biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

The author describes her life as the only child of an unstable poet for a mother and a beloved but absent father and explores the consequences of a psychologically damaging childhood.

The author shares her experiences as a child when her family was relocated along with other Japanese American citizens during World War II and held for the duration of the war at the Amache (or Granada) internment camp in Colorado.

Sheryl Sanberg, COO of Facebook, reflects on her year of grief after the sudden death of her husband during a family vacation, and the resilience she found deep within that she never knew existed.

"A heart-wrenching, yet hopeful, memoir of a young marriage that is redefined by mental illness and affirms the power of love. Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. The fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that she was the devil and that her loved ones were not safe. All she wanted was to die. Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. Pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended. A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach's is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife's mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers' faith in the power of love"--.

"Before he runs out of time, Irish bon vivant Malachy McCourt shares his views on death--sometimes hilarious and often poignant--and on what will or won't happen after his last breath is drawn. During the course of his life, Malachy McCourt practically invented the single's bar; was a pioneer in talk radio, a soap opera star, a best-selling author; a gold smuggler, a political activist, and a candidate for governor of the state of New York. It seems that the only two things he hasn't done are stick his head into a lion's mouth and die. Since he is allergic to cats, he decided to write about the great hereafter and answer the question on most minds: What's so great about it anyhow? In Death Need Not Be Fatal, McCourt also trains a sober eye on the tragedies that have shaped his life: the deaths of his sister and twin brothers; the real story behind Angela's famous ashes; and a poignant account of the death of the man who left his mother, brothers, and him to nearly die in squalor. McCourt writes with deep emotion of the staggering losses of all three of his brothers, Frank, Mike, and Alphie. In his inimitable way, McCourt takes the grim reaper by the lapels and shakes the truth out of him. As he rides the final blocks on his Rascal scooter, he looks too at the prospect of his own demise with emotional clarity and insight. In this beautifully rendered memoir, McCourt shows us how to live life to its fullest, how to grow old without acting old, and how to die without regret"--.

Pamela Paul has kept a record of every book she's every read, tracing the trajectory of her life through reading, and how these stories have shaped her life.

The prizewinning memoir of one of the world?s great writers, about coming of age as an enemy of the people and finding her voice in Stalinist Russia.

"In this powerful memoir, told with fierce honesty and surprising humor, a young woman goes on a journey of healing after abortion--a road trip across the United States with a diverse crew of spiritual teachers and a caravan of new friends. Nineteen years old, a thousand miles from her Kentucky home, Kassi Underwood sat in a doctor's office, shaking with fear. She was pregnant--and broke, unwed, and struggling with alcohol. In a decision that obliterated her southern moral code, she checked into an abortion clinic. Afterward, to her surprise, she felt free.Three years later, accomplishing her wildest dreams had left her unfulfilled and thinking about the pregnancy she didn't keep. When her ex-boyfriend had a baby with someone else, she shattered. But in the depths of despair, Kassi refused to believe she would "never get over" her abortion. So she created a road map of recovery. Determined to transform, she traveled across the United States on a journey that led her to a Buddhist "water baby" ritual, a Roman Catholic retreat for abortion run by picketers, a crash course in grief from a Planned Parenthood counselor, a night in a motel with a "Midwife for the Soul," a Jewish "wild woman" celebration hosted by an eccentric rabbi--and a wedding ceremony. Dazzling with warmth and leavened by humor, this absorbing memoir captures one woman's journey of self-discovery that enraged her, changed her, and ultimately enlightened her"--.

"A memoir of mothers and daughters -- and mothers as daughters -- traced through four generations, from Paris to New York and back again. For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Mauscreator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers -- French-born New Yorker art director Fran?oise Mouly -- exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand," their relationship grew tense. Unwittingly, they were replaying a drama from her mother's past, a drama Nadja sensed but had never been told. Then, after college, her mother suddenly opened up to her. Fran?oise recounted her turbulent adolescence caught between a volatile mother and a playboy father, one of the first plastic surgeons in France. The weight of the difficult stories she told her daughter shifted the balance between them. It had taken an ocean to allow Fran?oise the distance to become her own person. At about the same age, Nadja made the journey in reverse, moving to Paris determined to get to know the woman her mother had fled. Her grandmother's memories contradicted her mother's at nearly every turn, but beneath them lay a difficult history of her own. Nadja emerged with a deeper understanding of how each generation reshapes the past in order to forge ahead, their narratives both weapon and defense, eternally in conflict. Every reader will recognize herself and her family in this gorgeous and heartbreaking memoir, which helps us to see why sometimes those who love us best hurt us most"--.

"A candid memoir by folk legend Judy Collins of her lifelong struggle with compulsive overeating and the spiritual solution that saved her. Since childhood, Judy Collins has been preoccupied, haunted, seduced, and taunted by food, a problem that nearly cost her her career and her life. For decades she thought her food issues were moral issues--lack of self-will, lack of discipline--and she worked hard at controlling what she thought of as her shameful inclinations, employing measures that led to serious health complications. Today she knows she was born with an addiction to sugar and grains, flour and wheat. The discovery of a solution to her problem prompted the desire to share what she has learned, which has brought her peace of mind, a clean food plan, years of maintaining the same weight, and a glow of joy and health. Alternating between chapters on her life and those of the many diet gurus she has come to know (from Lord Byron to Atkins, Jean Nidetch of Weight Watchers, and Andrew Weil), Cravings is the story of the mountains Collins has climbed and the monsters she has encountered on the path to recovery"--.