School Memoirs

This is the story of one woman's journey to find herself. Armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of the 20th-century food writer M.F.K. Fisher, she travels from France to Italy, then the Congo, and back again. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon, and, ultimately, finds a path to life and joy.

AN ASTONISHING HOLOCAUST SURVIVAL AND ESCAPE NOVELLA INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS. AN EXCITING AND UNFORGETTABLE PREQUEL TO ATTORNEY/AUTHOR MARK M. BELLO'S AWARD-WINNING ZACHARY BLAKE LEGAL THRILLER SERIES. Bello takes us back to attorney Zachary Blake's Bar Mitzvah, his thirteenth birthday, and a life-changing conversation with his maternal grandfather. On the eve of Zachary's Bar Mitzvah, Max Lewin fulfills his long-standing promise to his grandson: He is ready to tell Zack the incredible story of survival and escape from Auschwitz's death camp during World War II. Max shares his daily life at...

Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life.

Born on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, Wil Roach grew up as a gay black boy in frosty London, learning by degrees about cultural and sexual diversity.

The school careers of two teenage girls who lived across town from each other - one black, one white - were altered by a court-ordered desegregation plan for Durham, NC in 1970. LaHoma and Cindy both found themselves at the same high school from different sides of a court-ordered racial “balancing act”. This plan thrust each of them involuntarily out of their comfort zones and into new racial landscapes. Their experiences, recounted in alternating first-person narratives, are the embodiment of desegregation policies, situated in a particular time and place.

As Captain Brett Crozier walked down the gangplank of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for the very last time, the servicemen and women who had been under his command chanted his name and cheered adoringly. A few days earlier, Crozier had written a strongly worded letter to his superiors, expressing the urgency of a COVID-19 outbreak on board his ship, which could spell catastrophe if immediate action would not be taken. Although relieved of his command as a result, Crozier's actions ultimately saved hundreds of lives.

This is the true story of a young EMT and school teacher who found inner harmony on the Appalachian Trail.

Florence Bell Ore tells her life story as she remembers it while growing up on the windswept prairies of Alberta, Canada during the dust bowl and the Great Depression. As the niece of an Anglican missionary to the Siksika Indians on the Blackfoot Reserve, Florence had to bridge three cultures: that of her English heritage, her Indian neighbors, and her Canadian school- mates in the town of Gleichen. A landscape of grass blowing under a dome of sky became the constant reality used by this Canadian child to forge her own identity. This memoir lets her share the journey with you.

With its manicured lawns and well-kept college-style buildings, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida-the largest reform school in the country-always seemed like a model for how to turn wayward teens back into productive members of society. But for decades, the century-old school's alumni whispered about a nightmarish reality that lurked behind the gleaming facade - a legacy of beatings, sexual abuse, and even murder, the evidence buried in unmarked graves on the overgrown fringes of the property.

In a medical model that was only ever designed to react to disease, this book dares to empower you, my fellow Nurse, to do the hard stuff better. This is my comeback story. I reveal the SH*T they don’t tell you in nursing school and share experiences from my 17 years in nursing that will tick you off, make you laugh, and bring you to tears.

At ten years old, young Douglas M. Gebbie witnessed the igniting spark of World War II firsthand. As Douglas and his family listen intently to the BBC radio broadcast, the world-altering news rings out: Hitler has invaded Poland.

Success in school isn’t just about intelligence—it’s about mindset, discipline, and resilience. In Lessons Learned: A Good Student’s Journey, the author shares a deeply personal and insightful memoir of academic triumphs, struggles, and the lessons that shaped a lifelong love for learning. This book is more than a story—it’s a roadmap for students, parents, and educators looking to understand what it truly takes to excel. Through real-life experiences, the author uncovers the secrets to effective study habits, self-motivation, and overcoming academic challenges. Whether you’re...

In 2002, New York City's newly elected mayor Michael Bloomberg made a historic announcement: His administration had won control of the city's school system in a first step toward reversing its precipitous decline. In a controversial move, he appointed Joel Klein, an accomplished lawyer from outside the education establishment, to lead this ambitious campaign. Lessons of Hope is Klein's inside account of his eight-year mission of improvement.

Growing up in British Guiana in the 1950s, Sharon Maas has everything a shy child with a vivid imagination could wish for. She spends her days studying bugs in the backyard, eating fresh mangos straight from the tree, and tucked up on her granny’s lap losing herself in books. But with her father campaigning for Guiana’s independence and her mother away for work, there’s a void in Sharon’s heart, and she craves rules and structure. The books she devours give her a glimpse of life in a faraway country: England.

When ten-year-old Michael Baughman moves to Hawaii with his parents, he is troubled and confused. His father doesn’t provide the guidance Baughman needs, and the boy doesn’t know who to turn to. When a larger-than-life Hawaiian beach boy named Boat takes Baughman under his wing, the boy finds a teacher and mentor. Boat is 285 pounds of solid muscle and gentle spirituality.

Flight of the Rondone is a true rags-to-riches tale the New York Times stated is “meant for television”. The protagonist, a high school dropout, is nicknamed in Italian U Carneveil (Walking Circus) for his entertaining and eccentric nature. Patrick Girondi starts his career shining shoes, stealing car parts, and escaping life-threatening situations while outwitting the Chicago police. He claws up to being a famous success story on the Oprah Show. His fortunes quickly change when his eldest son, Santino, is diagnosed with a fatal blood disease.

In those days a private boys' boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations: a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn't enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was to not let that show. Being separated from the people who love you is traumatic. How did that feel at the time, and what sort of adult does it mould? This is a story about England, and a portrait of a type of boy, trained to lead, who becomes a certain type of man.

As a kid, Elon became so lost in his daydreams that even his parents were worried he wasn't in the right frame of mind. However, Elon knew that one day his dreams would come true. In January 2021, Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley tweeted, @elonmusk is now the richest person in the world at $190 billion. The CEO of Tesla responded to this with the following tweet: How strange and Well, back to work...

Christina Asquith presents a moving firsthand account of her year teaching in one of Philadelphia’s worst schools. Told with striking humor and honesty, her story begins when the School District of Philadelphia, in desperate need of 1,500 new teachers, instituted a policy of hiring "emergency certified" instructors. Asquith, then a 25-year-old reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, joined their untrained ranks. More challenging than her classroom in the crime-infested neighborhood known as "the Badlands" are the trials she faced outside.

Will Sandeson seemed like a model son. A member of the Dalhousie University track and field team, he was about to start classes at Dalhousie’s medical school. He worked at a group home for adults with disabilities. He came from a good family. “There’s times for whatever reason that things don’t go quite as planned,” a Halifax police officer told Sandeson shortly after he was arrested for the first-degree murder of Taylor Samson, who also, on the surface, seemed like a model son.