Books like The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn R. Saks

Ego is the enemy of success and fulfillment—Ryan Holiday shows how unchecked pride hinders learning, blinds leaders to fault, and worsens failure, offering practical strategies to conquer it for lasting impact.

Eighteen‑year‑old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital in 1967, where she documents life in the psychiatric ward, exploring mental illness, recovery, and the cultural landscape of the late 1960s.

Carolyn Jessop recounts her coerced marriage, abuse, and daring escape from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑Day Saints, taking her eight children to freedom and contributing to the investigation of Church leader Warren Jeffs.

Howard Dully recounts the chilling aftermath of a childhood lobotomy and his decades‑long struggle to reclaim a life stolen by medical brutality, family complicity, and society’s neglect.

Inside hip‑hop’s rise with Bruce Williams, longtime confidant of Dr. Dre, revealing the behind‑the‑scenes drama that shaped a generation’s soundtrack.

A candid memoir of Yang Erche Namu, a woman from the matrilineal Moso society in the Himalayas, detailing her upbringing, family tensions, and her courageous decision to leave her mother’s home.

From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life. Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating and dangerous territory of this form of madness - a world in which one pole can be the alluring dark land ruled by what Byron called the "melancholy star of the imagination," and the other a desert of depression and, all too frequently, death. A moving and exhilarating memoir by a woman whose furious determination to learn the enemy, to use her gifts of intellect to make a difference, led her to become, by the time she was forty, a world authority on manic-depression, and whose work has helped save countless lives.

Art Buchwald confronts kidney failure and death with humor and wit, sharing his life story from wartime survival to columns in every major newspaper, while surrounded by an eclectic circle of friends.

Two adopted sisters, Paula and Elyse Bernstein, uncover a secret adoption experiment and the startling truth about their identical twin relationship, reshaping their sense of family and identity.

The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work. Best known in this country as the lawyer working tirelessly on behalf of Canadian photojournalist, Zara Kazemi -- raped, tortured and murdered in Iran -- Dr. Ebadi offers us a vivid picture of the struggles of one woman against the system. The book movingly chronicles her childhood in a loving, untraditional family, her upbringing before the Revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah, her marriage and her religious faith, as well as her life as a mother and lawyer battling an oppressive regime in the courts while bringing up her girls at home.Outspoken, controversial, Shirin Ebadi is one of the most fascinating women today. She rose quickly to become the first female judge in the country; but when the religious authorities declared women unfit to serve as judges she was demoted to clerk in the courtroom she had once presided over. She eventually fought her way back as a human rights lawyer, defending women and children in politically charged cases that most lawyers were afraid to represent. She has been arrested and been the target of assassination, but through it all has spoken out with quiet bravery on behalf of the victims of injustice and discrimination and become a powerful voice for change, almost universally embraced as a hero.Her memoir is a gripping story -- a must-read for anyone interested in Zara Kazemi's case, in the life of a remarkable woman, or in understanding the political and religious upheaval in our world.From the Hardcover edition.