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In the Belly of the Beast: Letters From Prison

Jack Henry Abbott · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
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Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson

George L. Jackson · 294 pages

From Library Journal Jackson gained notoriety shortly before his death in 1970 when his younger brother unsuccessfully tried to free him at gunpoint when Jackson and two others were on trial for killing a guard. Written between 1964 and 1970 while serving time in Soledad Prison for robbery, the letters reveal the brutality and racism faced by prisoners and call for unity among African Americans. T

PrisonEpistolary FormatMemoir & BiographyNonfiction
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Letters & Papers from Prison

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · 437 pages

This new, greatly expanded version, while omitting nothing found in the earlier edition, shifts the emphasis of earlier editions on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological reflections to the private sphere of his life. His letters now appear in far greater detail, and show his daily concerns and the enormous warmth and humanity of the young German pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his par

Epistolary FormatPrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfiction
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Bronson

Charles Bronson · 351 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · 514 pages

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Se

PrisonMemoir & BiographyDarkNonfiction
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Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates · 155 pages

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Readers of his work in The Atlantic and elsewhere know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his thoughtful and influential writing on race in America. Written as a series of letters to his teenaged son, his new memoir, Between the World and Me, walks us through the course of his life, from the tough neighborhoods of Baltimore in his youth, to Howard University—which Coates dubs “

Epistolary FormatMemoir & BiographyDarkNonfiction
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PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionDark
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Hard Time: Banged Up Abroad Raving Arizona

Shaun Attwood · 345 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionTrue Crime
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Pimp: The Story of My Life

Iceberg Slim · 317 pages

This is the story of Iceberg Slim's life, as he saw, felt, tasted, and smelled it. A trip through hell by the one man who lived to tell the tale. The dangers of jail, addiction and death that are still all too familiar.

PrisonMemoir & BiographyDarkNonfiction
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Papillon

Henri Charriere · 544 pages

Describes the life of a man sent to prison on a miserable island, Cayena, where escape is impossible. It is a terrible life for him but he finally escapes after much suffering.

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionDark
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PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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House of Meetings

Martin Amis · 248 pages

An extraordinary, harrowing, endlessly surprising novel from a literary master. In 1946, two brothers and a Jewish girl fall into alignment in pogrom-poised Moscow. The fraternal conflict then marinates in Norlag, a slave-labor camp above the Arctic Circle, where a tryst in the coveted House of Meetings will haunt all three lovers long after the brothers are released. And for the narrator, the so

PrisonEpistolary FormatDarkViolent
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Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir

Stanley Tookie Williams · 400 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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Forest of the Gods

Balys Sruoga · 339 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyDarkNonfiction
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Alex Haley · 484 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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A Million Little Pieces

James Frey · 430 pages

"The most lacerating tale of drug addiction since William S. Burroughs' Junky." --The Boston Globe"Again and again, the book delivers recollections that leave the reader winded and unsteady. James Frey's staggering recovery memoir could well be seen as the final word on the topic."--San Francisco Chronicle"A brutal, beautifully written memoir."--The Denver Post"Gripping . . . A great story . . . Y

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionDark
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Undisputed Truth: My Autobiography

Mike Tyson · 580 pages

"A bare-knuckled, tell-all memoir from Mike Tyson, the onetime heavyweight champion of the world--and a legend both in and out of the ring"--

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionTrue Crime
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Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

Blaine Harden · 256 pages

The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk. In Escape From C

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionDark
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Epistolary FormatMemoir & BiographyDarkNonfiction
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PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionTrue Crime
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PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionViolent
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In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

Neil W. White III · 316 pages

Daddy is going to camp. That's what I told my children. A child psychologist suggested it. “Words like prison and jail conjure up dangerous images for children,” she explained. But it wasn't camp...Neil White, a journalist and magazine publisher, wanted the best for those he loved—nice cars, beautiful homes, luxurious clothes. He loaned money to family and friends, gave generously to his church, a

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionMale Lead
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Alcatraz 1259

William G. Baker · 246 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionTrue Crime
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Night

Elie Wiesel · 126 pages

PrisonMemoir & BiographyNonfictionDark
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