que hace décadas llevaron la emoción de los cuadriláteros a generaciones de latinoamericanos. La lucha que libra la etnia wayúu contra los civilizados, cuyas intrusiones minan la cultura y las costumbres de la etnia. Un equipo de futbol conformado por travestis, dedicado a recaudar fondos para ayudar a homosexuales con problemas de adicción. La curiosa historia de un hombre que fue boxeador y paramilitar, que asegura poseer superpoderes y ser un protegido de los espíritus.

Cova 312 é a história real de como as Forças Armadas mataram pela tortura um jovem militante político, Milton Soares de Castro, forjaram seu suicídio e sumiram com o corpo. Preso em 1967, Milton, integrante do primeiro e frustrado grupo de guerrilha pós-golpe de 1964, desapareceu sem deixar rastros. A guerrilha — que jamais aconteceu — teria início na serra do Caparaó, mas Milton foi preso e levado para a Penitenciária de Linhares, em Juiz de Fora, onde foi torturado e morto. Os militares forjaram documentos informando que ele havia se suicidado.

Sally, a beautiful young pregnant woman, came to the hospital supposedly for pre-term labor pains but delivered a fully mature, healthy boy. Her face, smiling with relief after the stress of delivery, quickly changed to apprehension. “Doctor, what will you tell my husband and family? Can you please tell them that the baby is premature?” She asked. “How can I?” Dr. Thomas replied helplessly. “The baby is fully grown and mature, as anyone can see.”

Pedaling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life Cycle charts her mission to find out why biodiversity is so important, what's happening to it, and what can be done to protect it. From the Pacific Ocean to rainforests and salt flats, Kate learns that armadillos can cross rivers by holding their breath, that Colombia has more species of birds than North America and Europe combined, and that in threatening species and ecosystems, we're tearing down our own life support system.

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of Edward Evan's South with Scott. Edward relates the details of Scott's fatal southern expedition, with special emphasis on those supporting the main push to the pole.

As a child, Vella Mbenna would lie under the sprawling oak tree in her yard, stare up at the clouds, and dream of exploring the world beyond her rural Georgia hometown. Muddy Roads Blue Skies is Vella's inspiring, deeply personal account of her amazing journey from the backwoods of Georgia to the far reaches of the globe. Part motivational memoir, part how-to success guide, part tribute to the power of dreams, Muddy Roads Blue Skies is a compelling listen filled with self-help wisdom and valuable life lessons.

The extraordinary Legends of Snyder: A Black Heroic Magician, although still shrouded in mystery, has beneficial lessons and abiding human values of truth. Despite racial segregation and discrimination predominantly in the southern states in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, there were many other good and fascinating things happening as well.

Three guys I didn’t recognize stood outside the door as I came down the steps of a Chicago apartment building. I had just finished up collecting newspaper fees for delivering the daily paper. One stepped inside. As he stepped closer I saw a gun in his waistband.... My father always said, “Think before you react, son.” If I reach for his gun, I thought, he could be faster than me. He also had buddies just outside the door. ...the boys stepped into the hallway and surrounded me. It took me only a second to think, Is your life worth 90 bucks of newspaper collection fees?

Miami is not unique among American cities for having so many homicides. It is unique however, for having so many bizarre and exotic ones. The book describes twenty some homicides which range from the usual crimes of passion and mob hits to robberies gone-wrong and political assassinations.

From Curio Bay to Golden Bay, in Down South writer Bruce Ansley sets off on a vast expedition across the South Island, Te Waipounamu, visiting the places and people who hold clues to the south's famous character. Not so very long ago, the South Island had most of New Zealand's people and just about all of the money. Gold miners found fortunes in the hills and rivers, sheep barons straddled mountains, valleys and plains. Wealthy southerners ruled the government. Where now lies the South Island's golden fleece? And what is its future?

The Axeman came in the night. No one heard him come. No locks could keep him out. In the morning, whole families lay slaughtered in their beds, a riot of blood corrupting the room. Town by town, terror gripped the black communities of Louisiana and East Texas, as men, women, and children fell to the killer’s axe. The police were powerless to stop it. As the police slowly unraveled the mystery, they were stunned by the bizarre truth of the Axeman.

Born in Hamburg in the 1930s, Marione Ingram fled Nazi Germany only to find racism as pervasive in the American South as anti-Semitism was in Europe. As a white woman and a Holocaust refugee, Marione was the most unlikely of heroes in the fight for civil rights for African Americans. This is her empowering story - a tale of courage, strength, and determination.

The astounding true story of a young woman’s courage and persistence despite threats, extortion and her own kidnapping, to save lives during Guatemala’s brutal civil war and postwar, to establish a thriving help organization fueling the rural Maya’s struggle for self-reliance. If you’ve ever despaired at the state of the world or doubted the power we each have to profoundly change lives for the better, you must listen to the story of how Leslie Baer Dinkel and a handful of like-minded friends changed the course of tens of thousands of lives in Guatemala.

No matter how hard she tries, Ellen Burns will never be Scarlett O'Hara. As a little girl in South Carolina, she prefers playing Tarzan to playing Jane. As a teenage beauty queen, she spikes her Cokes with spirits of ammonia and baffles her elders with her Freedom Riding sympathies. As a young woman in the 1960s and '70s, she hypnotizes her way to Harvard, finds herself as a lesbian, then very nearly loses herself to booze and shamans.

His name was Antonio, but they would call him Nem. From the infamous favela of Rocinha in Rio, he was a hardworking young father forced to make a decision that would turn his world upside down. Nemesis is the story of an ordinary man who became the king of the largest slum in Rio, the head of a drug cartel and perhaps Brazil’s most wanted criminal. A man who tried to bring welfare and justice to a playground of gang culture and destitution while everyone around him drew guns and partied.

Ray Studevent grew up between two worlds. Born to a white, heroin-addicted mother and Black, violently alcoholic father, the odds were stacked against him from day one. When his parents abandoned him at the age of five, after living in a world no child should experience, he was saved from the foster-care system by his father's uncle Calvin, who offered him stability and a loving home. When Calvin tragically died two years later, it was up to his widow, Lemell, to raise Ray. But this was no easy task.

One of the big lords of the drug cartels in Colombia is Pablo Escobar, a criminal who became a leader and expanded his influence on organized crime throughout the North and South American continents. With billions in his bank account, in cash, and in other assents, it’s not easy to ignore his name and the power he gained.

I met Amber when I moved across the street from her. As I got to know her, I learned some things about myself. My goal in writing this book is to help anyone that is going through the loss of a loved one or has lost someone. This is not just my own personal journey through grief, but a message of hope and love and a love that survived beyond death. This book is a memoir of personal reflections of the beginning, middle, and end of a soulful relationship between two women and a connection which brought about valuable lessons from love, life, grief, and letting go.