Biographies and Memoirs
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Do the accounts of extraordinary peoples' lives inspire your own life? Can the fortitude of individuals drive how you live your own life? Our authors in the Biographies and Memoirs genre bring you the stories of people who have survived and grown through the most difficult of situations. Their stories will move you to tears, to action, and to new levels in your own life. They will always do this for you on eBookHounds for free or for a discount.
Definition of the "Biographies and Memoirs Genre": Ebooks in both the Biographies and Memoirs genres focus on the life experiences of a single person. Biographies are generally broader in the subject matters of a person's life experiences, while memoirs are more honed into the memories of that person. However, there is very little difference between the two categories, which is why they are combined in a single genre. Ebooks in the Biographies and Memoirs genre also typically have a significant element of inspiration, as the stories which drove the writing of these ebooks are tremendously moving.
Examples of bestselling ebooks in the Biographies and Memoirs genre are Cheryl Strayed (Wild), Chris Kyle (American Sniper), Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken), and Donna Mabry (Maude).
This book contains adult language.
Drifting in the Push is a fast-paced, comical romp that takes the reader on a journey through the unintentional adventures of one man’s reality. From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, from Mexico to Alaska, missteps, stubborn obstacles, and fate are his constant companions, along with an offbeat assortment of entertaining characters. From time to time, his escapades include his two childhood friends—Bryan, who follows him to the unforgiving Arctic, and Shane, who steers him down an unpleasant alley or two. Amid this craziness, he picks up another friend—Hank, his devoted dog. This chronological series of interdependent short stories will take you from fear to love, amusement to surprise, and it just might occasionally leave a tear in your eye.
JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations. Yes, Chef chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.
Praise for Yes, Chef
“Such an interesting life, told with touching modesty and remarkable candor.”—Ruth Reichl
“Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style—in the kitchen and on the page. I liked this book so very, very much.”—Gabrielle Hamilton
“Plenty of celebrity chefs have a compelling story to tell, but none of them can top [this] one.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Elegantly written . . . Samuelsson has the flavors of many countries in his blood.”—The Boston Globe
“Red Rooster’s arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food.”—President Bill Clinton
A touching and hilarious memoir by the author of the forthcoming book, In Such Good Company, is 100 percent Carol Burnett--funny, irreverent, and irresistible.
Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses and performers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen each week by millions of adoring fans and won twenty-five Emmys in its remarkable eleven-year run. Now, in This Time Together, Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching or memorable story after another--reading it feels like sitting down with an old friend who has wonderful tales to tell.
In engaging anecdotes, Carol discusses her remarkable friendships with stars such at Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, and Julie Andrews; the background behind famous scenes, like the moment she swept down the stairs in her curtain-rod dress in the legendary “Went With the Wind” skit; and things that would happen only to Carol--the prank with Julie Andrews that went wrong in front of the First Lady; the famous Tarzan Yell that saved her during a mugging; and the time she faked a wooden leg to get served in a famous ice cream emporium. This poignant look back allows us to cry with the actress during her sorrows, rejoice in her successes, and finally, always, to laugh.
From the Hardcover edition.
A man of reason and vigorous discourse, and a renowned professor of literature and philosophy, C.S. Lewis, always “Jack” to family and friends, never shied from intellectual debate, and through his written works encouraged others to wrestle with the difficult questions of faith.
A master of visual illustration and allegory, Lewis wrote with the intuitive understanding that his readers wrestled with the same questions about the Christian story, about pain, suffering, and notions of Heaven and Hell, as he himself had wrestled. He also understood that others found reason and imagination to be incompatible aspects of an understanding of God and the universe.
One fine autumn day, Daniel Carruthers sat down and started writing a letter to his recently-deceased wife. You Said Goodbye Too Soon: A Journey Through Grief and Loss is that letter.
Daniel describes how he and Abbie met, their years together, growing-up and raising a family. He recounts, with raw honesty, the difficulties and tribulations they faced as a couple. Then, with great poignancy, Daniel describes Abbie’s sudden death and the effect it had on him and their children.
At times, brutally candid and in places unbearably sad, this short and beautifully written open letter constitutes a moving tribute to a dearly missed friend, partner and wife. This is a story that anyone who has ever loved will relate to as Daniel embarks on the lonely path of loss, grief and bereavement.
For anyone who has ever lost their wife, their husband or best friend, this letter, written from the heart, will strike a deeply felt emotional chord.
The intimate portrayal of one of the most famous men in music, more than half of which is in McCartney's own words.
In June 1989, Paul Du Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London. They asked him to interview the star; McCartney and Du Noyer had met once before and enjoyed a good rapport.
In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to meet, interview and work for Paul McCartney on a regular basis, producing magazine articles, tour programs, album liner notes, press materials, and editorial content for McCartney's website. Du Noyer has spent more hours in formal, recorded conversation with McCartney than any other writer.
Conversations with McCartney is the culmination of Du Noyer's long association with McCartney and his music. Drawing from their interview sessions across 35 years and coupling McCartney's own, candid thoughts with Du Noyer's observations and analysis, Conversations with McCartney is beautifully written--a sensitive, shrewd portrait of one of the most accomplished artists of our time.
John Muir was naturalist who has the famous one. He was the first Euro-American explorers Glacier Bay. This book talks about his adventures in Alaska, which reveals the difficulties of travel to Alaska at that time. It also talks about his life after returning from Alaska.And not to be missed is a brief biography of him.
A sharp-shooting SWAT team, a Venezuelan producer of alcoholic love potions, and an audacious subway rat are among the cast of characters award-winning author Darrin DuFord encounters in Breakfast for Alligators: Quests, Showdowns, and Revelations in the Americas. Through such mediums as public transit, cuisine, urban wildlife, and music, DuFord (author of Is There a Hole in the Boat? Tales of Travel in Panama Without a Car, 2007 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards silver medalist) has created a collection of insightful pieces that expose the desires and realities shaping landscapes from Chile to Canada. From surviving a journey in a homemade submarine off the coast of Honduras to receiving a lesson in aging from the street art of Valparaiso, DuFord's lively, engaging narratives show how travel has the ability to illuminate cultures while unleashing their bottomless complexities.
If you want to learn about one of history’s most fascinating minds and uncover some of his secrets of imagination—secrets that enabled him to invent machines light years ahead of his time and literally bring light to the world—then you want to read this book.
Imagination amplifies and colors every other element of genius, and unlocks our potential for understanding and ability.
It’s no coincidence that geniuses not only dare to dream of the impossible for their work, but do the same for their lives. They’re audacious enough to think that they’re not just ordinary players.
Few stories better illustrate this better than the life of the father of the modern world, a man of legendary imaginative power and wonder: Nikola Tesla.
In this book, you’ll be taken on a whirlwind journey through Tesla’s life and work, and not only learn about the successes and mistakes of one of history’s greatest inventors, but also how to look at the world in a different, more imaginative way.
Read this book now and learn lessons from Nikola Tesla on why imagination is so vital to awakening your inner genius, and insights into the real “secret” to creativity, as explained by people like Jobs, Picasso, Dali, and Twain.
When Pj suffers a back injury at work, it marks the start of a nightmare eleven-year journey through prescription drug addiction, withdrawal and recovery.
Dysfunctional and at a loss on all levels, she battles to break free from her dependence and fights to retrieve her true self.
"Moment of Surrender" is a brutally honest and traumatic account of her struggle back to health and a shining light to guide others who walk a similar path, and is sure to be an eye-opener to all who read it.
"My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker" is based on Melissa Burch's experiences as a war journalist for BBC, CBS, and other networks. Her team was one of the first documentary crews allowed in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and she was featured in a New York Times story about her time in Afghanistan. She was just in her twenties when she traveled with the mujahideen, filmed an attack on a Soviet convoy, slept with an Afghan commander, and climbed 14,000-foot mountains in the Hindu Kush. "My Journey Through War and Peace" examines how, through outward action and inward exploration, life can unfold in mysterious ways, far beyond cultural and family expectations. In looking back at this momentous decade, Burch shares why she pursued such dangerous and difficult circumstances at such a young age and continued to live on the edge. She now understands that she was seeking self-discovery, a connection to something greater, and ultimately inner peace. This exciting memoir will resonate with fans of "Eat Pray Love," "Wild," and other popular memoirs that describe extraordinary inner and outer journeys.
**New York Times Best Selling Memoir**
"One literary ride you do not want to miss!" - The Huffington Post
Nominated for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Sarton Memoir Award and the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Autobiographies and Memoirs
Can an epic adventure succeed without a hero? Andra Watkins needed a wingman to help her become one of the only living persons to walk the historic 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did. She planned to walk fifteen miles a day. For thirty-four days. After striking-out with everyone in her life, she was left with her disinterested eighty-year-old father. And his gas. The sleep apnea machine and self-scratching. Sharing a bathroom with a man whose gut obliterated his aim. As Watkins trudged America's forgotten highway, she lost herself in despair and pain. Nothing happened according to plan, and her tenuous connection to her father started to unravel. Through arguments and laughter, tears and fried chicken, they fought to rebuild their relationship before it was too late. In Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace, Watkins invites readers to join her dysfunctional family adventure in a humorous and heartbreaking memoir that asks if one can really turn 'I wish I had' into 'I'm glad I did.'
This collection of short, action-filled stories of the Old West’s most egregiously badly behaved female outlaws, gamblers, soiled-doves, and other wicked women by offers a glimpse into Western Women’s experience that's less sunbonnets and more six-shooters. Pulling together stories of ladies caught in the acts of mayhem, distraction, murder, and highway robbery, it will include famous names like Belle Starr and Big Nose Kate, as well as lesser known characters.
"One of the best books short of the famous Ann Rule works." --True Crime Book Reviews
On a snowy winter evening in 1982, twenty-one-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator's violence had only just begun.
After ten years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap. In this gripping new edition of a true crime masterpiece, acclaimed author Steve Jackson recounts the intriguing pursuit and long awaited conviction of a charismatic, monstrous psychopath--one who remains a suspect in three other crimes, and has never given up hope of escape.
"Steve Jackson is a born storyteller. He makes you sweat. . .and turn the page." --Ron Franscell, author of The Darkest Night
Includes 16 Pages Of Dramatic Photos
"The result is a mix of history, biography and memoir which reads like a nerve-racking thriller." —The Guardian (US)
This heroic true story of the three youngest children of a bourgeois Catholic family who worked together in the French Resistance is told by an American writer who has known and admired the family for five decades
In the autumn of 1943, André Boulloche became de Gaulle’s military delegate in Paris, coordinating all the Resistance movements in the nine northern regions of France only to be betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, wounded by the Gestapo, and taken prisoner. His sisters carried on the fight without him until the end of the war. André survived three concentration camps and later became a prominent French politician who devoted the rest of his life to reconciliation of France and Germany. His parents and oldest brother were arrested and shipped off on the last train from Paris to Germany before the liberation, and died in the camps. Since then, silence has been the Boulloches’s answer to dealing with the unbearable. This is the first time the family has cooperated with an author to recount their extraordinary ordeal.
Simply Darwin tells the story of Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) and his theory of evolution through natural selection. On one level, the book portrays a dedicated scientist who, through careful observation and brilliant insight, became convinced that organisms were the end product of a long, slow, and natural process of development. On another level, it is an account of a cataclysmic change in our ideas about ourselves—a conceptual upheaval that continues to generate aftershocks—and heated debates—to this day.
In Simply Darwin, author Michael Ruse puts Darwin and his ideas in their proper context, clearly showing that, while the father of evolutionary biology was a true trailblazer, he was no rebel. He was simply following an evidentiary trail that led to an inevitable conclusion about the origin of species and natural selection. Eventually, as Darwin and his fellow scientists began to apply his ideas to humans, long-held notions about the nature and origins of religion, morality, race, sexuality, and much more, were called into question. Then, as now, some of us embraced these provocative ideas, while others reacted with horror and disbelief.
In recounting this fascinating and inspiring story, Ruse doesn’t neglect the visual component that has always been an inherent part of evolutionary thought. Simply Darwin features copious illustrations, which provide an informative and captivating element to this riveting account.
Richard Nixon was the consummate politician. Growing up as a poor Quaker in California, Nixon decided early on to pursue a career in politics. Struggling from the bottom, Nixon worked his way through law school and eventually into politics. Richard Nixon embodied the American Dream. He would also embody the American Nightmare. Richard M. Nixon made it to the pinnacle of political power in the United States through effort and determination. Then, in the blink of an eye, he lost everything. Nixon’s story, far from being one of triumph, is a story of tragedy. The story of Nixon is the story of one bad decision determining the fate of an American President. For the misfortune of Nixon didn’t just affect him; if profoundly affected the American Government, and the Office of the Presidency. To a nation already suffering from governmental distrust after the Vietnam War, the Scandal of Watergate would forever shatter the trust Americans had in their leaders. Nixon’s legacy on the Presidency would be a cautionary tale. Even the mighty fall, and even those who work their entire lives for something can lose it all in an instant.
Despite access to the greatest healthcare in the world, U.S citizens are not immune to medical horror stories. Such was the experience of Ken Dickson, a beloved husband and father and respected engineer, with no history of mental illness. What should have been an ordinary surgical procedure changed that, propelling him into a high security psychiatric ward where psychiatrists branded him a danger to himself and others.
This gut wrenching novel is leaving readers shocked at the author’s treatment, and appalled by how quickly a medical situation fell through the cracks, sending the patient spiraling uncontrollably into medically induced madness.
This novel is not, however, only about Ken. It is the story of two people deeply in love, but torn apart by fate, an eye-opening introduction to the stigma of mental illness, and a personal run-in with the poor broken souls trapped in psychiatric care. It is a rich and varied exploration of our humanity written from the unique perspective of someone suffering from mental illness.
Detour from Normal is a novel that you cannot afford to ignore, with a message that you will not want to dismiss: tomorrow, next year, or five years from now, this could happen to you.
“Rarely do I read a book from start to finish without putting it down. This is one of those books. Very well written and wholly engaging, it took me on a surreal and yet easily understandable journey though the mind and experiences of someone marginalized by society as insane. That he is able to describe with such incredible attention to detail his delusions and how he was made to suffer so much cruelty and injustice at the hands of those we trust with our lives, including medical doctors, peace officers, guards, emergency medical technicians, nurses, psychiatrists, lawyers and even a judge, is amazing. What a great book!”
~Peter Marlow, Los Angeles, CA
Harry Truman
The Man Who Divided the World
Truman was the epitome of the American dream. Born and raised by poor, struggling farmers in America's heartland, he had become President through his integrity, a little bit of luck, and sheer hard work. He became the leader of the United States at the tail end of the world's deadliest conflict. Thrust into the middle of a world of conflicting ideologies, Truman would be faced with the newest threat to international stability: a ravenous Soviet Union ready to devour the world with its communist philosophies. As the nation's leader, it fell to him to decide the path which the United States would take into the future. A dedicated public servant and a lover of the freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution, Truman realized it was not only his duty but his responsibility to safeguard the free world. By pledging to protect the people of the world from totalitarian rule, Truman unintentionally triggered the Cold War. With his pledge, this often overlooked President forever reshaped American foreign policy, dividing the world into East and West for over forty years.
Enjoy the life and business lessons of one of the most successful CEOs ever.