Book picks similar to
Only Parent by Louise Dickinson Rich
memoir
fiction
memoirs
novels-read
Addict Chick: Sex, Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll
Amanda Meredith - 2016
At 34, Amanda Meredith had it all - A successful career, a home, a child, and everything that should have made her happy. She was also crazy in love; his name was Cage, and their love would become her first addiction—but not her last. Some would say that love destroyed her, but what she let ravage her mind, body, and soul had nothing to do with love and everything to do with a deep-seated need to destroy herself. With the prick of a needle, and a shot of methamphetamine, she lost everything- her child, her career, and she lost Cage. Her story is not for the faint of heart. Addict Chick: Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N’ Roll is her heartbreak, her sorrow, and the story of how she fought like hell to save herself, with a little help from the Man above. In this memoir, one woman proves that no matter who you are, and no matter how far you have fallen, nobody is beyond redemption.
For Freddie: A Mother's Final Gift to Her Son
Rachael Bland - 2019
Courageous and life-affirming, this is a mother's final gift to her son.
My beautiful son, I so wish that I didn't have to leave you now. But believe me, I tried EVERYTHING I could to stay around for you, and for every moment I could eke out of this life.
From the start, it was not a fair fight. My cancer was too big, and too aggressive, and we didn't start on a level playing field. You were fourteen months old and at the beginning I was so full of fierce intention that we could get past this. I would lay you in your cot each night and silently intone from my mind to yours, 'I will do this Freddie, I will gladly take whatever they throw at me if it means we can stay together'.
In 2016, beloved broadcaster and journalist Rachael Bland was diagnosed with cancer. Shortly afterwards she made the brave decision to share her story, and she spoke with beautiful poignancy through her blog and podcast, You Me & the Big C. Having been told that she only had a matter of months left to live and writing this in what was sadly her final days, Rachael brings her warmth, courage and humour to the page in this heart-warming and heart-breaking story. Part memoir, part advice, For Freddie beautifully encapsulates the grace and fearlessness in which Rachael lived her life. This is her legacy and an incredible final gift to her son.
Feels Like the First Time
Shawn Inmon - 2012
Many people spend their life searching in vain for happiness, but he was lucky; finding it at the age of fifteen.February 1979: Forbidden to see each other and feeling he is harming her by being in her life, he walks away from the love of his life, apparently forever.December, 2006: After decades of sadness and mourning the girl that got away, he has a chance meeting with her that might change his life forever… again. Can the sweet bond of first love not only survive, but flourish?Feels Like the First Time lets you share in the magic of young love in small town America in the 1970s. No matter how much the world changes, some things – timeless music, high school dances, making out in the backseat of a Chevy Vega, and of course true love – will always remain the same.
Robin Williams: Biography
Brian Morris - 2014
Read on your PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device. This book is devoted to America's best actor and best comedian. Robin Williams was a celebrated actor and comedian. Robin McLaughlin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, July 21, 1951; he received the prestigious degree at the Juilliard School of Music and Performing Arts in New York. Williams received his first Golden Globe nomination a Soviet Russian circus performer in the comedy Moscow on the Hudson, and eventually was nominated for an Oscar for best actor award three times, and won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. He also won five Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, two Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Williams not only be seen in the critically acclaimed film, and at the box office, hook, Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Night at the Museum, as well as the animated film Happy Feet and Aladdin. Many in the entertainment industry was impressed with Williams to a variety of roles, such as turning ability, his infectious energy and versatility improvisation inspired many stand-up comedian. At the age of 63, Williams was found dead at his home in Paradise Island, California August 11, 2014. Tags: Robin Williams
If I Am Missing or Dead: A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation
Janine Latus - 2007
Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved, it read, but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me... That same spring Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage -- a marriage to a handsome and successful man. A marriage others emulated. A marriage in which she felt she could do nothing right and everything wrong. A marriage in which she felt afraid, controlled, inadequate, and trapped. Ten weeks later, Janine Latus had left her marriage. She was on a business trip to the East Coast, savoring her freedom, attending a work conference, when she received a call from her sister Jane asking if she'd heard from Amy. Immediately, Janine's blood ran cold. Amy was missing. Helicopters went up and search dogs went out. Coworkers and neighbors and family members plastered missing posters with Amy's picture across the county. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. It took nearly two years before her killer, her former boyfriend Ron Ball, was sentenced for her murder. Amy died in silent fear and pain. Haunted by this, Janine Latus turned her journalistic eye inward. How, she wondered, did two seemingly well-adjusted, successful women end up in strings of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men? If I Am Missing or Dead is a heart-wrenching journey of discovery as Janine Latus traces the roots of her own -- and her sister's -- victimization with unflinching candor. This beautifully written memoir will move readers from the first to the last page. At once a confession, a call to break the cycle of abuse, and a deeply felt love letter to her baby sister, Amy Lynne Latus, If I Am Missing or Dead is an unforgettable read.
Suburban Junky: From Honor Roll to Heroin Addict
Jude Hassan - 2012
Louis. For most of his life, he was an all-around normal kid. He excelled in sports and academics, and cherished his time at home with his family. It wasn’t until he turned fifteen that things went seriously wrong. While attending his first high school party, he was introduced to pot and alcohol. Needless to say, he gave in to the pressure. A month after that, he discovered heroin. The drug had just made its way into the suburban party scene, and Jude was sure that he could get away with doing it only once. He was sadly mistaken. Within a few short months, his entire life was in shambles. His fate appeared certain, but it was just the beginning.In a series of events that leaves you grasping for the next page, Jude spares no amount of detail in his account of his near-decade long struggle with drug addiction, and the horrors he witnessed along the way.
If Clouds Were Sheep: A tale of sheep farming in the Cotswolds
Sue Andrews - 2019
She is a horse-mad girl strongly attracted to the idea of farming, Aubrey is the son of a farm manager without land or money. But with limited knowledge, much enthusiasm and the challenge of raising their young family, anything can happen. This is the true story of a shepherding life; where icy nights are spent searching for lost sheep, the lambing sheds are filled with the first cries of newborns, and idyllic summers are spent in the show ring. Amusing, poignant and beautifully detailed, this is a book about how dreams can grow from small beginnings into breeding prize-winning Texel sheep in the Cotswolds. Sue and Aubrey Andrews are internationally renowned breeders of pedigree Texels. Perfect for fans of The Yorkshire Shepherdess and The Shepherd's Life.
Loose Balls: Easy Money, Hard Fouls, Cheap Laughs, & True Love in the NBA
Jayson Williams - 2000
From revelations about the meanest, softest, and smelliest players in the league, to Williams’s early days as a “young man with a lot of money and not a lot of sense,” to his strong and powerful views on race, privilege, and giving back, Loose Balls is a basketball book unlike any other.No inspirational pieties or chest-thumping boasting here—instead, Jayson Williams gives us the real insider tales of refs, groupies, coaches, entourages, and all the superstars, bench warmers, journeymen, clowns, and other performers in the rarefied circus that is professional basketball.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Country Doctor: Tales of a Rural GP
Michael Sparrow - 2002
From coping with the suicide of a colleague to the unusual whereabouts of a jar of Colman's mustard, the story follows this rural doctor's misguided attempts to make sense of the career in which he has unwittingly found himself.
DIRTY WHITE BOY: One Addict's Lifelong Battle Against Heroin Addiction
Frank Ruhl Peterson - 2014
My narrative covers many issues which increasingly threaten all classes of modern day society. Principle among these is the heartbreak of Addiction, and the collateral devastation it exacts in all its’ forms. Regrettably, true appreciation of addiction’s desperate landscape, too often requires one’s intimate personal involvement with its twisted and insidious nature. Despite this grim caveat, a powerfully descriptive account can nevertheless provide some measure of protective awareness. With this in mind, please consider some of the issues discussed in my story: · Raised primarily by an abusive, unemployed, alcoholic step-father, and a mother more concerned with maintaining her tenuous relationship than protecting her children. · My gradual descent into the drug-culture of the 1960’s, culminating in Heroin use at 15, and addiction by 16 years of age. · Forcible eviction from my home by my stepfather at age 16; the grueling adaptation to street-life and homelessness, while supporting a significant drug habit. · Surviving as a frightened white teenager in Spanish Harlem; forced to live in abandoned buildings (which doubled as “Shooting Galleries”), Central Park, the Subways (during winter), stairwells or boiler-rooms. · Ejection from High School after being caught shooting Heroin in the school bathroom. · My criminal involvement and subsequent arrests, resulting in jail time, jumping parole, and interstate flight to avoid prosecution. · My decision to begin Methadone Maintenance. · My mysterious “Epiphany”, providing incentive for my detox, and subsequent devotion to Physical Fitness. · Falsifying documents to enter College without ever achieving a GED or Diploma. · Gaining early admission to Medical School, with neither a College Degree nor High School Diploma. · Relapse into narcotic addiction following surgery during my 3rd year of Medical School. · Completing Internship and gaining acceptance to an Anesthesiology Residency while maintaining a narcotics habit. · Entry into treatment following my 1st year of Residency; my re-entry into another Anesthesia Residency. · Relapse after completing Residency, while performing 3rd world medicine; taking a position at a hospital in Penn. · My arrest for narcotic diversion; my imprisonment which ultimately totaled 34 months, and the loss of my Medical License. · Becoming the subject of a 20/20 television broadcast which was intentionally twisted and malevolently distorted through disingenuous editing. · The years following the loss of my profession. My depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and subsequent suicide attempts; my eventual acceptance of life’s disparate and capricious nature, and how life, and our success within it, is defined simply by our own perspective. DIRTY WHITE BOY avidly supports and encourages the belief that no matter how desperate our current life appears, we all have the power to rise above it. Those currently struggling with personal demons need to realize their future is malleable by design, not immutable or cast in stone. It is also a cautionary tale warning that success comes hand-in-hand with inherent temptations. Arrogance and conceit are equally as addictive as any narcotic; to forget our past quite often means we are destined to repeat it.
Small Town Ho: The Hilarious Story of Moving from the Big City to North Idaho
Duke Diercks - 2015
No Jobs. No friends. Just buckets of our own ignorance. Follow along in horror and hilarity as the family acclimates to the new small town way of life and the author bounces from jobs working in a school cafeteria to selling women’s clothing in a call center to opening a barbecue restaurant. Written in a smart, self-deprecating, salty style, Small Town Ho is all at once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, full of the struggle of an ordinary family consisting of three boys, one big black lab, one assassin of a cat, and two very tired parents.
Sexy Liberal!: Of Me I Sing
Stephanie Miller - 2015
With Arbitron ratings clocking over 3+ million listeners a week and simulcast daily in 37 million homes on Free Speech TV, where she is also the number one show, her strongest numbers are in the grand prize demographic of highly educated males 25-54, despite, or maybe because of , her status as an out gay woman. It probably explains the sublime effectiveness of her national billboard slogan: "Stephanie Miller...making men rise in the morning". Stephanie also headlined the country’s number one comedy tour, “Stephanie Miller’s Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour", as well as the number one comedy album, "Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal Comedy Album". She has recently had her second #1 comedy album in the country with her "Stephanie Miller's Happy Hour, Volume One". She frequents the Holy Trinity of cable news: CNN, MSNBC, and FOX, where she bursts the infallibility balloons of right wingers, often with one well-aimed pinpoint punchline. Here is SEXY LIBERAL!, which you can see as Al Franken rewritten by Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler horizontal on the desk of The Daily Show. Steph is the youngest child of Congressman William Miller of NY, Barry Goldwater’s running mate in 1964. We all know how that turned out. Though Steph was only 3, she shows here how that defeat affected her as much as it changed the Republican Party. It made her who she is. SEXY LIBERAL! is the book her 3,000,000 fans have been begging her to write. it’s both deeply personal and hilariously political. But most of all it is Stephanie’s unique voice, her jokes, her happy clappy optimism, and her truth that they tune in to day after day, that they download as a subscription podcast, that they buy tickets for, to see her unbleeped and in person. That’s what SEXY LIBERAL! delivers. Like an uncensored comedy drone right to your door!“Stephanie Miller is like ice cream for breakfast, or box-wine through a Krazy Straw: pure pleasure that some people say is bad for you, but you know better. Sexy Liberal! is deeply, deeply profane, big-hearted, surprising, and it might make you pee your pants a little. Just what you need! Read this book. Stephanie Miller for Everything, 2016!”--Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow and author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power “Sexy Liberal! is a great book with mind-expanding astuteness and side-splitting humor. Stephanie Miller is so wondrously witty and wise you will want to quote her. But, first, you must read her. Buy this book and help Amazon at last turn a profit. --Lily Tomlin “Sexy Liberal! is inspired reading. It is laugh-enhancing and beyond thought-provoking! A must read. --Jane Wagner Reading Stephanie's book is like being on the best kind of dinner date. The conversation is smart, funny and politically insightful. And Stephanie's contribution bad either. Seriously, what a fun read. Stephanie, in her wonderfully self-deprecating way, lets you into her brilliant mind, her no BS take on the political scene, and life itself. Enter at your own risk.--Rob Reiner
Quick, Boil Some Water: The Story of Childbirth in our Grandmother's Day: Volume 1
Yvonne Barlow - 2007
Today, we hear stories of over-worked midwives and short-staffed hospitals, but the truth is that childbirth has never been easier. For our grandmothers, pregnancy was a journey into the unknown. Rather than ponder which pushchair to buy or fret over towelling versus disposable nappies, they worried about what lay ahead. Home births were often lonely affairs with the midwife or doctor only visiting when birth was imminent. During hospital births, medical staff rarely gave explanations and would push and prod with little offer of pain relief let alone sympathy. Standard care in labour was the O.B.E. - Oil, Bath and Enema. Nursing staff gave firm rules on how long to stay in bed, how to lie in bed and even when to go to the toilet. And life didn't get much easier after giving birth. Taking care of a home and baby was hard work when there were few washing machines, no disposable nappies and heating came from coal carried in from the back yard.
Outlasting the Trail: The Story of a Woman's Journey West
Mary Barmeyer O'Brien - 2005
Trading in her home for canvas roof and wheels, Mary, her husband, and their three children set out on the arduous trek westward to California.Shortly into their travels west, it became painfully obvious that Doctor Powers was simply not up to the task of making sure his family "outlasted the trail." Mary had to step in and become the head of the household with its canvas roof and wheels--leaving behind her ideals of femininity along with her beloved possessions.In Outlasting the Trail author Mary Barymeyer O'Brien uses the letters Mary Rockwood Powers wrote to her mother and sister back home as a stepping off point to further illuminate this remarkable woman's story. Based on the dramatic struggle a real family, this novel brings to life a fascinating slice of American history.
A Play On Words
Deric Longden - 1999
The theme is the experience of Longden watching LOST FOR WORDS become a TV drama along with a collection of observations of life at home and abroad.