Inspiring Biographies

Into Thin Air is American is authored by professional mountain climber Jon Krakauer. It is a personal account of attempting to ascend Mount Everest, prompted by an assignment from Outside magazine to cover the commercial development of the communities at the mountain’s base. Krakauer’s climbing attempt, which was fatal for several, became the deadliest expedition ever on the mountain. In the book, he reflects on his experience, reporting it as truthfully as possible.Krakauer recalls being... Read Into Thin Air Summary

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Isaac's Storm is a nonfiction book published in 2000 by the American author and journalist Erik Larson. Subtitled A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Storm in History, the book chronicles the events surrounding the September 9, 1900 Galveston, Texas hurricane which killed between 6,000-10,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in US history. The story is largely told through the experiences of Isaac Monroe Cline, a meteorologist who led the US Weather Bureau... Read Isaac's Storm Summary

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I Will Always Write Back is a dual-perspective memoir written by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda, with Liz Welch as a contributing author. The New York Times bestselling memoir was published in 2015. Through alternating narratives, Caitlin and Martin tell the story of how they became pen pals in 1997 and eventually lifelong friends. The memoir features excerpts from real-life letter correspondences between the two narrators as well as their present-day accounts of past events.Plot... Read I Will Always Write Back Summary

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Just Kids, a memoir written by American musician Patti Smith and winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction, documents Smith's relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The memoir begins in Smith and Mapplethorpe's childhood, and moves through their young adulthood in the late 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Just Kids begins and ends with Smith learning of Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989. Raised in "rural South Jersey" (23), the oldest... Read Just Kids Summary

Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, written by Helen Thorpe, is detailed account of the lives of four Mexico-born girls as they come of age in Denver, Colorado. Thorpe, an Irish-American journalist, published the nonfiction novel in 2009. Two of the girls, Clara and Elissa, are here legally, while the other two, Marisela and Yadira, are without documents. While the girls are similar in birth and... Read Just Like Us Summary

Part memoir, part exhortation for much-needed reform to the American criminal justice system, Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is a heartrending and inspirational call to arms written by the activist lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based organization responsible for freeing or reducing the sentences of scores of wrongfully convicted individuals. Stevenson’s memoir weaves together personal stories from his years as a lawyer with strong statements against racial and legal injustice, drawing a clear... Read Just Mercy Summary

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Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa is the true account of the life of Mark (born Johannes) Mathabane, a South African tennis player who grew up during apartheid. The autobiography, published in 1986, describes Mathabane’s poverty-stricken childhood in Alexandra, a black ghetto into which hundreds of thousands of blacks were crammed into sub-standardized housing. During his childhood, the author’s family is subjected to constant police... Read Kaffir Boy Summary

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Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever is a popular nonfiction historical narrative recounting the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The book was written in September 2011 by New York Times bestselling author and controversial conservative talk show host Bill O’Reilly, former anchor of The O’Reilly Factor. The book is also authored by New York Times bestselling author Martin Dugard, whose book Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone has been... Read Killing Lincoln Summary

Killing Patton is a 2014 historical nonfiction work by American authors and journalists Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. It explores the final months of World War II in Europe from an American perspective—specifically the role iconic General George S. Patton played in securing eventual Allied victory. The book also explores Patton’s death after a motor vehicle accident, floating the conspiracy theory that this death was no accident. Investigating the motives of Stalin, Eisenhower, and others... Read Killing Patton Summary

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Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost offers a substantial overview of the period from 1895 until 1908 when King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo—or at least the very large territory around the Congo River basin that he claimed as his own. The book also addresses the years leading up to Leopold’s acquisition of the Congo and those following the colony’s transfer to the control of the Belgian government. Though much of the book is devoted... Read King Leopold's Ghost Summary