Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

Read a memoir or bio or autobiography about escaping/freedom as a theme.

It could be escaping from an oppressive regime, escaping work for a holiday, or escaping family trauma --discuss what titles you've found and if you could put yourself in that person's shoes.

I have one that should be perfect for this challenge:

Deep in the Heart of Texas: A Memoir by Texas A. Stready

The daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor, I ran away from home when I was 17. For 28 years I traveled a path that took me to places from which few return. Unhealthy relationships and unbridled lusts corrupted my view of freedom and left me cornered in addiction—financed by crafty manipulation and drug dealing. My tainted knowledge of love and polluted desire for escape kept me on a treacherous treadmill that continually fed the heartache of those I loved. But, through it all, the One who loved me unconditionally remained. This is my unvarnished account of the years I spent running and what brought that season to its redeeming end.

I just read a memoir like that in August but didn't post my review on this group (forgot, but did post a different one recently.) Perhaps I'll get to another one in Sept, though, but I'm starting with a Bill Bryson book not about escape and some Marcus Aurelius, so I'll have to see how it goes :)

Loosely fitting the theme of escape..or freedom. A title I have read recently-

The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw
It's about the life of a bookseller who was born in NZ and as a young teen was raped..she had the baby but was put up for adoption and wasn't able to connect with him for over 20 years. She escaped her trauma by running away - joined the Navy, did various postings in PNG and Australia in many ports as a cook/housekeeper, nearly married but broke off the engagement, was in several relationships, worked in Kings Cross and won't spoil it for you but eventually her life turned full circle and came back to her 'home' at the bottom of the world opening 3 small bookshops, reconnected with her first love fiance again and wrote her life story.....

I think I can put myself in the shoes of those who wanted to run away from home definitely as something maybe many of us try to do when we are teens, some of us are more successful than others!

It may not be home itself is bad but maybe its some trauma or shameful thing thats happened in families we can't talk about or process. And of course death happens, sometimes tragically or suddenly and most people find that hard to deal with.

So a ticket to ride seemingly solves our problems....! But the thing is you cant put the past behind you forever if you don't really have a home/safe place/refuge to go to right?

I have read a few escape stories from North Korea that were interesting. I’m just going to go through my bookshelf and see if I can find the names of those books.

Ok some titles that would fit the theme, and no I haven’t included the one about Meghan markle and Harry escaping the royal family 🤣

Girl in the Cellar - The Natascha Kampusch Story

Behind Closed Doors

Long Walk to Freedom

Slave Girl

A Stolen Life

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea

The Russian Countess: Escaping Revolutionary Russia

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail

Songs of a War Boy

Slave: My True Story

The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

The Happiest Refugee

Trafficked

Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish
Life

The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast

And there’s a few good lists on the theme :
This one about escaping cults
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

Escaping the grind
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

And the last list
Escaping abduction, captivity
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

This is the North Korean one I read a few months ago. I wonder if Korea is ever going to be united again like East and West Germany finally did when the Berlin Wall came down.

It seems I've read quite a few on the escaping from cult list. The most recent one I read was Stories from Jonestown. I think reading books like this makes me glad ..that I am not in a cult and can think for myself.

I'd add rachel hunter's tour of beauty as a sort of spa escape type book for me! If my workplace is serious about staff wellbeing, why doesn't it book in spa treatments and retreats for its workers?!

Organising travel in itself is a big headache. Give me holiday vouchers rather than holiday pay...let's all go to Fiji.

On topic of Royal family, I read one book about Diana when she was divorced but still hadn't settled on being apart from the Royal family - she was still living at Kensington Palace, the royals residence. Anyway she was sneaking off to see her new love, Hasnat Khan.

She would hide him in the boot of her car under a blanket and also went out in a brunette wig so she wouldn't be recognised. Their dates would consist of him bringing a bucket of KFC to her apartment and watching TV.

Rebecca wrote: "And there’s a few good lists on the theme :
This one about escaping cults
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

Esc..."

Escape by Carolyn Jessop is quite good--I gave it 4 stars.

Karin wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "And there’s a few good lists on the theme :
This one about escaping cults
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7......"
Wasn't there a whole raft of memoirs by escapees from the Jessop family? I recall there was more than one.

I wonder how she's doing today. She might have changed her name or moved to a different country?

Selina wrote: "Karin wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "And there’s a few good lists on the theme :
This one about escaping cults
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7......"

I believe there are quite a few books about escaping the Fundamentalist Mormons. For people that may not know, The Fundamentalists are completely different from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called Mormons, who are not a cult and do not practice polygamy.

Selina wrote: "Karin wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "And there’s a few good lists on the theme :
This one about escaping cults
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7......"

She wrote a second book not that long after the first one, but I didn't like it as much. I have no idea what she's up to today. I read it more than 9 years ago--I see I shelved it in May 2013 along the the second book, so it was definitely pre-January 2013.

Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper by Hilary Liften

This one is more of a roman a clef - of the romance between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and how she escaped the clutches of Scientology...I haven't really follow up on her though.

Something I learned..if you find you just don't like being married, you need to secretly plan your escape without telling your spouse cos they'll just try and get you to stay.

Daughter of Gloriavale: My Life in a Religious Cult This might be one to read - Gloriavale has been in the news lately. Endless stories of the cult like commune of Christians living in the South Island of New Zealand.

I do remember reading one about the Exclusive Brethren and it was also called Behind Closed Doors: The Story of an Exclusive Brethren Life

Rebecca wrote: "Ok some titles that would fit the theme, and no I haven’t included the one about Meghan markle and Harry escaping the royal family 🤣

Is it this one? Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family

I picked it up and just started. I hadn't actually read any books about the couple, and hadn't been following them at all so it will mostly be new to me.

So far couple of chapters in, I find that Harry took Meghan on date or romantic getaway to Africa. As you do. I guess in Africa you can really escape if you are European and/or American.

Escaping ghetto housing projects in Detroit to singing for Royalty? read Supreme Glamour

Escape a backward village farming life in rural China to independence in the big city of Beijing? read Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China

Am reading Reading is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women's Prisons by Megan Sweeney

In prison? Escape by reading books!

Be My Baby by Ronnie Spector
4 stars


This book was first published in 1990 and has an update at the end. Apparently, it was re-issued shortly after the author's death in January. I had read a book about her ex-husband. He was a strange character, so I didn't doubt her story. He was later convicted of murder but she only briefly touches on this. This is a good insight into how a woman can be in a manipulative, abusive relationship and how hard it can be for them to leave. My only disappointment with this book is that I would have liked to have read more about the 60's music scene. Instead, it seems her actual music career was relatively short and the book deals more with her relationships with family and men.

Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society by Diane Wilson
3 stars


I learned a lot about this religion. Even though I have known some members of this religion, I didn't really know much about it and certainly never thought of it as a cult. I thought the writing could have been better. I didn't really need so much word for word doctrine and thought it could have been summed up in a few sentences. She did have a difficult time leaving the religion, but I have read other books where they basically had to run away. The author was still able to live in the community with her husband, but he did not leave the religion and she was shunned by the community.

I'm reading one now, so will come back when I'm done.