Difficult Memoirs

What if the greatest lessons in healing come when life completely unravels? As a young, healthy physician-in-training studying abroad, she was immersed in discovery—new cultures, new perspectives, and a growing curiosity about what it truly means to heal. She never expected to become her own patient. When subtle symptoms began to emerge, she did what she was trained to do—analyze, assess, and search for answers. But this time, the diagnosis was her own: A brain tumor. A malignant, incurable, life-altering tumor. In Difficult Gifts, this powerful memoir traces an unexpected journey from ...

Drew Nieporent has been a staple of the New York dining scene for decades, establishing a host of iconic restaurants like Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Montrachet. But his career started from much more humble beginnings—the grill at the local McDonald’s. A middle class kid from New York’s East...

Discover how ordinary seniors experienced extraordinary moments that strengthened their faith forever. Some of the most powerful examples of faith are found in the lives of ordinary people who trusted God through extraordinary circumstances. Memoirs that Matter brings together twenty inspiring true stories from seniors who experienced hardship, loss, uncertainty, miracles, and moments that forever deepened their relationship with God. Their journeys reveal the quiet strength, resilience, and unwavering faith that carried them through life’s greatest challenges. Each story offers a glimpse...

"A brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture. Stranded within an ever-shifting family’s desperate but volatile attempts to love...

In the summer of 1987, Payam Zamani fled Iran. As a member of the Baha'i Faith, he had already survived years of religious persecution at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Taking the only path available to him, he escaped to Pakistan through the Emptiness Desert: a harrowing five-day trek through one of the hottest, driest, and most hostile regions on the planet. Twelve years later, he and his brother set records when the company they founded hit a $1.2 billion valuation on Wall Street.

An ELLE Best Book of the Year Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing “Incredible…riveting.” —Dax Shepard, Armchair Expert podcast For fans of The Glass Castle and The Liars’ Club, a tender, heartbreaking, and hilarious memoir chronicling the challenges of...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER One of The Economist’s Best Books of the Year! In this “affecting…intriguing…heartbreaking” (Booklist) coming-of-age memoir, Rob Henderson vividly recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities, and pioneering the...

Beloved Bible teacher and ministry leader Joyce Meyer shares the unforgettable story of her troubled upbringing, her call to ministry, and God’s healing hand upon her life in this boldly honest and moving memoir. “I feel it’s necessary to disclose certain details of my story so readers can...

Facing Great Loss and Finding Greater Purpose Melissa Eadie was first diagnosed with cancer at the tender age of fourteen. While her peers were experiencing high school, the latest trends, and youthful ambitions, Melissa became familiar with the four corners of her hospital room. A two-time cancer survivor and above-the-knee amputee, Melissa’s life is the definition of strength and perseverance, but she knows that victory includes the painful fight to the finish line. More than just a memoir, Held walks you through Melissa’s vulnerable “diary” moments in the process of growth, grief...

Así comienza este recorrido en el que Felipe Calderón reflexiona sobre la compleja tarea de gobernar y lo que significa tomar decisiones en escenarios de incertidumbre, decisiones que, a fin de cuentas, nadie más quiere tomar. Al enfrentar este reto, dice el autor, es inevitable relatar las circunstancias, las vivencias, las ideas que rodean cada hecho. Así, a partir de una concepción muy particular de la política, como vocación y deber, Felipe Calderón presenta una visión de conjunto de las decisiones más difíciles que ha tomado en su trayectoria....

As John Henry Clark notes in his book, Dying, as we get older we start to think about our own mortality. Those thoughts become even stronger as our parents age. It’s usually around this time we realize that time is no longer on our side, and if we really want to know more about our parents and the legacy they want to leave, we need to talk to them. Now. That’s exactly what Clark decided to do. Now in his fifties – with his father in his seventies – he sets out to record his father’s memories and his conversations with him and to put them into this touching slice-of-life memoir. ...

Imagine discovering the man you married never truly loved you. Zara's faith, marriage, and future collapse when a devastating truth comes to light. After divorce and heartbreak, she must decide: retreat into fear, or trust God and love again. After The We is a moving Christian memoir about betrayal, healing, and second-chance love.

Maud Gonne, the legendary woman known as the Irish Joan of Arc, left her mark on everyone she met. What motivated this extraordinary person? Kim Bendheim has long been fascinated by Maud Gonne’s perplexing character, and here gives us an intensely personal assessment of her thrilling life. The product of much original research, including interviews with Gonne’s equally vivid, unconventional descendants, The Fascination of What’s Difficult is a portrait of a powerful woman who, despite her considerable flaws, continues to inspire.

★★★★★ "Great story of redemption and the human spirit!" - Reader review ___ In this gripping memoir, Jimmy “Slim” Rumsey tells the extraordinary story of his life. His inspiring perspective arose out of his struggles as a teenager and young adult after confronting his most difficult challenges of seeking redemption for his past, embarking on a process of self-healing, and extending forgiveness. Jimmy was born on the run to a fugitive father, coming of age in California as a formidable gang member, serving time behind bars, and nearly losing his life after being shot in the ...

Bloomsbury presents A Life in Light by Mary Pipher, read by Jessica Garcie. A USA Today Must Read New Book From the bestselling author of Women Rowing North and Reviving Ophelia—a memoir in essays reflecting on radiance, resilience, and the constantly changing nature of reality. In her...

A bold, wry, and intimate graphic memoir about American identity, interracial families, and the realities that divide us, from the acclaimed author of The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing. “By turns hilarious and heart-rending, it’s exactly the book America needs at this moment...

In Difficult Knitting Eve Machin, born in Bristol in 1915, gives a rich account of a childhood divided between two worlds: a comfortable, quintessentially English upper middle class world of servants, horses, spacious houses, public school and stiff upper lip - the world of her English father. And the world of her mother, daughter of a wealthy, sophisticated and very numerous Jewish family in Vienna, who had married against their wishes. The marriage was catastrophic. Torn between a loving but alcoholic father, and a close but distinctly un-maternal mother, Eve's childhood is spent ...

Lillian Hellman was a giant of 20th-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy said, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" In A Difficult Woman, renowned historian Alice Kessler-Harris undertakes a feat few would dare to attempt: a reclamation of a combative, controversial woman who straddled so many political and cultural fault lines of her time.

For decades, historians have perpetuated the myth of a "Churchillian" relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, citing their longtime alliance as an example of the "special" bond between the United States and Britain. But, as Richard Aldous argues in this penetrating dual biography, Reagan and Thatcher clashed repeatedly - over the Falklands war, Grenada, and the SDI and nuclear weapons - while carefully cultivating a harmonious image for the public and the press.

From the daughter of the bestselling author of Father Joe: the poignant and ultimately hopeful memoir of a young girl’s struggle to live a normal childhood in the chaotic seventies, and to overcome sexual abuse by her famous father Earlier this year, Tony Hendra’s memoir, Father Joe: The Man...