Poverty Memoir

9-year-old Nichole and her parents are evicted from their home because both of her parents are addicted to heroin. With nowhere left to turn, they are now homeless. In order to survive they must dig through dumpsters, beg, and steal. While living on the streets, Nichole struggles to understand why people treat them differently.

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, Educated, and Heartland, Neal Wooten traces five decades of his dirt-poor, Alabama mountain family as the years and secrets coalesce.

When Breezy, as she came to call herself, hit the streets of Chicago as a prostitute in 1973 she was barely a teenager. But she was pretty and funny as hell, and determined to support her daughters and make a living. For the next 25 years, she moved across the country, finding new pimps, parties, drugs, and endless, profound heartache. And she also — astonishingly — managed to find the strength to break from a brutal world and not only save herself but save future Breezys.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in 14 different foster homes. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster-care system. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.

AMAZON #1 BESTSELLER! "I wasn’t born a criminal—I was born into chaos." From the gritty streets of the South Bronx during the 1970s and '80s, Ghetto Bastard is a raw, unflinching urban memoir about survival, trauma, and the search for self-worth. Russell Vann tells his true story with brutal honesty, taking readers deep into a world shaped by poverty, abandonment, and the struggles of growing up in a system that offered no safety net—but also by fierce hope. Raised without guidance and surrounded by violence, Vann navigates a reality where love is scarce and trust is dangerous. From ...

A Soul-stirring Memoir Born Out of Haunting Childhood The story unfolds as the family travels across the entire Western United States. It leads you through the daily struggles and survival of four little girls who faced unimaginable horrors. Tales of being homeless, squatting in old abandoned shakes, as well as moving from one mining camp to another, gives you a picture of their lives. For 53 years beginning when Marjorie was 18 this gripping narrative has remained hidden and serves as a testament of unyielding courage driven by a divine calling. The book begins with her mother’s written ...

Few books are actually written by the survivor, but this is one. This is a true story written by me. My name is Mary and I was born to London poverty. See https://maryhayward.co.uk/index.php/gallery for pictures from the time. Inspiring and uplifting. An emotional roller-coaster with an unexpected twist of romance that comes but once in a lifetime. Begging for food at the age of 8, with my 4 year old sister I starve. It is a battle of wits, and a struggle to survive the horror of hunger. Betrayed, my life falls apart. The legacy of my childhood I am abandoned alone and cast out onto the ...

A story that must be told and read. The first book of a trilogy set for a childhood memoir series--written by two sisters that survived being starved, beaten and frozen with their brother and half-sister. The Ozark Mountains is where the story gets wild when their "parents" own a cult called CSA; Christ's Sword and Arm of The Lord. It's a tale of abuse and survival that will leave the reader inspired and informed.

Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds.

When journalist Steve Lopez sees Nathaniel Ayers playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles' skid row, he finds it impossible to walk away. More than 30 years ago, Ayers was a promising classical bass student at Juilliard - ambitious, charming, and also one of the few African-Americans there - until he gradually lost his ability to function, overcome by schizophrenia.

Over time, the two men form a bond and Lopez imagines that he might be able to change Ayers' life. The Soloist is a beautifully told story of devotion in the face of seemingly unbeatable challenges.

Failing UP was recognized as one of only 2% of books reviewed to earn a Kirkus STAR—the most prestigious designation in the book industry in awarding books of exceptional merit. When people first meet Barbara Hong, they often conclude that her life must have always been enriched. They assume she had loving, successful parents and all the support she needed to reach her goals. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hong’s path to an Ivy League university and beyond started in a filthy tenement in Singapore where she lived with an abusive father and an illiterate mother. Even as a child...

Weldon Long knows firsthand that Maui is nicer than prison. After 13 years of federal and state incarceration, he emerged a transformed man: a powerful speaker, driven motivator, and successful trainer/entrepreneur. Long holds a BS in law and an MBA in management, despite dropping out of high school in the ninth grade.

For those who’ve seen the bottom—and those brave enough to look. Dark is the Night is a disturbing portrait of low-life existence—raw, unflinching, and unforgettable. Written partly in the language and mores of its time, author Luis Blasini rises above mere reflection to deliver something deeper: a brutal, at times darkly hilarious, excavation of the human soul at its most broken. There’s little hope or love here. What you’ll find instead are junkies, hustlers, prostitutes, perverts, and thieves scraping through back alleys and burned-out rooms—etched in hard-boiled prose and ...

From Jon King, legendary front man of iconic post-punk band Gang of Four, comes a memoir to remember. To Hell with Poverty! documents King’s story from a south London slum and working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in the legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

Raising a seven-year-old daughter and caring for a newborn, single mother Stephanie Land tries her best to persevere through fatigue, hunger, a depleted food stamp balance, and a bank account hovering around ten dollars. Not to mention postpartum hormones, anxiety over finding suitable housing, and the fear of defeat in the battle of fulfilling her children’s needs and forging her own identity as a writer. With the help of a community of friends and her own steely will, Stephanie is determined to find a way forward to a life that can afford her family hope and joy.

From the poverty-stricken streets of St. Louis, Missouri, to the global stage of influence, Precious L. Williams’ story of transformation is nothing less than iconic—but it is only half the story. Better known as the #KillerPitchMaster, a dope international professional speaker, three-time #1 bestselling author, and a respected corporate trainer, Precious paves the way for women in business by truly being herself—flaws and all. Precious, the #KillerPitchMaster, emphasizes being the baddest Queen, period! Yet, behind every success story is a troubled past. The numerous awards, acclaim,...

SUCCESS LESSONS FROM A YOUTUBE STAR-CHEF WITH OVER 1.5 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS How does one move from growing up poor in Jamaica to becoming a celebrated and successful chef amassing more than 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube? In this inspirational memoir, Chef Ricardo shares his journey to becoming an accomplished chef despite the odds. He discloses his losses and pains such as losing his parents at an early age; his failures, his victories and his triumphs along the way. He also shares the secrets that have made him a success and the key strategies that anyone can use to transform their ...

In 1983, Muhammad Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Twenty-three years later they won the Nobel Prize for Peace for their work in eradicating poverty. This is an inspiring story of one man’s realization that access to even a small amount of credit can transform the lives of the poorest citizens of the world.

Jamie Mustard was born into one of the most influential fringe movements in the 1970s: Scientology. Raised on a mythos of spaceships and made to believe that it was his life’s purpose to help save the world, he was determined to survive—not only unsurvivable neglect but also the impossible physical and psychological gauntlet of extreme poverty and illiteracy. Child X is a dark existential journey into a deepest hole of human existence and the road back.