My Fathers Prostitute Story Of A Stolen Childhood

"Powerful," "Compelling," "A story well worth writing" - this is what people are saying about this honest, and sometimes brutal, true story of one man's struggle growing up in the shadow of childhood sexual abuse. From his difficulties growing up, to his drug addiction, failed relationships, and struggles with parenthood, the author takes us through the ups and downs of a life spent in the shadows, trying to make sense of the events that formed the basis of his being. Sometimes tragic, sometimes hopeful, but never sugar coated, My Father's Prostitute: Story of a Stolen Childhood takes the reader on an emotional ride which reminds us that the human spirit is more powerful than the demons that haunt us.

As a child Julie was close to her father. More friend than parent, he would belt her into their tiny car and they'd punch through yellow lights, scarf down candy bars before supper and had their own way of making fun of Julie's mother in a secret language of eye-rolling. She adored her father for his exuberance, and pitied him when he broke down in suicidal desperation. But as she neared 10, a darker side emerged... This is a powerful and compelling memoir of growing up with a schizophrenic father.

"An unparalleled achievement, a work of shattering, almost unbearable radiance. I did not stop crying throughout. For Mills. For my young self. For all of us who have lived and continue to live in that pitiless abyss of childhood abuse. To read this courageous book is to be transformed utterly by Mills's empathy, resilience, and grace. Mark my words: Chosen is destined to be a classic because this is a book that will save lives." —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao At thirteen years old, Stephen Mills is chosen for special attention by the director of his Jewish summer camp, a charismatic social worker intent on becoming his friend. Stephen, whose father died when he was four, places his trust in this authority figure, who first grooms and then molests him for two years. Stephen tells no one, but the aftershocks rip through his adult life, as intense as his denial: self-loathing, drug abuse, petty crime, and horrific nightmares, all made worse by the discovery that his abuser is moving from camp to camp, state to state, molesting other boys. Only physical and mental collapse bring Stephen to confront the truth of his boyhood and begin the painful process of recovery—as well as a decades-long crusade to stop a serial predator, find justice, and hold to account those who failed the children in their care. The trauma of sexual abuse is shared by one out of every six men, yet very few have broken their silence. Unflinching and compulsively readable, Chosen eloquently speaks for those countless others and their families. It is a rare act of consummate courage and generosity—the indelible story of a man who faces his torment and his tormentor and, in the process, is made whole.

ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is a memoir by Beverly Potter, a neighbor of the “most notorious housing unit on the face of the Earth.” Barrington Hall, a large student-run co-op on the Southside of the University a few blocks off of Telegraph Avenue, was Berkeley’s last outpost of the ‘60s. Barringtonians, as they called themselves, held fast to the culture of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll long after it had ceased to be fashionable, and clung to the sanctity of individual expression—even to the point of covering up not only illegal but genuinely harmful acts with a cloak of silence, know as “Onngh Yonngh”, which stated: Those who know, don't tell' those who tell, don't know. Inside Barrington Hall, youth rebellion never grew old, because each year it was replenished with a new crop of eighteen-year-olds, sorry to have missed the ‘60s and glad to find a small chunk of it still alive just down the street from People’s Park on Dwight Way. Barrington became a victim of its own mythology: with a house culture dedicated to outrage, it eventually outraged all, even its natural allies. Established as a co-op in the 1930s, by 1980 Barrington had become a continuing disaster for the USCA [University Students Coop Association]. Known internationally for live punk rock, LSD parties called “wine dinners” featuring acid-spiked wine punch, open drug use, heroin use and over-doses, crashers and haven for under-age run-aways, activism and anarchy, raucous parties, kids going off the four-story roof, along with disputes with neighbors and investigations by the City Council. Barrington sapped the patience of everyone involved. Finally after a neighbor group took Barrington to arbitration, and three City investigations, and PACT - Parents and Children Together attempts to control the raucous behavior, Potter filed a lawsuit. Then the death threats rained down upon her. Barrington Hall was boarded up in March 1990 -- 24 years ago. Yet, it’s spirit and romance lives on. Today, in July 2014, there is a large memorial poster in the window of Rasputin Music on Telegraph Avenue honoring Barrington Hall, calling it a “petri dish of early San Francisco Bay Area Punk Rock.” [https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/9583462218/] Dead Kennedys, Green Day, Primus and other popular Punk groups played regularly at Barrington. There are several chat sites developed to Barrington along with annual reunions. Les Claypool of the Punk group, Primus, wrote one of the many songs about Barrington. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNrTKhGbqi4] Barrington was known for its floor to ceiling murals through-out the building -- all four floors. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqMVyNq189o] Barringtonians routinely painted graffiti messages to and about Potter on the outside of the building, including "Beverly gives good head" which was listed in her lawsuit as a cause of action. ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is packed with side stories. One is about the dope book publishers suing the dope den. Sebastian Orfali and Beverly Potter, publishers of Ronin Publishing, which arose the ashes of the 1970’s break-through And/Or Press, were neighbors -- literally under the windows of Barrington. When the media learned that Ronin (and And/Or before it) published marijuana and psychedelics subjects, a KCBS commentator remarked about Orfali, “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” The 1989 photo featured in the Barrington Hall Wikipedia is 30 feet from Potter's house. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrington_Hall_(Berkeley,_California)] In 1990, Barrington Hall was to be closed for good. 18 students - "the holdovers" - refused to leave and were being evicted. March 3, 1990, a poetry reading escalated into a full blown riot -- with Berkeley Riot Squad trucks sweeping the streets and riot police swinging clubs. There was a 20 foot bonfire in front of the Haste Street entrance - and Potter's house. ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is Potter's memoir of a truly long, strange trip, which she tells in a scrapbook-like format, composed of local newspaper stories, City reports, incident notes, posters, photographs, stitched together with Potter's retelling of wild tales -- even by Berkeley standards.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE© IN LITERATURE 2013 A New York Times Notable Book A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction A Best Book of the Year: The Atlantic, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue, AV Club In story after story in this brilliant new collection, Alice Munro pinpoints the moment a person is forever altered by a chance encounter, an action not taken, or a simple twist of fate. Her characters are flawed and fully human: a soldier returning from war and avoiding his fiancée, a wealthy woman deciding whether to confront a blackmailer, an adulterous mother and her neglected children, a guilt-ridden father, a young teacher jilted by her employer. Illumined by Munro’s unflinching insight, these lives draw us in with their quiet depth and surprise us with unexpected turns. And while most are set in her signature territory around Lake Huron, some strike even closer to home: an astonishing suite of four autobiographical tales offers an unprecedented glimpse into Munro’s own childhood. Exalted by her clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, Dear Life shows how strange, perilous, and extraordinary ordinary life can be.

Priscilla Musonda has no idea how she survived such a hard life, but she knows why. The survivor of a lifetime of sexual abuse, she has grown to serve as a beacon for other child victims. In Stolen Childhood, she shares chilling, detailed accounts of her life in Zambia as the sexual slave of her father. The abuse began when she was just five years old, and as a result, her relatives shunned her and predicted that she would never marry. She struggled to complete her education as the nightmare continued. As a teen, she was forced to marry her own father, a polygamist with three other wives. She bore him four childrenwho have also been shunned by her family. Desperate, she ran away to live on the streets. Her life was grim, but not as grim as the future they predicted for her. But Priscilla is a survivor, not a victim. She dreams of building a sanctuary, school, and psychosocial centre in Zambia. She shares her story with strong language and imagery, to help the reader truly understand what she went through. She wants to do everything she can to get others to take the claims of children seriously. Ten percent of the proceeds from the sale of her story will go to benefit the work of PSHAF.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. Look for Hanya Yanagihara’s latest bestselling novel, To Paradise.

“I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.” - Yeonmi Park "One of the most harrowing stories I have ever heard - and one of the most inspiring." - The Bookseller “Park's remarkable and inspiring story shines a light on a country whose inhabitants live in misery beyond comprehension. Park's important memoir showcases the strength of the human spirit and one young woman's incredible determination to never be hungry again.” —Publishers Weekly In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country. Park’s testimony is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

Given away by her mother at five months old, raped on the day of her first communion at age seven - when Celine Roberts was told 'No one wants you', she believed it. Illegitimate and unwanted, Celine was forced by her foster mother into prostitution. Her bones were broken, her nose was crushed and she ate candle wax to stay alive. Celine was finally rescued and sent to an industrial school, where she picked up the pieces of her shattered life. She also began the search for her parents. But what she found gave her battered survival instincts the hardest knock of all ... Full of the most heartbreaking tragedy but ultimately survival and hope, No One Wants You is the remarkably honest and compelling memoir of a woman triumphing over her brutal past.