Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

After selling her first novel - a dream she'd worked long and hard for - Stephanie Danler knew she should be happy. Instead, she found herself driven to face the difficult past she'd left behind a decade ago: a mother disabled by years of alcoholism, further handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm; a father who abandoned the family when she was three, now a meth addict in and out of recovery.

Christopher Dollanganger was 14 when he and his younger siblings - Cathy and the twins, Cory and Carrie - were locked away in the attic of Foxworth Hall, prisoners of their mother's greedy inheritance scheme. For three long years he kept hope alive for the sake of the others. But the shocking truth about how their ordeal affected him was always kept hidden - until now.

In CinderGirl, Christina tells her piercing and poignant story of leaving behind homelessness to become Ms. California and the founder of a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy for foster-care children.

Eight true crime stories of murder and mayhem. In my first audiobook as a true crime author I've started with a few of the stories that have haunted me for some time. Some of these stories are unbelievable in their brutality while others are astounding in the stupidity of the killers. This collection of stories are from all around the globe and have no common thread between them other than that they are both thought provoking and disturbing. The stories included in this anthology are dark and creepy and will leave you with a new understanding of just how fragile the human mind can be.

A shocking true story that reveals how one woman was tormented to the very depths of despair by her husband through coercive control and continual physical and sexual abuse. Broken in mind, body and spirit and completely isolated from the rest of the world, Hannah thinks she’ll never find the strength to escape, until one day an opportunity arrives....

In the tradition of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and George Hodgman’s Bettyville, Fremont writes with wit and candor about growing up in a household held together by a powerful glue: secrets. Her parents, profoundly affected by their memories of the Holocaust, pass on, to both Helen and her older sister a zealous determination to protect themselves from what they see as danger from the outside world.

As her weak and battered body lay paralyzed on the mattress in her master bedroom, Michelle's boyfriend’s blood dripped from the lacerations on his hands onto her bruised and mangled face... I Love Him is a painful yet inspirational true story of a strong, independent woman caught in the horrifying cycle of domestic violence and how she got out.

Like many women, Clare Pooley found the juggle of a stressful career and family life a struggle, so she left her successful role as a managing partner in one of the world's biggest advertising agencies to look after her family. She knew the change wouldn't be easy, but she never expected to find herself an overweight, depressed, middle-aged mother of three who was drinking more than a bottle of wine a day and spending her evenings Googling 'am I an alcoholic?'

If you have even an inkling that you may be affected by emotional abuse, you owe it to yourself to take action...but that can seem easier said than done when you find yourself falling for manipulation tactics over and over again. But there are steps you can take to break free of the cycle and set foot on the road to healing and recovery…and this guide will be by your side every step of the way. As soon as you suspect that someone in your life is doing you more harm than good, it’s time to take action.

Fearful of prison time - or lynching - for violating Indiana’s anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s, E. Dolores Johnson's Black father and White mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo. Her mother simply vanished, evading an FBI and police search that ended with the declaration to her family that she was the victim of foul play, either dead or sold into white slavery.

Confusing. Crazy making. Draining. Does this describe your relationship? Do you wonder if they will ever change? Do you want to know why they lie so much...even when the truth would work better? Have you wondered why they never seem to change - no matter how much you are willing to do for them, or how much love, understanding, rehab, religion, therapy, second (or 22nd) chances you’ve given them? If so, you are not alone and this book is a great place to start.

Being gaslit can make you question your core beliefs and completely lose self-confidence, motives, judgments, or memories. That confusion is what causes you to be led astray as you look to others for help. If you are interested in this book, you likely know someone whom you fear is being gaslit, or maybe even you yourself are fearing you are being gaslit. In this book, we will look at exactly what is meant by the term gaslighting, and different strategies and coping mechanisms for when this is actually happening to you or a loved one.

By age 30, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: she had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.

Do you want to transform negative into positive? Do you want to embrace the true, authentic you and let the opportunities come to you? How about getting rid of negative patterns and addictions that are holding you back? Self-Love Handbook is a simple, eight step process to help you step into unlimited self-love, manifest joy, happiness, and abundance. This process will help you unleash your true potential while revolutionizing your well-being and creating an authentic career and life.

Kathy Izard was a graphic designer, wife, mother of four daughters, and volunteer at Charlotte’s Urban Ministry Center when an unlikely meeting with formerly homeless author Denver Moore changed the course of her life. Inspired by Denver’s challenge to do more than serve in this soup kitchen, Kathy quit her job to take on what seemed like an unimaginable task in her second half of life - to build housing for Charlotte’s homeless.

A no-nonsense guide to the basics about narcissism, written by a survivor of a narcissist marriage, family, and boss.

Family is difficult because family - every family - is an echo of the gospel. Family can be the source of some of the most transcendent human joy, and family can leave us crumpled up on the side of the road. Family can make us who we are, and family can break our hearts. Why would this social arrangement have that much power, for good or for ill, over us?

When a fancy car pulls up outside six-year-old Marie's home in 1959, her dad tells her she is going on holiday. But little does she know she will not see her home again for four long years. Her family cannot afford to keep her at home. Marie tells the story of how she was taken away from a poor but happy and loving home life to live in a convent - away from everyone and everything she holds dear. Her hair is bluntly chopped, her clothes are taken away and her name is changed. Then a horrific ritual of physical, sexual and mental abuse begins.

Dave Pelzer narra la inolvidable crónica de uno de los casos de maltrato infantil más grave en la historia de California. Es la historia de Dave Pelzer, quien fue brutalmente golpeado y padeció de hambre por la inestabilidad emocional de una madre alcohólica: una madre que jugaba un tortuoso e impredecible juego con su hijo, el cual tuvo que aprender los juegos de su madre para poder sobrevivir. Una madre quien no lo consideraba un hijo, sino un esclavo- no un niño, sino un objecto.

Building the Bonds of Attachment is the third edition of a critically acclaimed book for social workers, therapists, and parents who strive to assist children with reactive attachment disorder. This work is a composite case study of the developmental course of one child following years of abuse and neglect.