Self Memoir

If you're arriving to the midlife crisis party - the one that's serving low self-esteem, desperation, unreliable behavior, forgetfulness, carelessness, and the loneliness of loss - the stories and anecdotes in this memoir will assure you that you are not alone. For Sara Arnell, it took a rogue lobster, a dying rock star, an 18-pound tumor, a meditation guru, a famous medium, and a former monk to put her on a path toward light, hope, and healing.

The Umbrella Picker tells the true story of a woman who was lost for 45 years until she learned that she is Autistic. After a long and relentless journey of searching for answers, the hand of fate finally revealed to her what she had waited a lifetime for. Learning she was Autistic was life changing. She is no longer lost, and having found her own, unique way, Jane has written the (brutally honest!) book she wished was available to her years earlier.

Darkness—that’s what Bozena Gasior remembers feeling when she first heard her two-year-old son’s autism diagnosis. What followed was a cacophony of despair and cries, not knowing what to do, say, or feel. It was the day she thought that part of her son’s life had died. But one eventful day some four years later, his fingers touched the piano keys for the first time, and she felt something—a glimmer of light shining down, illuminating her home and family.

Patented in 1917, Piggly Wiggly was by far the most influential self-service store of the early twentieth century. Before 1940 it was the only self-service chain with a national distribution network, but it was neither the first nor the only version. Beyond Piggly Wiggly reveals the importance of Piggly Wiggly in the invention of self-service and goes beyond the history of a single firm to explore the role of small business entrepreneurs who invented the first self-service stores in a grassroots social process.

From a talented emerging writer comes a brave, honest, unforgettable memoir about mental illness, which breaks the silence and shatters the taboos to give hope to all those struggling to find their way through. One day Sophie Hardcastle realised the joy she’d always known had disappeared. She was constantly tired, with no energy, no motivation and no sense of enjoyment for surfing, friends, conversations, movies, parties, family - for anything. Her hours became empty.

Written with the passion of an obsessive, Nicotine addresses a lifelong addiction, from the thrill of the first drag to the perennial last cigarette. Reflecting on his experiences as a smoker from a young age, Gregor Hens investigates the irreversible effects of nicotine on thought and patterns of behavior. He extends the conversation with other smokers to meditations on Mark Twain and Italo Svevo, the nature of habit, and the validity of hypnosis.

This cultural history and memoir of stage fright will resonate with anyone terrified of speaking or performing in public. Stage fright is one of the human psyche's deepest fears, challenging actors, musicians, professional athletes, and people from all walks of life. Surveys in the United States repeatedly rank public speaking as one of the top fears, affecting up to 74 percent of people.

The true story of one family's struggle and triumph creating a self-sufficient life in the wilderness. Join the Horn family on the adventure of a lifetime. Learn how a couple from the city moved to the wilderness with three small boys and carved out a life in the middle of nowhere that has endured for nearly 50 years. Impossible Beyond This Point is a compelling must-listen for anyone interested in (or contemplating) getting away from it all.

In this witty, wise, heartwarming memoir, Blant Hurt, a 50-something flatlander with urban sensibilities, buys a ratty weekend cabin up in the dark heart of the Ozark Mountains. His new wife has a passing familiarity with this rugged area, but still. What are they doing? Their cabin is crudely built and lacks running water and electricity. Then there's the local land baron who aspires to build a giant sand mine on their doorstep.

In 2012, Rhyannon Styles began her gender transition and attended her first 12-step meeting - beginning two journeys that changed the course of her life. Using her personal narrative as a springboard for exploring addiction, recovery and LGBTQ+ mental health, Rhyannon writes with searing honesty about the complexity of her experiences. The audiobook spans a range of addictions including alcohol, food, sex and relationships, the internet and narcotics, and highlights the ways in which addiction and the transition process can overlap.

In this inspirational memoir, retired Colonel Merryl Tengesdal shares her life lessons on everything from her career in the military, being the first and only Black woman to pilot the U2 aircraft, to marriage and motherhood–and everything in between.

Imagine looking in the mirror, barely awake in the morning. You open one eye and see the other, black, as in a shiner—and then you recall that you’d punched yourself in the eye during a dream that night!

How can we evolve through adversity and change our lives? It is one of life's great questions. In Evolving Through Adversity: How to Overcome Obstacles, Discover Your Passion, and Honor Your True Self, author Seconde Nimenya answers the above question and demonstrates that the best way to overcome adversity is to go through it. Through her own life story, Seconde explains how to apply this theory by what she calls the RRU (reflect, rectify, and unite) model.

This book is about the journey of a man--from meager beginnings, being abused and misunderstood by schoolmates and cousins, starting an adventure with very little, surviving on the kindness of others, and refusing to accept something without paying for it in some way. They expected a long-haired bearded boy in an army jacket to be a bum, but he would be a surprise to them by his work ethic.

Becky married her college sweetheart and thought she would be married for life. Thirty years later, she had three grown children and a successful career, but her marriage was failing. Her husband was becoming increasingly unemployable as he sank deeper into alcoholism. She was unhappy, but she didn’t think she had the confidence or wherewithal to make it on her own.

In Hidden Treasure, Kara Adams teaches us that we are more than just our past life experiences, no matter how harsh these may have been. She leads us through a harrowing and deeply inspiring walk through her own past including infidelity, infertility, family trauma, and her life-threatening illness to show us that despite any circumstance, we can rise to live the passion and purpose designed for us. Part memoir and part personal development book, Hidden Treasure is beautifully written. Kara engages the listener with her contemporary, colloquial, and chatty voice.

After finding himself homeless, Army veteran Jake Sansing decides to walk across America. Motivated by helping others and hoping to ease his symptoms of PTSD, his trek carries him much further than he intended. Follow along on this incredibly detailed journey that takes him from Tennessee to Maryland, to California, to Florida, to Alaska, back to Florida, and back to California again. Alone and unsupported, Jake must battle the elements, loneliness, near-death experiences, and, inevitably, his inner demons.

The story of Malcolm X's journey to Islam is world-known. But how many stories do we have of the brave women who joined on to the Nation of Islam? Very few. To add to the dilemma, Black women face unfair stereotypes when it comes to their acceptance of Islam. Many people unfairly accuse them of joining for vain reasons such as marriage and the desire to imitate Arab culture. This book will change the narrative about Black Muslim women. A Final Call to Self is a story of courage, audacity, failure, and triumph.

A deeply personal, yet candid saga of a gay Secret Service Agent in the Obama era; an agent who was struggling with his own identity, marriage, discrimination, and balancing the demands that accompany being assigned to protect the most powerful people in the world.

Never Alone follows the thought-provoking journey of Jax Golding—a twice-divorced mom, accomplished journalist, gallery owner, and life coach. By all accounts, she was successful and happy—until she wasn’t. As she looks back on the various stages of her life, rifling through old pain, disappointments, and transactional relationships, an ordinary woman discovers extraordinary grace, realizing that Spirit has propelled her every step of the way.