autobiographies

"Here, in his own words, is the story of one of the twentieth century's most creative medical innovators, Dr. Henry Heimlich. The thoracic surgeon is best known for having developed the Heimlich Maneuver, the world's easiest-to-learn and most universally known method to save people from choking to death on food or foreign objects... Interweaving the author's personal life with riveting stories of his numerous medical breakthroughs, this ... memoir provides insights into the workings of a creative mind and the machinations of the American medical system"--Amazon.com.

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.

"Erik Weihenmayer is the first and only blind person to summit Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Descending carefully, he and his team picked their way across deep crevasses and through the deadly Khumbu Icefall; when the mountain was finally behind him, Erik knew he was going to live. His expedition leader slapped him on the back and said something that would affect the course of Erik's life: 'Don't make Everest the greatest thing you ever do.' [This] is Erik's response to that challenge. It is the moving story of his journey since descending Mount Everest: from leading expeditions around the world with blind Tibetan teenagers to helping injured soldiers climb their way home from war, from adopting a son from Nepal to facing the most terrifying reach of his life: to solo kayak the thunderous whitewater of the Grand Canyon."--Publisher.

Michelle Stevens reflects on her childhood of sexual abuse at the hands of her mother's boyfriend, and how it shaped her journey of healing, recovery, and triumph as an adult.

"... [A] picture book memoir about NASA astronaut Scott Kelly [that] takes readers on a journey through his childhood as an average student to his record-breaking year among the stars"-- Provided by publisher.

"Now 79 years old, Sister Abegail looks back over her life and recounts the ... events that led to her becoming the mother of dozens of children orphaned by the AIDS crisis in South Africa"--Provided by publisher.

For twenty-five years, Debby Irving sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships. As a colleague and neighbor, she worried about offending people she dearly wanted to befriend. As an arts administrator, she didn't understand why her diversity efforts lacked traction. As a teacher, she found her best efforts to reach out to students and families of color left her wondering what she was missing. Then, in 2009, one "aha!" moment launched an adventure of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her worldview and upended her life plan. In Waking Up White, Irving tells her often cringe-worthy story with such openness that readers will turn every page rooting for her-and ultimately for all of us.

"A gorgeous graphic memoir about loss, love, and confronting grief. When Kristen Radtke was in college, the sudden death of a beloved uncle and, not long after his funeral, the sight of an abandoned mining town marked the beginning moments of a lifelong fascination with ruins and with people and places left behind. Over time, this fascination deepened until it triggered a journey around the world in search of ruined places. Now, in this genre-smashing graphic memoir, she leads us through deserted towns in the American Midwest, Italian villas, islands in the Philippines, New York City, and the delicate passageways of the human heart. At once narrative and factual, historical and personal, Radtke's stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions: why are we here, and what will we leave behind?"--.

Presents an edited version of the diary entries of Mary Knackstedt Dyck in which she recorded the details of her life on a Kansas farm during the Dust Bowl years between 1936 and 1941.

"Vance, a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, provides an account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck"--Provided by publisher.