personal narratives

An autobiographical picture book tells the story of a young African American girl who lived during the shutdown of public schools in Farmville, Virginia, following the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

The author recalls her experiences coming of age in Fascist Italy during World War II as she, along with her sisters, hid in a convent where she tried to come to terms with her new life while longing to be "just a girl.".

"Meet Renee and Herta, two sisters who faced the unimaginable--together. This is their true story. As Jews living in 1940s Czechoslovakia, Renee, Herta, and their parents were in immediate danger when the Holocaust came to their door. As the only hearing person in her family, Renee had to alert her parents and sister whenever the sound of Nazi boots approached their home so they could hide. But soon their parents were tragically taken away, and the two sisters went on the run, desperate to find a safe place to hide. Eventually they, too, would be captured and taken to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Communicating in sign language and relying on each other for strength in the midst of illness, death, and starvation, Renee and Herta would have to fight to survive the darkest of times"--Provided by publisher.

"A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr., a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr., a journalist working on the front lines of change today. Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation's image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr.'s life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self--revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts. A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made"--From the publisher's web site.

"A memoir by the highest-ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars that America has fought since the Vietnam Era. Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. [This book] is the story of Ric's legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism"--Adapted from publisher description.

The best-selling author offers a new collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle-scarred America he discovered when he resumed touring.

In August 2021, just days shy of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, America ended its twenty-year war in Afghanistan. While the shocking scenes of desperation at the Kabul airport unfolded, United States Marine Major Tom Schueman fought--both behind the scenes and through a public social media campaign--to get his friend and former Afghan interpreter, Zainullah 'Zak' Zaki, out of Afghanistan before he and his family were discovered by the Taliban. When they finally took off from the airport mere days before the U.S. left the country, the yearslong effort to get Zak to America culminated in two simple words from Tom on Instagram: 'Wheels up.' Now, in Always Faithful, Tom and Zak tell the full story of the dangerous road they walked together in service to America and how their commitment to each other saved them both.

"Tillet's cultural criticism blends literary history, biography, and memoir in an exploration of Alice Walker's National Book Award-winning novel that examines its influence against a backdrop of the civil rights encroachments of the early 1980s"--OCLC.

Glyn Haynie shares his Vietnam War experiences as a nineteen-year-old soldier in the First Platoon.

"In honor of the 75th Anniversary of one of the most critical battles of World War II ... [the author] pays tribute to the heroic men who sacrificed everything at Iwo Jima to defeat the Armed Forces of Emperor Hirohito--among them, a member of her own family"--Provided by publisher.