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Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

Sanyika Shakur · back to the book

What’s in it

Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
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Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir

Stanley Tookie Williams · 400 pages

PrisonOrganized CrimeAutobiographyRedemption Arc
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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

PrisonIntenseMemoir & BiographyRedemption Arc
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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

IntensePrisonAutobiographyMemoir & Biography
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Alex Haley · 484 pages

PrisonAutobiographyRedemption ArcMemoir & Biography
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A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess · 188 pages

A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Na

PrisonRedemption ArcIntenseTeenagers
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Night

Elie Wiesel · 126 pages

PrisonIntenseAutobiographyMemoir & Biography
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Writing My Wrongs

Shaka Senghor · 278 pages

"In 1991, Shaka Senghor was sent to prison for second-degree murder. Today, he is a lecturer at the University of Michigan, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, and an inspiration to thousands. In life, it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish. Shaka Senghor was raised in a middle class neighborhood on Detroit's east side during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic. An hon

PrisonRedemption ArcAutobiographyMemoir & Biography
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Organized CrimeRedemption ArcAutobiographyMemoir & Biography
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Scar Tissue

Anthony Kiedis · 465 pages

Scar Tissue is Anthony Kiedis's searingly honest memoir of a life spent in the fast lane. In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, against all odds, have become one of the most successful bands in the world. Though

Redemption ArcAutobiographyIntenseMemoir & Biography
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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.

PrisonAutobiographyMemoir & BiographyIntense
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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.

AutobiographyIntenseMemoir & BiographyDark
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My Life As A Traitor

Zarah Ghahramani · 249 pages

Ghahramani, 20, an Iranian student, was swept off the streets of Tehran and taken to the notorious Evin prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held side by side in conditions of legendary brutality. Her crime, she asserts, was sliding back her headscarf to feel the sun on her hair. This led to a political activism fueled by the fearless idealism of the young. Her parents begged her

PrisonAutobiographyIntenseMemoir & Biography
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The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

Wladyslaw Szpilman · 224 pages

A Jewish pianist's real-life account of survival in World War II Warsaw. Separated in a mêlée, he fights to rejoin his family as they board the death train, but police block him. "Papa!" he cries. The father waves, "as if I were setting out into life and he was already greeting me from beyond the grave."

IntenseAutobiographyMemoir & BiographyDark
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass · 126 pages

This book is an autobiographical account by runaway slave Frederick Douglass that chronicles his experiences with his owners and overseers and discusses how slavery affected both slaves and slaveholders.

AutobiographyIntenseMemoir & BiographyViolent
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The Chamber

John Grisham · 644 pages

John Grisham's bestselling backlist newly repackaged with fantastic new coversAdam Hill is 26 years old and in his first year at a top Chicago law firm. He voluntees for the toughest assignment any lawyer could ask for. His prospective client does'nt want Adam or his law firm. He is an unrepentent and outspoken racist with a violent past. He is on Death Row for the murder of two Jewish children in

PrisonRedemption ArcIntenseDark
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You Can Run But You Can't Hide

Duane "Dog" Chapman · 306 pages

Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, has had an amazing life. He had a troubled and trying upbringing, which led to an early life of crime, including numerous arrests for armed robbery and a murder conviction. While Dog claims to be innocent of the murder rap, he maintains that the 5 years he served for the crime changed his life. With a newfound respect for the law, Dog vowed to become a for

Redemption ArcAutobiographyMemoir & BiographyPrison
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Mr. Nice

Howard Marks · 466 pages

THE BOOK: During the mid 1980's Howard Marks had forty three aliases, eighty nine phone lines and owned twenty five companies throughout the world. Whether bars, recording studios or offshore banks, all were money laundering vehicles serving the core activity: dope dealingMarks began to deal small amounts of hashish while doing a postgraduate philosopy course at Oxford and soon he was moving much

AutobiographyPrisonMemoir & BiographyOrganized Crime
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Razorblade Tears

S. A. Cosby · 247 pages

*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* One of Barack Obama's Recommended Reads for Summer • New York Times Notable Book • NPR’s Best Books of 2021 • Washington Post’s Best Thriller and Mystery Books of the Year • TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 • New York Public Library’s Best Books of the Year • Goodreads Choice Award Nominee • Book of the Month’s Book of the Year Finalist “Provocative,

IntenseRedemption ArcPrisonDark
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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 “

IntenseMemoir & BiographyAutobiographyDark
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Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail

Rusty Young, Thomas McFadden · 400 pages

"Inspired by the description of San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia, in the Lonely Planet Guidebook - and in particular by the 'English-speaking' tours it advertised -- Rusty Young decided to visit the notorious jail. The tour was given by inmate Thomas McFadden, a British citizen arrested for drug smuggling. They struck up a friendship, and Young ended up spending for months in San Pedro, listeni

PrisonOrganized CrimeIntenseMemoir & Biography
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No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels

Jay Dobyns, Nils Johnson-Shelton · 328 pages

The first federal agent to infiltrate the inner circle of the Hells Angels, Dobyns finally tells the inside story of the 21-month operation that almost cost him his family, his sanity, and his life.

Organized CrimeIntenseMemoir & BiographyViolent
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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.

AutobiographyPrisonMemoir & BiographyDark
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Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Marcus Luttrell · 390 pages

On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive. This is the story of fire t

IntenseAutobiographyMemoir & BiographyViolent
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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah · 234 pages

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007) is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah, an author from Sierra Leone. The book is a firsthand account of Beah's time as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1990s). Beah was 12 years old when he fled his village after it was attacked by rebels, and he wandered the war-filled country until brainwashed by an army unit that forced him to u

IntenseAutobiographyMemoir & BiographyDark
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