Reddit reviews Grey Is The Color Of Hope

http://www.amazon.com/Grey-Is-The-Color-Hope/dp/0394571401

tl;dr: Russian poet sentenced to Gulag, rises along with her fellow prisoners to levels of courage and grace most of us can barely imagine. If this book cannot shake your self-pity, you love self-pity more than anything.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Books -

Grey is the Color of Hope - Irina Ratushinskaya - Autobiography of a female Soviet poet condemned to the gulag for writing ideological heresy, Gorbachev era. Lives in a female political prisoner's camp, interesting cross section of women and why they're sent there, how they cope, and the various ways the Soviets try to break them.

Women in Exile - Compiled by Mahnaz Afkami - The stories of a dozen or so women who escaped violent and oppressive regimes, how they escaped them, and how they rebuilt their lives.