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'I'm still getting the brakes fixed and when that's done I'm coming to see you, probably in a couple of weeks. As I keep fixing this and that the car will finally become reliable from bumper to bumper and I can visit any time and often. I'll call before I come down and, remember I'm Robert Conrad'Martin Luther King'Manuel. The one who loves you...'As a child, Shannon Luders-Manuel felt like an outsider in every environment she entered. Born to a Black father and white mother who separated when she was three, Luders-Manuel grew up with her white extended family, in largely white areas of California. Throughout her life, she yearned to understand her charismatic, transient father— whose promises were rarely kept, who struggled with alcohol and violence, and whose love she desperately needed. How could she find a place among two worlds— one white and one Black— when they felt so different? Luders-Manuel sought guidance in Baptist religion, becoming a born-again Christian at age fourteen, and eventually found herself in an abusive relationship. When her father entered hospice care when she was just twenty-four, she became his caretaker despite their long estrangement and hoped to find connection while she still could. Instead, she learned that neither man nor God could give her the home she needed— she would have to build her own sense of self.The One Who Loves You eloquently speaks not only to mixed-race individuals but to anyone who struggles with being labeled by others and to those who seek to reconcile the most contradictory parts of their own identities.

The Language of Mothers is a hybrid memoir grounded in the power of prose and poetry. It is an imaginative tapestry of women's storytelling that punctures narrative craft to illuminate the inheritance of domestic trauma and the voicing of familial stories that are healing spaces that carry through time. The Language of Mothers is about two mothers caught in abusive relationships, impoverished with children, with few avenues of escape. These stories shed light on the culture of American motherhood as a failure for women, perpetuating a system of patriarchal ideals that only values the nuclear family as whole spaces of abundance, love, and worth. At nineteen, Rain Wright's mother left Dronfield, England, traveling through Europe before landing in New York in the turbulent 1960s. Swept up in the changing societal wave, Elizabeth, her mother travels to California, where she meets her future abuser, Rain's father. This memoir is the story of Elizabeth's courageous escape with three young children, and it is the story of Rain's escape decades later. The Language of Mothers navigates the inheritance of trauma, finding that storytelling and art, for both women, become the impetus for healing. Elizabeth packs her children's belongings in black plastic bags and hides them in the brush along Elk Ridge Road, in California, making her daring escape with the help of friends and an ex-lover. She flies with her children across an ocean to the safety of Hawai?i, where she finds art, lomi lomi, music, and security. After Elizabeth's passing from breast cancer in 1996, her stories, inherited from years of car rides around Hawai?i Island, are the language of mythmaking. The Language of Mothers is an intimate look at why women stay too long in abusive relationships and an act of defiance and regenerative love. Rain's story is a tapestry of early childhood trauma as witness to her mother's abuse, domestic terror at the hands of her children's father, and her own escape narrative. The Language of Mothers deeply sees the aftereffects of domestic abuse, including her eldest daughter's suicide attempts, her middle daughter's strive for perfection, and her youngest daughter's need for control through anorexia. Women's stories can heal. Rain interweaves traumatic parts of her past but recounts acts of love, telling her daughters stories and becoming their storyteller.

“The Motherload is for all the women who wish someone had told them the truth about motherhood. Honest, unapologetic, and brutally funny…it's about developing the strength to care for yourself and, thereby, learning to care for another.” —Stephanie Danler, New York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter An intimately honest memoir about motherhood that dares to ask, what happens when “what to expect when you're expecting” turns out to be months of rage, anguish, brain fog, and a total surrender of sex, career, and identity.“The kid was objectively a tiny worm, even worse, a worm with my nose.” Welcome to Sarah Hoover's unflinching take on motherhood and its expectations in which the beatific narrative women have been fed—one of immediate connection to your child followed by a joyful path of maternal discovery—turns out to be not quite true. In The Motherload, Hoover provides a candid, funny, and sobering look at the journey women undertake as expectant mothers and wives from the early days of pregnancy through labor and beyond. Like most of us, Sarah Hoover grew up imagining a certain life for herself—career, love, marriage, children—and when Hoover moved from Indiana to New York City to study art history, the life she'd imagined began falling into place. She got her degree, landed a job in a gallery, made friends, and went on some exceptionally bad dates. She also met interesting artists, one of whom became her future husband (a whirlwind romance, theirs, exciting even with its imperfections). But when Hoover got pregnant, the life she imagined began to unravel. She felt like an imposter in her own body. She grew distant from her friends and husband. She suffered from anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame. She also experienced trauma at the hands of one of her doctors—a stark trigger. And eventually, when her son was born, there was no… joy. Instead, she felt “disoriented, lonely, and like none of my clothes fit.” Why was she seeing and hearing things that weren't there? Why was she so angry and miserable when she had everything she thought she wanted? Why was the life she'd built falling apart? It took her months to discover that she was suffering from severe postpartum depression. And it took even longer to trace all the threads that came to inform her experience. At its core, The Motherload is about learning to forgive yourself for not being what you've been told you must be and for not loving the way you've been told you should. It's about the uniquely female experience of constantly grappling with expectation versus reality, no matter your circumstance, and a rejection of the cultural idea of the mother as a perfect being. It is a moving, exciting, roller coaster ride, and a propulsive addition to the canon of women's literature.

From bestselling children's author Marianne Richmond comes a powerful memoir about overcoming a mother's emotional neglect and finding the courage to reclaim the story of your life.'In her beautiful memoir, Richmond bravely finds her way through a legacy of emotional trauma, pulling us into her courageous, tender heart while bringing us closer to our own…a stunning story.'-- Kelly McDaniel, LPC, author of Mother HungerAt nine years old, Marianne Richmond's life is upended when she collapses on her kitchen floor with full-body convulsions.'Pinched nerve,'says the ER doctor, a baffling explanation. But when one episode becomes many, it's clear something is wrong. Afraid to be at school, in her body and in her life, Marianne desperately hopes for help and healing. But her emotionally unavailable mother — still reeling from her own past trauma— refuses medication on Marianne's behalf, preferring to try prayer and homeopathy. At age 18, a full-body seizure in Marianne's dorm room leads her to a diagnosis, medication, and—at long last—neurological intervention. Physically, Marianne feels'fixed,'but emotional healing proves more elusive. In the years to come, Marianne becomes a parent herself, and writes a new story for her life. She authors children's books that touch millions of lives, each of them celebrating a mother's unconditional love for her children. A love her own heart still longs to know. When her mother becomes ill, Marianne has a choice to make: will she be present for the mother who rarely felt present to her?If You Were My Daughter is a story of learning to hear your own voice, of one daughter's return to wholeness, and ultimately, a story of accepting that, despite all hope and longing, a mother's'best I could'can still fall far too short. Most of all, Marianne Richmond illuminates how the stories we're born into shape the ones we tell about ourselves—and reminds us that we have the powerful permission to develop a new relationship with what is difficult in our lives, to fully choose and embody who we are meant to be.

For readers who love inspiring true stories, a contemporary memoir from a mother who helped her nonverbal daughter with autism find her voice.Families who have supported a child with special needs will connect with this memoir about Sarah, a feisty girl with autism and a unique genetic blueprint. Her mom, Jenny, is equally feisty and determined, which leads her to make a commitment that dramatically changes her and Sarah's lives—as well as those of many others. Sarah's early years are filled with challenges, and Jenny and her husband, Carl, try various therapies in an effort to help her. At four years old, Sarah is still nonverbal, still doesn't use the potty, and still struggles with eating. Jenny knows she must do more. She has heard of a method developed by the Autism Treatment Center of America called The Son-Rise Program, which, through loving, supportive interaction, aims to foster social connection in people with autism. It is a huge undertaking, requiring hours of one-on-one therapeutic playtime, which means Jenny needs to find and train volunteers to make it possible. Though Jenny isn't sure she can do it, she decides to try. She calls her program Sarah-Rise. Accompany Jenny as Sarah's language explodes, her eye contact intensifies, and she plays games, plays imaginatively, uses the potty, eats healthily, reads, and writes. Have your heart warmed and your socks knocked off by this momentous journey.

This book is the story of a changing Scotland as it was heard and seen by the people of Scotland. We all may have our ideas about where we are headed as nation and a society, but none of us knows. That makes what lies ahead so fascinating. Just like what's gone before. JOHN MacKAY John MacKay is one of Scotland's best known broadcasters. His career as a reporter, anchor and presenter has spanned from the Thatcher Years to the Independence Referendum and beyond. MacKay has been witness to the major stories in the country's recent past. There have been the tragedies of Lockerbie, Dunblane and Clutha; sporting triumphs and tears; the opening of the new Scottish Parliament; the drama of parliamentary elections and referendums; interviews with Prime Ministers and First Ministers; and the death of Donald Dewar. From being in a room with a grizzly bear to trying to calm an irate – and topless – Alex Salmond, MacKay's career has been nothing if not varied. Using archive scripts, interview transcripts, recollections and personal diaries, he tells the story of one of the most tumultuous periods in Scotland's peacetime history.

In 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake left more than 20,000 people dead or missing. On 11 March 2011, shortly after taking office as mayor, Futoshi Toba, mayor of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, experienced firsthand the earthquake and tsunami which destroyed city hall and killed many of his subordinates. His wife was also missing, but despite the pain, he struggled to carry out his duties as mayor, leaving his two children with relatives, only to find his wife's body on April 5.Mayor Toba, in order to rebuild his town, had to face down the government which was slow in making decisions. He tried to work with the residents who were opposed to his bold actions and measures. This non-fiction book focuses on the 10-year journey of the mayor of a city hit by an unprecedented tsunami. Mayor Toba's account of the pain and trauma involved to rebuild his town is like no other story from the front lines. Toba built a professional working relationship with an American woman, Amya Miller, who showed up to volunteer. Together, they learn from, push and support each other as they traverse the roads that hopefully will lead to recovery.

Buckle up for a thrilling journey through the vibrant 1950s and 1960s with this riveting coming-of-age memoir. Echoing the nostalgia and charm of classics like American Pie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Stand by Me, American Graffiti, and Pleasantville, this graphic memoir offers a unique blend of heartfelt stories and vivid adventures.Set in the idyllic suburb of Upper Arlington, Ohio, during a Camelot era, this tale follows a group of friends navigating the exhilarating highs and lows of adolescence. From mischievous escapades to moments of poignant self-discovery, the narrative captures the essence of youth, marked by friendships, first loves, and unforgettable parties.Against a backdrop of significant historical events – social pressures, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War – our protagonists brush shoulders with the elite, all while experiencing the raw and joyful transformation from childhood to teenage years.

Navigating the journey from zero to success is no small feat, a challenge that even the author doesn't claim to have mastered – but is willing to explore. After graduation, life becomes a high-stakes race against time, filled with head-spinning ‘WTF'moments. From tackling parenthood and self-doubt to dodging curveballs like talk shows, bills, and Hollywood drama, the author invites you to experience it all unfiltered. Just when a glimmer of hope starts to shine, a myriad of obstacles including baby mama drama, encounters with celebrities, and wrangling with the ever-daunting IRS emerge. Amidst this chaos, can one find love, spiritual peace, and the elusive American Dream in today's breakneck society? In a world that takes a toll on our mental health, leaving many of us feeling Legally Omitted, this compelling narrative serves as a candid reflection on the complexities of modern life. Explore the rollercoaster that is the pursuit of success, happiness, and self-fulfilment, in a society that never hits the pause button.

Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman coming off a much-needed break from relationships, reluctantly taking the digital plunge by downloading a dating app. Instead of the fun, easy experiences advertised on swiping platforms, she discovered endless upkeep, ghosting, fleeting moments of sexual connection, and a steady flow of misogyny. In Sticky, Sexy, Sad, Orchard uses her skills as both an anthropologist who studies sexuality and a sex-positive feminist to explore what it feels like to want love while also resisting the addictive pull of platforms designed to make us swipe-dependent. She asks important questions for those searching for love in the modern era: What are the social and human impacts of using dating apps? How can we maintain our integrity and warm-blooded desire for intimacy while swiping? Can we resist some of the problematic aspects of swipe culture? Is love on dating apps even possible? Revealing how dating apps are powerful social and sexual technologies that are radically transforming sexuality, relationships, and how we think about ourselves, this remarkable book cracks the code of modern romance. Told with humor and vulnerability, Sticky, Sexy, Sad is a riveting and inspiring guide to staying true to ourselves amid the digitization of love in the twenty-first century.

Waite “Schoolboy” Hoyt's improbable baseball journey began when the 1915 New York Giants signed him as a high school junior, for no pay and a five-dollar bonus. After nearly having both his hands amputated and cavorting with men twice his age in the hardscrabble Minor Leagues, he somehow ended up the best pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1920s. Based on a trove of Hoyt's writings and interview transcripts, Tim Manners has reanimated the baseball legend's untold story, entirely in Hoyt's own words. Schoolboy dives straight into early twentieth-century America and the birth of modern-day baseball, as well as Hoyt's defining conflict: Should he have pursued something more respectable than being the best pitcher on the 1927 New York Yankees, arguably the greatest baseball team of all time? Over his twenty-three-year professional baseball career, Hoyt won 237 big league games across 3,845 ⅔ innings—and one locker room brawl with Babe Ruth. He also became a vaudeville star who swapped dirty jokes with Mae West and drank champagne with Al Capone, a philosophizer who bonded with Lou Gehrig over the meaning of life, and a funeral director who left a body chilling in his trunk while pitching an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium. Hoyt shares his thoughts on famous moments in the golden age of baseball history; assesses baseball legends, including Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Pete Rose; and describes the strategies of baseball managers John McGraw, Miller Huggins, and Connie Mack. He writes at length about the art of pitching and how the game and its players changed—and didn't—over his lifetime. After retiring from baseball at thirty-eight and coming to terms with his alcoholism, Hoyt found some happiness as a family man and a beloved, pioneering Cincinnati Reds radio sportscaster with a Websterian vocabulary spiked with a Brooklyn accent. When Hoyt died in 1984 his foremost legacy may have been as a raconteur who punctuated his life story with awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping anecdotes. In Schoolboy he never flinches from an unsparing account of his remarkable and paradoxical eighty-four-year odyssey.

Susan Herrick's memoir follows the story of her beloved son and only child, Luke, through his struggle with opioid addiction, recovery and sobriety, and untimely and heartbreaking death. Luke suffered a near-fatal car accident that left him partially paralyzed and addicted to Oxycontin, the very drug that helped save his life. Susan turned to the streets to obtain Suboxone, a legal but medically restricted opioid blocker, in an attempt to save her son's life. Remembering this, she writes,'The day I became my son's drug dealer, we both died, in a way.'This poignant and compelling memoir exposes the rampant prescribing of Oxycontin, upwards of 600mg daily in cases like Luke's, and the role overprescribing plays in the disease of Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Through Luke's story, the author addresses failed public policies, misguided medical practices, societal stigmas, and enabling tendencies of loved ones that hinder recovery for those afflicted with SUD.

LUCKY OR UNLUCKY? – YOU DECIDE! This engaging book chronicles the true-life adventures, and misadventures, experienced by the author and his wife during their global travels that sometimes did not go to plan! Readers will be entertained by a spectrum of stories including a rendezvous with an amorous Frenchman, a few scary moments in the presence of wild beasts, general holiday mishaps, hell raising motor journeys as well as floating holiday adventures, to name but a few. This page turning travel memoir will pull your emotions in all directions from ‘hysterics'to ‘shock'. The author strives to provide an accurate depiction of the events and the fascinating people the dynamic duo met along the way. All information is as accurate as possible and as such is based upon meticulous notes taken at the various times.

Combining painfully honest memoir, cultural analysis, and reporting, BoyMom is a humorous and heartbreaking deep dive into the complexities of raising boys in our fraught political moment.“Rapist, school-shooter, incel, man-child, interrupter, mansplainer, boob-starer, birthday forgetter, frat boy, dude-bro, homophobe, self-important stoner, emotional-labor abstainer, non-wiper of kitchen counters. Trying to raise good sons suddenly felt like a hopeless task.” As the culture wars rage, and masculinity has been politicized from all sides, feminist writer and mother of three boys Ruth Whippman finds herself conflicted and scared. While the right pushes a dangerous vision of fantasy manhood, her feminist peers often dismiss boys as little more than entitled predators-in-waiting. Meanwhile her home life feels like a daily confrontation with the triumph of nature over nurture. With young men in the grip of a loneliness epidemic and dying by suicide at a rate of nearly four times their female peers, Whippman asks: How do we raise our sons to have a healthy sense of self without turning them into privileged assholes? How can we find a feminism that holds boys to a higher standard but still treats them with empathy? And what do we do when our boys won't cooperate with our plans? Whippman digs into the impossibly contradictory pressures boys now face; and the harmful blind spots of male socialization that are leaving boys isolated, emotionally repressed, and adrift. Feminist gonzo-style, she spends months interviewing incels, reports on a conference for boys accused of sexual assault; crashes at a residential therapy center for young men in Utah, talks to a wide range of psychologists and other experts, and gets boys of all backgrounds to open up about sex, consent, porn, body image, mental health, cancel culture, screens, friendship and loneliness. Along the way, she finds her simple certainties about male privilege seriously challenged. With wit, honesty, and a refusal to settle for easy answers, BoyMom charts a new path to give boys a healthier, more expansive, and fulfilling story about their own lives.

Berkeley, 1972: a hotbed of creativity where painters, filmmakers, musicians, and writers inspire a young poet.NYC Big Book Award: Winner in New Adult Non-fiction NYC Big Book Award: Distinguished Favorite in Women's Issues International Book Award Winner in U.S. History Literary Titan Winner Finalist in the San Francisco Bookfest Runner Up in the New York City Bookfest Second-wave feminism, inspired by Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Betty Friedan is swelling into a tsunami. Women are joining together to change power dynamics in politics, the home, and the workplace. On election day, Joan Gelfand casts her vote for George McGovern and boards a plane from New York to California. With one introduction to a woman musician, Joan's journey to become a writer is born. Embraced by a thriving women's community of artists, filmmakers, musicians, poets, and writers, Joan is encouraged to find her voice. Mentored by paradigm-changing writers, Joan finds the courage to face her darkest fears through poetry and art, mining the trauma she experienced after losing her father and questioning her Jewish identity. Reminiscent of Paris in the twenties, Greenwich Village in the sixties, and Berlin in the eighties, Berkeley in the seventies was the “it” city of America. Outside Voices reports the ups and downs of finding one's way as an artist, living with a women's band, forging an independent Jewish identity, founding a women's restaurant, and becoming a published writer and songwriter while exploring the limits of sexuality and spirituality. The story includes road trips to music festivals in the woods, beaches in Mexico, concerts in Southern California, and a retreat in the Pacific Northwest. A triumphant story of determination and will, Outside Voices is a backstage look at the women's movement that sets the stage for decades of change. This book is a firsthand look at how the power of community emboldened innovation, social change, and self-discovery.

A riveting look inside a life of poverty, success, and the inner circles of political influence--from the foothills of Appalachia all the way to the White House.New York Times bestselling ghostwriter Nancy French is coming out of the shadows to tell her own incredible story.Nancy's family hails from the foothills of the Appalachians, where life was dominated by coal mining, violence, abuse, and poverty. Longing for an adventure, she married a stranger, moved to New York, and dropped out of college. In spite of her lack of education, she found success as a ghostwriter for conservative political leaders. However, when she was unwilling to endorse an unsuitable president, her allies turned on her and she found herself spiritually adrift, politically confused, and occupationally unemployable.Republicans mocked her, white nationalists targeted her, and her church community alienated her. But in spite of death threats, sexual humiliation, and political ostracization, she learned the importance of finding her own voice--and that the people she thought were her enemies could be her closest friends.A poignant and engrossing memoir filled with humor and personal insights, Ghosted is a deeply American story of change, loss, and ultimately love.

The best personal essays from a contested region, from Belt Publishing's ten years as a press. Many have an opinion on what the Rust Belt is. It's the'blue wall,''Trump country,'the'flyover states,'or the “real America.” Or maybe, as our own president has said, it's a place that no longer exists called by a name that has long outlived its usefulness. But undeniably, there's something that connects the region. Maybe the question isn't what defines that connection, but who. Over the past ten years, Belt Publishing has been putting out books that prioritize the voices of the many people who live here. We've collected our favorite writing from our dozens of anthologies, from Pittsburgh to Gary, Chicago to St. Louis, Milwaukee to Cleveland, and more, documenting growing up in segregated St. Louis and elucidating the coded Islamophobia of southern Michigan. Featuring LaToya Ruby Frazier, Connie Schultz, Brian Broome, Megan Stielstra, Vivian Gibson, Aaron Foley, Kathleen Rooney, Sarah Kendzior, Phil Christman, and more.

Ehrgeiz, Demut, Glück – seit über dreißig Jahren kreist Chris Kraus'Werk um diese Koordinaten. Sei es in ihren Essays zur Kunst, in denen zugleich die Kunst der Freundschaft Thema ist. Sei es in ihren berühmten Romanen oder den Texten über befreundete Schriftsteller:innen: Immer geht es um das unbedingte Streben, aus dem Wenigsten das Meiste zu machen – und um die zähe Überzeugung, selbst den widrigsten Umständen dieses Meiste abringen zu können. Mit einer Mischung aus Biografie, Autobiografie, Fiktion, Kritik und Gespräch erfindet Chris Kraus in den hier versammelten Texten eine neue Form der anthropologischen Erkundung: Ein Bericht über die Sex Workers'Art Show Tour reiht sich an eine Reportage über experimentelle Kleinstgalerien. Der Besuch bei einer autodidaktischen Tänzerin in der mexikanischen Wüste folgt Kraus'eigenen Erinnerungen an die Gründung des von ihr mitgeleiteten Theorie-Verlages Semiotext(e). Einblicke in ihre Zeit als Oben-ohne-Tänzerin sind zugleich Porträts der Gentrifizierung New Yorks wie von Nischen fragiler Freiheit. Ausgewählt von den Schriftsteller:innen Kevin Vennemann und Heike Geißler, vermitteln die Texte Eindrücke in eine lebenslange Auseinandersetzung an den Rändern der Kunstwelt sowie mit den Verhältnissen, die darüber entscheiden, wer an diese Ränder gebannt ist. Chris Kraus'Texte sind weniger Kritik als ein Vorschlag, wie gegenwärtige Kunstproduktion durch Begehren und Umstände, Delirium, Klatsch, Zufall und Rache gelesen werden kann. Alle Kunst, so impliziert sie, ist eine soziale Praxis. Und trotz all ihrer Fehler bleibt die Kunstwelt, so Kraus, die letzte Grenze für den Wunsch, anders zu leben.

“Ragunath's transformation shows how one person's choice to evolve can change the lives of so many. This book is real, funny, and inspirational.” —Jay Shetty The heartfelt memoir of Ray Raghunath Cappo, a legendary hardcore punk musician-turned-monk—and pioneer of the straight-edge movement—told with warmth, candor, and humor.Ray Cappo was a hardcore punk singer and pioneer of the straight-edge movement living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the'80s, where his band Youth of Today played to packed clubs and touched thousands of people across the globe. But despite the accolades from fans, the popularity of his records, and the positivity he'd brought to the punk music scene, none of this success gave Ray joy. He felt stagnant, and he yearned for something more. This, along with his father's untimely death, led him to abruptly quit the band and buy a one-way ticket to India in pursuit of the answers to life's great mysteries. Living as a monk in the sacred city of Vrindavan and traveling across the country on a series of train trips, Ray embraced the rich, spiritual culture he discovered there. As his unusual adventure unfolded, he encountered extraordinary characters, witnessed deep acts of devotion, and experienced profound moments of divine connection, leading to a radical transformation that was ego-crushing and blissful all at once. Inspired to write music again, Ray returned to the US, where he and other monks founded Shelter, a band dedicated to spreading a message of faith, hope, and love. Told with warmth, candor, and humor—and featuring a foreword by globally renowned musician Moby—this heartfelt memoir chronicles Ray's emotional and spiritual journey from punk to monk and beyond.

An “intimate, intensely resonant memoir about workaholism, unresolved trauma, and the ‘addictive nature of ambition'” (Harper's Bazaar), this is an anti-girlboss tale for our times for readers of Drinking: A Love Story and Uncanny Valley.After years of relentlessly racing up the professional ladder, Jennifer Romolini reached the kind of success many crave: a high-profile, C-suite dream job, a book well-received enough that reporters wanted to know the secrets to her success, and a gig traveling around the country giving speeches on “making it.” But beneath this polished surface was a powder keg of unresolved trauma and chronic overwork. It was all about to blow. Ambition Monster is a gutsy and powerful look at workaholism, the lingering effect of childhood trauma, and the failures of our modern rat race. This is a Cinderella story of success and a brutal appraisal of the cost of capitalism—perfect for people pleasers, overachievers, and those whose traumas have driven them to be perfect, no matter the cost. “If you find yourself on the other end of burnout, trying desperately to figure out a new way forward—wow, is this book for you” (Anne Helen Petersen, author of Can't Even).

The #1 New York Times bestseller from “America's historian-in-chief” (New York magazine). An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America's most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir. Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved. The Goodwins'last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested. Their expedition gave Dick's last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.

THE FIRST BOOK BY A CONFIRMED SURVIVOR OF TED BUNDY, AND THE ONLY MEMOIR TO CHALLENGE THE POPULAR NARRATIVE OF BUNDY AS A HANDSOME KILLER WHO CHARMED HIS VICTIMS INTO TRUSTING HIM In January 1978, I slept in my bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University as Ted Bundy stalked nearby. He grabbed an oak log from a stack of firewood, slipped through a back door with a broken padlock, and headed upstairs.He began twisting doorknobs. Room 9 was open, and he quietly and quickly killed one of my sleeping sorority sisters. Across the hall, he found another unlocked door and murdered again. Then, he turned the knob to my bedroom and found it was open. I remember the attack vividly. Bundy bashed me once in the head with the log and then attacked my roommate. He heard me moaning and came to finish me off. He never let his victims live. But he stopped suddenly when a bright light filled the room. He fled the sorority house and the light disappeared. Bundy wasn't my first brush with death, and he wasn't my last. I've long been a survivor. I was born into a Cuban American family in 1957 in Florida. I had a happy childhood until I received my first death sentence at the age of thirteen. Physicians weren't sure why I was always so exhausted and running a low-grade fever. The prognosis was grim after my left kidney started to fail. Then, a physician from Cuba saved my life with a surprise diagnosis—lupus—and treatment plan: chemotherapy. I endured chemotherapy again in my early thirties when I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. This is my story of surviving three death sentences and finding love and happiness along the way. I was saved by a bright light, and I hope my story is one for people who are experiencing their own dark times. I am a victim, but I am also a survivor, and I want to speak up for all the women and girls whom Bundy murdered. He has become a legend, and our voices have been muted or ignored. It's time we were heard.

Success Leaves Clues—An Entrepreneur's Journey from the Ground UpAnyone can start a business. All it takes is an idea, a little creativity, and a product or service offered in exchange for money. Sounds simple enough, right?If it were that easy, then every business ever launched would be thriving, filling our storefronts, malls, and online shopping sites with an endless supply of products and services. Unfortunately, most businesses don't succeed, and it's not always due to a lack of work ethic or creativity.Eric Malka, past CEO of The Art of Shaving, offers his insight on what makes a business thrive, from the time the doors open until long after the company is sold. Malka discovered firsthand that an entrepreneur needs three things to survive and excel: grit, prudence, and timing.In On the Razor's Edge, he shares his journey from his humble beginnings to the eight-figure sale of his company, detailing what he gained from setbacks and unexpected obstacles. While many businesses were closing because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the pandemic, and financial crises, The Art of Shaving managed to prosper. The brand pivoted along with customer expectations, made possible by Eric and his wife's partnership and commitment to breakthrough innovations and hiring extraordinary people.After the sale of The Art of Shaving, Malka knew his job was not over and he discovered a new passion: mentoring entrepreneurs and investing in businesses as a way to give back. Today, he believes his own entrepreneurial journey was a launching pad for Strategic Brand Investments, the business he launched to help transform early-stage companies into scalable and profitable business models.

The tell-all memoir of Lunden Roberts's tumultuous relationship with Hunter Biden.He was sitting there wearing nothing but parrot boxer briefs, organizing his pipes on his Rosemont Seneca desk. I was sitting in Barack Obama's actual chair from the Senate floor. I took another look at Hunter - this kind, intense, and startlingly transparent man - and thought,'this is definitely a guy I want to get to know better.” That was the first time Lunden Roberts met Hunter Biden. She had moved to DC from Arkansas in an impulsive decision to apply for a grad program. Hunter radiated the “live-for-the-moment” energy she sought. What followed from that first meeting was a wild journey that would come to define Lunden's young life in ways she never could have anticipated. Out of the Shadows chronicles that rollercoaster ride of a relationship, touching on the drug cook working in Rosemont Seneca's kitchen, strip clubs where Hunter might try the pole himself, protecting him from would-be terrorists in New York City, the night she grabbed two guns and was certain she would have to fatally shoot a crazed MMA fighter, and dozens of other stories that make the laptop debacle seem routine. Lunden is finally ready to step into the light and tell her story. In her brave and honest memoir, she recounts the chaos, the broken trust, and ultimately the incredible love she found mothering and protecting the long-unacknowledged grandchild of the sitting President of the United States.

Did I disturb ye good people? I hopes I disturb ye, I hopes I disturb ye enough to want to see this, your house, in ruins all around ye! Have you had enough yet? Or do you still have time for chaos? — Words spoken in court by Temperance Lloyd when she was tried for witchcraft in Devon in 1682Do You Still Have Time for Chaos? tells the story of poet and teacher Lynn Davidson's late-life decision to leave Aotearoa New Zealand, with scant resources, to build a life in Scotland. In 2020, in the frightening quiet of a Covid-emptied Edinburgh, she begins her memoir; temporarily at home at the Randell Cottage residency in Wellington, she completes it.Lynn Davidson's long look back at what made and fractured her includes an account of single parenting with its shadows of poverty and stigma, and is interwoven with the ghostly presence of her uncontainable and courageous great aunt, and the long reach of witch hunts.Do You Still Have Time for Chaos? is a love letter to the literature of Scotland and Aotearoa New Zealand. It has an ear to the land and its stories. It is a celebration of choice. It is an act of resistance to the persistent idea that women are safer to stay at home.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The two-time New York Times bestselling author, OG Vanderpump Rules star, and host of the successful chart-topping podcast Stassi is back and better than ever with a candid guide to rethinking the girlboss life, taking the pressure off, and lessons she's learned since becoming a mom of two.Before she wrote Off with My Head, a book about hitting what felt like rock bottom, Stassi Schroeder was writing an entirely different story: a basic bitch's guide on how to be—wait for it—a “girlboss.” But then 2020 came along and after a global pandemic, losing her job, becoming pregnant and having her first child, and getting married, suddenly being a girlboss wasn't the vibe. Instead of giving up, Stassi grew up and learned from her mistakes (you know, just standard evolution). After two and a half years in limbo, Stassi was ready to launch her career again. She'd come a long way from that temperamental Season One Stassi. She'd gained a new perspective on what she wants out of business, her career, and life: to carve a path for herself, on her terms. The thing is, all of this pressure to “have it all” while girlbossing it up…it's exhausting, and Stassi isn't sure it's the ticket to happiness that we all thought it was. That's truly what this book is about: the desire for joy. It's about accepting the fact that you may not be the “perfect” parent/partner/friend/human at all times, and that's okay. Instead of letting mom guilt or work guilt get her down, Stassi is trying to learn and to encourage us all to take the pressure off, give ourselves grace, and lean into the things that bring happiness. And if you need a little sauvignon blanc or Aperol spritz to get you through the tough days…so be it.

Embark on an inspirational journey with two lifelong friends of 75 plus years! THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP is a heartwarming memoir that invites readers to cherish their own friendships, which will, in turn, enrich their lives in ways never imagined. A book to be re-read and shared.

The true story of a man whose life is transformed when he takes an unlikely caretaking job for a disabled 87-year-old who is more than he seems. Marcos's friends used to describe him as a happy family man, a successful graphic artist, and a joyous ukulele player. But then, he lost his marriage and his job, and nearly lost his newly outed transgender son to a suicide attempt after a violent attack by classmates. Marcos receded into a darkening depression as job applications went unanswered and bills piled up. An inability to afford his son's medication raised Marcos's anxiety to a breaking point. Desperate, he silently opened himself up to whomever or whatever might be listening and asked for help. The answer he got back from the universe was clear: “Just do the next good thing.” The next morning, he received the email that would change his life. The subject line read simply, “Help our friend Joe.” When Marcos clicked on it, he was surprised to find it was a job offer as a home caregiver to a remarkable 87-year-old named Joe Sabah.This book chronicles the inspirational true story of an old man near the end of his life who found a new friend and offered a lasting gift of 10 life-changing lessons for Marcos to share with others who still need to find their “next good thing.”

An inspiring blend of nature writing and memoir that explores nature's crucial role in our emotional and mental health Bats can hear shapes, plants can eat light, and bees can dance maps. When his life took him to a painfully dark place, the poet behind The CryptoNaturalist, Jarod K. Anderson, found comfort and redemption in these facts and the shift in perspective that comes from paying a new kind of attention to nature. Something in the Woods Loves You tells the story of the darkest stretch of a young person's life, and how deliberate and meditative encounters with plants and animals helped him see the light at every turn. Ranging from optimistic contemplations of mortality to appreciations of a single mushroom, Anderson has written a lyrical love letter to the natural world and given us the tools to see it all anew.

An Indian American daughter reveals how the dangerous model minority myth fractured her family in this'searingly honest memoir that manages to be at once a scalding indictment and a heartfelt love letter'(Scott Stossel, author of My Age of Anxiety).'In examining with boundless love the secrets and sorrows of one family, Gupta shows us the life-altering power of telling one's truth.'--Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning How do we understand ourselves when the story about who we are supposed to be is stronger than our sense of self? What do we stand to gain--and lose--by taking control of our narrative? These questions propel Prachi Gupta's heartfelt memoir and can feel particularly fraught for immigrants and their children who live under immense pressure to belong in America. Prachi Gupta's family embodied the American Dream: a doctor father and a nurturing mother who raised two high-achieving children with one foot in the Indian American community, the other in Pennsylvania's white suburbia. But their belonging was predicated on a powerful myth: that Asian Americans have perfected the alchemy of middle-class life, raising tight-knit, ambitious families that are immune to hardship. Molding oneself to fit this perfect image often comes at a steep but hidden cost. In They Called Us Exceptional, Gupta articulates the dissonance, shame, and isolation of being upheld as an American success story while privately navigating traumas invisible to the outside world. Gupta addresses her mother throughout the book, weaving a deeply vulnerable personal narrative with history, postcolonial theory, and research on mental health, to show how she slowly made sense of her reality and freed herself emotionally and physically from the pervasive, reductive myth that had once defined her. But, tragically, the act that liberated Gupta was also the act that distanced her from those she loved most. By charting her family's slow unraveling and her determination to break the cycle, Gupta shows how traditional notions of success keep us disconnected from ourselves and one another--and passionately argues why we must orient ourselves toward compassion over belonging.

Rich Benoit went from buying a left-for-dead Tesla to becoming a successful YouTube entrepreneur and launching The Electrified Garage, the nation's first successful EV-only business devoted to repairing Teslas and other electric vehicles. Today he is the world's most popular DIY expert and car aficionado, and now he shares his story and expertise. People are fascinated by Tesla: the cars, the stock price, and especially its headline-grabbing CEO. Rich Benoit was the first YouTuber to pull back the curtain on the cultlike business model that is the Tesla company, and he's personally battled its consumer-unfriendly business practices. In Going Fast and Fixing Things, Rich provides readers with behind-the-scenes access not only to his Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel but to his off-camera life as well. Throughout his life, Rich has almost always been the proverbial “only Black guy in the room,” but despite the fact that online car culture—especially electric vehicle fandom—skews overwhelmingly white, he has become the most popular car rebuilding guy on the internet. His voice on the page is funny and intimate and a little goofy—just like his video persona—but always tempered by a clear determination to create success for himself as well as for his fans. Going Fast and Fixing Things also includes tips to help readers fix, drive, and buy their own cars, along with advice on how to defy the disposable-is-better consumerist ethos that saturates our current culture.

Join Andrea Marcolongo, renowned classicist and one of today's most original thinkers on antiquity, for an inspiring journey as she learns to run—and to live—like a Greek. Why do we run? To what end, all the effort and pain? Wherefore this love of muscle, speed, and sweat? The Greeks were the first to ask these questions, the first to suspend war, work, politics, to enjoy public celebrations of athletic prowess. They invented sport and they were also the first to understand how physical activity connected to our mental well-being. After a lifetime spent with her head and heart in the books trying to think like a Greek, at a professional and personal crossroads, Andrea Marcolongo set out to learn how to run like a Greek. In doing so, she deepened her understanding of the ancient civilization she has spent decades studying and discovered more about herself than she could ever have dreamed. In this spirited, generous, and engaging book, Marcolongo shares her erudition and her own journey to understanding that a healthy body is, in more ways than one might guess, a healthy mind.

Donna Freitas wants to believe. Raised Catholic, she sang songs about Jesus as a child and lived in a house where nuns and priests were regular guests, yet she found herself questioning the faith of her family, examining the reasons none of it added up, and distancing herself from the God of Christianity. Despite her questions—or perhaps because of them—she made a career out of trying to understand God, pursuing a PhD in religion. But even as she taught college students about mystics, theologians, and others who wrestled with God, she was never able to embrace a faith of her own. In this searingly honest and deeply personal book, Freitas retraces her roundabout path up and out of the wilderness toward hope, and her dogged—and ongoing—search for faith. She talks about her experience with the Catholic abuse scandal, about being embraced as a speaker at evangelical colleges, about how the death of her mother and the loss of her marriage made her question everything she thought she knew about love, how she cannot reconcile the ways the concept of God makes absolutely no sense, and how she cannot stop trying to believe, despite it all. Real, raw, and beautifully written, Wishful Thinking is a powerful story about the author's search for belief in God and about finding God in the most unexpected places.

An engaging blend of conservation stories and humorous, personal anecdotes from Philippa Forrester about women who, like her, choose to live and work in the wild.Surviving in the wilderness has long been associated with men, and conservation and environmental biology have traditionally been male-dominated subjects. Yet many remarkable women also choose to live and work in wild and challenging landscapes. In Wild Woman, Philippa Forrester considers the grit and determination required for women to maintain connections to wildlife and shares stories of female conservation heroes and other extraordinary wild women working in nature. Talking to women from around the world, Philippa studies and celebrates what it means to be a wild woman. From the sixteenth-century botanist who was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe to modern-day women responding to bear attacks in Yellowstone, working to rewild reserves in South Africa, photographing Caribou in the Arctic and more, Philippa examines how these women benefit from a life spent in the wilderness and also considers what the natural world gains from them. Relating some of her own experiences from three decades spent travelling around the world and working in some of the wildest places on Earth, Philippa asks: what does it take for a woman to live or work in the wild?

•NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER• “This book is so many things I didn't know I needed: a testament to the work of healing, a raw howl of anger, and an indictment of misogyny's insipid, predictable, infuriating reign.” —Carmen Maria Machado, author of the National Book Award finalist Her Body and Other Parties and the Lambda Literary Award winner In the Dream House A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women. In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression, and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.” In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men: unrequited love in high school; the twenty-eight-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was sixteen; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-thirties; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families. This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message of hope. Early in her stay in the hospital, she says, “My wish for myself is that one day I'll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself.” By the end of the book, she fulfills that wish.

A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NEW YORKER, PITCHFORK, AND NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • From the New Yorker staff writer and acclaimed author of Future Sex comes a memoir about drugs, techno, and New York City'The first great book about what it was like to live through the Trump presidency'—Emily Gould, The CutIn the summer of 2016, a divisive presidential election was underway, and a new breed of right-wing rage was on the rise. Emily Witt, who would soon publish her first book on sex in the digital age, had recently quit antidepressants for a more expansive world of psychedelic experimentation. From her apartment in Brooklyn, she began to catch glimpses of the clandestine nightlife scene thrumming around her.In Health and Safety, Witt charts her immersion into New York City's dance music underground. Emily would come to lead a double life. By day she worked as a journalist, covering gun violence, climate catastrophes, and the rallies of right-wing militias. And by night she pushed the limits of consciousness in hollowed-out office spaces and warehouses to music that sounded like the future. But no counterculture, no matter how utopian, could stave off the squalor of American politics and the cataclysm of 2020.Affectionate yet never sentimental, Health and Safety is a lament for a broken relationship, for a changed nightlife scene, and for New York City just before the fall. Sparing no one—least of all herself—Witt offers her life as a lens onto an era of American delirium and dissolution.

An'impeccably researched book'(Michelle Bowdler) about intimate abuse, campus politics, and the narratives we choose to believe'gives a fresh perspective on what it means to be a survivor.'(Kirkus starred review) In this poignant self-investigation, historian and journalist Joy Neumeyer explores how violence against women is portrayed, perceived, and adjudicated today. Interweaving the harrowing account of the abuse she experienced as a graduate student at Berkeley with those of others who faced violence on campus and beyond, Neumeyer offers a startling look at how the hotly-debated Title IX system has altered university politics and culture, and uncovers the willful misremembrance that enables misconduct on scales large and small. Deeply researched, daringly inquisitive, and resonant for our times, A Survivor's Education reveals the entanglement of storytelling, abuse, and power–and how we can balance narrative and evidence in our attempts to determine what “really” happened.

Winner of the Rubery Book Award for 2024 Nonfiction Book of the Year A daughter's quest for truth. A soldier's fight for survival. Their shared search for understanding.Little Avalanches is a gorgeously written memoir of breathtaking scope that propels readers from the beaches of California in the early ‘70s to the battlefields of World War II. As a young girl, Becky is forced to hide from phantom Nazis, subjected to dental procedures without pain medication, and torn from her mother again and again. Growing up in the shadow of her father's PTSD, she wants to know what is wrong but knows not to ask. Her father won't talk about being a Timberwolf, a unit of specially trained night fighters that went into combat first and experienced a 300 percent casualty rate. He returns home with thirteen medals, including a Silver Star, and becomes a doctor and well-respected member of the community, but is haunted by his past. Seeing only his explosive and often dangerous personality, Becky distances herself from the man she wants to love. Yet on the eve of his ninetieth birthday, when Becky looks at the vulnerable man he's become, something shifts, and she asks about the war. He breaks seventy years of silence, offering an unfiltered account of war without glory and revealing the extent of the trauma he's endured. She spends the next several years interviewing, researching, and ultimately understanding the demons she inherited. Because his story is incomplete without hers, and hers is inconceivable without his, Ellis offers both, as well as their year-long aching conversation marked by moments of redeeming grace. With compassionate, unflinching writing, Little Avalanches reminds us that we are profoundly shaped by the secrets we keep and forever changed by the stories we share.

Longlisted for the National Book AwardLonglisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismA brilliant, singular collection of essays that looks to music, fantasy, and pop culture—from Beyoncé to Game of Thrones—to excavate and reimagine what has been disappeared by migration and colonialism. Upon becoming a new mother, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal was called to Mexico to reconnect with her ancestors and recover her grandmother's story, only to return to the sudden loss of her marriage, home, and reality.In Magical/Realism, Villarreal crosses into the erasure of memory and self, fragmented by migration, borders, and colonial and intimate violence, reconstructing her story with pieces of American pop culture, and the music, video games, and fantasy that have helped her make sense of it all.The border between the real and imagined is a speculative space where we can remember, or re-world, what has been lost—and each chapter engages in this essential project of world-building. In one essay, Villarreal examines her own gender performativity through Nirvana and Selena; in another, she offers a radical but crucial racial reading of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones; and throughout the collection, she explores how fantasy can help us interpret and heal when grief feels insurmountable. She reflects on the moments of her life that are too painful to remember—her difficult adolescence, her role as the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants, her divorce—and finds a way to archive her history and map her future(s) with the hope and joy of fantasy and magical thinking.Magical/Realism is a wise, tender, and essential collection that carves a path toward a new way of remembering and telling our stories—broadening our understanding of what memoir and cultural criticism can be.

Undetectable is a story of love, loss, and viral loads, a memoir of long-term survival with HIV. From New York graduate student in 1989, who contracts the virus from the love of his life to Montana writer in 2018 visiting the slums of Nairobi, the author finds his own drama intertwined with the astonishing stories of his HIV+ peers, narratives that intersect the path of his travails and act as foils to the foibles of a gay man who comes out, falls in love, and faces a death sentence at the beginning of his career. In his fight for drugs, friends, and support, Charles learns the power of linking self to other as he confronts stigma, heartbreak, and fear with a visceral resilience. By discovering the power of community, Undetectable explores a generation of long-term HIV survivors who have lived to tell the story of an AIDS pandemic now in its fifth decade without cure or vaccine.

Well-known disability activist and social media influencer Melissa Blake offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for disabled people and allies. In the summer of 2019, journalist Melissa Blake penned an op-ed for CNN Opinion. A conservative pundit caught wind of it, mentioning Blake's work in a YouTube video. What happened next is equal parts a searing view into society, how we collectively view and treat disabled people, and the making of an advocate. After a troll said that Blake should be banned from posting pictures of herself, she took to Twitter and defiantly posted three smiling selfies, all taken during a lovely vacation in the Big Apple:I wanted desperately to clap back at these vile trolls in a way that would make a statement, not only about how our society views disabilities, but also about the toxicity of our strict and unrealistic beauty standards. Of course I knew that posting those selfies wasn't going to erase the nasty names I'd been called and, the chances were, they would never even see my tweet, but that didn't matter. I wasn't doing it for them; I was doing it for me and every single disabled person who has been bullied before, online and in real life. When people mock how I look, they're not just insulting me. They're insulting all disabled people. We're constantly told that we're repulsive and ugly and not good enough to be seen. This was me pushing back against that toxic, ableist narrative.For the first time, I felt like I was doing something empowering, taking back my power and changing the story. Her tweet went viral, attracting worldwide media attention and interviews with the BBC, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, PEOPLE magazine, Good Morning America and E! News. Now, in her manifesto, Beautiful People, Blake shares her truths about disability, writing about (among other things): the language we use to describe disabled people ableism, microaggressions, and their pernicious effects what it's like to live in a society that not only isn't designed for you, but actively operates to render you invisible her struggles with self‑image and self‑acceptance the absence of disabled people in popular culture why disabled people aren't tragic heroes Blake also tells the stories of some of the heroes of the disability rights movement in America, in doing so rescuing their incredible achievements from near total obscurity. Highlighting other disabled activists and influencers, Blake's work is the calling card of a powerful voice—one that has sparked new, different, better conversations about disability.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “piercing account” (The Wall Street Journal) of surviving as a young woman in a society that rewards appearances more than anything and demands perfection at all costs—especially if you're an Olympic figure skater. “A riveting memoir, which details her experience with an eating disorder, depression and her high-stakes career.”—People (Best Books to Read in February 2024) When Gracie Gold stepped onto center stage (or ice, rather) as America's sweetheart at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, she instantly became the face of America's most beloved winter sport. Beautiful, blonde, Midwestern, and media-trained, she was suddenly being written up everywhere from The New Yorker to Teen Vogue to People and baking cookies with Taylor Swift.But little did the public know what Gold was facing when the cameras were off, driven by the self-destructive voice inside that she calls “outofshapeworthlessloser.” In 2017, she entered treatment for what was publicly announced as an eating disorder and anxiety treatment but was, in reality, suicidal ideation. While Gold's public star was rising, her private life was falling apart: Cracks within her family were widening, her bulimia was getting worse, and she became a survivor of sexual assault. The pressure of training for years with demanding coaches and growing up in a household that accepted nothing less than gold had finally taken its toll.Now Gold reveals the exclusive and harrowing story of her struggles in and out of the pressure-packed world of elite figure skating: the battles with her family, her coaches, the powers-that-be at her federation, and her deteriorating mental health.Outofshapeworthlessloser is not only a forceful reckoning from a world-class athlete but also an intimate memoir, told with unflinching honesty and stirring defiance.

FINALIST FOR THE 2024 WRITERS'TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2024 • CBC's Best Canadian Non-Fiction of 2024'Here is my disconnect: the private and public self. My mind and body. The real person and curated spectacle.... Are there actual roots with which to fasten this performance to anything real?'As a transnational and transracial adoptee, Jenny Heijun Wills has spent her life navigating the fraught spaces of ethnicity and belonging. As a pan-polyam individual, she lives between types of family—adopted, biological, chosen—and'community'; heternormativity and queerness; commitment and a constellation of love. And as a parent with a lifelong eating disorder, who self-harms to cope with mental illness, her love language is to feed, but daily she wishes her body would disappear. These facets of Wills'being have served as the anchors she once clung to and the harsh parameters of what others now imagine she can be.Everything and Nothing At All weaves together a lifetime of literary criticism, cultural study, and a personal history into a staggering tapestry of knowledge. And though the experiences of accumulating this knowledge have often been shot through with pain, Wills spins these threads into priceless gold—a radical, fearless vision of kinship and family. Devastating, illuminating, and beautifully crafted, these essays breathe life into the ambiguities and excesses of Wills'self, transforming them into something more—something that could be everything.

The untold story behind the hit true crime podcast The Clearing, this unforgettable memoir traces one daughter's moving quest to understand her larger-than-life childhood as she searches for the truth about her father, the serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards. One evening in 2009, April Balascio was searching online, as she had been every night, for unsolved murders in the towns her family had lived growing up, when she stumbled across the latest investigations into the “Sweetheart Murders” cold case. All at once, the buried memories of her father's dark history were awakened, and she knew she had to take action. She picked up the phone to call a detective and the rest is infamous true crime history. In her unflinching memoir, Balascio bravely reveals an astonishing tale of a lifetime of manipulation, unexplained upheavals, and silent fear. Some part of her had always known what her father was capable of, but the full truth of how she came to these revelations is as riveting as it is quietly terrifying. Through searing storytelling, dedicated research, and intimate insight, Raised by a Serial Killer is a gripping, courageous memoir unlike any other.

William Cope Moyers was a model of sober success. As his inspiring story of overcoming addiction was on its way to becoming a New York Times bestseller, everyone thought he had finally achieved the redemption promised by recovery—including him. But the perfect story that helped Moyers become a famous face of the recovery movement was already unraveling, revealing a yet-to-be healed chasm between his public persona and conflicted inner life. A follow-up to his 2006 memoir Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption, this is Moyers's story of the ups and downs of life beyond the bright moments of early sobriety and what happened when a new crisis invaded what once seemed like a steady and secure recovery.William didn't know something was missing until it happened. He'd been in recovery for alcohol and drugs for years. He was a recovery activist and a spokesperson for the gold standard of treatment and recovery organizations. He was a model leader and follower of Twelve Step programs. But, still, he slipped. And his slip lasted a few years. Privately, he was addicted to painkillers while publicly saying he was in recovery from alcohol and drug use. So, was he still in recovery? How could this happen to someone who did everything “right”? How did it go so wrong? With brutal honesty and introspection, William shares what happened after sobriety—after he'd published his candid and shocking memoir, Broken, in 2006. While he no longer frequented or passed out on the floor of crack houses, his life of sobriety wasn't perfect. But his recovery was strong, or so he thought. Unfortunately, the opioid epidemic was stronger. It broke him. Broken Open could be one long story of self-justification. Instead, William takes a courageous look at the years he struggled and suffered to reclaim his recovery. He concludes by sharing the new perspectives these experiences provided. Recovery isn't black and white. Our recovery stories aren't things we have to live up to; they're journeys we get to live into. All-or-nothing approaches don't address the complications that make us human. As we continue our life journeys we learn and change and grow—and the things and people that help us sometimes change too.

“As sensitive and touching as it is urgent... [Wild Life is] a poignant exploration of the natural world.” –O, The Oprah Magazine“Wild Life is the bushwacking, honest, and inspiring memoir I wish I'd had as a budding scientist. Dr. Wynn-Grant's richly-told, revelatory journey will surely have remarkable ripples for generations—and have you on the edge of your seat.” —Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, cofounder Urban Ocean LabIn this vulnerable and urgent memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist. Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light.Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world's most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild—carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists—and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives—both human and otherwise—that we share it with.

Peggy Rowe is at it again, proving once more that great content is all around us, even in the retirement community she now calls'The Home.'In Oh, No, Not “The Home,” eighty-three-year-old Peggy decides the time has finally come to move into a senior living facility with her husband, John, who follows his beloved bride... grudgingly. Once ensconced in'The Home,'however, John quickly makes a long list of eclectic friends and takes up bocci ball, hatchet throwing, pool playing, and various other distractions that keep him mostly sane. Meanwhile, Peggy finds humor in places a normal person would never think to look—and laughter around every corner. Missing dentures? A mouse in the house? Nude sunbathing with an unexpected audience? Gluttony in the dining hall? A chair volleyball game that turns into geriatric target practice? It's all here. With her usual mix of warmth and irreverence, Peggy brings her daily journal to life with an unforgettable mix of observations and confessions, written with the honesty of a true observer of the human condition and the urgency of an embedded reporter entrenched in a strange and distant land. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and before long, you'll start to think that Peggy and John and their many new friends are just the kind of people you wish you had for neighbors. Whatever you think you know about retirement communities, think again. This is life at'The Home.'And it's not exactly what the marketing brochure promised!

Step back into the golden era of sports memorabilia collecting: the 1980s and 1990s. A nostalgic time before cellphones were ubiquitous and the internet was just budding, when collectors eagerly flocked to ‘card shows'to pursue their passions.Harvey Brandwein and Stephen Hisler, two former middle school teachers from the South Bronx, rose to prominence as promoters of the nation's most successful and esteemed sports memorabilia shows. Hosting events graced by players with a combined total of around 30,000 home runs, their shows were a collector's dream.30,000 Home Runs is Harvey's personal account of these extraordinary events. It celebrates the great athletes who participated, signing autographs and connecting with thousands of fans across the country. Harvey played a pivotal role in uniting iconic sports figures and teams, creating unforgettable moments and fostering a deep, enduring love among fans.For the first time, the tales of these players are shared, offering sports enthusiasts a treasure trove of joy and laughter. This book not only chronicles the excitement of the shows and private signings but also delves into the relationships forged with some of the greatest sports legends of the twentieth century. It's a homage to ‘The National Pastime,'a snapshot of a bygone era in sports fandom.

Raised in a public housing project in New Haven, Connecticut, James E. Lyons Sr. overcame the difficult circumstances of his childhood to flourish academically, eventually becoming president of six universities—Bowie State University, Jackson State University, California State University Dominguez Hills, Dillard University, the University of the District of Columbia, and Concordia College Alabama. From the Projects to the Presidencies: My Journey to Higher Education Leadership charts Lyons's personal and educational journey, from saving money for college by shining shoes in front of Yale University at fifteen to returning to the same building thirty-seven years later as president of Jackson State.Though his mother never graduated high school, she worked hard to provide opportunities for him. Championing his desire to escape what experts considered one of the worst areas of Connecticut, she helped him dodge pitfalls, change course when necessary, and reach his goal of achieving a successful career in higher education. Throughout his journey, there were as many friends supporting him as there were adversaries attempting to hold him back. He successfully navigated both the positive and negative influences in his life. A Jewish mother took him to college and wrote a personal check for his registration. Yet neighborhood “friends” stole all of his clothes so that he could not return to the university after the Thanksgiving recess. Classmates laughed at him because he could not afford to be on the university meal plan. But a track coach invited him over for dinner whenever he was in the neighborhood. Mistaken for a student by the board chair at one presidential interview, he was later embraced by a different board chair who told him, “We know you did a great job at that university, and we would like you to come and do the same for us.” Overcoming his difficult socioeconomic background and the institutional racism that denied educational opportunities to many young Black men, Lyons prevailed despite the odds. His inspiring story illuminates the success and hard work that lead him to dedicate his life to education and bettering the lives of students across the country.

People live by their stories—how can we use them to accelerate action on climate change? Climate scientist and policy expert Anna Farro Henderson embarks on a remarkable narrative journey in Core Samples, exploring how science is done, discussed, legislated, and imagined. Through stories both raucous and poignant—of far-flung expeditions, finding artistic inspiration in research, and traversing the systemic barriers women and mothers face in science and politics—she brings readers into the daily rhythms and intimacies of scientific research and political negotiation. Grounded in her experiences as a climate scientist, an environmental policy advisor to Minnesota Senator Al Franken and Governor Mark Dayton, and a constant juggler of the many roles and responsibilities of professional moms, Henderson's eclectic, unconventional essays range from observations, confessions, and meditations on lab and fieldwork to a packing list for a trip to the State Capitol and a lactation diary. Readers are invited on voyages as far afield as the Trinity nuclear test site in New Mexico, the Juneau Icefield in Alaska, and a meteor crater in Ghana—and as close to home as a town hall meeting in America's corn belt. A love letter to science and a bracing (and sometimes hilarious) portrait of the many obstacles women, mothers, and people digging for truth navigate, Core Samples illuminates the messy, contradictory humanity of our scientific and political institutions. Bringing us behind the closed doors of discovery and debate, Henderson exposes the flaws in research institutions, the halls of government, and the role of science in policy, yet she shows how each crack is also an invitation for camaraderie, creativity, and change.