Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

This is a graphic novel written by an Iranian women, about her childhood growing up in Iran and in Austria, and how all of what she experienced shaped her into the woman she is now.
I had seen the movie before I read the graphic novel, so I knew what to expect for the most part. Even having seen the movie, though, there were still things that shocked me. A lot of her story involved the ways that her countrymen were tortured by their own government for being Revolutionaries.
One of the best things about this novel is that you get to see what life inside Iran was really like, and not just what we've been shown its like from an outsider's perspective. Satrapi tells us that despite all the freedoms they lost, they still managed to live their lives and go on. I think the best lesson that I get from this novel is that no matter what, you can survive if you want/have to. You can survive anything if you have a reason to, and there are so many reasons to survive.