Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Readers fell in love with Cheryl Strayed’s lovely and lyrical prose in this best-seller about finding healing when you’re out on your own – like really on your own. Strayed’s best-seller recounts her months on a solo hike on the Pacific Northwest Trail from Montana to the Pacific Ocean. She comes to terms with a past filled with the wrong men and other choices she’d rather forget. Most of all, her epic hike allows her the time and space to grieve the loss of her beloved mother who passed way too young. A nature trail provides the path for what becomes an incredible journey.
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This is the book that launched Maya Angelou’s astonishing literary career. Her gorgeous memoir debuted in 1969 and captured the experience of growing up as a young Black girl in the South. Angelou’s poetic language expertly portrays details and events that are riveting and powerful. Though the book chronicles pain, it’s also about strength and resilience in the face of trauma. The book is a truly inspirational force about self-love and finding your intrinsic courage.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya

In this powerful memoir, subtitled “A Story of War and What Comes After,” Wamariya writes about fleeing the Rwandan genocide as a young child, travelling through multiple African countries with her sister as refugees, and eventually ending up in the United States. Her circumstances do a complete 180 as she ends up being taken in by an affluent family and attending Yale. In this New York Times bestseller, she tries to reconcile the vastly different experiences of her life.