Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the queen of England, and traveled the world with her sisters. Yet rosemary was intellectually disabled, a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family.

“Up from Slavery” is the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington (1856—1915). The book describes his experience of working to rise up from being enslaved as a child during the Civil War, the obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, and his work establishing vocational schools like the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to help Black people and other persecuted people of color learn useful, marketable...

In 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later when he was arrested for stealing food. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of the why and how of his secluded life, as well as the challenges he has faced returning to the world.

The critically acclaimed author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums, in a special anniversary edition of her acclaimed autobiography.

When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She was as emotionally isolated as she was physically, but she viewed the house as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone...

Continues the memoirs of Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot as life for Herriot, his wife, and two children gets back to normal after the war.

"For readers of Atul Gawande, Andrew Solomon, and Anne Lamott, a profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and...

From #1 bestselling author and master storyteller James Patterson, and Matt Eversmann, First Sergeant, USA (Ret.), the decorated war hero immortalized in the film Black Hawk Down, come firsthand wartime experiences of American military. The sacrifices of service are indescribable -- except by those who have made them. Their personal stories of battlefield life reveal: - The goal to "be ready every day, every single day," -- and how that can quickly...

Describes the details of the abduction and decade-long captivity of one of the three survivors of notorious Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, and how she found the courage to endure unimaginable circumstances and never lose hope for the future.

Raised in poverty as an illegitimate child, Jack London dropped out of school to support his mother, working in mind-deadening jobs that would foster a lifelong interest in socialism. Brilliant and self-taught, he haunted California's waterside bars, brawling with drunken sailors and learning about love from prostitutes. His lust for adventure took him from the beaches of Hawaii to the gold fields of Alaska, where he experienced firsthand the struggles...