The best books featuring vulnerable people like me who stepped up as superheroes when pushed past their limits

I like this book because I strongly identify with Rayford Steele. He is a professional pilot with character flaws and no superpowers. I am no pilot but also a professional with character flaws. And no superpowers.

When the story opens, I want to grab Rayford by the shirt collar and scream, “Don’t do it.” Of course, disaster strikes first, and then—with God’s guidance—Rayford overcomes incredible adversity to lead his Tribulation Force team through the worst seven years in human history. I also like Bruce Barnes, a pastor who built a career as a hypocrite not believing what he preached. Like Rayford, Bruce’s character grows as the adversity grows, and he finds ways to meet every challenge despite his human weaknesses.

Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner before WWII. He had extraordinary talent, which almost disqualified him from my list. But after his plane crashed in the Pacific, and then as a Japanese prisoner, he endured unbelievable hardship. And shortly after returning home, he was done running—no more extraordinary talent.

He spent years fighting alcohol addiction and PTSD before we knew what PTSD was. He recovered, accepted Jesus, learned how to forgive, and reached out to his former torturers who had taken away his prime athletic years. But even better, author Laura Hillenbrand demonstrated what it means for authors to get out of the way and let the story do the work. No fancy language, just the story. So, this book inspired me twice.

Shot down over North Vietnam in February 1966, U.S. Navy Captain Gerald Coffee endured seven years as a POW. His memoir put me inside his head. I felt his curiosity when the first few North Vietnamese stared at him in his cage. I felt his pain when the Viet Cong extracted details of his mission by stretching his broken right arm in an unnatural direction. I felt his anguish as months turned into years, and he learned how to survive in that hellish prison.

I hope I never feel Coffee’s pain for real because I am no John Wayne hero. And neither was Gerald Coffee. He was as vulnerable as me, but after coming home, he used his experience to inspire others.

Dean Koontz, Jerry Jenkins, and others advise authors to plunge the main character into terrible trouble as fast as possible. This book delivers the best opening of any novel I’ve seen. It would have been even stronger without the profanity.

The story feels plausible, and I can feel Mark Watney fighting to live while reasoning his way through challenge after challenge. I was querying Virus Bomb shortly after this one came out, and I noticed many agents’ manuscript wish lists wanted stories where nature was the antagonist. I had to see why—and so, I bought the book.

Main character Mark Watney inspired his world by surviving and making it back home. Author Andy Weir inspired me by writing a great story.

Any book featuring a sex trafficking victim is a horror story, and this book chronicles how a master manipulator dished out plenty of gut-wrenching, real-life horror against a vulnerable teenage victim who could have lived next door to me. I don’t like books that make me uncomfortable by hitting close to home. That’s why I liked this book: because the world needs to know about modern-day slavery in all its horror.

It made my top 5 list because Abby found a way to break free of her bondage, and a dedicated Canadian Member of Parliament led the Canadian government into passing helpful legislation. Both were ordinary people in extraordinary situations who found a way to reach beyond their limits and prevail through adversity.