In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele--Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles--as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

Out of Africa is Isak Dinesen's memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. She had come to Kenya from Denmark with her husband, and when they separated she stayed on to manage the farm by herself, visited frequently by her lover, the big-game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton, for whom she would make up stories like Scheherazade. In Africa, "I learned how to tell tales," she recalled many years later. "The natives have an ear still. I told stories constantly to them, all kinds." Her account of her African adventures, written after she had lost her beloved farm and returned to Denmark, is that of a master storyteller, a woman whom John Updike called "one of the most picturesque and flamboyant literary personalities of the century."

In the spring of 1983, Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by.

One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s.

As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

Darkness Visible tells the story of William Styron's recovery, laying bare the harrowing realities of clinical depression and chronicling his triumph over the disease that had claimed so many great writers before him. In the summer of 1985, Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him.

His final words are a call for hope to all who suffer from mental illness that it is possible to emerge from even the deepest abyss of despair and “once again behold the stars.”

When she was 19 months old, Helen Keller (1880–1968) suffered a severe illness that left her blind and deaf. Not long after, she also became mute. Her tenacious struggle to overcome these handicaps-with the help of her inspired teacher, Anne Sullivan-is one of the great stories of human courage and dedication. In this classic autobiography, first published in 1903, Miss Keller recounts the first 22 years of her life, including the magical moment at the water pump when, recognizing the connection between the word "water" and the cold liquid flowing over her hand, she realized that objects had names. Subsequent experiences were equally noteworthy: her joy at eventually learning to speak, her friendships with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edward Everett Hale and other notables, her education at Radcliffe (from which she graduated cum laude), and-underlying all-her extraordinary relationship with Miss Sullivan, who showed a remarkable genius for communicating with her eager and quick-to-learn pupil.

A woman diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder reveals her harrowing journey from abuse to recovery in this #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography written by her own multiple personalities.

Successful, happily married Truddi Chase began therapy hoping to find the reasons behind her extreme anxiety, mood swings, and periodic blackouts. What emerged from her sessions was terrifying: Truddi’s mind and body were inhabited by the Troops—ninety-two individual voices that emerged to shield her from her traumatizing childhood.

For years the Troops created a world where she could hide from the pain of the ritualized sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her own stepfather—abuse that began when she was only two years old. It was a past that Truddi didn’t even know existed, until she and her therapist took a journey to where the nightmare began...

Written by the Troops themselves, When Rabbit Howls is told by the very alter-egos who stayed with Truddi Chase, watched over her, and protected her. What they reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell—and an ultimate, triumphant deliverance for the woman they became.

Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, Abbey reflects on the condition of our remaining wilderness and the future of a civilization that cannot reconcile itself to living in the natural world as well as his own internal struggle with morality. As the world continues its rapid development, Abbey’s cry to maintain the natural beauty of the West remains just as relevant today as when this book was written.

In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, Carl Gustav Jung undertook the telling of his life story. Memories, Dreams, Reflections is that book, composed of conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, as well as chapters written in his own hand, and other materials. Jung continued to work on the final stages of the manuscript until shortly before his death on June 6, 1961, making this a uniquely comprehensive reflection on a remarkable life.

Fully corrected, this edition also includes Jung's VII Sermones ad Mortuos.

El libro de los abrazos es una síntesis perfecta del imaginario más inspirado de su autor. Celebraciones, sucedidos, profecías, crónicas, sueños, memorias y desmemorias, deliciosos relatos breves en los que hasta las paredes hablan.

Un libro ilustrado por partida doble: a la mirada luminosa de Galeano se suman sus grabados.

“Lea una historia por día y será usted feliz la mitad del año. Lea una historia por día y estará usted triste la otra mitad. Cada página es tan hermosa como el libro.” (Koos Hageraats, HP/De Tijd, Holanda.)

An American Childhood is the electrifying memoir of the wide-eyed and unconventional upbringing that influenced the lifetime love of nature and the stunning writing career of Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard. From her mother's boundless energy to her father's low-budget horror movies, jokes, and lonesome river trips down to New Orleans to get away, the events of Dillard's 1950s Pittsburgh childhood loom larger than life.

An American Childhood fizzes with playful observations and sparkling prose, illuminating the seemingly ordinary and yet always thrilling, dizzying moments of a childhood and adolescence lived fearlessly. This poignant and vivid memoir captures the hearts of readers across the country, resonating with anyone who has ever recalled with longing playing baseball on an endless summer afternoon, caring for a pristine rock collection, or knowing in your heart that a book was written just for you.

In August 1966, a group of Red Guards ransacked the home of Nien Cheng. Her background made her an obvious target for the fanatics of the Cultural Revolution: educated in London, the widow of an official of Chiang Kai-Shek's regime, and an employee of Shell Oil, Nien Cheng enjoyed comforts that few of her compatriots could afford.

When she refused to confess that any of this made her an enemy of the state, she was placed in solitary confinement, where she would remain for more than six years. "Life and Death in Shanghai" is the powerful story of Nien Cheng's imprisonment, of the deprivation she endured, of her heroic resistance, and of her quest for justice when she was released.

It is the story, too, of a country torn apart by the savage fight for power Mao Tse-tung launched in his campaign to topple party moderates. An incisive, rare personal account of a terrifying chapter in twentieth-century history, "Life and Death in Shanghai" is also an astounding portrait of one woman's courage.

The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, this edition includes an exclusive conversation between the author and Philip Roth.In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and “Italian citizen of Jewish race,” was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi’s classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint, compassion, and even wit, Survival in Auschwitz remains a lasting testament to the indestructibility of the human spirit.

The Solace of Open Spaces is a collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, capturing both its otherworldly beauty and its cruelty. Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make documentaries when her partner died. She stayed on, finding she couldn’t leave.

This book is a chronicle of her first years on “the planet of Wyoming,” a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life. Ehrlich brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists.

Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose “as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning”, Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around us.

A Fortunate Life is the extraordinary life story of an ordinary man, Albert Facey. He lived with simple honesty, compassion, and courage. Starting as a parentless boy who began work at the age of eight on the rough West Australian frontier, Facey faced numerous challenges. He struggled as an itinerant rural worker and survived the gore of Gallipoli. He endured the loss of his farm during the Depression, the tragic death of his son in World War II, and the passing of his beloved wife after sixty devoted years together. Yet, despite these hardships, he felt that his life was fortunate.

Facey's life story, published when he was eighty-seven, has inspired many as a play, a television series, and a book that has sold over half a million copies. It is a testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit.

Night is a terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that transforms a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family, the death of his innocence, and the death of his God. It is as penetrating and powerful as The Diary Of Anne Frank, awakening the shocking memory of evil at its absolute. This unforgettable narrative carries with it a poignant message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

The heartbreaking, iconic true story of an abandoned little boy’s horrific journey through the American foster care system. On a misty evening in Brooklyn, Jennings Michael Burch’s mother, too sick to care for him, left her eight-year-old son at an orphanage with the words, “I’ll be right back.” She wasn’t. Shuttled through a bleak series of foster homes, orphanages, and institutions, Jennings never remained in any of them long enough to make a friend. Instead, he clung to a tattered stuffed animal named Doggie, his sole source of comfort in a frightening world.

Here, in his own words, Jennings Michael Burch reveals the abuse and neglect he experienced during his lost childhood. But while his experiences are both shocking and devastating, his story is ultimately one of hope—the triumphant tale of a forgotten child who somehow found the courage to reach out for love, and found it waiting for him.

Zami: A Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers.

Zami is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author’s vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde’s work is cyclical. It especially relates the linkage of women who have shaped her life.

Lorde brings into play her craft of lush description and characterization. It keeps unfolding page after page, revealing the evolution of a strong and remarkable character.

The third volume in the multimillion copy bestselling series, All Things Wise and Wonderful continues the delightful memoirs of Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot. In this volume, readers are treated to another dose of Herriot's humor, insight, and wisdom.

In the midst of World War II, James is training for the Royal Air Force, while going home to Yorkshire whenever possible to see his very pregnant wife, Helen. Musing on past adventures through the dales, visiting with old friends, and introducing scores of new and amusing characters--animal and human alike--Herriot enthralls with his uncanny ability to spin a most engaging and heartfelt yarn.

Millions of readers have delighted in the wonderful storytelling and everyday miracles of James Herriot in the over thirty years since his delightful animal stories were first introduced to the world.

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol is a loosely formed autobiography by the enigmatic Andy Warhol. Told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment, this compelling memoir offers riffs and reflections on various aspects of life.

Warhol shares his thoughts on love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, and success. He also delves into his experiences in New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The narrative captures his good times and bad in New York, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among celebrities.

Discover the world of Andy Warhol through his own words, as he invites readers to experience his unique perspective on life and art.

Nancy Mitford meets Nora Ephron in the pages of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff's delightful travelogue about her "bucket list" trip to London.

When devoted Anglophile Helene Hanff is invited to London for the English publication of 84, Charing Cross Road—in which she shares two decades of correspondence with Frank Doel, a British bookseller who became a dear friend—she can hardly believe her luck. Frank is no longer alive, but his widow and daughter, along with enthusiastic British fans from all walks of life, embrace Helene as an honored guest.

Eager hosts, including a famous actress and a retired colonel, sweep her up in a whirlwind of plays and dinners, trips to Harrod's, and wild jaunts to their favorite corners of the countryside. A New Yorker who isn't afraid to speak her mind, Helene Hanff delivers an outsider's funny yet fabulous portrait of idiosyncratic Britain at its best.

And whether she is walking across the Oxford University courtyard where John Donne used to tread, visiting Windsor Castle, or telling a British barman how to make a real American martini, Helene always wears her heart on her sleeve. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is not only a witty account of two different worlds colliding but also a love letter to England and its literary heritage—and a celebration of the written word's power to sustain us, transport us, and unite us.

The classic multimillion copy bestseller

Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.

For over forty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot's marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way from smallest to largest, and observing animals and humans alike with his keen, loving eye.

In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. Some visits are heart-wrenchingly difficult, such as one to an old man in the village whose very ill dog is his only friend and companion, some are lighthearted and fun, such as Herriot's periodic visits to the overfed and pampered Pekinese Tricki Woo who throws parties and has his own stationery, and yet others are inspirational and enlightening, such as Herriot's recollections of poor farmers who will scrape their meager earnings together to be able to get proper care for their working animals. From seeing to his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth.

Twenty-five years ago, a volume of memoirs by an unknown Scottish veterinarian was first published--All Creatures Great and Small. Within a year, the book had become recognized as a masterpiece. It went on to sell millions of copies and began the marvelous series of books, beloved of readers all over the world, which have so far sold over 20 million copies in English alone. Here, for the first time, the first two books in this series are being published together.

These pages, now as then, are full of humor, warmth, pathos, drama, and James Herriot's unique and richly justified love of life. His journeys across the Yorkshire dales, his encounters with humans and dogs, cows and kittens, are illuminated by his infinite fascination and affection, and rendered with all the infectious joy of a born storyteller.

Whether struggling mightily to position a calf for birthing, or comforting a lonely old man whose beloved dog and only companion has died, Herriot's heartwarming and often hilarious stories perfectly depict the wonderful relationship between man and animal. His wonderful stories make us laugh and cry, as we marvel at the everyday miracles he creates.

This unusual fictional memoir - in good part autobiographical - narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great cities. The Parisian episode is fascinating for its expose of the kitchens of posh French restaurants, where the narrator works at the bottom of the culinary echelon as dishwasher, or plongeur. In London, while waiting for a job, he experiences the world of tramps, street people, and free lodging houses. In the tales of both cities we learn some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and of society.

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is a superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir. It offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in the 1920s.

Beauvoir vividly evokes her friendships, love interests, mentors, and the early days of the most important relationship of her life, with fellow student Jean-Paul Sartre, against the backdrop of a turbulent political time in France.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished.

Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly to think it through, and then to render it comprehensible in lucid, unpretentious prose.

He was profoundly in touch with the minutest workings of the most endearing human events and with the most contemptible. What has survived in Levi's writing isn't just his memory of the unbearable, but also, in The Periodic Table and The Wrench, his delight in what made the world exquisite to him.

He was himself a magically endearing man, the most delicately forceful enchanter I've ever known.

The Pianist is the extraordinary memoir of Władysław Szpilman, a young Jewish pianist who survived the horrors of World War II in Warsaw. On September 23, 1939, Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on Polish Radio, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of war as German shells exploded around him.

His account details the devastating impact of the Nazi occupation on the Jews of Warsaw, including the tragic loss of his entire family who were deported to Treblinka. Szpilman's survival is a testament to his resilience and the unexpected kindness of strangers, including a German officer, Wilm Hosenfeld, who provided him with food and shelter.

The memoir captures the haunting reality of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, where Szpilman hid among the ruins, enduring hunger and despair. His story is interwoven with excerpts from Hosenfeld's diary, offering a poignant counterpoint that highlights the madness and humanity found amidst the war's chaos.

Originally published in 1946, this powerful narrative was suppressed for decades and now stands as a profound testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of music.

El juguete rabioso es la primera novela del escritor Roberto Arlt –marcadamente autobiográfica– publicada en el año 1926 por la Editorial Latina. Sus manuscritos datan de la década de 1920 y fueron bosquejados por Arlt en las argentinas Sierras de Córdoba, en una época en la cual su mujer, Carmen, atacada por una complicada tuberculosis, debe instalarse en esas geografías para intentar una difícil mejoría.

Arlt, en tanto acompaña a su esposa e invierte una considerable suma de dinero en negocios que no fructifican, hace nacer a El Juguete Rabioso.

Widely hailed as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century, James Thurber looks back at his own life growing up in Columbus, Ohio, with the same humor and sharp wit that defined his famous sketches and writings.

In My Life and Hard Times, first published in 1933, he recounts the delightful chaos and frustrations of family, boyhood, youth, odd dogs, recalcitrant machinery, and the foibles of human nature.

The eagerly anticipated sequel to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Angela’s Ashes, 'Tis follows Frank McCourt's journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Landing in New York at age nineteen, Frank encounters the vivid hierarchies of this “classless country,” gets drafted into the army, and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. His voice—uncanny in humor and astonishing in dialogue—renders these experiences spellbinding.

Upon returning to America in 1953, Frank works on the docks, always resisting the norm of sticking to one’s own kind. He knows education is his way out and, despite leaving school at fourteen, talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love and begins to find his place in the world. Frank's journey is a tale of redemption, where storytelling itself is the source of salvation.

Lost in the Crowd is an engaging, humorous, and sometimes poignant autobiographical story that will have you feeling as though you are right there with the author - laughing, crying, and stumbling through all the ups and downs of his amazing, hard-to-believe, often hilarious, crazy, heartwarming journey through life - a journey that recurrently seems to be influenced by mysterious forces beyond his control and understanding.

The book is defined by events that occurred in the author's life during the two years it was being written. These events bring the book to life and give it a whole new meaning - a meaning that could never have been envisaged when the writing started in October 2015.

It has been described as a brilliantly compelling quirky book of inspiration, coincidence, love, luck, loss, life, chance, opportunism, emotion, comedy, stupidity, amazement, danger, worry, survival, happiness, laughter, and WTF!

See www.litcbook.com to learn more.

Contains original artwork by chrisriversart.com.

This book developed from a journal of my thoughts and feelings recorded in response to the shock of my wife’s diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer in December 2015. Initially, I kept it as a personal diary of things that I believed were important at the time, including the poems and prose I wrote which sprang organically from the events as they unfolded. Whilst these few short months were extremely challenging, at times shocking and ultimately tragic, they were also a time of great love.

Hopefully, I have captured some of those few moments of pure happiness, humour and joy which I believe will not only help other people touched by cancer but will show sufferers and their families that there is no right or wrong way to behave, just as long as you continue to show how much you care and as much as possible, be there for each other.

Spy for Nobody is an intriguing and riveting book that sheds light on the plight of the Syrian people. Authored by the renowned security expert and journalist, Basel Saneeb, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Middle Eastern politics and intelligence adventures.

The book delves into the author's life, particularly his work in the Syrian Military Intelligence during the regimes of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, despite being an opponent of both regimes. It provides a detailed account of the strange events and the author's testimonies on the crimes of the Assad regime.

From his early youth, Basel Saneeb was involved in forming a secret student organization against the Assad regime. The book is a political memoir that narrates the oppressive practices and intelligence operations against the Syrian people during the reigns of the Assad dictators, father and son. It also covers the beginnings of the Syrian revolution and the author's participation, including his arrest and the torture he endured.

The book offers a unique perspective, as the author was privy to secrets of the regime as a security officer. It also recounts his experiences during his detention in the notorious Syrian prisons, including the infamous Tadmor prison.

This book is more than just a memoir; it is a historical document and a political security testimony that provides an unprecedented experience in Syria, seldom found elsewhere in the world.

When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level. Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger's—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all.

This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as funny, lively, and un-put-downable today as it ever was. Dive into a world where humor meets hardship, and resilience triumphs over adversity.