Step into a world where human connections defy the boundaries of steel bars and concrete walls. In "Prisoners I Once Loved: A Memoir," Dr. Nandi, a distinguished sociology professor, invites you on an enthralling journey through three decades of heartwarming and heartrending relationships with prisoners. As you immerse yourself in the pages of this anthology, prepare to be captivated by the richness of these extraordinary stories. Discover how Dr. Nandi's journey began with the simple act of writing to a pen pal. Follow her path as she delves deep into the lives of those in prison, ultimately embracing an unconventional marriage that defies societal norms. Dr. Nandi's remarkable writing style sets her apart, as she unapologetically lays bare her own imperfections and boundless generosity. Her words vividly depict the tangled emotions that arise when incarcerated individuals and compassionate outsiders dare to forge bonds that change lives. This anthology is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Within its pages, you'll encounter moments that tug at your heartstrings, both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Tragic stories of loss intertwine with triumphant tales of redemption, demonstrating the transformative potential of empathy. Prepare to be moved as "Prisoners I Once Loved" reveals the power of genuine care and understanding. Through these touching narratives, Dr. Nandi reminds us that we are all connected and that it is through our shared humanity that we can make a difference—even in the most unlikely of places.

From the Governor General’s Award winning author of Forms of Devotion, Our Lady of the Lost and Found and By the Book “Never once in my life had I dreamed of being in bed with a convicted killer.” For almost six turbulent years, award-winning writer Diane Schoemperlen was involved with a prison inmate serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. The relationship surprised no one more than her. How do you fall in love with a man with a violent past? How do you date someone who is in prison? This Is Not My Life is the story of the romance between Diane and Shane—how they met and fell in love, how they navigated passes and parole and the obstacles facing a long-term prisoner attempting to return to society, and how, eventually, things fell apart. While no relationship takes place in a vacuum, this is never more true than when that relationship is with a federal inmate. In this candid, often wry, sometimes disturbing memoir, Schoemperlen takes us inside this complex and difficult relationship as she journeys through the prison system with Shane. Not only did this relationship enlarge her capacity for both empathy and compassion, but it also forced her to more deeply examine herself.

Starting in 1970, Jean Genet—petty thief, prostitute, modernist master—spent two years in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Always an outcast himself, Genet was drawn to this displaced people, an attraction that was to prove as complicated for him as it was enduring. Prisoner of Love, written some ten years later, when many of the men Genet had known had been killed, and he himself was dying, is a beautifully observed description of that time and those men as well as a reaffirmation of the author's commitment not only to the Palestinian revolution but to rebellion itself. For Genet's most overtly political book is also his most personal—the last step in the unrepentantly sacrilegious pilgrimage first recorded in The Thief's Journal, and a searching meditation, packed with visions, ruses, and contradictions, on such life-and-death issues as the politics of the image and the seductive and treacherous character of identity. Genet's final masterpiece is a lyrical and philosophical voyage to the bloody intersection of oppression, terror, and desire at the heart of the contemporary world.

By quadrupling the number of people behind bars in two decades, the United States has become the world leader in incarceration. Much has been written on the men who make up the vast majority of the nation’s two million inmates. But what of the women they leave behind? Doing Time Together vividly details the ways that prisons shape and infiltrate the lives of women with husbands, fiancés, and boyfriends on the inside. Megan Comfort spent years getting to know women visiting men at San Quentin State Prison, observing how their romantic relationships drew them into contact with the penitentiary. Tangling with the prison’s intrusive scrutiny and rigid rules turns these women into “quasi-inmates,” eroding the boundary between home and prison and altering their sense of intimacy, love, and justice. Yet Comfort also finds that with social welfare weakened, prisons are the most powerful public institutions available to women struggling to overcome untreated social ills and sustain relationships with marginalized men. As a result, they express great ambivalence about the prison and the control it exerts over their daily lives. An illuminating analysis of women caught in the shadow of America’s massive prison system, Comfort’s book will be essential for anyone concerned with the consequences of our punitive culture.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran. When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”

From Alan Gratz, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee, comes this wrenching novel about one boy's struggle to survive ten concentration camps during the Holocaust. Based on the inspiring true life story of Jack Gruener. 10 concentration camps. 10 different places where you are starved, tortured, and worked mercilessly. It's something no one could imagine surviving. But it is what Yanek Gruener has to face. As a Jewish boy in 1930s Poland, Yanek is at the mercy of the Nazis who have taken over. Everything he has, and everyone he loves, have been snatched brutally from him. And then Yanek himself is taken prisoner -- his arm tattooed with the words PRISONER B-3087. He is forced from one nightmarish concentration camp to another, as World War II rages all around him. He encounters evil he could have never imagined, but also sees surprising glimpses of hope amid the horror. He just barely escapes death, only to confront it again seconds later. Can Yanek make it through the terror without losing his hope, his will -- and, most of all, his sense of who he really is inside? Based on an astonishing true story.

Prisoners of Love 10th Anniversary edition is for the families and friends of the incarcerated and those who want to be supportive to someone going through this situation. It was written by families of the incarcerated with professional insights and advice on topics common to incarceration. Prisoners of Love is empowering but does not sugarcoat the reality of waiting for someone while they are incarcerated. It offers hope, inspiration, and how-to information designed to help the reader navigate through this often heartbreaking situation. Prisoners of Love will help you overcome obstacles and use this time to grow closer and grow better as individuals instead of let the system and situation break you down. When my fianc was sentenced to serve time in prison, I felt lost and alone. After reading Prisoners of Love, I realized that there was still hope for us. Prisoners of Love gave us the encouragement and guidance we needed to bring us through the most difficult time of our relationship.Margaret M. This is a wonderful book for the millions of people who have loved ones on the other side. I keep a copy by my bedside and refer to it when I need encouragement.Sharon, North Carolina T.K. Cyan-Brock is the founder of www.prisonersoflove.com a website helping the families of the incarcerated since 1996. She has filled the 10th Anniversary edition with even more information that has kept her own family and other families going during times of incarceration.

The “engrossing, thoroughly researched look at women who are in romantic relationships with incarcerated men”—fully updated with twenty-first-century cases (Publishers Weekly). In 1991, Sheila Isenberg’s classic study Women Who Love Men Who Kill asked the provocative question, “Why do women fall in love with convicted murderers?” Now, Isenberg returns to the same question in the age of smart phones, social media, mass shootings, and modern prison dating. The result is a compelling psychological study of prison passion in the new millennium. Isenberg conducts extensive interviews with women who seek relationships with convicted killers, as well as conversations with psychiatrists, social workers, and prison officials. She shows that many of these women know exactly what they are getting into—yet they are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of a love without hope, promise, or consummation. This edition of Women Who Love Men Who Kill includes gripping new case studies and an absorbing look at how the digital age is revolutionizing this phenomenon. Meet the young women writing “fan fiction” featuring America’s most sadistic murderers; the killer serving consecutive life sentences for strangling his wife and smothering his toddler daughters—and the women who visit him in prison; the high-powered journalist who fell in love and risked it all for “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli; and many other women absorbed in online and real-life dalliances with their killer men.

Following the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens in 1802, Napoleon retaliated against England's renewal of hostilities by holding as prisoners all British civilians in France at the time. So it is in a foreign city and amidst the uneasy atmosphere of a country at war that a group of English families are unexpectedly brought together again and forced to make the best of their precarious situation. At the centre of the unfolding drama is the growing love between Cary Vyner and Emily, Lady Royden - a love with its innocence and temptations as well as its doubts and reassurances. As their relationship develops, so too do the schemes and aspirations of Cary's Warstowe relatives who are intent on securing the Vyner inheritance for their own son. Set against the backdrop of war-torn Europe, this is an elegant Regency romance in the tradition of Georgette Heyer.