Don't Ever Tell: Kathy's Story


Kathy O'Beirne - 2005
    So much evil was done there was a voice inside me shouting, "Justice".'With no one to confide in, Kathy suffered in silence as she was battered by her father and molested by local boys.At the age of eight, she was torn from her family and incarcerated in a series of Catholic homes. When she was sent to a psychiatric unit, she suffered terrifying electric- shock therapy and further cruelty at the hands of her supposed carers.After ending up in a Magdalen laundry, she fell victim to sexual abuse and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. Don't Ever Tell is Kathy's harrowing account of her ruined childhood and of her subsequent fight for justice.

The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain


James Fallon - 2013
    While studying brain scans of several family members, he discovered that one perfectly matched a pattern he d found in the brains of serial killers. This meant one of two things: Either his family s scans had been mixed up with those of felons or someone in his family was a psychopath.Even more disturbing: The scan in question was his own.This is Fallon s account of coming to grips with this discovery and its implications. How could he, a happy family man who had never been prone to violence, be a psychopath? How much did his biology influence his behavior?Fallon shares his journey to answer these questions and the discoveries that ultimately led to his conclusion: Despite everything science can teach, humans are even more complex than we can imagine."

Mortality


Christopher Hitchens - 2012
    As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for "Vanity Fair," he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this account of his affliction, he describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of mortality.

A Street Cat Named Bob: How One Man and His Cat Found Hope on the Streets


James Bowen - 2012
    The moving, uplifting true story of an unlikely friendship between a man on the streets and the ginger cat who adopts him and helps him heal his life.

Kidnapping My Daughter


Rachel Jensby - 2013
    Kidnapping My Daughter is the true account of a mother who spent more than two years on the run, first from local and state authorities only, and then eventually from the FBI as well. As more and more children are faced with court-licensed abuse every day, Rachel Jensby hopes to be a voice among many; joining other mothers who are effecting change by finally finding the courage to come forward with their stories.Kidnapping My Daughter is an account of events leading up to, and all that transpired during, this family's life on the run.A second volume, titled Bringing Cheyenne Home, tells the story of what happened afterward - starting with the family's first day back in court and goes on to detail the tumultuous years afterward, including a peek into Cheyenne's life today. Bringing Cheyenne Home will be available soon on Amazon for Kindle.

"It's Cancer"


Jay Otterbacher - 2012
    When both of you are diagnosed within weeks of each other the uncertainty is relentless. Jay Otterbacher's memoir details one unbelievable year he could never have imagined. Anyone with a friend, colleague or loved one facing cancer can better understand what they are going through from this amazing story of thirty-two weeks in 2006. "It's Cancer" provides an unfiltered view behind the public facade into the home, relationships and treatment of one ordinary couple facing an inconceivable battle against two cancers at the same time. The implausible circumstances created the story. This narrative captures it in an open and friendly manner that allows you to be there with Karen and Jay as they use humor and strength to navigate through the fear, stress and uncertainty that all cancer patients know too well. Whether it was family, friends, dolphins or doctors something always appeared just the way it had to at just the time they needed it during this incredible year. In amazing detail, Jay shares the impact that each of these encounters had on their fight with the disease and their perspectives on life. If you have been told "It's Cancer," this book can be a source of hope and inspiration while you learn from the choices (both good and bad) that Karen and Jay made in their treatment and in communicating with the people who cared about them. If cancer has touched someone in your life the details captured in this book will give you insight into the week to week grind of the fight to regain control of their lives. Excerpt: When he finished walking us through the plan I asked about mastectomy. He said it was not even something he was considering in Karen's case. He explained that mastectomy was invasive surgery with a long recovery time and there was no evidence that it would improve her survival chances. I thought about debating with him since I had about twelve hours of exhaustive internet self-study on breast cancer but since we loved his answer I let him ride on this one. By the time we had walked back across the causeway through the hospital and to our car, Karen had her jaw set. She was going to beat this and she was going to do it in a big way. She declared that she wanted an elliptical machine so she could work out at home and stay in shape during her recovery. I responded that we would get one. Karen let me know that that was not good enough; she wanted one now. We drove from the hospital to an exercise equipment store. They had six or eight different models in the store, three of which were on sale. Karen pointed to one of the top models and said "that one." At that point the salesman in the store started his pitch on a lesser model that was on sale. He apparently did not understand that the answer to everything that day was to be yes. I gave him a shut up look, a credit card and asked how much to have it delivered that day. By the end of the day it was installed in our exercise room. It would be nine months before either of us would use it.

Orange Is the New Black


Piper Kerman - 2010
    But when she least expects it, her reckless past catches up with her; convicted and sentenced to fifteen months at an infamous women's prison in Connecticut, Piper becomes inmate #11187-424. From her first strip search to her final release, she learns to navigate this strange world with its arbitrary rules and codes, its unpredictable, even dangerous relationships. She meets women from all walks of life, who surprise her with tokens of generosity, hard truths and simple acts of acceptance.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell


Tucker Max - 2006
    I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way: I share my adventures with the world. —from the IntroductionActual reader feedback: "I find it truly appalling that there are people in the world like you. You are a disgusting, vile, repulsive, repugnant, foul creature. Because of you, I don't believe in God anymore. No just God would allow someone like you to exist." "I'll stay with God as my lord, but you are my savior. I just finished reading your brilliant stories, and I laughed so hard I almost vomited. I want to bring that kind of joy to people. You're an artist of the highest order and a true humanitarian to boot. I'm in both shock and awe at how much I want to be you." Now with 16 Pages of Photos and a New Introduction

Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate


Helen Prejean - 1993
    In the months before Sonnier’s death, the Roman Catholic nun came to know a man who was as terrified as he had once been terrifying. She also came to know the families of the victims and the men whose job it was to execute—men who often harbored doubts about the rightness of what they were doing. Out of that dreadful intimacy comes a profoundly moving spiritual journey through our system of capital punishment. Here Sister Helen confronts both the plight of the condemned and the rage of the bereaved, the fears of a society shattered by violence and the Christian imperative of love. On its original publication in 1993, Dead Man Walking emerged as an unprecedented look at the human consequences of the death penalty. Now, some two decades later, this story—which has inspired a film, a stage play, an opera and a musical album—is more gut-wrenching than ever, stirring deep and life-changing reflection in all who encounter it.

The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me


Paul Joseph Fronczak - 2017
    Two years later, police found a boy abandoned outside a variety store in New Jersey. The FBI tracked down Dora Fronczak, the kidnapped infant’s mother, and she identified the abandoned boy as her son. The family spent the next fifty years believing they were whole again—but Paul was always unsure about his true identity. Then, four years ago—spurred on by the birth of his first child, Emma Faith—Paul took a DNA test. The test revealed that he was definitely not Paul Fronczak. From that moment on, Paul has been on a tireless mission to find the man whose life he’s been living—and to discover who abandoned him, and why. Poignant and inspiring, The Foundling is a story about a child lost and a faith found, about the permanence of families and the bloodlines that define you, and about the emotional toll of both losing your identity and rediscovering who you truly are.

Burned Alive


Souad - 2003
    In her village, as in so many others, sex before marriage was considered a grave dishonour to one's family and was punishable by death. This was her crime. Her brother-in-law was given the task of arranging her punishment. One morning while Souad was washing the family's clothes, he crept up on her, poured petrol over her and set her alight.In the eyes of their community he was a hero. An execution for a 'crime of honour' was a respectable duty unlikely to bring about condemnation from others. It certainly would not have provoked calls for his prosecution. More than five thousand cases of such honour killings are reported around the world each year and many more take place that we hear nothing about.Miraculously, Souad survived rescued by the women of her village, who put out the flames and took her to a local hospital. Horrifically burned, and abandoned by her family and community, it was only the intervention of a European aid worker that enabled Souad to receive the care and sanctuary she so desperately needed and to start her life again. She has now decided to tell her story and uncover the barbarity of honour killings, a practice which continues to this day.Burned Alive is a shocking testimony, a true story of almost unbelievable cruelty. It speaks of amazing courage and fortitude and of one woman's determination to survive. It is also a call to break the taboo of silence that surrounds this most brutal of practices and which ignores the plight of so many other women who are also victims of traditional violence.

The Imam's Daughter


Hannah Shah - 2009
    She lived the life of a Muslim but, for many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home. At 16, she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, and she ran away. Hunted by her angry father and brothers, who were determined to make her an honour killing, she had to keep moving houses to escape them. Then, worst of all, in her family's eyes, she became a Christian. Some Muslims say converting from Islam is punishable by death...One day a mob of forty men came after her, armed with hammers, sticks and knives...with her father at the front...The Imam's Daughter is Hannah's gripping - but ultimately inspiring - true story. How, through her courage and determination, she broke free from her background and found a new life beyond its confines - a new life of freedom and love.

Boys in the Trees


Carly Simon - 2015
    Don't miss it." - People Magazine"One of the best celebrity memoirs of the year." -The Hollywood ReporterRock Star. Composer and Lyricist. Feminist Icon. Survivor.Simon's memoir reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, her musical debut as half of The Simon Sisters performing folk songs with her sister Lucy in Greenwich Village, to a meteoric solo career that would result in 13 top 40 hits, including the #1 song "You're So Vain." She was the first artist in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, for her song "Let the River Run" from the movie Working Girl.The memoir recalls a childhood enriched by music and culture, but also one shrouded in secrets that would eventually tear her family apart. Simon brilliantly captures moments of creative inspiration, the sparks of songs, and the stories behind writing "Anticipation" and "We Have No Secrets" among many others. Romantic entanglements with some of the most famous men of the day fueled her confessional lyrics, as well as the unraveling of her storybook marriage to James Taylor.

Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir


Aspen Matis - 2020
    Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia—the trail’s end—Aspen and Justin were in love.Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they’d met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend.He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband’s inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control—but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well.The result is a brave and inspiring memoir of secrets kept and unearthed, of a vanishing that became a gift: a woman’s empowering reclamation of unmitigated purpose in the surreal wake of mystifying loss.

Hurry Down Sunshine


Michael Greenberg - 2008
    It begins with Sally’s visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,” Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her–her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg’s unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.