With fall and colder, bracing weather upon us, it is a terrific time to curl up next to a warm fire or radiator and soak in a good story. Spiritual memoir has to be my favorite genre, and there are two out this year that are knocking my socks off.

First, North Korea defector Yeonmi Park has returned with a follow up to her first autobiography In Order to Live; she now writes about her more recent struggle in While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America. She writes about the cancel culture and critical race theory that threatens our current liberties. As a survivor of the one of the world’s most repressive regimes, her command of the English language and the eloquence with which she advocates for freedom is compelling. What kind of hell on earth she went through to be free makes one cherish what America has given to the world.

The second release that comes out this month is the story of another survivor and advocate of freedom, especially the economic freedom that comes from nurturing governments that respect the rule of law and allow human flourishing. Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur from Senegal, Africa who believes that her continent’s woes do not all stem from colonialism and slavery; rather, the biggest threat to wealth and human flourishing stems from African governments which encourage corruption and and establish crippling bureaucracies that make innovation and enterprise almost impossible. Her book, The Heart of a Cheetah, provides a roadmap for how to turn Africa into something more than a charity case for bigger Western powers. I learned about her first from this extraordinary interview with Jordan Peterson about the real black lives matter movement.

Happy fall reading! Would love to know what kinds of books everyone else is reading.