Zen Memoir

These hilarious essays on life inside and outside a Zen monastery make up the spiritual memoir of Shozan Jack Haubner, a Zen monk who didn’t really start out to be one. Raised in a conservative Catholic family, Shozan went on to study philosophy (becoming de-Catholicized in the process) and to pursue a career as a screenwriter and stand-up comic in the clubs of L.A. How he went from life in the fast lane to life on the stationary meditation cushion is the subject of this laugh-out-loud funny account of his experiences.

While studying at Columbia University, Anthony's life began to fall apart as he wrestled with anxiety, clinical depression, and low back pain. Everything changed for the better after he discovered the amazing art of qigong.

Stark Raving Zen is the story of how one woman came home to her soul on a road trip from Minnesota to California, a journey both terrifying and beautiful. Her only physical companion through each stage of this sudden awakening was her dog, Arya, who kept her grounded through shocking revelations, heavenly and hellish visionary experiences, and an intuitive opening including a voice in her left ear that guided her, working to keep her safe as her mind unraveled.

Fed up with teenage life in the suburbs, Jaimal Yogis ran off to Hawaii with little more than a copy of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and enough cash for a surfboard. His journey is a coming-of-age saga that takes him from communes to monasteries, from the warm Pacific to the icy New York shore. Equal parts spiritual memoir and surfer's tale, this is a chronicle of finding meditative focus in the barrel of a wave and eternal truth in the great, salty blue.

Appalachian Zen describes a journey we all take, one that Buddhism calls "seeking our true home." Edgy, lyrical, and lovingly rendered, this book recounts how a kid from a Pennsylvania mill-town trailer park grew up—surrounded by backwoods farms and amid grief, violence, and passionate yearning—to become something improbable: a Buddhist minister teaching Zen.

The Way of the Zen Cowboy is a collection of 35 short stories from Grammy-winning musician, writer, and ethnomusicologist Barrett Martin. These stories are based on personal experiences around the world, as well as wisdom tales heard from indigenous people, grandparents, and some of the cowboys and veterans he was mentored by.

Forty, chronically single, and up an extra 20 pounds, TV news producer Stephanie Krikorian fell victim to the Great Recession, finding herself suddenly unemployed. One unwanted pregnancy away from being a Lifetime Original Movie, Stephanie had to reinvent herself...and fast. So, to keep her head above water, she started ghostwriting self-help and diet books for a variety of well-known experts. However, she didn't just write each book she took on, she lived it - chanting, journaling, reflecting, reframing - whatever it took to get deep into the heart of each project.

Robert DeLaurentis had an impossibly big dream: to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine piston plane. Meant to be the ultimate test of his flying skills as a pilot, the journey would take him to the ends of the Earth and over some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet. He diligently prepared himself and his plane, the Spirit of San Diego, for the excursion. Having previously flown to far-off places, he thought he knew what to expect. But reality doesn’t always make for the best co-pilot.

In this raw and poignant memoir filled with gorgeous insights, Leslie Reyes bares her highest highs and lowest lows on the long highway of humanity. And by applying the wisdom she gained in learning to ride a motorbike to her lifelong quest to conquer fear, she offers a guiding hand along the hills and valleys of an unpredictable life.

Ramon's story is the story of a community coming of age during the turbulent decades of the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Through his personal accounts of deplorable housing conditions and an educational system bent on denying equal access. We witness a generation of "Boricuas" determined to resist and forge an identity based on pride and self respect.

Book list: The story of Arnold Rothstein, the story of Bonnie and Clyde, the story of Frank Costello, the story of Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, the story of Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, and the story of Pablo Escobar.

Who was Enoch Johnson? Download now and find out today!

Who was Frank Costello? Download now and find out today!

Who was Pablo Escobar? Download this audiobook now and find out today!

Who was Charlie Luciano? Download now and find out today!