Collection: Biography & Memoir

Read all about Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi and his legendary career in this book from Who HQ Now, the series featuring the trending topics and news makers of today.

Lionel Messi loved soccer from an early age, often playing with his family members with encouragement from his grandmother. Now, he is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time! He is also one of the most decorated footballers in the world--having won 44 collective trophies, including seven Ballon d'Or awards, 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year, 2019 and 2022 Best FIFA Men's Player, and more. From making his first team debut at just sixteen years old in 2003 to breaking numerous longstanding records in 2012, to helping Argentina win the 2022 World Cup, Messi continues to wow fans with his finesse of the soccer ball. However, Lionel Messi stays true to his roots, never forgetting a small tribute to his grandmother each time he scores a goal by looking up and pointing to the sky. Learn about Lionel's epic career and his lifelong love for soccer in this illustrated biography for young readers.

From the acclaimed author of Losing Eden ("Powerful, beautifully written"--Anthony Doerr) an important, moving, passionate and passionately written inquiry--personal and scientific--into what happens--mentally, spiritually, physically, during the process of becoming a mother, from pregnancy and childbirth to early motherhood and what this profound process tells us about the way we live now.

"I read your book, or more accurately devoured it! Loved it . . . It will be the new classic text in Motherhood Studies." -Andrea O'Reilly, founder, Motherhood Studies

"The best book I've ever read about motherhood. Matrescence is essential reading, bloody and alive, roaring and ready to change conversations." -Jude Rogers, The Observer (UK)

In this important and ground-breaking, deeply personal investigation, Jones writes of the emerging concept of "matrescence" - the wholeness of becoming a mother.
Drawing on her own experiences of twice becoming a mother, as well as exploring the latest research in the fields of neuroscience and evolutionary biology; psychoanalysis and existential therapy; sociology, economics and ecology, Jones writes of the physical and emotional changes in the maternal mind, body, and spirit and shows us how these changes are far more profound, wild, and enduring than have been previously explored or written about.
Part memoir, part scientific and health reporting, part social critique, ecological philosophy, eco-feminism and nature writing, Matrescence is a kind of whodunnit, ferreting out with the most nuanced, searing and honest observations, why mothers throughout this heightened transition are at a breaking point, and what the institution of intensive, isolated motherhood can tell us about our still-dominant social and cultural myths.

"Jones seems to come as close as it's possible to describing this indescribable moment in a woman's life." -Joanna Pocock, The Spectator (UK)

Get ready to fight for what's right with Stacey Abrams in this exciting middle grade nonfiction biography. Perfect for fans of the Who Was and Little Leaders series, the books in the VIP series tell the true--and amazing--stories of some of history's greatest trailblazers. Meet the VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE who changed the world!

Stacey Abrams is an activist who works for fair voting rights. She's a lawyer, an author, and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, too! Experience all the exciting moments in Stacey's thrilling life in this exciting biography, packed with two-color illustrations and fun facts, like how the census helps everyone!

Short and engaging chapters are interspersed with special lists and other information made to order to engage kids, whether they're already biography fans or "have to" write a report for school. Extras include a timeline, a bibliography, and a hall of fame of other successful African American organizers and leaders.

The VIP series features inspiring adventures and fun facts about some of history's greatest trailblazers--smart, tough, persevering innovators who will inspire today's kids. Featuring underappreciated historical figures and groups, with a focus on leaders in science and technology, the nonfiction biographies in the VIP series are fun and engaging. Just looking at the cover will make kids want to learn more about these VIPs, and once they dive in they will zoom through stories that read like adventures.

Each book in the VIP series allows your middle grader to experience all the exciting moments in some very important but lesser known lives. These biographies for kids age 9-12 include: VIP: Dr. Mae Jemison: Brave Rocketeer: Engineering Wizard; VIP: Mahalia Jackson: Freedom's Voice; and VIP: Lewis Latimer.

An unflinching and deeply reported look at the realities of binge-eating disorder from a rising culture commentator and writer for Vogue.

Millions of us use restrictive diets, intermittent fasting, IV therapies, and Ozempic abuse to shrink until we are sample-size acceptable. But for the 30 million Americans who live with eating disorders, it isn't just about less. More, Please is a chronicle of a lifelong fixation with food--its power to soothe, to comfort, to offer a fleeting escape from the outside world--as well as an examination of the ways in which compulsory thinness, diet culture, and the seductive promise of "wellness" have resulted in warping countless Americans' relationship with healthy eating.

Melding memoir, reportage, and in-depth interviews with some of the most prominent and knowledgeable commentators currently writing about food, fatness, and disordered eating--Jennifer Weiner, Marisa Meltzer, Virgie Tovar, Leslie Jamison, and others--Emma Specter explores binge-eating disorder as both a personal problem and a societal one. In More, Please, she provides a context, a history, and a language for what it means to always want more than you'll allow yourself to have.

If you're yearning for tales about adventure and fun on the open sea, look no further!

The crew welcomes you aboard the Twister, one of the finest fishing vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, as the search is on for the big ones that legends are made of. Blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, swordfish, and more are waiting to be caught, just so long as Bob and his friends have the strength to reel them in.

Told in a fun, engaging style, this book combines elements of drama, heroism, and skill with humor and some educational points about the sea and its inhabitants, with plenty of surprises along the way.

The stories will make you feel like you are out on the water yourself getting ready to land that next great catch you'll be talking about for the rest of your life. Experienced seamen and land lubbers alike will enjoy this peek into one of the good parts of life with all of its promises and perils.

The use of the word Tales in the subtitle is a play on the word "Tails" that matches the Goliath Grouper on the front cover. When you look into the mouth of the Grouper, we hope you'll want to look inside this exciting collection of tales.

More Than Representation: The Cheat Codes to Own Your Seat at the Table puts Raven Jemison's unique story of struggle and success as a queer, black woman and prominent executive in the male-dominated sports industry into the hands of those who need to hear it.

Through a series of short stories, Raven unveils her personal narrative with graceful resolve, revealing the truth about the obstacles she has encountered on her journey as a business leader - a journey that is still unfolding.

More Than Representation sheds light on what marginalized communities need to know to earn - and keep - a seat at the table. It addresses the complex power structures that exist as barriers to increased minority representation in business and provides tactical advice on how marginalized leaders can leverage their platforms to open doors and create opportunities for those who follow.

The vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies

"Golem Girl is luminous; a profound portrait of the artist as a young--and mature--woman; an unflinching social history of disability over the last six decades; and a hymn to life, love, family, and spirit."--David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

WINNER OF THE BARBELLION PRIZE - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS

What do we sacrifice in the pursuit of normalcy? And what becomes possible when we embrace monstrosity? Can we envision a world that sees impossible creatures?

In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. At the time, most such children are not expected to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured.

Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture. Their work is daring, edgy, funny, and dark--it rejects tropes that define disabled people as pathetic, frightening, or worthless. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits--inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others, and the world. Each portrait story begins to transform the myths she's been told her whole life about her body, her sexuality, and other measures of normal.

Written with the vivid, cinematic prose of a visual artist, and the love and playfulness that defines all of Riva's work, Golem Girl is an extraordinary story of tenacity and creativity. With the author's magnificent portraits featured throughout, this memoir invites us to stretch ourselves toward a world where bodies flow between all possible forms of what it is to be human.

"Not your typical memoir about 'what it's like to be disabled in a non-disabled world' . . . Lehrer tells her stories about becoming the monster she was always meant to be: glorious, defiant, unbound, and voracious. Read it!"--Alice Wong, founder and director, Disability Visibility Project

J. Frank Norfleet was a Texas rancher who fell victim to a gang of charismatic confidence men - rather than accept his financial loss, Norfleet pursued and caught these crooks, one by one.

Norfleet describes making enquiries for land in his home state of Texas in 1919. In the process, he was approached by a charming man who claimed to represent an agent of land purchases. Eventually he was introduced to this agent, who made an impression of being a very busy and moneyed dealer in company stocks and land. However, the entire thing was a set up - through conniving guile, Norfleet was persuaded and robbed of $45,000: he had "invested" in a stock exchange that did not exist.

After the shock of the loss, Norfleet set about pursuing the gang across the United States. Using methods of disguise, and teaming up with the police in various territories, it is through sheer tenacity and persistence that he manages to apprehend the crooks. Prolific in states such as Florida and Kansas, the 'bunco rings' were comprised of the most ruthlessly proficient and notorious con men in the nation. Norfleet first captures Joe Furey, the gang's original ringleader, before continuing to Furey's lieutenants. Eventually, the pursuit results in numerous arrests and the recovery of stolen funds.

This is the illustrated story of 23 soccer players who worked together to become World Cup champions and heroes to millions of men, women, boys, and girls across America and around the world.

In July 2019, a record number of people all around the world tuned in to watch the Women's World Cup, which took place in France. Fifty-two games, twenty-four teams, four weeks . . . one winner.

Megan Rapinoe had waited for this day since she attended a World Cup game as a teenager, and Alex Morgan had set her sights on a World Cup victory of her own as she watched Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, and Team USA win in 1999. Years of hard work, determination, and practice put Megan, Alex, and their teammates in the perfect position, and they took full advantage.

Rose Lavelle, Tobin Heath, Alyssa Naeher, Crystal Dunn, Ali Krieger, Julie Ertz, Carli Lloyd, and the rest of the US Women's National Team returned home from France with the title, the trophy, and their nation's pride, becoming the first team in history to win four Women's World Cup titles! New York City threw a parade in their honor, and fans lined the streets, clapping and cheering and chanting their names. These women were on top of the world--they'd come so far. They'd achieved their dreams!

World Cup Women highlights Team USA's tournament experience and provides a glimpse into what shot them to the top . . . and what may keep them there a little longer.

The body that Robyn Henderson-Espinoza inhabits is a nonbinary body, a trans body, a body in two races--and a body continually in discovery. Theirs is also a body on sojourn invested in experience, body understanding, and engagement in and for human thriving. Henderson-Espinoza relates coming into a new body story, beginning with the deep emotional work of connecting the abstract intelligence of their mind with their body's intelligence, to explore the relationship between living and becoming, doing and listening.

Combining that deep listening and living with their work in activism, Body Becoming offers us a way of understanding the body beyond constructions--political or medical-industrial-complex defined--toward cultivating the body as important in our endeavors to build a more inclusive vision for democracy. Mixing memoir and faith, somatics theory and body practice, Henderson-Espinoza steers us through territory both familiar and difficult--as we discover embodiment as the primary place of deep wisdom, where culture shifts originate and materialize--and a better world becomes, as we too become.

Are you a safe space?

Julio C. Roman's groundbreaking memoir and leadership guide for LGBTQIA+ advocates suggests that safe spaces are not rooms with four walls and a door. Safe spaces are people-leaders whose values, words, and actions invite and encourage every individual in their presence to express their fully authentic self.

Leaders embody those spaces physically, and they embody them on social media. They create them by sharing the values of worth, acceptance, and self-esteem with every life they touch.

But what happens when our safe spaces are violated?

What happens when the people we love, especially those who represent safety, are taken from us?

How do we deal with what we are witnessing, and where do we start picking up the pieces?

By sharing his own poignant struggle to overcome the emotional scars of violence and abuse, Roman demonstrates the critical importance of safe spaces for every marginalized voice.

Whether you're a young LGBTQIA+ person, a community-based organizer or ally, an LGBTQIA+ rights advocate, a business leader, an HR representative, or anyone else who wants to create a safe space for others, Out of Space can help you learn how to do it-and what being a safe space truly means.

The definitive story of the seven Cleopatras, the powerful goddess-queens of ancient Egypt

One of history's most iconic figures, Cleopatra is rightly remembered as a clever and charismatic ruler. But few today realize that she was the last in a long line of Egyptian queens who bore that name.  
  
In The Cleopatras, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly recapturing the lost world of Hellenistic Egypt and tracing the kingdom's final centuries before its fall to Rome. The Cleopatras were Greek-speaking descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters, and nieces. Each wielded absolute power, easily overshadowing their husbands or sons, and all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. Styling themselves as goddess-queens, the Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth. They navigated political turmoil and court intrigues, led armies into battle and commanded fleets of ships, and ruthlessly dispatched their dynastic rivals.   
  
The Cleopatras is a fascinating and richly textured biography of seven extraordinary women, restoring these queens to their deserved place among history's greatest rulers.   

Drop into the beginner's guide The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding, with secrets from world champion Sky Brown!

Meet Sky Brown, the youngest person to win a medal in skateboarding at the Olympics and discover how she fell in love with the sport. Then, give it a try yourself as she offers tips to get you started.

Learn how to start . . . and stop. Then follow along as Sky takes you through ollies, kick turns, nose grabs, and more.

This practical biographical handbook features:

• A joy-filled introduction to the sport of skateboarding presented in an engaging graphic-novel style
• Practical tips and inspiration from Sky Brown
• Illustrated step-by-step instructions of basic and advanced skateboarding tricks
• Advice on safety and how to get back up after a fall

With fun-filled illustrations from Shaw Davidson, and in the words of Sky Brown herself, this is the perfect book to inspire children to find their life's passion and go big!

Life-Changing Magic Series
The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding by Sky Brown and illustrator Shaw Davidson
The Life-Changing Magic of Chess by Maurice Ashley and illustrator Denis Angelov
The Life-Changing Magic of Baking by Joy Wilson
The Life-Changing Magic of Drumming by Nandi Bushell

"Timely and evergreen, engaging and infuriating, personal and universal--a necessary reintroduction to some of fiction's most familiar mothers." --Cecile Richards, bestselling author of Make Trouble and former president of Planned Parenthood

This treasure trove for book lovers explores fifteen classic novels with memorable maternal figures, and examines how our cultural notions of motherhood have been shaped by literature.

Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from--and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture's idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards--standards rarely created by mothers themselves.

To discover how we might talk about motherhood in a more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon--from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club--Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood, and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today--if we choose to listen?

Although he is credited with changing history through his invention of printing, Johann Gutenberg remains mysterious. In Fine Print, author Joann Johansen Burch pieces together Gutenberg's amazing story. When Johann was a child in the early 1400s, books were rare and sometimes very expensive. Each book had to be copied by hand, letter by letter. Gutenberg loved to read, and he often grew impatient waiting for the time-consuming bookmaking process to be completed. Young Gutenberg dreamed of finding a better way to make books. From his childhood in strife-torn Mainz through the many years of setbacks and bankruptcies, Gutenberg persevered in his belief that books could be made quickly and inexpensively. This is the story of the man who invented movable type and the printing press and gave the world the gift of books.

Lectura esencial de una voz experta que necesita nuestro país: las memorias personales y políticas de Luis Miranda revelan un profundo conocimiento de la cultura latina y el desarrollo de una comunidad que puede cambiar nuestro mundo para bien.

Siendo un veterano de Nueva York y de la política nacional, Luis Miranda encarna el espíritu progresista e incansable de los inmigrantes estadounidenses.

No existe persona alguna en la escena política latina, neoyorquina y nacional con la amplia experiencia, pasión y encanto narrativo de Luis Miranda. En Incansable, nos comparte la conmovedora historia de su vida y carrera, desde sus inicios como activista puertorriqueño con mentalidad radical hasta sus décadas de asesoramiento político y resolución de problemas.

Experimentamos la emoción con la exposición de Hamilton, creada por su hijo Lin-Manuel. Además, vivimos el sufrimiento tras la devastación de Puerto Rico por el huracán María. En medio de los triunfos, los desafíos y el arduo trabajo continuo, Miranda examina lo que su experiencia le ha revelado acerca de nuestra política, demografía y sociedad en constante cambio.