Showing titles in Biographies & Memoirs

Laurie Lee Hall’s growing-up years were defined by the conflict between her physical condition as a boy and her inherent identity as a girl. Unable to explain or resolve her gender dysphoria, she committed to living her adult life as a male. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, eventually becoming chief architect of its temples and an ecclesiastical leader. In her church and community, rigid adherence to gender roles is not only the norm, but the defining issue of a faith that doctrinally declares one’s gender as an “eternal identity.

This poignant memoir tells the story of Curtis Chin’s time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980’s Detroit. “Vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt” —Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven...

This is a true story that spans the sweeping account of a unique affair between two women. In the face of adversity and against all odds, the relationship has blossomed immeasurably and thrived happily. Christine, a 59-year-old English lady, meets 33-year-old charismatic and lovely Alexandra, in Cape Town in 2002. Alexandra is working in a high-powered job and visiting Christine's neighbour in Simon's Town for Christmas. The women are introduced and a powerful and mutual attraction overtakes them which neither has experienced before.

Chronically Awkward is not a story told for sympathy — it’s a story told for truth. It is a raw, unfiltered account of one person’s lifelong attempt to exist in a world that keeps insisting on rules he never agreed to play by. Jason takes listeners through the tangled intersections of autism, ADHD, trauma, and chronic illness — through the systems that failed him, the people who shaped him, and the quiet victories that kept him here. It’s both memoir and mirror; a reminder that surviving isn’t the same as living, and that sometimes we only find who we are after everything else falls apart.

In this inspirational cross between self-help and memoir, Chad Michael Hardy chronicles his journey from a strict Mormon upbringing to self-acceptance and true authenticity. Facing discrimination and a crisis of faith due to living inauthentically, Hardy embraced the transformative law of Zero to get unstuck, find balance, and unlock infinite potential.

“Wholly transportive and spellbinding.” —Ling Ma, bestselling author of Severance and Bliss Montage “Exquisitely researched, deeply felt, and poignant. This one belongs on your shelf.” —Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe “A fascinating account of a remarkable woman dangerously ahead...

A debut book from Entertainment Weekly writer and former Out magazine editor Lester Fabian Brathwaite, Rage is a darkly comedic exploration of Blackness, queerness, and the American Dream, at a time when creative anger feels like the best response to inequality. One romantic hopeful had greeted...

Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. But bubbling under the surface of his entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet, someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time.

The year was 1991. Vivek was eight. He realized he was gay. Only he didn't: he just figured that he wanted to be different. And that he was in love - for want of a better word - with Deepak, his best friend. Then Mast Kalandar released, with Anupam Kher playing Pinku, a stereotypical gay character. And Vivek realized he didn't want to be Pinku. So he tried to walk differently, gesticulate differently, and speak in as gruff a voice as he could - all to avoid being Pinku.

The Right Side of History tells the 100-year history of queer activism in a series of revealing close-ups, first-person accounts, and intimate snapshots of LGBT pioneers and radicals. This diverse cast stretches from the Edwardian period to today, including first-person accounts of the key protest that is at the heart of the 2015 movie Stonewall. The book shows how LGBT folk have always been in the forefront of progressive social evolution in the United States.

The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos. Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the '40s, '50s and '60s. Hilarious, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel...twice. 

Part provocateur, part seducer, this young gay man’s account of life offers one of the freshest takes on Australia and the world today. Honouring poets of the past–Jean Genet, Veronica Franco, Euripedes, Hunter S. Thompson, Oscar Wilde–and joining in their task of finding meaning in existence and the modern world, Tolcher has produced a brazenly honest debut without precedent.

A profoundly moving celebration of love under the darkest of circumstances From the moment they met in 1940 in Ravensbrück concentration camp, Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann were inseparable. Czech Milena was Kafka’s first translator and epistolary lover, and a journalist opposed...

Sexual healer and entrepreneur David P. Wichman has lived through it all: Childhood abuse, foster care, homelessness, survival sex work, and the blackest pits of drug and alcohol addiction. After white-collar crime landed him in jail, David resolved to finally conquer the sense of brokenness that had been driving him to self-destruction throughout his life. In his moving memoir, he recounts how his recovery and spiritual journey have revealed to him his inherent wholeness and worth, a message of love and belonging that he now carries to others.

Oscar Wilde is remembered as one of the wittiest minds ever, thanks to his provocative style and humor. In the 1890s, he was one of London's most popular playwrights; his masterpieces are The Importance of Being Earnest and the dark and fantastical Picture of Dorian Gray. His writings entwine themes of beauty, decadence and duplicity, which made him a more than colorful agent provocateur in the Victorian society. This would eventually lead to a very public trial after he was accused of sodomy. His defense, punctuated with witticism, often left the court roaring with laughter, but the evidence was against him, and he was eventually sent to prison.

Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction has been largely avoided by biographers. She was openly homosexual and wrote the seminal lesbian love story, Carol. However, her status as an LGBT icon is undermined by the fact that she was excessively cruel and exploitative of her friends and lovers.

In this tell-all memoir, a woman in her eighties, born during the Great Depression to Jewish immigrants, unveils her intimate self-transformations in the course of nine decades. Determined at an early age to prove herself a free spirit in a male-dominated world, as a young adult Kahane went on the road, hitchhiking her way into and out of risky adventures and romantic affairs, ceaselessly chasing new experiences. But what started out as a “road book” takes a different turn in midlife when she became a feminist professor, mother, and wife.

""One of the most brilliant thought leaders I have been able to share space with.""—Jonathan van Ness, from the foreword ""The must-read memoir of fall 2023.""—Them ""Powerful and vital.""—Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Song of Achilles From a celebrated...

In this unflinching and inspiring memoir, Jesse Leon tells an extraordinary story of resilience and survival, shining a light on a childhood spent devastated by sex trafficking, street life, and substance abuse. "A book for survivors and those who know someone they hope survives, bodhisattvas...

"The first chance I got, I bought my very first bag of crystal methamphetamine... A monster was born. Try as I might, there is simply no way for me to minimize the impact with which crystal meth slammed into my life, at least not without straying far from the truth. It was like throwing a forty-pound sledge hammer though a plate glass window. What a cunning thing this was that lived inside of me. How could I ever hope to win against it? My good intentions meant nothing what I lacked was power."