Other books that might interest you

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  Escape into Danger - The True...

  Sophia Orlosvky Williams

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  This WWII memoir tells the remarkable story of a Ukrainian girl’s perilous adventures and coming of age amid the chaos of war.  Born in Kiev to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, Sophia Williams chose to be identified as Jewish when she became eligible for a Soviet passport at age sixteen. She had no way of realizing the life-changing consequences of her decision. When Germany invaded Russia the following year, Sophia left Kiev and embarked on daring journey into Russia—surviving floods, dodging fires and bombs, and falling in love.   After reaching Stalingrad, Sophia found herself stranded in a Nazi-occupied town. She was safely employed by a sympathetic German officer until a local girl recognized her as a Jew. Within days, Sophia’s boss spirited her to safety with his family in Poland. Soon, though, Sophia was on the run again, this time to Nazi Germany, where she somehow escaped detection through the rest of the war.   Her story of survival continues into the postwar years, through starting a family and business with a German soldier. But when her marriage deteriorated, even divorce was not enough to keep her vindictive and violent husband away. Throughout this difficult life, Sophia maintained the grit, charm, and optimism that saved her time and again as she made her “escape into danger.”

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  Surviving Master Joshua: The...

  Karma Said

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  This is a true story. Master Joshua is a pansexual, polyamorous pro-Dom (a male Dominatrix). He leads a leather tribe and, when we met, was battling accusations of rape and abuse. Master Joshua was the intended subject of my story… until I became it. My own name doesn't matter. I can't use it here. Suffice it to say that I was a reporter and a comfortably married mother of two. But, following Joshua deeper and deeper into New York's sexual underground, I crossed the line between observer and participant. Our experiences changed me: I lied and cheated to facilitate them, though a lying cheater was not who I wanted to become. I wanted to remain a good wife and mother, and a decent person. So did Joshua. But we couldn't have our cake and eat it too… or could we? This is a true story, about one of the least understood and most sensationalized factions of LGBTQA+. But more so, it’s about my own family’s capacity to survive.  
   

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  Plain Faith - A True Story of...

  Irene Eash, Ora-Jay Eash

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  This is the true story of Ora-Jay and Irene Eash, Amish farmers from northwest Montana whose lives changed in an instant when a semi-truck struck the family buggy, killing their two young daughters. 
  After the accident, the couple turned to their Amish community for comfort, but they remained haunted by the thought that they might not see their girls again in heaven. Would their deeds be good enough? Eventually Ora-Jay and Irene learned that grace—not works—was enough to ensure their place in eternity. But with that knowledge came the realization that they could no longer live in an Amish community that didn’t share this precious belief. Could they sever their connection to the Amish family they loved? 
  This is the story of their journey to the hope that is heaven, a hope stronger than the loss of children, family, and a way of life. Fans of Amish fiction will appreciate such a real-life look into the Amish community, co-written by bestselling author Tricia Goyer, and readers of all kinds will resonate with this tale of courage, resilience, and the redemption found in the grace of Jesus.

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  My First Summer in the Sierra

  John Muir

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  Considered one of the patron saints of twentieth-century environmental activity, John Muir's appeal to modern readers is that he not only explored the American West but also fought for its preservation. My First Summer in the Sierra is Muir’s account of his adventures and observations while working as a shepherd in the Yosemite Valley, which later became Yosemite National Park as a direct result of Muir’s writings and activism. Muir’s heartfelt and often humorous descriptions of his first summer spent in the Sierra will captivate and inspire long-time fans and novice naturalists alike.

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  He Came In With It - A Portrait...

  Miriam Feldman

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  In an idyllic Los Angeles neighborhood, where generations of families enjoy deep roots in old homes, the O’Rourke family fits right in. Miriam and Craig are both artists and their four children carry on the legacy. When their teenage son, Nick, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, a tumultuous decade ensues in which the family careens permanently off the conventional course.
  
  Like the ten Biblical plagues, they are hit by one catastrophe after another: violence, evictions, arrests, a suicide attempt, a near-drowning—even cancer and a brain tumor— play against the backdrop of a wild teenage bacchanal of artmaking and drugs. With no time for hand-wringing, Miriam advances, convinced she can fix everything, while a devastated Craig retreats to their property in rural Washington State as home becomes a battlefield.
  
  It is while cleaning out a closet that Miriam discovers a cache of drawings and journals written by Nick throughout his spiral into schizophrenia. She begins a solitary forensic journey into the lonely labyrinth of his mind.
  
  This is the story of how mental illness unspools an entire family. As Miriam fights to reclaim her son from the ruthless, invisible enemy, we are given an unflinching view into a world few could imagine. It exposes the shocking shortfalls of our mental-health system, the destructive impact of stigma, shame, and isolation, and, finally, the falsity of the notion of a perfect family. Throughout the book, it is the family’s ability to find humor in the absurdities of this life that saves them.

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  On a Wave

  Thad Ziolkowski

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  In this wry and exhilarating coming-of-age story, a prizewinning poet poignantly looks back at his adolescent surfing years.   As a disenchanted, unemployed English professor, Thad Ziolkowski decides one day to sneak away from his temp job in Manhattan and catch a wave off a dingy Queens shoreline. In the meager cold waves, he contemplates how he could have possibly become a semidepressed, chain-smoking, aimless man when, for a few shining years of his boyhood, he was invincible. His lapsed love affair with the ocean begins amid the late-sixties counterculture in coastal Florida. After his parents’ divorce, nine-year-old Thad escapes from his difficult family—notably a new brooding and explosive stepfather—by heading for the thrilling, uncharted waters of the local beach. In the embrace of the surf, he is able to stay offshore for years, until his life is upended once again, this time by a double tragedy that deposits him at a crossroads between a life in the waves and a life on land. Lyrical and disarmingly funny, On a Wave is a glorious portrait of youth that reminds readers of Tobias Wolff’s This Boy’s Life and Frank Conroy’s Stop-Time.   “A sharp, self-conscious portrait of the artist as a young grommet.” —The New Yorker

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