P OSITIVE BY P AIGE R AWL A teenagers memoir of the experiences
of bullying, being HIV positive and surviving the experiences to
become a force for positive change in this world. 272 pages
Slide 4
G IRLS L IKE U S BY R ACHEL L LOYD During her teens, Rachel
Lloyd ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. With
time, through incredible resilience, and with the help of a local
church community, she finally broke free of her pimp and her past
and devoted herself to helping other young girls escape the
life.Lloyd reveals the dark world of commercial sex trafficking inc
inematic detail and tells the story of her groundbreaking nonprofit
organization: GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services. 277
pages
Slide 5
B RAIN ON F IRE : M Y M ONTH OF M ADNESS BY S USANNAH C AHALAN
One day in 2009, twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up
alone in a strange hospital room, strapped to her bed, under guard,
& unable to move or speak. A wristband marked her as a "flight
risk," & her medical records-- chronicling a month long
hospital stay of which she had no memory at all--showed
hallucinations, violence, & dangerous instability. Who was the
stranger who had taken over her body? What was happening to her
mind? In this swift & breathtaking narrative, Susannah tells
the astonishing true story of her inexplicable descent into madness
& the brilliant, lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn't
happen. 264 pages
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C RAZY L OVE : A M EMOIR BY L ESLIE M ORGAN S TEINER At 22,
Leslie seemed to have it all: good looks, a Harvard diploma, a
glamorous job in NYC. Plus a handsome, funny boyfriend who adored
her. But behind her faade of success, this golden girl hid a dark
secret. Shed made a mistake shared by millions: She fell in love
with the wrong person. At first, Leslie & Connor seemed perfect
together. Then came the fights she tried to ignore: he pushed her
down the stairs, choked her during an argument, and threatened her
with a gun. Several times, he came close to making good on his
threat to kill her. With each attack, Leslie lost another piece of
herself. Why didnt she leave? 325 pages
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O RANGE IS THE N EW B LACK : A M EMOIR BY P IPER K ERMAN With a
career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely
resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug
money ten years before. But that past has caught up with her.
Convicted and sentenced to 15 months at the infamous federal
correctional facility in Danbury, CT, the well-heeled Smith College
alumna is now inmate #11187-424 one of the millions of people who
disappear down the rabbit hole of the American penal system. From
her first strip search to her final release, Kerman learns to
navigate this strange world with its strictly enforced codes of
behavior and arbitrary rules. 327 pages
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A S TOLEN L IFE BY J AYCEE D UGARD The memoir of Jaycee Dugard,
who was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 from a school bus stop within
sight of her home in Tahoe, California, when she was 11 years old.
She was held prisoner by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and
his wife, Nancy Garridofor over eighteen years, all the while
living in a tent on the Garrido property. 279 pages
Slide 9
STICK FIGURE: A DIARY OF MY FORMER SELF BY LORI GOTTLIEB After
happening upon the diary she kept when she was 11 years old,
Gottlieb was moved to publish this chronicle of her struggle with
anorexia nearly 20 years after she wrote it. In the late1970s, she
lived with her parents and brother in Beverly Hills, where
Gottlieb's loneliness and concern about looking attractive to boys
swiftly transformed into an obsession with dieting, although she
had never been overweight. 222 pages
Slide 10
UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS: A STORY OF LOSS AND GAIN BY PORTIA DE
ROSSI I didn't decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me
disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin
as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier.
Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the
set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first
leading role....On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous
and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying. In this
searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the
complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and
body image take priority over every other human impulse or action.
308 pages Available at the Voorheesville Public Library 921
DEROSSI
Slide 11
D EVIL IN THE DETAILS : S CENES FROM AN O BSESSIVE G IRLHOOD BY
J ENNIFER T RAIG Gives a rare inside look at obsessive-compulsive
disorder. It is a funny, touching tale of a not-so-normal girl and
her brave battle with a not-so- normal disease. 256 pages
Slide 12
D EVOTED : THE S TORY OF A F ATHER S L OVE FOR H IS S ON BY D
ICK H OYT 203 pages
Slide 13
A THREE DOG LIFE BY ABIGAIL THOMAS When Abigail Thomas's
husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to
rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his
life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour,
the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which
Abigail had to build a new life. 182 pages Available at the
Voorheesville Public Library 921 THOMAS
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T HREE L ITTLE W ORDS BY A SHLEY R HODES -C OURTER Taken from
her mother when she was scarcely four years old, Rhodes Courter
spent the next nine years in foster care with more than a dozen
so-called mothers. Some were kind, she acknowledges, a few were
quirky and one...was as wicked as a fairy-tale witch. 301
pages
Slide 15
T HE G LASS C ASTLE BY J EANNETTE W ALLS A memoir of resilience
amid a deeply dysfunctional childhood. 288 pages
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T WEAK : G ROWING U P ON M ETHAMPHETAMINES BY N IC S HEFF Book
1: The author details his immersion in a world of hardcore drugs,
revealing the mental and physical depths of addiction, and the
violent relapse one summer in California that forever changed his
life, leading him down the road to recovery. Mature content. 337
pages
Slide 17
W E A LL F ALL D OWN : L IVING WITH A DDICTION BY N IC S HEFF
Book 2: About Sheffs continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes
candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating
relapses, and hard-won realizations about what it means to be a
young person living with addiction. Mature content. 345 pages
Slide 18
T HE L AST L ECTURE BY R ANDY P AUSCH 206 pages
Slide 19
T ITANIC S URVIVOR : THE N EWLY D ISCOVERED M EMOIRS OF V IOLET
J ESSOP WHO S URVIVED BOTH THE T ITANIC AND B RITANNIC D ISASTERS
She survived the sinking of the TITANIC. For most people one
sinking would be enough. But Violet also survived the sinking of
the hospital ship BRITANNIC and her, this disaster was even more
horrifying. 238 pages Available at the Voorheesville Public Library
363.123 JES
Slide 20
T HE Y EAR W E D ISAPPEARED : A F ATHER - D AUGHTER M EMOIR BY
C YLIN B USBY 329 pages
Slide 21
I RON H EART : THE T RUE S TORY OF H OW I C AME B ACK F ROM THE
D EAD BY B RIAN B OYLE 248 pages
Slide 22
SOUL SURFER BY BETHANY HAMILTON After a horrific shark attack
during which she loses an arm, Bethany finds the courage and faith
to surf again. 222 pages
Slide 23
THE BURN JOURNALS BY BRENT RUNYON Brent was 14 years old when
he set himself on fire. This is a true story. In The Burn Journals,
Runyon describes that devastating suicide attempt and his recovery
over the following year. He takes us into the Burn Unit in a
children's hospital and through painful burn care and skin-
grafting procedures. Then to a rehabilitation hospital, for
intensive physical, occupational, and psychological therapy. And
then finally back home, to the frightening prospect of entering
high school. 374 pages
Slide 24
B ETWEEN A R OCK AND A H ARD P LACE BY A RON R ALSTON 352
pages
Slide 25
G RIEF G IRL : M Y T RUE S TORY BY E RIN V INCENT At age 14,
Vincent lost both parents in a traffic accident. This is a gripping
memoir of the aftermath of their deaths. 306 pages
Slide 26
A C HILD C ALLED I T BY D AVE P ELZER B OOK 1 Dave Pelzer's
Autobiographical account of his alleged abuse as a child by an
alcoholic mother. 160 pages
Slide 27
T HE L OST B OY BY D AVE P ELZER B OOK 2 The book discusses
Pelzer's struggling with his ability to fit in and adapt to the new
environment around him as he is put into foster care. It also talks
about the kindness of his foster parents and other people around
him as well as his inability to brush his mother aside. 294
pages
Slide 28
A M AN N AMED D AVE BY D AVE P ELZER B OOK 3 In this follow-up
to A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy, which detailed the abuse
Pelzer endured as a child, he explains how he grew beyond it. 284
pages
Slide 29
T HE P RIVILEGE OF Y OUTH BY D AVE P ELZER B OOK 4 From high
school to a world beyond the four walls that were his prison for so
many years. A continuation of Dave Pelzers story. 230 pages
Slide 30
B REAKING N IGHT : A M EMOIR OF F ORGIVENESS, S URVIVAL, &
M Y J OURNEY F ROM H OMELESS TO H ARVARD BY L IZ M URRAY A memoir
of a young woman living on the streets at age 15 and who eventually
made it into Harvard. 334 pages
Slide 31
S HE S N OT T HERE : A L IFE IN T WO G ENDERS BY J ENNIFER F
INNEY B OYLAN The story of a person changing genders, the story of
a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret. 300
pages
Slide 32
L OOK M E IN THE E YE : MY L IFE WITH A SPERGER S BY J OHN E
LDER R OBISON 288 pages
Slide 33
I K NOW W HY THE C AGED B IRD S INGS BY M AYA A NGELOU Sent by
their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother
in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the
ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "po whitetrash."
At eight years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya
is attacked by a man many times her age- and has to live with the
consequences for a lifetime. 289 pages
