Book picks similar to
Weeds in Bloom: Autobiography of an Ordinary Man by Robert Newton Peck
non-fiction
memoir
biography
nonfiction
Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun
Dang Nghiem - 2010
Huong Huynh was born to a Vietnamese mother and a U.S. soldier in the midst of war. She dedicated her life to healing and transforming the suffering of other people, first as a medical doctor and then as a nun. Ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who gave her the name Dang Nghiem, she eventually began to experience true healing practices. With humor, insight, and an irrepressible sense of joy, Sister Dang Nghiem’s remarkable story offers clarity and guidance for anyone who has dealt with suffering and loss.
Tainted Life: The Autobiography
Marc Almond - 1999
It recounts his "de rigeur" plunge into drink, drugs, and debauchery as well as being an intimate portrait of the star-making personalities of the 1980s.
The Dean: The Best Seat in the House, from FDR to Obama
John David Dingell - 2018
House of Representatives for fifty-nine consecutive years, from December 13, 1955 to January 3, 2015—the longest tenure of anyone in Congressional history. The son of a Congressman, Dingell worked in his father’s office from childhood and became a house page in 1938, when he was just eleven years old. Retiring from Congress at eighty-nine, he has witnessed some of the most significant events that have shaped our nation and the world.In The Dean, Dingell looks back at his life at the center of American government and considers the currents that have reshaped our Congress and America itself, from his childhood memories of wartime Washington during the FDR administration, through the Reagan Revolution, to the election of the first black president, Barack Obama.Rife with a wisdom that literally only Dingell can possess, The Dean is the inspiring story of some of the greatest congressional achievements, of which Dingell was an integral part, and of the tough fights that made them possible. Dingell offers a persuasive defense for government, explaining how it once worked honorably and well—in defeating Hitler, sending us to the moon, ending segregation, and providing for the common good of all our citizens. He argues that to secure our future and continue our progress, we must work together once again—lessons desperately needed today.
Life on Planet Rock: From Guns N' Roses to NIRVana, a Backstage Journey Through Rock's Most Debauched Decade
Lonn M. Friend - 2006
Life on Planet Rock describes how Lonn Friend, the editor of RIP, became the Zelig-like chronicler of the biggest musical moments of that time from introducing Guns N Roses (in nothing but a top hat, underwear, and cowboy boots) to sitting in during the making of Metallica s Black Album. Life on Planet Rock provides revealing portraits of artists as varied as Kurt Cobain, Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, Axl Rose, James Hetfield, Steven Tyler, and many more. Part oral history, part candid and humorous memoir, it is a wormhole back to a fast-moving time in music that saw tastes flash from new wave to hair metal to grunge, told as only someone who was there through it all could tell it."
Leah Remini: My Escape from Scientology
Johnny Dodd - 2016
Ron Hubbard—begins in Brooklyn's working-class Bensonhurst neighborhood, where she was introduced to the religion by her mom. More than three decades later, Leah summoned the courage to leave the church—something few celebrities at her level of fame have ever done before and almost none have ever talked about. This People Spotlight Story explores Leah Remini and her escape from Scientology.
Through My Eyes
Tim Tebow - 2011
Written with Nathan Whitaker, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Quiet Strength, with Tony Dungy, Through My Eyes gives fans a first look into the heart of an athlete whose talent and devotion have made him one of the most provocative figures in football.
Rodeo In Joliet
Glenn Rockowitz - 2009
The story takes us from Glenn's unexpected diagnosis of 'three months at best' just days before the birth of his only child, to his miraculous remission and the ironic death of his father. It is a journey that is by turns heartbreaking, painfully funny, misanthropic, loving and ultimately heroic. Rodeo In Joliet tramples the Hallmark cliches and platitudes of traditional cancer survival stories and presents in their place an experience that leaves the reader in awe and grateful for his or her every breath.
Nobody's Child
Kate Adie - 2005
What's your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our lifeand shows what makes us who we really are.
A Widow's Story
Joyce Carol Oates - 2011
A recent recipient of National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates, whose novels (Blonde, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Little Bird of Heaven, etc.) rank among the very finest in contemporary American fiction, offers an achingly personal story of love and loss. A Widow’s Story is a literary memoir on a par with The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin’s About Alice.
Harvest of Yesterdays
Gladys Taber - 1976
Taber shares memories of her childhood in the Southwest and Mexico as well as her married life and early pursuit of a writing career.
Hardcourt Confidential: Tales from Twenty Years in the Pro Tennis Trenches
Patrick McEnroe - 1900
Patrick McEnroe has been in the world of professional tennis in one way or another for most of his life. As a player, coach, and ESPN commentator, he's seen it all. The significant tennis books of recent years have all been autobiographies--famous players burnishing their image or attempting to set the record straight within carefully controlled memoirs. No one has been willing to do a book that pulls back the curtain and presents an honest, no-holds-barred look into the ultimate gentleman's sport and the larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it. Patrick McEnroe does just that. Curious to know which marquee player threw a tantrum and bailed early on a tournament? Why Roger Federer, presumably the greatest player of all time, has a losing head-to-head record with Rafael Nadal? Why certain tennis prodigies burned out early? The real role of coaches like Nick Bollettieri? Which player is as much of a diva off the court as on? The greatest match ever played? In Hardcourt Confidential, McEnroe uses his twenty-five-plus years in the trenches of the game to tell true tales and wild stories about the players you think you know (from Sampras to Agassi to Roddick to the Williams sisters), how and why the game has changed since he first swung a racket, and what the future holds in store for American tennis. McEnroe takes an unapologetic look at the men, women, and events of the past three decades, right up to the epic Federer vs. Nadal rivalry that dominates the game today. He's got a lot to say and he's not afraid to say it.
Confessions Of A Parish Priest
Andrew M. Greeley - 1988
In these uncensored memoirs, he shares his thoughts and bares his soul. Here is the most unorthodox book yet from this controversial man of the cloth.
The Miss Dennis School of Writing: And Other Lessons from a Woman's Life
Alice Steinbach - 1996
These pieces thus explore, with quiet grace, the unexpected pleasures that are gleaned from an appreciation of the ordinary - a sleeping cat, a blooming garden, a well-cooked meal. Such familiar - even ostensibly mundane - details of our lives, Steinbach maintains, play a far more important part in shaping our identities and our sense of our relationship to the world than do the exotic encounters or momentous events to which we attach much significance. Alternately poignant and humorous, sedately contemplative and bristling with emotional energy, Steinbach's various musings on the daily rhythms of her own moods and experiences transform everyday life into a rich and meaningful journey.
Trainsong
Jan Kerouac - 1988
Haunted by her fahter's legend, Kerouac travels to Oregon, Casablanca, Tangier, London, New York, California, and Mexico as she collects lovers and husbands, indulges in drugs and drink, spends time in odd jobs and jail cells, and keeps the Beat flame alive.
The Prodigal Comes Home: My Story of Failure and God's Story of Redemption
Michael English - 2007
In 1994, newspapers around the world blared the headline, "Gospel Singer Named Artist of the Year Turns in His Awards After Confirming He Had an Affair with a Fellow Married Singer." From 1994 to 2002 Michael English's life went from bad to worse. Public shame, divorce, broken relationships, drug addiction, even homelessness. But in 2002, God reached out and rescued Michael from himself. Today Michael is whole again,and in this book he tells his story of redemption.