Childhood Memoir

This is a personal story of generational trauma, a mother's debilitating paranoid schizophrenia and a daughter who was thrust into foster care, homelessness, drug addiction, and was sexually abused and neglected. This book Discovers the strength of the human spirit and the power of love that defies all odds, a story of resilience and hope. Beautifully written as a heartfelt memoir that invites readers to discover Lorie’s profound journey, The Voices We Couldn’t Hear is a transformative coming-of-age story that delves into poignant themes including abuse, mental illness, and the ...

Sentenced to 65 years in a Texas prison, Damon West once had it all. He came from a great family, in a home full of God, love, support, and opportunities to reach any goal. A natural born leader, an athlete with good looks and charm, he appeared to be the all-American kid pursuing his dreams. Underneath this facade, however, was an addict in the early stages of disease. After suffering childhood sexual abuse by a babysitter at the age of nine, Damon began putting chemicals into his body to alter the way he felt.

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."

Do you ever feel controlled by your life? Is it hard for you to release anger from the past? Are you just surviving and calling it living? Face your fears and their message! Each experience is perfectly aligned for your purpose, peace, and freedom. Listen and trust. Your life lessons will guide you. * * * In her memoir, Lynn Balter shows how she transformed unimaginable traumas into a triumphant life of compassion, purpose, and philanthropy. Her life story illustrates the important lessons she learned while surviving and thriving after childhood trauma, sexual assault, divorce, addiction, ...

Using the written word as her witness statement, Jessica Willis Fisher tells a lacerating story of finding her voice after two decades of silence and an unforgettable story of risk and faith.

Who am I? Who were these people who made me who I am? And, what was this place? Was it ever what I thought it was? For celebrated journalist and author Julie Salamon, these recently became central questions. Salamon spent the first 18 years of her life Seaman, Ohio, a town that is part of the American heartland, a repository of mythology and misunderstanding.

Natalie Mosley Klenotic became a Navy widow when she was in her early twenties, when her beloved husband, Tom, was crushed by a weapon’s elevator while on duty on the US Navy Ship The Flint. But Natalie and Tom’s love … and communication … didn’t end that awful night, just because he suddenly found himself in the great beyond of the afterlife. He called her the night he died, and he has continued to speak to her for the thirty years since his death. It is their incredible love for each other that forever connects them, the same deep love that saved them both from dysfunctional ...

If it weren’t for Emma Johnson, Caryn Johnson would have never become Whoopi Goldberg. Emma gave her children the loving care and wisdom they needed to succeed in life, always encouraging them to be true to themselves. When Whoopi lost her mother in 2010—and then her older brother, Clyde, five years later—she felt deeply alone; the only people who truly knew her were gone. Emma raised her children not just to survive, but to thrive. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, Whoopi shares many of the deeply personal stories of their lives together for the first time.

There I go again, another piece of me chipped away. Another piece unraveled. And unlike one of my knitted pieces, this mistake would remain. Raised in a Jewish household in a coastal Connecticut town, Debbie left her childhood in the groovy ’60s and entered her teenage years during the disco era. Finding any excuse to get away from her neglectful, abusive mother, she turned to attentive boys for fun and affection. This disillusioned path led to Ivan, her first true love, and Debbie became entangled in a passionate relationship. Life was finally looking up. Until the pregnancy test came ...

For the entirety of my existence I have been fighting against the tide of our family secrets to keep them from engulfing me. My fight was never against a monster lurking in the dark; instead it was a small plastic orange bottle filled with tiny capsules. I am the youngest daughter of not one but two drug - addicted parents. In this child’s perspective, I throw open the door to finally shed light onto the heartbreak, anger, fear, shame and guilt which coincides with loving an addict. I was not alone in the fight but alongside my three older siblings. As we battle against the darkness ...

With ribald humor, wit, and incredible insight, Alan seamlessly moves back and forth in time, integrating stories from his childhood in Scotland and his experiences today as the celebrated actor of film, television, and stage. At times suspenseful, at times deeply moving, but always incredibly brave and honest, Not My Father's Son is a powerful story of embracing the best aspects of the past and triumphantly pushing the darkness aside.

By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew older, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family—the only people she had in the world—began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere.

This is my inspirational true story of childhood sexual abuse that I endured. The abuse was a secret, even to me, due to the fact that all the painful images were locked up in my subconscious for close to 37 years.

Of Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, Ngugi wa Thiongo was born in 1938 in the backlands of his country (Kiambu district) to a father whose four wives bore him two dozen or so children. Ngugi was the fifth child of the third wife. His father was a peasant farmer forced to become a squatter after the British Imperial Act of 1915. Before going off to school, he had what was then considered a bizarre and inexplicable thirst for learning....

In the late 1960s, riding the crest of the counterculture movement, Cea's family left a comfortable existence in California to live off the land in the Canadian wilderness. But unlike most commune dwellers of the time, the Persons weren't trying to build a new society - they wanted to escape civilization altogether. Led by Cea's grandfather Dick, they lived a pot-smoking, free-loving, clothing-optional life under a canvas tipi without running water, electricity, or heat for the bitter winters.

I was born and broken in Birkenhead, abused from infancy by a network of every kind of pervert from ‘thinks it’s love’ to ‘show it hurts’. I was unwanted, beaten, sold, swapped, photographed, filmed, left for dead, corrupted, blamed, betrayed, ignored and orphaned. But I was also born with a fire inside me. I call it my Phoenix Fire. I am no victim—that word only describes what happened to me. Nor am I a survivor because that implies I am over it. I am a Phoenix—a work in progress. This is my story....

Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.

We all have a lot to learn from the diary of a teacher named Esmé Raji Codell, an educator who has struggled to maintain individuality in the face of bureaucracy and whose defiant stand against mediocrity will reverberate in companies as well as classrooms everywhere.

Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century, 1951, in the middle of the United States, Des Moines, Iowa, in the middle of the largest generation in American history, the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, his is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero.

Run, Hide, Repeat is a memoir of a childhood steeped in unexplained fear and menace. Gripping and suspenseful, it moves from Dakin's uneasy acceptance of her family's dire situation to bewildered anger. As compelling and twisted as a thriller, Run Hide Repeat is an unforgettable portrait of a family under threat and the resilience of family bonds.