Southern Memoirs

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming follows Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, back to his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,700) in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie's death. When she was diagnosed at age 40 with a virulent form of cancer in 2010, Dreher was moved by the way the community he had left behind rallied around his dying sister, a schoolteacher. He was also struck by the grace and courage with which his sister dealt with the disease that eventually took her life.

If you like to use your drive time for education by audiobook, consider this book for widening and deepening your view of an event you studied briefly in school - the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Conquistador Voices, which relies more heavily than most works of this kind on first-person accounts, neither glamorizes nor condemns the conquistadors. Somewhat in the manner of a modern film documentary, it treats the so-called conquest as an historical event that’s worth learning about for its own sake, with most of the moralizing left to the listener.

Chances are your grandchildren have no idea of the world before cell phones, internet, and digital everything. Written for the author's grandchildren, this book presents vignettes of life before MTV and 24-hour news cycles. At times poignant, funny, and cynical, it's easy and entertaining reminders of a simpler time.

Pablo Escobar was a mama’s boy who cherished his family and sang in the shower, yet he bombed a passenger plane and formed a death squad that used genital electrocution. Most Escobar biographies only provide a few pieces of the puzzle, but this action-packed 1000-page book reveals everything about the king of cocaine.

With a touch of swagger and cockiness, Phelps describes his personal experiences in the Southern California dating world while exposing dysfunctional and sometimes bizarre behavior among the multitude of serial daters in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. If you’ve been happily married for 30 or 40 years this book may not be for you. However, if you’ve been in the dating marathon for years or recently new to the musical chairs of dating as a mature adult, you will be sure to relate. Phelps delivers an entertaining, somewhat shocking and thought-provoking look at single life of middle-aged women ...

Having had unparalleled access to the Chilean mine disaster, award-winning journalist Jonathan Franklin takes readers to the heart of a remarkable story of human endurance, survival, and historic heroism. 33 Men is the groundbreaking, authoritative account of the Chilean mine disaster, one of the longest human entrapments in history.

The untold story of an Israeli spy’s epic journey to bring the notorious Butcher of Latvia to justice - a case that altered the fates of all ex-Nazis.

Anyone doubting that Diego Maradona was more than just a football player had only to witness the outpourings after his death on 25th November 2020. During his tempestuous life and career, he played for top clubs in South America and Europe, notably Napoli, where he became an adored hero and adopted son, and grew to be a legend in his homeland of Argentina after leading them to victory in the 1986 World Cup.

In March of 2017, a team of FBI agents arrested Juan Granda, Samer Barrage, and Renato Rodriguez, or as they called themselves, "the three amigos". The trio - first identified publicly by the authors of this book - had built a $3.6 billion dollar business in metals trading, mostly illegal Peruvian gold. Their arrests and subsequent prosecution laid bare more than a corrupt finance firm, though. Instead, Dirty Gold lifts the veil on an illegal international business that is five times as lucrative as trafficking cocaine, and arguably more dangerous.

Mistress Vixen is intelligent, sophisticated, and charming, with a wicked sense of humor, which She loves to indulge at Her slaves expense. Naturally Dominant, She exudes sensuality and eroticism that you sense as soon as you enter Her presence: spellbound, you'll leave the everyday world behind you're in Hers now. A soft smile to lull you into a false sense of security, then the single word Strip to remind you of your place naked at Her feet and you'll hurry to obey.

Lambda Award and American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award-winning author Dorothy Allison is known for her bold and insightful writing on issues of class and sexuality. In Skin, she approaches these topics through 23 impassioned essays that explore her identity - from her childhood in a poor family in South Carolina to her adult life as a lesbian in the suburbs of New York - and her sexuality.

Nearly two centuries before Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their epic trek to the Pacific coast, a group of three Spanish noblemen and an African survived shipwreck, famine, Indian attack, and disease to make the first crossing of North America in recorded history. Drawing on contemporary accounts and long-lost records, Robert Goodwin tells the amazing story of their odyssey through the American South.

Meredith Mason Brown traces Daniel Boone's life from his Pennsylvania childhood to his experiences in the militia and his rise as an unexcelled woodsman, explorer, and backcountry leader. In the process, we meet the authentic Boone: he didn't wear coonskin caps; he read and wrote better than many frontiersmen; he was not the first to settle Kentucky; he took no pleasure in killing Indians. At once a loner and a leader, a Quaker who became a skilled frontier fighter, Boone is a study in contradictions.

From his humble beginnings in Sumter, South Carolina, to his prominence on the Washington, D.C., political scene as the third highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn has led an extraordinary life. In Blessed Experiences, Clyburn tells in his own inspirational words how an African-American boy from the Jim Crow-era South was able to beat the odds to achieve great success.

A white Afrikaner, Zelda la Grange grew up in segregated South Africa, supporting the regime and the rules of apartheid. Her conservative family referred to the imprisoned Nelson Mandela as "a terrorist". Yet just a few years after his release and the end of apartheid, she would be traveling the world by Mr. Mandela’s side, having grown to respect and cherish the man she would come to call "Khulu", or "Grandfather".

Colombian Killers explores the stories of three men who have forever tainted the lush fields of Latin America. This book narrates the sadistic acts of serial killers Luis Alfredo Garavito, Pedro Alonzo Lopez, and Daniel Camargo Barbosa.

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to immerse yourself in the powerful words of a true hero. "I Write What I Like: by Steve Biko" is not just an audiobook; it's a journey through the inspiring writings of the renowned anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko. Within these audio pages, you will discover a carefully curated collection of Biko's writings, spanning from 1969, when he assumed the presidency of the South African Student Organisation, to 1972, a year when he was silenced and prohibited from publishing his thoughts.

Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities.

Growing up in Dorchester presented real challenges, but once Tom took over his father's auto repair shop in South Boston, life became intense. Mob-enforcers, drug dealers and killers became his friends and clients. Thomas Cirignano experienced Southie's era of extreme crime and violence, first hand. He managed to not just co-exist, but to thrive in that environment. At the shop, Whitey Bulger threatened Tom with a gun. A neighbor was gunned-down at the gas pumps.

For a woman traveling without her husband in the late nineteenth century, there was only one reason to take the train all the way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one sure to garner disapproval from fellow passengers. On the American frontier, the new state offered a tempting freedom often difficult to obtain elsewhere: divorce. In The Divorce Colony, writer and historian April White unveils the incredible social, political, and personal dramas that unfolded in Sioux Falls and reverberated around the country through the stories of four very different women.