Biographies & Memoirs

Recreational Suffering: …and how to choose a better hobby (Feel Good Now Book 1)by Barry Friesen

Our Emotional Design has all the hidden levers and buttons we need to let go of emotional baggage and feel good. This book reveals where they are and how they work, so we can live with feelings consciously and joyfully.

The Postmortal: A Novelby Drew Magary

• Finalist for the Philip K. Dick and Arthur C. Clarke Awards •

The gripping first novel by Drew Magary, Deadspin columnist, GQ correspondent, and author of The Hike

"An exciting page turner. . . . Drew Magary is an excellent writer. The Postmortal is . . . even more terrifying than zombie apocalypse." — Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

John Farrell is about to get "The Cure."
Old age can never kill him now.
The only problem is, everything else still can . . .

Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and-after much political and moral debate-made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems-including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult, and other horrors. Witty, eerie, and full of humanity, The Postmortal is an unforgettable thriller that envisions a pre-apocalyptic world so real that it is completely terrifying.

Asperby Rhonda Smiley

A mission to avenge her father’s murder turns to a harrowing quest for 16-year-old Milla to save two worlds from a tyrannical queen. But when a spell her father cast to suppress her memories begins to wane, Milla discovers her entire life is a lie. Shattered, she’s left questioning everything. What is good? What is evil? And more importantly, what is she.

Being Authentic: A Memoirby Morhaf Al Achkar

Our existence is fragile. I learned that in many intricate ways, so I do not take today for granted. I do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not even know if tomorrow will come.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 2016, I received the diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Next to dying, I fear the spread of cancer to my brain and losing my ability to think, speak, or write. This loss would be devastating to me.

The fragility of our life made me want to be authentic. Therefore, I am writing this memoir to be authentic–we become our true selves when we author who we are.

I am afraid of being forgotten. Death does frighten me. But more than dying, I am scared of having no one remember me or, even worse, of being recognized differently from who I was. At the same time, I have never thought that I was entitled to ask others not to forget me. But, not to be forgotten is precisely what I yearn for.

While I am writing for the other, I am simultaneously writing for myself. I am one of the readers and will test the subject as it gets written. My criteria are stricter. I want to say, “This is my narrative.”

I need to be able to say, “This is my narrative.”

ROADS TO MEANING AND RESILIENCE WITH CANCER: Forty Stories of Coping, Finding Meaning, and Building Resilience While Living with Incurable Lung Cancerby Morhaf Al Achkar

The book tells the stories of 39 patients with incurable lung cancer. It aims to help patients, families, and healthcare providers understand the experience of living with cancer. It also invites reflections on the essential questions of meaning, resilience, and coping with adversity in life. The author is a family doctor, teacher, and researcher who is also a stage 4 lung cancer patient himself. He is patient #40.
Patients with cancer often have an urgency to find meaning in life. They struggle with the illness, its emotional impact, and the consequences of treatments. However, with time, reflection, and support from others, they develop resilience. Cancer patients often are not passive. Instead, they choose different strategies to maintain and restore their health. They also leverage a variety of approaches to cope better with their struggle.
The book is for cancer patients who are tarrying at the limits of time. It is also for those who live around patients with cancer: caregivers, families and friends, and health care providers. People who struggle with other illnesses will also find aspects of their story reflected here. Also, the ones who have experienced a crisis of identity will discover elements of their story here as well. By sharing the experiences of the forty authentic individuals, the book opens the space for them to teach others. This book is about the essence of the human experience at its limits. It is for every reader.

Raven Transcending Fearby Terri Kozlowski

Raven Transcending Fear is part memoir, part self-help guide. It’s the authors’ raw and personal story of childhood abuse and diving deep into her terror before ultimately getting comfortable with fear and transcending it. Though Terri had loving people in her life, her mother was abusive and enabled others to traumatize her. To get drugs, her mother allowed strangers to assault her 11-year-old body sexually. She then left her and her sister alone on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Terri’s childhood left her filled with fear until she embarked on a spiritual journey and learned the skills of empowerment, which have allowed her to transcend the fear and regain a connection with the Divine. Everyone is born fearless and knowing who they are and what their purpose is. However, life experience or abuse may instill fear and break the connection with our authentic selves. Through this memoir, readers will go on the journey with her as Terri moves from a life ruled by fear to fearlessness.

What’s Left Untoldby Sherri Leimkuhler

“What’s Left Untold is a heartfelt and surprising examination of friendship, honesty, and whether ‘love is love.'” Cara Sue Achterberg, national bestselling author of Girls’ Weekend

“I stayed up half the night reading this book, nearly one-more-chaptering myself to death!” Suanne Schafer, author of Hunting the Devil

Every secret has its price.

Anna Clark and Lia Clay were unlikely best friends in high school, but their yin-and-yang personalities drew them together in a sister-like bond. Then during college, Lia inexplicably walked out on their friendship and disappeared, leaving Anna hurt, confused, and disillusioned.

Twenty years later, Anna discovers a letter Lia wrote the summer after high school–a letter that contains a cryptic postscript concealing a devastating truth. With her twenty-year high school reunion approaching, Anna moves closer to uncovering the secret in Lia’s letter and the heartbreaking consequences it set in motion.

As the layers of deceit and betrayal begin to unravel, Anna is forced to question everything she believes and come to terms with what it means to forgive the one person who hurt her in the worst way imaginable.

Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life: Create Your Path to Financial, Physical and Personal Transformationby Richard Kelley MD

For over a quarter of a century caring for patients in the ER, as well as teaching the principles of fitness-based weight-management to thousands of men and women, Richard Kelley, M.D. has acquired a treasure trove of wisdom and experience which comes only with time in the trenches.  

As the author of ‘The Fitness Response…21 Steps to Model Your Way to a Fit, Fabulous Body,’ and multiple Amazon eBooks, Dr. Kelley delivers ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power for Life’ as an inspirational resource for those seeking a springboard to a healthier, more meaningful and prosperous life.

In his new book, Dr. Kelley takes you on a journey of lessons learned throughout the course of his life, while aspiring to reach his own potential in the areas of financial, physical and spiritual prosperity.

No matter where you find yourself today in the realm of realizing your own aspirations and dreams…through ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life,’ Dr. Kelley wants to open your eyes, not only to the unprecedented times in which we’re living today, but also to awaken your understanding of the potential that resides within you, and give you the push to move toward the greatest expression of your life possible.

As a physician, author, and serial entrepreneur, Dr. Kelley wants to give you a ringside seat view into the successes and failures that have shaped his life over the past four decades, and inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and ‘Swing the Bat.’

In ‘Wealth, Fitness & Power For Life’ you’ll hear stories of triumph, inspiration and loss, and you’ll learn what it takes to keep going when times get tough.

In the pages of this book you’re going to discover…

-Why most people can’t simply rely on ‘a job,’ if they wish to thrive financially and to prosper, and why the best investments you can make are ultimately the ones you make in yourself.

-The intangibles of wealth that you already possess, that lie beyond the realm of financial assets. 

-Why it’s not only OK to desire and seek financial freedom and prosperity…it’s a mental shift that you can and must cultivate daily to avoid complacency and to move your life forward on multiple levels.

-That YOU have one or more superpower which could be the key to creating a greater, more expansive life for you and your family.

-How you can explore and resurrect dreams, aspirations and goals from your past, that may hold a key to your future.

-Why using Social Media to ‘just be social,’ may represent an enormous mistake for millions of people worldwide.

-Why prioritizing your health and fitness is a foundational necessity for creating success in other areas of your life.

-How the world as we know it has rapidly changed and why your ability to pivot, educationally as well as in the realm of entrepreneurship, may define your opportunities for the future.

-Why your ingrained attitudes regarding money and wealth will dictate your ultimate level of financial prosperity over the course of your life.  

-How you can reinvent yourself at any age and create the physical, financial and spiritual life you’ve always desired.