In Ascension Dalton Lewis suffers a complete mental breakdown, unable to work or even communicate with loved ones and ranting at the walls. This realistic look at life with paranoid schizophrenia is harrowing, brilliant, and shows the real emotions and thoughts behind this terrible illness. $2.99 on Kindle.
The Other Side of Success
The Other Side of Success is the unvarnished account of one man’s search for meaning as his professional life is constantly challenged by the impact of love, family, religion, and race. In this intimate memoir, Sawa strives to find home in the truest sense, while struggling with the unforeseen costs of making it. $0.99 on Kindle.
Without: Body, Name, Country
“Pick up this book and eat it, I mean love it, I mean eat it.” —Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket)
“…we see that perfect world crumble with her diagnosis of Guillam-Barre syndrome in which a person’s immune system attacks the nerves.” —Martha Engber
In Meg Johnson’s third full length collection, Without: Body, Name, Country, strange experiences become familiar and familiar experiences become strange, as a human body, a sense of self, and an entire nation all teeter toward the verge of destruction.
In daring poems and intimate flash nonfiction pieces, Johnson portrays a world that is corrupt yet full of possibilities. Sometimes frightening, sometimes funny, one woman’s struggles with health, identity, and politics reveal universal adversity, longing, and wildness.
Reading this book is to climb “a spiral staircase in a tower full of fun house mirrors.” Without: Body, Name, Country is the book you didn’t know you needed.
“A ferocity that has to be read to be believed.” —Shaindel Beers
“Read this collection and marvel.” —Anne Champion
“A fierce, playful, unapologetic, and morally complex examination of life. Those who enjoy memoir and poetry will find both forms seamlessly and searingly interwoven here.” —Mark Leidner
“A spot-on sense of humor evident from page one onward. She circles her own themes returning again and then one more time to investigate what it is to grow up pretty, to remain single after thirty, to face life-altering illness.” —Joanne Nelson $2.99 on Kindle.
Free: The Japanese Part of Me
Becoming American
You’re Welcome: A Dog Lovers Novel
You’re Welcome is an Amazon Best Seller. This heartwarming, inspiring and laugh-out-loud memoir of a dog is inspired by true events, and narrated by our furry best friend. Ludo, a German Shepherd and Melody, a young high-spirited woman, find each other needing one another more than they know to make it through the perils life has in store for them! The pair forge an unbreakable relationship, and with it navigate hardship, depression, and love! If you have ever loved a dog this book is a must-read! $0.99 on Kindle.
The Unexpected Mother
You know the pregnancy was a mess…when Oprah hears your story and wants it for O Magazine…twice!
Would Susan, a single mother of two, survive the oddest surrogate motherhood debacle ever?
It wasn’t her first time carrying the couple’s baby. Their son, Evan, was healthy and delightful. When the couple decided they wanted a second child, Susan was happy to be their surrogate again.
Contracts were signed.
The miracle happened…thrice.
It was the first trimester when Susan found out the couple were getting a divorce, there was an undisclosed history of mental disorder, and they were filing for bankruptcy. They were in breach of contract. She was carrying triplets.
Susan’s world collapsed around her…
…and then it got worse.
You’ll be enthralled by this true story of one surrogate mother’s 9-month journey, because it has more twists and turns than a Hollywood thriller. $3.99 on Kindle.
Orphans of an Angel
A tragic, but true story of Evelyn Dalton’s struggle to survive, burdened by destitution and deteriorating health. Unexpectedly, Evelyn collapses with abdominal pains and is admitted to hospital for immediate surgery. The misdiagnosis of symptoms leaves Evelyn in a coma unaware of the perilous danger she faces. At midnight, she became an Angel. Her four boys became orphans. At midnight, Evelyn became an Angel. At midnight, her four boys became Orphans.They became motherless, fatherless, homeless and destitute. They lost everything. $0.99 on Kindle.
Fallible
Nearly 1 in every 5 Americans deal with mental illness in a given year, and the rates are climbing. Among physicians, the rate is even higher as the time spent in medical training significantly increases the risk of poor mental health. None of us are fully immune from the ravages of mental health problems. $0.99 on Kindle.
Setting Sail for Golden Harbor: A Humorous Memoir About the Final Years of Life
In this memoir, which speaks to all of us who have experienced the challenges posed by aging parents, laughter serves not only as an antidote to depressing reality but also reminds us that the deceased has lived, has amused, has warmed our hearts, and will remain alive through the memories of words said and actions taken during their life. $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: I Ran the World
IF YOU COULD CHANGE THE WORLD, WOULD YOU?
In this rollercoaster true story, Chris Long describes how he staged the biggest mass participation demonstration in history, in an effort to help change the world. How he worked with rock stars, politicians, royalty, celebrities and 20 million people in 89 countries – and all before the internet and social media. He raised $35m and caused governments to change but did he really succeed?
An extraordinary story of an ordinary man. Free on Kindle.
Free: Orphans of an Angel
A tragic, but true story of Evelyn Dalton’s struggle to survive, burdened by destitution and serious health conditions. Social Services become concerned as her four boys may be taken into care if conditions do not improve. As if matters couldn’t get worse, husband Eddie abandons the family and plunges her life into dire straits and purgatory when she is evicted from her home. Unexpectedly, Evelyn collapses with excruciating abdominal pains and is admitted to hospital for emergency open surgery. Misdiagnosis of her symptoms result in her drifting into a coma. Unable to provide adequate care, her boys are condemned to a Children’s Home. The youngest two children, aged four and ten, spend their childhood incarcerated. Evelyn’s four boys never see their mother again as their crisis deepens into a battle for their own survival. Four orphans became motherless, fatherless, homeless and destitute. Free on Kindle.
Brian’s Journey
Architect of Death at Auschwitz: A Biography of Rudolf Höss
Rudolf Höss, the SS officer appointed to create and serve as the commandant of Auschwitz, has been called the greatest mass murderer in history. From 1940 to 1945, more than one million men, women, and children, mainly Jews and Poles, were put to death at Auschwitz. Höss’s testimony at the trial of major Nazi defendants at Nuremberg after the war established that Adolf Hitler ordered the extermination of the Jews in the Final Solution. After Nuremberg, Höss was taken to Poland to stand trial for the atrocities he perpetrated at Auschwitz. In his testimony and memoirs, which he wrote while awaiting trial, Höss acknowledged his participation in the Final Solution and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of persons at Auschwitz due to starvation and disease. Yet, he denied that he ever mistreated a prisoner and sought to blame his subordinates for the cruelty imposed on inmates. Höss also claimed that Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, not he, were responsible for the calamity of the Final Solution and that he (Höss) was simply an unknowing “cog in the wheel” of the Nazi extermination machine.
Architect of Death at Auschwitz is both a biography of Höss and a critical analysis of his memoirs. Utilizing Auschwitz records, as well as the testimony of numerous survivors and even SS, the book describes the plight of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children forcibly taken from their homes to ghettos, then from ghettoes to their deaths in the gas chambers within minutes of arrival at Auschwitz. It details the tortuous life in camp for those found sufficiently fit to work yet given little to eat or wear, provided wholly inadequate medical care, forced to perform brutal work, and subjected to medical experimentation. Nuremberg trial records, as well as Höss’s trial proceedings, document the monstrous crimes he committed. Conversations between Höss and prison psychiatrists and psychologists provide an extraordinary insight into his twisted Nazi psyche. The book dispels the impression Höss attempts to create in his memoirs that he was never cruel or mistreated any prisoners and demonstrates, instead, he acted with unscrupulous brutality. $23.99 on Kindle.
Free: Becoming American
The Three Kitties That Saved My Life
“This is like drinking tea and honey on a cold day.” When tragedy struck, I thought for sure that my own life was at an end. I was wrong. This is the true story of how two stray rescue cats and a woman named Kitty, whom I finally met after a wild ride of internet dating, brought love, romance, and laughter back into my life. $0.99 on Kindle.
I Came to You in Weakness
It’s a wild ride into the mystery of what it means to find God’s strength in my weakness after a simple prayer supplication was made.
After 36 months of frustrating unemployment, God reveals a path leading to Guangzhou China. At the end of the road is a mustard seed that is planted in a provincial classroom. I need to go where the seed would produce. The dilemma: If I don’t go to Guangzhou, am I being disobedient to God? I am 55 years old and live in Chicago. $0.99 on Kindle.
September’s Child
September’s Child is the story of an unwanted four-year-old little girl who embarked on a journey through the “system”. This little girls’ dysfunctional biological mother set her own clothing on fire in a weak attempt at committing suicide. Anna / Eva found love while in foster care. Adoption that turned into abuse stripped away that love. From neglect to abuse, this little hero survived it all. She learned to become an emotionless child, to live another day, ultimately to tell her story. A story stained with tears and filled with heartaches that haunt her yet today. C.A. Staff is the little girl who grew up to know more love than she ever imagined. $3.99 on Kindle.
RELINQUISHED: The True Story of Sally’s Abandoned Children
First, there was September’s Child. It was a remarkable true story. C.A. Staff published it in 2014. Then along came Journey To My Past – A DNA Adventure. D.R. Meyers published that in 2018. C.A. Staff and D.R. Meyers are the same people.
Her relinquishment rippled throughout her life. Her big sister cared for her during her first two years. Their alcoholic mother stayed gone for days at a time. Her subsequent adoption resinated her rocky beginning. This is the story that gave new meaning to adoption. Stories like this help make states change their adoption laws. $3.99 on Kindle.
Free: Fallible
This book is about the fallibility of us all, including the doctors who are supposed to care for us. It is about how to change the norms of medical practice in light of human weakness. It’s for individuals who suffer from mental illness. It’s for their loved ones. It’s for anyone who interacts with someone with a mental illness. Free on Kindle.
Why Didn’t I Notice Her Before?
A page-turning debut that should not go unnoticed. A memoir that recounts the cancer journey of a wife and mother reveals the universal truth that appreciating life is complicated.
In August 2017, Cramer was told that she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. During a routine medical appointment, a nurse practitioner examined a bump on the author’s pelvis and quickly handed her a slip to get an urgent CT scan, as though it were a baton in a “relay race.” She was later told that she had a “fourteen-centimeter tumor” and that she must undergo surgery to remove “the big mass…the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, all of it,” and then receive chemotherapy. The memoir describes how Cramer, a New York film editor; her husband, Todd; and their young son, Noah, came to terms with the news. She describes all aspects of her treatment, from awaiting surgery to having a port inserted in her chest for infusions.
She also poses penetrating questions–one chapter, for example, is titled “Should I Fight?”–and approaches the act of wig shopping with wickedly mordant wit: “I sit down in the wig barber’s chair looking like my two-year-old-self refusing to wear underwear because it is itchy.”
The book goes on to explore how the author’s cancer diagnosis has changed her outlook on life, asking “will an illness as serious as this teach me that I no longer need to fix things, and can I finally release my grip and get on with living?”
Cramer’s writing is characterized by an eagle-eyed search for positivity: “Fuck it. I want to live my life not spend time making legacy boxes of my unfinished one.” For the author, this statement is an act of personal catharsis, but her message has an inspirational universality. Some readers may flinch at her bluntness, but for most, her writing will offer revitalizing guidance: “I’m told death is close, it is imperative that I take initiative to go any direction away from stuck.” Overall, this keenly observed memoir delicately balances humor and heartache while signaling the importance of each passing moment.
A profoundly moving remembrance that’s alternately sad and uplifting. $2.99 on Kindle.
Letter from Alabama
“Letter from Alabama” is the inspiring true story of parents lost, and parents found. This Amazon Best Seller is the story of two children orphaned and abandoned, then saved by grace and a family’s love – and by a startling letter that traveled hundreds of miles and changed everything.
Amazon reviewer R. Headley says: “…this is a fine, well-written book that blends (the author’s) personal story with the greater events of American life in the second half of the 20th Century. Workman’s celebration of family deserves to be read.” $0.99 on Kindle.
Cutting Hunger One Coupon At A Time
I’m Tina M. Klein, single mom of three beautiful girls that have grown up on me. After my divorce, I struggled financially like a lot of single moms sometimes having to rely on help from others to keep all the bills paid and keep food on the table. In 2008 I found the power of couponing which not only allowed me to save money for my own family but to give back to my community also. I started looking for ways to inspire others to give back to their communities also. Many of you know me as Super Coupon Woman, Follow my journey of going from a single mom to paying it forward over $100,000 in my community and going strong. I will show how you can coupon and save money that could allow you to start your own pay it forward mission. $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Diary of a Hoarder’s Daughter
With an estimated 2-5% of the population having some form of hoarding problem, have you ever wondered what it is like to have to live in a home filled with stuff? Having being brought up in a house with junk filling every room, Izzy has to return to her childhood home, twenty years after she left, to sort out the mess. Read her true story in this funny yet poignant memoir. Free on Kindle.
Bury Him: A Memoir of the Viet Nam War
In this frank, engaging memoir, Capt. Chamberlain (USMC, Retired) recounts the chilling events that took place during his command of a company of young Marines at the height of the Vietnam war. Chamberlain painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed. $0.99 on Kindle.