Other books that might interest you

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  Octavia E Butler - H is for Horse

  Chi-Ming Yang

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  An homage to the childhood genius of Black science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. 
   
   
   
  The figure of the horse, at once earthly and transcendent, represented the contradictions of freedom and captivity that enabled young Octavia to develop her nuanced sense of voice and place. Drawing on previously unknown archival research, this volume illustrates how Butler's development as a writer was tied to her extraordinary resourcefulness and self-awareness growing up as an awkward, bookish Black girl in segregated, Cold War Pasadena. She persistently re-visited and revised her early writings on teenage angst, Martians, Westerns, and racial politics. In one way or another her supernatural characters defied the constraints of gender, race, and class with equine-inflected resilience. 
   
   
   
  In the spirit of Butler's passion for library research, this book is comprised of twenty-six short A-Z chapters. It is part childhood biography, art and literary analysis, and memoir. It interweaves the author's personal recollections with scholarly musings on poetry, film, and literature inspired by Butler's encyclopedic reading habits and experiments with genre. Just as cross-species kinships are at the heart of her Afro-futurist, eco-feminist storytelling, Butler demonstrates that coming-of-age is an ongoing process and key to healing our damaged planet.

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  From Claudia to Cruella

  Barbara Baker

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  As a nurse, Barbara Baker’s qualifications enabled her to travel and work overseas, taking her to both Europe and South Africa. However, just as she was starting to explore the endless possibilities open to her, she was cut off in her tracks with a shock terminal cancer diagnosis at the tender age of 24, finding herself battling for her life before it had really begun. 
  
   
  This was her first indication that she had a level of mental resilience she was previously unaware of, as she confounded the medical team, and not only survived, but went on to thrive. 
  
   
  But this was not without a host of physical and mental barriers and obstacles, which began with a lack of knowledge of the risks and tribulations, just as she sought to set herself up in business without any knowledge or experience. 
  
   
  From Claudia to Cruella seeks to share that journey – and how Barbara was able to transfer the learning from her personal life lessons, as she battled cancer while raising a family as a single parent, and grew her business while balancing her children’s needs.

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  Summary of Graydon Carter's When...

  Milkyway Media

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  Listen now to get the key ideas from Graydon Carter's, When the Going Was Good. 
   
  In When the Going Was Good (2025), Graydon Carter recounts his rise from a struggling Canadian newcomer in New York to one of the most influential magazine editors of his era. He built momentum at major publications, co-founded Spy, and led Vanity Fair under Si Newhouse. Carter offers an insider’s view of elite cultural circles while describing how he assembled a remarkable team and steered Vanity Fair to prominence. His memoir captures the energy, ambition, and fading glamour of the print magazine’s golden age. The title, When the Going Was Good, is a reference to Evelyn Waugh’s collected travel writing, published a few years before Carter was born. Carter recently reread the book and felt it aged better than him...

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  The Plague Years - A Doctor’s...

  Ross A. Slotten MD

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  In 1992, Dr. Ross A. Slotten signed more death certificates in Chicago—and, by inference, the state of Illinois—than anyone else. As a family physician, he was trained to care for patients from birth to death, but when he completed his residency in 1984, he had no idea that many of his future patients would be cut down in the prime of their lives. Among those patients were friends, colleagues, and lovers, shunned by most of the medical community because they were gay and HIV positive. Slotten wasn’t an infectious disease specialist, but because of his unique position as both a gay man and a young physician, he became an unlikely pioneer, swept up in one of the worst epidemics in modern history. 
   
  Plague Years is an unprecedented first-person account of that epidemic, spanning not just the city of Chicago but four continents as well. Slotten provides an intimate yet comprehensive view of the disease’s spread alongside heartfelt portraits of his patients and his own conflicted feelings as a medical professional, drawn from more than thirty years of personal notebooks. In telling the story of someone who was as much a potential patient as a doctor, Plague Years sheds light on the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in ways that no previous medical memoir has.

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  Which Way Is Up? - Finding Heart...

  Susan Gillis Chapman

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  A heartfelt guide for meeting difficult times with mindfulness, compassion, and courage—from a psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner who learned from her own crisis. 
   
   
   
  Using personal examples from her own recent bardo crisis—undergoing cancer treatment during the pandemic—and offering contemplative prompts for inner-reflection and a meditation practice in each chapter, psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner Susan Chapman demystifies the three main types of fear people experience (frozen, awake, and core), and how to meet each with love. This heartfelt guide from someone who's been there and done the work will help us get through life's challenges and restore our equilibrium, while also inviting a valuable opportunity for personal growth. 
   
   
   
  Which Way Is Up? draws from traditional Buddhist teachings on the bardo, a Tibetan word most often associated with the period between death and rebirth. Chapman likens the bardo to abrupt episodes in our lives when things seem to turn upside down and we can't find our footing. In such times of not-knowing, our fearful mind tends to panic trying to make sense out of our experience. Instead, Chapman meets the listener in their groundlessness to show how these turning points can force us to let go of our assumptions about the future and allow something new to be reborn.

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  Hearts of the Crown: Royal...

  James G. Edwards II

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  This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Hearts of the Crown: Royal Romances That Shaped Nations 
  True love stories that changed history—and the world. 
  When kings and queens followed their hearts, empires trembled, alliances shifted, and history was rewritten. Hearts of the Crown uncovers the most captivating royal romances that defined destinies, toppled thrones, and forever altered nations. 
  From King Edward VIII’s shocking abdication for Wallis Simpson to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s enduring love that strengthened an empire, these real-life love stories reveal how passion and politics collided behind palace doors. 
  Explore the forbidden affairs, arranged marriages, and secret relationships that influenced diplomacy, inspired revolutions, and tested the limits of loyalty and power. 
  Perfect for fans of The Crown, Victoria, and royal biography books, Hearts of the Crown blends historical nonfiction and human emotion to show how love—whether scandalous or strategic—shaped the fate of monarchies across Europe and beyond.

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