Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir

Educated

Tara Westover

The daughter of survivalists, who is kept out of school, educates herself enough to leave home for university.

This Is Me: A Reckoning

Hayden Panettiere · 320 pages

Hayden Panettiere’s career in entertainment began before she was old enough to walk. From early commercials to film and television roles in hits like *Remember the Titans*, her career unfolded in the public eye, resulting in tremendous success by her early teens. She had become a fixture of early-2000s pop culture, earning acclaim for performances in *Heroes, Nashville* (which earned her two Golde

Color Me Butterfly: A True Story of Courage, Hope and Transformation

L.Y. Marlow · 422 pages

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

Behind Closed Doors: A True Story of Abuse, Neglect and Survival Against the Odds

Jenny Tomlin · 264 pages

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

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

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.

Crazy Brave

Joy Harjo · 176 pages

A memoir from the Native American poet describes her youth with an abusive stepfather, becoming a single teen mom, and how she struggled to finally find inner peace and her creative voice.

Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong

Susan Blumberg-Kason · 340 pages

"When Susan, a shy Midwesterner in love with Chinese culture, started graduate school in Hong Kong, she quickly fell for Cai, the Chinese man of her dreams. As they exchanged vows, Susan thought she'd stumbled into an exotic fairy tale, until she realized Cai-- and his culture-- were not what she thought."--Page 4 of cover.

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

A Mother's Story

Rosie Batty, Bryce Corbett · 336 pages

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

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.

In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado · 251 pages

The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes (5 Year Anniversary)

Dawn Schiller · 478 pages

Schiller reveals the perilous road John Holmes led her down-- from drugs and addiction to beatings, arrests, forced prostitution, and being sold to the drug underworld. Surviving the horrific Wonderland murders, she entered protective custody, ran from the FBI, endured a heart-wrenching escape from John, and ultimately turned him in to the police.

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.

Once 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

The Book of Ruth

Jane Hamilton · 328 pages

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you're bound to get yourself cooked." Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it - to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess." Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place. Ruth grows up in the shadow of her

You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know

Heather Sellers · 356 pages

An unusual and uncommonly moving family memoir, with a twist that give new meaning to hindsight, insight, and forgiveness. The author is face blind--that is, she has prosopagnosia, a rare neurological condition that prevents her from reliably recognizing people's faces. Growing up, unaware of the reason for her perpetual confusion and anxiety, she took what cues she could from speech, hairstyle, a

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

Burned

Ellen Hopkins · 544 pages

NY Times bestseller, is the story of a young woman, struggling to find her place in the world in the face of abuse by the person she most adores: her father. She questions her family, her faith, and her ability to love and be loved. Suspended from school, she is sent to rural Nevada to live with an aunt whom she barely knows. There she finds love, acceptance and new knowledge about the things t

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

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

J.D. Vance · 272 pages

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, this book is a probing look at the struggles of America's white working class through the author's own story of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town. Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of poor, white Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for over fo