Browse by Categories - Memoir
Helene CooperHelene Cooper is "Congo," a descendant of two Liberian dynasties -- traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child -- a common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as "Mrs. Cooper's daughter."
For years the Cooper daughters -- Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice -- blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d'etat, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach, and then Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind.
Mark GreensideMark Greenside reminisces about living in a small village in Brittany, France.
Richard MadeleyInterview with author Richard Madeley about his forthcoming book, "Fathers & Sons".
Helen MirrenIn this book, Helen's many distinguished roles in theatre, cinema and television and the illustrious men and women she has encountered are commemorated, as well as her forays into Hollywood and her sub-sequent life in the United States with her husband, film director Taylor Hackford. Golden Globe and Oscar ceremonies make their appearance, as do many stunning images of Helen by the world's leading photographers.
Philip SmithWalking Through Walls is Philip Smith's astonishing memoir of growing up in a household where seances, talking spirits, and exorcisms were daily occurrences, and inexplicable psychic healings resulted in visitors suddenly discarding their crutches and wheelchairs or being cured of fatal diseases.
Mary Ellen GeistMary Ellen Geist decided to leave her job as a CBS Radio anchor to return home to Michigan when her father's Alzheimer's got to be too much for her mother to shoulder alone. She chose to live her life by a different set of priorities: to be guided by her heart, not by outside accomplishment and recognition.
Gustavo ArellanoFrom the acclaimed author of Ask a Mexican, this book traces author Gustavo Arellano's life in Orange County, CA.
Jeannette WallsIn The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric,
nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant,
alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would
be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia,
uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two
sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary
firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves
never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually
landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be
a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with
safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in
her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in
close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by
her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no
point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is
initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be
categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary,
Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures,
and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from
cover to cover.
Jen LancasterOne Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer. Jen Lancaster is also the author of Bitter is the New Black. She has lived in Chicago for ten years with her husband and pets, and has yet to get the hang of the subway or returning library books in a timely manner. Visit www.jennsylvania.com
Felicia Snoop PearsonWhile Felicia is a brilliant actor in a truly chilling role, what's most remarkable about "Snoop" is what she has overcome in her life. Snoop was born a three-pound cross-eyed crack baby in East Baltimore. Those streets are among the toughest in the world, but Snoop was tougher. The runt of the ghetto showed an early aptitude for drug slinging and violence and thrived as a baby gangsta until she landed in Jessup state penitentiary after killing a woman in self-defense. There she rebelled violent
