Grossmont Library

Memoirs

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Title	Author	Description
Angela's Ashes	McCourt, Frank	Growing up with poverty and alcoholism in Ireland and the U.S.
Because of Romek: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir	Faber, David	Boy survives Nazi atrocities in Poland camp during the Holocaust
Between a Rock and a Hard Place	Ralston, Aron	Hiker is trapped for 6 days in Utah, his arm caught between rocks
Blind Side: Evolution of a Game	Lewis, Michael	From 16 years of poverty to being adopted and becoming a star in the NFL
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant	Tammet, Daniel	Life through the eyes of an autistic savant, one of 50 in the country
Burn Journals	Runyon, Brent	14-year old boy sets himself on fire and then must survive the results
Burro Genius	Villasenor, Victor	Life growing up Latino and poor in an all-white school in the 1940s
Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive	Pelzer, David	Life of severe child abuse and neglect with a child's courage to survive
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter	Mah, Adeline	Unwanted daughter, growing up in wealthy but dysfunctional Chinese family
Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank	Frank, Anne	13-year old girl hid from Nazis with her family in Amsterdam for 25 months
Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death	Bauby, Jean	After a stroke, only his left eye works to communicate but writes a book
Enrique's Journey	Nazario, Sonia	Young boy travels from Honduras to the U.S. to find his mother
Escape	Jessop, Carolyn	Woman, married off to a stranger, flees a religious sect with her children
Finding Fisher	Fisher, Antwone	African-American boy in abusive foster home rises to success in the Navy
Freedom Writer's Diary	Gruwell, Erin	Teacher and 150 unteachable students use writing to change themselves
Ghosts of War	Smithson, Ryan	19-year old Army engineer in Iraq - combat, fear and friendship
Girl, Interrupted	Kaysen, Susanna	Mental illness and recovery, a teen spends 2 years in psychiatric hospital
Glass Castle	Walls, Jeanette	Tender story of how a family's nonconformity becomes abuse and neglect
God Grew Tired of Us	Dau, John	One of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" and African children affected by war
Hole in My Life	Gantos, Jack	Young drug user and smuggler goes to prison and turns his life around
Hope's Boy	Bridge, Andrew	Boy survives a mentally ill mother and bad foster care to be successful
I am Nujood; Aged 10 and Divorced	Ali, Nujood	Child bride in Yemen rebels after being physically and emotionally abused
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking	Powell, Julie	Young wife strives to make every one of Julia Child's 524 recipes in 1 year
Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier	Beah, Ishmael	Young man participates in the horrors of civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's	Robison, John	Very smart but socially awkward, he felt different due to Asperger's
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story	Latifa	Life of oppression for girls in war-torn Afghanistan, told by 16-year old girl
My Thirteenth Winter	Abeel, Samantha	Straight-A student, she is diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability
October Sky	Hickam, Homer	Poor boy in Appalachia learns science and builds rockets for outer space
Please Stop Laughing at Me: One Woman's Inspirational Story	Blanco, Jodee	Blanco was teased, shunned, and physically assaulted by her classmates
Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution	Jiang, Ji-li	Teen girl experiences atrocities in China during the Cultural Revolution
Sybil	Schreiber, Flora	Victim of childhood abuse, Sybil was possessed by 16 different personalities
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan	Deng, Benson	In Sudan, 3 boys traveled 1,000 miles - surviving hunger, illness, predators
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations--One School at a Time	Mortenson, Greg	American man helping Afghanistan villages build schools, against all odds
Three Little Words	Rhodes-Courter, Ashley	Girl spent 9 years in foster care after being taken from her neglectful mother
Touching the Void	Simpson, Joe	Miracle survival after being injured and left for dead while mountain climbing
Upstairs Room	Reiss, Johanna	Dutch Jewish girl spends 2 years hiding in a farmhouse room during Holocaust
Warriors Don't Cry	Beals, Melba	1957, brave Black students who integrated Central HS in Little Rock, AK
We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed	Davis, Sampson	3 friends promise each other to stay away from crime and become doctors
Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Spain	Filipovic, Zlata	Zlata describes life in the Bosnian War and bombing of Sarajevo in the 1990s

Virtual Library Learning Commons

Memoirs

Virtual Library Learning Commons