Cultural Memoir

Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace's Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city's sleek skyline a brighter future, and a chance to rewrite their destinies.

This book is an autobiography of my life growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon cult. The story details a life of living polygamy with three wives with struggles, triumphs, and family drama. After forty-five years I found my way out of the cult mentality and peace in a new life experience.

A brutally honest memoir of talent, addiction, and recovery from one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time. As a shy 19-year-old, Dwight Gooden swept into New York, lifting a team of crazy characters to World Series greatness and giving a beleaguered city a reason to believe. Then he threw it all away. Now, with fresh and sober eyes, the Mets’ beloved Dr. K shares the intimate details of his life and career, revealing all the extraordinary highs and lows: The hidden traumas in his close-knit Tampa family. The thrill and pressure of being a young baseball phenom in New York.

Who Will Tell My Story? presents an ordinary existence interrupted by unfathomably seismic and unjust events. On the ground during the first months of the assault on Gaza following the events of 7 October, the author of this diary - first published in The Guardian - maps out the physical and psychological terrain of a life under siege.

BLACK MAN CAN’T DO is a bold, unfiltered journey into the life of a Black man navigating the raw, demanding world of heavy equipment operations—an industry built on muscle, precision, and an unspoken racial divide. James A Rietz exposes the truth behind the construction fences, where bulldozers, cranes, and excavators roar—and so do centuries-old stereotypes. As the only Black face on many job sites, James didn’t just learn how to move earth—he learned how to move mountains of doubt, prejudice, and exclusion.

This audiobook provides insight into the life of a neurodiverse Black girl from the Midlands as she embarks on her journey through the UK school system. This book unveils and highlights the unique experiences of neurodiverse people of color and the many challenges they face. In this book, 24-year-old British-Nigerian Oluseyitan Ojedokun gives an account of her struggles through school. She shares the many dreams and goals she had, despite the feeling of constant dismay.

In the Technicolor glow of the early 70s, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan's West Side to the restaurants of the Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day - luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. My Soul Looks Back is her paean to that fascinating social circle and the depth of their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other.

More than a biography, Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine not only tells the story of her upbringing and remarkable career but also looks at Williams as a sports pioneer. Merlisa Lawrence Corbett explores Williams’ influence on cultural and political issues such as body shaming, gender equality, and racism in sports and society. Corbett also analyzes Williams’ impact on discussions of feminism, the sports celebrity, and the marketing of female athletes.

Seen through the eyes of a native son Maurice M. Martinez, PhD, in this firsthand account of survival on a deep-South landscape speaks to the elan vital of a multiethnic, multicultural American. Once upon a time, in the Land of Epidermis, in a place called the 7th Ward in New Orleans, there lived a group of marginalized Americans known as gens de couleur libres (free persons of color).

Today's Birmingham—led by Mayor Randall Woodfin—is a phoenix rising from the ashes of systemic racism and white flight. This first Southern city to pluck the feathers off Jim Crow, where peaceful protesters endured attacks by police dogs, where high-pressure water hoses tore at the flesh of men and women marching for their rights, and where children locked arms and sang "We Shall Overcome," is a living, breathing redemption story.

A powerful, deeply personal memoir of a young boy who watched his world fall apart—and chose to rebuild it with faith, strength, and love. In The Day Everything Changed, Joe Dawson Jr. shares the raw truth of growing up with a mother diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia, being raised under a heavy hand, and surviving the chaos of family trauma. From a childhood in Cleveland to a fresh start in Tennessee, and later Florida, Joe’s journey is one of transformation—from pain to peace, fear to faith, and survival to significance.

Frederick Douglass, born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, became one of the most prominent abolitionists, orators, and writers in American history. His life story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the pursuit of freedom. Douglass escaped slavery in his early twenties and dedicated his life to the abolitionist cause. Through his powerful speeches, autobiographical writings, and activism, he fought for the rights of African Americans and became a leading voice in the fight against slavery.

Legacies of Famous Newfoundlanders explores the lives and contributions of notable individuals from Newfoundland who have left a significant mark on history, culture, and society. The book highlights a diverse array of figures, each recognized for their unique achievements and enduring influence.

My Silver Lining, volume three of a three-volume memoir, is a window into the hurdles that settlers face and the support they get from those who welcome immigrants to their new chosen homelands. Peer through this window by listening to the story of a young man who navigated from Ethiopia and Yemen to the US and Canada to establish his identity and purpose. The story shows how Adel Ben-Harhara succeeded after leaving behind everything he knew and attempted to embrace an unknown way of life on a new continent.

“TheAnti-Romantic Child is remarkable. This haunting and lyrical memoir will bean invaluable and heartening guide to all who find themselves in similarsituations and indeed anyone confronting an unforeseen challenge.” —MarieBrenner, writer for Vanity Fair andauthor of Apples and Oranges...

Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming herself the founder of a new dynasty.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Mark Slouka's parents survived the Nazis only to be forced to then escape the Communist purges after the war. Smuggled out of their own country, the newlyweds joined a tide of refugees moving from Innsbruck to Sydney to New York, dragging with them a history of blood and betrayal that their son would be born into.

On and on we dream, we wish, we love — no matter that the dreams come to an end, the wishes evolve or that love dissipates like dust in the wind. Perhaps, what matters only is that we have lived long enough to dream, hard enough to wish and indisputably enough to love. One of Maria’s early memories growing up in Dhaka is of planning to run away with her friend Nadia. Even then, Maria couldn’t quite figure out why she longed to escape.

Rachel Shabi was born in Israel to Jewish Iraqi parents. When she was a child her family emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1974. Their leaving reversed the spiritual trek of the Jewish Diaspora, around the world whose members wistfully repeat at the Passover tables, "Next year in Jerusalem." Years later, in fact, Shabi went back to visit and to live for an extended period, but her attitude toward her former homeland is conflicted by the longstanding discrimination suffered by Arab Jews in Israel.

William Clyde Thompson: A Champion for the Yowani Choctaw chronicles the life and legacy of a man whose quiet strength and unwavering dedication helped preserve the cultural identity of the Yowani Choctaw people. Through meticulous research and heartfelt storytelling, Leaford Leven Blevins Jr. traces Thompson’s journey from rural Texas to the halls of tribal advocacy, illuminating his role in reclaiming recognition for a community long overlooked.