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Books from around the world: inspirational memoirs
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items This uplifting book list, made up mostly of powerful memoirs, highlights real people who faced incredible challenges and found strength, hope, and resilience along the way. Each story is inspiring, heartfelt, and a reminder that even in the hardest m...
***Cry of the Kalahari*** by Mark and Delia Owens is a nonfiction account of the authors’ years living and working as wildlife researchers in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert. The book follows their immersive study of lions, brown hyenas, and other desert ...
Cry of the Kalahari by Mark & Cordelia Owens
What if your life was a constant fight for survival, even as a child? ***What Is the What*** by Dave Eggers is a novelized memoir of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
It follows Valentino’s harrowing journey from his village, torn...
What is the What by Dave Eggers
***West with Giraffes*** by Lynda Rutledge is a historical novel inspired by a true story from the 1930s. It follows Woody Nickel, a young man who joins an unusual cross-country journey to transport two giraffes from New York to the San Diego Zoo dur...
West with Giraffes book
She learned to fly planes, track lions, and survive on her own in the vast African wilderness—long before such freedoms were common for women. ***West with the Night*** by Beryl Markham is a memoir recounting her extraordinary life in colonial Kenya,...
West with the Night: A Memoir by Markham
What begins as a failed mountain climb turns into a mission to change lives through education in some of the world’s most remote regions. ***Three Cups of Tea*** by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin tells the true story of Mortenson’s efforts to ...
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission for Peace
What starts as a quest to bring a forgotten coffee tradition back to the world becomes a daring journey through war, identity, and perseverance. ***The Monk of Mokha*** by Dave Eggers tells the true story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American who...
The Monk of Mokha the search for Yemeni coffee
What if running didn’t have to hurt—and the world’s greatest runners had known the secret all along? ***Born to Run*** by Christopher McDougall blends adventure, science, and storytelling as it follows the author’s journey to Mexico’s Copper Canyons ...
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe & Superathletes
She delivers babies in bomb-scarred neighborhoods, witnesses heartbreak and joy side by side, and learns profound lessons about humanity along the way. ***Call the Midwife*** by Jennifer Worth is a memoir recounting her experiences as a young midwife...
A True Story of the East End 1950s, Call the Midwife
He trades a fast-paced city life for the wild African bush and forms an extraordinary bond with a herd of rescued elephants. ***The Elephant Whisperer*** by Lawrence Anthony is a true story about restoring traumatized elephants on a South African gam...
The Elephant Whisperer: Life with the Herd
She survives the horrors of war and turns tragedy into a life of resilience, love, and community-building. ***A Town Like Alice*** by Nevil Shute follows Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman captured during World War II in Malaya, as she endures hardship...
A Town Like Alice: Captured in Malaya & Surviving
He risks everything to save animals from war-torn Iraq, proving that courage can take many forms. ***Babylon’s Ark*** by Lawrence Anthony tells the true story of how the conservationist rescued hundreds of endangered animals from Baghdad’s zoo during...
Babylon's Ark: Wartime Rescue of Baghdad Zoo
Ever wondered what it’s like to face life-and-death situations on the streets every night? ***A Thousand Naked Strangers*** by Kevin Hazzard takes you inside the world of a paramedic navigating the chaos, tragedy, and unexpected humanity of emergency...
A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Ride
A blind French girl and a German boy’s lives collide amidst the horrors of World War II. ***All the Light We Cannot See*** by Anthony Doerr tells the story of Marie-Laure, who navigates occupied France with courage and intelligence, and Werner, a Ger...
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
***Where the Crawdads Sing*** by Delia Owens follows Kya Clark, a girl who grows up isolated in the marshes of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family. As she comes of age, Kya survives on her own, forms a few meaningful relationships, and...
Where the Crawdads Sing: Reese's Book Club
Two half-sisters’ lives diverge in 18th-century Ghana—one sold into slavery, the other marries a wealthy man at home—and their descendants’ stories unfold over three centuries. ***Homegoing*** by Yaa Gyasi traces the ripple effects of slavery and col...
Homegoing: 9781101971062: Gyasi, Yaa: Books
Imagine having to walk miles each day just to find water to survive. ***A Long Walk to Water*** by Linda Sue Park tells the dual story of Salva, a boy who becomes one of Sudan’s “Lost Boys” during civil war, and Nya, a young girl who spends hours dai...
A Long Walk to Water
Imagine surviving a plane crash in the middle of the Pacific during World War II, only to face unimaginable hardships as a prisoner of war. ***Unbroken*** by Laura Hillenbrand tells the true story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner turned WWII bom...
Unbroken: WWII Story of Survival & Redemption
Discover the surprising story behind a technology that changed the world: ***Einstein’s Refrigerator*** by Steve Hermsen explores the history of refrigeration, Einstein’s contributions, and the innovators who transformed how we keep things cool.
Einstein's Refrigerator & Other Stories - Silverman
What happens when children are forced to survive in a world torn apart by war and hunger? ***The Boys in the Boat*** by Daniel James Brown tells the true story of nine working-class American rowers who, against all odds, compete for gold at the 1936 ...
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans' Quest
Some family secrets are buried for generations—but their truth can’t stay hidden forever. ***Before We Were Yours*** by Lisa Wingate follows the story of the Foss children, who were kidnapped and sold to wealthy families by a notorious adoption scand...
Before We Were Yours: A Novel: Wingate, Lisa
What if a small office could change the course of so many lives? ***The Marriage Bureau for Rich People*** by Farahad Zama follows Mr. Ali, a thoughtful and meticulous man who runs a marriage bureau in India, helping families find suitable matches wh...
The Marriage Bureau: True Story of Matchmakers
What if you had to hide who you truly are just to survive? ***The Downstairs Girl*** by Stacey Lee tells the story of Jo Kuan, a young Chinese American working as a maid in 1890s Atlanta who secretly writes an advice column under a pen name, challeng...
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
What if words could be both a weapon and a refuge in the darkest of times? ***The Book Thief*** by Markus Zusak tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl living in Nazi Germany, who steals books and shares them with friends and the Jewish man ...
The Book Thief: Zusak, Markus: 9780375842207
A teenage con artist outsmarts authorities while living a life of crime and adventure. ***Catch Me If You Can*** by Frank W. Abagnale and Stan Redding tells the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., who successfully impersonated pilots, doctors, and lawy...
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake
What if a centuries-old city hidden in the jungle held secrets lost to time? ***The Lost City of the Monkey God*** by Douglas Preston follows the author’s real-life expedition into Honduras to uncover a legendary “White City,” blending archaeology, a...
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
What does freedom mean when it can be taken away at any moment? ***Twelve Years a Slave*** by Solomon Northup is the true story of a free Black man kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in the American South.
The memoir chronicles Northup’s brutal...
Twelve Years a Slave: Northup, Solomon
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults t...
The Secret Life of Bees - Kidd, Sue Monk: Books
One of the world's fifty living autistic savants is the first and only to tell his compelling and inspiring life story - and explain how his incredible mind works. This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, ...
Born On A Blue Day: Autistic Savant Mind
In a series of moving and powerful stories based on her experiences as a private investigator, Kelly James draws us into the mystery that is Africa. A lone woman searching for the lost, she exposes us to a world where truth is ephemeral, and where co...
Dancing With the Witchdoctor: One Woman's Stories
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...
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman's Story
A heart-wrenching and ultimately life-affirming Holocaust survivor story that demonstrates the power of love to see us through the darkest of times. When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was liberated in 1945, a Jewish-American soldier gave her a bankno...
Lily's Promise: Hope Through Auschwitz
It was a typical day at the call center Gladys worked at in Manila when she answered a customer service call that would change her entire life. After the man on the other line, Tim, asked her to take down his phone number, something inside Gladys tol...
Pesos to Pennies: A Filipino Immigrant's Memoir
Deo arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, plagued by horrific dreams, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He ekes out a precarious existence deliv...
Strength in What Remains (Random House)
Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape. But wha...
The Beekeeper of Aleppo: A Novel
“The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an extraordinary document, a story about the extremes of human behavior existing side by calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, co...
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel
Corrie ten Boom was a woman admired the world over for her courage, her forgiveness, and her memorable faith. In World War II, she and her family risked their lives to help Jews escape the Nazis, and their reward was a trip to Hitler's concentration ...
The Hiding Place: Corrie Ten Boom Story
Kidnapped from her home in Senegal and sold as a slave in 1761, a young girl is purchased by the wealthy Wheatley family in Boston. Phillis Wheatley--as she comes to be known--has an eager mind and it leads her on an unusual path for a slave--she bec...
Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: Phillis Wheatley
With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work,...
A Night Divided (Scholastic Gold) by Nielsen
It's 1999 in Bolivia and Francisco's life consists of school, soccer, and trying to find space for himself in his family's cramped yet boisterous home. But when his father is arrested on false charges and sent to prison by a corrupt system that targe...
An Uninterrupted View of the Sky: Kids Living in Prison
On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche received her medical degree—becoming the first Native American doctor in U.S. history. She earned her degree thirty-one years before women could vote and thirty-five years before Indians could become citizens in th...
A Warrior of the People: Susan La Flesche Story
When Viji and her sister, Rukku, whose developmental disability makes her overly trusting and vulnerable to the perils of the world, run away to live on their own, the situation could not be more grim. Life on the streets of the teeming city of Chenn...
The Bridge Home: Venkatraman, Padma
Kabir has been in jail since the day he was born, because his mom is serving time for a crime she didn't commit. He's never met his dad, so the only family he's got are their cellmates, and the only place he feels the least bit free is in the classro...
Born Behind Bars: Venkatraman, Padma - Books