Bootleggers, Lobstermen, Lumberjacks, Poets, Teachers, and Military Men

Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hanrdscrabble New England by Matthew P. Mayo
The story of New England is built on an endless armature of fascinating tales of Yankee ingenuity and intrepid characters, and this book brings together the top fifty wildest among them -- shipwreck victims surviving any way they could; Indian, pirate, and shark attacks; cougar and bear attacks; and, of course, rum runners and bootleggers doing what they do best.

Ticket to Ride: The Promise of America by Don Hussey
In this unflinchingly honest memoir, military man, public school teacher, successful entrepreneur and candidate for the U.S. Congress Don Hussey describes in rich detail how he outwitted the odds to bring home his "ticket to ride." Trapped in an unending spiral of poverty and abuse, Don left high school as a young teenager to support his mother and younger brother. With uncommon bravery and unyielding determination, he went on to set his own course time and time again. For every obstacle, for every setback, he found a solution and moved on... until one day in 1965 when he was stopped cold in his tracks, confronted by the one accident of fate that no one could ever be prepared for.

The Long Journey Home: A Memoir by Margaret Robinson
First introduced to the world as Augusten Burrough's mother in Running with Scissors, Margaret Robinson now tells her own haunting story, which she began working on long before her son began his memoir. A poet and teacher by profession, Robinson describes her Southern Gothic childhood, her marriage to a handsome, brilliant man who became a split-personality alcoholic and abusive husband, the challenges she faced raising two children while having psychotic breakdowns of her own, and her struggle to regain her sanity.