O's Top 20 Books to Read This Summer

In 2011, at age 32, Al-Sharif was taken from her Saudi Arabian home by the secret police, interrogated without a lawyer, and held for days in a toiletless prison. Her crime? Encouraging women to drive. Growing up, she had experienced staggering oppression—beaten by teachers, taught that music was "the whistles of Satan" and kept indoors to preserve her virtue. Books smuggled in from Egypt, where her mother's family lived, were her only source of freedom. Now the taxi driver's daughter has written a vital, inspiring book of her own, describing her journey from abused schoolgirl to "Saudi Rosa Parks," leading the charge the world over for human rights and the simple freedom to take a seat behind the wheel.