Birth Memoirs

Dan spent most of his childhood trying to hide in plain sight. A raw, abusive upbringing tarnished his entire family. Dan and his older brother Chris were born under the brutal fists of their father, impacting them emotionally and physically. Somehow, Dan found his way out through sports, and with one success after another. Chris wasn’t so lucky. Most say Chris never had a chance. When Chris died, Dan knew this story needed to be told. For anyone going through a hard time, this is the book that will give hope to continue on.

The story of how Hip Hop got its start as told by Gene "Poo Poo Man" Anderson, the promoter at the center of it all. From "Rapper's Delight" and the first rap concert ever, to the introduction of break dancing and scratching, take an insider's tour of the crazy stories, culture, and challenges of the time.

Sometimes our understanding of our universe is given a huge boost by one insightful thinker. Such a boost came in the first half of the 20th century, when an obscure Belgian priest put his mind to deciphering the nature of the cosmos. The Day Without Yesterday covers the modern history of an evolving universe, and how Georges Lemaître convinced a generation of thinkers to embrace the notion of cosmic expansion and the theory that this expansion could be traced backward to the cosmic origins, a starting point for space and time that Lemaître called "the day without yesterday".

This book, based on actual cases and investigations, tells how a widespread criminal network in Spain and Morocco, stole and sold babies through an underground baby black market for decades. All the while, government, church and doctors and nurses either looked the other way, or worse, conspired together to deceive parents and family while lining their own pockets.

Based on a true story, this is the tale of three strong women: Barbara, who was given a blue plastic cow that would later change her life forever; Florrie, who adopted a baby to replace the child she had lost; Carole, forced to give up her daughter by an unforgiving society. Growing up in a loving northern working-class family based on the banks of the River Mersey, Barbara felt that she was different. After accidently discovering that she had been adopted, she was only given a part of the story.

One hundred and thirty years ago Eadweard Muybridge invented stop-motion photography, anticipating and making possible motion pictures. He was the first to capture time and play it back for an audience, giving birth to visual media and screen entertainments of all kinds. Yet the artist and inventor Muybridge was also a murderer who killed coolly and meticulously, and his trial is one of the early instances of a media sensation.

Amity Reed became a midwife to serve women, but the reality of working in overstretched and underfunded NHS maternity services soon shattered her illusions. She’s not alone - for every 30 midwives that train, 29 will leave the profession. Overdue is both the devastating personal story behind the statistics, and a call for change in the NHS.

As the sole production assistant for Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, Ted Chapin had a front row seat for the creation of one of the most important American musicals of all time. He kept a detailed journal of his experiences, and his rich storehouse of memories forms the core of Everything Was Possible, which itself has become a modern classic of musical theater history. Combining the zeal of an enthusiast with a journalist’s narrative chops, Chapin takes the listener on a roller-coaster ride through the creation of an original Broadway musical.

From the ghetto paved and unpaved streets of Indianapolis, Indiana, this book begins telling the story of one fat kid's rise from the projects, to his fall serving over seven years in as many prisons, and how he was able to come out a prison scholar. That led to him to writing 18 phenomenal books about redemption and attending Georgia State University, graduating number one in his undergraduate class. He earned a 4.13 GPA and went on to grad school, where he excelled, graduating at top of his class, before becoming a very popular African-American Studies professor at Georgia State University.

A beautiful young woman with big dreams and a great career in IT emigrates from Russia to London, falls in love, marries, and goes to the hospital to have her first baby. It’s a modern-day fairy tale come true, until...she is rocked by pain unlike any she has experienced. She tells her husband, her family, her doctors, but no one believes her. The doctors do tests - but nothing. When she persists, they tell her it is all in her head - that she is making it up.

In The Raider, Cundill Prize–winning historian Stephen R. Platt gives us the first authoritative account of Evans Carlson’s larger-than-life exploits: the real story, based on years of research including newly discovered diaries and correspondence in English and Chinese, with deep insight into the conflicted idealism about the Chinese communists that would prove Carlson’s undoing in the McCarthy era. It is a propulsive, dramatic tale revealing the origins of the tensions between China and the US that endure to this day.

In ancient Athens, thousands would attend theatre festivals that turned writing into a fierce battle for fame, money, and laughably large trophies. While the tragedies earned artistic respect, it was the comedies - the raunchy jokes, vulgar innuendo, outrageous invention, and barbed political commentary - that captured the imagination of the city.

On December 22, 1953, Mort Sahl took the stage at San Francisco's hungry i and changed comedy forever. Before him, standup was about everything but hard news and politics. In his wake, a new generation of smart comics emerged - Shelley Berman, Mike Nichols, and Elaine May, Lenny Bruce, Bob Newhart, Dick Gregory, Woody Allen, and the Smothers Brothers, among others.

The Hong Kong taxi driver has zero interest in taking Anna to another hospital, they’ve already been to two. If he takes her to Kowloon, which requires going through the traffic-ridden Cross Harbour Tunnel, she will likely give birth in the back seat. Neither of them wants this. Granted, many women's birth plans don't resemble their actual experiences but Anna seems to take this to the extreme.

The Central Park Five meets Killers of the Flower Moon in the true but untold story of the Fairbanks Four, four young Indigenous men in Fairbanks, Alaska who were wrongly convicted of murdering a white teenager, and the journalist determined to rally the community and undo the damage done by a broken justice system.

In 1776, upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers concluded America’s most consequential document with a curious note, pledging “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor”. Lives and honor did indeed hang in the balance, yet just what were their fortunes? How much did the Founders stand to gain or lose through independence? In this landmark account, historian Willard Sterne Randall investigates the private financial affairs of the Founders, illuminating like never before how and why the Revolution came about.

Step into history and relive the exhilarating saga of the American Revolution. Experience the thrill of rebellion, the birth of a nation, and the courage that ignited change. This meticulously crafted book brings to life the riveting battles, visionary leaders, and the spirit that forged the United States.

This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."

Upon returning home from golf on a rare afternoon free of responsibilities, Dr. Beverly Joyce, a busy and beloved OB-GYN, listened to a phone message that would shake her identity and send her on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. That call would instantly help free her from the hidden doubt, guilt, and shame that had plagued her throughout her life.

With an in-depth look at the two most empowering years in the life of Marilyn Monroe, The Girl details how The Seven Year Itch created an icon and sent the star on an adventure of self-discovery and transformation from a controlled wife and contract player into a businesswoman and unlikely feminist whose power is still felt today. When Marilyn Monroe stepped over a subway grating as The Girl in The Seven Year Itch and let a gust of wind catch the skirt of her pleated white dress, an icon was born.