Biography Girls

In this very personal memoir and the most recent book in the Victory over Abuse series, author Marilyn Lundberg describes her own triumphant victory following excruciating pain and hardship.

Kwan Kew Lai met her first Punjabi woman doctor while lying in a hospital bed with a severe kidney infection at the age of fourteen. Watching the woman walk away down the hall, Kwan Kew was convinced she could, and would, carve out her own destiny. In The Girl Who Taught Herself to Fly, the author weaves in her family’s story of joy, sorrow, loss, love, and endless struggles with poverty and hunger. This poignant memoir, with universal and timeless themes, will leave you in awe.

In March of 2020, women worldwide were experiencing the same thing; however, they did not know how this would affect their mental health, family, friends, career, or business. In this book, you will find stories from 12 women across the world, who learned about their incredible strength and resilience. As you listen to each chapter, hopefully, you will see yourself in one of these women and know you have the power to overcome whatever pandemic you are going through.

Jools and Lynda Topp aka The Topp Twins tell this story in their own words, describing their adventurous lives through laugh-out-loud anecdotes and heartwarming tales. As well as their long careers as country music stars and comedians, with characters like Camp Mother & Camp Leader and Ken & Ken, the twins have always stood up for their political beliefs and have been embraced by New Zealanders from all walks of life.

Born to wealth that the Civil War ravaged, held captive by renegade Comanche, and rejected by family and friends, Mary Elizabeth (“Libby”) Haley ran away from home at the age of 14. Libby learned to navigate the dangerous and volatile Old West and made a name for herself as Squirrel Tooth Alice. Given her moniker because of a gap in her front teeth and her passion for raising ground squirrels as pets, Libby made the best of a difficult situation.

On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar. Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”

Danielle has a safe, happy childhood growing up in West London, but her bright future fades as she turns her back on school for gang life and crime. Betrayed by the police after a brutal gang rape, she finds protection under the wing of organised criminals and falls in love with the local ‘top boy’. However, her allegiances bring terror to her doorstep when gun-toting rivals target her flat – and the authorities answer by taking away her baby. Heartbroken, Danielle spirals deeper into gang life and becomes a key player in a sprawling county lines operation.

Renée shares a memoir with a purpose. Her journey from being counted out and overlooked in childhood through her twenties. From being told, "You are not college material" to earning a Master's degree in Education with honors. From that kid, the last one left when picking teams in gym class to high school bowling coach! Passing through addiction and many other valleys along the road. As a teacher, always remembering how it felt and making sure to always take the opportunity to right those wrongs.

This extraordinary memoir details the monumental journey of one young Gambian woman from survivor of FGM and forced child marriage, to global activist and political leader who became UN Women's first Goodwill Ambassador for Africa, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, and among the youngest people nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Adrift is a book for those who have left home, sought home, or even found home and know what it’s like to live between worlds. A true story of a Canadian missionary kid, living in Germany, who moved to a missionary ship.

This special fifth volume in The Girls Who Could series honors not just one girl, but an entire fleet of fierce female aviators. Dubbed “The Night Witches” by their German adversaries, this all-female battalion out-flew and outmatched all other units, flying eight or more missions every night in small canvas planes. No parachutes. No fear. Just honest heroine-ism standing up for what was right. The Girls Who Could Fly in the Night encourages your little ones to be upstanders, fight bullies, do good, and shine bright.

Unhappy Achiever is the story of how we use masks of achievement to buffer against the world and protect us from pain, how these masks keep us disconnected from ourselves and distanced from those around us—and ultimately, the magic, wisdom, and wholeness we encounter when we exist unencumbered and unobscured by external pursuits.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, T. S. Eliot was considered the greatest English-language poet of his generation. But there was another side to Eliot, as acclaimed biographer Lyndall Gordon reveals in her new biography, The Hyacinth Girl. While married twice, Eliot had an almost lifelong love for Emily Hale, an American drama teacher to whom he wrote extensive, illuminating, deeply personal letters.

At age nine, as Susanna sat on a horse for the first time, an unbreakable bond was forged. It set the stage for a lifelong odyssey for this determined girl and her devotion to her equine companions. From lush Brazilian rainforests to serene Swedish farms, from thrilling British derby banks to the picturesque wine hills of France, this is a story that spans continents, careers, and crossroads. From driven Olympians to bold bullfighters, from kind horsemanship trainers to daring jumpers, each character who crossed her path shone a light on who she yearned to be.

Pink Jade is a touching and inspiring chronicle of a young Vietnamese girl and her family's life during the turmoil preceding and following the Vietnam War. It speaks to her journey to find peace and love after escaping the horrors of war-torn Vietnam. Sharing the trauma of forced displacement and the difficulties and uncertainty of what would come next, the author invites listeners to walk with her, as she and her family relocate her lost father and start a new life with a new direction.

These memoirs are delightful to listen to, from the mischievous tales of Peter growing up to the emergence of Peta, a young woman who chose to dedicate her life to serving others as a nurse and midwife. Her story is a life of daring, daring to stand up and speak out, daring to be that voice for others, daring to be different, and do it all with kindness and empathy.

Donut Dolly puts you in the Vietnam War face down in the dirt under a sniper attack, inside a helicopter being struck by lightning, at dinner next to a commanding general, and slogging through the mud along a line of foxholes. You see the war through the eyes of one of the first women officially allowed in the combat zone.

Lucy Stone grew up in a world where men’s voices rang out, but women swallowed their words. When her church’s minister railed against women speaking in public, Lucy made up her mind that when she grew up, “if she had anything to say, she would say it!”

Mountain Girl is an inspiring and poignant story that shows how grit and soul can take a person from barefoot in Appalachia to the boardrooms of industry without losing that special something or selling out. In her own words, Rockefeller writes about a fascinating life that has been well-lived and a hoot to boot.

Es gibt viele wichtige Bücher über Feminismus. Aber keine ihrer Autorinnen hat derart viele Leben gelebt wie Melissa Febos: glückliche Kindheit auf Cape Cod, mit zwanzig heroinabhängig, das Studium finanziert als Domina. Heute führt sie ein bürgerliches Leben und unterrichtet an der Universität. In "Girlhood" schließt Melissa Febos Memoir mit Theorie, Soziologie mit Poesie kurz und erkundet die Gemeinsamkeiten aller Lebensphasen. Sie findet beunruhigend eindrückliche Beispiele, wie Frauen von klein auf darauf konditioniert sind, an ihrer eigenen Herabwürdigung mitzuwirken.