Personal Memoirs Women

Like many women her age, 34-year-old Rebecca Walker was brought up to be skeptical of motherhood. As an adult she longed for a baby but feared losing her independence. In this very smart memoir, Walker explores some of the larger sociological trends of her generation while delivering her own story about the emotional and intellectual transformation that led her to motherhood.

"How can I help others grow and transform if I haven’t done it myself...?" Cyndi Lee asks in the opening pages of her memoir, May I Be Happy, where she makes a surprising revelation. In spite of her success in physically demanding professions - dancer, choreographer, and yoga teacher - Lee was caught in a lifelong cycle of repetitive self-judgment about her body, which was infecting her closest relationships - including her relationship with herself.

Abby Maslin shares an inspiring story of resilience and commitment in a deeply affecting new memoir. After her husband suffered a traumatic brain injury, the couple worked together as he recovered - and they learned to love again.

What if Augustine's Confessions had been written not by a man, but by a mother? How might her tales of desire, temptation, and transformation differ from his? In this memoir, Natalie Carnes describes giving birth to a daughter and beginning a story of conversion strikingly unlike Augustine's - even as his journey becomes a surprising companion to her own. The challenges Carnes recounts will be familiar to many parents. She wonders what and how much she should ask her daughter to suffer in resisting racism, patriarchy, and injustice.

Spending the night in juvie wasn't the worst thing to happen to seven-year-old Teresa that summer. When her much-anticipated cross-country vacation turns to abduction, Teresa is forced to care for her mother, sister, and twin brothers. Homeless, abused, and afraid in the slums of San Francisco's Tenderloin District, Teresa finds joy in her adventures while fantasizing of a better life. Keeping this dream alive throughout her childhood is what drives her to end the cycle of abuse and poverty.

Ronald Reagan’s daughter writes with a moving openness about losing her father to Alzheimer’s disease. The simplicity with which she reveals the intensity, the rush, the flow of her feelings encompasses all the surprises and complexities that ambush us when death gradually, unstoppably invades life.

Both a hysterical tell-all memoir of the author's stumbles and triumphs in becoming mindfully masculine, as well as a practical drivers manual for navigating the twists and turns of mature manhood, Mindful Masculinity is a joy to read or to listen to. Scott Grace, once a prolific recording artist and stand-up comedian who opened for Robin Williams and many other legends, brings his comic touch to a very serious subject.

The literary tradition of the fairy tale has long endured as the vehicle by which we interrogate the laws of reality. These fantastical stories, populated with wolves, kings, and wicked witches, have throughout history served as a template for understanding culture, society, and that muddy terrain we call our collective human psyche. In Happily, Sabrina Orah Mark reimagines the modern fairy tale, turning it inside out and searching it for the wisdom to better understand our contemporary moment in what Mark so incisively calls “this strange American weather.”

In this timely update of the seminal classic, author and activist Jodee Blanco reveals how she simply set out to share her story—and ended up igniting a grassroots movement in the nation’s schools. The first survivor of school bullying to look back on those experiences as an adult, Jodee, with this latest update, sheds new light on the core cause of bullying—and what schools and parents can do to protect everyone.

When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral. Now, with a poet’s eye for detail and a novelist’s flair for storytelling, Jill presents a profoundly moving elegy unlike any other.

You cannot undo this, one of the surgeons told me, you have to be sure. I was sure. My choices were frightening, grim, and daunting. I possess the rare breast cancer genetic mutation BRCA2 and I saw it as a death sentence. My choices were drastic, my actions were immediate. Complete hysterectomy followed by prophylactic double mastectomy with 2. I will never be the same. In so many ways. It was, and is, such a journey.

Discover a story of healing and personal transformation. Marlena’s childhood was full of contradictions. Her father was both a heroic doctor for people with leprosy and an abusive parent. Her Mennonite missionary community was both a devoted tribe and a controlling society. And Marlena longed to both be accepted in Paraguay and escape to somewhere new. In Nothing Bad Between Us, follow Marlena’s journey as she takes control of her life and learns to be her authentic self, scars and imperfections included.

Este libro nos invita a reflexionar sobre la paradoja entre el duelo que no se cierra y el volver a sonreír a medida que la herida cicatriza. Luego de que en su anterior obra nos brindara su testimonio sobre las capacidades diferentes de su hija y del duelo por su pérdida a los 26 años, Laura nos plantea ahora, el después de esa experiencia. El texto llevará al lector a transitar un camino que lo transportará desde un sentimiento de vacío hacia un proyecto de vida basado en el amor. De la desesperanza y la impotencia, a la transformación del dolor en amor.

Acclaimed author Lauren Slater ruminates on what it means to be family. Lauren Slater's rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two children, and three houses later, she came around to the challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. In these autobiographical pieces, Slater presents snapshots of domestic life, populating them with the gritty details and jarring realities of sharing home, life, and body in the curious institution called "family."

In "I Change Course," Kate offers a candid reflection on the power of choice and the beauty in every ordinary moment. Her story is both inspiring and entertaining, showing how embracing change with an open heart can lead to remarkable personal growth. With wisdom and humor, Kate Bean guides listeners through the process of rediscovering, reimagining, and rebuilding their lives after change. Whether you are facing your own crossroads or simply seeking inspiration, this memoir is a beacon of hope and a reminder of the transformative power of embracing life's uncertainties.

Everyone is afraid of the boogie man. Society has been conditioned to view “real rape” as that which is perpetrated on a virtuous woman by a horrible, psychotic stranger. The truth is, you are more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone you know. People turn to victim blaming to retain some measure of control and to help conceal the harsh reality that the boogie man could actually be anyone.

"Was soll denn so schlimm daran sein, 60 zu werden? Habe ich ein Problem damit? Ganz ehrlich: NEIN. Lasst uns unser Alter feiern!" Katja Burkard. Die bevölkerungsstärksten Generationen in Deutschland gehen stramm auf die 60 zu. In den Köpfen vieler Frauen ist die "6" vor dem eigenen Alter immer noch das große Schreckgespenst: Jetzt bin ich alt, jetzt geht nichts mehr. "Was für ein Quatsch!", sagt Katja Burkard. Sie schildert aus eigener Erfahrung, welche Themen Frauen in diesem Alter umtreiben, und beschreibt die Zeit zwischen 50 und 60 als neue "defining decade".

유리 천장, 차별, 모함 등 일하는 여성이 사회에서 겪는 무수한 어려움을 현명하게 극복하는 구체적인 지침을 담은 책, 『우아하게 저항하라』(조주희 지음, 중앙북스).

Feminism was a religion in Alisa Valdes’s childhood home. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem took the place of Barbies and left Valdes impressed with a feminist ideology that guided a prolific writing career - at 22 Valdes was named one of the top feminist writers under thirty by the editor of Ms. Magazine. Yet despite her professional success, Valdes hit forty-two a single mom and a serial dater of inadequate men in tweed jackets - until she met the Cowboy. A conservative rancher, the Cowboy held the traditional views on gender roles that Valdes was raised to reject.

Katie Piper's extraordinary story of strength and recovery after a brutal rape and acid attack has captivated Britain. In this powerful sequel to her bestselling memoir, Katie tells the remarkable story of what's happened in the years since she bravely left the safety of her parents' home. With her trademark honesty, humour and heartfelt emotion, Katie shares the highs and lows she has faced as her life changed in ways she never thought possible.