When she suffered a massive stroke at the age of 37, the author ignored the diagnosis of her doctor (who told her she'd probably die anyway), and fought her way back toward a normal life with the help of family and devoted therapists. This is an account of her struggles and triumphs, alternately funny and poignant.

I never knew there was such a thing as the lump sum settlement industry before I read this book. It won't make you NOT want to win the lottery, but it might give you some idea what to expect from the people around you when you do.

Grisham researched the cases of several men on Death Row in Texas, including two men who were later found to be innocent and released and the effect that their imprisonment continued to have on them after they were freed.

Alexandra Fuller's fascinating memoir about growing up with her unconventional parents on a farm in Africa in the midst of almost constant civil war.

When an 18th century Venetian nobleman (an ancestor of the author) fell in love with an unacceptable woman, he schemed to marry her while his family plotted just as hard to keep them apart.

The stories of how Marconi, inventor of the telegraph, transformed Edwardian society and the notorious Dr. Crippen, who murdered his wife and ran off with his secretary to America, are intertwined into a single unexpected narrative.

At the time her daughter was in a coma from unknown causes, Joan Didion's husband, author John Gregory Dunne, died practically in mid-sentence from a heart attack. Her memoir is both a tribute to her husband and an account of her confusion and grief following his death.

Not just a memoir of illness but also a love story.

A classic by John Gunther chronically his son's terminal illness.