From Junkie to Judge
One Woman's Triumph over Trauma and Addiction
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From Junkie to Judge
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Narrated by:
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Nikki Zakocs
About this listen
From a junkie addicted to methamphetamines to a federal judge, Mary Beth O'Connor's memoir shares her inspiring journey from rock bottom to resilience as she forged a personal path to recovery from trauma and addiction.
Searing, unsettling, and ultimately triumphant, Judge O'Connor's debut memoir takes listeners on a wild ride through the rock-bottom underbelly of intravenous drug addiction to the hallowed halls of justice, where she rose to the pinnacle of success as a federal judge.
With wit and unabashed honesty, O'Connor shares her remarkable three-phase journey: the abuse and trauma that drove her to teenage drug use, the chaos that ensued from her addiction, and how she developed a personalized secular recovery plan that led to twenty-nine years of sobriety. Her story proves any addict can recover and anyone can build a productive and happy life, no matter how low the bottom or how deep the pain.
©2022 Mary Beth O'Connor (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,423
With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering listeners accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Wonderful Memoir
- By Jo on 01-24-16
By: Janet Mock
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Trans Figured
- My Journey from Boy to Girl to Woman to Man
- By: Brian Belovitch
- Narrated by: Joel Froomkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Brian Belovitch has the rare distinction of coming out three times: first as a queer teenager; second as a glamorous transgender woman named Tish, and later, Natalia Gervais; and finally as an HIV-positive gay man surviving the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. From growing up in a barely-working-class first-generation immigrant family in Fall River, Massachusetts, to spinning across the disco dance floor of Studio 54 in New York City, Brian escaped many near-death experiences. Trans Figured chronicles a life lived on the edge with an unforgettable cast of characters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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How utterly exhausting
- By Leah on 11-19-18
By: Brian Belovitch
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Scars and Stilettos - 2nd Edition
- By: Harmony Dust
- Narrated by: Harmony Dust
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Scars and Stilettos: At 13, after being abandoned by her mother one summer and left to take care of her younger brother, Harmony becomes susceptible to a relationship that turns out to be toxic, abusive, and ultimately exploitative. She eventually finds herself working in a strip club at the age of 19, and her boyfriend becomes her pimp, controlling her every move and taking all of her money. Ultimately, she discovers a path to freedom and a whole new life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A religious book
- By Amazonbuyer on 10-12-21
By: Harmony Dust
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Snow
- A Love Story Birthed in the Streets (Snow, Book 1)
- By: Jessica N. Watkins
- Narrated by: Jay Miranda, Patrick Stevens
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 502
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 443
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 444
Azu Wilson gave his oldest daughter the name Snow because she was born amongst his snowfall on the city of Gary, Indiana in 2001. Then, Azu had just began to drop tons kilos of coke on the city, starting the birth of his empire. Fast forward 18 years later, Snow is Azu's favorite girl and only daughter. She has been doted on by her father. Now, she is off to college with her best friends, Tristan and Bae. They hope that their move out of the violent streets of Chicago to Tallahassee will bring positive change to the brutally savage lives they have lived.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Stop putting this Narrator on Urban Books.
- By Cookie C. on 01-23-20
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Smashed
- Story of a Drunken Girlhood
- By: Koren Zailckas
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
From earliest experimentation to habitual excess to full-blown abuse, 24-year-old Koren Zailckas leads us through her experience of a terrifying trend among young girls, exploring how binge drinking becomes routine, how it becomes "the usual". With the stylistic freshness of a poet and the dramatic gifts of a novelist, Zailckas describes her first sip at 14, alcohol poisoning at 16, blacked-out sexual experience at 19, and total disorientation after waking up in an unfamiliar New York City apartment at 22.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Smashed
- By John Riggs on 07-14-05
By: Koren Zailckas
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The Boy Kings of Texas
- A Memoir
- By: Domingo Martinez
- Narrated by: Emilio Delgado
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 368
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 331
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Story4 out of 5 stars 330
A lyrical and authentic book that recounts the story of a border-town family in Brownsville, Texas in the 1980s, as each member of the family desperately tries to assimilate and escape life on the border to become "real" Americans, even at the expense of their shared family history. This is really un-mined territory in the memoir genre that gives in-depth insight into a previously unexplored corner of America.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It was Okay
- By DebKoo on 05-17-13
By: Domingo Martinez
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Dancing For the Devil
- One Woman's Dramatic and Divine Rescue from the Sex Industry
- By: Anny Donewald, Carrie Gerlach Cecil
- Narrated by: Anny Donewald
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
The daughter of an NCAA Championship-winning basketball coach and a stay-at-home mom, Anny Donewald had a seemingly blessed childhood. Then, at thirteen, one of her father’s players sexually abused her, and Donewald embarked on a path toward self-destruction. When Donewald was convinced to compete in an amateur night at a strip club, she found herself drawn into a world of drugs, money, and flesh peddlers in Michigan and Chicago - and eventually Las Vegas’ hottest XXX clubs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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blunt
- By nicole on 05-23-15
By: Anny Donewald, and others
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Born Bright
- A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
- By: C. Nicole Mason
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Solid Book
- By Daryl on 11-06-16
By: C. Nicole Mason
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Color Me In
- By: Natasha Díaz
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, 16-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom's family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time. Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but because she inadvertently passes as white, her cousin thinks she's too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices African Americans face on a daily basis.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mixed feelings about this book
- By Rachel Kohlbrenner on 02-02-20
By: Natasha Díaz
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People Kill People
- By: Ellen Hopkins
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
People kill people. Guns just make it easier. A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ellen You've done it again!
- By Gillian Francoeur on 06-12-20
By: Ellen Hopkins
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Harley Loco
- A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk from the Middle East to the Lower East Side
- By: Rayya Elias
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
When she was 7, Rayya Elias and her family fled the political conflict in their native Syria, settling in Detroit. Bullied in school and caught between the world of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early. Elias moved to New York City to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. At the height of the punk movement, life on the Lower East Side was full of adventure, creative inspiration, and temptation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What an amazing woman.
- By Canaan Voss on 06-12-24
By: Rayya Elias
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Three-Fifths
- By: John Vercher
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Pittsburgh, 1995. The son of a black father he’s never known and a white mother he sometimes wishes he didn’t, 22-year-old Bobby Saraceno is passing for white. Raised by his bigoted maternal grandfather, Bobby has hidden his truth from everyone, even his best friend and fellow comic-book geek, Aaron, who has just returned home from prison a hardened racist.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good BUT not as good as it sounded
- By jaymie thomas on 12-13-19
By: John Vercher
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A Bad Idea I'm About to Do
- True Tales of Seriously Poor Judgment and Stunningly Awkward Adventure
- By: Chris Gethard
- Narrated by: Chris Gethard
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 159
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Chris Gethard has often found himself in awkward situations most people, including you, probably would have safely avoided. The good news is now, thanks to this book, you can enjoy the painfully funny consequences of his unfortunate decisions at a safe distance. A Bad Idea I'm About to Do invites listeners to join Chris as he navigates an adolescence and adulthood mired in hilariously ill-fated nerdom, and to take comfort in the fact that - as his experiences often prove - things could always be much, much worse.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it!!!
- By Amber G on 10-02-20
By: Chris Gethard
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Permanent Midnight
- A Memoir (20th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Jerry Stahl, Nic Sheff - foreword
- Narrated by: Jerry Stahl, Scott Merriman
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Point deduction for the recording
- By Amazon Customer on 11-21-20
By: Jerry Stahl, and others
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Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
- By: Karin Slaughter
- Narrated by: Kathleen Early
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 355
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Story4 out of 5 stars 310
A beautiful young girl was walking down the street - when suddenly …Julia Carroll knows that too many stories start that way. A beautiful and intelligent nineteen-year-old college freshman, she should be carefree. But instead she is frightened - because girls are disappearing without a trace. Fellow student Beatrice Oliver and a homeless woman called Mona-No-Name are missing, both gone after being snatched off the street. Julia is determined to discover the reason behind their disappearances - before she's next.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed
- By Abby on 12-07-15
By: Karin Slaughter
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Everything You Ever Wanted
- A Memoir
- By: Jillian Lauren
- Narrated by: Jillian Lauren
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story5 out of 5 stars 60
In her younger years, Jillian Lauren was a college dropout, a drug addict, and an international concubine in the Prince of Brunei's harem, an experience she immortalized in her best-selling memoir, Some Girls. In her 30s, Jillian's most radical act is learning the steadying power of love when she and her rock star husband adopt an Ethiopian child with special needs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great for adoptive families
- By berry bomb on 07-06-22
By: Jillian Lauren
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My Body
- By: Emily Ratajkowski
- Narrated by: Emily Ratajkowski
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,338
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,144
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,139
Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age 21, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture’s commodification of women is the subject of this book.
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1 out of 5 stars
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so vain..
- By Emily Valdez on 01-10-22
What listeners say about From Junkie to Judge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lenny B
- 06-20-23
Incredible and Inspiring
This book is for those who need a reason to believe that their life and circumstances can get better.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Heath
- 02-05-23
Hope and Recovery
A heartbreaking account of trauma, abuse, and neglect. A breathtaking story of resilience, hope, and recovery. Beautifully done.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sunny
- 01-30-23
Loved this story!
This is a wonderful addition to the addiction and recovery genre! Such a powerful story - truly from the depths of the darkest addiction to impressive heights in recovery. Also provides a secular / hybrid approach to recovery. Loved it!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cheryl
- 06-07-23
Glad to hear a recovery story without AA
This was an inspiring story and I was relieved when I didn’t have to read about prayer and 12 steps being involved. The reason I didn’t give it five stars was the narrator’s bizarre pronunciations and pauses when reading it got in the way of the message. Example: sharing antidotes.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- jan
- 06-19-23
Junkie to Judge
It was well written, sad in its entirety. I would recommend this to anyone especially if in recovery.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 02-23-24
Great read for anyone suffering with some form of addiction
I’d recommend this book to anyone suffering from addiction because it shows that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
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