Presents an inspiring collection of stories of Americans who have persevered over adversity and built extraordinary lives after loss, hardship, and setbacks, showcasing the resilience of the American spirit.

In this illuminating exploration of women, violence, and obsession, Rachel Monroe interrogates the appeal of true crime through four narratives of fixation. In the 1940s, a bored heiress began creating dollhouse crime scenes depicting murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. Known as the "Mother of Forensic Science," she revolutionized the field of what was then called legal medicine. In the aftermath of the Manson Family murders, a young woman moved...

"In October 1969, William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret captain in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Firebase Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defenses woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments--some 6,000 men--crossed the Cambodian border and attacked. Outnumbered three dozen to one, Albracht's men held off repeated ground assaults...

Jennifer Gardner Trulson had a successful law career, married the love of her life, Doug, had an apartment in New York City, a house in the Hamptons, two beautiful children, and was still madly in love after nearly seven years of marriage. She was living the kind of idyllic life that cliches are made of until Doug was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. She became a widow at age thirty five, a "9/11 widow", no less, a member of a select...