Download or read book Gangster to Guru a Memoir written by Nyame Selassie and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Child... mother... gangster... guru: a unique autobiography. "Gangster to Guru" is the true story of one woman's sojourn. It takes the reader on a compelling ride from her gun blasting days as a member of the Black Mafia in the 60's and 70's to her unpredictable and surreal transformation into a Lotus Chakra Meditation Yogini Guru. The memoir is presented with the epic excitement of a classic American gangster story, but is distinctly rooted in the reality of a Black woman's experience, as she makes her rite of passage into metaphysical oneness.
Download or read book Of Stiletto and Soul written by Michael King and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The entire purpose of being a Corner Boy was rooted in the concept of the ultra-masculine male The highest honor a Corner Boy could aspire was becoming a martyr for the gang The second highest honor was to carry a wound from battle that could be observed without the removal of ones attireThe third highest honor was going to jail and doing time In my young mind, Corner Boys came to represent the highest level of manhood and the epitome of moral virtue. says the author. But what was the truth? Of Stiletto and Soul: The Memoirs of Gangster Mike The Last West Philadelphia Corner Boyis a comprehensive and smooth recollection of the authors childhood experiences, family, youthful exploits, and his life with Philadelphias legendary Corner Boys. Honest, hopeful, challenging and absolutely inspiring, this book is about a unique life spent in a tough setting. In this book, King recollects his memories and deals with the most serious realitieslife, family, relationships, and the exigent world of his youth. This memoir is inspired by several factors, all of them pertinent to todays climate where some of the experiences of the author could serve as helpmates to those who may find themselves in similar situations. Here, he shares how both positive and negative influences in his life helped him developed a social consciousness. The book also relates certain historical events and personalities and packed with personal commentaries, insights, and psychosocial outlooks that readers may find relevant and favorable.
Download or read book Voice for the Silent Fathers written by Eddie K. Wright and published by Wright Group, LLC. This book was released on 2016-05-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eddie K. Wrights memoir detailing the controversial experience of being the young father of a son who would grow up to be the gayest man on the planet! His "NO SON OF MINE!!" street gangster mentality evolves during his difficult life journey coming to realize that his responsibility as a loving father didn't change just because his son is gay. The book is scheduled for publication on June 1, 2016. In his first memoir, Eddie shares his story of becoming a father at 18 years old who realized his son was showing 'stereotypical' signs of being gay while still in diapers. Spending most of his adult life engulfed in the street gangster/hip hop culture where this subject was not only hushed, but deeply frowned upon, he gives us the voice for what's been kept silent for far too long, confronting almost every aspect of this taboo topic. It took years for him to silently accept his son's homosexuality himself, regardless of all the signs. When his son was five years old, his favorite color was pink and there was nothing Dad could do about it. By the age of fourteen; he was an internet sensation, dancing on YouTube building his fan base to guarantee his success when performing as a drag queen a few years later. Eddie addresses the questions most are scared to ask; Was there anything I could do to stop my son's homosexuality? When did I know my son was gay? What made him that way? Parents will find comfort in reading that Eddie admits that his son's feminine behaviors embarrassed him and he seriously contemplated abandonment, a choice that too many fathers feel they have to choose.
Download or read book Prep School Gangster written by Easton Blake and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prep School Gangster is the true story of an over-privileged hoodlum growing up in Manhattan in the 90s. The book follows the troubled youth all the way from hanging off the back of subway cars at fourteen, through a romance with a mafia princess doomed for disaster, to a law school class where the unreformed and semi-repentant miscreant sits politely with his hand raised. It is unclear whether he is truly remorseful for the offensive behavior of his past, or just weary from dealing with the consequences, leaving the success of his future as a responsible citizen and lawyer in question.
Download or read book SEARCH for A BLACK GODDESS MEMOIR of a GANG MEMBER written by Thomas CAMPBELL and published by WRITE OR DIE INK. This book was released on 2009-12-12 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Campbell writes with deep understanding of The Cold War, the cocaine coup of Bolivia, the murder of Che Guevara and the murkey world of mercenary terrorist. The novel was written from the confines of Thomas's prison cell and it tells how, as a pair of crooked DEA agents, Hilliard Wallace and Basil Abbott, maneuvered the Vice Lords and the Latin Kings to service an insatiable market for cocaine.After Thomas is released from prison his efforts to be published causes him to become a fugitive. In the nightmare of the chase, Thomas shares a desperate, spiritual love with passionate Dahl Ransby, an aspiring poet. Within a few pages, both sexual drama and the novel's political exposé will hook readers, as a terror-filled race provides an unforgettable climax.
Download or read book The Elephant in the Room written by Tommy Tomlinson and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 A “warm and funny and honest…genuinely unputdownable” (Curtis Sittenfeld) memoir chronicling what it’s like to live in today’s world as a fat man, from acclaimed journalist Tommy Tomlinson, who, as he neared the age of fifty, weighed 460 pounds and decided he had to change his life. When he was almost fifty years old, Tommy Tomlinson weighed an astonishing—and dangerous—460 pounds, at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, unable to climb a flight of stairs without having to catch his breath, or travel on an airplane without buying two seats. Raised in a family that loved food, he had been aware of the problem for years, seeing doctors and trying diets from the time he was a preteen. But nothing worked, and every time he tried to make a change, it didn’t go the way he planned—in fact, he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to change. In The Elephant in the Room, Tomlinson chronicles his lifelong battle with weight in a voice that combines the urgency of Roxane Gay’s Hunger with the intimacy of Rick Bragg’s All Over but the Shoutin’. He also hits the road to meet other members of the plus-sized tribe in an attempt to understand how, as a nation, we got to this point. From buying a Fitbit and setting exercise goals to contemplating the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, America’s “capital of food porn,” and modifying his own diet, Tomlinson brings us along on a candid and sometimes brutal look at the everyday experience of being constantly aware of your size. Over the course of the book, he confronts these issues head-on and chronicles the practical steps he has to take to lose weight by the end. “What could have been a wallow in memoir self-pity is raised to art by Tomlinson’s wit and prose” (Rolling Stone). Affecting and searingly honest, The Elephant in the Room is an “inspirational” (The New York Times) memoir that will resonate with anyone who has grappled with addiction, shame, or self-consciousness. “Add this to your reading list ASAP” (Charlotte Magazine).
Download or read book Shantaram written by Gregory David Roberts and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2004-10-13 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on his own extraordinary life, Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram is a mesmerizing novel about a man on the run who becomes entangled within the underworld of contemporary Bombay—the basis for the Apple + TV series starring Charlie Hunnam. “It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.” An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.
Download or read book Monster written by Sanyika Shakur and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1994 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Called "a shockingly raw, frightening portrait of gang life in South Central Los Angeles" by The New York Times, this autobiography chronicles Shakur's life from brutal gang member to his personal tranformation in prison as a black nationalist and crusader against the causes of gangsterism.
Download or read book My Life in Orange written by Tim Guest and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1981 Tim Guest was taken by his mother to a commune in a small village in Suffolk. It was modelled on the teachings of the famous Indian "guru", Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who preached an eclectic doctrine of Eastern mysticism, chaotic therapy and sexual freedom. Both were given Sanskrit names, dressed entirely in orange and instructed to completely abandon their former identities. Tim - or Yogesh, as he was now known - spent the rest of his childhood in Bhagwan's various communes in England, Oregon, Pune and Cologne. While his mother meditated, chanted and ran therapy groups, Yogesh lived a life of unsupervised freedom, occasionally catching glimpses of the strange behaviour of the adults around him. In 1985 the movement collapsed after Bhagwan's arrest and Yogesh was once again Tim, about to start life at a secondary school in North London, alone with the secret of his extraordinary childhood. In his first book, now in a new edition, Guest describes the other-worldly experience of growing up in an environment of unsupervised freedom and often disturbing adult behaviour.
Download or read book Ice written by Ice-T and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He’s a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangsta rap. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on the top-rated drama Law & Order: SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real story of Ice-T—the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard—truly begins. Ice is Ice-T in his own words—raw, uncensored, and unafraid to speak his mind. About his orphan upbringing on the gang-infested streets of South Central, his four-year stint in the U.S. Army, his successful career as a hustler and thief, and his fateful decision to turn away from a life of crime and forge his own path to international stardom. Along the way, Ice shares never-before-told stories about friends such as Tupac, Dick Wolf, Chris Rock, and Flavor Flav, among others. And he offers up candid observations on marriage and monogamy, the current state of hip-hop, and his latest passion: mentoring at-risk youths around the country. With insights into the cutthroat world of the street—and the cutthroat world of Hollywood—Ice is the unforgettable story of a true American original.
Download or read book Undisputed Truth written by Mike Tyson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be sure to check out IRON AMBITION: My Life with Cus D’Amato by Mike Tyson “Raw, powerful and disturbing—a head-spinning take on Mr. Tyson's life.”—Wall Street Journal Philosopher, Broadway headliner, fighter, felon—Mike Tyson has defied stereotypes, expectations, and a lot of conventional wisdom during his three decades in the public eye. Bullied as a boy in the toughest, poorest neighborhood in Brooklyn, Tyson grew up to become one of the most ferocious boxers of all time—and the youngest heavyweight champion ever. But his brilliance in the ring was often compromised by reckless behavior. Yet—even after hitting rock bottom—the man who once admitted being addicted “to everything” fought his way back, achieving triumphant success as an actor and newfound happiness and stability as a father and husband. Brutal, honest, raw, and often hilarious, Undisputed Truth is the singular journey of an inspiring American original.
Download or read book Game Over written by Azie Faison and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A cautionary tale about the life of former kingpin Azie Faison, who has become the fabric of street legend Faison was a ninth grade dropout who earned more than $100,000 a week selling cocaine in Harlem, New York, during the peak of America's "War on Drugs" between 1983 and 1990. Faison, along with two partners, was an urban prince with cars, jewels, and people -- in awe of this million-dollar phenomenon -- at his feet. His legacy has been praised by hip-hop's top names in their lyrics, and his life was the basis for the urban cult classic film Paid in Full starring Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris, and rapper Cam'ron and produced by Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Films. In Game Over, Azie brings forth a powerful memoir of New York's perilous drug underworld and music industry, with an intellect and wisdom to empower and challenge the street culture he knows so very well.
Download or read book Girl Walks Out of a Bar written by Lisa F. Smith and published by SelectBooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lisa Smith was a bright, young lawyer at a prestigious firm in NYC in the early nineties when alcoholism started to take over her life. What was once a way of escaping her insecurity and negativity became a means of coping with the anxiety and stress of an impossible workload. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is Smith's darkly comic and wrenchingly honest story of her formative years, the decade of alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, and her road to recovery. Smith describes how her spiraling circumstances conspired with her predisposition to depression and self-medication, nurturing an environment ripe for addiction to flourish. Girl Walks Out of a Bar is a candid portrait of alcoholism through the lens of gritty New York realism. Beneath the façade of success lies the reality of addiction.
Download or read book Gangsters n Gurus written by Nicolai Engelbrecht and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every Saint Has a Past, and Every Sinner Has a Future So much more than an astonishing autobiography, Gangsters & Gurus is a manual to experience inner freedom! Drawing from nearly unbelievable life experiences, coupled with the wisdom and experience of renowned masters and larger-than-life characters spanning India to China and beyond. You will witness an authentic journey of self-discovery, from smuggling drugs and gang violence, to supernatural experiences and revelations delivered by spiritual Masters. Having traversed the distance from the darkest depths to the brightest lights, Nicolai grounds his experience with practical day-to-day practices that are simple and easily applicable in the day to day life of anyone seeking a shift. You will be guided to break non-constructive patterns and elevate above feeling "stuck" in repetitive cycles of anxiety, negative patterns, and addiction. Nicolai is living proof that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Download or read book Mother American Night written by John Perry Barlow and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Perry Barlow’s wild ride with the Grateful Dead was just part of a Zelig-like life that took him from a childhood as ranching royalty in Wyoming to membership in the Internet Hall of Fame as a digital free speech advocate. Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often unbelievable (yet completely true) story of an American icon. Born into a powerful Wyoming political family, John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics for thirty Grateful Dead songs while also running his family’s cattle ranch. He hung out in Andy Warhol’s Factory, went on a date with the Dalai Lama’s sister, and accidentally shot Bob Weir in the face on the eve of his own wedding. As a favor to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barlow mentored a young JFK Jr. and the two then became lifelong friends. Despite being a freely self-confessed acidhead, he served as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager during Cheney’s first run for Congress. And after befriending a legendary early group of computer hackers known as the Legion of Doom, Barlow became a renowned internet guru who then cofounded the groundbreaking Electronic Frontier Foundation. His résumé only hints of the richness of a life lived on the edge. Blessed with an incredible sense of humor and a unique voice, Barlow was a born storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Through intimate portraits of friends and acquaintances from Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia to Timothy Leary and Steve Jobs, Mother American Night traces the generational passage by which the counterculture became the culture, and it shows why learning to accept love may be the hardest thing we ever ask of ourselves.
Download or read book Smile Now Cry Later written by Freddy Negrete and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pioneering black-and-gray tattoo artist Freddy Negrete was twelve years old and confined in the holding cell of a Los Angeles juvenile facility when an older teenager entered—covered in tattoos. Freddy was in awe, not just of the art, but of what it symbolized, and he wanted what this kid had: the potent sense of empowerment and belonging that came from joining a gang. The encounter drove Freddy to join the notorious gang La Sangra, and it didn't take long before he was a regular guest at LA County's juvenile detention facilities. By the age of twenty-one, Freddy had spent almost his whole life as a ward of the state in one form or the other. Enthralled by the black-and-gray tattoo style that in the 1970s was confined to the rebel culture of Chicano gangsters and criminals, Freddy started inking himself with hand-poked tattoos. Everyone wanted a piece of Freddy's black-and-gray style--gangbangers but also Hollywood starlets and film producers. In a riveting narrative that takes the reader from Freddy's days as a cholo gang member to evangelical preacher to Hollywood body art guru to addiction counselor, Smile Now, Cry Later is, ultimately, a testament to that spark within us all, that catalyst which gives us the strength to survive, transform, and transcend all that can destroy us.
Download or read book Long Way Down written by Jason Reynolds and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
