The author describes his childhood filled with nightly beatings and unspeakable abuse by his mother and how he found the courage to survive.

"A self-described orphan with parents, Bobby Hall began life as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, the only child of an alcoholic, mentally ill mother on welfare and an absent, crack-addicted father. After enduring seventeen years of abuse and neglect, Bobby ran away from home and--with nothing more than a discarded laptop and a ninth-grade education--he found his voice in the world of hip-hop and a new home in a place he never expected: the untamed and uncharted...

"Michelle Dowd grew up on a mountain in the Angeles National Forest, born into an ultra-religious cult--the Field, as members called it--run by her grandfather, who believed that his chosen followers must prepare themselves to survive doomsday. Bound by the group's patriarchal rules and literal interpretation of the Bible, Michelle and her siblings lived a life of deprivation, isolated from Outsiders and starved for both love and food. She was forced...

"Michelle Stevens has a photo of the exact moment her childhood was stolen from her. In it, she's only eight years old and posing for her mother's beguiling boyfriend, Gary Lundquist--an elementary school teacher, neighborhood stalwart, and brutal pedophile. Later that night, Gary locks Michelle in a cage, tortures her repeatedly, and uses her to quench his voracious and deviant sexual whims. Michelle can also pinpoint the moment she reconstituted...

"All those years you tried your best to break me, and I'm still here. One day you'll see, I'm going to make something of myself." These words were Dave Pelzer's declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave's father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality. But even after he was rescued, his life remained haunted by memories of his years as the bruised, cowering "It"...

The founder of the Heritage Home Foundation nonprofit documents her secret abuse-marked childhood in and out of foster care and what she discovered while investigating the story of her mother's own harrowing past.

After the death of her father, and her mother's immediate remarriage to a sadistic abuser, Nancy Richards lived a life plagued with physical and emotional violence. The powerlessness, pain, and torment she endured ate her up. But, the ultimate gut-punch came when she finally mustered the courage to break her silence, and her words were met with excuses for her abusers, and the admonition that she must forgive.

"A singer and the daughter of the late music superstar Jenni Rivera ... Chiquis ... reveals the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father during her childhood and the difficulties she's faced in her personal life as a result"--Amazon.com.

"In 1914 Ruth was conceived out of wedlock, and because of her 'bastard' birth in 1915, her abusers regarded her as sexually tainted and doomed to burn in hell. Tragically, this belief justified their maltreatment. In her vulnerable and innocent soul, young Ruthie believed she was to blame for their actions, and for thirty years, she carried her violation as a shameful burden. Brené Brown distinguishes between guilt and shame by explaining: Guilt...