Memoir

The Sound of Her Voice By Sara Gelbard

A Smile in One Eye: A Tear in the Other

About A Smile in One Eye: A Tear in the Other:

Lutheran by baptism – Jewish by blood – My family’s Holocaust journey

Near the edge of the Baltic Sea, in a small East Prussian town, lives a happy and prosperous family. They are patriotic Germans, faithful Lutherans with three daughters and a son: chatty Trude, fearless Lotte, careful Ilse, and precocious Gerhard. The decade-older sisters treat their young brother as their little prince. He is the apple of his father’s eye. Then suddenly, one day in 1933, their world falls apart. They have been identified as Jews, a heritage never denied, but a religion never embraced.

Follow this chilling true story as they struggle to survive a Nazi regime intent on their extermination. Even those that manage to flee will find themselves without a home or country to call their own. From Edinburgh to Shanghai, they will travel the world in search of a place where they belong.

Author and historical chronicler Ralph Webster deftly connects their story and survival to the struggles modern refugees face every day. A Smile in One Eye: A Tear in the Other is not only a fascinating piece of history. It is a passionate call to protect and help the world’s refugees.

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One More Moon

About One More Moon:

Goodreads Readers Choice Nominee Ralph Webster tells the true story of his grandmother’s desperate journey from her life at the Pensione Alexandra in Naples, Italy to America – after Mussolini and the Fascists join with Hitler – and as countries across the world close their doors to Jewish refugees fleeing the spread of Nazi evil.

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Surviving on Longitude and Latitude: One Woman’s Journey to Find Her Purpose Through Education and Exploration

About Surviving on Longitude and Latitude: One Woman’s Journey to Find Her Purpose Through Education and Exploration:

As a child growing up in a small Romanian village, Magdalena Caproiu lived a simple life without any of today’s modern conveniences. She had a passion to learn and explore, but the shadow of World War II would attempt to derail her plans. Defying authority and tradition, she left home at just 10 years of age, traveling to new cities, new countries, new latitudes, and new longitudes, in order to follow her dreams.

As a young woman pursuing an engineering career in post-war Communist Romania, Magdalena would face new challenges. In a world of food shortages, loss of basic freedoms, and government spies, Magdalena would constantly need to adapt in order to keep her family safe. Despite the many challenges, she never lost her passion for education and ultimately earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Caproiu now shares her survival skills and life lessons in hopes of inspiring others, and firmly believes, “The difference between a good day and a bad day does not consist of a change in the day – It consists of a change in you.”

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Topher Pike

About Topher Pike:

Looking for a greater purpose in your life?

Discover how one man’s search for meaning unlocked a secret passion and propelled him on an unforgettable path towards enlightenment.

“This author is one hell of a storyteller.” – Amazon review

Through descriptive storytelling and a refreshing vulnerability, self help fiction author Topher Pike shares his unique blend of experiences, struggles, and triumphs in this inspiring and courageous tale of self-discovery.

After deciding to embrace his passion for writing at the tender age of 37, Topher Pike’s mundane existence was set on a course that would forever change his life and reveal a connection to something he thought was a lie.

This story was never meant to be told, but it is written now with the hope that someone reading his words can find a light that desperately wants to shine. Every life has a story, and every experience can begin a journey to discover a power within yourself.

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The Colour of the Sun

About The Colour of the Sun:

One hot June afternoon in Durban, South Africa, a child is born. Doctors and nurses marvel because the birth is one of the rarest in the world. The child, Gillian August, is born still shrouded in her amniotic sac. She is a caul baby, and in 1970s South Africa, this heralds greatness.

Or it might have, had August’s caul not been stolen within hours of her birth.

A belief in predetermined outcomes looms large in Thorp’s family, culture, and her perception of the world. After all, a lifetime of loss seems to confirm the misery promised by the theft of her caul.

Gillian is a Coloured girl born under Apartheid who overcomes unimaginable tragedy, loss, and abuse to find her voice and to help others find theirs.

This is her story, one where thieves give more than they take, and where something great comes from places where nothing at all is expected.

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About the Journey

About About the Journey:

Our lives are full of beauty, marvel, pain, and frustration, but without these ups and downs, our hearts would not be beating. About the Journey reflects on the thoughts, feelings, and random encounters of life.

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The Girl from Cairo: A Memoir by Author, Peggy Hinaekian

About The Girl from Cairo: A Memoir by Author, Peggy Hinaekian:

“This story had me from the very beginning. The charm, wit, and transparent hutzpah are captivating and enchanting. Amazing read!”

For many of us in the disconnected 21st century, it is time to speak about our heritage. This memoir creates a whole world bridging memory and narrative. It has a sense of longevity, no so much in the number of years, but with the depth and range of felt experiences. The writer is an artist who brings an astute eye to the page for the meaning of belonging and identity as she shifts between her many selves.

There’s a real sense of looking at people in the Middle Eastern world through the lens of her mixed ethnicity—Egyptian, British, Armenian. The sense of tension with her characters, particularly her roguish, bon-vivant father, who gambled away the family fortune, and her strong-willed, fashionable but secretive mother ever vigilant about neighbors gossiping as they lived in gentile poverty. Nevertheless, she maintained a sense of normalcy while railing in her “headstrong” daughter.

“The memoir finds humor in dark places like a childhood spent in trauma, cowering from overhead bombing raids during WWII, telling how entire families were able to find the resilience to survive constant danger. Following WWII, Peggy’s fascination with American GIs stationed in Cairo sets her off on a life path. When the Suez Canal political upheaval after “Black Saturday” happens, it catapults her to leave Egypt.

“The author’s coming of age story is composed of her education in a Catholic Girls’ School, her sexual awakening, her first love, and her childhood daydreams of becoming a film star or a fashion designer that sets her on a journey through several countries: Canada, Switzerland and the U.S.A.

The narrative plays on the reader’s question of ‘what’s next?’ as the writer weaves her family story with compassion, finding inspiration in the ‘showing’ of ordinary people living their lives against an exotic and, often, foreign backdrop.”

“Frances Roberts Reilly–poet, playwright, and memoirist.”

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You’ve Got Some Nerve: The Battle Back from an Invisible Injury by Derryen Plante

About Featured Book: You’ve Got Some Nerve: The Battle Back from an Invisible Injury by Derryen Plante

Derryen Plante knew her destination in life long before she reached it: she was going to be a special investigator for the federal government working on high-level crimes. Every step she took was in preparation for one day achieving that dream.

Then, without warning, her dream was shattered.

While completing a unit check at the juvenile prison where she worked, Derryen was violently attacked by one of the inmates. She suffered a traumatic brain injury that sent her into a spiral of PTSD, depression, and multiple medical interventions. As she navigated her life after the attack, Derryen struggled to accept her new reality. She’d built her entire life around a dream that no longer seemed possible. Without that, who was she?

You’ve Got Some Nerve is Derryen’s real, raw, and honest account of how she redefined her life, navigated the challenges unique to brain injury recovery, and found support in unexpected places. Her journey offers keen insight into how each of us can support those suffering with the long-term effects of an invisible injury.

This Memoir book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print, Audiobook

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The Psychiatrist who cured the Scientologist

About The Psychiatrist who cured the Scientologist:

Step inside the misunderstood world of “mental illness” and the underground secrets of Scientology in this first-hand account of a walk on the extreme side of both. In The Psychiatrist who cured the Scientologist, get a look at a life lived not on one side, but in the middle of the battlefield between Scientology and Psychiatry.

This true story of a teenager trying to seek truth, finds himself going completely backwards in a downward spiral of curiosity, rebellion and fanaticism. The end of the beginning starts with a total loss of reality in order to realize what is true.

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Playing Soldier

About Playing Soldier:

As an only child isolated within a troubled family, F. Scott Service found solace in fantasy and imagination, until a fateful day led to the discovery of his father’s Korean War field jacket hidden in a closet. What began as innocent emulation and approval, eventually spiraled into the calamitous loss of everything he had built as an adult. Faced with a grievous divorce, post-traumatic stress, homelessness, substance abuse, and the failure of everything he had willed himself to believe was truth, one night communing with a loaded pistol became the mechanism for self-clarity. From that darkest time, only elemental deconstruction and reconstruction of identity would allow him to forge a reclamation with his true, original self.

Visceral, with breathtaking candor, Playing Soldier powerfully captures the unlearning of expectation, the celebration of individuality, and the nourishing of self-acceptance once buried by cultural stamps of approval and societal convention. Braided with humor, courage, fear, despair, and hope, his unflinching, evocative story of passage into adulthood, the Iraq War, and beyond, speaks to anyone who has confronted adversity from without and grappled for their dreams from within.

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In Society’s Web By Edwin Cruz

About In Society’s Web By Edwin Cruz:

This is a narrative of an exceptionally inspiring, thought provoking, and true account of one man’s life altering journey into the abyss of captivity in the Illinois penal system. As he encounters the harsh reality of incarceration and the constant confrontations with both guard and inmate, he comes to his realization that the environment of prison and the ghetto are not dissimilar at all. As he is shuffled from one institution to another because his pride refuses to succumb to the status-quo, he surmises both are the same. Through memories of a dismal and brutal upbringing, he exposes the similarities between life behind bars and life in poverty, and this equation becomes the basis for his reasoning that there is an invisible web, society’s web, and escape was impossible because he never knew of its existence. Using this awakening and his sense of logic as instruments, he tries to come to terms with his current predicament, but the mandated choice of submission or defiance intervene and push him further into the vortex until he finds himself in Stateville Penitentiary, at the time, the worst maximum security penitentiary in America.

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One Step Closer: How a Life-Altering Accident Led Me to Everything I Almost Missed by Ryan S. Atkins

About One Step Closer: How a Life-Altering Accident Led Me to Everything I Almost Missed by Ryan S. Atkins:

At age twenty-one, Ryan Atkins had everything going for him: a full-ride scholarship in a prestigious business program, a well-paying internship, an opportunity to pitch a business plan to venture capitalists in New York City. He was living his dreams and preparing for a future of success.

But the day before leaving for New York, Ryan was in a life-altering car accident that robbed him of the use of his arms and legs. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, he found himself struggling to grasp just how fundamentally his life had changed.

In this unflinchingly honest account, Ryan takes you along his journey of coming to terms with his physical limitations, redefining success, falling in love, believing for a healing that seemed all but inevitable, and ultimately learning to trust the purpose in suffering.

If you have ever watched your dreams crumble before your eyes, endured prolonged pain and disappointment in your life, or wondered if there is more to life than what you are living…

Ryan’s story may be just what you need to discover what matters most—in this life and the next.

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Who Says It’s Over: A fading child star’s humorous and compelling true story about gambling, life-threatening encounters and a remarkable journey back to Hollywood prominence. by Joseph Walsh

About Who Says It’s Over: A fading child star’s humorous and compelling true story about gambling, life-threatening encounters and a remarkable journey back to Hollywood prominence. by Joseph Walsh:

This wonderfully funny memoir of showbiz, gambling and the Hollywood elite, is one exciting roller coaster ride – whether dealing with hostile bookmakers looking to break legs – disastrous theatrical auditions – or a harrowing, near-death encounter with a bottle-slashing thug. From New York’s #1 child star in early TV, to ‘has-been’ by 18, back to ‘Hollywood somebody’, Walsh’s true-life adventure will keep you smiling, then holding your breath, then laughing out loud.

Undaunted by a fading career, his love of ‘action’ would intensify, giving rise to the obsessional belief that he was the greatest football handicapper known to man. Tapping his childhood friend, Elliott Gould, for his last 60 bucks, they would go on to destroy their first bookmaker for thousands, on a once-in-a-lifetime winning streak. Little did Walsh know it would lead him to the brink of death, and into ‘escape from New York’ mode. Arriving in Hollywood with hopes of cashing in on earlier fame, he quickly discovered Tinseltown had no interest in the kid who had starred with Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Andersen and Kirk Douglas in The Juggler.

Hanging tough, this never-say-die street kid would go on to eventually shine again – working with such notables as Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, Elliott Gould, George Segal, Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, including memorable encounters with John Huston and Elvis Presley.

His destiny would be fulfilled when he turned his life experiences into the gambling film classic California Split. Anyone looking for an awesome comeback story, guided by grit and grace, is in for a real treat!

“Quite a life. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, riveting and just so damn good I was sorry it came to an end.”
Alan Ladd, Jr. / Former President of 20th Century Fox Pictures and Chairman & CEO of MGM Pictures, Academy Award
Winning Producer of Braveheart & Chariots of Fire.

“It’s extremely entertaining. Walsh has led an incredible life.”
Peter Gethers / Penguin Random House

“…a gold mine about a one of a kind human being and indefatigable spirit you gotta love.”
Elliott Gould / Actor

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Don’t Poo in the Pudding Bowl

About Don’t Poo in the Pudding Bowl:

Ever wondered what life is like as a teacher? Or what happens on school trips? Perhaps you’ve speculated on what your teacher really thought about the students?

Don’t Poo in the Pudding Bowl answers these questions and more! Including 34 real-life stories about teaching teens in Sheffield, this book reveals exactly what happens behind those school doors. Maxine Blake, a teacher for 37 years, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of classrooms, school trips and student shenanigans, with plenty of awkward, embarrassing and laugh-out-loud funny moments along the way. From students escaping out of windows to conversations about farting pigeons, these stories will have you clutching your sides with laughter.

***

Captivating, moving and side-splittingly hilarious, Don’t Poo in the Pudding Bowl is a must-read full of insights about the life of a teacher. Welcome to life in the classroom!

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Return to Tybee by Annette Bergman

About Return to Tybee by Annette Bergman:

Paige Mitchell knew in her heart that her son hadn’t deliberately run from the police. She just didn’t know how to prove it. But like most mothers, she continued to believe in her son. After the accident that claimed the life of an Indiana State Policeman, her husband moved out of the housePaige takes you on a journey from the tragic accident into the judicial system, as she had never known it to be. From a landmark lawsuit that changed the law in Indiana to the way and means of the judicial system, it’s an eye opening experience to see what letting a teenager drive a parents car can do to their lives.The author shares the mental anguish of the trials and tribulation of her divorce, her mother’s death and the death of her first grandchild. It was the love for her son, the determination of her soul and the promise of going back to her childhood home on Tybee Island that got her through the darkest days of her life.Determined to have some closure, she finally discovered the truth about the accident and still wonders if the truth had been told during the trial could they have been spared the treatment her son endured in prison.

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You Will Never Amount to Anything by Gerald Hogg

About You Will Never Amount to Anything by Gerald Hogg:

When I was four years old, my mum took me and my brother to Jamaica to join my dad who had been transferred from London to work in Kingston Town as a foreman scaffolder on a twelve month contract. There began my love affair with island life, sea, sand and surf. A few years later, when we came back to the UK we moved to Middlesbrough in north east England, my dad’s home town. We went from living like royalty, on a sun drenched island, surrounded by palm trees, clear blue seas and golden beaches, to living in impoverished conditions in a cold, colourless northern town, with steelworks and two chemical plants polluting the air with noxious gasses. I made a promise to myself then that I was going to get out of that town and get back to Jamaica or some other island or country where there were happy smiling faces, blue seas, parrots, beaches and sunshine as soon as I possibly could. The day I left school for the last time, was the day the school broke up for the Easter holidays. The headmaster had decided that the few pupils who were not staying on to do their CSE or GCSE exams and who were leaving school for good on that day, should leave at lunch time. There were only six of us and we were escorted from the school grounds by one of the teachers. When we were approaching the school gates I heard a voice from behind yelling “You lot will never amount to anything, you’ll all end up as drunks, unemployed or in prison” I recognised the voice straight away, it was Mr Bagley, my science teacher, who had bullied, tormented and beaten me at every opportunity over the past four years. That just made me more determined to get away from England and start a new life in the tropics. His words have stayed with me to this day, and they have given me the strength to prove him wrong. I have had to cheat, lie and live by my wits to achieve my goals but since that day I have never looked back. I have worked as a chef on cruise ships, five star hotels and restaurants around the world, been to the Antarctic, lived in ten different countries, own four investment properties and a share portfolio, had my own successful advertising business, own a beautiful house on the Gold Coast in Australia, own a boat in Boracay in the Philippines, wrote and had a book published on how to retire in Thailand, and I now live on the beautiful island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.
My life’s been fantastic Mr Bagley. How about yours?

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Born Under the Gaslight

About Born Under the Gaslight:

“What will the neighbors think?” “Keep your voice down, or the neighbors will hear you screaming.” I never knew The Neighbors, but, more importantly, they never knew my family. Right next door was a house of horror, and they indeed never knew. This is the story that was carefully concealed from you. This is the story that can happen even if you do grow up with neighbors watching.

From author Cindy Collins comes an unblinkingly honest, poignant, and often heartbreaking firsthand account of what it’s like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) . . . and the pervasive trauma she endured as a child that led to her descent into the dark world of BPD. Gaslighted by her mother—who cultivated an outward appearance of being the perfect wife and mother—Cindy suffered ongoing sexual abuse by multiple family members, abandonment, and cruelty at the hands of the one person who should have loved and protected her most. The resulting fits of rage, extreme thinking, difficulty maintaining relations, and depression would set Cindy on a path of destruction until she finally found the hope and courage to fight her demons.

Chronicling her childhood of abuse, her diagnosis of BPD in her twenties, and her ultimate road to recovery, Born Under the Gaslight is a memoir like none you have ever read before. Offering a rare and insightful glimpse into the inner struggles of someone who lives with BPD, Born Under the Gaslight is a must-read for therapists, others living with BPD, and anyone wanting to understand the complexities of BPD and how to offer practical and emotional support.

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