During his ten year prison sentence, Dan “Tito” Davis penned a 700-page manuscript, which chronicled his thirteen year period on the run from the United States federal government. His writing provided a glimpse into staying alive and out of prison while mixing it up with major drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico; crossing the Darien Gap the worlds most dangerous passageway, sneaking into Germany, getting interrogated in Cuba, and building a resort in Venezuela the same time Hugo Chavez was calling President Bush “the devil” at the United Nations. And while Davis’s exploits were stunning, there was only one problem—he wasn’t a writer.

While living in a halfway house in Wyoming, Davis met with writer Peter Conti and quickly tapped him to “write his story the right way.” For a year the two worked diligently to turn Davis’s raw material into an action-packed memoir, which includes Davis’s life before he went on the lam—how he was making $200,000 a week in college manufacturing White Crosses (speed) and distributing them across the country via the Bandidos motorcycle gang; when he was trafficking thousands of pounds of high grade pot through tunnels and on horse trailers; and how he was set up by his childhood friend.

Gloria Hollander Lyon bears witness to the Holocaust in this compelling memoir told from the rare viewpoint of someone who survived seven concentration camps. It is vivid in its detail of her remarkable courage escaping the fate of the gas chambers and provides powerful testimony of her resilience in the face of incomprehensible suffering.

We journey with her from an idyllic childhood in the Czech countryside, through the horror of her Holocaust experiences, to her rescue and rehabilitation by the Swedish Red Cross, life in the loving home of a Swedish family, and her immigration to America.

"Mommy, What's that Number on Your Arm?" also looks at the personal impact of the Holocaust and how Gloria found the strength to speak about unspeakable atrocities and work to educate future generations all over the world.

VERA LEINVEBERS was born in Latvia and began her first piano lessons at the age of five. She has gone on to perform for audiences across Europe and North America, including multiple appearances on radio and television. She currently resides in Toronto, where she teaches piano lessons at her private studio.

Albert L. Lamarre continues his exploration adventures as a world traveler during retirement. He has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario, both in geology. He and his wife, Janet, live in Dublin, California.

San Francisco Book Review Associate Editor, Steph Rodriguez, met up with musician, record producer, and author Larry Livermore at Well Grounded Tea & Coffee Bar in El Cerrito, Calif.  to discuss the second installment of his memoir series, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label. Livermore and business partner, David Hayes, founded Lookout! Records in 1987, an independent record company based in Berkeley, Calif. that captured the East Bay punk rock sound. Lookout's roster of EPs and full-length records include bands like the Lookouts, Mr. T Experience, Operation Ivy (who would later form Rancid), Isocracy, Zero Boys, Screeching Weasel, The Donnas, The Groovie Ghoulies, Green Day, and dozens more.

Theresa Santmann found herself in a world far from the farm of her youth in Ellenburg, New York. Despite the fact that she had a husband with ALS, two very young children, and no way to care for her family and pay the mounting bills, she rose to an unusual challenge. She found a four-apartment rental property in Babylon, New York and turned it into an adult home, the Little Flower Residence, where her husband became her first patient. She returned to school for nursing and began a new life that changed the lives of everyone around her. 

Teri Metcalf is retired after nearly 20 years of educational research and development at Texas A&M University. She and her husband Bob Presley live in College Station, Texas. She is the author of Chicken Poop for the Soul: Backyard Adventures, in which she describes their experiences with backyard chickens.