Self Biography

Exclusive interviews with the top athletes in sports today. Trust the Grind: How World-Class Athletes Got to the Top reveals how these men and women reached the heights of their profession so that you can too. Each chapter tells a different story, as each superstar shares the habit that helped them accomplish their goals and reach the pinnacle of their profession.

Most people don't need to be experts in their field. Yes, the successful know more than the average person about a particular topic, and they often possess a better-than-average ability with a particular skill set; but not everyone who is successful is an expert, he makes clear. And yet we continue to deeply value the expertise ideal. In Master of None, Hudson turns expertise on its head and shows that by embracing variety and becoming more versatile, anyone can succeed and become more open to different opportunities in life.

What matters most to you? Should you focus on earning a living, pursuing your passions, or devoting yourself to the causes that inspire you? The surprising truth is that you don’t have to choose—and that you’ll find more success if you don’t. That’s the breakthrough message of the TOMS One for One movement. You don’t have to be rich to give back and you don’t have to retire to spend every day doing what you love. You can find profit, passion, and meaning all at once—right now.

From the moment Lotte first met Ben, she knew they were meant to be together. And for a few years, their life was truly idyllic: flourishing careers, adored friends, and travel to every corner of the planet. But when Ben was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Lotte was catapulted into the uncharted landscape of cancer medicine, becoming his caregiver overnight. With the world around them in lockdown, they refused to give up the fight for his survival, travelling from London to Mexico in hope of a cure at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The world knows Candace Payne as "Chewbacca Mom", whose Facebook video captured the hearts of millions with nothing but a toy Chewbacca mask and infectious laughter. But what the video doesn't show is Candace's storied journey of overcoming daunting obstacles on the way to a joy-filled life. Laugh It Up! tells the rest of the story behind the woman in the mask. Like many, Candace Payne has often felt overlooked, undervalued, and insignificant. But she has also discovered the secrets to unshakable joy.

On the first day of high school, Kristina Ellis' mom - a single, working mother who lost her husband to cancer - informed her that she could not financially support her after graduation. Kristina would need to find her own way to pay for college. As an average student with less-than-impressive test scores, Kristina realized she would have to sell herself to scholarship committees if she wanted to stand out. That's when she devised the plan that led to her receiving over $500,000 in scholarships.

From surf-lifesaving to a hungover Army deployment, being broke with a gum infection in Europe, spooning Richie McCaw on a mountain, improvising make-up for Paul Holmes, running my first ultra-marathon and reinventing myself after redundancy: every wild, brilliant and hilarious experience has taught me something new. Whether it's how not to care about being judged, how to fake it till you make it, how to throw yourself into the unknown or how to push through the pit of despair, I've come to love that we are all works in progress. If I fail from time to time, that's okay too.

This is the story of one woman's journey to find herself. Armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of the 20th-century food writer M.F.K. Fisher, she travels from France to Italy, then the Congo, and back again. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon, and, ultimately, finds a path to life and joy.

In The Warrior's Heart, an adaptation of his best-selling memoir, The Heart and the Fist, Eric Greitens brings his adventures to life, sharing stories of friendship, struggle, and hard-earned wisdom. This remarkable book will inspire listeners to live every day with compassion and courage.

A reckoning with the way we choose to see and define ourselves, Self-Portrait in Black and White is the searching story of one American family's multigenerational transformation from what is called Black to what is assumed to be White. Thomas Chatterton Williams, the son of a "Black" father from the segregated South and a "White" mother from the West, spent his whole life believing the dictum that a single drop of "Black blood" makes a person Black. This was so fundamental to his self-conception that he'd never rigorously reflected on its foundations....

Joyce Roche rose from humble circumstances to earn an Ivy League MBA and become the first female African-American vice president of Avon, president of a leading hair care company, and CEO of the national nonprofit Girls Inc. But despite these accomplishments, she felt like a fraud. She worked more and more, had less and less of a personal life, and was never able to enjoy her success.

Brian Pennie shouldn’t be alive today. His drug addiction was so bad that he was deemed too much of a risk for detox. Determined to confront his demons, he went cold turkey at home. On 8 October 2013, he was finally clean after 15 years of heroin addiction and something extraordinary happened: the world suddenly became beautiful. Given a second chance at life, he devoured every minute of it. Bit by bit he rebuilt his world, returning to university to study neuroscience in a bid to understand the source of his suffering.

The (Other) F Word combines the voices of Renée Watson, Jes Baker, and more in a relatable and gift-worthy guide about body image and fat acceptance. This dazzling collection of poetry, essays, and fashion tips is meant for people of all sizes who desire to be seen and heard in a culture consumed by a narrow definition of beauty. By combining the talents of renowned fat YA and middle-grade authors, as well as fat influencers and creators, The (Other) F Word offers teen listeners and activists of all ages a tool for navigating our world with confidence and courage.

Both a hysterical tell-all memoir of the author's stumbles and triumphs in becoming mindfully masculine, as well as a practical drivers manual for navigating the twists and turns of mature manhood, Mindful Masculinity is a joy to read or to listen to. Scott Grace, once a prolific recording artist and stand-up comedian who opened for Robin Williams and many other legends, brings his comic touch to a very serious subject.

For Chavez, an elementary school librarian and mother of two boys, the signs of mounting anxiety and depression had been present for a while, though she had done her very best to ignore them. Then, one night, while her husband was away on business, Julie found herself locked in a debilitating panic attack that threw her life into a tailspin. The terrifying aftershocks left her grappling with questions about the origin of her anxiety and where it would lead next. What follows is a funny, unflinchingly open account, offering an intimate portrait of how one woman found her way back from the edge.

The Huck Finn of foreign correspondents provides a colorful account of old Honolulu, the island nobility, the City of Refuge on the Kona coast, and the active volcano of Kilauea. These selections of Mark Twain's newspaper dispatches are both charming and informative. The light touch of the great humorist is seldom missing as he reveals the "loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any ocean".

Before Larry Jones became a successful businessman, he had to overcome some of his own battles. Growing up as an abused child, he struggled with defining his identity, which led to lots of fighting and a harsh tongue. As a single father, Larry suffered a divorce, being broke, homelessness, divisive co-parenting, and PTSD. He imparts his knowledge through his journey of hardship and lessons learned, perfect examples of how anyone can withstand the challenges of life.

Em seu primeiro livro, Edith Eva Eger emocionou o mundo ao contar como sobreviveu aos horrores da guerra e transformou seu sofrimento numa jornada de perdão e cura, ajudando milhares de pessoas a lidar com seus traumas mais profundos. Agora, em A liberdade é uma escolha, ela apresenta ensinamentos práticos que vão nos ajudar a identificar nossas próprias prisões mentais e a desenvolver as estratégias necessárias para nos libertarmos delas.

Bevy Smith was living what seemed like a glamorous dream as a fashion advertising executive, blazing a lucrative career for herself in the whitewashed magazine world. She jetsetted to Europe for fashion shows, dined and danced at every hot spot, and enjoyed a mighty roster of lovers. So it came as quite a shock to Bevy when one day, after arriving at her luxury hotel in Milan, she collapsed on the Frette bedsheets and sobbed. Years of rolling with the in-crowd had taken its toll. Her satisfaction with work and life had hit rock bottom.

Soulshaping is the inspiring memoir of an archetypal "male warrior" - a trial lawyer - who struggled to find his heart and a more authentic, soulful path. Rivetingly personal and profoundly universal, this book is for anyone who has heard a whisper of something truer calling out to them amid the distractions of modern life.