In her “eminently readable memoir about turning darkness back into light” (People), the nationally bestselling author of Good Hair candidly shares her journey from having it all to plunging into a deep depression after her beloved mother’s death—and finally climbing back out. Benilde Little’s life appeared perfect. A bestselling novelist with two beautiful children, a handsome husband, a gorgeous home, and good friends, she had every reason to feel on top of the world. She was mindful of the sacrifices that enabled her to prosper and never took the good life for granted. But when illness and aging overtook her parents, and other challenges suddenly loomed, she went into a tailspin of clinical depression. Little chronicles her descent into a cavern so dark and impenetrable that she didn’t know if she’d ever recover. But, as she learns, the only road out of depression is through it. She reflects back on her protected upbringing in Newark, New Jersey; celebrates her remarkable mother; and tracks her youth from an early relationship with the Nation of Islam, to the city life of a young professional, to the domesticity of the suburbs. After finding herself sandwiched between the twin demands of elder care and childcare, she explores how, with therapy and introspection, she regained her voice and mapped a way out of her depression. Writing in the courageous tradition of great female storytellers such as Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, and Pearl Cleage, Little doesn’t hold back as she shares insights, inspiration, and intimate details of her life with her trademark candor and fearlessness. Powerful, relatable, and ultimately redemptive, Welcome to My Breakdown is a remarkable memoir about the strength within us all to rise from despair and to feel hope and joy again.

Set against the frenzied world of heavy metal superstardom, the co-founder of legendary Motley Crue offers an unflinching and gripping look at his own descent into drug addiction. When Motley Crue were at the height of their fame, there wasn't a drug Nikki Sixx wouldn't do. He spent days - sometimes alone, sometimes with others addicts, friends and lovers - in a coke- and heroin-fuelled daze. THE HEROIN DIARIES reveals Nikki's personal diary entries alongside commentary from the people who know Nikki best including band mates Tommy, Vince and Mick. The book is a candid look at a nightmare come true: a punishing heroin addiction that brought Nikki to the edge of losing his talent, his career, his family and finally to a near-fatal overdose which left him clinically dead for a few minutes before being revived. Brutally honest, utterly riveting and shockingly moving, THE HEROIN DIARIES follows Nikki during the year he plunged to rock bottom and his courageous decision to pick himself up and start living again.

Playwright Glen Berger's hilarious memoir of a theatrical dream--or nightmare--come true with a cast of characters including renowned director Julie Taymor and two superstar rock legends U2's Bono and Edge.

The shocking, gripping, and at times darkly hilarious bestselling memoir of Nikki Sixx’s yearlong war with a vicious heroin addiction, featuring exclusive new content. When Mötley Crüe was at the height of its fame, there wasn’t any drug Nikki Sixx wouldn’t do. He spent days—sometimes alone, sometimes with other addicts, friends, and lovers—in a coke- and heroin-fueled daze. The highs were high, and Nikki's journal entries reveal some euphoria and joy. But the lows were lower, often ending with Nikki in his closet, surrounded by drug paraphernalia and wrapped in paranoid delusions. Here, Nikki shares the diary entries—some poetic, some scatterbrained, some bizarre—of those dark times. Joining him are Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Slash, Rick Nielsen, Bob Rock, and a host of ex-managers, ex-lovers, and more. Brutally honest, utterly riveting, and surprisingly moving, The Heroin Diaries follows Nikki during the year he plunged to rock bottom—and his courageous decision to pick himself up and start living again.

The "nameless" San Francisco detective and his partner Eberhardt are trying to prove that their client Thomas Lujack did not mow down his business partner with his car. Although he suspects his client's guilt early on, the 58-year-old gumshoe spends three weeks looking for flaws in the testimony of the hit-and-run's sole witness. Then Lujack is found murdered, the witness disappears, and the detective, instead of being asked to step up his investigation, is discharged by the victim's brother Coleman. In full moral outrage, the veteran detective bulldogs his way through the case, uncovering evidence about the brothers' employment of illegal immigrants.

Updated with photos and new interviews. The heady, drug-induced decades of the sixties and seventies provide the backdrop for this all-star account of addiction and recovery. Among the celebrities interviewed by Gary Stromberg for The Harder They Fall are comedian Richard Lewis; musicians Alice Cooper, Grace Slick, Dr. John, and Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night); actors Malcolm McDowell and Mariette Hartley; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright; writer Anne Lamott; and athletes Doc Ellis and Gerry Cooney. The good news? All are recovering and leading lives of extraordinary accomplishment. "My own disease would like to tell you that my 'isms' are now my 'wasims.' But as this book reads, it's an ongoing process that leads to the sweetest spirituality. My hat's off and great kudos to those who share their story like it is for those of us who still need to hear it." -Steven Tyler - Aerosmith "Read this book! Here are the real winners in life. The best and the brightest with devastating illnesses, living clean, sober, confident, happy lives. If you want to know about alcoholism and addiction and how to get "weller than well," read this book." Capt. Ronald E. Smith - Chairman of the Dept. of Psychiatry, National Naval Medical Center and for twelve years the Psychiatric Consultant to the U S Congress "Here are the stories of twenty-one celebrities who had everything until their abusive chemicals showed them that, at the bottom, they had nothing at all. These pioneers in the modern drug abuse epidemic eventually each found their way into recovery, even redemption. These inspiring stories tell of the joy of finding a way of being that is more precious than fame and fortune." Robert L. DuPont, M.D. - White House Drug Czar for President Nixon and Ford (1973 to 1977), author of The Selfish Brain

Drive Me Out of My Mind is a coming-of-age story of wildness and wandering set primarily in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan—its abandoned iron mines, desperate small towns, and heart-breaking bars. It’s the memoir of a boy raised by lawless and itinerant women and how he was cultured—and corrupted—by their hard-living, hard-drinking, and hard-loving ways. Given this lot in life, Faries tells how one boy was hurt into becoming a poet at the ripe age of two—to imagine another world other than the daily madness in front of him—a world where violent stalkers hovered over the hospital beds of women as they gave birth, where father figures also copulated with Gramma, where a worn Barbie doll was a main source of comfort, and where home meant 24 anonymous hovels in 10 years.