Self Memoir

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.

Go to college or learn a trade? For Joey Snider, this common high-schooler’s dilemma was easily resolved. He was going strong as a teenage apprentice plumber. That is, until his parents packed him off to college. But Joey couldn't stay away for long, and after eight years becoming a master in his trade, he bought and built up his own plumbing and water treatment company into a multi-van, seven-figure business.

If David Sedaris, Chelsea Handler, Larry David, and Caitlin Moran had the unlikeliest orgy in history, the resulting love child might one day write a book like this rollicking collection of true tales from Roy Sekoff, the founding editor of The Huffington Post. Whether he's describing a teenage pilgrimage to a Times Square porn superstore, life-changing experiences with high colonics and psychic readings, or that time Chevy Chase grabbed his balls at a funeral, Sekoff is a lively raconteur whose sharp observations wring laughs out of a ludicrous-yet-relatable life.

This is the book that Denise Welch wished for as she found herself exhausted and defeated after yet another visit from The Unwelcome Visitor - the name she gives to the episodes of clinical depression she has suffered from over the past 30 years. For so many understanding their mental health is a leap into the unknown, and they are left grappling with the physical and emotional fallout without any guidance or someone to tell them 'you're not alone and you can live a happy and successful life alongside your illness'.

In Akilah Hughes' world, family - and life - are often complicated, but always funny. Through intimate and hilarious essays, Akilah takes listeners along on her journey from the small Kentucky town where she was born - and eventually became a spelling bee champ and 15-year-old high school graduate - to New York City, where she took careful steps to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer and performer.

Called: A Memoir is about Mark’s experiences as a corporate dropout from Madison Avenue who then begins working with homeless young people, and how their strength, spirit, and courage - despite incredible odds - inspires all listeners looking for some sliver of hope in humanity today. This book illustrates through eye-opening stories his conclusion that all young people, even when the odds are stacked against them, have the ability to achieve a life of purpose and meaning.

After a number of years of being chronically ill with Lyme disease, Jenny Rush had a momentary realization that she was overlooking a lesson that was resulting in continued ill health. As she went into her last year of dealing with chronic illness at a physical level, Jenny shifted her primary focus from the illness itself to addressing the multitude of experiences that the illness was provoking.

When Susan quit her job in London and set sail off the south coast of England on her beloved sailboat, Isean, she was unaware this spontaneous departure would lead to a three-year journey spanning several countries across the continent. With only the very basics on board, resourcefulness becomes an unexpected source of joy and contentment. But for all the physical and navigational challenges of her journey, the other side of her story reveals a more important change - an inner journey - that took place along the way.

Kodo Nishimura rose to fame following his appearance in Queer Eye: We're in Japan. Now this celebrity makeup artist and ordained Buddhist monk shares his unique and practical guide to positivity and self-acceptance. Listeners will learn from the author's path to self-love and resilience and modern take on Buddhist teachings.

After a messy breakup, Fien Kestelyn unknowingly starts her single journey that would take 10 years and counting. Her obsession with finding a partner forces her into an adventure of self-discovery. She moves from Belgium over Holland to the States, goes on retreats, gets her heart broken, learns how to fix it, and slowly gets to know her authentic self—experiences she would never have had if she had stayed in a relationship. She discovers supporting women is her purpose and travel is a part of her soul.

During her career in sports broadcasting, Guerrero covered Super Bowls, Worlds Series, NBA Finals, and interviewed sports superstars. From the outside it seemed glamourous, but often she was miserable, told to smile more, argue less, and show a lot of leg and cleavage. Colleagues would joke—sometimes on national TV—that she clinched big interviews because of sexual acts rather than talent. She made a mistake on air during the opening game on Monday Night Football that cost her her sportscasting career... and almost her life.

After witnessing the brutal, fatal stabbing of her mother and surviving being stabbed herself during the same attack at the age of nine, a young African-American woman’s struggle to live continues. Diamond shares the mental, physical, and emotional effects she has suffered and the challenges she has faced, including alcohol abuse, emotional detachment, suicidal thoughts and panic attacks stemming from post-traumatic stress disorders.

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Surfacing, Siri Lindley opens up about her unique celebrity-dappled early life. When an NFL superstar notices her beautiful mother, her idyllic childhood is upended. Glitzy dinner parties and world travel pull her mother away, and Lindley grows up feeling alone and out of place. As her intense loneliness grows into anger, she lashes out against her New England life of privilege.

In more than a decade on television, Vicky Pattison has had her fair share of ups and downs, from her rise to fame on Geordie Shore to her public break-up with her fiancé, her body confidence issues and debilitating anxiety. In The Secret to Happy, Vicky opens up about her darkest moments and shares the pearls of wisdom and hard-won lessons she's picked up along the way—to overcoming heartbreak, ending toxic relationships and managing her mental health—to help you find inner strength, accept imperfections and be true to yourself.

In Happily Imperfect, be moved to tears and laughter by joining Stacey in her journey so far, as she reveals how to stay positive despite the everyday pressure to be and look perfect. Told through hilarious, sometimes moving and always charming anecdotes, discover how to get the best out of life by being positive, not following the crowd and trusting your gut instincts.

Emily Dickinson exemplified the virtue of self-discipline. She wrote poetry largely for her own pleasure, and to exercise and increase her creative talents. Very few of her poems were published during her own lifetime, yet we know that she wrote consistently - perhaps every day - over several decades. Poetry was her way of knowing herself and understanding the world.

If you struggle with a highly sensitive personality, this memoir and collection of stories will help you heal and flourish. Benita A. Esposito is a licensed professional counselor and best-selling author with four decades of professional experience. Even smart high-achievers have themes on their hero’s journey to the authentic self, and these were hers. What unconsciously drew her to an emotionally distant relationship or an emotionally abusive relationship? Why did she feel so hurt when others judged her? Why was she so tired? What compelled her toward self actualization?

For three nerve-wracking years, Naveed Jamali spied on America for the Russians, trading thumb drives of sensitive technical data for envelopes of cash, selling out his own beloved country across noisy restaurant tables and in quiet parking lots. Or so the Russians believed. In fact this young American civilian was a covert double agent working with the FBI. The Cold War wasn't really over. It had just gone high tech.

Francis has mastered the "risk game." Now, with Rebecca Paley’s gripping prose, he takes us behind the scenes in Risk Game and reveals firsthand how he has become a self-made force in the competitive world of New York real estate—and a champion for nonprofit organizations in the fields of art, education, and, most recently, social and criminal justice.

Now in his late seventies, Sir Ranulph Fiennes looks back on a lifetime of exploration, and draws powerful, inspiring lessons that we can all use when faced by the tribulations of everyday life. Having crossed both Polar ice caps on foot, climbed Everest and the Eiger, served in the SAS and circumnavigated the world along its polar axis—a 53,000-mile odyssey that has never been repeated—'Ran' looks back from the summit of an incredible life.