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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.

Squirting Milk at Chameleons: An Accidental African


Simon Fenton - 2015
    "If I don't offer it milk, our son will grow up to look like a lizard," she explained. Clearly I had a lot to learn about life in Africa.On the cusp of middle age, Simon Fenton leaves Britain in search of adventure and finds Senegal, love, fatherhood, witch doctors—and a piece of land that could make a perfect guest house, if only he knew how to build one. The Casamance is an undiscovered paradise here mystic Africa governs life, people walk to the beat of the djembe, when it rains it pours, and the mangoes are free. But the fact that his name translates to "vampire" and he has had a curse placed on him via the medium of eggs could mean Simon’s new life may not be so easy.

Unloved: The True Story of a Stolen Childhood


Peter Roche - 2007
    Finding it was like discovering that I really did exist after all . It was as if someone was saying ‘No, it wasn’t all in your imagination, that childhood really did happen, and it happened to you.’ Brought up in South London by violent and abusive parents, the Roche children knew only cruelty, neglect, starvation and squalor. As one of ten and regularly beaten, Peter searched dustbins for food and slept rough when he couldn't face going home. It was survival at all costs, every child for itself. Expelled from school at the age of 14, Peter’s life of petty crime landed him in borstal – and exposed him to yet more sickening abuse.Then, years later, a chance meeting with a social worker led to his discovery of a photograph - a portrait, taken by Lord Snowdon, of a toddler dressed in rags. It was an image that had shocked the world. The boy in the picture was Peter. Unloved is a harrowing account of a shattered childhood, told by a man who has finally found the courage to speak out. This is his story.

Call Me Evil, Let Me Go: A Mother's Struggle to Save Her Children from a Brutal Religious Cult


Sarah Jones - 2011
    Humiliated, ostracised and brainwashed, her spirit had been crushed. But as the realisation of what she was subjecting her children to began to sink in, she found new strength and determination -- the strength to try to escape the world that had consumed her for so long. Sarah was never a troublesome child. She smoked and drank a bit when she was underage, and shoplifted once, but she was generally well-behaved and didn't mean to upset her mum and dad. But Sarah's parents had seen first hand what could happen when a teenager went off the rails. Scared the same would happen to Sarah, they sent her away, many miles from home, to a church school that would put a stop to her bad behaviour. They had no idea they were sending Sarah to a place where she would be forced into obedience -- a place that sanctioned force-feeding and beating in order to smash a child's will. They had no idea she would end up marrying a boy from the cult, and cutting the rest of her family out of her life. Or that she would begin to treat her own children in the same way -- believing there was no other option, and that everyone in the outside world was evil. But she did. And the day they sent Sarah away to the little church school miles from home was the last time they saw their real daughter for over a decade. Until one day when Sarah found the courage to fight back, the strength to protect her children and bravely venture into the world she believed was full of evil. This is Sarah's story -- the shocking but ultimately inspiring true story of her struggle to save her children from the suffering she was forced to endure.

Did You Hear Me Crying? (The Heartbreaking True Story of a Child Abused) - Child Abuse True Stories


Cassie Moore - 2012
    Yet the World Health Organisation estimates that up to 40 million children are abused every year and according to Women's Aid, 1 in 3 women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.In this shocking memoir, Cassie Moore gives a very open and honest description of how she suffered and survived a lifetime of abuse. She describes:- The sexual, physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her Stepfather and Mother, who then sold her into marriage at the age of 16 - The heartbreak she suffered when she naively left her 22 month old baby behind when she fled to London with the man she fell in love with, only to be abused by him for a further 23 years- The self-loathing, depression and despair she felt during those lonely years - The enormous sacrifices she had to make to save herself and start a new life

Sold Into Marriage: One Girl's Living Nightmare


Sean Boyne - 1998
    Her groom was a farmer almost four times her age. Despite a pre-nuptial agreement guaranteeing that there would be no sex, her husband raped her repeatedly. He also beat her. Although she made desperate pleas for help, the legal system, the police and the clergy failed to come to her aid. Sold into Marriage is the story of that girl's loveless marriage, as told to journalist Sean Boyne, her rape, subsequent pregnancy and suicide attempt and her eventual escape to London and freedom.

Hanging with the Elephant


Michael Harding - 2014
    A new memoir from the author of Irish bestseller Staring at Lakes, which was received the Book of the Year Award at the BGE Irish Book Awards 2013

Through A Mother’s Tears: The tragic true story of a mother who lost one daughter to a brutal murderer and another to a broken heart


Cathy Broomfield - 2018
    But as the days passed with no word from Kirsty, a loving daughter who spoke to her mum every day, Cathy became increasingly anxious, until the day the police arrived at her door to tell her they had found a body, when she knew her worst fears had been realised... Through a Mother’s Tears is the poignant and heartbreaking story of how Cathy lost not only Kirsty, her youngest daughter, but Kirsty’s big sister Hayley, who died of heartbreak when the agony of her baby sister’s loss became too much to bear.

Unbeaten


Kim Woodburn - 2006
    Often she has simply wished that she had never been born, for Kim has overcome horrific emotional and physical abuse both at the hands of her alcoholic mother and her philandering, sexually abusive father. In her brave and revealing story Kim's memories of growing up are not of love and cuddles, but of beatings and random cruelty. Shuttled between the brutal houses of her warring parents, a succession of miserable children's homes and a grim convent -- Kim's past has cast a long shadow over her life. But just before her sixteenth birthday she finally made her escape. It has taken decades of hard work, and a wonderfully happy marriage to conquer depression but now she has emerged unbowed and unbeaten as Britain's Queen of Clean.

City Kid


Mary MacCracken - 1981
    It won the School Library Journal Best Book Award. Another exploration of the very real and painful world of the learning-disabled child.

You Can't Run: The Terrifying True Story of a Young Woman Trapped in a Violent Relationship


Mandy Thomas - 2015
    I knew he would never stop, so I just had to do what I could to survive." Mandy Thomas was just 18 when she met the man who would change her life forever. She was soon under his spell – and then her real nightmare began. Mandy found herself part of a cruel and violent relationship that she couldn’t escape. Until one day he went too far… You Can’t Run is Mandy’s searingly honest and moving true story.

Mother's Ruin: The Extraordinary True Story of How Alcohol Destroys a Family


Nicola Barry - 2007
    And of how Nicola battled with her own alcoholism but, determined to throw off her mother's legacy, came through a survivor.

Exodus, Revisited: My Unorthodox Journey to Berlin


Deborah Feldman - 2021
    She was determined to find a better life for herself, away from the oppression and isolation of her Satmar upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And in Exodus, Revisited she delves into what happened next--taking the reader on a journey that starts with her beginning life anew as a single mother, a religious refugee, and an independent woman in search of a place and a community where she can belong. Originally published in 2014, Deborah has now revisited and significantly expanded her story, and the result is greater insight into her quest to discover herself and the true meaning of home. Travels that start with making her way in New York expand into an exploration of America and eventually lead to trips across Europe to retrace her grandmother's life during the Holocaust, before she finds a landing place in the unlikeliest of cities. Exodus, Revisited is a deeply moving examination of the nature of memory and generational trauma, and of reconciliation with both yourself and the world.

If Only: Living in the Shadows of the Moors Murders


Terry West - 2018
    Her older brother, Terry did not go with her because he was ill with flu. Not accompanying her on that fateful day would haunt Terry for the rest of his life. Lesley was abducted by Moors murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. This is their heart-breaking story, told by Terry. This fascinating and tragic story also includes family photographs and letters from Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Just a Girl: A shocking true story of child abuse


Scarlett Jones - 2020
    Until one day things go from bad to worse.Walking home from school, Scarlett is befriended by a young man called Ed, who tells her that a friend of his is keen to meet her. Scarlett eventually agrees, and Ed takes her to his house.But there is no friend waiting for them.As her life is torn apart by a vicious grooming gang, Scarlett begins to believe this is just how her world should be. In her darkest hour, will she find the courage to confront her abusers and seek justice?This is the heart-breaking story of a destroyed childhood and how our past must not shape our future.