( Oprah.com ) -- These are the books that gave us comfort , joy -- and lots to talk about . `` The Bolter '' By Frances Osborne 320 pages ; Knopf `` The Bolter '' chronicles the life of Idina Sackville , a wellborn British woman who defied convention by having `` lovers without number '' and choosing a decadent expat life in Kenya in 1918 . Was Sackville a protofeminist free spirit à la Isak Dinesen or a spoiled rich girl who could n't resist a scandal ? Author Frances Osborne -- Sackville 's great-granddaughter -- traces her ancestor 's journey from madcap to just plain mad . `` Dreaming in Hindi '' By Katherine Russell Rich 384 pages ; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt What do you do when rotten luck leaves you speechless ? After two bouts with cancer and the shock of getting fired , Katherine Russell Rich `` no longer had the language to describe my own life . So I decided I 'd borrow someone else 's . '' `` Dreaming in Hindi '' is the verbally and emotionally dazzling story of Rich 's passage to India , where she tried to master an intricate foreign tongue -- and became fluent in the language of human possibility . Oprah.com : Read the prologue . `` Little Bee '' By Chris Cleave 288 pages ; Simon & Schuster A terrifying memory unites two very different women -- a wry and ingenious young Nigerian refugee newly sprung from a British detention center , and an editor of a fashionable English women 's magazine -- in Chris Cleave 's hauntingly original novel , `` Little Bee . '' A story about what it takes to look horror in the face and still find beauty . Oprah.com : Get the reading group guide . `` Blame '' By Michelle Huneven 304 pages ; Sarah Crichton/FSG Sly yet openhearted , Michelle Huneven 's `` Blame '' takes on the recovery movement in this novel about Patsy MacLemoore , a slightly wild , 20-something history professor involved in an alcohol-related crime . All too flawed , Patsy eventually finds redemption , only to wind up questioning her hard-won moral certainties later on . Think `` The Good Mother '' or `` House of Sand and Fog : '' It 's that good . Oprah.com : 25 books you ca n't put down . `` Losing Mum and Pup '' By Christopher Buckley 251 pages ; Twelve Christopher Buckley 's life was n't exactly like most people 's -- his parents were William F. and Patricia Buckley , East Coast social and intellectual fixtures . But `` Losing Mum and Pup , '' his memoir of the year in which they both died -- is universal in its evocation of loss . It 's extraordinary for its clarity and , of course , its wit ( Buckley has also written many comic novels , including `` Thank You for Smoking '' ) . `` Lovely people sometimes do unlovely things , '' Buckley has said . But he -- and we -- can love them anyway . `` Zeitoun '' By Dave Eggers 342 pages ; McSweeney 's We already knew Dave Eggers could tell his own story very well -- see 2000 's `` A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius '' -- but he leaves himself out of `` Zeitoun . '' Here , the subject is a Syrian-born contractor who should have been lionized for his selfless work in New Orleans during and after Katrina but was instead caged like an animal in a makeshift jail ; the book is a masterpiece of compassionate reporting about a shameful time in our history . `` Say You 're One of Them '' By Uwem Akpan 368 pages ; Back Bay Only Uwem Akpan , a Nigerian-born writer and Jesuit priest , could guide us though such desperate terrain , from street slums in Nairobi to war-torn Rwanda , with something like hope in our hands . No doubt , these stories of rape , slaughter , and child slavery are difficult to bear . But , told mostly by children , `` Say You 're One of Them , '' a recent pick of Oprah 's Book Club , tempers ineffable treachery with wild-eyed imagination , offering a ravenous prayer for a better world . Oprah.com : The season 's best gift books . Subscribe to O , The Oprah Magazine for up to 75 % off the newsstand price . That 's like getting 18 issues FREE . Subscribe now ! TM & © 2011 Harpo Productions , Inc. All Rights Reserved .
Discover how two women were able to find beauty in the face of horror . The film is based on a true story about an American woman named Mary Ann Vecchio who was born with a rare genetic disorder called Angelman syndrome. Take a journey through Africa 's desperate terrain and emerge with hope .