Book picks similar to
Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall & Leading the Way by Gina Miller
non-fiction
current-affairs
memoir
biography
A Pirate for Life
Steve Blass - 2012
This insider's view of the humorous and bizarre journey of a World Series champion pitcher turned color commentator will delight Pirates and baseball fans alike. Recounting his first years in the Major Leagues and his battle with the baffling condition that would ultimately bear his own name, Steve Blass tells the story of his life on and off the field with a poignant, dazzling wit and shares the life of a baseball player who had the prime of his career cut short.
The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela
Sisonke Msimang - 2018
On one side, her legacy was cast by the media and public in the shadow of her sanctified ex-husband. Winnie was history’s loser. She was damaged goods; Nelson Mandela was whole and pure.A younger generation, in particular women, took a different view and so a battle of ideas began that sought to reframe Winnie’s career and reclaim her identity as an extraordinary woman and fierce political activist.Sisonke Msimang, an acclaimed author and public commentator, wasted little time in jumping into the fray. And when the dust settled, what emerged is this short but razor-sharp book which reflects critically on the turbulent yet remarkable life of Winnie. Msimang situates her political career and legacy in the contemporary context, what she means today in social and political terms, by exploring different aspects of her iconic persona.The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela is an astute examination of one of South Africa’s most controversial political figures, of the rise and fall – and rise, again, – of a woman who not only battled the apartheid regime, but the patriarchal character of the struggle itself. In telling Winnie’s story, Msimang shows us that activism matters, and that the meaning of women’s lives can be reclaimed.
MP: The Life of Michael Peterson
Sean Doherty - 2005
This is his story, covering his early life, his celebrated victories in surfing, his descent into the drugs scene, imprisonment and subsequent institutionalisation.
All These Things That I've Done: My Insane, Improbable Rock Life
Matt Pinfield - 2016
He’s the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band’s B-side single on its vinyl-only EP import. As a child, music helped Pinfield make sense of the world. Later, as a teenager, Pinfield would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their music. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and, at times, became a life raft. In this expansive, no-holds-barred memoir Pinfield traces his lifelong music obsession—from the heavy metal that infused his teenage years, to his first encounters with legends like Lou Reed and The Ramones and how, through his post-MTV years, he played a major role in bringing nineties alt rock mainstream. Over his long career Pinfield has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney to Nirvana to Jay-Z, earning the trust and admiration of artists and fans alike. Now, for the first time, Pinfield shares his five decades of stories from the front lines of rock and roll, exploring how, with nothing more than passion and moxy, he became a sought-after reporter, unlikely celebrity, and the last word in popular music. Featuring a rousing collection of best-of lists, favorite tracks, and artist profiles, All These Things That I’ve Done explains how a born outsider wound up in the inner circle.
Unbought And Unbossed
Shirley Chisholm - 1970
She shares how she took on an entrenched system, gave a public voice to millions, and sets the stage for her trailblazing bid to be the first woman and first African-American President of the United States. By daring to be herself, Shirley Chisholm shows us how she forever changed the status quo. This expanded edition, edited by Scott Simpson, digs deeper with analysis by experts like Donna Brazile and Shola Lynch exploring Shirley Chisholm's impact on today and tomorrows world.
My Bonnie: How Dementia Stole the Love of My Life
John Suchet - 2010
During the past three years he has gone from lover to carer, and he has found his new job exceptionally tough. In this moving and bitterly honest account, the newsreader reveals his loneliness and his despair. For John, it was love at first sight. For many years he had admired Bonnie from afar, hoping and dreaming one day she would feel the same way. Nearly a decade after they first met, their passionate and romantic love affair began. They married in 1985—head over heels in love—and have enjoyed more than 20 years of love and laughter. Both had been married before (she had two children and he had three) but both felt, the day they married, they finally joined their other half. In March 2004, John began to notice strange quirks in Bonnie's behavior. She underwent her first set of neurological tests in March 2005, which brought back no definite results. Then, in February 2006, following a second set of tests, she was diagnosed with Dementia. For three years John personally cared for his beloved wife, keeping her condition secret from all but family and close friends. But in the middle of September this year, more than 26 years after his life with Bonnie began, John made the agonizing decision to move his wife to a full-time care home. Written in passionate and vivid prose that captures both the warmth of the good times and the utter despair of the bad times, John weaves together a series of moving and heartfelt stories. In this combination of present day descriptions of life with Bonnie as her carer and memories of the romantic years they shared together, John gives a unique—and at times stark—insight into the pain of witnessing a loved one lose their memory. This is a story of pain and despair, of anger and guilt. But above all, it is a story of love; a story of devotion, dedication, and the pleasure that those little moments of recognition, those glimmers of joy, can give—even in the hardest times.
Seven Women: And the Secret of Their Greatness
Eric Metaxas - 2015
Each of the world-changing figures who stride across these pages—Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Maria Skobtsova, Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks—is an exemplary model of true womanhood. Teenaged Joan of Arc followed God’s call and liberated her country, dying a heroic martyr’s death. Susanna Wesley had nineteen children and gave the world its most significant evangelist and its greatest hymn-writer, her sons John and Charles. Corrie ten Boom, arrested for hiding Dutch Jews from the Nazis, survived the horrors of a concentration camp to astonish the world by forgiving her tormentors. And Rosa Parks’ deep sense of justice and unshakeable dignity and faith helped launch the twentieth-century’s greatest social movement.Writing in his trademark conversational and engaging style, Eric Metaxas reveals how the other extraordinary women in this book achieved their greatness, inspiring readers to lives shaped by the truth of the gospel.
Silenced No More: Surviving My Journey to Hell and Back
Sarah Ransome - 2021
Her dreams were destroyed almost overnight when she met Jeffrey Epstein and was invited to an island paradise disguising her personal hell."By sharing my testimony...I hope to see both minds and laws changed. More than anything, I want to encourage a culture in which women, even if they haven't led the perfect lives, even if they're not proud of every one of their choices, still feel the right to stand in their truth."This story is her day in court.
Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life
Sarah Edmondson - 2019
Lying there completely naked, I am at my most vulnerable but determined to prove my strength. I try to keep my legs closed as my body wills itself to protect my most private area. . . . I tell myself: I am a warrior. I birthed a human. I can handle pain. But nothing could have ever prepared me for the feel of this fire on my skin."The shocking and subersive memoir of a 12-year-NXIVM-member-turned-whistleblower, and her inspiring true story of abuse, escape, and redemption.In 2005, Sarah Edmondson was a young actress starting out in Vancouver and hungry for purpose when she first heard about NXIVM, a personal and professional development company founded by Keith Raniere. Intrigued by the organization's promise to provide the tools, community, and insight to help her reach her potential, Sarah would go on to become one of NXIVM 's most faithful devotees, running a company center and enrolling more than 2,000 members.In this tell-all memoir, Sarah shares her true story from the moment she takes her first NXIVM seminar, to the moment she begins to question why those members who ask questions promptly leave or disappear, to the invitation she accepts from her best friend, Lauren Salzman, to the initiation ceremony for DOS - a "secret sisterhood" within NXIVM. Thanks to Sarah's fearlessness as she put her life on the line, that ceremony would mark the beginning of the cult's end.Complete with personal photographs, Scarred is an eye-opening story about abuses of power, the role female friendships play in cults, and how sometimes the search to be "better" can override everything else.
Unsinkable: A Memoir
Silken Laumann - 2014
Doctors doubted that she would ever row competitively again. But twenty-seven days, five operations and countless hours of gruelling rehabilitation later, Silken was back in her racing shell, ready to pursue her dream. When the starter’s pistol rang out on August 2, she made the greatest comeback in Canadian sports history, rowing to a bronze-medal finish while the world watched, captivated by her remarkable story. Silken became one of Canada’s most beloved Olympians and has continued to inspire, encouraging people to dream, live in the moment and embrace life’s unexpected, difficult and amazing journey.But there was a massive barrier in her path that she has never before spoken about, a hidden story much darker than the tale of her accident. Now, Silken bravely shines a spotlight on all the obstacles she has encountered—and overcome—in Unsinkable, a memoir that reveals not only new insights into her athletic success and triumph over physical adversity, but also the intense personal challenges of her past and the fierce determination she applies to living a bold, loving and successful life today.Time after time, this courageous champion has proven to be unsinkable. Silken’s extraordinary story offers us an intimate look at the complicated woman behind the Olympic hero, showing how perseverance and optimism can allow anyone to embrace the incredible opportunities that often go hand in hand with adversity.
No Happy Endings
Nora McInerny Purmort - 2019
We lose love, lose jobs, lose our sense of self. For Nora McInerny, it was losing her husband, her father, and her unborn second child in one catastrophic year.But in the wake of loss, we get to assemble something new from whatever is left behind. Some circles call finding happiness after loss “Chapter 2”—the continuation of something else. Today, Nora is remarried and mothers four children aged 16 months to 16 years. While her new circumstances bring her extraordinary joy, they are also tinged with sadness over the loved ones she’s lost.Life has made Nora a reluctant expert in hard conversations. On her wildly popular podcast, she talks about painful experiences we inevitably face, and exposes the absurdity of the question “how are you?” that people often ask when we’re coping with the aftermath of emotional catastrophe. She knows intimately that when your life falls apart, there’s a mad rush to be okay—to find a silver lining, to get to the happy ending. In this, her second memoir, Nora offers a tragicomic exploration of the tension between finding happiness and holding space for the unhappy experiences that have shaped us.No Happy Endings is a book for people living life after life has fallen apart. It’s a book for people who know that they’re moving forward, not moving on. It’s a book for people who know life isn’t always happy, but it isn’t the end: there will be unimaginable joy and incomprehensible tragedy. As Nora reminds us, there will be no happy endings—but there will be new beginnings.
She's a Boy: The Shocking True Story of Joe Holliday
Joe Holliday - 2015
Born a boy but raised a girl, Joe was 25 years old and still living as Joella when he discovered the full truth about his beginnings. For decades, doctors believed baby boys born without a penis should be classified as girls. When he was eight, Joe's plight attracted worldwide media attention – and touched the heart of Princess Diana. She's A Boy is Joe's story; a true survivor who has overcome unthinkable physical and emotional challenges and come out the other side with a firm sense of who he really is.
I Dare! Kiran Bedi ; A Biography
Parmesh Dangwal - 1995
She became internationally recognized after recieving the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Government Service, also considered the Asian Nobel Prize. Her work as the first woman in the Indian Police Service, and as the Inspector General of Tihar Prisons Delhi, got international attention. Her work in the field of crime prevention, forging partnerships in policing and prison transformation was absolutely innovative in the field of restorative justice. (revised)
Love, Ellen: A Mother/Daughter Journey
Betty DeGeneres - 1999
Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but it was not without a struggle. In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story: the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter, the media's scrutiny of their family life, and the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first nongay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project.Insightful, universally touching, and uncommonly wise, Love, Ellen is a story of friendship between mother and daughter and a lesson in understanding for all parents and their children.
Heaven and Mel (Kindle Single)
Joe Eszterhas - 2012
"Heaven and Mel" is Eszterhas's explosive, unabridged, no-holds-barred account. It is a Hollywood story but it's not. It is the story of love and hatred, of anti-Semitism and fathers and sons, and of a movie star's tragic sexual obsession. It is the story of God and the Devil, devastating but often hilarious. It is Joe Eszterhas at his best: two-fisted, movingly sensitive, always outrageous.