Survivor Biography

Perhaps, you are one of three girls, or one of five boys that was sexually abused by the time you were 18 years old. Unfortunately, I fell into that nasty category. In preparing to write my first memoir, Identifying and Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse, I came upon a list of approximately 99 different after-effects that come as a result of sexual abuse. Finally, I held in my hands, a list of words that totally and completely described myself! I pray that this audiobook will give you the information that you need for a total and complete healing in your life!

Hilda M. Valentine grew up on a small farm, attended college, and moved to New York for a better life. Working in insurance claims for more than 20 years, she climbed the ranks to a claims management position and finally landed her dream job as a supervising case manager for a structured settlement company. Her office was located on the 100th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade center in Manhattan. The position started in August of 2001. But one month later, on September 11th, everything changed.

The stories of Sinti and Roma suffering in Nazi Germany are all too often lost or untold. In this haunting account, Otto shares his story with a remarkable simplicity. Deeply moving, A Gypsy in Auschwitz is the incredible story of how a young Sinti boy miraculously survived the unimaginable darkness of the Holocaust.

As a young girl growing up in Jamaica, Jozanne Marie's greatest desire was to restore a missing ancestral link and satisfy a longing for the one person she believed could affirm her identity: Her father. He had left for America when she was just an infant. After five years living on the island with an emotionally unavailable mother and a young grandmother (hiding a pocket full of secrets), her father made his triumphant return. He drove up in a white 1980s Volkswagen Beetle, enchanting as a dream. Tragically, her supposed redeemer became her greatest adversary.

For readers of Room and The Glass Castle, an astonishing memoir of one woman's rise above an unimaginable childhood. Maude Julien's parents were fanatics who believed it was their sacred duty to turn her into the ultimate survivor--raising her in isolation, tyrannizing her childhood and...

In April 2018, seasoned adventurer Ben Fogle and Olympic cycling gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, along with mountaineer Kenton Cool, took on their most exhausting challenge yet – climbing Everest for the British Red Cross to highlight the environmental challenges mountains face. It would be harrowing and exhilarating in equal measure as they walked the fine line between life and death 8,000 metres above sea level.

For the first time, Euna Lee - the young wife, mother, and film editor detained in North Korea - tells a harrowing, but ultimately inspiring, story of survival and faith in one of the most isolated parts of the world. On March 17, 2009, Lee and her Current TV colleague Laura Ling were working on a documentary about the desperate lives of North Koreans fleeing their homeland for a chance at freedom when they were violently apprehended by North Korean soldiers.

A deeply moving memoir that confronts the defining trauma of the twentieth century, and its effects on a father and son. In 1939, Jonathan Lichtenstein's father Hans escaped Nazi-occupied Berlin as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. Almost every member of his family died after...

For seven years, Shannon Kopp battled the silent, horrific, and all-too-common disease of bulimia. Then, at 24, she got a job working at the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA, where in caring for shelter dogs, she found the inspiration to heal and the courage to forgive herself. With the help of some extraordinary homeless animals, Shannon realized that her suffering was the birthplace of something beautiful. Compassion.

Domestic violence is a real issue in our world that is not gender-specific (some men suffer as victims, too), nor is it something that is limited to a region. This is a worldwide problem. Sadly, not everyone who has become victims of domestic violence make it out alive. While many do get out, the question is, do they stay out?

Experiencing Grief is inevitable in life because death is certain. Nobody can avoid it, and yet it seems that too many people hide from this fact, preferring to 'leave it till later'. The very word 'death' is whispered and most often dodged if possible, preferring words like 'lost', 'passed' or 'sleeping'. Grief can be a shock when death occurs, even if it has been previously experienced because grief is never the same.

When Laura Jensen Walker was diagnosed with breast cancer on her first wedding anniversary, she found humor to be healing in the midst of terrifying circumstances. In this energetic and hope-filled book, she draws on her faith and her sense of humor to encourage others going through the same thing. From discovering that "bald is beautiful" to navigating the world of saline breast implants, Walker recounts the highs and lows of coping with cancer.

For more than 30 years, Phillip Maisel has worked selflessly to record the harrowing stories of Holocaust survivors. Volunteering at Melbourne's Jewish Holocaust Centre, Phillip has listened tirelessly to their memories, preserved their voices and proven, time and time again, just how healing storytelling can be. Each testimony of survival is a miracle in itself - earning Phillip the nickname 'the Keeper of Miracles'.

“Don’t cry darling. We need this baby. You will see.” With these words from her husband, Zoltán, Ibolya Rechnitzer’s fear of being pregnant during the uncertainty of wartime is somewhat eased. But in November 1942, four months after their baby, Andy, is born, Zoltán is drafted into the forced labour service of the Hungarian army and Ibolya must cope, alone, as a single mother and a Jew facing persecution in Budapest. Her son gives her a reason to fight, and Ibolya protects him fiercely during the war and after, when she must make a crucial decision that will forever alter their lives.

This is the story of Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow—a teenage girl living in Hiroshima in 1945, when the city was annihilated by an atomic bomb. Struggling with grief and anger, Thurlow set out to warn the world about the horrors of a nuclear attack in a crusade that has lasted decades. In 2015 Thurlow sparked a rallying cry for activists when she proclaimed at the United Nations, "Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist."

This is a story about a woman named Astrid who nearly dies of a life threatening disease. Shortly after, her home is destroyed by hurricane Sandy. A therapist serves as the narrative voice in the story as he recounts how her determination and fortitude helps her to strive to overcome extreme hardships and adversities...This story represents how we should never give up fighting for our dreams or our lives.

Robert was a young man struggling to make it on his own when in 1990, he suffered a violent and traumatic experience when someone put a bullet through his brain. Robert tells the amazing story of survival during a time when life shriveled to dark emptiness and his future seemed hopeless.

In 2010, at the age of 37, he began feeling a constant ticking inside his body, not knowing that what he was feeling was a virtual time-bomb that could explode at any moment. Seven months later, he was diagnosed with a rare and malignant form of cancer. In From Fear to Faith, author Matt Talford takes you on a journey through his personal war on cancer and shares the physical, mental, and spiritual tools that inspired him to reverse what he referred to as “a slow death”.

Paul Burston wasn’t always the iconic voice of LGBTQ+ London that he is today. Paul came out in the mid-1980s, when ‘gay’ still felt like a dirty word, especially in the small Welsh town where he grew up. He moved to London hoping for a happier life, only to watch in horror as his new-found community was decimated by AIDS. But even in the depths of his grief, Paul vowed never to stop fighting back on behalf of his young friends whose lives were cut tragically short.

As a young political geek, Matt Latimer dreamed of one day heading to Washington to work for a conservative president and usher in another Reagan Revolution. With the support of his slightly mortified liberal parents, he tried to do just that - but his youthful exuberance began to cool as he moved up the rungs of power.