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Recommendations based on Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Koreaby Jang Jin-sung
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Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by Blaine Harden
True story of a man who escaped from a North Korean prison camp and his journey to freedom.
A, New York Times, bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived. North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and ... (Goodreads)
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
Exploration of the lives of North Koreans during the famine and repression of the 1990s.
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the ... (Goodreads)
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
by Yeonmi Park
A young woman's harrowing escape from North Korea and her struggle to survive and thrive in a new country.
Human rights activist Park, who fled North Korea with her mother in 2007 at age 13 and eventually made it to South Korea two years later after a harrowing ordeal, recognized that in order to be ... (Goodreads)
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
by Richard Dawkins
An exploration of the evidence and science of evolution, highlighting its importance in understanding the history of life on Earth.
Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, On the Origin of Species , shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would ... (Goodreads)
Humans of New York
by Brandon Stanton
Collection of stories and photographs of people from all walks of life in New York City.
A beautiful, heartfelt, funny and inspiring collection of photographs capturing the spirit of a city, In the summer of 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton set out on an ambitious project: to ... (Goodreads)
War's Unwomanly Face
by Svetlana Alexievich
An exploration of the lives of Soviet women who served in World War II.
This book is a confession, a document and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than ... (Goodreads)
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
A family memoir spanning decades of Chinese history, exploring the power of resilience.
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten ... (Goodreads)
Letter to a Christian Nation
by Sam Harris
A refutation of religious dogma and an argument for the supremacy of reason.
In response to The End of Faith , Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to A Christian Nation is his reply. Using rational ... (Goodreads)
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
Scientific exploration of the evidence for and against religious belief.
A preeminent scientist - and the world's most prominent atheist - asserts the irrationality of belief in God, and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. With ... (Goodreads)
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
by Jon Ronson
An exploration of the impact of public shaming in the digital age, and its implications for justice.
For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came ... (Goodreads)
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
by Hyeonseo Lee
A harrowing journey of escape from a repressive regime and the struggle to find a new life in freedom.
An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her ... (Goodreads)
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
by Michael Wolff
An inside look at the chaos and dysfunction within the Trump administration, revealing shocking details about the president and his team.
With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time in Fire and Fury: Inside ... (Goodreads)
The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice
by Rebecca Musser
A memoir of a woman who escaped a polygamous cult and testified against its leaders, leading to their conviction.
Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at ... (Barnes & Noble)
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
by Tim Marshall
Geopolitical exploration of global events and the impact of geography on politics.
In the bestselling tradition of Why Nations Fail and The Revenge of Geography , an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions to explain the geo-political strategies of the world ... (Goodreads)
The Wolf of Wall Street
by Jordan Belfort
The remarkable story of a stockbroker's rise and fall, navigating the shark-infested waters of Wall Street.
By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht and ran up a ... (Goodreads)
Survival in Auschwitz
by Primo Levi
True story of a man's struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp.
The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, ... (Goodreads)
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
True story of a remarkable Antarctic expedition, a testament to the power of courage and tenacity.
The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age. In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest ... (Goodreads)
Mao: The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang
Detailed history of Mao Zedong and his devastating impact on China.
The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader ever written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never ... (Goodreads)
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
by David E. Hoffman
A gripping true story of espionage, betrayal, and the struggle against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history, The Dead Hand, comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the ... (Goodreads)
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know
by Alexandra Horowitz
An exploration into the world of dogs and the complex abilities of their senses.
The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily ... (Goodreads)
No One Here Gets Out Alive
by Danny Sugerman
Biography of Jim Morrison, exploring the life and legacy of the legendary singer-songwriter.
Here is Jim Morrison in all his complexity - singer, philosopher, poet, delinquent-the brilliant, charismatic, and obsessed seeker who rejected authority in any form, the explorer who probed "the ... (Goodreads)
Geisha, a Life
by Mineko Iwasaki
Autobiography of a geisha, recounting her life of beauty, art, and traditional Japanese culture.
"No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story. We have been constrained by unwritten rules not to do so, by the robes of tradition and ... (Goodreads)
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
by Loung Ung
An inspiring true story of survival and resilience during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.
From a childhood survivor of the Cambodian genocide under the regime of Pol Pot, this is a riveting narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her ... (Goodreads)
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
by Jean Sasson
An inside look at the life of a Saudi princess, filled with struggles and struggles for freedom.
Sultana is a Saudi Arabian princess, a woman born to fabulous, uncountable wealth. She has four mansions on three continents, her own private jet, glittering jewels, designer dresses galore. But in ... (Goodreads)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
by J.D. Vance
An exploration of the struggles of working-class Americans, and the power of family and culture to shape one's life.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for ... (Goodreads)
The Universe in a Nutshell
by Stephen Hawking
A concise and accessible explanation of the most complex theories in physics, from the Big Bang to black holes.
Stephen Hawking’s phenomenal, multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, introduced the ideas of this brilliant theoretical physicist to readers all over the world. Now, in a major ... (Goodreads)
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
by Anna Funder
An exploration of life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally ... (Goodreads)
Chickenhawk
by Robert Mason
A soldier's unflinching account of his harrowing experiences in the Vietnam War.
A true story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first ... (Goodreads)
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein
Examination of global capitalism's role in exacerbating climate change and potential solutions.
Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon—it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this crisis to transform our failed economic system and ... (Goodreads)
