More Books Means More Coffee

  Spilled Milk by K.L. Randis Goodreads Summary:  Brooke Nolan is a battered child who makes an anonymous phone call about the escalating brutality in her home.  When social services jeopardize her safety condemning her to keep her father’s secret, it’s a glass of spilled milk at the dinner table that forces her to speak about the cruelty she’s been hiding. In her pursuit for safety and justice Brooke battles a broken system that pushes to keep her father in the home.  When jury members and a love interest congregate to inspire her to fight, she risks losing the support of family and comes to the realization that some people simply do not want to be saved.  Spilled Milk is a novel of shocking narrative, triumph and resiliency.   My Review: 5/5 stars Based on a true story this book will bring you to tears. The abuse that young Brooke Nolan experienced not only by her family but also by the system is so sad.  This young girl experiences far worse things ...

Tears of the Silenced by Misty Griffin Goodreads Summary: Misty Griffin's story ─ Surviving child abuse, parental betrayal, sexual assault, and Amish cruelty. A true crime memoir:  When Misty was six years old her family started to live and dress like the Amish. Misty and her sister were kept as slaves on a mountain ranch where they were subjected to almost complete isolation, sexual abuse and extreme physical violence. Their step-father kept a loaded rifle by the door at all times to make sure the young girls were too terrified to try to escape. They also knew that no rescue would ever come because only a couple of people even knew they existed and did not know them well enough to care. Amish Sexual abuse:  When Misty reached her teens, her parents feared she and her sister would escape and took them to an Amish community where they were adopted and became baptized members. Misty was devastated to once again find herself in a world of fear, animal cruelty and sexual ...

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy Goodreads Summary: I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison. At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who...

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Goodreads Summary: On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.  In Cold Blood  is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence. My Review: 4.7/5 Stars Wow.  Real facts of a horrific murder, and it was an easy read? Capote did an amazing job giving all the details, and portraying each member of the Clutter family as well as the murders as if I had met them myself. Which made the situation that much more traumatic and graphic.  I don't read true-crime often, but this one was recomm...