Sleepwalk with Me

Author: Mike Birbiglia

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $12.99

Deal price: $1.99

Deal starts: April 15, 2024

Deal ends: April 15, 2024

Description:

The beloved comedian’s New York Times–bestselling memoir, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor.“Sleepwalk with Me is a comedic memoir, but I’m only thirty-two years old, so I’d hate for you to think I’m ‘wrapping it up,’ so to speak. But I tell some really personal stories. Stories that I considered not publishing time and time again—about my childhood, about girls I made out with when I was thirteen, about my parents, and, of course, about my bouts with sleepwalking. Bring this book to bed. And sleepwalk with me.” —Mike Birbiglia“Charming, brainier than he’d probably admit, and frequently poignant in spite of himself, Birbiglia throws together an alternately rollicking and warm handful of stories; the lengthy title story, of his struggle with a sleep disorder, is as fascinating as it is hilarious.” —Booklist “Mike Birbiglia is a great storyteller, just as funny on the page as on the stage. These comic gems strung together create a hilarious and touching memoir of growing up awkwardly and finding his way in the cruel world of stand-up. An original wit who raises self-deprecation to an art form, and always leaves you thinking and laughing.” —Nathan Lane

The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $12.99

Deal price: $1.99

Deal starts: April 15, 2024

Deal ends: April 15, 2024

Description:

New York Times Bestseller: “Wilder’s letters display a writer who kept her head amid growing fame, remaining sweet, down-to-earth, and immensely likable.” —Publishers WeeklyAvailable for the first time, these letters of one of America’s most beloved authors are a treasure trove that offers new and unexpected understanding of her life and work. The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a vibrant, deeply personal portrait of this revered American writer, illuminating her thoughts, travels, philosophies, career, and dealings with family, friends, and fans as never before—a fresh look at the adult life of the author in her own words. Gathered from museums and archives and personal collections, the letters span over sixty years of Wilder’s life, from 1894–1956, and shed new light on Wilder’s day-to-day life. Here we see her as a businesswoman and author—with insights into her beloved Little House books; her legendary editor, Ursula Nordstrom; and her readers—as a wife, and as a friend. In her letters, Wilder shares her philosophies, political opinions, and reminiscences of life as a frontier child. Also included are letters to her daughter, writer Rose Wilder Lane, who filled a silent role as editor and collaborator while the renowned Little House books were being written.Wilder biographer William Anderson collected and researched references throughout these letters and the result is an invaluable historical collection, tracing Wilder’s life through the final days of covered wagon travel; her life as a farm woman, a country journalist, and Depression-era author; and her years of fame as the writer of the Little House books. This collection is a wonderful accompaniment to her cherished books, and a snapshot of an era gone by.“In her letters, just as in her books and in person, Laura Ingalls Wilder is effortlessly sunny good company . . . wonderfully human letters.” —Christian Science Monitor“[Anderson] has done a heroic job of assembling, editing, and annotating this final collection of unpublished writing . . . Wilder fans will surely rejoice.” —Booklist

Husband, Liar, Sociopath

Author: O.N. WARD

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $5.99

Deal price: Free

Deal starts: April 15, 2024

Deal ends: April 15, 2024

Description:

Could you or someone you know be married to a sociopath? The author of this book was, but it took her twenty years to figure it out. She wrote this book to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to other people. Onna thought the classmate she married was her Prince Charming—kind, honest, loving, and intellectually vibrant—but she was wrong. That “spark” she felt wasn’t true love, it was a trap—custom designed to ensnare her. Onna’s repayment for investing twenty years into her marriage and unwittingly providing her husband with a façade of normalcy was ongoing gaslighting and chronic emotional assault, all twisted and framed so she would attribute them to her own apparent shortcomings. By the time she understood what was really happening, her emotional, physical and financial health were in peril. Why did her husband do it? Because that’s what sociopaths do.

Sociopaths are far more common than most people imagine. To help others recognize the subtle warning signs that they might be in the crosshairs of a well-camouflaged sociopath, Onna shares her story while detailing the techniques her ex-husband used to control her behavior and erode her self-esteem. She also explores the psychological research regarding why such methods are so effective, why it is hard to understand what is happening while you are in the situation, why the cumulative effect is so ruinous, and, more importantly, why you must escape if you suspect you are in a similar situation. This insightful, cautionary tale is a must read for men and women alike.

No Crying in the Operating Room

Author: Cecily Wang M.D.

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $4.99

Deal price: Free

Deal starts: April 15, 2024

Deal ends: April 15, 2024

Description:

"A compelling story of a life transformed by the experience of medical mission work." -

Kirkus Reviews

Cecily Wang wanted to become a doctor to help people in the most fundamental ways possible, only to become disillusioned with the profession during medical school and residency. It wasn’t until she went on an international relief mission to Haiti in 2006 that she found herself practicing medicine as she had originally envisioned. She was able to help a sick person in great need, unencumbered by red tape and regulations. The patient’s health was all that mattered.Cecily has continued to do demanding and extraordinarily challenging international work with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and other aid groups, addressing health challenges faced by communities affected by earthquakes, cholera, famine, and civil war in diverse regions, including Haiti, Myanmar, Samoa, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Syria. In the process, she has been stretched to her emotional limits, witnessed the worst and the best in human nature, and learned more about herself than she once could have imagined, all while performing life-saving surgeries and providing critical care to those in need.

The Invention of Miracles

Author: Katie Booth

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $17.99

Deal price: $1.99

Deal starts: April 14, 2024

Deal ends: April 14, 2024

Description:

This “provocative, sensitive, beautifully written biography” tells the true—and troubling—story of Alexander Graham Bell’s quest to end deafness (Sylvia Nasar, #1 New York Times–bestselling author).Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for BiographyFinalist for the Mark Lynton History PrizeWe think of Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, but that’s not how he saw his own career. As the son of a deaf woman and, later, husband to another, his goal in life from adolescence was to teach deaf students to speak. Even his tinkering sprang from his teaching work; the telephone had its origins as a speech reading machine.The Invention of Miracles takes a “stirring” (The New York Times Book Review), “provocative” (The Boston Globe), “scrupulously researched” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) new look at an American icon, revealing the astonishing true genesis of the telephone and its connection to another, far more disturbing legacy of Bell’s: his efforts to suppress American Sign Language. Weaving together a dazzling tale of innovation with a moving love story, the book offers a heartbreaking account of how a champion can become an adversary and an enthralling depiction of the deaf community’s fight to reclaim a once-forbidden language.Katie Booth has been researching this story for more than fifteen years, poring over Bell’s papers, Library of Congress archives, and the records of deaf schools around America. But she’s also lived with this story for her entire life. Witnessing the damaging impact of Bell’s legacy on her family would set her on a path that overturned everything she thought she knew about language, power, deafness, and the telephone.

Beautiful People

Author: Simon Doonan

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Regular price: $13.99

Deal price: $1.99

Deal starts: April 13, 2024

Deal ends: April 13, 2024

Description:

A wickedly funny memoir with echoes of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, Beautiful People (originally published in hardcover as Nasty) is now a BBC comedy hit series from the producer of Ab Fab and The Office. Proclaimed "the most brilliant, brash thing in type" by Liz Smith, Simon Doonan's saucy prose has established him as an emerging star among literary humorists. In this break-through memoir, reminiscent of both Sedaris and Burroughs, he revisits the landscape of his youth, and displays the irresistible charm that earned him his dedicated audience. Long before he became a celebrity in his own right--as the author of best-selling books, as the style arbiter of VH1 and America's Top Model, and the marketing genius behind Barney's New York--Simon Doonan was a "scabby knee'd troll" in Reading, England. In Beautiful People, Doonan returns to the working-class neighborhood of his youth, and chronicles the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their wacky glory. Readers meet his mother Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxide hairdo signified her natural glamour; his father Terry, an amateur vintner who turned parsnips into the legendary Chateau Doonan; his grandfather D.C., a hard-drinking betting man who plotted to win his fortune by turning Simon into a jockey; and his demented grandma Narg and schizophrenic Uncle Ken, both of whom lived upstairs. Fearing he would fall victim to the insanity that runs in his family, or, worse, the banality of suburban life, Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best-friend Biddie to London, where they hope to find the Beautiful People, that elusive clan who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots. Throughout the memoir--in essays about family holidays, the tart who lived next door, his first job--Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life, only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind.