Showing results for "Women" in Biographies & Memoirs

Forgive For You is a story about learning to live well with reality, even (and especially) when it doesn’t come with clarity, closure, or apology. Blending sharp insight and raw honesty, the author reflects on love, loss, kinship, trauma, marriage, divorce, and what it means to forgive it all–not for others, but for ourselves. This isn’t a tale of tidy resolution. It’s a winding, at times bewildering, emotional journey through secrets kept and truths uncovered. It’s the reckoning of a rage that could burn the world, and the forging of resilience from fury and surrender.

In her critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart, Melissa Febos laid bare the intimate world of the professional dominatrix, turning an honest examination of her life into a lyrical study of power, desire, and fulfillment. In her dazzling Abandon Me, Febos captures the intense bonds of love and the need for connection - with family, lovers, and oneself. First, her birth father, who left her with only an inheritance of addiction and Native American blood, its meaning a mystery.

What does it take to overcome deeply embedded family traumas, career-ending betrayals, and failed relationships? What is the personal cost of keeping secrets—and staying in the closet? These are questions that Mary Means explores in her memoir, as she navigates growing up as a young closeted lesbian in Georgia during the 1960s and learning to love—and be loved—as an adult.

In dieser zutiefst bewegenden Erzählung schildert die Autorin den schleichenden Zerfall ihrer kleinen Familie. Die Authentizität dieser Geschichte wurzelt in den 1950er-Jahren, als der Vater aus der DDR in den Westen Deutschlands flieht. Für die zurückgelassene Familie beginnt eine Ära voller Entbehrungen. Die überforderte Mutter, konfrontiert mit den täglichen Herausforderungen der Kindererziehung, sucht Zuflucht in Alkohol und Tabletten. Diese Flucht vor der Realität hinterlässt verheerende Auswirkungen auf alle Familienmitglieder, insbesondere auf die Entwicklung der Kinder.

""Very good writers have an ability to make you understand what they're feeling. But the very best writers have an ability to make you understand what you're feeling. And that's where Michael Arceneaux sits, and that's what he does in this new book. It's like he's crawling around inside your...

Lifting the Fire Hydrant Lid follows idealistic young recruit Kate Fullen as she negotiates training school and settles into life on the watch. With incidents and routine tasks woven into the fabric of the story, it describes the consuming pressure, emotional turmoil and unpredictable nature of the job. Utilising the rare perspective of a northern, queer, working-class female firefighter, Lifting the Fire Hydrant Lid examines the more intricate difficulties experienced by minority groups and gives a voice to a profession that is seldom heard and rarely seen.

"An intimate and important memoir of deconstructing and reconstructing faith after abuse ... a spiritual memoir that does not shy away from abuse, queerness, or the multifaceted character of God." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A courageous, vulnerable, and spellbinding memoir that explores...

“A moving chronicle of trans resilience and joy” (Vogue) from one of Out100’s Most Impactful and Influential LGBTQ+ Storytellers “Groundbreaking . . . [Rocero] quite literally models what triumph can look like.”—Glamour (Women of the Year) WINNER OF THEM’S AWARD FOR LITERATURE...

“Fascinating, funny, and wise, The Family Outing is an affirmation to all of us who know the pain and shame of hiding our truest self, and a stirring invitation into the courage, freedom, and joy of living our whole truth.”—Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed...

A powerful and redemptive story of how the dazzling world of roller derby helped one young woman transform her fear and self-doubt into gutsy, big-hearted, adventurous living “A universal story of healing and triumph, made all the more beautiful, wild, and free by Gabe’s fierce love for...

This stirring and intimate collection brings together 30 unique narratives to paint a vivid portrait of what it means to be a queer Nigerian woman. Covering an array of experiences—the joy and excitement of first love, the agony of lost love and betrayal, the sometimes-fraught relationship between sexuality and spirituality, addiction and suicide, childhood games and laughter—She Called Me Woman sheds light on how Nigerian queer women, despite their differences, attempt to build a life together in a climate of fear.

A joyful celebration of the LGBTQ+ community’s development, history, and culture, packed with facts, trivia, timelines, and charts, and featuring 100 full color illustrations. Compiled and designed by queer power couple and illustrators extraordinaire, Ashley Molesso and Chessie Needham...

A mixed-race orphan, Murray grew up in segregated North Carolina before escaping to New York, where she attended Hunter College and became a labor activist in the 1930s. When she applied to graduate school at the University of North Carolina, where her white great-great-grandfather had been a trustee, she was rejected because of her race. She went on to graduate first in her class at Howard Law School, only to be rejected for graduate study again at Harvard University this time on account of her sex. Undaunted, Murray forged a singular career in the law.

One Bead at a Time is the oral memoir of Beverly Little Thunder, a two-spirit Lakota Elder from Standing Rock, who has lived most of her life in service to Indigenous and non-Indigenous women in vast areas of both the United States and Canada.

By the age of twenty, Lucy Spraggan had already experienced more extraordinary things than many do across a lifetime. When her X Factor audition went viral in 2012, Lucy became the bookies' favourite to win the show. She was the first contestant ever to write and perform her own original songs, refusing to be pigeonholed by stylists and producers. Viewers fell for her unmanufactured, anti-pop princess stance, and the tabloids loved her. Then, suddenly, mid-way through the live shows, Lucy dropped out. The public were told Lucy was unwell.

Meet the unsung sheroes of history: the diverse, defiant and daring (wo)men who changed the rules, and their identities, to get s--t done. A call to action for the modern world, this book celebrates the #GenderRebels who paved the way for women everywhere to be soldiers and spies; kings and queens; firefighters, doctors, pilots; and a Swiss Army knife’s-worth more. These superbly spirited (wo)men all had one thing in common: they defied the rules to progress in a man’s world.

After author Jess Keefe ended things with her long-term boyfriend, she moved in with her brother in hopes that family could help her not only heal from the break-up but also evolve into a healthy adult. But that fantasy ended when Matt’s heroin addiction came roaring back after lying dormant for years, leading to a fatal overdose one October night. Thirty-Thousand Steps is a powerful and transformative memoir that interweaves the author’s obsessive training to becoming a distance runner, along with her focused research into the science of addiction in the shadow of grief.

Growing up in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the lean child of working-class Chicago transplants, Judy Grahn hungered to connect with the larger world, to create a place for herself beyond the deprivations and repressions of small-town 1950s life. Refusing the imperative to silence that was her inheritance as a woman and as a lesbian, Grahn found her way to poetry, to activism, and to the intoxicating beauty and power of openly loving other women.

Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir/Biography In this searing and uplifting memoir, a young Black queer woman fresh out of college adopts her baby brother after their incarcerated mother dies, determined to create the kind of family she never had. Growing up, Nikkya...

Born in 1962, Alexandra Billings grew up in a decade in which being herself was illegal. When she started transitioning in 1980, the word “Transgender” didn’t exist. With no Trans role models and no path to follow, Alexandra did what her family, teachers, and even friends said was impossible: Alexandra forged ahead. Spanning five decades, from profound lows to exhilarating highs, This Time for Me captures the events of a pioneering life.