Self Biography

In Our Brave Foremothers, discover an intergenerational, intercultural bouquet of Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous women lifted into the significance that they deserve. From Etel Adnan to Mary Jones, Thelma Garcia Buchholdt to Pura Belpré to Zitkála-Šá, here are 100 women of color who left a lasting mark on United States history. Including both famous and little-known names, the thoughtful profiles and detailed portraits of these women herald their achievements and passions.

King Henry IV survived at least eight plots to dethrone or kill him in the first six years of his reign. However, he had not always been so unpopular. In his youth he had been a great chivalric champion and crusader. In 1399, at the age of 32, he was greeted as the saviour of the realm when he ousted from power the tyrannical King Richard II. But Henry had to contend with men who supported him only as long as they could control him; when they failed, they plotted to kill him. Adversaries also tried to take advantage of his questionable right to the crown.

A remarkable teenager who went from public assistance to a million dollar net worth shares his story and offers nine key principles to success. Farrah Gray is no ordinary teenager. He wears a suit and tie; he has an office on Wall Street and another one in Los Angeles...and he sold his first business at the age of 14 for more than a million dollars.

Want to be a better father? Four dads have come together to create a powerfully honest and insightful guide for men who sincerely want to improve relationships with their kids. Many men struggle with strained connections with their own dad, or the effects of having grown up without a male role model. This imperfect model of fatherhood has left a generation of dads without the foundation for raising their own kids. The authors share their uniquely diverse perspectives and personal experiences to show that no matter who you are, how you grew up or what your current situation is, you can ...

Kavita Basi had a wonderful life - a job she enjoyed, a wonderful family, and seemingly perfect health. Then an unexpected event took place and turned her entire world upside down. In Room 23, Kavita chronicles her time suffering from a subarachnoid hemorrhage - bleeding in the area of the skull surrounding the brain. With this diagnosis, Kavita went from being healthy and happy to battling a condition with a 50 percent mortality rate.

Finally! A male survivor speaks out about male childhood sexual abuse. Randy offers survivors and their families answers to their questions of why victims act out the way they do, and strategies to start living with greater purpose and happiness. Unlike books based on academic theories and abstract philosophies, Randy Boyd talks candidly about what it takes for men, women, and their families to heal from the pain of childhood sexual abuse. Randy tells his story in a way that the lay-person can absolutely relate to.

A deeply personal, yet candid saga of a gay Secret Service Agent in the Obama era; an agent who was struggling with his own identity, marriage, discrimination, and balancing the demands that accompany being assigned to protect the most powerful people in the world.

The Second Half explores how the second half of life is experienced by women from many different cultures. From a French actress to a British novelist, from an Algerian nomad to a Saudi Arabian doctor, and an American politician, Ellen Warner traveled all over the world to interview women about their lives. She asked them what they learned in the first half that was helpful in the second, and what advice they would give to younger women. Their revealing and inspiring stories are enlightening for all listeners.

In Thicker than Water, Kerry Washington gives listeners an intimate view into both her public and private worlds-as an artist, an advocate, an entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a Black woman. Chronicling her upbringing and life's journey this far, she reveals for the very first time how she faced a series of challenges and setbacks, effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career, and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy, ultimately discovering her truest self and, with it, a deeper sense of belonging.

Over 10 years ago, The Big Issue began to ask some of the best known, most interesting and most successful figures in entertainment, politics, food, sport and business to give advice, offer hope and share a few jokes with their younger selves. They opened up, in ways they never had, to interviewer Jane Graham, reflecting on their lives and themselves with affection, sympathy and sometimes disbelief.

13 World Championship appearances. 6 Olympic Games. Hockey Hall of Famer. All while raising a child, earning multiple university degrees, and not benefiting from the financial stability male professional athletes have. She gave the game everything she had—now, Hayley shares what the game gave her.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution gives you great stories with practical ideas for today's times – for your mind, your body, and your wallet! Everyone makes resolutions – for New Year’s, for big birthdays, for new school years. In fact, most of us are so good at resolutions that we make the same ones year after year. They can be life-changing or really quite simple. Listen to real stories from real people about their year-round resolutions.

Taken from his mother at age three, Steve Klakowicz lives in the clutches of a cruel foster family. He finds his only refuge in a box of books given to him by a kind stranger, books that take him to new worlds he can only imagine. He begins to hope that one day he might have a different life. As he grows, Steve is determined to unravel the mystery of his origins and find his birth family. A light-skinned boy with blue eyes, a curly Afro, and a Polish last name, he embarks on an extraordinary quest for his identity, armed with only one clue. Yet nothing is as it appears.

It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh—a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan—stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join. The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, “Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?”

This book sprung forth from the dark earth of my failure and despair. I gave my life to Christ at age twenty-one but only found a truly joy-filled life in Christ twenty years later. The difficulties that I faced in those two decades in between - the tireless grappling with my hedonistic tendencies, the vanity of religion, my failures in one marriage after another, the sin that beset me, the deep desire for fulfilment that remained unmet, the flawed people that God used to shape my character and reveal my mission – all provided the resource material for Authentic Joy. In my deepest ...

Before Larry Jones became a successful businessman, he had to overcome some of his own battles. Growing up as an abused child, he struggled with defining his identity, which led to lots of fighting and a harsh tongue. As a single father, Larry suffered a divorce, being broke, homelessness, divisive co-parenting, and PTSD. He imparts his knowledge through his journey of hardship and lessons learned, perfect examples of how anyone can withstand the challenges of life.

In this raw and poignant memoir filled with gorgeous insights, Leslie Reyes bares her highest highs and lowest lows on the long highway of humanity. And by applying the wisdom she gained in learning to ride a motorbike to her lifelong quest to conquer fear, she offers a guiding hand along the hills and valleys of an unpredictable life.

In The Warrior Code, entrepreneur, philanthropist, reality star, and retired gunnery sergeant Tee Marie Hanible serves up 11 principles to awaken your inner badass and thrive in the face of adversity. With insightful honesty and wisdom and set against the backdrop of Tee’s life, The Warrior Code will help you understand that things can beat us back from realizing our true potential...but the key is finding the way to realize one’s own innate strength.

Linda Richman, the mother-in-law of comedian Mike Myers - and the inspiration for some of his craziest sketches, offers the type of blunt, no-nonsense advice you probably haven't heard since that bold, brass, always reliable best friend of your youth gave you a breath-of-fresh-air reality check.

What can you do today to come more alive in all your tomorrows, no matter what? Have you ever felt that what you do is a reflection of what you’ve been taught and not a true reflection of who you are? Trek along with Tarek on his pilgrimage of physical and emotional endurance, of blistered feet and broken bikes, of the meeting of unlikely souls and the generosity of some inspiring people he met along the way.