Tag Archives: Autobiography

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Emma Carey

From a terrible accident that left her paraplegic, Emma Carey has become an inspiration for hundreds of thousands online to live life to the fullest and remind us that if we can, we must.

There on that helicopter, somewhere over Switzerland on a Sunday in June, came the first tiny whisper. A voice that that would carry me for years to come. ‘I’m going to be okay. There’s still joy here.’

When Emma Carey was twenty, she fell from 14,000 feet and survived. In The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, Emma tells us the inspirational story of how, through what could be considered one of her greatest tragedies, she found her truest self.

From waking in hospital to the news that she was a paraplegic to learning how to use her legs again, through the six-year long court case and now being finally free to make the most of her life, Emma teaches us the importance of courage and resilience and how to appreciate the extraordinary beauty found even in the most ordinary moments of our lives.

This heartfelt book is more than a memoir, it’s a call to action that reminds us not to take our lives and abilities for granted but to live every day like it could be our last.

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis – J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Woman in Me – Britney Spears

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story – Qais Akbar Omar

Qais Akbar Omar was born in Kabul in a time of relative peace. Until he was 7, he lived with his father, a high school physics teacher, and mother, a bank manager, in the spacious, garden-filled compound his grandfather had built. Noisy with the laughter of his cousins (with whom they lived in the typical Afghan style), fragrant with the scent of roses and apple blossoms, and rich in shady, tucked-away spots where Qais and his grandfather sat and read, home was the idyllic centre of their quiet, comfortable life.

But in the wake of the Russian withdrawal and the bloody civil conflict that erupted, his family was forced to flee and take refuge in the legendary Fort of Nine Towers, a centuries-old palace in the hills on the far side of Kabul. On a perilous trip home, Omar and his father were kidnapped, narrowly escaping, and the family fled again, his parents leading their 6 children on a remarkable, sometimes wondrous journey. Hiding inside the famous giant Bamiyan Buddhas sculpture, and among Kurchi herders, Omar cobbles together an education, learning the beautiful art of carpet-weaving from a deaf mute girl, which will become the family’s means of support. Against a backdrop of uncertainty, violence and absurdity, young Qais Omar weaves together a story–and a self–that is complex, colourful, and profound.

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System—and Pocketed $40 Million – Tanya Smith

Tanya Smith fancied herself a folk hero, a kind of Robin Hood, using her powers of persuasion to buck the system and help the poor and needy.

It started innocently enough, with calls to celebrities’ houses with her teenage twin sister. Soon, Tanya realised she could convince utility companies to amend the balances of her friends, relatives and neighbours, clearing their overdue electricity bills with a single phone call. Eventually, as she tested the limits and realized she could get past any gatekeeper, she started to want the actual money herself.

By the time she was 18, Tanya had ‘confiscated’ some $40 million in cash and commodities from US banks, using hacked wire transfers. It didn’t take long before the FBI was on her tail. But when interviewing her, they made clear that they were using her to get to the person actually running things – clearly, she wasn’t smart enough to do this on her own (Black people she was told, rob people, they don’t hack computers).

Thus began a cat and mouse game with the authorities that would drive her to unthinkable limits, breaking the hearts of her parents, putting Tanya’s life in jeopardy, and costing her custody of two children before finally sending her to Federal prison (where she escaped twice) with the longest sentence ever given for a white-collar crime.

In the spirit of true crime narratives like Catch Me If You Can, Molly’s Game, and Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House, Never Saw Me Coming is a gripping caper, but it’s also the deeply personal journey of a young Black woman finding her way in a world that underestimated her brilliance.