Southern Childhood

In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.

Based on a remarkable true story. Winter, 1969. Since she was a little girl, Catarina learned not to ask for much. Born to a family of corn farmers in rural south Brazil, she was happiest when she was surrounded by sprawling fields and burly, familial farmhands—until her family was driven out of the land they had worked diligently for years, and Catarina was sent to work for a wealthy family in São Paolo. Only ten years old, Catarina becomes a housemaid—and the lifeline of her family. Far from everyone and everything she’d ever known, she discovers the shocking gap between her life ...

Not quite Eat Pray Love. More like Obey, Panic, Reboot. The Good Indian Girl isn’t some epic tale of survival. It’s a story many of us know: growing up with too many expectations, not enough explanations, and a quiet voice inside whispering, “Is this really who I am?” Neetha Naidu’s life wasn’t extraordinary. But it was real. And it was funny—even when it wasn’t supposed to be. From childhood rules and cultural pressure to marriage, immigration, parenting, and finally choosing herself, Neetha walks us through the mess with unfiltered honesty and sharp, dark humor. She knows ...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In a tense, poignant novel of a boy awakening to his small town’s secrets, “John Grisham takes command of this literary category just as forcefully as he did legal thrillers with The Firm” (Entertainment Weekly). “You can’t help thinking of other...

As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that span form an inescapable backdrop in this collection of stories. In one, Willie Mae takes it upon herself to offer summer babysitting services to a glamorous single white mother—a secret she keeps from her parents that unravels with shocking results.

From Chapter 2: Nothing terrified Mama more than a storm. The familiar pattern of left step . . . hop . . . right step . . . hop . . . stumble took over Bo Jack’s feet as he struggled to keep up with her rapid pace across the field to his aunt’s storm cellar. The first time he could recollect her waking him at the height of a storm, his heart hammered against his ribs in a mixture of fear and the thrill of adventure. He’d been many times before, but this time his five-year-old brain took in everything. The wooden doors covering the deep and damp cellar looked huge. Mama struggled to ...

“A joyous glimpse into a childhood we all wish we’d had: fun, carefree, and near the sea.” —JS Hyder Step back into a simpler time—when days were long, troubles were small, and the world felt wide and full of possibility. The Adventures of a Florida Boy is a warm, nostalgic memoir that brings to life the magic of growing up on a Florida island in the 1960s. With humor, heart, and a vivid sense of place, Jim Melvin shares true stories of barefoot summers, salt-air mischief, island friendships, and the kind of childhood adventures that shaped a lifetime. Whether he’s outrunning ...

Sully Raines sets out to find his birth mother, and ends up in Blessings, Georgia. A new surprise awaits him here, but of the best kind - his childhood sweetheart, whom he hasn't seen since she moved away when they were teens, is living in Blessings now. He's not sure she's as happy to see him as he is to see her, but it's been a lot of years, and a lot of water under the bridge... Sully's heartfelt search for answers about his past might just turn out to be the key to his future.

Sparks fly in the heart of Magnolia. A dream inheritance clashes with a second chance at a lost love. And a forgotten family feud that has the potential to wreck everything. Evan, the town’s irresistible rebel, has never forgotten Lily—his first kiss, first love, first everything. Now, ten years later, she returns to Magnolia as the new owner of the Sweetgum Inn. Lily proposes a fake relationship to Evan to fend off a potential suitor, reigniting their undeniable chemistry. With renovations underway, buried in the attic of the Inn, a shocking discovery reveals a family secret that ...

“I laughed and I cried but most of all I thought and I remembered how it was growing up in one of the most turbulent periods of American history when communities tried to come together. Accepting ourselves is part of it all and Perry Brass helps us with that in his brilliant new book. Now back to read it all over again.” Reviews by Amos Lassen. (reviewsbyamoslassen.com) “'King of Angels' might be compared to Harper Lee’s 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' substituting the turbulent 1960s with Lee’s depression-era setting and replacing Catholic-Jewish antagonism and homophobia for the race ...

A Backwards Glance is a collection of stories from the extraordinary life of an exceptional man. Follow Sid Mickle from his small-town Alabama childhood to a 40-year professional career that allowed him to travel far from home without ever forgetting its lessons. This book is more than a collection of stories. It is a nostalgic journey through time with family, friends, work associates and a collection of real life memories. There is success and failure, joy and tragedy, setbacks and triumphs. These stories include vivid recollections of childhood struggles to understand his polar-opposite ...

She came home to rebuild her life… not to rekindle an old flame. After the slow collapse of a toxic marriage, Emily Breaux returns to Bon Chance, Louisiana, determined to reclaim more than just her independence. She’s ready to start fresh, one home-cooked meal and second chance at a time. Helping her is Noah Devereaux. Her childhood best friend turned quiet, steady confidant. A veteran with wounds of his own, Noah spends his days fixing what’s broken… even when it isn’t his to mend. Between simmering pots and shared meals, Emily and Noah discover that sometimes, the best recipes ...

Inheriting her aunt's historic beachfront hotel should have been Vanessa Lewis's chance at a fresh start. But returning to Isabel Island means facing two ghosts from her past—her aunt's legacy, and Wesley Anders, her childhood best friend who broke her heart fifteen years ago. Now a decorated Marine Captain, Wesley is temporarily stationed at the local base, and he's just as infuriatingly handsome as he was the summer everything she thought she knew about their friendship changed. Between his offer to help renovate the hotel and their undeniable chemistry, Vanessa finds herself falling ...

The Grammy- and Academy Award- nominated singer-songwriter's haunting, lyrical memoir, sharing the story of an unthinkable act of violence and ultimate healing through art Mobile, Alabama, 1986. A fourteen-year-old girl is awakened by the unmistakable sound of gunfire. On the front lawn, her...

Jacob was an autistic young man with a child-like mind, cared for by his sickly mother, who stayed with him in their tiny rundown apartment. Mia was a kind and spirited girl who lived across the way. They were a couple of nobodies from a small Southern town, living at the outer edge of the suburbs in a decaying housing complex. Their neighbors were the frail and forgotten, the elderly and the lost families who were all too familiar with the strife and struggle of keeping food on the table and trying to make ends meet. Jacob’s mother lay dying, and nobody knew what might happen to him when...

As a child, in Farmers Branch, Texas, Christa Brown was preyed upon by her youth minister. Then her church community, people she thought were her friends, betrayed her. She was treated as a seductress while, in their eyes, he remained a good, God-honoring man. Trusted authority figures told her to pray for forgiveness and keep quiet. Years later, having a teenage daughter of her own made Christa realize that what she’d always thought of as an “affair” was actually something much more sinister—abuse. Christa spent decades suffering from the repercussions of her childhood trauma ...

Jack Myers' fictionalized memoir explores the dynamics of being raised in a declining Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. Pint-sized and four-eyed, little Jimmy Morris is near the bottom of the food chain in his working class "streetcar suburb" of Kings Cross. He's a dreamer, schemer, schoolyard scrapper, secret lover of books, and classroom clown . . . a kid you can't decide whether to hug or to slap. Meanwhile, the conformity of the 1950s is yielding to those turbulent '60s. Yes, the times they definitely were a changin' ó with Kings Cross in the eye of the societal storm. America's ...

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a world-renowned scholar, professor of history and geography at Queen Mary, University of London, and a member of the Faculty of Modern History of Oxford University. The Americas, part of the acclaimed Modern Library Chronicles series, offers an intriguing history of the world's western hemisphere.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A tantalizing mystery and a tender coming-of-age story...Unputdownable."—Oprah.com In the summer of 1989, a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom is...

In 1979 the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith withdrew Hans Kung's missio canonica. Pope Paul VI approved the censure saying, "We are obligated to declare that in his writings he fell short of integrity and the truth of the Catholic faith." Through a 1980 agreement with the Vatican, Kung is now permitted to teach, but only under secular auspices. In this acclaimed Modern Library Chronicle, Kung examines the Catholic Church through its many reformations, focusing on the people and events...