Others: Positive "First-time author Peter Razor recalls his early years as a ward of the State of Minnesota. Deftly disclosing his story through flashbacks and relying on research from his own case files, Razor pieces together the shattered fragments of his boyhood into a memoir that reads as compellingly as a novel.". "Abandoned as an infant in 1930 at the State Public School in Owatonna, Minnesota, Razor is raised by abusive workers who think of him as nothing more than "a dirty Injun" and endures years of beatings "with a broom or radiator brush - whatever was handy." One night, while he is asleep, one of the matrons attacks him with a hammer. In the wake of this savage beating, he finally receives a brief interlude of compassionate care in the hospital. As a teenager, he makes two failed attempts to run away from the orphanage.". "He is labeled a troublemaker and indentured as a hired hand to a farm family. For a moment, it appears he may escape the grasp of abuse, but instead it is a deeper descent into darkness. The farmer beats him, clothes him in rags, and treats him like a slave, often working him to exhaustion without enough food. Remarkably, Razor struggles to attend high school and begins to dream of another life, but first he must endure the darkest and most vicious attack yet."--BOOK JACKET.
Genres: biography
Lists: …
Blaine Harden
2012 · 256 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk. In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence—he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother. The late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il was recognized throughout the world, but his country remains sealed as his third son and chosen heir, Kim Jong Eun, consolidates power. Few foreigners are allowed in, and few North Koreans are able to leave. North Korea is hungry, bankrupt, and armed with nuclear weapons. It is also a human rights catastrophe. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people work as slaves in its political prison camps. These camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs, yet North Korea’s government denies they exist. Harden’s harrowing narrative exposes this hidden dystopia, focusing on an extraordinary young man who came of age inside the highest security prison in the highest security state. Escape from Camp 14 offers an unequalled inside account of one of the world’s darkest nations. It is a tale of endurance and courage, survival and hope.
What made the match, strongest first
Michelle Knight
2014 · 256 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveDescribes the details of the abduction and decade-long captivity of one of the three survivors of notorious Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, and how she found the courage to endure unimaginable circumstances and never lose hope for the future.
What made the match, strongest first
Sungju Lee
2016 · 325 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveEvery Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers"; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.
What made the match, strongest first
Hyeonseo Lee
2015 · 312 pages · 4 reviews
Others: PositiveAn extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most ruthless and secretive dictatorships – and the story of one woman’s terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom. As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told “the best on the planet”? Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.
What made the match, strongest first
Aaron Hartzler
2013 · 403 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveIn this funny and heartfelt coming-of-age memoir, the author recalls his teenage journey to find the person he is without losing the family who loves him. The plot contains sexual situations.
What made the match, strongest first
Scaachi Koul
2017 · 249 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive"In One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi Koul deploys her razor sharp humor to share all the fears, outrages, and mortifying moments of her life. She learned from an early age what made her miserable, and for Scaachi anything can be cause for despair. Whether it's a shopping trip gone awry; enduring awkward conversations with her bikini waxer; overcoming her fear of flying while vacationing halfway around the world; dealing with internet trolls, or navigating the fears and anxieties of her parents. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of color, where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision, or outright scorn. Where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, leaving little room for a woman not solely focused on marriage and children to have a career (and a life) for herself"--
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itPeter razer's Memoir about living in that orphanage I think was really powerful and added a whole lot of nuance because not only is he a child living at the orphanage but he's also a Native American child living at the orphanage which has it a whole different set of nuance to it
