What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorChildhood Interrupted
Kathleen O'Malley · 250 pages
In 1950, Kathleen O'Malley and her two sisters were legally abducted from their mother and placed in an industrial school ran by the Sisters of Mercy order of nuns. The rape of eight-year-old Kathleen by a neighbour had triggered their removal - the Irish authorities ruling that her mother must have been negligent. They were only allowed a strictly supervised visit once a year, until they were per
Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt · 384 pages
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish im
Stitches
David Small · 336 pages
Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award and finalist for two 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: the prize-winning children's author depicts a childhood from hell in this searing yet redemptive graphic memoir. One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched toget
Good Morning, Monster
Catherine Gildiner · 368 pages
As seen on Good Morning America's SEPTEMBER 2020 READING LIST and FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020!"We need to read stories about folks who have been through hell and kept going... Fascinating." —Glennon Doyle, A Favorite Book of 2020 on Good Morning America"Gildiner is nothing short of masterful—as both a therapist and writer. In these pages, she has gorgeously captured both the privilege of being given ac
A Piece of Cake
Cupcake Brown · 480 pages
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The heart-wrenching, uplifting tale about a woman named Cupcake “[Cupcake] Brown’s confessional . . . memoir is one you can’t easily put down. Her life is nothing short of a miracle.”—Chicago Sun-Times There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-dea
The Liars' Club
Mary Karr · 320 pages
The Texas refinery town of Leechfield, perched on the swampy rim of the Gulf, is famous for mosquitoes and the manufacture of Agent Orange - a place where the only bookstores are religious ones and the restaurants serve only fried food. A handful of the Leechfield oil workers gather regularly at the American Legion Bar to drink salted beer and spin long, improbable tales. They're the Liars' Club.
A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
Steve Pemberton · 264 pages
The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America
Alan Philps, John Lahutsky · 288 pages
Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities
Flora Rheta Schreiber · 460 pages
This is the amazing story of a woman who lived with 16 different personalities. Here is the unbelievable yet true story of Sybil Dorsett, a survivor of terrible childhood abuse who as an adult was a victim of sudden and mysterious blackouts. What happened during those blackouts has made Sybil's experience one of the most famous psychological cases in the world.
Damaged
Cathy Glass · 339 pages
'I'm not bad, am I, Cathy?' I held her closer to me. 'No sweet, of course you're not bad. What was happening to you was bad. It was never your fault. You mustn't think that.' Eight-year old Jodie's behavior is so challenging and disturbing that she has already been through five foster carers in four months. But it is Jodie who is the real victim. Only Cathy has th
Street Kid
Judy Westwater, Wanda Carter · 320 pages
After a childhood lived in terror, in 1994, Judy was presented with an Unsung Heroes Award for her charity work with street children in South Africa. Her moving story came to light after Judy was interviewed by John Peel on BBC's "Home Truths". This title offers the story of her early years, a story of a child who refused to give up.
Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs · 320 pages
"Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa and a lunatic in the bargain. Suddenly, at age twelve, Augusten Burroughs found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients, and a pedophile living in the backyard
The Lost Boy
Dave Pelzer · 272 pages
Imagine a young boy who has never had a home. His only possessions are the old torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. His only world is isolation and fear. Although this young boy has been rescued from his alcoholic mother, the real hurt is just beginning-he has no place to call *home*. This is the first paragraph on the back of the book. While I feel it sums up the book pretty well, I think some
Child C: Surviving a Foster Mother's Reign of Terror
Christopher Spry · 313 pages
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
Adeline Yen Mah · 224 pages
A riveting memoir of a girl's painful coming-of-age in a wealthy Chinese family during the 1940s.A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother
Girl Unbroken: A Sister's Harrowing Story of Survival from The Streets of Long Island to the Farms of Idaho
Regina Calcaterra, Rosie Maloney · 488 pages
"They were five kids with five different fathers and an alcoholic mother who left them to fend for themselves for weeks at a time. Yet through it all they had each other. Rosie, the youngest, is fawned over and shielded by her older sister, Regina. Their mother, Cookie, blows in and out of their lives 'like a hurricane, blind and uncaring to everything in her path'. But when Regina discloses the t
Dorie, the girl nobody loved
Doris Van Stone
"Someone has said that when you have nothing left but God, you realized that God is enough. God had stood beside me when no one else wanted me. He was not going to abandon me now. God would have to heal the emotional pain that throbbed through my body." As a child, Dorie was rejected by her mother, sent to live in an orphanage where she was regularly beaten by the orphanage director, was beaten ti
Helpless: The True Story of a Neglected Girl Betrayed and Exploited by the Neighbour She Trusted
Marianne Marsh
The Girl Nobody Wants - A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland
Lily O'Brien
This is the shocking true story of an innocent girl abused by the very people who said they would take good care of her. Lily's family began the path to her destruction, they used and abused her, but they never ever wanted or loved her.
Amelia's Story: A Childhood Lost
D.G. Torrens · 386 pages
Behind Closed Doors: A True Story of Abuse, Neglect and Survival Against the Odds
Jenny Tomlin · 264 pages
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls · 296 pages
A story about the early life of Jeannette Walls. The memoir is an exposing work about her early life and growing up on the run and often homeless. It presents a different perspective of life from all over the United States and the struggle a girl had to find normalcy as she grew into an adult.