A family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history. A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of a boy who grows up in war torn Jerusalem, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages. The story of an adolescent whose life changes forever with his mother's suicide. The story of a man who leaves the constraints of his family to join a kibbutz, change his name,...

"HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer. We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or...

"Hailed as a memoir of unexpected beauty and arresting power, Like Family tells the story of three young sisters who are abandoned by their mother and father and raised as wards of the Fresno County, California, court. McLain's unflinching recollection of being shuttled from foster home to foster home strikes a universal chord, capturing the loneliness, uncertainty, and odd pleasures that are the very nature of adolescence."--Back cover.

On George Washington's seventh birthday, he does chores, misbehaves, and dreams of a day when his birthday will be celebrated by all.

Oates' chronicle of her hardscrabble childhood in rural western New York State describes the family members, first friendships, and early experiences with death that shaped her literary career.

Winner of the 2007 Christopher Isherwood Foundation Award for Fiction
Reminiscent of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams stories, Memories from a Sinking Ship travels the landscape of a turbulent world seen through a boy’s steady gaze. Like Twain’s Mississippi River and Hemingway’s Big Two-Hearted, Gifford’s Chicago, New Orleans, and the highways and byways between offer us mesmerizing...

In her first work of nonfiction, winner of the 2018 UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize Dina Nayeri--an author whose "exploration of the exile's predicament is tender and urgent" (The New Yorker)--examines what it means to be a refugee through her own story of childhood escape from Iran, and through the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers What is it like to be a refugee? It is a question many of us do not give much thought to, and...

A collection of poems centered around life in Appalachia addresses topics ranging from the marginalization of the region's people to the environmental degradation it has endured throughout history.

"Birder, environmentalist and activist Mya-Rose Craig is an international force. In her moving memoir, Birdgirl, she chronicles her mother's struggle with mental illness, and shares her passion for social justice and fierce dedication to preserving our planet. Meet Mya-Rose - otherwise known as "Birdgirl." In her words: "Birdwatching has never felt like a hobby, or a pastime I can pick up and put down, but a thread running through the pattern of my...

The kids who grew up to be president were like a lot of other children. Some struggled with schoolwork and got into fights; others pranked their teachers and infuriated their parents. William Howard Taft was forced to take dance lessons. Gerald Ford struggled with dyslexia. Teddy Roosevelt had a bedroom "museum" full of dead animals. "Kid Presidents" features 20 captivating true stories from the childhoods of American presidents, complete with lively...