Memoirs Books

Book SynopsisThe good thing about being my age is that if you have not grown up already, you do not have to. What do you do when you start talking to yourself on the bus? If you are the writer Brigid Lowry, you change tack and write a book about what it means to be an ageing woman in the twenty-first century. In STILL LIFE WITH TEAPOT Lowry offers advice, observations, hope and reality checks in equal measure. She drops us straight into the writers world into the nuts and bolts of writing practice and into the art of life and ways to write about it. STILL LIFE WITH TEAPOT is an essential brew for people who love to make lists, for people who love to write and for people who love to read about writing.

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Book SynopsisJim Richards has done it all: dived for diamonds in the piranha-infested rivers of South America, discovered a fabulously rich goldmine in the Australian outback, got caught up in the worlds biggest mining scam in Indonesia, and even started a gold rush in the war-torn jungles of Laos. Today he is one of the mining industrys leading executives. This is his story.

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Book SynopsisThis book follows Australian musician Kim Salmon, from bands The Scientists, Surrealists and Beasts of Bourbon, from childhood in Perth through his many bands, albums, tours, family upheavals, triumphs and disappointments and examines the characters of the music business he collaborates with along the way.Trade Review"Kim is obviously wired into a signal very strong and strange. One of his great strengths is that he has evaded definition for decades. The only way to describe one of Kims records is to put it on... Hes the real thing. You know it when you hear it." -- Henry Rollins"Kims music has a purity, a singularity, a primal, gritty energy which inspires me incredibly when I put it on to write my stories even today." -- Andy Griffiths, best-selling author

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Book SynopsisWhen Jay's husband lands a diplomatic job in Warsaw, she jumps at the chance to escape a predictable life in Canberra for adventure in the heart of central Europe. From glamorous cocktail parties and dining with presidents, to snowy sleigh rides and drinking vodka in smoky bars, Jay is thrown into all that embassy life has to offer. She comes to realize that three things in Poland are certain: death, taxes, and that shop assistants won't have any change. What is less certain is whether her marriage will survive its third Polish winter.

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Book SynopsisWarrior Mother: Fierce Love, Unbearable, Loss, and Rituals that Heal is the true story of a mother's fierce love and determination, and her willingness to go outside the bounds of the ordinary when two of her three adult children are diagnosed with life-threatening disease.Trade Review“We have to make art out of what happens to us,’ writes Sheila K. Collins. Warrior Mother is a testament to how art making, done in a sacred context, can transform tremendous loss. Collins reminds us of the endurance and healing power of love—especially a mother’s love.” —Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, author of Writing the Sacred Journey:The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir “Just as love survives death, so too does spirit supplant mere survival. Collins has faced a parent’s worst fears and learned to still dance in their wake. Warrior Mother is a mother’s manual of profound honesty, hope, and healing.” —Marc Nieson, author of Schoolhouse: A Memoir in 13 Lessons “With courage and grace, Warrior Mother generously invites the reader on a heartbreaking journey, with equal doses of candor and sensitivity. Admirably free of self-pity, physically and emotionally precise, this story is bound to enlighten others who have grieved and healed from the loss of a child.” —Sarah Saffian, author of Ithaka: A Daughter’s Memoir of Being FoundTable of Contents Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part One Coming Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Getting to Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Support for a Mother's Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Medicine Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Life upon the Wicked Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 To Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Spring Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Dying Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Celebrations of Ken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Part Two Reacting to the News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Dreams and the Kindness of Strangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Preparations for a Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 To Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Beyond the Ends of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Extremely High-Tech Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Bone Marrow Summer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 One Hundred Days Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Dancing on the Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Saying Good-Bye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Midwifery Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Ashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 The Grandmother Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

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Book SynopsisFor more than 70 years, Gifford’s Ice Cream and Candy Company was associated with nothing but pleasure for native Washingtonians and visitors to the nation’s capital. Few knew the dark truth… Behind the iconic business’s happy facade lay elaborate schemes, a crushing bankruptcy, two million dollars of missing cash, and a tragic suicide. As the last Gifford heir unfolds his story with remarkable immediacy and candor, he reveals the byzantine betrayals and intrigue rooted in the company from its modest beginnings—dark influences that would ultimately destroy the legendary Gifford business and its troubled founding family.Trade Review"The most frightening book I've read about Washington since Newt Gingrich's "Understanding Trump." A Southern Gothic for the DC area. Loved it." --Mike Sacks, Vanity Fair"The story Gifford tells is so much more than of the demise of an American ice cream empire. With its twists and mysteries, some unsolved to the end, it's a riveting ride." --Judith Beermann, The Georgetown Dish"What begins as a behind-the-scenes scoop on the implosion of a beloved ice cream dynasty transforms into a harrowing tale of self discovery. Gifford writes with a scathing honesty that spares no one - himself least of all. Bittersweet and brilliantly wrought." --Nevin Martell, Food writer and author of "Freak Show Without a Tent.""Despite the sweetness of this family's product, Gifford survived one of the most brutal and heartbreaking childhoods ever to be committed to the page. His ability to translate such sad memories into fine art is a mark of his resilience and testament to the strength of the human spirit." --Cathy Alter, Author of "Crush""An embattled and fought-over ice cream empire gone bust, three generations of a deeply disturbed and troubled family, missing people and millions of dollars gone, and myriad unsolved mysteries. Andrew Gifford's life is a kind of living 'potboiler' of a book, a riveting read. Gifford is a very gifted writer. I was mesmerized. Very highly recommended." --Tim Bazzett, Author of "Booklover""Fascinating and horrifying, We All Scream is a well-crafted memoir that attempts to peel away the layers of a troubled family mired in decades of abuse, disappointment, and scandal. It is a son's attempt to understand and reconstruct his parents, coming to the realization that, as with life, sometimes there are no answers. The book is at times a detective story, a coming-of-age tale, a personal memoir, and a therapeutic rage at fate. I will never eat ice cream at an ice cream parlor again without thinking of this book and how something so sweet can turn so very bitter." --Tara Laskowski, Editor of Smokelong Quarterly, author of "Bystanders""This is a page turner from page one to the end. A well written, well paced story of intrigue, domestic horror, and how we never know what's truly happening behind the facades we humans construct for the rest of the world." Karen Stefano, Author of What a Body RemembersTable of ContentsPrelude: At the Lake, 1979 Part One: Family of StrangersChapter One: The Land Where the Ice Cream Grows Chapter Two: Indian RockPart Two: SplintersChapter Three: Vanishing Chapter Four: Trigeminal Interlude Chapter Five: Harmony Grove Part Three: Heir to a ScandalChapter Six: Anatomy of an Empire Chapter Seven: Selling Lies Chapter Eight: Army of Ghosts Chapter Nine: Ice Cream Dreams Disclaimer Acknowledgements Sources

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Book SynopsisHome—the place where we were born, where we learned our first lessons, where family was defined. The very notion evokes powerful feelings, feelings as individual as our fingerprints, as enduring as the universe and as inescapable as gravity. In this candid, evocative collection of essays, a diverse group of acclaimed authors reflects on the diverse homes, neighborhoods, and experiences that helped shape them—using Google Earth software to revisit the location in the process. Moving and life-affirming, this poignant anthology gives fresh insight into the concept of Home. This anthology includes 19 essays by an array of diverse award-winning authors, including: • Tim Johnston, author of Descent and winner of the O. Henry Prize, the New Letters Award for Writers, and the Gival Press Short Story Award • Laura Miller, culture columnist at Slate and co-founder of Salon.com • Porochista Khakpour, author of The Last Illusion and recipient of the 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose) • Lee Upton, author of The Tao of Humiliation, named one of “Best Books of 2014” by Kirkus Reviews • Pamela Erens, author of the critically acclaimed novel The Virgins • Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Song of the Shank and winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Whiting Writer's AwardTrade Review"Many have searched their childhood home ­address using Google Earth. You will, too, after reading this exceptional collection of 19 essays by writers who located the satellite images of their dwellings, found anywhere from Iowa to Liberia. Editor Jarrett introduces the anthology as a 'hodgepodge of thoughts, sensations, and emotions an image brings.' A thread of sadness runs through the accounts as memories emerge of loud arguments, disappearing fathers, family violence, and whispers about not enough money. The charm of each piece is how the author balances that raw stress with recollections of the joys of youth. Antonya Nelson re­visits her mazelike childhood home with her siblings, who, after a few bottles of wine, decide to venture into their favorite nooks and crannies. Roof climbing is a particular passion recalled by Ru Freeman and Roy Kesey. What matters today is not the feat, but the dreams realized up on the roof. Porochista Khakpour, born in Tehran and raised in Los ­Angles, recalls “the dingbats,” the two-story ­apartment complexes with cheap rents and fancy names. VERDICT: Slim and succinct, this exquisite compilation shows how the universal nature of childhood experiences trump both cultural and geographical differences. —Library Journal, starred review Featured as an Elle magazine's "Trust Us" book, May 2016 "While each essay is a worthy and thought-provoking piece of craft, the true achievement is in the sum of these parts, a chorus of diverse experiences that work together to define 'home' in all of its possibilities.” —Shelf Awareness "The essays strike a variety of tones, including curiosity, ambivalence, thoughtfulness, and earnestness. Some writers emphasize the conceit of looking at their old homes from the vantage point of a satellite. Ru Freeman and Jen Michalski, in their pieces, discuss what can be seen and what is missing in the pictures, as well as what is impossible to capture. Jeffery Renard Allen and Pamela Erens return to Chicago’s North Side and South Side, respectively, to capture different aspects of the city. Other writers take readers to California, Canada, New York, and Sri Lanka. Some reexamine their families, while others consider the fragility of memory. All of the essays show, in their own ways, how homes make us and how we attempt to make homes for ourselves, at least in memory. Some readers may well be inspired to take similar journeys into the past." —Publishers Weekly "Jarrett has compiled a powerful and must-read collection of meditations on the meaning of home. Each essay in this diverse collection—with writings from rural America to war-torn Sri Lanka—transports the reader on a fresh and riveting journey into the hauntings and heartbreak of childhood. As a whole these varied voices come together in a kind of symphony, a harmonious reminder that individual stories illuminate the connection we all have to one another. Ultimately, these voices together transform this book into its own kind of shelter." —Jennifer Percy, author of Demon Camp, a New York Times Notable Book “The House That Made Me is a revelatory investigation of home, that most beloved and fraught word—how home wields the power to shape us, undo us, remake us. How we carry it, how we let it go. The table of contents for The House That Made Me includes some of the finest writers working today, and the worlds that exist inside this tremendous anthology suggest contemporary literature has never been so vital.” —Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me Past Praise for . . . Grant Jarrett's On Ways of Leaving “Ruthlessly brilliant writing brings grace to a story smoldering in pain.” —Kirkus Reviews “... an outstanding and devastating new novel ...” —Independent Publisher Alice Eve Cohen's On The Year My Mother Came Back “I love, love, love this book. It’s so rich, so real and so moving … astonishingly wonderful—I was enthralled … You're a brilliant writer.” —Caroline Leavitt, book critic for Boston Globe and People, and New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You “Fiercely brave and unflinchingly honest.” —The Brooklyn Rail Kris Radish “Radish's prose is a joy—energetic, attitudinal, often hilarious and perfectly suited to the anecdotal form.” —Kirkus “Kris Radish creates characters that seek and the celebrate the discovery of...women's innate power.” —The Denver Post Lee Upton's On The Tao of Humiliation: Stories, named one of the “best books of 2014” by Kirkus Reviews “Masterful stories by a writer of great lyrical gifts. Upton focuses on personal relationships, especially the immediacy and estrangement that emerge from the intensity of family life … Upton specializes in ending her stories with epiphanies that can be searing in their poignancy. These 17 tales explore personal and familial relationships with both pathos and humor—and all are well worth reading.” —Kirkus Starred Review

 “Poet, essayist, and fiction writer Upton’s stories are playful, full of clever allusions that are deftly presented … Upton’s story openings tend to be vivid; they’re great hooks … This is a smart and highly entertaining book.” —Publishers Weekly Starred Review

 Pamela Erens “Everyone who has the good fortune to pick up one of Erens' (two) novels becomes a fan. Whether writing about teenagers at boarding school (The Virgins) or a loner at the end of his tether (The Understory), Erens has a gift for making you want to spend time in her characters' company. Then you want to scout her other fans to discuss your good fortune of discovering her talents.” —Reader’s Digest “23 Contemporary Writers You Should Have Read By Now”(2014) Roy Kesey “Kesey excels at evoking the geography of the country.” —Jonathan Barnes, Literary Review (London) “A near-direct descendant of Samuel Beckett.” —Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane, and Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers on Palestine “Freeman never strays far from the neighborhood’s youngest inhabitants. They are wondrous to behold, with their intelligence, imagination and innocence. I don’t know that I’ve seen children more opulently depicted in fiction since Dickens.” —Christina Garcia for the New York Times Book Review “Ru Freeman has made a book unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a great contribution to not only to the conversation about Palestine, but to the larger one about peace and justice.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild Tim Johnston's Descent “Outstanding . . . The days when you had to choose between a great story and a great piece of writing? Gone.” —Esquire “The story [Descent] unfolds brilliantly, always surprisingly . . .The magic of his prose equals the horror of Johnston’s story; each somehow enhances the other . . . Read this astonishing novel.” —The Washington Post

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Book SynopsisWriting from the unique point of view of a suicide survivor who is also a psychologist, Sarah Neustadter presents a selection of the emails she sent to John, her deceased beloved, over a three-year period following his death. Documenting the raw emotions she experienced during this time period—grief, despair, abandonment, confusion, and the seductive feeling of wanting to die—she seeks to answer the hard existential and psychological questions: Why is this happening? What does this mean about mortality? How do I go on with the rest of my life without my beloved? How do I heal my broken heart? Will I ever love again? Love You Like the Sky is a companion guide and roadmap for supporting younger women and men through intense and complicated grief as an access point toward deeper transformation—shifting awareness from despair to beauty.Trade Review2019 Foreword Indies Finalist in Adult Non-Fiction: Grief/Grieving “Genius. Heart-wrenching. Just masterful. An important book, enabling of life after death and loss.” —Michele Ritterman, PhD, author of The Tao of a Woman and Using Hypnosis in Family Therapy “Honest, poignant, and filled with hard-earned advice and healing strategies. Highly recommended for anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide and is struggling to find hope and purpose.” —Karen Meadows, author of Searching for Normal: The Story of a Girl Gone Too Soon

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