Titres dans Biographies et mémoires

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.

Jeremy Ivester is a transgender man. Thirty years ago, his parents welcomed him into the world as what they thought was their daughter. As a child, he preferred the toys and games our society views as masculine. He kept his hair short and wore boys’ clothing. They called him a tomboy. That’s what he called himself. By high school, when he showed no interest in flirting, his parents thought he might be lesbian. At 20, he wondered if he was asexual. At 23, he surgically removed his breasts.

Event producer, music director, and community organizer Elaina Martin has over the past three decades become widely known in Eastern Ontario, bolstering queer representation, community sustainability, and the arts. In this soulful narrative, she shares how she grew into these roles and what she learned along the way.

House on Fire, a raw and riveting memoir by author and publisher Jenn T. Grace, explores her journey growing up as an adopted child in a chaotic household. Surviving a turbulent childhood marked by family conflict, mental illness, and alcoholism, Grace promises herself that life will get better. But as an adult, Grace’s personal and professional successes belie her inner turmoil.

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.

In the summers of the early 1970s, Morris Ardoin and his siblings helped run their family's roadside motel in a hot, buggy, bayou town in Cajun Louisiana. The stifling, sticky heat inspired them to find creative ways to stay cool and out of trouble. When they were not doing their chores — handling a colorful cast of customers, scrubbing motel-room toilets, plucking chicken bones and used condoms from under the beds — they played canasta, an old ladies’ game that provided them with a refuge from the sun and helped them avoid their violent, troubled father.

The decision to write my life story began as an exercise to make sense out of it all. But it moved quickly to being a tool that would help me put it all in order. My life has been punctuated by some pretty dramatic events. I wanted to recall stories that had been forgotten or buried. I wanted it all out there. For some, the adage "Change is the only thing constant in life" may relate primarily to the weather or one's outfit. Those have not been my changes, although I do worry about both. Joys and tragedies have steered my direction.

Eighteen Moons is the extraordinary and moving story of Andi and John and how they set out to have the family they longed for. Not many people noticed the end of a multibillion-pound industry that touched many, many thousands of lives...but this devoted couple lived through the final wave of International Surrogacy in both India and Thailand, then finally (before it had barely begun) in Nepal on the roof of the world.

Boys’ Secrets and Men’s Loves is the memoir of a law professor who has written over 20 books on the basic rights of American constitutionalism. He has been a prominent advocate of gay rights and feminism, which joins men and women in resistance.

In 1980s America, coming out as gay as a father and husband was a significant journey for anyone to make. Coming out as gay as a priest guaranteed immersion into controversy, contradiction, and challenge. This audiobook tells of the Reverend Canon Ted Karpf's navigation of new social and romantic journeys, all within the context of his priestly vocation in the Episcopal Church.

Martin Milnes was born in the wrong era or at least that's how it seemed. As a child, he wore jazz-shoes to his junior school disco, expecting eight-year-olds to Mambo like the dancers in West Side Story.... But his childhood and school days were no Broadway musical. Martin was different: the cat who walked alone. Birthdays, stingingly empty, held a horrific reminder that he possessed no talent for friendship. Yet once Martin emerged on stage, the jeering turned to cheering; the lonely void was filled by Hollywood stars of yesteryear, worshiped from afar.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, downtown Manhattan was a hotbed of creative life where artists and writers were free to explore ideas and push boundaries. As a young man, celebrated author and playwright Joseph Caldwell arrived from Milwaukee to become one of the original pioneers of New York's gay bohemian community. In this charming, brutally candid memoir, Caldwell describes his tenure working at the venerated classical music station WQXR, marching in civil protests and being arrested, his evolution as a writer, and his many accomplished acquaintances.

On her journey to near stardom in the music business, Monica Madrid wound up a broke, demoralized alcoholic. Through the twists and turns of a colorful life, she rubbed elbows with Prince, Rick James, and other artists and was in a musical battle with Tupac Shakur. She came close to fulfilling her childhood dream, but once it was stripped from her grasp, her path led to money, prestige - and broken relationships. Monica's story is one of loss, love, and redemption.

[Contains explicit content] Susie talks to writer Steven Gaines. His memoir One of These Things First is about growing up gay in Brooklyn and his time in the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. And then, it's on Audible: The Cigar Factory, a story of two families in South Carolina during the world wars.

Recounting her experiences with sexist discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence - beginning in childhood, through the present - Woods lays out clear and unflinching personal vignettes that build in intensity as the number of times grows. Individually, and especially taken as a whole, these stories amount to powerful proof that sexual violence and discrimination are never just one-time occurrences, but part of a constant battle all women face every day.

In a true story, the author writes of a brutal childhood interrupted by occasional spurts of Disneyland and ponies. After a fumbled ax attack by her mother, she takes to the streets at 14 years old. She is a prey looking for a predator. Predators she finds, as well as the unlikeliest of heroes. There is no “road less traveled”. There is no road. She makes her way through back alleys that are dark and mesmerizing. Occasionally brutal, occasionally flat out funny.

If you are transgendered, the feeling of wanting your body to match the sex you feel you are never goes away. For some, though, especially those who grew up before trans people were widely out and advocating for equality, these feelings were often compartmentalized and rarely acted upon. Now that gender reassignment has become much more commonplace, many of these people may feel increasing pressure to finally undergo the procedures they have always secretly wanted.

Willa Cather had a secret. She called it "the thing not named" and did her best to take the details to her grave when she died in 1947. Her last will and testament stated that her letters could not be published or quoted. You'll love this new and personal look at the world-famous author because it brings into focus the tremendous struggle it took for a confused little kid and a cross-dressing adolescent to become the one and only Willa Cather.

This is a story of three magical years. Magical because they house immense personal growth and some of my best and worst times. This is a coming together of two stories, one of coming out, embracing your inner self, and the other managing your mental health and the strain and stress that come with University. Relationships and coming to terms with this newfound self. It is a journey, of emotions, fun, heartache, romance, and sheer determination.

Cory Calvin is a successful New York City corporate executive-turned-entrepreneur. His story reveals a difficult childhood as a closeted teen with a stern father, school bullies, and a strict religious upbringing in a rural town. But Cory’s story is more than his struggle - it is a story of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and success. For Cory, leaving behind his small town and climbing the corporate ladder was empowering, until he realized that there are many more closets in this world.