Collection: Biography & Memoir

The new era of Gamification and Human-Focused Design optimizes for motivation and engagement over traditional Function-Focused Design. Within the industry, studies on game mechanics and behavioral psychology have become proliferate. However, few people understand how to merge the two fields into experience designs that reliably increases business metrics and generates a return on investment. Gamification Pioneer Yu-kai Chou takes reader on a journey to learn his twelve years of obsessive research in creating the Octalysis Framework, and how to apply the framework to create engaging and successful experiences in their product, workplace, marketing, and personal lives.

"Taking on the Plastics Crisis delivers straightforward advise for getting involved in the global movement to eliminate single-use plastics." -- Booklist, Starred Review

"Brief yet inspirational, this story will galvanize youth to use their voices for change."--Kirkus Reviews

"Taking on the Plastics Crisis is a sobering and inspiring read by a brilliant young change maker. Now is the time for all of us to come together to solve the plastic pollution crisis."--Ed Begley Jr. (actor and environmental activist)

In this personal, moving essay, youth activist Hannah Testa shares with readers how she led a grassroots political campaign to successfully pass state legislation limiting single-use plastics and how she influenced global businesses to adopt more sustainable practices. Through her personal journey, readers can learn how they, too, can follow in Hannah's footsteps and lower their carbon footprint by simply refusing single-use plastics.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, youth activist Hannah Testa, the founder of Hannah4Change, chronicles both her personal and political mission to save the Earth's oceans by limiting single-use plastic products.

Hold on to your Viking helmets as you learn about the first known European to set foot on North America in this exciting addition to the Who Was? series!

Leif Erikson was born to be an explorer. His father, Erik the Red, had established the first European settlement in present-day Greenland, and although he didn't yet know it, Leif was destined to embark on an adventure of his own. The wise and striking Viking landed in the area known as Vinland almost five centuries before Christopher Columbus even set sail! "Leif the Lucky" and the other fierce, sea-fearing pirates were accomplished navigators who raided foreign lands for resources, hunted for their food, and passed down Old Norse myths from one generation to the next. This book gives readers a detailed account of what life was like during the time of the Vikings.

Long regarded as an underground classic for its gritty and unabashedly erotic portrayal of the Beat years, Memoirs of a Beatnik is a moving account of a powerful woman artist coming of age sensually and intellectually in a movement dominated by a small confederacy of men, many of whom she lived with and loved. Filled with anecdotes about her adventures in New York City, Diane di Prima's memoir shows her learning to "raise her rebellion into art," and making her way toward literary success. Memoirs of a Beatnik offers a fascinating narrative about the courage and triumphs of the imagination.

With such bestsellers as A History of God and Islam, Karen Armstrong has consistently delivered "penetrating, readable, and prescient" (The New York Times) works that have lucidly engaged a wide range of religions and religious issues. In Buddha she turns to a figure whose thought is still reverberating throughout the world 2,500 years after his death.

Many know the Buddha only from seeing countless serene, iconic images. But what of the man himself and the world he lived in? What did he actually do in his roughly eighty years on earth that spawned one of the greatest religions in world history? Armstrong tackles these questions and more by examining the life and times of the Buddha in this engrossing philosophical biography. Against the tumultuous cultural background of his world, she blends history, philosophy, mythology, and biography to create a compelling and illuminating portrait of a man whose awakening continues to inspire millions.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The true story behind Jon Krakauer's bestselling novel and Sean Penn's acclaimed film Into the Wild, from the sister of Chris McCandless, filling in questions about Chris' journey of self-discovery and the dysfunctional childhood that pushed him to brave the Alaskan wilderness alone

"The Wild Truth is an important book on two fronts: It sets the record straight about a story that has touched thousands of readers, and it opens up a conversation about hideous domestic violence hidden behind a mask of prosperity and propriety."-NPR.org

The spellbinding story of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer's book, Into the Wild, became an international bestseller, translated into thirty-one languages, and Sean Penn's inspirational film by the same name further skyrocketed Chris McCandless to global fame. But the real story of Chris's life and his journey has not yet been told - until now. The missing pieces are finally revealed in The Wild Truth, written by Carine McCandless, Chris's beloved and trusted sister. Featured in both the book and film, Carine has wrestled for more than twenty years with the legacy of her brother's journey to self-discovery, and now tells her own story while filling in the blanks of his. Carine was Chris's best friend, the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled household, Carine speaks candidly about the deeper reality of life in the McCandless family. In the many years since the tragedy of Chris's death, Carine has searched for some kind of redemption. In this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth.

Many people only ever dream of leaving it all behind to follow their heart. In "Wander," Ryan Benz shares the story of how he upended his 'successful' life and turned that dream into a reality.

In this raw and authentic memoir, Benz embarks on a journey of physical and emotional perseverance and transformation to discover what it means to live a truly meaningful life.

An encouraging read for the dreamer in each of us, "Wander" illuminates the impact wandering can have on a person's life and is a meditation on purpose, authenticity, and intentionality. While walking over two thousand miles from Georgia to Maine, Benz explores the nature of adventure, self-discovery, and what it means to follow your heart.

While telling the story of one man's quest for meaning, "Wander" also serves as a roadmap for the rest of us, inspiring us to awaken to the potential that lies within and choose the path truest to our being.

Hungary, 1944. Almost half a million Jewish Hungarians are deported to Auschwitz. Among the few surviving Hungarian Jews from this era were young men who, like Ervin Wolf, were forced into the brutal Labor Service where they were cut off from the outside world and forced to endure inhumane brutalities and servitude. Once freed, a new oppression took hold as communist rule under Stalin turned friends to foes, enveloped the nation in fear and suspicion, and tested everyone's character and strength.

This is the true story of Ervin Wolf and his family as the fascist tide of Eastern Europe takes hold of Hungary. From the Wolfs' comfortable upper-class life to imprisonment, daring escapes, tragic deaths, cloak-and-dagger adventures, and Ervin's final escape to freedom in the dead of night, Not a Real Enemy is a page-turning tale of suspense, tragedy, comedy, and ultimately, triumph.

A bold and innovative social history, The Seed is Mine concerns disenfranchised black people who did so much to shape the destiny of South Africa. After years of interviews with Kas Maine and his neighbours, employers, friends, and family - a rare triumph of collaborative courage and dedication - Charles van Onselen has recreated the entire life of a man who struggled to maintain his family in a world dedicated to enriching whites and impoverishing blacks, while South Africa was tearing them apart.

Amelia Earhart was twice the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air: initially in 1928 as a passenger just a year after Lindbergh's pioneering flight and then in 1932 flying solo. Like her contemporaries Amy Johnson and Beryl Markham she was featured in all the fashionable magazines of the day as a symbol of the new independent woman. The list of records Amelia established reads like a catalogue of aviation history and includes the first flights from Hawaii to California and from California to Mexico. In 1937 she attempted with a copilot, Frederick J. Noonan, to fly around the world, but her plane was lost on the flight between New Guinea and Howland Island. Despite extensive searches neither wreckage nor bodies were ever found. Many theories exist but there is no proof of her fate. Amelia will always be remembered for her courage, vision and groundbreaking achievements both in aviation and for women.

A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, this memoir of one woman's later in life career change is "a smart, funny and compelling case for going after your heart's desires, no matter your age" (Essence).

Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school--in her sixties--to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived.

How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, "You will never be an artist"? Who defines what an artist is and all that goes with such an identity, and how are these ideas tied to our shared conceptions of beauty, value, and difference?

Bringing to bear incisive insights from two careers, Painter weaves a frank, funny, and often surprising tale of her move from academia to art in this "glorious achievement--bighearted and critical, insightful and entertaining. This book is a cup of courage for everyone who wants to change their lives" (Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage).

A riveting narrative of love and loss, grief and joy, as one woman embarks on a quest for a fastest known time on the Pacific Crest Trail.

When Emily Halnon lost her beloved mother to a rare uterine cancer at just 66 years old, she wanted to do something epic to honor the person her mother had been: adventurous, courageous, inspiring. Emily's mom had taken up running in her late 40s; she ran her first marathon at 50. She learned to swim at 60 so she could do triathlons, and she did long bike rides even after she was diagnosed, still going for walks as she could in the short months from diagnosis to her death. Emily's mom had even once jumped out of a plane. It was going to take something special to pay tribute to such a remarkable, life-loving spirit. Emily, an already accomplished ultrarunner (inspired to start running by her mother), decided to try to break the record for the Fastest Known Time by a woman, running the Pacific Crest Trail's 460 miles across Oregon. As she laid out plans for her run she began to wonder: Could she also break the men's record?

To the Gorge takes the reader through those 7 days, 19 hours, and 23 minutes, covering nearly 60 miles a day on foot over mountainous terrain, and battling all the issues that could arise during such a monstrous undertaking: hammered muscles, golf ball-sized blisters, sleep deprivation, hallucinations, cougar encounters. The hardest run of her life while she simultaneously battled through the profound grief of losing her living inspiration and best friend. Interwoven with Halnon's eight-day effort are her remembrances from her mother's life and death, exploring the complicated experience of grief--and what shines through it.

To the Gorge resonates with anyone whom life has hit with a hardball and has had to dig deep as they wonder how they will get through it. Filled with adventure and heart, To the Gorge invites readers to consider what our greatest losses have to teach us about how to live the one life we get.

In this vulnerable and urgent memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the ever-shifting relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist.

Growing up in the diverse and bustling California Bay Area, renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant always felt worlds away from the white male adventurers she watched explore the wilderness on TV. She dreamed of a future where she could spend sleepless nights under the crowded canopies of the Amazon and the starry skies of the savanna. But as Rae set off on her own expeditions in the wild, she saw nature's delicate balance in a new light.

Wild Life follows Rae on her adventures and explorations in some of the world's most remote locales. Hers is a story about a nearly twenty-year career in the wild--carving a niche as one of very few Black female scientists--and the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. An incredible journey spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives--both human and otherwise--that we share it with.

"A stirring, accessible introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks and a must-have for all elementary collections." --School Library Journal (Starred review)
"The combination of biography and Brooks' own poems makes for a strong, useful, and beautiful text . . . A solid introduction to a brilliant writer"--Kirkus.

Acclaimed writer Alice Faye Duncan tells the story of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize.

SING a song for Gwendolyn Brooks.
Sing it loud--a Chicago blues.

With a voice both wise and witty, Gwendolyn Brooks crafted poems that captured the urban Black experience and the role of women in society. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago, reading and writing constantly from a young age, her talent lovingly nurtured by her parents. Brooks ultimately published 20 books of poetry, two autobiographies, and one novel. Alice Faye Duncan has created her own song to celebrate Gwendolyn's life and work, illuminating the tireless struggle of revision and the sweet reward of success.

Included on the Chicago Public Libraries list of Best Informational Books for Young Readers.

Everyone has a story to tell. Sharing that story can change you, your community, or even the world. But how do you start?

Discover the tools to unlock your truth and share it with the world: Storytelling coaches Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen reveal how to embrace the power of personal storytelling in a series of easy steps. You'll learn how to share your experiences and invaluable knowledge with the people who need it most, whether it be in a blog post, a motivational speech, or just a conversation with a loved one. How Your Story Sets You Free is the path to finding the spark that ignites the fire and reminds you just how much your story matters.

- Features over 100 pages of practical and motivating advice, including quotes from renowned storytellers including Maya Angelou and Marshall Ganz.
- Includes specific step-by-step instructions to help you find the words to tell your story in the most powerful and impactful way.
-Brimming with inspiration, How Your Story Sets You Free has a charming hardcover, which features a textured cover with glittering foil stamping, and colored paper printed with metallic ink on the interior.

"Human beings understand the world best through stories: not policy papers, not PowerPoint, but stories. And in this book Heather and Julian are ace story-enablers, bringing out the tales that all of us have inside. A must-read!" -- Bill McKibben, bestselling author of Falter and Radio Free Vermont

Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen are the founders of the Million Person Project. Since 2011, they have helped over 1,500 changemakers from 67 countries tell their stories. They live in San Francisco.

How Your Story Sets You Free is a meaningful gift and a powerful reminder for friends and loved ones that their story matters.