Self Biography

An entertaining, thought-provoking blend of memoir, old-time storytelling, homespun philosophy, and the occasional errant thought, all delivered with Southern style and a distinctive country flavor. These treasures are the result of matriculation in The Advanced School of Hard Knocks (from which I graduated summa cum laude), and I felt it was only right to share them. Perhaps, one or two will bring a smile to your face and a lift to your spirit.

A Hero's Heart is a true story of victory, captivatingly told for the first time, from the survivor herself. It is a story of brutality, cruelty, and loss. It is a story of demons, heartache, and agony. It is a story of love, joy, and abundance. And lastly, it is a memoir told with fervor and elation. The writer shares her emotions in intimate detail as she conveys her journey from abuse, to illness, to deaths, and ultimately to ascendancy.

Remembering the truth of what it's like to be a kid is vital because most of us are stuck in some phase of arrested development, thanks to something traumatic that happened to us during our youth. Do you know what that trauma was and how it has affected who you are today? Understanding where you got stuck can free you to be the parent and adult you were meant to be.

This is an inspirational memoir and self-development book of a man who not only recovered from his Vietnam War wounds that blinded him but also from the force of darkness of self-pity, frustration, and despair.

Lucinda White is a happy-go-lucky nature child raised by a young single mother in the 1960s. In a dramatic turn of events, her wild nature is broken. She is shaped into a yuppie and becomes the wife of a prominent Silicon Valley CEO and a glamorous socialite. Successful by all accounts of external measure, she feels trapped by the shallow values of a dominant culture and ever more alienated from her true nature. Something primal awakens in Lucinda when she unearths and touches an ancient buffalo bone.

Julie starts out trying to heal her broken heart and life with a reiki session. Feeling sick after the reiki session, she seeks out a different healer for more healing. Julie begins to have mystical and supernatural experiences and finds herself amidst a spiritual awakening. At 48 years old, Julie is finally awakening to her true reality. Julie becomes aware that she had repressed memories of being abused and neglected as a child. She believed that if she retrieved the memories it would help her heal.

When Shay Eskew’s roadblock - a splash of gasoline and a lit match that set his body ablaze - came as a child, he had the choice to either succumb to his injuries or to rise above them. In What the Fire Ignited: How Life’s Worst Helped Me Achieve My Best, Shay shares the trials and tribulations he was forced to face while recovering from his burns and reclaiming his life as an athlete. By sharing his story, Shay hopes to help those struggling with life to realize the greatest tragedies are often our greatest blessings if we have the faith to stay the course.

Throughout my life I have done things my way, and they have always worked out - as if I've had luck in my corner. All of my optimism and bravado came to a crashing halt one cold December holiday night, when after an evening out with good friends, I suffered an accident. I was beaten with a pipe and later found under a moving train, resulting in quadriplegia. Given virtually no chance to walk again, I was devastated. But I also had hope, and lots of it. A fire that exists deep within, and has since childhood, burns on no matter the circumstances. I am here for a bigger mission. What would that mission now be?

An inauspicious encounter in a doctor's surgery during a routine follow-up for IVF initiated a descent into a labyrinth of questioning and uncertainty. Those first words ushered out of the doctor's mouth started a year where the author's mind was consumed by medical research, medical terms, hospital visits, medication and explanations. The diagnosis was breast cancer.

In My Top 40 at 40: Making the First Half Count, Kari Loya presents an original, meaningful way to celebrate his 40th birthday - by sharing his own collection of forty favorite stories spanning six continents and two decades. Loya reflects on experiences we can all relate to, such as preparing for the first job interview or coping with a long commute. The stories are full of surprise and are told with a keen eye, gentle humor, infectious curiosity, and an inspiring positive attitude towards embracing challenges and learning.

Mira Tasich, a loyal, hardworking, and devoted employee of several large corporations, finds herself unemployed, a victim of the recession. As a young teenager, she moved to America, learned a new language, and gained prestige and career success only to get laid off in a corporate downsizing. Frustrated, angry, and confused, she struggles to justify the familial and personal sacrifices made over the years for her employers, including a 2,141-mile move away from family and friends to the Southwest.

Darkness—that’s what Bozena Gasior remembers feeling when she first heard her two-year-old son’s autism diagnosis. What followed was a cacophony of despair and cries, not knowing what to do, say, or feel. It was the day she thought that part of her son’s life had died. But one eventful day some four years later, his fingers touched the piano keys for the first time, and she felt something—a glimmer of light shining down, illuminating her home and family.

This is an award-winning biography of Alfred Adler, one of the major psychological thinkers of the 20th century. It presents his entire life against the backdrop of tumultuous world events, including turn-of-the century Vienna, World War I, the roaring '20s in the United States, and the rise of fascism and Stalinism in 1930s Europe.

Stacie Broek was living the expat dream—three children in a central Tokyo private school, house and travel back home all paid for—until the morning when her carotid artery spontaneously ripped, causing blood to pool in her artery wall. Upon waking from a 10-hour surgery, Stacie couldn’t walk, talk, or feed herself. She couldn't remember her name, her children's names, or her own address. The new ignorance was menacing and dangerous. This once independent, full-of-moxie woman was reduced to a needy lump.

Monday Never Comes is a story of triumph and victory in the face of what seemed impossible. In this book, Liana shares that she learned that her fight against obesity wasn't won in the kitchen or in the gym. She conquered the fight that was in her mind. Author Liana Sims shares her personal story and the principles learned along the journey to help you overcome the seemingly impossible.

In this inspirational memoir, retired Colonel Merryl Tengesdal shares her life lessons on everything from her career in the military, being the first and only Black woman to pilot the U2 aircraft, to marriage and motherhood–and everything in between.

Never Alone follows the thought-provoking journey of Jax Golding—a twice-divorced mom, accomplished journalist, gallery owner, and life coach. By all accounts, she was successful and happy—until she wasn’t. As she looks back on the various stages of her life, rifling through old pain, disappointments, and transactional relationships, an ordinary woman discovers extraordinary grace, realizing that Spirit has propelled her every step of the way.

This is a book about life and our continued travels in a motor home across America. It's an inspirational book about this great country, its people, our faith, selling everything we own, following his plan, picking up the pieces after a death of a child, and even going to heaven and living to tell about it. This is a story for everyone!

Part memoir, part manifesto, Some Answers Without Questions is a rigorous and lyrical work of self-investigation. Lavinia Greenlaw sets out to explore the impulse to say something, to write or sing, and finds herself confronting matters of presence and absence, anger and speechlessness, authority and permission. The result is important and timely, a spirited and vital exploration of what enables anyone - but a woman and an artist in particular - to create and record even when not invited to do so.

Una dintre învățăturile lui Thich Nhat Hanh este că fiecare om trăiește într-o continuă legătură cu cei din jurul său, dar și cu natura. Nu putem exista în afara lumii care ne înconjoară, ci doar prin raportare la aceasta. Viața maestrului este dovada cea mai puternică a acestei concepții, pentru că întreaga sa gândire și activitate, care a schimbat percepția asupra spiritualității tradiționale, s-a dezvoltat în relație cu numeroși factori sociali și politici, dar și cu personalități remarcabile.