Book picks similar to
Unbroken: A Memoir by Tracy Elliott
non-fiction
memoir
cruel-but-wow
emotional
A Stolen Life
Jaycee Dugard - 2011
It was the last her family and friends saw of her for over eighteen years. On 26 August 2009, Dugard, her daughters, and Phillip Craig Garrido appeared in the office of her kidnapper's parole officer in California. Their unusual behaviour sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home. During her time in captivity, at the age of fourteen and seventeen, she gave birth to two daughters, both fathered by Garrido. Dugard's memoir is written by the 30-year-old herself and covers the period from the time of her abduction in 1991 up until the present. In her stark, utterly honest and unflinching narrative, Jaycee opens up about what she experienced, including how she feels now, a year after being found. Garrido and his wife Nancy have since pleaded guilty to their crimes.
My Story
Elizabeth Smart - 2013
She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. In 2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church, in a fairy tale wedding that made the cover of People magazine.
Gypsy Bride: One girl's true story of falling in love with a gypsy boy
Sam Skye Lee - 2011
But then she didn't count on having a gypsy wedding...It's rare for a 'gorger', or non-traveller, to marry into the gypsy community. But after a shocking childhood tragedy, Sam found the comfort she needed from an unxpected source - Patrick and his family of travellers.Gypsy Bride is the heartwarming true story of how an ordinary girl finds herself discovering an extraordinary world. A place where 'grabbing' is a sign a boy fancies you, six-year-olds get spray tans, and christenings, weddings and funerals are jaw-droppingly flamboyant.This love story is more than boy meets girl. It's about a girl who falls in love with a whole race of people and their wonderful ways.
Maddie's Story: Based on true story
Asher Boyd - 2016
When officers discovered Maddie chained to a table and competing with dogs for food, they asked the young girl her name....You could never guess her reply!
An Anthology of Madness
Max Andrew Dubinsky - 2013
Featuring brand new stories and some old favorites, many of these tell-all, gritty tales were originally published on the blog Make It MAD between 2010 and 2012, and have been rereleased in their originality for this special print and digital anthology.
The Street or Me: A New York Story
Judith Glynn - 2014
Michelle Browning is 33, drunk and a former beauty queen who nears death after six years of homelessness. Judith Glynn is divorced with grown children and struggles to support herself in her adopted city. After their first hello, neither woman is the same as they embark on a remarkable journey for two years. This memoir is a raw yet enlightening read that graphically depicts the homeless subculture. But as Judith sets out all alone to rescue Michelle is her fixation worth the sacrifice? At stake is whether Michelle will choose possible death in a gutter over Judith's guiding light back into society. Enrolled in Kindle Book Lending that allows users to lend their book after purchasing to their friends and family for a duration of 14 days. For full details, review the Kindle Book Lending Program.
Hungry for Miles: Cycling across Europe on One Pound a Day
Steven Primrose-Smith - 2015
After blowing all his cash on his previous long-distance bike ride (No Place Like Home, Thank God), Steven Primrose-Smith wants to go cycling again. Without the necessary funds, he decides to see if it's possible to travel thousands of miles on a budget of just £1 a day. Against advice, he puts together a team of complete strangers, including a fresh-faced student, a Hungarian chef, and a man with the world's worst bike, the beard of a goblin and a fetish for goats. While cycling from Liverpool to Gibraltar through England, Wales, France, Spain and Portugal, they plan to supplement their cash-strapped diet by fishing and foraging. It's just a pity no one knows anything about either. People quit, nerves are strained, and faces and bikes are both smashed. Will anyone make it to Gibraltar?
Long Blue Line: Based on a True Story
E. McNew - 2014
It candidly reveals the provocative and secret world of a planned teen pregnancy and the brutal consequences that follow. The girl next door - popular and driven. Once upon a time a beautiful teenager looked forward to school letting out and the warm, carefree days to come. But in the summer of her fifteenth year, things would drastically change. After reading a romance book sensationalizing a young woman's perfect life following the hookup with a wealthy prince charming, Elizabeth set out to create her own fairy tale ending. This would become the beginning of the darkest hours in her life: pregnancy, bridesmaids, drugs and jail. Long Blue Line is Elizabeth's true story about her descent into addiction. Her obsession with pregnancy, social issues, independence, and, ultimately drugs is chronicled in brutally honest Prose that will leave you spellbound. Her journey isn't over - far from it. She still has nightmares, but today she is wiser and lives in reality. If you are this girl, you will take a deep breath and nod your head knowingly. If you knew this girl, you will rethink your assumptions. If this girl is your daughter, you will finally get an insider's look at what she can't put into words. Above all, you will be moved - moved to tears, to unity, to action. Elizabeth is one of the lucky ones. She survived. Sadly, many young women and their children are unable to escape the madness and become another one of too many true crime stories. Not everyone gets a second chance, and she hopes to inspire others with her straightforward honesty.
Tea & Bee's Milk
Karen Gilden - 2008
So they quit their jobs, sold their house and car, and flew off to Turkey with two bags each, a laptop computer and a camera. If you've ever dreamed of ditching the rat race and taking a year off, you’ll find inspiration in this charming and humorous series of essays and emails. A delightful memoir of a memorable year.
The Devil At Home: The horrific true story of a woman held captive
Rachel Williams - 2018
It was a gun – a sawn-off shotgun.’Featured on ITV's Lorraine with Michael Sheen and Rachel Williams. Darren was funny and attractive, and 21-year-old Rachel fell head-over-heels for him; it wasn’t long before they moved in together, and she fell pregnant with his child. But his inner demons soon surfaced... Weakened and alone, Rachel was beaten and tormented by him for 18 years, until one day, Darren turned up at her place of work with a shotgun and left her for dead. But her ordeal wasn’t over… Devastating yet inspiring, Rachel’s story of hope tells of how you can always find the light, even in the very darkest of times.‘Incredibly poignant and powerful.’ – Victoria Derbyshire ‘Transformative. Life changing.’ – Michael Sheen
My Billion Year Contract
Nancy Many - 2009
But it was only after she joined Scientology's elite inner circle, the Sea Organization, and signed a Billion Year contract that she she discovered the dark world of fanaticism and abuse at the center of Scientology's vast empire. For more than two decades she worked at all levels of the organization, from serving as a personal aide to the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, who placed her in charge of the religion's worldwide expansion to becoming the head of Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, the organization that caters to Scientology's celebrity members.Early in her Scientology career, she spent five years as a covert agent engaged in espionage activities for the Church's shadowy Guardian's Office. After leaving the Sea Org, she spent an additional two years as an undercover operative for the "reformed" Guardian's Office, the Office of Special Affairs which continued the same pattern of covert intelligence and dirty tricks against the Church's perceived enemies while using intense legal attacks and bolstered by hired private investigators. She personally experienced the Sea Organization's Rehabilitation Project Force; a labor camp where erring members are "reeducated".When her loyalty came into question she was subjected to weeks of grueling interrogation, ending up in restraints after being rushed to a hospital by ambulance, unable to even recognize her own husband.It is a shocking story of abuse, imprisonment, espionage, lies, mental torture and suicide-vital reading for anyone who wants to know what goes on behind Scientology's curtain.
Destiny of choice: Based on a true story
Mary Jordan - 2014
The award-winning author Mary Jordan writes literacy narratives and articles since the early 1980s. Literature is her great love and she easily and with joy writes. Her narratives have been published since the 1990s. In 1994 she won a literature competition and her narratives were published in ‘High Club Magazine’. The idea for the novel “Destiny of choice” was born suddenly, when in her home a young girl found a home, who had experienced the horror of child flesh trade. Her confession and need of protection woke up in the author the will to tell this pathetic story and thus to express her empathy in her own way to stand against the global problem of human trafficking with women and children. The book has been published and found wide response. With it the author gained popularity. Ionna is a young girl with a restless soul. As a result of the physical violence she experienced at home, she ran away from her parents. Life outside is freedom, but it is filled with dangers and surprises. Will this beautiful young girl survive unharmed after the countless underwater reefs of the criminal world? Will she find love? Will she grow up? Will be emerge victorious in the harsh struggle for survival? She probably will, as long as she unerringly follows the path of her lucky star. Mary Jordan goes further in her own fight with the flesh trade. She has decided to donate 50 per cent of the royalties to diverse organisations, whose aim is the liquidation of the human trafficking. As a further goal, in front of her remains the creation of a foundation for child protection-victims of abuse. For her, basic care for the society now and forever has to remain as the protection of the child, the small and vulnerable, but so important for the future of the human race.
Michelle's Story: One Woman's Escape from a Lifetime of Abuse
Shelley Chase - 2012
Her first husband, and then her second husband end up abusing her also. Later on, both her surviving children were abused, one by her ex husband, another by a trusted boyfriend. Michelle finally manages to free herself from this cycle of abuse. This is her true story of her escape. It is Michelle's hope that her story will encourage others who are trapped in abuse to seek freedom.
Twirty-Something: A Young Woman's Guide to Giant Underwear
Ingrid Reinke - 2013
Twirty-Something: A Young Woman's Guide to Giant Underwear is a hilarious new Kindle Single from Award-Winning and Amazon Best-Selling author and humorist Ingrid Reinke.On the cold January day when Ingrid Reinke turned 30, she looked back upon the last decade of her life in deep thought before finally shaking her head and mumbling to herself the following insight: "Wow, what a shit show."So, she sat down, braless and alone, and penned a collection of laugh-out-loud essays about the ridiculous, shocking and occasionally horrifying things that happen to us as we ungracefully age from 20 to 30, try, semi-successfully, to leave our clueless years behind and become mature, responsible grown-up women.From weird hairs to boob sweat, OCD to weddings, Twirty-Something swings between a no-holds-barred conversation and a cautionary tale about aging and all the crap that comes along with it.Sometime instruction manual, sometime commiseration partner, get ready for Reinke's honest and occasionally potty-mouthed accounts of this tumultuous decade.So hike up your yoga pants, plop another ice cube in your Pinot Grigio and get ready to laugh at the author, young women in general, and most of all at yourself.