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).
Alexis Black persevered through her mother’s death and her father’s imprisonment. And after escaping a long and abusive relationship, the college junior promised her foster parents not to date for at least a year. But when she meets an incoming freshman on the first day of their scholarship program, she feels the world melt away, as though it were only the two of them in the room.
Justin Black lived in the poorest section of Detroit before his parents surrendered him to the foster care system at the age of nine. But when he grabs the chance for better opportunities by pursuing higher education, he can’t help but be drawn to a beautiful third-year student. At first, their past traumas--and their age difference--conspired to complicate their attraction. But the joy each took in the other and eventually conquered those obstacles, and these two survivors journeyed together toward healing.
In a stark and wholehearted true story that shares how two individuals on separate paths found each other, Alexis and Justin merge their course into one full of hope and purpose. And hand-in-hand, with a desire to help others, they learned to reject the abusive patterns of their past, thereby intentionally breaking the cycle of generational violence and unhealthy behaviors.
Written in an engaging novelistic style, the authors put forward a thoughtful exchange of ideas and personal experiences illustrating how anybody, no matter their backgrounds, can have a life of self-empowerment and joy. Broken down into four sections that cover crucial topics such as “Worthiness” and “Mental Health,” this compelling narrative will help any who are learning to love themselves and want to end the line of toxic relationships.
Redefining Normal: How Two Foster Kids Beat The Odds and Discovered Healing, Happiness and Love is a page-turning memoir that will open your eyes to possibilities and dreams. If you like honest tales of triumph, refreshing transparency, and resilient faith in God, then you’ll adore Justin and Alexis’ inspirational story.
This story contains mentions of domestic violence, trauma, sexual assault, and other difficult issues faced on the road to healing.
Buy Redefining Normal to claim victory over harmful pasts today!
A biologist reveals the secret world hidden in a single square meter of old-growth forest—a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pen/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Combining elegant writing with scientific expertise, The Forest Unseen "injects much-needed vibrancy into the stuffy world of nature writing" (Outside, "The Outdoor Books That Shaped the Last Decade")
In this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one- square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life.
Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of biology and ecology, explaining the science that binds together the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals and describing the ecosystems that have cycled for thousands- sometimes millions-of years. Each visit to the forest presents a nature story in miniature as Haskell elegantly teases out the intricate relationships that order the creatures and plants that call it home.
Written with remarkable grace and empathy, The Forest Unseen is a grand tour of nature in all its profundity. Haskell is a perfect guide into the world that exists beneath our feet and beyond our backyards.
OinK! Only in Korea!
In 1980, years after Vietnam and even more years before Desert Storm, America was experiencing a seventeen-year period of peace. One of the few places a young army officer could find adventure was on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Korea, Freedom's Frontier. The second day in-country, the lieutenant was no longer a Korean cherry boy. Hours later he found himself inside the DMZ. By the end of the week, he was wounded.
As the intelligence officer for the battalion, he knew the area around the DMZ was a dangerous place. The minefields took many casualties, small arms fire got others, and artillery short rounds claimed even more, leading up to the bizarre episode of a missing severed hand and the search for the diamond ring that was no longer on it. Even something as simple as crossing the Imjin River after the monsoons turned deadly. And then there was the most feared affliction of all, catching river blindness. It's not a disease – it's going down to the river and getting your eyes shot out.
The lieutenant's daily routine was anything but routine. The averages told the story: a shooting incident every ten days with thirty-three combat related deaths during the year. The patrols were long and cold, the guard posts were desolate, and Freedom Bridge operations droned on until enemy frogmen shattered the monotony. Peace, in that part of the world, had a unique definition. As they say, the DMZ isn't hell but you can see it from there.
Those who worked hard also played hard. The parties were so wild that they fell into the category of “that which didn't kill you made you stronger”. The eleven and a half months in Korea provided more experiences than ever expected, especially the ending, when the lieutenant's twelve-month tour was cut short in a most unusual way by a booby trap.
This 'slice of life' novel is obviously military genre and is definitely memoir-ish. The story is steeped in facts because the author is the lieutenant intelligence officer who journeyed to the Korean DMZ – and paid the price with a severe and lasting physical wound and a psychological scar that, to this day, haunts him from time to time.
This is not going to be the next great American novel and it won't win any awards. However, it is an interesting story, like the ones told around the kitchen table or over drinks. When told, people become quiet, and listen. The reader will be completely entertained and amazed at what happened to one man in the Land of the Not Quite Right.
Go to any bookstore and you will see racks of books about Vietnam, World War II and Iraq/Afghanistan. Noticeably missing are books about Korea. This is an exceptional military tale not only because it takes place in Korea, but it is also about a peacetime military and the sacrifices soldiers make even when they are not at war. OinK! Only in Korea! is a must read for a veteran and there are millions of them who have served in Korea during the time of the truce.
This book brings to people a story that should be told and will allow “the lieutenant” to finally lay his peacetime “war” to rest.
Free History BONUS Inside!
Christopher Columbus was one of the most courageous of the world’s explorers. He embraced risk in an era when the blinding expanse of the Atlantic Ocean frightened the Europeans.
The cartography of the day was incorrect, as he learned through bitter experience. Columbus is credited with the discovery of America but never realized it during his lifetime. His career as a navigator was peppered with mishaps that shattered the ignorance of the age. Although he was no scientist, Columbus initiated new fields of study and analysis.
In 1492, he landed at San Salvador in the Islands of the Bahamas, and he was the first European to have explored the Caribbean Sea. He was the first European to set foot in Cuba, Haiti, and Trinidad, as well as the countries in Central America. Columbus’s voyages astonished all of Europe and started a virtual stampede of competitors in search of the East Indies by sailing west.
His life was fraught with adversities such as betrayal and character assassination. It still is today. However, his loyalty cannot be assailed, and few have recognized that fact.
The life of Christopher Columbus is a fascinating portrayal of a man whose ego was greater than his common sense. His brand of reckless abandon makes Olympic champions out of foolhardy amateurs. This is the story of a man devoted to a goal he was willing to pursue or die trying. And, tragically, he did die trying.
In Christopher Columbus: A Captivating Guide to the Life of an Italian Explorer and His Voyages to the Americas, you will discover topics such as
So if you want to learn more about Christopher Columbus, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
Free History BONUS Inside!
Four captivating manuscripts in one book:
Here are just some of the topics covered in part 1 of this book:
Here are just some of the topics covered in part 2 of this book:
Here are just some of the topics covered in part 3 of this book:
Here are just some of the topics covered in part 4 of this book:
So if you want to learn more about the history of East Asia, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
2020 Discovery Awards Winner - Politics/Current Events
“A well-written memoir chronicling the intriguing life and influences of a post-war Jewish child who becomes an American lawyer and activist.” –Sublime Book Review
Becoming American is the inspiring story of the author’s transformation from a child of Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe to an American lawyer, academic, and activist associated with such famed political leaders as Robert Kennedy, George McGovern, Jerry Brown, and Tom Hayden. Searching for his great-grandparents’ graves in a hidden cemetery outside Prague makes him recall his experiences of becoming American: listening to Army Counterintelligence agents gathered at his home in Austria; a tense encounter with Russian soldiers; seeing Jim Crow racism in the South during his first visit to the United States; becoming an American citizen in his teens; having his citizenship challenged by border guards; fearing for his new country upon witnessing the Watts riots; exhilaration at rising to leadership positions in organizations shaping government policies; and advancing the American dream as a real estate lawyer, helping develop entire new communities.
Free History BONUS Inside!
Victorian Great Britain was the most technologically and economically developed country in the world at the time. As such, it had the power to protect its interests. With the discovery of new trade routes in the East, and with the foundation of the East India Company, Britain became addicted to the luxurious and exotic items from China. Silk, porcelain, and tea were in high demand among the rich. Britain was so economically strong at the time that even the middle and lower classes could afford to enjoy high-quality items imported from China, especially tea.
Britain imported everything its society desired, but it was costly. The main problem was that China only accepted payments in silver, creating a huge imbalance in trade. To avoid losing money on imported goods, Britain had to sell something back to China. However, this Eastern empire liked to boast that it was self-sufficient. The Chinese didn’t need to import anything, as their industry was developed enough to supply the whole country with what it needed. Britain had to come up with something the Chinese needed, and in desperation, the decision was made for Britain to sell opium.
When diplomatic efforts to introduce opium to the Chinese market failed, the British Parliament approved an alternative: war. There were two wars, one from 1839 to 1842 and another from 1856 to 1860. They are collectively known as the Opium Wars. The British, who were joined by French and supported by the Americans and Russians, clashed with Imperial China, which was ruled by the Qing dynasty. These conflicts are largely forgotten in the Western world, perhaps out of a sense of collective shame. But in China, the Opium Wars are still symbols of national humiliation at the hands of the Western powers.
In The Opium Wars: A Captivating Guide to the First and Second Opium War and Their Impact on the History of the United Kingdom and China, you will discover topics such as
So if you want to learn more about the Opium Wars, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
A masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development.
The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government’s largest and most important endeavor—indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen—a radical idea that appalled Europe’s great powers. America’s uniquely democratic post powerfully shaped its lively, argumentative culture of uncensored ideas and opinions and made it the world’s information and communications superpower with astonishing speed.
Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries. The mandate to deliver the mail—then “the media”—imposed the federal footprint on vast, often contested parts of the continent and transformed a wilderness into a social landscape of post roads and villages centered on post offices. The post was the catalyst of the nation’s transportation grid, from the stagecoach lines to the airlines, and the lifeline of the great migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It enabled America to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy and to develop the publishing industry, the consumer culture, and the political party system. Still one of the country’s two major civilian employers, the post was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities for positions in public life.
Starved by two world wars and the Great Depression, confronted with the country’s increasingly anti-institutional mind-set, and struggling with its doubled mail volume, the post stumbled badly in the turbulent 1960s. Distracted by the ensuing modernization of its traditional services, however, it failed to transition from paper mail to email, which prescient observers saw as its logical next step. Now the post office is at a crossroads. Before deciding its future, Americans should understand what this grand yet overlooked institution has accomplished since 1775 and consider what it should and could contribute in the twenty-first century.
Gallagher argues that now, more than ever before, the imperiled post office deserves this effort, because just as the founders anticipated, it created forward-looking, communication-oriented, idea-driven America.
Two captivating manuscripts in one book:
The continent of Africa is home to fifty-four countries that together harbor over three thousand cultures, each with their own ways of life and each with their own stories. Some of these stories have their origins in the folk beliefs of people native to their particular region, while others were imported from or influenced by cultures from elsewhere who settled in Africa.
A great number of African folktales have been transmitted orally from person to person down through the ages, but since the nineteenth century, many stories have been written down and transmitted to audiences beyond the boundaries of the cultures that created them. One important—and tragic—conduit for the transmission of these stories beyond African shores was the European slave trade. Captured Africans who were brought to the Americas and the Caribbean fought to keep alive what they could of their home cultures, and this included their folktale traditions.
African folktales come in many different types. Some are myths explaining the origins of things, while others are tales of heroes with supernatural abilities. Animal stories are many and varied, and they usually involve some kind of trickster who uses his wiles to get out of sticky situations and sometimes into them. There are also cautionary tales explaining why it is important to behave well and treat others with respect, while other stories have a style and shape similar to that of a fairy tale.
Some of the topics covered in manuscript 1 of this book include:
Some of the topics covered in manuscript 2 of this book include:
So if you want to learn about African Mythology and Egyptian Gods, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
Free History BONUS Inside!
An undoubtedly interesting, exciting, and dramatic chapter of Russian history was ruled over by the Romanov dynasty. This powerful ruling family came to power shortly after the frightening rule of a legendary figure in Russian history: Ivan the Terrible. After murdering his own son and unborn grandson, Ivan died without an heir, resulting in the formation of a new dynasty. This was the Romanov family.
The Romanovs included some of the most famous names in all of history, from Peter the Great, who expanded its borders, to the mighty Empress Catherine the Great, a powerful female ruler in a time of rife male supremacy and who is still a symbol of feminine power to this day. The Romanovs ruled from the end of the Middle Ages to the dawn of a modern era that forcefully rejected the last Romanovs from a nation that no longer tolerated a monarchy. And every last one of these mighty monarchs had quirks and idiosyncrasies, likes and dislikes, pasts that were often troubled, and complicated family lives.
Every one of them was a person, complex, intricate, flawed, and fascinating. Their stories range from the beautiful to the tragic to the bizarre. And in this book, they all are laid out for you to enjoy.
In The Romanovs: A Captivating Guide to the Last Imperial Dynasty to Rule Russia and the Impact the Romanov Family Had on Russian History, you will discover topics such as
So if you want to learn more about the Romanovs, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
It is tempting to see ancient Egyptian religion as something relatively static, with a single pantheon whose nature and activities did not change throughout the three-thousand-year span of the Dynastic Period. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout Egyptian history, we see that gods who had once been favored were set aside or had their roles altered in order to make way for gods whose cults became more popular, while political changes, such as the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, ushered in cultural and religious exchanges that both affected native Egyptian religious practices and also had an impact on the religious beliefs of Greece and Rome.
Because the Egyptian pantheon is vast, even if one leaves out the syncretized deities, it is not possible for this volume to present a comprehensive overview of ancient Egyptian religion and myth. Instead, only a select number of deities and concepts are discussed here. Some of these are more well-known deities, while others might not be as familiar to modern readers. However, this book still offers a fascinating glimpse into ancient Egyptian religion and culture and the richness that was life in ancient Egypt.
Within this book, you'll find the following the Egyptian gods and topics covered:
So if you want to learn about Egyptian gods, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
HERE IS HOW YOU SAVE TIME AND MONEY SCREENING THE BEST STOCKS IN THE MARKET…
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Throughout my entire 10+ years career in the stock market investing business, I have faced a lot of setbacks and challenges.
I remember spending hours, I mean from 6 to 8 hours looking for that perfect company and stock, but more often than not, it still failed to meet the requirements of my investment criteria. Then I would repeat the same process again, and again and again…
And trust me, it wasn't that pleasurable at all.
Sitting in front of the computer screen for 7 hours was considered a very normal thing. But that "Normal" was killing my motivation every single day. And that’s just not me!
I started to question myself. Why am I doing this? Maybe it's not worth it?
At the end of the day, we all want to make money, Don't we? And the amount that I was making for sure didn't satisfy me.
And If not for my persistence, I don't know if I would be speaking with you today and sharing my discovery.
Yes, I discovered a way to dramatically expand my stock portfolio and enrich my life!
And here it is…
Stock Screeners – powerful FREE tools that will cut your most profitable stock research time as much as 3, 4, even 5 times your current research!
Inside this book, You will learn how to find and use The Most Valuable Stock Screening Tools in the market. I will share the methods and strategies of top investors and traders who are benefiting tremendously from them and how you can do that as well.
Here is just a fraction of what's inside:
And keep in mind that you don't have to be a stock market expert to use this investment guide efficiently. It will take you from where you are right now and lead you through every single step.
So don't wait, scroll up, click on "Buy Now" and get one Big Step Closer to Financial Freedom and Living Your Dreams!
Many of us have one--a place where we store mementos that remind us of an earlier period in our lives--either happy or sad. Those ties to our past are commonly found in a similar place, hidden in a shoebox buried at the back of a closet shelf. It's called The Shoebox Effect--where you "forget", intentionally or unintentionally, about the contents of the box and what they represent. Marcie Keithley's shoebox contained a secret, one she kept for decades, one released when her shoebox was unexpectedly revealed in a moment of grief. A flood of memories and emotions were unleashed when the lid was knocked off. No longer able to deny what she had sequestered away in her closet and in her spirit, the revelation created challenges for Marcie, but it also did something positively unexpected. Releasing the truth began a cascade that resulted in a freedom Marcie did not know was possible. The dramatic story of this long-kept secret, which has been reported globally on major networks and in newspapers across America, will intrigue and enthrall you. But Marcie Keithley doesn't just make her story all about her. Now known as The Shoebox Sherpa, she helps people unpack their own shoeboxes, and teaches us how to face our truths, heal our pasts, and find the freedom we deeply desire. Be prepared to consider Marcie's question to all of us, "What's in your shoebox?"
This moving debut novel by Gregory Erich Phillips won the Grand Prize for best book of the year in the Chanticleer Reviews International writing Competition.
Pre WWI, Elsa came to America with her eyes wide open, realizing it was up to her to make a life
for herself. Surviving a sweatshop in lower Manhattan, a chance job with a Long Island elite
family opens up her world. Invited in, up to a point, she unwittingly, albeit precariously, crosses
the social divide with her now open heart which puts all she worked for in jeopardy.
What a truly wonderful story! I’ve read it three times, and with each
reading I find myself caring about the fabulous characters and their
lives even more.”
— P. J. Alderman, New York Times Bestselling Author
“From the riveting opening . . . until its gripping conclusion, this enthralling
novel vividly portrays the desperate times of German immigrants
landing at Ellis Island in 1905. A timely read . . . it illuminates the issues
that we are experiencing a century later. . .Phillips reminds us that love,
light, and perseverance can help us find a way to overcome almost any
obstacle.”
— Chanticleer Reviews
Stroke by stroke, color by color, the past comes alive as a young woman in Lombardy, Italy trains to paint with the masters.
Will her ambition be too much for them? Or will she secure her place in the world of Renaissance art, despite them?
As Sofonisba struggles to make her name, the Spanish empire invades Italy.
With Michelangelo as her mentor and her father as her champion, Sofonisba dreams of painting the Spanish King.
In this novel of Royal intrigue and artistic toil, we see the soul of the painter come alive. We watch as Sofonisba struggles to realize her dreams against the backdrop of patriarchal Europe. When Royal tragedy unfolds, we learn the true strength of our heroine.
Romance, hardship, bankruptcy, and a legacy of hundreds of paintings that still influence today's artists. An authentic story of what it was like to be a woman of ambition in the Renaissance.
History comes dramatically alive as we journey through the Renaissance with Sofonisba Anguissola.
This is her story.
By 1862 the Union had blockaded all Confederate ports. Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, Matamoros was the only harbor where the South could ship its cotton to Europe, and smuggle in arms for the rebellion. So it was a haven for Yankee and Rebel spies and diplomats, gunrunners and cotton smugglers, runaway slaves, bandits, Texas Rangers, and rogues of every stripe.
But Matamoros was also full of French Foreign Legionnaires—because that same year, Napoleon III had invaded Mexico, to install Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor.
Set against the backdrop of two wars, this is the story of Clay—an expatriate Southern gentleman running a gambling hall—and Allie, his ex-con artist partner, bringing her cotton train to market—in a star- crossed affair that may or may not survive their conflicted allegiances amidst the tides of battle.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Home, Julie Andrews shares reflections on her astonishing career, including such classics as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Victor/Victoria.
In Home, the number one New York Times international bestseller, Julie Andrews recounted her difficult childhood and her emergence as an acclaimed singer and performer on the stage.
With this second memoir, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, Andrews picks up the story with her arrival in Hollywood and her phenomenal rise to fame in her earliest films--Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Andrews describes her years in the film industry -- from the incredible highs to the challenging lows. Not only does she discuss her work in now-classic films and her collaborations with giants of cinema and television, she also unveils her personal story of adjusting to a new and often daunting world, dealing with the demands of unimaginable success, being a new mother, the end of her first marriage, embracing two stepchildren, adopting two more children, and falling in love with the brilliant and mercurial Blake Edwards. The pair worked together in numerous films, including Victor/Victoria, the gender-bending comedy that garnered multiple Oscar nominations.
Cowritten with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, and told with Andrews's trademark charm and candor, Home Work takes us on a rare and intimate journey into an extraordinary life that is funny, heartrending, and inspiring.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unprecedented look into the personal and creative life of the visionary auteur David Lynch, through his own words and those of his closest colleagues, friends, and family
“Insightful . . . an impressively industrious and comprehensive account of Lynch’s career.”—The New York Times Book Review
In this unique hybrid of biography and memoir, David Lynch opens up for the first time about a life lived in pursuit of his singular vision, and the many heartaches and struggles he’s faced to bring his unorthodox projects to fruition. Lynch’s lyrical, intimate, and unfiltered personal reflections riff off biographical sections written by close collaborator Kristine McKenna and based on more than one hundred new interviews with surprisingly candid ex-wives, family members, actors, agents, musicians, and colleagues in various fields who all have their own takes on what happened.
Room to Dream is a landmark book that offers a onetime all-access pass into the life and mind of one of our most enigmatic and utterly original living artists.
With insights into . . .
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Dune
Blue Velvet
Wild at Heart
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Lost Highway
The Straight Story
Mulholland Drive
INLAND EMPIRE
Twin Peaks: The Return
Praise for Room to Dream
“A memorable portrait of one of cinema’s great auteurs . . . provides a remarkable insight into [David] Lynch’s intense commitment to the ‘art life.’ ”—The Guardian
“This is the best book by and about a movie director since Elia Kazan’s A Life (1988) and Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies (1986). But Room to Dream is more enchanting or appealing than those classics. . . . What makes this book endearing is its chatty, calm account of how genius in America can be a matter-of-fact defiance of reality that won’t alarm your dog or save mankind. It’s the only way to dream in so disturbed a country.”—San Francisco Chronicle
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A meditation on sense-making when there’s no sense to be made, on letting go when we can’t hold on, and on being unafraid even when we’re terrified.”—Lucy Kalanithi
“Belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.”—Bill Gates
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE
Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward “blessing.” She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son.
Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with “a surge of determination.” Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you “can’t do” and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before.
Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live.
Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason
“I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping—she’s like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate’s story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, BookBrowse, the Spectator, and the Times of London
“Excellent…This book is as riveting as any thriller, and as hard to put down.” -- The New York Times Book Review
"A compelling biography of a masterful spy, and a reminder of what can be done with a few brave people -- and a little resistance." - NPR
The perfect holiday gift for the World War II history buff, a never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."
The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.
Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.
Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.
