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The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less

Terry Ryan, Brendan Ryan · back to the book

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Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.

24 books with the same feel

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❤️

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah · 297 pages

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often ab

Working-Class ProtagonistMother and DaughterUpliftingMemoir & Biography
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Cheaper by the Dozen

Frank B. Gilbreth Jr., Ernestine Gilbreth Carey · 207 pages

Large FamilyUpliftingMemoir & BiographyHeartwarming
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The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

James McBride · 314 pages

James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment and continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school

Large FamilyUpliftingWorking-Class ProtagonistMemoir & Biography
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Half Broke Horses

Jeannette Walls · 313 pages

It is 1970 in a small town in California. "Bean" Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decay

Working-Class ProtagonistMother and DaughterBiographyMemoir & Biography
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The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown · 416 pages

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing f

Working-Class ProtagonistBiographyUpliftingMemoir & Biography
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Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Kathleen Krull · 48 pages

A biography of Cesar Chavez, from age ten when he and his family lived happily on their Arizona ranch, to age thirty-eight when he led a peaceful protest against California migrant workers' miserable working conditions.

UpliftingWorking-Class ProtagonistMemoir & BiographyBiography
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Mother and DaughterUpliftingMemoir & BiographyBiography
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Growing Up

Russell Baker, Gilbert Riswold · 348 pages

Pulitzer prize-winning writer Russell Baker shares his memories of growing up between the two world wars, telling of his life in Virginia, New Jersey, and Baltimore, and discussing his loving mother and family, teachers, schoolmates, and how they all survived the Depression years.

Mother and DaughterWorking-Class ProtagonistMemoir & BiographyHeartwarming
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Tisha: The Wonderful True Love Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness

Robert Specht · 342 pages

> **Alaska was as remote as the moon, as roistering and lawless as the Gold Rush. And a pretty young schoolteacher from Colorado like Anne Hobbs was even rarer than nuggets.** "So appealing are the people here, even the villainous ones; so dramatic is the landscape in which they act out their adventure; so pure is the moral conflict that forms the story's backbone, and so honest is its sentim

UpliftingBiographyMemoir & BiographyHeartwarming
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Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Margaret Sidney · 226 pages

A fatherless family, happy in spite of its impoverished condition, is befriended by a very rich gentleman.

Large FamilyWorking-Class ProtagonistUpliftingHeartwarming
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An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny

Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski · 238 pages

He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But something made her turn around and go back. They met nearly every week for years, and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.

Working-Class ProtagonistUpliftingMemoir & BiographyHeartwarming
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On the Banks of Plum Creek

Laura Ingalls Wilder · 338 pages

Laura and her family move to Minnesota where they live in a dugout until a new house is built and face misfortunes caused by flood, blizzard, and grasshoppers.

Large FamilyWorking-Class ProtagonistUpliftingHeartwarming
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The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation

Melissa Rivers · 284 pages

Joan Rivers said some outrageous things to her audiences as a comedian--but they were nothing compared to what she said and did in private. But her love for her daughter knew no bounds. Now Melissa Rivers shares stories and anecdotes about growing up in the Rosenberg-Rivers household with the woman who raised her.

Mother and DaughterMemoir & BiographyBiographyHeartwarming
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The Sound of Gravel

Ruth Wariner · 352 pages

The true story of one girl's coming-of-age in a polygamist family. Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father's forty-two children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world

Large FamilyWorking-Class ProtagonistMemoir & BiographyNonfiction
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UpliftingMemoir & BiographyWorking-Class ProtagonistHeartwarming
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A Chair for My Mother

Vera B. Williams · 32 pages

Mother and DaughterWorking-Class ProtagonistUpliftingHeartwarming
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A Girl of the Limberlost

Gene Stratton-Porter · 413 pages

Wherein Elnora goes to high school and learns many lessons not found in her books

Mother and DaughterWorking-Class ProtagonistUpliftingHeartwarming
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Letter to My Daughter

Maya Angelou · 192 pages

For a world of devoted readers, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers.Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, po

UpliftingMother and DaughterMemoir & BiographyHeartwarming
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The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Michael Lewis · 345 pages

Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL.

UpliftingBiographyHeartwarmingMemoir & Biography
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Moonlight on Linoleum: A Daughter's Memoir

Terry Helwig

"Forced by her mother's instability to care for her five siblings, Helwig crafts a moving story of a mother she loved and struggled to understand"--

Mother and DaughterLarge FamilyMemoir & BiographyNonfiction
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The Family Nobody Wanted

Helen Grigsby Doss · 267 pages

Large FamilyMemoir & BiographyHeartwarmingNonfiction
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The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America's Largest Families—How They Do It

Michelle Duggar, Jim Bob Duggar · 234 pages

A behind-the-scenes look at this supersize, faith-filled family from Arkansas that's full of entertaining and enlightening stories, photos, recipes, tips, traditions, and practical ideas for rearing happy children.

Large FamilyUpliftingHeartwarmingNonfiction
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The Story of the Trapp Family Singers

Maria Augusta von Trapp · 310 pages

Large FamilyMemoir & BiographyHeartwarmingNonfiction
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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.

Mother and DaughterWorking-Class ProtagonistMemoir & BiographyNonfiction

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