Hi everyone,
I’m not sure how to describe this sub-genre of books but I’m looking for non-fiction books written by people who have great stories or document a specific event in their lives – like they lived through something almost unbelievable (not a typical autobiography or memoir).
Books that I have really enjoyed are:
Once upon a secret by Mimi Alford (written by the intern who had a long term affair with JFK)
Alone: lost overboard in the Indian Ocean by Brett Archibald (written by a man who fell overboard on a fishing trip and survived for shark infested waters for 28 hours)
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (written by a friend of Ted Bundy’s and her experience knowing him before and after his arrest)
If you could help me w recommendations I would really appreciate it!
by lstummer7
7 Comments
Me & Lee by Judyth Vary Baker about her affair with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Getting out of Saigon by Ralph White
27 Year old banker orchestrates evacuation of his Chase bank branch in Vietnam during the end of the Vietnam war. First hand by a professional writer so its a very engaging read.
There’s a book called *Tressa* by Tressa Middleton. She was abused as a child and fell pregnant at something like 12. Not a pleasant read, but a fascinating one. I couldn’t put it down and finished it in only a couple of days.
*The Raft* by Robert Trumbull is fairly short as I remember. He and some fellow soldiers were left stranded on a tiny raft in the ocean during WW2, after their plane went down.
*My Hitch in Hell* by Lester I. Tenney is about the Bataan Death March. He was a prisoner of war in WW2 and was treated awfully.
P.S. not first hand accounts, but *Amazing Tales for Making Men out of Boys* by Neil Oliver is a great and really moving collection of survival stories through history. Not exactly what you’re looking for but I thought I’d mention it.
Good luck. : )
I loved *The Spark* by Kristine Barnett
The Last Girl by Nadia Murad. She was one of the Yazidi girls kidnapped by ISIS and her story of what she went through and how she escaped makes you both lose faith in humanity and gain it back.
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
No Surrender by Hiro Onoda, the japanese soldier who didn’t know WW2 was over until the early 1970s. Utterly mad story.