Cultural Memoir

As the US occupation of Iraq rages, novelist Mortada Gzar, a student at the University of Baghdad, has a chance encounter with Morise, an African American soldier. It’s love at first sight, a threat to them both, and a moment of self-discovery. Challenged by society’s rejection and Morise’s return to the US, Mortada takes to the page to understand himself. In his affecting memoir, Mortada interweaves tales of his childhood work as a scrap-metal collector in a war zone and the indignities faced by openly gay artists in Iraq with his impossible love story and journey to the US.

Candid and moving, The Face Pressed Against a Window charts the life of one of our most celebrated business leaders. Tim Waterstone is one of Britain's most successful businessmen, having built the Waterstones empire that started with one small bookshop in 1982. In this charming and evocative memoir, he recalls the childhood experiences that led him to become an entrepreneur and outlines the business philosophy that allowed Waterstones to dominate the book-selling business throughout the country.

In her senior year of college, asha bandele and a group of other writers went to a prison to read their works for a Black History Month program. There, she met Rashid, a man who was serving 20 to life for murder, a man who spoke softly and wisely, a man who would become asha’s soul mate. This is her account of a relationship that has thrived despite terrific odds.

Tracing the four days from the moment she gets the call that every immigrant fears to the burial of her mother, Elizabeth Nunez tells the haunting story of her lifelong struggle to cope with the consequences of the 'sterner stuff' of her parents' ambitions for their children and her mother's seemingly unbreakable conviction that displays of affection are not for everyday use. But Nunez sympathizes with her parents.

A major, best-selling novelist and former magazine editor, long married to a handsome and successful stockbroker with whom she has a beautiful daughter and son, Benilde Little once had every reason to feel on top of the world. But as illness, the aging of her parents, and other hurdles interrupted her seemingly perfect life, she took a tailspin into a pit of clinical depression. Told in her own fearless and wise voice, Welcome to My Breakdown chronicles a cavern of depression so dark that Benilde didn't know if she'd ever recover.

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.

It'd been a long time since I claimed some solitude in this blessed landscape; since I've done without life's little props. Here I have no friend, no dog, no radio, no clock, no phone, no roof, no body pollutants.

By teaching djembe, M. Taylor, a biracial American male, has learned how others learn and understand. He has become a better communicator and more in tune with the fleeting nature of awareness. Whether or not you want to play djembe, this book will teach you the importance of practice-musical, spiritual, or otherwise-how to be in the present, and how to transcend who you are to become who the village needs you to be.

Go with me on a journey into the life story of a young boy who grew up on a farm in the middle of “Nowhere, USA” (a rural area of Monroe, North Carolina). Though he had very little guidance and lacked the determination to succeed in his early years, this book reveals the obstacles he faced and how he overcame them. As you listen to Jamil’s story, think about how you will determine the beginning and end of your next chapter. Possibilities are endless when you apply yourself, separate from the negative influences holding you back, and associate with positive people.

We all watched Terri Schiavo die. The controversy around her case dominated the headlines and talk shows, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the White House, and the Vatican.

Not Without Hope is the true story of the headline-making tragedy that took the lives of three football players: NFL stars Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, and Will Bleakley from the University of South Florida. Told by the sole survivor of the ill-fated fishing trip, Nick Schuyler, with New York...

The acclaimed actress and dedicated activist shares her personal journey of discovery, and destroys outdated ideas about partnership, love and family that will resonate with anyone in an unconventional life situation. Actress and activist Maria Bello made waves with her essay, “Coming Out as a...

The mixed population is the fastest-growing group in the UK today, but the mainstream conversation around mixedness is stilted, repetitive and often problematic. At a time when ethnically ambiguous models fill our Instagram feeds and our high street shop windows, and when children of interracial relationships are lauded as heralding in the dawn of a post-racial utopia, journalist Natalie Morris takes a deep dive into what it really means to be mixed in Britain today.

DIAMOND: The Memoir of a Lost Daughter of Japan tells the tale of a small girl orphaned in a hostile foreign country, who must live by her wits and courage until fate decides to favor her many years later.

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.

How does a white kid from the New York suburbs, harmonica in hand, end up earning himself a busker's spot on the Harlem sidewalks next to Mr. Satan, a Mississippi-born legend? How did an interracial blues duo fare on the streets of New York during a turbulent, fractious time marked by racially-motivated murders in Howard Beach, Bensonhurst, and Crown Heights?

From a celebrated figure of the food world comes a poignant, provocative memoir about being young and gay during the 1970s punk revolution in America Long before James Oseland was a judge on Top Chef Masters, he was a teenage rebel growing up in the pre–Silicon Valley, California, suburbs...

This "graceful, captivating" (New York Times Book Review) story from a singular new talent paints a portrait of grief and the search for meaning as told through the prism of three generations of her Chinese American family—perfect for readers of Helen Macdonald and Elizabeth Alexander. Kat...

Here is a memoir about the seafaring culture of the West Coast of Scotland and the significance of the Gaelic language. The practice of architecture in Edinburgh and work in foreign fields, some up-roaring poetry and intriguing artistic collaborations follow. It will tell you tales, make you laugh, and also help you to understand what Scotland is now, and how we got here. It reads well, it looks beautiful, and it will last.

Many tales of horror about German occupation have been told through the ages. Some stories are well-known, the history books and television programs documenting them in wretched detail; others are more obscure: the painful separation of families as they attempted to escape an inevitable future, children snatched at a tender age and hidden, everyone wary and vigilant - and afraid. Those years were heavy and their victims mostly silent.