It Happened to Audrey: A Terrifying Journey From Loving Mom to Accused Baby Killer


Jill Wellington - 2012
    An infant died in her care at the same time the unknown science of Shaken Baby Syndrome hit the media. Swept up in a media frenzy, Edmunds was accused of killing the child through SBS. She was stripped from her children and husband and sent to prison where she would fight for freedom 13 years before she was finally exonerated after updated science showed her innocence. Audrey was and is an all-American mother from the Heartland who shares her story of hope and redemption in the face of unrelenting odds. Built as the ideal reader's club book, It Happened to Audrey includes questions that challenge all readers to think of the possibilities in today's ever-changing world. Edmunds is ultimately released from prison in the middle of a blizzard and reunited with her now grown children.

The Luck of The Jews: An Incredible Story of Loss, Love, and Survival in the Holocaust


Michael Benanav - 2014
    He was twenty-three, from Czechoslovakia; she was twenty, from Romania. Both had lost nearly everything in the war – yet in their chance encounter at sea, they found a new beginning. Three days later, on a train rattling across the Turkish countryside en route to Palestine, with no common language between them, they were married…and spent the rest of their lives together. Isadora had emerged from the brutal, frozen ghettos of Transnistria – known as the ‘Forgotten Cemetery’ of the Holocaust. Joshua had escaped from the Hungarian Army’s slave labor corps as his unit was being marched toward a train to Auschwitz. That either survived is incredible; that, of all possible fates, the war would toss them onto the same deck of the same boat at the same time is simply unbelievable – except that it happened. Here, their grandson, prize-winning author Michael Benanav, traces the improbable twists and turns that pulled Joshua and Isadora through the horrors of the Holocaust. As their families were destroyed and their own lives nearly lost, each element of their experiences – including a photograph of a Hungarian general; a mismatched pair of galoshes; a Romanian Orthodox priest; an SS officer’s wife; and maybe, on one occasion, an angel – proved crucial to getting them out of the war and onto that boat. Benanav vividly recounts the devastating events and astonishing coincidences that brought his grandparents together – while reckoning with the unsettling knowledge that without the Holocaust, his family would not exist. This is an extraordinary true story, rooted in the terrible tragedies and sudden strokes of serendipity that together are The Luck of the Jews. Praise for The Luck of The Jews (First published by Lyons Press as Joshua & Isadora: A True Tale of Loss & Love in the Holocaust): “Movingly written, Michael Benanav’s search for his grandparents’ tragic memories and experiences brings the reader closer to an ineffable truth that must not be forgotten.” – Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Winner, author of Night “A harrowing wartime saga [and] an intriguing record of Holocaust survival written with passion and authority.”–Publishers Weekly “A tale of suffering, romance and redemption in Israel… What stands out about this story is its ability to bring Southeastern Europe and Bessarabia, a southern Yiddish-speaking region in today’s Moldova, into focus. The narrative is highly imagistic, often relying on crisp depictions of Jews moving through the landscape to power a story of loss.” –The Jewish Daily Forward “Important and gripping.” –Hindustan Times About the Author Michael Benanav is a freelance writer and photojournalist whose work appears in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Geographical Magazine, Lonely Planet guidebooks, and other publications. His first book, Men Of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold, was nominated by Barnes & Noble for their Discover Great New Writers award and was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association

An Unbroken Chain: My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust


Henry A. Oertelt - 2000
    A Holocaust survivor chronicles the chain of events that kept him alive, providing first-hand accounts of Hitler's rise to power, Kristallnacht, and confinement in various concentration camps.

Glenn Hughes: The Autobiography - From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion


Glenn Hughes - 2010
    Starting with the Midlands beat combo Finders Keepers in the 1960s, he formed acclaimed funk-rock band Trapeze in the early 70s before joining Deep Purple at their commercial peak. Flying the world in Starship 1, the band's own Boeing 720 jet, Hughes enthusiastically embraced the rock superstar's lifestyle while playing on three Purple albums, including the classic Burn. When the band split in 1976 Hughes embarked on a breakneck run of solo albums, collaborations and even a brief, chaotic spell fronting Black Sabbath. All of this was accompanied by cocaine psychosis, crack addiction and other excesses, before Hughes survived a clean-up-or-die crisis, and embarked on a reinvigorated solo career enriched by a survivor's wisdom. In his autobiography, Hughes talks us through this whirlwind of a life with unflinching honesty and good humour, taking us right up to date with his triumphant re-emergence in current supergroup Black Country Communion. "I had a constant fascination with the darkside. It is another world, bordering on insanity, and demonic possession, or what I thought was my own Soul Bending personal nirvana. Its good to be back in the middle of the boat, instead of hanging on for dear life in the last life boat." - Glenn Hughes, April 2011

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman -- Summary, Review & Analysis


Save Time Summaries - 2013
    Do not buy this summary & analysis if you are looking for a full copy of this fascinating book, which can be found back on the Amazon search page.Instead, we have already read Orange Is the New Black and pulled out some of the key points, story lines and insights to give you a comprehensive chapter-by-chapter summary & review. In doing so, unfortunately we do not have the space to include all of the many important ideas and anecdotes found in Orange Is the New Black. To get it all, you should first order the full book. Packaged together in an engaging and easily digestible format, this concise summary & analysis works best as an unofficial guide or companion to read alongside the book. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: MY YEAR IN A WOMEN’S PRISON by PIPER KERMAN -- SUMMARY, REVIEW & ANALYSIS As a naive 24-year-old looking for adventure, Piper Kerman got into a romantic relationship with a woman 10 years her senior who was running a heroin smuggling operation. For a short time, being the girlfriend of an older woman who was a drug smuggler seemed exciting and risqué to Piper. Puppy-like, she followed her girlfriend around the world and played the role of the "kept woman" in all sorts of exotic locales: Bali, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Although Nora didn't ask anything illegal of Piper in the beginning, the day came when Nora asked Piper to carry a suitcase full of cash into Brussels. Piper agreed to help. Several years later, when Piper was living in New York City, working as an art director and dating her future husband Larry, federal agents knocked on her door. In this summary, you will discover:•The prison work system, where inmates are often paid about as much for their labor as people who work in factories in developing nations. •Most of her new neighbors in Prison Dorm B were African-American; spending time with them helped Piper to recognize and overcome some of her more subtle racial prejudices.•Sometimes inmates would flirt with male officers; other times, male officers would give unwelcome and uninvited sexual attention to the women.•Most federal prisoners, both at the time of Piper's incarceration and today, are non-violent drug offenders.•Piper finally admitted fault and revealed a sense of remorse for her actions when she described herself as a party to the drug addictions of some of her incarcerated friends.You will get all this and much more!FROM START-TO-FINISH IN JUST 30 MINUTES!Here's your chapter-by-chapter guide to Piper Kerman's Orange Is the New Black that you can download right now!

Cold Vein


Anne Tonner - 2017
    Although she is sixteen, she weighs as much as an eight-year-old. We have tried everything the medical system has to offer – psychologists, psychiatrists, family therapists, dieticians, drugs … but nothing has worked. And now here we are, she and I, flying to the other side of the world in a last ditch effort to save her. Anorexia is a difficult thing to get people to understand. Usually they will look at me incredulously. Sometimes they will come right out and say what I know they are thinking: Why can’t you just get her to eat?Anne Tonner is a high achieving human rights lawyer and used to facing battles and winning. But when her 13-year-old daughter Chloe stops eating and is diagnosed with anorexia, she is confronted with the mother of all enemies, one that is completely unfathomable and seemingly incurable. Anne and her family throw everything they have at facing the ‘demon' they name 'Cold Vein'. But some three years later Chloe is still desperately ill and the family is in tatters. In a last ditch effort they travel across the world to attend a ground breaking- clinic in Stockholm, knowing that this might be the only chance Chloe has to survive.Beautifully and engagingly written, Anne’s depiction of the devastating effects of anorexia is honest, tough and compelling. Ultimately uplifting, this story will shed light on one of the most insidious and dangerous mental conditions afflicting modern society today.

Sh*t the Moon Said: A Story of Sex, Drugs, and Ayahuasca


Gerard Armond Powell - 2018
    I was feeling so elated that I told the moon I had a special request. I explained that this life had been so full of pain for me that I didn't think I could do it all again. So I asked her if in my next life she could make sure that I found the plant medicine as soon as possible. Her reply floored me. She typed, 'Gerry, that's a request about next time, but it's the same one you used last time.'" Plant medicine? The moon typing? It probably seems incomprehensible. Gerard Armond Powell was a rags-to-riches success story—a member of the 1 percent—but also an extremely unhappy person with multiple addictions. On a fast track to destroying every relationship that ever mattered to him and considering suicide, he was looking for a miracle, a way out. He found it in the form of plant medicine and a shaman who introduced him to the truth of his life, and laid the groundwork for a psycho-spiritual journey that would lead him to reconnect with his soul, heal his addictions, and, finally, achieve a lasting sense of peace and happiness. This experience changed Powell, and convinced him to share the universal truths he learned with as many people as he could, which he does at the acclaimed Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, and now with readers in Sh*t the Moon Said. This mesmerizing story gives readers a blueprint to chart their own course to happiness. The first step is to learn who they really are and the possibilities of what they can still become. Second, they have to achieve a reconnection with their souls. And third, they must heal their hearts. Sh*t the Moon Said provides us with an irreverent way of highlighting our shared unconscious wisdom and its life-changing potential. Powell's candid tale and unlikely journey will help inspire readers to know themselves better, and to find the path to their own greatest redemption.

One Step at a Time: A Young Marine's Story of Courage, Hope and a New Life in the NFL


Josh Bleill - 2010
     He awoke five days later with to learn of the catastrophic loss of his two friends and both of his legs. Recovering physically presented a great challenge, but the mental recovery was the toughest battle. For three and a half months he never left the hospital because he didn't want people to see his injured body. In One Step at a Time, Bleill shares the story of his own personal redemption and the many life-changing moments he encountered, from his enlistment to active duty in Fallujah, through two years of intensive rehabilitation, and ultimately to his job as the community spokesman for the Indianapolis Colts. Readers will be inspired by his undying enthusiasm, infectious joy, and sense of humor as he shares his message of going forward, one step at a time.

Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front--My Memoir


Jeff Gordon - 2003
    It didn't matter that Jeff Gordon hailed from California -- hardly a fountain of stockcar pedigree -- or that they said he was too small to race with the big boys on the dirt tracks and ovals of his youth. It didn't matter that Dale Earnhardt called this upstart "Wonderboy" -- no one raced the legendary Earnhardt harder, and no two drivers had more respect for each other. And it didn't matter that the racing world said Gordon was finished with the breakup of the crew on the #24 car and the departure of Ray Evernham, his crew chief, in 1999 -- he came back two seasons later to win a record-equaling fourth Winston Cup, this time with Robbie Loomis as crew chief. In the end, all that matters is that Jeff Gordon is the greatest living NASCAR champion, and it only remains to be seen just how many championships he can win.But what's it really like to climb into a stockcar every weekend and challenge for a championship? Offering a never-before-seen entry into the thrilling world of NASCAR racing, Jeff Gordon takes us into the cockpit of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet car; right into the garages where his cars are made; and inside the lives and efforts of his extraordinary team, the Rainbow Warriors. Just how does his car get built, tested, and driven, and how do these personalities mesh into a championship team? Along the way we find out what he thinks of life as both a NASCAR champion and a never-left-alone celebrity, where he came from and to whom he owes all his successes, and above all, what it takes to be a champion in one of the most dangerous and thrilling sportsof all."Jeff Gordon: Racing Back to the Front" -- My Memoir is a pit pass all its own, giving passionate NASCAR fans unique access into the life and career of one of the most storied champions in the sport.

Displaced: A Memoir


Esther Wiebe - 2020
    In the span of her early childhoodthrough adulthood, Esther takes you on a journey of unspeakable losses, survival,resilience and strong family bonds.For Esther, the youngest of fourteen siblings born into a conservative Mennonite Colony in the heart of South America, everyday life revolves around rules, routine and monotonous chores on a family farm without so much as electricity and running water. As she sees it, her childhood is normal and ordinary. That is until one catastrophic day when everything changes. Suddenly, eleven-year-old Esther must leave behind everything she’s ever known.This is the true, heartbreaking account of growing up in a Mennonite family and theharrowing events that eventually lead to her and her three youngest siblings’ dramatic escape to Canada. Everything Esther has ever known about her identity is left behind as she struggles to find a place for herself in a new country, a new culture, and a new language.

Where You Go, I Go: The Astonishing Life of Dr. Jacob Eisenbach, Holocaust Survivor and 92-year-old Full-Time Dentist


Karen McCartney - 2015
    This is the story of two brothers clinging together for survival after their family perished in the wrath of the Third Reich. Younger brother Sam clings to Jacob and voluntarily boards the Nazi death train with his brother when they came for Jacob. They struggled horrifically, and when the dust cleared at war's end, only one of them survived. Dr. Eisenbach is a 92-year old dentist practicing in Southern California. His fascinating and terrifying story is a page-turner. He has shared his longevity secrets and his sunny philosophy, as well as his forgiveness of his Nazi tormentors.

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.

Showstopper


Abigail Pogrebin - 2011
    It's a still a mystery, and a much debated topic, among theater enthusiasts as to why "Merrily We Roll Along" flopped, especially since Sondheim's other productions, which include "Into the Woods," "Follies," "Sweeney Todd," and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," have been so endearing and extraordinarily successful. In this Kindle Single, Pogrebin muses on why the show didn't get off the ground at the same time that she takes the reader on passionate, introspective journey, examining the importance of this very special moment in her life.Abigail Pogrebin is the author of Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish (Broadway Books 2007), and One And The Same: My Life as an Identical Twin and What I've Learned About Everyone's Struggle to Be Singular (Doubleday 2009). Pogrebin has written for many national publications, and has produced for Mike Wallace at "60 Minutes." She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

An Appalachian Childhood


Deany Brady - 2012
    Deany Brady tells the story of her colorful childhood in the 1930s and 40s with freshness, humor, wit, and intelligence. She is a master storyteller, following in the vigorous oral tradition of her parents and her grandmother, who told vivid family stories all through her childhood. Following the arc of her young life, Brady beautifully captures her own growth from a daydreaming child, creating mansions out of moss and sticks, and gazing at the famous people in the newspapers covering the walls, to a girl in love with language and writing, whose greatest happiness is to read all of Gone with the Wind to her mother by the wash stream one magical summer. Unusual in her Appalachian community, the young Deany yearns not only to complete her high school education but to find a way to better her own life and that of her family’s, by moving to the big city of Atlanta and hoping to gain a college education. Even as Deany’s life grows more intricate and challenging, and even as she makes her own mistakes in her urge to escape the constraints of Appalachia, she holds onto her dream of a life filled with knowledge, happiness and beauty.An Appalachian Childhood is the first half of a two-part memoir. It covers Deany Brady’s first twenty-two years. The second half, Higher than Yonder Mountain, is forthcoming. This second volume follows her grown-up life’s arc from Georgia to Miami Beach, to Park Avenue in New York, and ultimately to her life as a writer in California.

Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen


Erin French - 2021
    And of her son who became her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food--as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of creating community and making something of herself, despite seemingly impossible odds.Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin French's rollercoaster memoir reveals struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and the passion and courage behind the fairytale success of The Lost Kitchen.