Showing results for "Girls" in Cultural & Regional

One of the first personal narratives written by an ex-slave, this is also one of the few written by a woman. Harriet Jacobs (1813-97) was enslaved, along with her family, in North Carolina under a ruthless master who sexually harassed her. After several failed escape attempts, and several years of hiding, she finally made her way North to freedom, where she was eventually reunited with her children. The book was published in 1861.

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.

Fahima Ali, a Brown girl raised in the UK, works as a therapist in the South Asian community. Also known as 'The Brown Therapist', she draws on her own lived experience to give a voice, validation and practical support to the often-overlooked struggles women face in the Brown community. As a society, we often fail to acknowledge or understand that people from different cultural backgrounds experience different lived-in circumstances. Our upbringing shapes and impacts our mental health in distinctive ways.

2017 Audie Award Finalist for Autobiography/Memoir From Taraji P. Henson, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe winner, and star of the award-winning film Hidden Figures and the 2023 film The Color Purple, comes an inspiring and funny memoir—“a bona fide hit” (Essence)—about family...

The “brilliantly wry” (Lena Dunham) and “lovably awkward” (Mindy Kaling) New York Times bestseller from the creator of HBO’s Insecure. In this "delightfully deadpan" (Essence) bestseller named for her wildly popular web series, Issa Rae waxes humorously on what it’s like to be...

Trying to navigate her Indian world at home and the British world outside her front door, Anita Rani was a girl who didn't ­fit in anywhere. She was always destined to stand out: from playing Mary in her otherwise all white nursery nativity to growing up in '80s Yorkshire with her Punjabi family, spending evenings in the factory her parents owned whilst trying to ­figure out how best to get rid of hair that seemed to be growing everywhere.

Born in a remote village in Kenya, Nice Leng'ete saw the young girls she grew up with receive the cut, the rite of passage into female adulthood in Masai culture. Every girl got the cut, and once you did, you'd be married off to a man triple your age. You might be his second or third wife. You'd have children in your teens. This is exactly what happened to Nice's sister. To resist the cut meant becoming an outcast in Masai culture.

Growing up Amish and leaving the fold, Emma Gingerich left her Amish community in Eagleville, Missouri, at the age of 18. Her memoir Runaway Amish Girl: The Great Escape captivates even the timid listener. Disagreeing with the beliefs of Amish traditions and upbringing, the pressure became too much for her to bear. Forced to make a personal decision, Emma found the courage to leave the only life she had ever known. She had no idea the emotional turmoil she'd inflict on her family and friends.  

On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died. She was in a car crash on the motorway turnoff to Detroit. For a few minutes, she was clinically dead. From the moment of her resuscitation, we follow a remarkable life, all the way up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar. Bernice’s family story begins in Sandersville, Georgia, with freedwoman Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1870. Her descendants survived Reconstruction, Jim Crow, joined the ‘great migration’, cried when Dr King was assassinated. Wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down through generations of women.

This beautifully honest account of survival and restoration carries the potency to revitalize each of us. This book holds inspiration for worldwide compassionate action and celebrates what Loving Bravely truly means.

In a captivating memoir, an Egyptian American visionary and scientist provides an intimate view of her personal transformation as she follows her calling—to humanize our technology and how we connect with one another. LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD “A vivid...

Confessions of a Token Black Girl is a snappy comedic tale framing Danielle's first-hand experiences in Wisconsin and other places as the perpetual "token Black girl", fraught with dark moments and hate crimes. It's a coming-of-age-story but instead of finding herself during a road trip, Danielle found herself through the effects of racism. This book humorously chronicles Danielle's quest for understanding what Black identity means to her - instead of what it means to everyone else.

On a cold night in 1978, seven-year-old Shabnam Shahmohammad clung to her mother in a Tehran apartment while the sounds of gunshots rang out in the street: The Iranian Revolution was at hand. She and her family survived that night, but as the Islamic fundamentalists took the power over, she grew up watching her father take his beloved books away to burn, his friends be arrested and disappear, and women like her mother grow ever more marginalized.

A blazingly honest essay collection from a refreshing new voice exploring the in-between moments for Black women and girls, and what it means to simply exist “At thirty-seven years old I can say Shenequa is a big name and I’m a big, bold woman.” Shenequa Golding doesn’t aim to speak for...

At age eleven, Sola Mahfouz was told she could no longer attend school. The Taliban threatened that any girl who dared to continue their education would have acid thrown in their face, be kidnapped, or worse. Confined to the walls of her home, Sola watched as the few freedoms of childhood were stripped away. She was forbidden to play, to sing, even to laugh. Her early teenage years were consumed by restrictions. Realising that she would have to either succumb to this life or find a way out, she decided on the latter.

The under-told legacy of indentured servitude runs through the blood of countless descendants in the diaspora. In this deeply felt collection of essays, Andrea Gunraj explores the impact of her family’s history on her sense of self. Andrea Gunraj delves into the under-told legacy of indentured...

For readers of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings as well as lovers of the film Minari comes a “scorchingly honest…hugely evocative memoir” (Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk) about the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrants and her search for...

The Fleet Street Girls is the inspiring story of the female journalists who broke down barriers in the 1970s as women arrived on Fleet Street for the first time. Julie Welch was the first ever female football reporter. To achieve this role at the Observer, she had to battle the National Union of Journalists nearly calling a strike when she dared to write an article as a mere secretary; an entire room of men falling silent to listen to her give her first football report over the phone, before pronouncing it passable; and many other battles in-between.

In "Amish Renegade: The Anthropology of an Amish Girl Turned CEO," journey into the extraordinary life of a woman who defied the confines of tradition and forged her own path to success. From her humble beginnings in an Amish community to becoming a serial entrepreneur with global influence and the co-founder of a non-toxic beauty brand, the author shares her captivating story of transformation and resilience. Discover the challenges she faced, the decisions that shaped her destiny, and the lessons learned along the way.

Saigon, November 1978. Under the cover of darkness, a desperate family leaves home and friends, hoping to escape the harsh regime of Communist Vietnam. Their goal is to reunite with the four oldest children sent ahead to the United States, but first they must evade ruthless communist patrols.