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Educated : a memoir
by Tara Westover
Traces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn an acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.
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Hollywood Park : a memoir
by Mikel Jollett
The frontman of indie band The Airborne Toxic Event reveals his upbringing in the infamous Church of Synanon cult, where he endured poverty, addiction and emotional abuse before slowly working his way toward college and a music career
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Ordinary girls : a memoir
by Jaquira Díaz
A biographical debut by a Pushcart Prize-winning writer traces her upbringing in the housing projects of Puerto Rico, her mother’s battle with schizophrenia, her personal struggles with sexual assault and her efforts to pursue a literary career.
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Women talking : a novel
by Miriam Toews
After learning the men in the community have been drugging and attacking more than a hundred women, eight Mennonite women meet in secret to decide whether they should escape to a place outside the colony or stay in the only world they've ever known
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Little faith : a novel
by Nickolas Butler
A Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when an adult daughter falls under the influence of a radical church that threatens a grandchild's safety. By the best-selling author of Shotgun Lovesongs.
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Educated : a memoir
by Tara Westover
Traces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn an acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.
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The only girl in the world : a memoir
by Maude Julien
A memoir by a therapy specialist in manipulation and psychological control describes her harrowing upbringing by fanatic parents who raised her in isolation through traumatic disciplinary exercises designed to "eliminate weakness," recounting how she eventually escaped with the help of an outsider.
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The sound of gravel : a memoir
by Ruth Wariner
An account of the author's coming-of-age in a polygamist Mormon Doomsday cult describes her childhood on a Mexico hills farm as one of her father's more than 40 welfare-dependent children, the extreme religious beliefs that haunted her daily life and her escape in the aftermath of a devastating tragedy.
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The girl's guide to homelessness : a memoir
by Brianna Karp
The author, surviving a childhood of violence and abuse, shares her journey as a homeless person, ashamed and terrified at first, but then awestruck by the extraordinary people she connected with whose stories inspired her to become an activist for the homeless community.
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Irma Voth : a novel
by Miriam Toews
When a celebrated Mexican filmmaker comes to the rural Mennonite community in which she was raised, 19-year-old Irma Voth is drawn to the outsiders and, hired as a translator on the set, sees this as an opportunity to escape her brutal domineering father and follow her dreams.
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Cartwheels in a sari : a memoir of growing up cult
by Jayanti Tamm
The author describes growing up in a Queens ashram under the guru Sri Chinmoy, discussing the community's strict regimen of spiritual practices, her rebellious behavior, eventual questioning of the guru's beliefs, and final separation
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The glass castle : a memoir
by Jeannette Walls
The second child of a scholarly, alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing from the Arizona desert, to Las Vegas, to an Appalachian mining town, during which her siblings and she fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
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A complicated kindness : a novel
by Miriam Toews
Doomed to work at the Happy Family Farm, a chicken slaughterhouse in a town run by religious fundamentalists, sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel nevertheless manages to bear witness to the dissolution of her family with a dark, sly wit.
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