During his three months in 1976 Port Arthur, Texas, Michael Antman worked as door-to-door Bible salesman and administrative assistant to a pimp, among other bizarre experiences. One identity-shattering event left him rethinking that summer for thirty years.

Valentino Achak Deng partnered with author Dave Eggers to create What is the What, his autobiography and the story of millions of Sudanese who experienced the atrocities of civil war.

Kaylie Jones’s new book, Lies My Mother Never Told Me, is all about the truth: her mother died a slow, horrible death as an alcoholic—a fate Jones could have shared were it not for her own journey to sobriety. In her new memoir, she shares that story for the first time.