The White Masai

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

Marjane Satrapi · 187 pages

187 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmGN500L Lexile

The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust

Edith Hahn Beer, Susan Dworkin · 336 pages

Edith Hahn was an outspoken young woman in Vienna when the Gestapo forced her into a ghetto and then into a labor camp. When she returned home months later, she knew she would become a hunted woman and went underground. With the help of a Christian friend, she emerged in Munich as Grete Denner. There she met Werner Vetter, a Nazi Party member who fell in love with her. Despite Edith's protests and

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table

Ruth Reichl · 320 pages

Warm, very descriptive of mouth watering food interspersed with receipes. A story of food and her life which was quite an exciting one of a restaurant critic.

Inside The Kingdom: My Life In Saudi Arabia

Carmen Bin Ladin · 219 pages

"On September 11, 2001, Carmen Bin Ladin heard the news that the Twin Towers had been struck. She instinctively knew that her brother-in-law was involved in these horrifying acts of terrorism, and her heart went out to America. She also knew that her life and the lives of her daughters would never be the same again." "In 1974 Carmen, half-Swiss and half-Persian, married into the Bin Laden family.

Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen

Jane Hawking · 483 pages

The wife of the reknowned British physicist describes their courtship and marriage, her years caring for his physical needs, his rise to prominence as a scientist and world celebrity, their bitter divorce, and later reconciliation. Stephen Hawking's first wife, Jane, relates the inside story of their marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of a mo

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed · 315 pages

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died young of cancer. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years after her mot

Long Walk to Freedom

Nelson Mandela · 638 pages

The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, Long Walk to Freedom brilliantly recreates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, Long Walk to Freedom is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia

Esther Hautzig · 243 pages

During World War II, when she was eleven years old, the author and her family were arrested in Poland by the Russians as political enemies and exiled to Siberia. She recounts here the trials of the following five years spent on the harsh Asian steppe.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Alex Haley · 484 pages

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages

"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam

G. Willow Wilson · 304 pages

Documents the author's conversion from all-American atheist to Islam, a journey marked by her decision to relocate to Cairo, romance with a passionate young Egyptian, and her efforts to balance the virtues of both cultures.

All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes

Maya Angelou · 240 pages

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil

Deborah Rodriguez · 275 pages

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills--as doctors, nurses, and therapists--seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a

Do They Hear You When You Cry?

Fauziya Kassindja, Layli Miller Bashir, Fauziya Kasinga · 518 pages

Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad

Firoozeh Dumas · 240 pages

In the bestselling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums, all told with insights into the universality of the

Becoming

Michelle Obama · 432 pages

In this adaptation of her autobiography for younger readers, Michelle Obama presents an account of her life, and, in telling of her own personal evolution, stresses the need for people to realize that no one is perfect, that the process of "becoming" is what really matters.

Through the Glass

Shannon Moroney · 368 pages

An impassioned, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful story of one woman's pursuit of justice, forgiveness, and healing. In this intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms, and the human heart, Shannon Moroney reveals the far-reaching impact of her husband's crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders, and the implicit dangers of a correctional system that prioritize

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

Rhoda Janzen · 256 pages

In this memoir, Janzen chronicles the experience of re-connecting with her Mennonite roots after her personal life has fallen apart.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson · 368 pages

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Azar Nafisi · 368 pages

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Azar Nafisi, a bold and inspired teacher, secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; some had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to

Not Without My Daughter

Betty Mahmoody · 423 pages

Imagine yourself alone and vulnerable, trapped by a husband you thought you trusted, and held prisoner in his native Iran; a land where women have no rights and Americans are despised. For one American woman, Betty Mahmoody, this nightmare became reality, and escape became only an impossible dream. Not Without My Daughter is the true story of one woman's desperate struggle to survive and to escape

Mao's Last Dancer

Li Cunxin · 444 pages

A poor child living in poverty is chosen out of millions of children to attend Madame Mao's dancing ballet. His life drastically shifted from living in poverty to studying dance.

Strangers

Belle Burden

Burden retraces her marriage of 20 years in search of clues to help shape her understanding about its demise and to find a way forward. Read by the author. 7 hours, 4 minutes unabridged.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah · 297 pages

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often ab