Other books that might interest you

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  Diaries of a Distant Affair

  Brittani Malonson

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  In life, we all go through experiences that are simple, but become complicated with time. When I got my dream job, all I wanted was to aspire to be the best worker bee, I didn't expect a mutual infatuation with someone who was in a relationship as a life experience; but it happened. I ended up becoming the other woman to witness the relationship come apart the way it came together, but from distance. Listen to explore my diary of emotional rollercoasters with dark euphoric highs and hard to swallow realizations while journaling my self discovery and working within a love triangle.

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  But You Look So Normal - Lost...

  Claudia Marseille

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  By age four, Claudia Marseille had hardly uttered a word. When her parents finally had her hearing tested and learned she had a severe hearing loss, they chose to mainstream her, hoping this would offer her the most “normal” childhood possible. With the help of a primitive hearing aid, Claudia worked hard to learn to hear, lipread, and speak even as she tried to hide her disability in order to fit in. As a result, she was often misunderstood, lonely, and isolated—fitting into neither the hearing world nor the Deaf culture. 
  This memoir explores Claudia’s relationships with her German refugee parents—a disturbed, psychoanalyst father obsessed over various harebrained projects and moneymaking schemes and a Jewish mother who had survived the Holocaust in Munich—and with her own identity. Claudia shares how she emerged from loneliness and social isolation, explored her Jewish identity, struggled to find a career compatible with hearing loss, and eventually opened herself to a life of creativity and love. 
  But You Look So Normal is the inspiring story of a life affected but not defined by an invisible disability. It is a journey through family, loss, shame, identity, love, and healing as Claudia finally, joyfully, finds her place in the world.

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  Vasco da Gama - The First Person...

  Kelly Mass

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  Vasco da Gama, the 1st Count of Vidigueira, is widely celebrated as the first European to reach India by sea. His landmark journey, which took place from 1497 to 1499, was groundbreaking in that it provided the first direct oceanic connection between Europe and Asia. By navigating around the Cape of Good Hope, located at the southern tip of Africa, da Gama linked the Atlantic and Indian Oceans for the first time, thereby bridging the Western world and the Eastern world. This achievement is considered a pivotal moment in history, marking the beginning of an era of global exploration and the rise of maritime multiculturalism. 
  Da Gama’s successful voyage opened up new trade routes, changing the course of history and shaping the future of global commerce and cultural exchange. His discovery of a sea route to India was not just a geographical milestone but a transformative event that spurred the age of global imperialism. By connecting Europe directly to the wealth of the Indian subcontinent, da Gama paved the way for the Portuguese to establish a vast colonial empire that spanned from Africa to Asia. The Portuguese empire, founded on these maritime routes, would become a powerful force in global trade, controlling key trade routes and regions for centuries. 
  However, the Portuguese expansion under Vasco da Gama and his successors was not without controversy. The methods employed by the Portuguese in their expansion were often violent and ruthless. Da Gama and his crew used extreme brutality, including kidnapping and violence against local populations, which created a lasting legacy of fear and animosity between the Portuguese and India’s indigenous rulers. This harsh approach to colonization set a precedent for the broader patterns of Western colonialism that would dominate the Age of Exploration.

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  From Roses to Terror - A Journal...

  Di McDonald

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  In 2013, Di McDonald packed up her life in regional Victoria and moved to Melbourne to help her sister care for their ageing parents. Recently divorced, Di was flattered when, in late 2014, a customer she assisted in the store she helped manage expressed a romantic interest in her. She eventually accepted his invitations and, as their relationship developed, it seemed this suave, charming man was too good to be true. And he was. 
  Di’s life quickly became a story of survival and fear. She was harassed, stalked, defamed, and accused of murdering her best friend. Facing death threats, Di turned to the authorities, but it seemed no one could—or would—put a stop to her nightmare. 
  From Roses to Terror is the gripping story of one woman’s fight to jail her stalker and emerge from a reign of terror to become a survivor and activist. It’s a story that will lead you down a dark path littered with love bombing, gaslighting, smear campaigns, coercive control, and psychological abuse. It will take you into the dark world of stalking, where victims are hunted by their own private terrorist. But it will also give you hope. If you are a victim of stalking or domestic violence, this book will show you how to take back control of your life.

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  Surviving Deep Waters - A...

  Bruce Johnson

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  When you have nothing to lose, you can risk everything. 
   
  There was no reason to bet on Bruce Johnson, given where he started out. Poor, Black, and raised by a single mother who had a secret. He was the child she hid in plain view from the rest of her family. 
   
  Bruce would spend his youth at Chickasaw Park in Louisville—Kentucky’s segregated west end. He would grab the low hanging tree branches, then swing out over the Ohio River before dropping into the dangerous water below. He didn’t know how to swim, but was  
  fearless and knew to paddle quickly back to shore before the current could drag him under. This tenacity served him well, and he learned to be a risk taker early on. 
   
  As an adult, he set out to just make a living—to do better than Black folks who tried their best before, while making his Momma and Grandmomma proud. His journey to becoming a successful TV journalist nearly killed him, but he refused to treat himself as a victim. His  
  role was to use his voice and example to pull others out of deep waters. 
   
  The rollout for his retirement was unprecedented. Week-long on-air tributes, hour-long online tributes from corporate CEOs, former colleagues, Congressmembers, the Mayor, and the governor. After a near forty-five year career, all was deserved and expected, except for  
  a final tribute—seeing his image secretly painted on the Wall of Fame outside the iconic Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant alongside Barack and Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Dave Chappelle. No one could have imagined such an ending. Or could they? Bruce Johnson’s  
  journey is the culmination of his mother and grandmother’s stories—the ultimate American story of race, opportunity, and perseverance.

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  The Significance of Curly Hair -...

  Kara L. Zajac

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  Growing up, Gram was my best friend. We shared a double bed in my family’s cottage until I was nine. Fifteen years later, I got the call that she’d fallen and hit her head. All I could see was her mouthing, “Don’t you love me enough to come back home?” I wept on the plane as I began to write her story, the one she’d asked me to write in ninth grade. 
  Gram and I were polar opposites. She spent much of her life barefoot and pregnant. I was a gay, career-driven, independent decision-maker. 
  Searching through old relics, we found a time capsule in Gram’s drawer, revealing clues to her dark era, her 1957 breakdown. Dark green pills, a bank book, scribbles on an envelope: answers to unasked questions. She survived stress and abuse without things I take for granted: income, a car, stocked pantry shelves. She did it all with unconditional love, never revealing her pain. 
  I’d spent my adult life avoiding becoming a “traditional” woman, but her death freed something in me. I realized the importance of child-rearing, understanding a woman like me can balance career and family. Love and support create happy, healthy kids. I could pass Gram’s spirit onto a child, braiding generations together from lifetime to lifetime. 
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  I read, or rather zoomed, through the whole thing. The emotional action just sort of sweeps you along. I had tears in my eyes at the end of Chapter 1. – Mimi Schroeder, APR Max Communications

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