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Alabama Fats is a real person. For more than half a century his job was to con people on the streets of America out of their money - and he was VERY good at it. Every line in this book is true. That was the way he wanted it. He wanted to make sure his children knew exactly what he had done all those years when he was 'on the road' and away from Cleveland. This book is an unrepentant look at the life of a con man. He is not sorry for a single person he conned. If his knees were better and Cleveland was warmer, he would be on the streets now, looking to take YOUR money.

Anyone who likes to go out in a little black dress can thank Coco Chanel for making it fashionable. The French designer behind the iconic brand of haute couture grew up in poverty, though. Delve into this biography to learn all about the rags-to-riches life of this fashion icon.

Booker T. Washington’s 1901 autobiography can be read as a redemption story echoing many similar voices of its time. Starting from the humiliation he experienced as a slave, he ponders the meaning of identity in a situation that seeks to dehumanize. He furthers his story by expanding on his difficulties in obtaining an education and the need for change in our minds as well as societal structures.

As Georgina's life faces a disastrous implosion, her best friend, Sandy, invites her to a healing center deep in the Peruvian Amazon where she naively enters into the mysterious world of ayahuasca - a potent visionary plant medicine also known as the "vine of the soul". Magical journeys and other-worldly adventures submerge her into the shadow world where she discovers her demons and uncovers the lie she has been living.

Harriet Ann Jacob's autobiography documents her life as a slave and how she attained freedom for herself and her children. Harrowing in its descriptions of sexual abuse, Jacob's slave narrative is notable for the appeal it made to abolitionist women to open their eyes to the realities of slavery. Deemed too shocking for reading audiences at the time, the book was shelved before it was published in 1861 near the start of the Civil War.

In Betty Reid Soskin’s 96 years of living, she has been a witness to a grand sweep of American history. When she was born in 1921, the lynching of African-Americans was a national epidemic, blackface minstrel shows were the most popular American form of entertainment, white women had only just won the right to vote, and most African-Americans in the Deep South could not vote at all. From her great-grandmother, who had been enslaved until her mid-20s, Betty heard stories of slavery and the times of terror and struggle for Black folk that followed.

This memoir tells the story of Dr. Joseph Sebarenzi, whose parents, seven siblings, and countless other family members were among 800,000 Tutsi brutally murdered over the course of 90 days in 1994 by extremist Rwandan Hutu - an efficiency that exceeded even that of the Nazi Holocaust. Outbreaks of ethnic violence had been occurring in Rwanda since colonial times when the Belgians ruled the region. As a child, Sebarenzi twice hid with his mother during episodes of killing, narrowly escaping with his life.

It'd been a long time since I claimed some solitude in this blessed landscape; since I've done without life's little props. Here I have no friend, no dog, no radio, no clock, no phone, no roof, no body pollutants.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the most inspiring civil rights leader in American history. He was a scholar and a very gifted orator, but, before all else, he was a pastor, a theologian, a martyr, a Christian. Spirit-Led Prophet uniquely tells his compelling story from the perspective of his faith. In the midst of a tumultous public life, King prayed for guidance and depended upon God’s spirit to lead him.

Esmeralda Santiago reminisces about her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early years in Brooklyn as the oldest of seven (soon to be 11) children. Her upbringing is turbulent on account of her parents’ relentless fighting, which only ever seems to stop when they have another baby. When her youngest brother has an accident, her mother decides to move to New York with her children to seek medical treatment. Arriving in the United States, 13-year-old Santiago experiences uprooting and a loss of identity while she tries to adapt to a culture and language that are foreign to her.

K-von is the most famous half-Persian comedian in the world. Born and raised in America, he invites the listener along on a hilarious journey as he investigates the mysteries of his Middle Eastern roots - making fun of himself along the way. With clever use of character voices and sound effects, prepare to be charmed by his recollection of immigrant-family memories, "horror stories" from the road, and valuable cultural tips. Nothing is off limits.

By captivating millions during his six-year, 50-country tenure as The New York Times' "Frugal Traveler", Seth Kugel has become one of our most internationally beloved travel writers. While his famously unassuming journeys around the globe have forged a signature philosophy of whimsy and practicality, they have also revealed the seemingly infinite booby traps of on-the-grid tourism. In a book with widespread cultural reverberations, Kugel takes the modern travel industry to task, determined to reignite humanity's age-old sense of adventure.

This audiobook is about the influence of the Western culture on an Egyptian writer.

Based on the gut-wrenching true story of the author’s grandfather’s childhood, seven-year-old Thomas is thrown into the darkness of captivity. Although the cascading darkness is intent on breaking his spirit, Thomas’ resourcefulness and faith keep him alive amid the direst of conditions. In a forest full of enemies, a ray of hope comes from an unexpected, mysterious source. The long, treacherous journey is far from over, but the hope of a new day is on the horizon.

In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on antipsychotic meds.

Deeply rooted in Appalachia, Hills of Home offers a rich literary patchwork of reflection, memoir, and humor. The story opens in the 1950s in the remote community of Munday in Wirt County, West Virginia. Though comprised of a mosaic of individual stories, the compilation reads like a novel and is characterized uniquely with the author’s personal diary entries and a sailor’s letters home.

Oscar Felix (1893-1980) was born in the Ukraine, in Brailov, a village where the poverty is unimaginable. Yet, Felix had his mind set on one thing and one thing only, and he let nothing distract him. After an adventurous journey, by way of New York, he finally ended up in Santa Monica, California, and instantly knew he was home. He was lucky to escape before every Jew in Brailov, including his own family, was buried alive by the Nazis. His is a timeless story. There are millions of Oscar Felixes out there today, with the same goal in mind: to reach the greatest nation on earth.

Deep inside, we are all nonconformists, and you will never have the career or lifestyle you desire by following the status quo. Buy now and unleash the nonconformist in you.

John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalayas. Michael Spender was the first to survey the northern approach to the summit of Mount Everest. While their younger brothers - W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender - achieved literary fame, they vied for a place on an expedition that would finally conquer Everest, a quest that had become a metaphor for Britain’s efforts to maintain power over India. To this rivalry was added another: in the summer of 1938 both men fell in love with a painter named Nancy Sharp. Her choice would determine each man’s wartime loyalties.

Survival Math is both a personal reckoning and a vital addition to the national conversation about race. Mitchell explores the Portland of his childhood, tracing the ways in which his family managed their lives in and around drugs, prostitution, gangs, and imprisonment as members of a tiny black population in one of the country’s whitest cities. He discusses sex work and serial killers, gangs and guns, near-death experiences, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of drugs and addiction on family.