Our Top 5 Inspirational Memoirs
In celebration of the trade paperback release of A House in the Sky this week, here are some of our favourite inspirational memoirs.
1. Walk in Their Shoes by Jim Ziolkowski
At age 25, Jim Ziolkowski gave up his career in corporate finance to create a non-for-profit organization that turns inner-city youths into community leaders. Can one person make a difference? According to Ziolkowski: absolutely.
2. Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley
When Alexandra Heminsley decided to take up running, she had hopes for a blissful runner’s high and immediate physical transformation—but failed spectacularly. The stories of her first runs turn on its head the common notion that we are all “born to run”—and exposes the truth about starting to run: it can really suck.
3. Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?
4. The Promise of a Pencil by Adam Braun
The riveting story of how a young man turned $25 into more than 200 schools around the world.
5. A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout
Amanda’s curiosity led her to the world’s most remote places and then into 460 days of captivity. She survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark.
Meet Amanda Lindhout at Wordfest in Calgary! Find out more about the event here.