In the Presence of My Enemies

A Long Walk Home: One Woman's Story of Kidnap, Hostage, Loss - and Survival

Judith Tebbutt · 344 pages

This is the story of how, over a period of one hundred and ninety-two days, I was torn away from the life I knew and loved, and dragged down to the depths of despair; of how I endured enforced isolation and near-starvation at the hands of Somali pirates; and of how I made a choice to survive by any and all means that I could muster. In September 2011 Judith Tebbutt and her husband David set out on

Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle

Ingrid Betancourt · 528 pages

Ingrid Betancourt tells the story of her captivity in the Colombian jungle, sharing teachings of resilience, resistance, and faith. Born in Bogotá, raised in France, Betancourt at age 32 gave up a life of comfort and safety to return to Colombia to become a political leader in a country that was being slowly destroyed by terrorism, violence, fear, and hopelessness. In 2002, while a candidate in th

3,096 Days

Natascha Kampusch · 328 pages

"3,096 days : The incredible story of eight years of abuse and humiliation-- and the fighting spirit that allowed her to escape unbroken"--Cover.

A House in the Sky

Amanda Lindhout, Sara Corbett · 373 pages

"The spectacularly dramatic memoir of a woman whose curiosity about the world led her from rural Canada to imperiled and dangerous countries on every continent, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity in Somalia--a story of courage, resilience, and extraordinary grace. At the age of eighteen, Amanda Lindhout moved from her hardscrabble Alberta hometown to the big city--Calgary--and wor

Let's Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage

Lisa Beamer, Ken Abraham · 346 pages

Lisa Beamer was thrust into the national spotlight after her husband, Todd, led a counterattack against terrorists on United Flight 93. He -- and all the other passenger heroes -- lost their lives in a Pennsylvania field. But that plane was the only one of the four hijacked planes on 9-11 that didn't hit its target- most likely the white House or the Capitol. Todd's last known words, "Let's rol

Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup · 228 pages

Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation.

My Story

Elizabeth Smart, Chris Stewart · 308 pages

"For the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wand

Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed - A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings

Michelle Knight, Michelle Burford · 252 pages

Describes the details of the abduction and decade-long captivity of one of the three survivors of notorious Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, and how she found the courage to endure unimaginable circumstances and never lose hope for the future.

Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage

Madeleine L'Engle · 231 pages

This moving memoir documents a marriage of more than forty years between two gifted people, a long term marriage that was: "full of wonderful things, terrible things, joyous things, grievous things, but ours."

A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph

Sheldon Vanauken · 240 pages

A Stolen Life

Jaycee Dugard · 273 pages

In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible

This Life I Live

Rory Feek · 272 pages

The story she said he was born to write. Her story. His story. The love story of Joey and Rory. By inviting so many into the final months of Joey's life as she battled cancer, Joey and Rory Feek captured hearts around the world with how they handled the diagnosis; the inspiring, simple way they chose to live; and how they loved each other every step of the way. But there is far more to the story.

A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea

Richard Phillips, Stephan Talty · 286 pages

Tells the dramatic life-and-death tale of the Vermont native who, in April of 2009, was held captive on a tiny lifeboat off Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores.

Paris: A Love Story

Kati Marton · 269 pages

M Train

Patti Smith · 288 pages

M Train is a journey through eighteen "stations." It begins in the tiny Greenwich Village cafâe where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. We then travel across a landscape of creative aspirations and inspirations: from Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico, to a meeting of an Arctic explorer's society in Berlin

I Knew Their Hearts: The Amazing True Story of Jeff Olsen's Journey Beyond the Veil to Learn the Silent Language of the Heart

Jeff Olsen, Lee Nelson

After being critically injured in a car accident that took the life of his wife and son, Jeff Olsen has some near-death experiences that help him cope with their loss.

Goodbye, I Love You

Carol Lynn Pearson · 240 pages

My Foreign Cities

Elizabeth Scarboro · 296 pages

When she was just seventeen, independent and ambitious Elizabeth Scarboro fell in love with irreverent and irresistible Stephen. She knew he had cystic fibrosis, that he was expected to live only until the age of thirty or so, and that soon she'd have a choice to make. She could set out to travel, date, and lead the adventurous life she'd imagined, or she could be with Stephen, who came with an ur

Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir

Paul Monette · 342 pages

This "tender and lyrical" memoir (New York Times Book Review) remains one of the most compelling documents of the AIDS era-"searing, shattering, ultimately hope inspiring account of a great love story" (San Francisco Examiner). A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and the winner of the PEN Center West literary award.

What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love

Carole Radziwill · 268 pages

A memoir about a girl from a working class town who becomes an award-winning television producer and marries a prince, Anthony Radziwill, nephew of John F. Kennedy. Carole DiFalco Radziwill grew up in a suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. At the age of nineteen, she struck out for New York. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, a bunker in Tel Aviv, and th

The Best of Us

Joyce Maynard · 437 pages

"In 2011, when she was in her late fifties, author and journalist Joyce Maynard met the first true partner she had ever known. Jim wore a rakish hat over a good head of hair; he asked real questions and gave real answers; he loved to see Joyce shine, both in and out of the spotlight; and he didn't mind the mess she made in the kitchen. Before they met, both had believed they were done with marriag

Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Mary Jordan, Kevin Sullivan · 336 pages

On May 6, 2013, Amanda Berry made headlines around the world when she fled a Cleveland home and called 911, saying: "Help me, I'm Amanda Berry... I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for ten years." A horrifying story rapidly unfolded. Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver, had separately lured Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight to his home, where he kept them chained. In the decade

Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words

Michael Ausiello · 309 pages

Television industry journalist Michael Ausiello tells the story of his final year with his partner of thirteen years, Kit Cowan--diagnosed with a rare and very aggressive form of neuroendocrine cancer--while revisiting the many memories that preceded it, and describes how their undeniably powerful bond carried them through all manner of difficulties, with humor always front and center of the relat

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill · 241 pages

The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill (Goodreads Author) "At one time Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that there would ever be a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life nothing at all out of the ordinary had ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her spinster sister a