A young man struggles to reconcile God, faith, and sex as he stumbles toward finding himself in this "brave and irreverent" (Details) memoir. Since childhood, David Schickler has been torn between his intense desire to become a Catholic priest and his equally fervent desire for the company of women. Things don't get any clearer for Schickler at college, where he initiates serious conversations about becoming a Jesuit just as he enters a passionate relationship with a vivacious, agnostic young woman. Setting out on a journey to understand the balance between a life of faith and life in the real world, Schickler comes to terms with this dichotomy and learns that the answers he seeks aren't clear-cut--no matter how long he treads the dark path. Candid and funny, lyrical and blunt, The Dark Path is an evocative portrayal of one man's struggle with faith and women . . . both of which he tries to love with bold, bracing honesty.
With over ten million albums sold and multiple Grammy nominations, the hard rock band Godsmack has become one of the most successful groups of the last decade. The band's driving beats and searing lyrics have garnered widespread acclaim, while their well-known work ethic has earned the industry's respect. Fans who attend Godsmack concerts are sure to be rewarded with a fiercely energetic show. The force behind the band comes largely from founder and front man Sully Erna. Onstage, growling into the microphone with characteristic intensity, he appears perfectly at home, and it's no wonder. Erna has been immersed in the world of rock ever since he got his first drum set at the age of five. Given his achievements, that early start might suggest that his career was a straight shot to the top. The truth is, Erna took so many detours during the years between his first drums and Godsmack's first contract that, more than once, he nearly forgot his destination. In The Paths We Choose, he relates the turbulent story of his life before the platinum albums and packed arenas. "The Lawrence I remember was full of murderers, thieves, and rapists and half the time those people were your next-door neighbors," Erna writes of his childhood hometown in the gritty Boston suburbs. Although the danger of the streets was a constant reality, young Sully's world really revolved around music. From the day he convinced his mom to pay for drum lessons, "beating the skins" was all he ever wanted to do. As he grew older, Erna began devoting all his energy to one band after another. Life as a marginally successful (and sometimes downright unsuccessful) musician was always unpredictable, and Sully's good times were equally matched by his frustrations. He learned that talent and passion were not enough; he also had to know who to trust. Beautiful blondes attracted Erna like a moth to an open flame, and his affairs with them were intense and often unstable. Outwardly hardened, yet privately vulnerable, he couldn't open up. This, combined with his high-adrenaline lifestyle, seemed bound to catch up with him and did. Here, Sully delves with surprising sensitivity into the emotional struggles that almost forced him to abandon his ambitions. Musical fame was never a given for Sully Erna. He could easily have continued to be "just another punk on the streets." The extraordinary success he now enjoys with Godsmack only came by an unlikely combination of talent, sweat, lucky breaks, and hard falls. Any one of the decisions he made along the way could have brought him to a dead end. But that just might be the whole point. Sully's story shows us that whatever hardship we may face, ultimately, our choices determine our destiny. He's made the most of every advantage and obstacle he has faced, and reminds us that we can, too. But for Sully, career success is not an ultimate destination. Every day brings a new fork in the road another path to choose.
The Endless Path follows Gunny's struggle to survive rare and near fatal illnesses with fierce determination, as well as our amazing adventures living all around the world. It is knowing the edge of death that deepened Gunny's commitment to life -and his reflections on life, love, relationships, and what it all means are astonishing.
In this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoir that “invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Searing, heartrending . . . This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause. Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a “toxic faith,” the other into a self-destructive spiral. Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear. “I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING GILLIAN ANDERSON AND JASON ISAACS "Polished, poignant... an inspiring story of true love."—Entertainment Weekly A BEST BOOK OF 2019, NPR's Book Concierge SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARD OVER 400,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE The true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in England Just days after Raynor Winn learns that Moth, her husband of thirty-two years, is terminally ill, their house and farm are taken away, along with their livelihood. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, through Devon and Cornwall. Carrying only the essentials for survival on their backs, they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea, and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable and life-affirming journey. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, The Salt Path is ultimately a portrayal of home—how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.
'Jane Evans is a name that has earned enormous respect in Early Childhood Development circles. The fact that ECD is an essential pillar in our country's programme of educational reform owes much to Jane and other activists of the time – many of whom are mentioned in her book. While this is a personal memoir it is also an important record of ECD in South Africa.' – Dr Tshepo Motsepe Jane Evans begins her memoir with her career as a journalist in the big city, then tells of her moving to the small town of Viljoenskroon in the northern Free State with her husband, Anthony Evans, a well-known and respected businessman and farmer. It is here, in the heart of South Africa's maize lands during the height of apartheid, that Jane is moved to create the non-profit organisation Ntataise, marking the start of her activism for early childhood development (ECD) and advocacy for training women in rural communities to become ECD teachers. Eloquently written and told with great sensitivity and humility, this is a memoir about love, loss, finding purpose, and how one woman's unexpected path led to family-like bonds in the unlikeliest of places – and about a dream so profound that it would influence generations of young learners and the women who teach them.
*Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times* *Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, BuzzFeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics* In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoir—winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and finalist for the Kirkus Prize—genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon “provocatively meditates on his trauma growing up as a black man, and in turn crafts an essential polemic against American moral rot” (Entertainment Weekly). In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to time in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. Heavy is a “gorgeous, gutting…generous” (The New York Times) memoir that combines personal stories with piercing intellect to reflect both on the strife of American society and on Laymon’s experiences with abuse. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. “A book for people who appreciated Roxane Gay’s memoir Hunger” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family through years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. “You won’t be able to put [this memoir] down…It is packed with reminders of how black dreams get skewed and deferred, yet are also pregnant with the possibility that a kind of redemption may lie in intimate grappling with black realities” (The Atlantic).
A daughter’s memoir of sacrifice and discovery as her ailing mother’s caretaker is “an inspiring story of love, loss and the ravages of aging” (Kirkus). Like all mothers, mine had a set of maxims that she thought were important to impart to me: if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all (unless it’s irresistibly funny); it’s as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is with a poor man (a nice idea in theory); if you want to commit suicide, wait until tomorrow (advice which has, it turns out, saved my life). Like many daughters of elderly parents, Pat MacEnulty finds herself in a maze of healthcare negotiations and surprising discoveries when her mother can no longer care for herself. Pat’s mother, who stood by her through her darkest years, was a small-town icon as a composer, pianist, organist, and musical director. She is suddenly unable to be the accomplished, independent person she once was. Now Pat has two goals: to help her daughter avoid the mistakes that derailed her own life, and to see her mother’s masterpiece, “An American Requiem,” find a new life and a new audience in her mother’s lifetime. Along the way, Pat rediscovers her own strength, humor, and rebelliousness at the most unlikely moments.
This frank and lively autobiography of a man who ultimately left the Catholic church to become a philosophy professor at Oxford, sheds light on the rigors of seminary life, the rigid Latin teaching at the Gregorian University, and the Spartan pleasures of the English College in Rome. An in-depth account of a personal love affair with Catholicism, the book tackles some of the most important moral questions of our day.
The Roots of Desire is a witty and entertaining investigation into the power, myth and meaning of red hair. Redheads have been worshiped, idealized, fetishized, feared, and condemned, leaving their mark on us and our culture. Such is the power of what is actually a genetic mutation, and in The Roots of Desire, Marion Roach takes a fascinating look at the science behind hair color and the roles redheads have played over time. A redhead herself, Roach brings candor and brilliant insight to the complicated and revealing history of redheads, making this a stand-out narrative and an essential tool in understanding the mechanics and phenomenon of red hair. A must-have for every redhead.
