Violence Memoir

March 31, 1985. Two white patrol officers in search of a gang member followed a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men up a dirt driveway in the Encanto neighborhood of San Diego. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and the truck's driver, Sagon Penn, fled the scene in an officer's patrol car. Penn was an idealist who believed in the power of Buddhist chants to bring about the oneness of humanity. The two police officers were rising stars in one of the most progressive police departments in the country, yet one that had suffered more officers killed in the line of duty than any other.

American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You'll never see your state fair or street festival the same way again. Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals. He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last king of the sideshows.

As a twelve-year-old girl, Maria Housden’s vision of a happy future included everything that society expects girls to yearn for: a home, a husband, and, of course, children. Life had other plans. Unraveled is Housden’s riveting and thoughtful story of how, after the death of her young...

I am a survivor of an 11-year physically and emotionally abusive relationship. I suffered beatings, broken bones, knocked out teeth, public humiliation, and several serious murder attempts. This is unfortunately not a new story in our society today.

In this piercing and unforgettable memoir, the award-winning poet reflects on a year of turbulence, fear, and hope. For acclaimed British-Guyanese writer Fred D’Aguiar, 2020 was a year of personal and global crisis. The world around him was shattered by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic...

Jack Dawe is an unconventional street cop. His ability to not act or look like a "Copper" enabled him to infiltrate the drug networks of the UK. This no-holds-barred, explosive, and, at times, humorous account of undercover policing takes the listener through a journey of crime, violence, and deception. This memoir is a true story of poacher turned game keeper. A veteran of 30 years’ service as a soldier and police officer, Jack reveals how he grew from a young thief into a soldier in search of danger and adventure across the world.

Lessons of Redemption is the memoir of Kevin Shird, a former drug dealer from Baltimore who now is a leading advocate against violence, drug dealing, and social inequality. The book is an extraordinary account of how one young man turned his life around after years of involvement in serious crime and drug dealing. Shird tells of shootings, murder, drug dealing, and his life behind bars in a federal prison.

"That would never happen to me. I'm too strong. I would walk out." Those were KC Andrews' thoughts as a trainee nurse listening to a lecture on domestic violence. But when it happened to her, it took years to finally leave. She has now rebuilt her life from the ashes of a brutal marriage, and along the way met other women who have survived the fog of fear and feelings of worthlessness - and then on the outside, endured the disbelief and bureaucratic bungles of those who should have helped. But now, each woman's brilliance is emerging once again.

There was no reason to bet on Bruce Johnson, given where he started out. Poor, Black, and raised by a single mother who had a secret. He was the child she hid in plain view from the rest of her family. As an adult, he set out to just make a living - to do better than Black folks who tried their best before, while making his Momma and Grandmomma proud. His journey to becoming a successful TV journalist nearly killed him, but he refused to treat himself as a victim. His role was to use his voice and example to pull others out of deep waters.

On January 23, 2014, the author reported for jury duty without taking notice to the media vehicles lined in front of the courthouse. He checked in unaware that 1,200 others were also being counted as potential jurors. He did not know when he walked into the courtroom that the case of premeditated murder would change his life. It would seem that the most important question of the day, as asked to every potential juror, was whether he could, if the circumstances were correct and the law dictated as such, apply the death penalty to the defendant?

Six days after Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans, New Orleans Police Department officers opened fire on residents crossing the Danziger Bridge. When the shooting stopped, a mentally challenged man and a 17-year-old boy were dead, riddled with gunshot wounds. A mother's arm was shot off, her daughter's stomach gouged with a bullet hole, and her husband's head pierced by shrapnel. Her nephew was shot in the neck, jaw, stomach, and hand. All six of the victims, along with two others arrested at the scene, were Black and unarmed.

Mass violence committed by young people is now an epidemic. The reasons behind this escalating violence and the cultural forces that have impugned a generation is the subject of this important new book. The Spiral Notebook is full of interviews with Generation Z, a group dogged by big pharma and antidepressants and ADHD drugs, by a doomsday/apocalyptic mentality present since birth, and by an entertainment industry that has turned violence into parlor games.

In The Uninnocent, Blake wrestles with the implications of her cousin's break, as well as the broken machinations of America's justice system. As her cousin languished in a cell on death row, where he was assigned for his own protection, Blake struggled to keep her faith in the system she was training to join.

Steven shares in full his remarkable story for the first time. After being sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, what Steven witnessed at HMP Frankland, a Category A prison, made him change his life forever. From cell fires and inmates pouring boiling oil over each other, to violent feuds and gang battles on prison wings. After losing everything, he vowed to never use violence again.

During the late 1880's, the Cornett-Whitley gang rose on the Texas scene with a daring train robbery at McNeil Station, only miles from the capital of Texas. In the frenzy that followed the robbery, the media castigated both lawmen and government officials, at times lauded the outlaws, and indulged in trial by media. Fans of the Old West and true crime stories will appreciate this sordid tale of outlawry and the lawmen who put a stop to it. Those who study the media and “fake news” will appreciate the parallels from the 1880's to today.

Emily was in a restaurant, having lunch with her father – the next thing she remembers is waking up, naked, in a strange hotel room, next to a man she did not know. She suspected she had been drugged and raped. She later found out she had been filmed without her consent. What happened to her that night could have happened to anyone. What came next happens to far too many victims, as failures by the police, CPS and other parts of the system, led to Emily doubting she would ever find justice.

When both his parents are brutally murdered and his siblings scattered, vengeance sets into Mark’s bones. Duty-bound to reclaim his family honor, he becomes an assassin, intent on killing his enemies. But the assassin who trained him becomes his worst enemy. With one loyal brother beside him, and a mysterious brother fated to cross his path, he navigates through continuous obstacles.

Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America recounts the story of three innocent victims, all of whom suffered violent deaths through no fault of their own: Vaudine Maddox in 1933 in Tuscaloosa, Sergeant Gene Ballard in 1979 in Birmingham, and Michael Donald in 1981 in Mobile. The death of Vaudine Maddox - and the lynchings that followed - serves as a cautionary tale about the violence that occurred in the same region nearly 50 years later.

We stay fighting, even if we don't call it war. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a poet’s memoir about family, survival, and one servicewoman’s search for autonomy. Yanked out of college and torn from her sunny hometown of Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Khadijah Queen finds...

Gabrielle Giffords's documentary Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is now in theaters nationwide! Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, share their impassioned argument for responsible gun ownership. After the 2011 Tucson shooting that...