Wednesday's Children: The Memoirs of a Nurse-Turned-Social-Worker in Rural Appalachia


Kathryn Anne Michaels - 2018
    When a friend urges her to switch from nursing to paramedic medicine and child protection social work, Kate accepts the challenge and finds herself in an isolated rural area of the Appalachian Mountains.Here a new set of challenges await: technical cliff rescues and hikes into remote back-country “hollers” to remove child victims of sexual assault from their homes only to have an indifferent judge order them back the next day, and dealing with some of America’s poorest and most distrustful citizens.And from all appearances, and even though she’s white, former members of the Ku Klux Klan have just set her house on fire…Based on the memoirs of a registered nurse-turned-social worker, this is a tale of heartbreak and laughter, courage and cowardice seasoned with a candid look at the early days of social work and emergency rescue medicine that will both challenge and renew your faith in humanity.Warning: Some graphic content

Naked


Papa CJ - 2019
    Pranks both childish and reckless, nights of wild partying, a career repeatedly built and torn down, a roller-coaster love life, and risks you and I wouldn't dare to take: Papa CJ is able to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. And then destroy it. Only to rise again like a phoenix. As Papa CJ lays bare his life, from the streets of Calcutta to the University of Oxford and stages across the world, you will bask in nostalgia, laugh your guts out, feel your heart ache, and find a new lens with which to look at your own life. A lens that allows you, like Papa CJ, to always see the positive. And of course, the funny. Seize it. Enjoy it!

Silent Child


Toni Maguire - 2020
    There are some memories labelled 'Look at', and others 'Leave well alone'...Emily Smith was held in a prison of fear for ten years. When she was four, her father left and a new man was brought into her life. He loved her, he kept telling her so, but the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at his hands were a daily nightmare. Until one day, after he crept into her bedroom, her life became unbearable.Emily found she was different in another way as her autism became more noticeable and punishments for her 'abnormal' behaviour more severe. Astonishingly, she managed to escape her home of hell, where she was abused right in front of her mother. Emily determinedly gained a university place and emerged triumphant with a new life and family in Ireland, desperate to treat her daughter, so similar to her, to a different life.Heartbreakingly true, Silent Child is a testament to Emily's strength as she sheds light on rampant abuse still happening today. Powerful and shocking, sharing her story means she finally has a voice to say: enough.

Broken Crayons Still Color 3: The Mirror of Regret


David Weaver - 2021
    

One of the Family: 40 Years with the Krays


Maureen Flanagan - 2015
    Told with humour and insight, it looks back across the decades at the life of this close knit, notorious East End family. Maureen Flanagan, a then 20 year old hairdresser started visiting the Kray family home in Vallance Road each week to give the twins’ mother, Violet, her weekly shampoo and set. Over the cups of tea and the rollers and hairpins, Violet began to confide in ‘Flan’ about her life, her incredible pride in her twins, the celebrities who visited her at their humble East End home - and her troubled relationship with her husband.

Happy for No Reason


Mandira Bedi - 2020
    But behind the six-pack is also a snotty, complaining, can't-get-out-of-bed-today girl who, in her own way, is still searching for true happiness. Not conditional, materialistic, transactional happiness, but just happiness. So has she cracked it yet? Mandira says 'No'. But she genuinely believes that she's headed in the right direction. In her own chaotic way, she seems to have discovered some kind of non-scientific, non-spiritual and as-yet-non-existent formula for finding peace in everything. Just being happy-for no reason. This book is about that.

Running Down Red Dog Road


Rita Wendell - 2013
    Follow the author as she takes you on a personal journey disclosing a hard-scrabble life in the coal camps nestled in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia.

Dhi's Oracle of Divine Epiphanies


Saudamini Mishra - 2021
    

Too Pretty to be Good


Lindsay Byron - 2021
    

Secondhand Scotch: How One Family Survived in Spite of Themselves


Cathy Curran - 2016
    Lillian Low's homespun values-people come in all flavors just like ice cream-bring joy and humor into the Low house. When restless Joe Low ditches one suburb for another because he wants a do-over, Lillian tells him, "How the hell many do you need? Don't you know that wherever you go, you've got to take yourself with you?" Along for the ride is the colorful, extended Low clan, who turn up to celebrate the arrival of Joe and Lillian's army of kids. They eat, sing, Joe gets plastered, and all too often, scotch-fired arguments lead to some good old-fashioned fistfights. The mayhem that actually started the brawl gets swept under the carpet, and when Curran finally pulls it up, pandemonium emerges from hell with a vengeance. Through the vision of a sensitive young girl with a wickedly funny voice, "Secondhand Scotch" uncorks some harsh realities, but never ceases to warm and entertain.

Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir


Jessica O'Dwyer - 2010
    At only 32 years old, Jessica O'Dwyer experiences early menopause, seemingly ending her chances of becoming a mother. Years later, married but childless, she comes across a photo of a two-month-old girl on a Guatemalan adoption website -- and feels an instant connection. From the get-go, Jessica and her husband face numerous and maddening obstacles. After a year of tireless efforts, Jessica finds herself abandoned by her adoption agency; undaunted, she quits her job and moves to Antigua so she can bring her little girl to live with her and wrap up the adoption, no matter what the cost. Eventually, after months of disappointments, she finesses her way through the thorny adoption process and is finally able to bring her new daughter home. Mamalita is as much a story about the bond between a mother and child as it is about the lengths adoptive parents go to in their quest to bring their children home. At turns harrowing, heartbreaking, and inspiring, this is a classic story of the triumph of a mother's love over almost insurmountable odds.

Growing Up Between Stops on the A-train


Jennifer Y. Johnson-Garcia
    By seventeen, Jennifer leaves home and supports herself through her senior year of high school, graduating on-time with her class. But she has much more to prove. Determined, Jennifer kisses Colorado goodbye and sets off on a one-way trip to New York City.In the city, Jennifer hits the ground hustling, securing a job selling beepers on the street and singing for strangers every chance she gets. Not long after, she is discovered by a music producer on the A-train, records a demo, and signs her first record deal. However, Jennifer's budding career is interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy, destroying her odds in a male-dominated and cutthroat music industry. Unyielding, Jennifer persists for several years before landing a chance audition with platinum-selling producers, Full Force, who sign her.In the blink of an eye, Jennifer skyrockets from starving artist to New York City's best kept secret, songwriting for superstars and all but sealing her fate as a future household name. However, just as she is on the brink of fame to go with the small fortune she earns from publishing deals, an unexpected turn of events sets her on the rockiest road to dreams come true.Growing Up Between Stops on the A-train is the inspirational true story about how one woman discovered the secret to success and life happiness, the hard way.GUBSOTAT will be published in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audio formats on November 7, 2019. Follow Jennifer Y. Johnson-Garcia on Facebook or @jyjohnsongarcia and @GUBSOTAT on Instagram to become an advanced reader or get a copy of the book sooner!

The Witness


Nicola Tallant - 2020
    

Meth A Memoir


Wayne Huffman - 2012
    Written from within the confines of prison walls, the author gives an unflinching look at a life surrounded by drugs and drug use. It is a no holds barred, no feelings spared story that drags you, kicking and screaming, through the inner realms of the meth world. As an addict and meth cook, the author knows that there are aspects to the meth lifestyle that can only be understood by experiencing it for yourself. To help you understand this sub-culture, and those who call that world home, the author will take you into the meth world as no one else has ever done before. Everyone in America is affected by meth in one way or another. That simple fact makes this book a MUST READ.

The One Who Runs and Hides: A True Story


Chris Merola - 2018
     The American Indians, depending on their tribe, had many names for the Creature: Sasahevas, Sasquatch, Bukwas (wild man of the woods), See’atco (one who runs and hides). What would Native American Indians have to gain from falsifying the existence of a Beast? The last name seemed the most appropriate to me. The One who runs and hides.