In this instant New York Times bestseller, comedian and Chelsea Lately regular Jen Kirkman champions every woman’s right to follow her own path—even if that means being “childfree by choice.”

In her debut memoir, actress and comedian Jen Kirkman delves into her off-camera life with the same snarky sensitivity and oddball humor she brings to her sold-out standup shows and the Chelsea Lately roundtable, where she is a writer and regular performer.

As a woman of a certain age who has no desire to start a family, Jen often finds herself confronted (by friends, family, and total strangers) about her decision to be “childfree by choice.” I Can Barely Take Care of Myself offers honest and hilarious responses to questions like “Who will take care of you when you get old?” (Servants!) and provides a peek into the psyche—and weird and wonderful life—of a woman who has always marched to the beat of a different drummer and is pretty sure she’s not gonna change her mind, but thanks for your concern.

My dream then was to play baseball for the New York Yankees. I was on the Stuyvesant baseball team, but because of my working hours, my playing time was limited. My first dream to become a corporate president by the time I was 35 years of age was fulfilled.

Experience the ups and downs of a life well lived in Bill Morgenstein's compelling new memoir, The Crazy Life of a Kid from Brooklyn. While first reminiscing upon his childhood in Brooklyn during the depression, Morgenstein traces his life through times of war, peace, and everything in between.

At times funny and heartbreaking, The Crazy Life of a Kid in Brooklyn details Morgenstein's enlistment in the US Army, his days running a $55 million dollar company, his despair at losing it all to a scam, and much more. His chance encounters with such historical figures as Sergeant York, Cordell Hull, Sid Gordon, Jomo Kenyatta, and Vince Camuto provide amusing cultural touchstones that reveal a willingness to embrace everything life has to offer.

Through all the successful, disappointing, dangerous, educational, and enlightening experiences that have shaped his life, Morgenstein remains philosophical as he explores the roles of ethics, honesty, and unfailing determination in shaping the human experience.

Twelve Years a Slave is a compelling memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was cruelly kidnapped and sold into slavery. Born in New York, Northup was lured to Washington, D.C. with the promise of a lucrative job, only to be drugged, beaten, and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve harrowing years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation.

Northup's narrative provides a vivid and detailed account of slave life, from the brutal conditions he endured to the rare moments of kindness he received. His story sheds light on the slave markets of Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, as well as the daily routines and hardships faced by slaves in the Southern United States.

This powerful autobiography is not only a personal account of survival but also a crucial historical document that offers insight into one of the darkest periods in American history.

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.

Men We Reaped is a poignant memoir by the talented Jesmyn Ward, who recounts the heartbreaking loss of five men in her life over five years. These men were lost to drugs, accidents, and suicide, and their deaths are painted against the backdrop of the harsh realities of poverty and systemic racism in rural Mississippi.

Ward bravely explores the pressures faced by black men, the women who support them, and the communities that struggle with the absence of these men. Her narrative is both an intimate reflection and a powerful commentary on the social and economic struggles that foster drug addiction and the breakdown of family relationships.

As the only member of her family to pursue higher education, Ward writes with the objectivity that distance provides and the intimacy of someone deeply familiar with the struggles of her community. Men We Reaped is a compelling read that resonates with the themes of grief, resilience, and hope.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a powerful memoir by Susannah Cahalan that delves deep into her personal struggle with a mysterious medical condition. This riveting medical mystery goes beyond a simple recounting of events, exploring the profound impact on her identity and life.

At the age of twenty-four, Susannah woke up in a hospital room, strapped to her bed, unable to move or speak, and with no memory of how she got there. Just days before, she was embarking on a new chapter in her life, with a promising career and a budding relationship. Suddenly, she found herself labeled as violent, psychotic, and a flight risk.

In this breathtaking narrative, Cahalan shares her descent into madness, her family's unwavering faith, and the lifesaving diagnosis that almost didn't happen. The book brings readers into the harrowing journey of piecing her life back together using memories, journals, and hospital records.

Brain on Fire is not only a personal story but a universal one, asking profound questions about identity, sanity, and the human spirit's resilience in the face of unimaginable challenges.

Eat, Pray, Love is the captivating memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert that chronicles her journey of self-discovery following a devastating divorce. Feeling lost and uncertain about the future, Gilbert makes a bold decision to step away from her life in America and embark on a year-long trip around the world.

In Italy, she indulges in the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and delighting in the country's culinary offerings. Her experience is not just about savoring good food and wine, but also about embracing joy and giving herself permission to feel good again.

India offers a stark contrast, where Gilbert dives deep into the art of devotion. It is here, in an ashram, that she commits to exploring her spiritual side, seeking peace and a sense of connection that had long eluded her.

The final leg of her journey takes her to Bali, Indonesia, where she seeks balance between the material and the spiritual. Under the guidance of an elderly medicine man and through an unexpected romance, Gilbert finds a harmony she had been missing.

An honest and transformative narrative, Eat, Pray, Love is a testament to the healing power of travel and the courage it takes to confront one's own truths. It's a story of embracing change, pursuing happiness, and discovering a life worth living on one's own terms.

The End of Your Life Book Club is a moving narrative that unfolds the story of a son and his mother who form a unique book club that becomes a medium of connection as the mother, Mary Anne Schwalbe, faces the end of her life due to cancer.

During her treatments, Will Schwalbe and his mother begin sharing books, which leads to profound discussions on a wide range of topics. Their book selections are diverse, spanning from classics to contemporary hits, and encompassing both fiction and spiritual texts. The dialogues that emerge from these shared reading experiences are deeply personal, offering insights into their lives, their love for each other, and the role that books play in shaping our human experience.

Through this heartfelt testament, readers witness the enduring bond between parent and child, and the transformative power of literature. The End of Your Life Book Club is not just an account of Mary Anne's battle with cancer, but also a celebration of life, a source of comfort, and a reminder of the joy that reading can bring, especially when shared.

The World's Strongest Librarian is an inspiring memoir that takes you through the life of Josh Hanagarne, a Mormon kid who found salvation in books and strength in weight lifting.

Josh's journey begins at the age of six, when he first starts exhibiting symptoms of Tourette Syndrome during a school play. This condition escalates to nightmarish levels by the time he reaches his towering height of 6'7" at the age of twenty.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh tries everything from dubious remedies to drug regimes that leave him lethargic, and even Botox injections that paralyze his vocal cords, rendering him voiceless for three years.

However, an eccentric, autistic strongman teaches Josh the art of "throttling" his tics into submission through strength training. This hobby becomes a way of life and an effective method for managing his disorder.

Today, Josh is a librarian at Salt Lake City's public library and the founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting. He is also a proud father, navigating life with humor and candor, overcoming his disability, and finding love.

This memoir illuminates the mysteries of Tourette Syndrome and explores the contrasting worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and insight, Josh's story is one of resilience and hope.

The World of Yesterday is a profound memoir by the renowned Austrian author, Stefan Zweig. This masterpiece stands as one of his most significant works, providing a rich source for understanding modern European culture.

Zweig offers an eyewitness account of the pivotal events that shaped modern European history. Through his vivid recollections, he captures the atmosphere of Europe's cities and shares encounters with some of its most notable personalities.

This autobiography serves as a mirror to an era and a poignant reflection on the cultural and historical transformations of his time.

A guy walks into a bar car and...

From here, the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.

With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving.

Mom & Me & Mom unveils the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told.

In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them. Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise to the heights.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen is a vibrant, food-themed memoir from beloved indie cartoonist Lucy Knisley. Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly.

In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions.

A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a book for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product.

Every teenager wants to fit in and be just like everybody else. So imagine how hard that is when your father runs a taxidermy business out of the family home, your mother runs the student cafeteria, and your sister has just been elected high school mascot, which means she walks the halls in a giant bird costume. But as Jenny Lawson grows up, falls in love, gets engaged – in a way that is as disastrous as it is romantic – and starts a family of her own, she learns that life’s most absurd and humiliating moments, the ones we wish we could pretend had never happened, are the very same moments that make us who we are.

This is an often poignant, sometimes disturbing, but always hilarious book from a writer that dares to say your deepest and strangest thoughts out loud. Like laughter at a funeral, it is both highly irreverent and impossible to stop once you’ve started . . .

Redefining Success details how W. Brett Wilson was forced to redefine his life, making health and key relationships his first priorities. Through trial and error, he discovered that these simple virtues are foundations for real, enduring success, both in business and in life.

Wilson's compelling insights are the basis for Redefining Success. Not just for entrepreneurs and business people, the book outlines how we can change our lives for the better by re-evaluating our personal definitions of success, then reworking them into a life plan that is feasible, lasting, and rewarding. Inspirational and paradigm-changing, Redefining Success will help you implement and sustain lasting, positive change in your life—and make your world a little more meaningful—every day.

Crossing the Seas: A Diary of My Thoughts documents the author Yuehai Xiao's book reading experience and his reflections upon politics, higher education, society, and pop culture, as well as his mind reading experience. It is a collection of his posts on his blog and on Facebook, where he has been sharing his thoughts and interacting with top political and business leaders, celebrities, and scholars in America, Europe, and Asia, implicitly and explicitly during the past two years (Sept.2010 through Sept.2012).

It seems that his Facebook posts might have inspired lots of creative celebrities who produced stunning songs, movies, and TV shows, evidencing a broad influence on popular culture.

Stories for Boys: A Memoir is a poignant exploration of fathers and sons, where Gregory Martin grapples with the revelation that the father he knew has survived a suicide attempt and had been leading a secret life. Martin's father, a man married for thirty-nine years, had been conducting anonymous affairs with men, and now must start anew as a gay man.

Amidst the national conversation about gender, sexuality, and acceptance, this memoir delves into the transformation of a father-son relationship. After years of suppression and denial, the truth is finally given air and light. Martin's narrative is both quirky and compelling, enriched with personal photos and a mix of social science and literary insights.

Through humor and candidness, Martin examines the impact of his father's secrets on his own life as a husband and father. Stories for Boys resonates with conflicting emotions and the complexities of family sympathy, posing questions such as: How well do we know the people we think we know best? And how much do we need to know to keep loving them?

No, Really, Where Are You From? by Nancy Ng offers an insightful glimpse into the lives of eight Chinese individuals who navigate the complexities of being a visible minority in Canada. Through vivid storytelling, Ng explores the experiences of these individuals with their Chinese culture from childhood to adulthood, painting a portrait of the diverse ways in which they connect with their heritage.

The book delves into the broader themes of global migration and its significant impact on ethnic identity. It presents the nuanced and often challenging journey of ethnic identity retention and loss, which is not a matter of absolutes but is in a constant state of evolution and redefinition. Nancy Ng's work is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit in the face of cultural shifts and societal pressures.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar brings the best of Cheryl Strayed's 'Dear Sugar' advice columns from The Rumpus, along with never-before-published pieces, all together in one place. With a new introduction by Steve Almond, this collection is a treasure trove of wisdom, humor, and heartfelt advice.

Strayed, the author of the bestselling memoir Wild, once wrote anonymously as Sugar, offering guidance to thousands seeking help for their real-life struggles. Whether it's dealing with infidelity, grieving a loved one, facing financial hardships, or experiencing the highs of love and success, Strayed approaches each topic with candor and empathy.

Rich with compassion and unflinching honesty, Tiny Beautiful Things is a soothing balm for the varied challenges of life, affirming that we are all capable of facing them with grace and resilience.

Ashley Judd is an award-winning film and stage actor known for her roles in both box-office hits and art-house gems. She is also the daughter and sister of country-music royalty. In 2002, drawing on a deep well of empathy, she found her true calling: as a humanitarian and advocate for those suffering in neglected parts of the world.

Asked why she was opting out of a successful career, walking away while she was one of the highest-paid women in Hollywood, Ashley herself could not provide an answer. She simply knew that after her first trip to the notorious brothels, slums, and hospices of Southeast Asia, her own life depended on advocating on behalf of the vulnerable. Promising each new sister, “I will never forget you,” Ashley began writing extraordinary diaries—on which this memoir is based—expanding her capacity to relate to, and to share with a global audience, stories of survival and resilience.

Along the way, Ashley realized that the coping strategies she had developed to deal with her own emotional pain, stemming from childhood abandonment, were no longer working. Seeking in-patient treatment in 2006 for the grief that had nearly killed her, Ashley found not only her own recovery and an enriched faith but an expanded kit of spiritual tools that energized and advanced her feminist social justice work.

Now, in this deeply moving and unforgettable memoir, Ashley Judd describes her odyssey, as a left-behind lost child attains international prominence as a fiercely dedicated advocate. Her story ranges from anger to forgiveness, isolation to interdependence, depression to activism. In telling it, she resoundingly answers the ineffable question about the relationship between healing oneself and service to others.

The secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children. When American journalist Pamela Druckerman has a baby in Paris, she doesn't aspire to become a "French parent." French parenting isn't a known thing, like French fashion or French cheese. Even French parents themselves insist they aren't doing anything special.

Yet, the French children Druckerman knows sleep through the night at two or three months old while those of her American friends take a year or more. French kids eat well-rounded meals that are more likely to include braised leeks than chicken nuggets. And while her American friends spend their visits resolving spats between their kids, her French friends sip coffee while the kids play.

With a notebook stashed in her diaper bag, Druckerman-a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal-sets out to learn the secrets to raising a society of good little sleepers, gourmet eaters, and reasonably relaxed parents. She discovers that French parents are extremely strict about some things and strikingly permissive about others. And she realizes that to be a different kind of parent, you don't just need a different parenting philosophy. You need a very different view of what a child actually is.

Little Princes is the epic story of Conor Grennan's battle to save the lost children of Nepal and how he found himself in the process. Part Three Cups of Tea, and part Into Thin Air, Grennan's remarkable memoir is at once gripping and inspirational, and it carries us deep into an exotic world that most readers know little about.

One Person Can Make a Difference

In search of adventure, twenty-nine-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children's Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal. Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined.

When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war — for a huge fee — by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury.

Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life's work.

Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

Manchild in the Promised Land is indeed one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time. This thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown's childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s.

When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem — the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humor. The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown's time, but also because the book is affirmative and inspiring.

Here is the story about the one who "made it," the boy who kept landing on his feet and became a man.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a memoir by Jeanette Winterson that is both witty and fierce, taking readers on an emotional journey of belonging, love, identity, and the search for a mother.

Jeanette Winterson, known for her acclaimed novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, shares her life story in this celebratory and tough-minded narrative. It's a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother with two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a northern England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the Universe as a Cosmic Dustbin.

Winterson's journey takes her through madness and back as she searches for her biological mother, confronting the painful past she thought she'd left behind. This memoir also explores the power of literature, illustrating how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft that supports us when we are sinking.

Chris Thrall left the Royal Marines to find fortune in Hong Kong, but following a bizarre series of jobs, he ended up homeless and in psychosis from crystal meth. He began working for the 14K, a notorious crime syndicate, as a nightclub doorman in the Wan Chai red-light district, where he uncovered a vast global conspiracy and the 'Foreign Triad' - a secretive expat clique in cahoots with the Chinese gangs.

Alone and confused in the neon glare of Hong Kong's seedy backstreets, Chris was forced to survive in the world's most unforgiving city, hooked on the world's most dangerous drug.

Engaging, honest, and full of Chris's irrepressible humour, this remarkable memoir combines gripping storytelling with brooding menace as the Triads begin to cast their shadow over him. The result is a truly psychotic urban nightmare.

A Legacy of Madness is the story of a loving family coming to grips with its own fragilities. It relays the author's journey to uncover, and ultimately understand, the history of mental illness that led generations of his suburban American family to their demise.

Dede Davis had worried, fussed, and obsessed for the last time. Her heart stopped beating in a fit of anxiety. In the wake of his mother's death, Tom Davis knew one thing: Helplessly self-absorbed and severely obsessive-compulsive, Dede led a tormented life. She spent years bouncing around mental health facilities, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities, but what really caused her death?

A Legacy of Madness portrays Tom Davis's captivating discoveries of mental illness throughout generations of his family. Investigating his mother's history led to that of Davis's grandfather, a top administrator at one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country; his great-grandfather who died of self-inflicted gas asphyxiation during the Depression; and his great-great-grandmother who, with her eldest son, completed suicide one tragic day.

Ultimately, four generations of family members showed clear signs of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and alcoholism—often mistreated illnesses that test one's ability to cope.

Through this intimate memoir, we join Davis on a personal odyssey to ensure that he and his siblings, the fifth generation, recover their family legacy by not only surviving their own mental health disorders but by getting the help they need to lead healthy, balanced lives. In the end, we witness Davis's powerful transition as he makes peace with the past and heals through forgiveness and compassion for his family—and himself.

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to attend Harvard, he has nothing but a senior thesis on Bugs Bunny to show for himself. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, Steinberg remains stuck at a crossroads, his “romantic” existence as a freelance obituary writer no longer cutting it. Seeking direction (and dental insurance), Steinberg takes a job running the library counter at a Boston prison.

He is quickly drawn into the community of outcasts that forms among his bookshelves—an assortment of quirky regulars, including con men, pimps, minor prophets, even ghosts—all searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. Steinberg recounts their daily dramas with heartbreak and humor in this one-of-a-kind memoir—a piercing exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world.

The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir, a passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle, a disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note, and a doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate.

Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves—a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library—between life and death, love and loyalty—become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process.

Beautiful is a harrowing but ultimately inspiring memoir of how one girl's beautiful face and spirit was destroyed after a vicious acid attack.

'I heard a horrible screaming sound, like an animal being slaughtered ... then I realised it was me.'

When Katie Piper was 24, her life was near perfect. Young and beautiful, she was well on her way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a model. But then she met Daniel Lynch on Facebook, and her world quickly turned into a nightmare. After being held captive and brutally raped by her new boyfriend, Katie was subjected to a vicious acid attack.

Within seconds, this bright and bubbly girl could feel her looks and the life she loved melting away. This is the moving true story of how one young woman had her mind, body, and spirit cruelly snatched from her and how she inspired millions with her fight to get them back.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Matterhorn, this is a powerful nonfiction book about the experience of combat and how inadequately we prepare our young men and women for war.

War is as old as humankind, but in the past, warriors were prepared for battle by ritual, religion, and literature—which also helped bring them home. In a compelling narrative, Marlantes weaves riveting accounts of his combat experiences with thoughtful analysis, self-examination, and his readings—from Homer to the Mahabharata to Jung. He talks frankly about how he is haunted by the face of the young North Vietnamese soldier he killed at close quarters and how he finally finds a way to make peace with his past.

Marlantes discusses the daily contradictions that warriors face in the grind of war, where each battle requires them to take life or spare life, and where they enter a state he likens to the fervor of religious ecstasy.

Just as Matterhorn is already being acclaimed as a classic of war literature, What It Is Like To Go To War is set to become required reading for anyone—soldier or civilian—interested in this visceral and all too essential part of the human experience.

The pain of Lucile, my mother, was a part of our childhood and later our adult lives. This pain, undoubtedly, constitutes my sister and me, yet any attempt at explanation is doomed to failure. Writing cannot resolve it; at most, it allows me to pose questions and interrogate memory.

The family of Lucile, ours consequently, has throughout its history sparked numerous hypotheses and comments. People I encountered during my research speak of fascination; I often heard this in my childhood. My family embodies what joy has of the most noisy, the most spectacular, the tireless echo of the dead, and the resounding disaster. Today I also know it illustrates, like so many other families, the power of destruction of the Word, and that of silence.

The book, perhaps, would be nothing other than that: the narrative of this quest, containing within itself its own genesis, its narrative wanderings, its unfinished attempts. But it would be this momentum, from me towards her, hesitant and unfulfilled.

In this dazzling investigation at the heart of family memory, where the most luminous memories meet the most buried secrets, Delphine de Vigan unfolds all our lives, our flaws, and our own wounds with strength.

On June 10, 1991, eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard was abducted from a school bus stop within sight of her home in Tahoe, California. It was the last her family and friends saw of her for over eighteen years.

On August 26, 2009, Dugard, her daughters, and Phillip Craig Garrido appeared in the office of her kidnapper's parole officer in California. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home.

During her time in captivity, at the age of fourteen and seventeen, she gave birth to two daughters, both fathered by Garrido. Dugard's memoir is written by the 30-year-old herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present.

In her stark, utterly honest, and unflinching narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now, a year after being found. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes.

How to Be a Woman is a hilarious and insightful exploration into the life of modern women. Although women now have the vote and access to contraception, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk. Caitlin Moran, with her rapier wit, dives into the uncertainties and questions that plague women today.

Why do bras hurt? Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? And why the incessant talk about babies? Caitlin Moran interweaves laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own life with provocative observations on women's lives. From the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother, Moran slices right to the truth—whether it's about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children.

With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim offers a raw and unflinching look into the world of a street pimp. Robert (Iceberg Slim) Beck shares his life story without bitterness and with no pretense at moralizing.

Experience the smells, sounds, fears, and petty triumphs of the street life through his eyes. This is a tale of brutality, cunning, and greed, unveiling the secret inner world of the pimp.

A legendary figure in the Chicago underworld, Iceberg Slim provides a harrowing portrait of life on the wrong side of the tracks. His story is a rich warning from a true survivor.

The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks is a profound guide to the nuances of successful investment. Marks, renowned for his insightful assessments of market opportunity and risk, shares his wisdom, accumulated over four decades in the investment management profession.

In this book, Marks explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos, he illustrates his ideas and details the development of an investment philosophy that acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world.

Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with numerous takeaways. He expounds on concepts such as second-level thinking, the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. By frankly assessing his own decisions and occasional missteps, Marks provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy.

Encouraging investors to be contrarian, Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

An acclaimed Turkish novelist's personal account of balancing a writer's life with a mother's life.

After the birth of her first child in 2006, Turkish writer Elif Shafak suffered from postpartum depression that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt, anxiety, and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words altogether.

In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated but emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering harem of women who live inside of her, each with her own characteristics—the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal, and the lustful—she craves harmony, or at least a unifying identity.

As she intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand, and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting.

With searing emotional honesty and an incisive examination of cultural mores within patriarchal societies, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood, and spiritual well-being.

Waris Dirie ran away from her oppressive life in the African desert when she was barely in her teens, illiterate and impoverished, with nothing to her name but a tattered shawl. She traveled alone across the dangerous Somali desert to Mogadishu—the first leg of a remarkable journey that would take her to London, where she worked as a house servant; then to nearly every corner of the globe as an internationally renowned fashion model; and ultimately to New York City, where she became a human rights ambassador for the U.N.

Desert Flower is her extraordinary story, filled with courage, resilience, and the power of the human spirit.

That's when I saw him—the cowboy—across the smoky room. I'll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn't looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I'd been struck with a lightning bolt... and I was completely powerless to stop it.

Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected.

This isn't just my love story; it's a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet. It's the story of a cowboy. And Wranglers. And chaps. And the girl who fell in love with them.

By turns inspiring and heart-breaking, hopeful and horrifying, I Shall Not Hate is Izzeldin Abuelaish's account of an extraordinary life. A Harvard-trained Palestinian doctor who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Abuelaish has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide Israelis and Palestinians for most of his life.

As a physician who treats patients on both sides of the line, and as a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East, Abuelaish's work is profound. Most recently, as the father whose daughters were killed by Israeli soldiers on January 16, 2009, during Israel's incursion into the Gaza Strip, his response to this tragedy made news around the world.

Instead of seeking revenge or sinking into hatred, Abuelaish called for the people in the region to start talking to each other. His deepest hope is that his daughters will be "the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis."

"I Am Ozzy" is the unbelievable story of the heavy metal legend, Ozzy Osbourne. Born into a life of poverty, where the entire family slept in one room, music became his salvation. His band, Black Sabbath, went on to change the musical landscape forever.

But along with the rock and roll came the inevitable sex and drugs, leading Ozzy into an epic relationship with booze and chemicals. The stories of his days on the road are legendary – from biting the head off a live bat to surviving a tragic plane crash that claimed the life of his best friend and writing partner, Randy Rhoades.

Amidst the chaos, Ozzy faced real heartbreak during those days of hard living. In the end, it was the love of his family that saved him. Told in the rocker's hilarious and inimitable voice, this memoir of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll reveals the life of a man who has done it all and lived to tell the tale.

For Fauziya Kassindja, an idyllic childhood in Togo, West Africa, sheltered from the tribal practices of polygamy and genital mutilation, ended with her beloved father's sudden death.

Forced into an arranged marriage at age seventeen, Fauziya was told to prepare for kakia, the ritual also known as female genital mutilation. It is a ritual no woman can refuse. But Fauziya dared to try.

This is her story—told in her own words—of fleeing Africa just hours before the ritual kakia was to take place, of seeking asylum in America only to be locked up in U.S. prisons, and of meeting Layli Miller Bashir, a law student who became Fauziya's friend and advocate during her horrifying sixteen months behind bars.

Layli enlisted help from Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law and acting director of the American University International Human Rights Clinic. In addition to devoting her own considerable efforts to the case, Musalo assembled a team to fight with her on Fauziya's behalf.

Ultimately, in a landmark decision in immigration history, Fauziya Kassindja was granted asylum on June 13, 1996. Do They Hear You When You Cry is her unforgettable chronicle of triumph.

The Fry Chronicles is the captivating autobiography of Stephen Fry, one of the most beloved figures in British entertainment. Thirteen years ago, Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge best seller. In the years since, Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure and a private man.

Stephen Fry arrived at Cambridge on probation—a convicted fraudster and thief, an addict, liar, fantasist, and failed suicide—convinced that at any moment he would be found out and flung away. Instead, university life offered him love, romance, and the chance to stand on a stage and entertain. He met and befriended bright young things like Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie and emerged as one of the most promising comic talents in the country.

This is the intriguing, hilarious, and utterly compelling story of how the Stephen the nation knows (or thinks it knows) began to make his presence felt as he took his first tentative steps in the worlds of television, journalism, radio, theatre, and film. Shameful tales of sugar, shag, and champagne jostle with insights into credit cards, classic cars, and conspicuous consumption, Blackadder, Broadway, and the BBC.

For all its trademark wit and verbal brilliance, this is a book that is not afraid to confront the aching chasm that separates public image from private feeling. Welcome to The Fry Chronicles, one of the boldest, bravest, most revealing, and heartfelt accounts of a man's formative years that you will ever have the exquisite pleasure of reading.

The long-awaited autobiography of Keith Richards, guitarist, songwriter, singer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. With The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life. Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane.

Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records, learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and the notorious drug busts that led to his enduring image as an outlaw folk hero. Creating immortal riffs like the ones in "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women."

His relationship with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the U.S., isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Marriage, family, solo albums and Xpensive Winos, and the road that goes on forever.

With his trademark disarming honesty, Keith Richard brings us the story of a life we have all longed to know more of, unfettered, fearless, and true.

The Tao of Wu is a unique book of wisdom and experience, reaching from the most violent slums of New York City to the highest planes of spiritual thought, authored by The RZA, hip-hop's most exalted wise man.

The RZA, the Abbot of the Wu-Tang Clan and hip-hop culture's most dynamic genius, imparts the lessons he's learned on a journey that took him from the Staten Island projects to international superstardom. Along the way, he has been a devout student of knowledge in every form he's found it—on the streets, in religion, in martial arts, in chess, and in popular culture.

Part chronicle of an extraordinary life and part spiritual and philosophical discourse, The Tao of Wu is a nonfiction Siddhartha for the hip-hop generation—an engaging and thought-provoking book that will enlighten, entertain, and inspire.

The legions of Wu-Tang fans are accustomed to this heady mix; their obsession with the band's puzzle-like lyrics and elaborate mythology has propelled the group through years of dazzling, multi-platform success.

In The Wu-Tang Manual, the RZA provided a glimpse of how that mythology worked. In The Tao of Wu, he takes us deep inside the complex wisdom and spirituality at the core of his commercial and creative success. The book is built around significant moments in the RZA's life when he faced dramatic turning points, either bad (a potential prison sentence) or good (a record deal that could lift his family out of poverty), and the lessons he took from each experience.

His points of view are always surprising and provocative, revealing a profound, genuine, and abiding wisdom—consistently tempered with humor and peppered with unique, colloquial phraseology. This is a spiritual memoir as the world has never seen before, and will never see again.

Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain is a searing, unflinchingly honest memoir by actress Portia de Rossi, where she shares the truth of her long battle to overcome anorexia and bulimia while living in the public eye. It details the new happiness and health she has found in recent years, including her coming out and her marriage to Ellen DeGeneres.

Portia de Rossi reveals the pain and illness that haunted her for decades, starting when she was a twelve-year-old girl working as a model in Australia, through her early rise to fame as a cast member of the hit television show Ally McBeal. All the while, she was terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She alternately starved herself and binged, putting her life in danger and concealing the seriousness of her illness from herself and everyone around her.

The memoir explores the pivotal moments of her childhood that set her on the road to illness and describes the elaborate rituals around food that dominated hours of every day. She also reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to health and honesty, emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women's health issues.

Unbearable Lightness is a landmark book that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit, shining a bright light on the dark subject of eating disorders and the complex emotional truth surrounding food, weight, and body image.

Written initially to guide his son, Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life, now a classic of world literature that is sure to inspire and delight readers everywhere. Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.

It's a big, big world. It's easy to get lost in it... —Justin Bieber, "Up"

I love those lines in the lyrics. Sometimes I feel like that's what everyone's expecting. My world got very big, very fast, and a lot of people expect me to get lost in it.

I grew up in a small town in Canada. I taught myself to sing in front of my bedroom mirror and to play guitar on a hand-me-down. My mom posted my first videos on YouTube. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd sell millions of records, sing for the president of the United States, and sell out a massive arena tour.

So no, I'm not lost. Not at all. If anything, onstage in front of my fans, I'm home. I'm found. And that's what this book is about: my journey, from singing and busking on the sidewalk in Stratford, Ontario, to performing and showing my appreciation to millions of fans all over the world for making this dream a reality.

My music and lyrics give a glimpse of what's in my heart, but I think this book is a window into my world. In here are hundreds of pictures of me that no one's ever seen before, and I'll tell you about who I was before I joined forces with Scooter Braun and Usher and got a record deal, and who I've become since I've been blessed with the opportunity to share my music with the world.

This is my gift to you, the fans who've supported and been with me on this amazing journey every step of the way.