Indie Spotlight: May 2023

This month, we’re celebrating memoirs and autobiographies. Want to see your book featured? Check out the Indie Spotlight calendar at booklife.com/indiespotlight.

Liz Kitchens

ISBN 978-1-64742-468-8

Author statement: “This book focuses on issues facing Baby Boomer women, and others cresting toward 60. My book chronicles how creative thinking helped me cope with empty nest syndrome, navigate sex over 60, transition from being ‘outtasight’ to literally being out of sight, and so much more.”

James Walker

ASIN B0BGKMWXBP

Author statement: “Many Black men suffer silently with the long-term psychological effects of domestic violence and child abuse. We are taught to be tough, not to cry, and to brush off the abuse and molestation as just a part of life. I was one of those men who was told to ‘get over it’ but I remained frozen in those childhood memories, which had left me a broken man. It took decades for me to find self-worth. Twenty-six years ago, after being released from a mental health institution in West Virginia, I wrote this story to come to grips with my childhood. I decided to publish it to add the voice of a Black man to the conversation and let other victims know they can survive the abuse.”

Shanita Liu

ASIN B0BT6SCV61

Author statement: “Dear Durga is based on my own story of how I joined forces with a supreme warrior goddess named Durga to activate my courage, overcome deep-rooted fears, and find fulfillment. As a result of Durga’s support, I went from being a scared mom-to-be to birthing three children, building a business, disrupting ancestral patterns of self-sacrifice, and embracing my authentic self.”

Ned Sahin

ASIN B08Y8148W4

Author statement: “This book is a memoir that tells about the racist, biased, and discriminative comments and attacks I had to deal with during my first few years in the U.S. I tell my stories that I hadn’t shared with anyone, like the moment a woman said this about me while passing by in a Target parking lot: ‘He is probably carrying a bomb in his bag.’ Despite all the social and financial struggles, I came across many supportive people who restored my faith in humanity and kept me going. I mentioned their favors and thanked these beautiful people in my memoir.”

Mallory M. and John A. O’Connor

ISBN 978-1-63988-776-7

Author statement: “We met at the University of California, Davis, in 1962. We were married in 1963. From the beginning, we shared a passion for good food and wine that has continued for over 60 years. This book is both a memoir of our life together as artists and teachers and a collection of the celebrations that we shared with family and friends over the years.”

Rebecca Olmstead

ASIN B08QNHHM27

Author statement: “This book began as a patient blog to keep friends and family informed of my cancer treatment, and soon became a place for me to vent to God. As my following grew, my readers began to let me know how much my journey was inspiring them. Two years later, a friend came to me and told me I needed to put it all into a book. She told me there were hurting people in the world who needed the encouragement my story could bring.”

Gwynette Ford Lacy

ISBN 978-1-6657-2042-7

Author statement: “I want to encourage women and men of all ages to never give up on your dreams. Although we are products of our backgrounds and how we were raised, we don’t have to be prisoners of them. It’s not how you start or where you come from, it’s how you run and that you finish the race with perseverance, hope, and determination (PHD) that counts.”

Lynn Walker

ISBN 978-1-73789-550-3

Author statement: “Initially, I didn’t want to write a book. All I wanted was to know how my estranged father deteriorated from a successful Miami undercover narcotics agent to a drug smuggler; how my doting, protective father ended up using cocaine with my brother and me. When I finally believed Dad was no longer a danger to me, I asked him to tell me about his life. He agreed, and I began interviewing him. While my quest was to piece together who my father was, what I found entangled in his story was my own. Finally, I understood how I was impacted by his choices and by me forever chasing after his love.”

Diana Saltoon

ISBN 978-1-387-23776-0

Author statement: “My intent is to share with the world a portrait of growing up in a Sephardic community in old Singapore, a then British colony. My book is neither based on academic history or genealogy but it does include accurate history of the beginnings of Singapore, the Jewish population that fled persecution in the Middle East, and descriptions of life in Singapore before and after the Second World War. Mainly, however, the book is a wish to honor my sister, her capacity for love and caring in Singapore and in the journey of our family’s exodus out of Singapore to the West.”

Allison Hong Merrill

ASIN B08QZGQQMG

Author statement: “Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops is a powerful true story of a Taiwanese immigrant bride—disowned by her father, abandoned by her American husband; homeless, penniless, and inarticulate in English—who defies cultural expectations and creates her own destiny. I believe we all have the power to choose for ourselves the kind of person we want to be and the kind of life we want to have. In Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops, I write about that belief, illustrated by my experience as a woman of color determined to defy gender inequality to chart my own path.”

Stephan Evans

ISBN 978-1-953725-28-8

Author statement: “When I began my post-divorce, postjob journey across America, I took a large box of books with me. I ended up reading only one: Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The power of Emerson’s writing combined with the spectacular natural beauty of the American landscape changed my vision of the world, and set me on a path to becoming a writer myself.”

Suzanne Marriott

ISBN 978-1-64742-436-7

Author statement: “As I worked on my memoir about caregiving for my husband, I gained a sense of purpose. I was inspired to make my story meaningful to other caregivers, encouraging them to believe in themselves, knowing that if I could do it, so could they.”

Ryan Rae Harbuck

ISBN 978-0-578-98373-8

Author statement: “A paralyzing car accident in my teens left me with a new life to build. This book was never meant to be a book. Starting well over 15 years ago, I began writing the things—mostly rooted in pain—that needed a new home. It wasn’t until I began compiling these stories many years later, that they really inspired me. They inspired me to be raw and vulnerable, and they inspired me to share the lessons and the things I had learned along this not-quite-paved path called life.”