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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorOnce in a House on Fire
Andrea Ashworth · 332 pages
Andrea Ashworth, at age twenty-eight one of the youngest fellows at Oxford University, is a young woman of remarkable charm, poise, and intelligence. Her path to her present life, however, has been far from conventional, and in this striking memoir, written with courage and delicacy, she shares a story that makes her achievements all the more astonishing. Although she only vaguely remembers her M
Educated
Tara Westover
The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.
Escape
Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer · 426 pages
The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman's courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral par
A Man Named Dave
Dave Pelzer · 339 pages
From the Publisher: "All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself." These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality. But even after he was rescued, his lif
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs · 228 pages
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to l
Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs
Elissa Wall, Lisa Pulitzer · 438 pages
In September 2007, a packed courtroom in St. George, Utah, sat hushed as Elissa Wall, the star witness against polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs, gave captivating testimony of how Jeffs forced her to marry her first cousin at age fourteen. This harrowing and vivid account proved to be the most compelling evidence against Jeffs, showing the harsh realities of this closed community and the lengths
Once We Were Sisters
Sheila Kohler · 256 pages
At thirty-seven, Sheila Kohler received the news that her sister Maxine, only two years older, was killed when her husband drove off a deserted road in Johannesburg. Stunned, she flew home determined to find answers. Flashing back to their storybook childhood at the family estate, Kohler evokes a bond between sisters that changes but never breaks.
In the Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado · 251 pages
A Mother's Story
Rosie Batty, Bryce Corbett · 336 pages
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 231 pages
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is a classic Harlem Renaissance novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The novel follows Janie Crawford as she recounts the story of her life as she journeys from a naive teenager to a woman in control of her destiny.
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
The Kitchen God's Wife
Amy Tan · 532 pages
Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past--including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s,
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
Jean Sasson · 297 pages
Jean Sasson Bantam, 2004 - English fiction - 303 pages 24 Reviews "In a land where Kings still rule, I am a Princess. You must know me only as Sultana, for I cannot reveal my true name for fear that harm will come to me and my family for what I am about to tell you. Think of a Saudi Arabian princess and what do you see? A woman glittering with jewels, living a life of unbelievable luxury. She h
Love Isn't Supposed to Hurt
Christi Paul
Like millions of other women, CNN's Headline News and truTV's In Session anchor Christi Paul blamed herself for the emotional abuse heaped on her by her first husband, whose violent, profanity-laced tirades left her feeling as though she had no value, no self-worth, and nowhere to turn for help. Then one day, when Christi was taking refuge in a church parking lot, the verse "Trust in the Lord with
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
My Feudal Lord
Tehmina Durrani, William Hoffer, Marilyn Hoffer · 365 pages
An auto-biography of the writer beautifully and boldly written. From her childhood to her position of power as one of the several wives of a prominent and celebrated politician, she tells her story and that of her second husband Mustafa Khar as is with unabashed guts.
Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life As a Fabulous Ronette
Ronnie Spector, Vince Waldron · 368 pages
Lead singer for the Ronettes, one of the better so-called "girl groups" of the 1960s, Ronnie Spector provides an insider's look at the madness and glamour of an explosive period in rock music. Much of the book revolves around her relationship with Phil Spector, the star-making producer whose "Wall of Sound" concept revolutionized recording studio technique. According to the singer, her husband was
Barely Breathing
Rebecca Donovan · 592 pages
Working Class Boy
Jimmy Barnes · 384 pages
Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood, which fuelled the excess and recklessness that would define, but almost destroy, the rock'n'roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have. Raw, gritty, compas
Things Change
Patrick Jones · 216 pages
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops a passionate attachment for troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams · 145 pages
Williams's classic play begins with Blanche DuBois's arrival in New Orleans to stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley Kowalski. The determinedly genteel Blanche is shocked by their lower-class lifestyle—and by Stanley's frequently aggressive behavior. As Blanche's secrets catch up with her, a seedy reality trumps her love for romance.
Ordeal: An Autobiography
Linda Lovelace, Mike McGrady · 253 pages
Former porno movie star tells the true story of the brutality and horror behind her rise in the business from turning tricks in Florida to starring in "Deep Throat," all under the pressure of her sadistic boyfriend.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini · 416 pages
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an