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Post by fionnuala on Oct 25, 2006 20:13:10 GMT
Hello girls,
I have just finished reading this book (not usually the sort of book I would go for) but omigod what a read.
It is the true story of a young black American girl from San Diego whose mother dies and as a result she gets put into the welfare system where she is sexually abused. She becomes addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol and turns to prostitution to support her habit. She also gets herself embroiled in drive by shootings and gangsterism. She wakes up in a dumpster one day and realises that she must do something to help herself before it's too late! She is now one of America's top attorney's and is a motivational speaker and the story of how she pulls herself up by the bootstraps is truly amazing!
I loved the fact that the book is written in American ghetto slang. Its very funny in places and one of those that you just cannot put down.
Has anyone else read it?
Fionn
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Post by megan on Oct 25, 2006 20:15:45 GMT
I haven't read it Fionn, but the image of her ending up in a dumpster is a very powerful one! How wonderful that she got herself out of that situation to become an attorney. Inspirational stuff!
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Post by Oonagh on Oct 25, 2006 23:03:38 GMT
Sounds like a GOOD READ. THANKS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION
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Post by fionnuala on Oct 25, 2006 23:17:51 GMT
Hi girls,
I'd definitely reccommend it! I'm not very well read when it comes to an autobiographical style of writing but this one is definitely addictive! Because this was so good I bought Kerry Katona's autobiography as it is written in a similar vein. She has also had a very difficult life. I'm a sucker for a happy ending especially in a true story and love to hear about people overcoming all sorts obstacles in order to be successful.
It probably stems somewhat from my work - I work for a charitable organisation that supports the victims of crime in court - this is also why books featuring details about sexual abuse etc are not normally my cup of tea as I hear enough of that in my daily grind!
Fionn
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Post by susanmay on May 23, 2008 15:26:22 GMT
Fionn, thanks for the recommendation. I can't put this book down.
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Post by hannah24 on May 23, 2008 21:21:58 GMT
Thanks for the recommendations Fionnuala, I think these are a must for me to read, will order them today. Hope the writing of your book is going well.
Susanmay - these are definately up my alley - the mountains were at timesdifficult to climb over when others kept trying to knock you back down.
I've learnt to 'dust it off' and get up again - as I said before Susan, I'm writing KR for others, as the man says 'sometimes truth is uncomfortable and unpalatable, but its still the truth and thats what gives people freedom'
x
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Post by Jacqui on May 24, 2008 13:35:14 GMT
have'nt heard of this book fionn! must look out for it,it sounds like a good read!
x
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Post by hannah24 on May 25, 2008 2:10:04 GMT
Kerry Katona? never heard of her Fionnuala, just did a google on her though, goodness, must read her autobiography also.
The kind of work you do would not be for the faint hearted, I'd be no good at that, unless someone needed to make them a cuppa.
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Post by fionnuala on May 26, 2008 23:04:29 GMT
I wouldn't bother with the Kerry Katona book to be honest Hannah - it was a bit disappointing to say the least! A Piece of Cake is absolutely brilliant, however, and very uplifting!
Glad you're enjoying it Susan! Let me know what you think when you're finished!
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Post by hannah24 on May 27, 2008 0:29:20 GMT
Fionnuala I've done some google research on Kerry Katona, only now just realising our Delta Goodrem over here is about to marry her ex Brian McFadden (albeit the wedding's postponed now till 2009 due to him being given words from his F-I-L to be 'bag the f*gs before you marry my daughter). Delta is a wonderful girl, a beautiful hearted one who thankfully overcome her own mountain with Hodginkin's a few years back.
I found 'Piece of Cake' on Ebay - thanks again letting me know of her; I'm looking forward to reading her book. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a person turn their life around, especially 'against all odds'. Hidden treasures in all of us, its those who take the time to help them surface are the hero's, priceless gifts so they are.
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Post by hannah24 on May 27, 2008 9:42:55 GMT
Just found this about Cupcake Brown. Truly inspiring woman.
PHENOMENAL WOMAN
Cupcake Brown
At 37, Cupcake Brown has only to pass the bar and she'll be a lawyer, with a $125,000-a-year job waiting for her at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen, a white-collar criminal defense firm in San Francisco. Doggedly focused, she is busy these days and full of hope.
It wasn't always so. There was a time when she got up—or "came to," as she puts it—in the morning with nothing to look forward to but the pursuit of the next trick and the next high.
Brown—whose first name is the result of a nurse's misunderstanding of her mother's post-delivery request for a cupcake—remembers a happy childhood. "We lived in the ghetto, but it was home," she says. One morning she woke up to the sound of the alarm clock in the other room blaring on and on. Her mother had choked to death during a seizure. Brown was 11.
Placed in a series of foster homes where she was repeatedly abused physically and sexually, Brown started running away and selling her body in order to survive. At 12 she joined a gang and started "doing what gangs do: rob, steal, fight."
Two days before she turned 15, Brown nearly got her wish. She was shot in a drive-by and doctors told her she might not walk again. When she did, three weeks later, she knew it was time to leave gang life. That same year she left the foster care system for good, having herself declared legally emancipated. "I was 'grown,'" she says wryly, "so I did what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted." What she wanted most was oblivion, and she found it in heroin, crystal meth, marijuana, powder and crack cocaine, angel dust, alcohol, acid.
For many of its alumni, foster care proves to be a one-way ticket to failure. One study indicates that less than 8 percent manage to graduate from a four-year college. The few who do succeed have one thing in common: someone in their life who stands by them. Brown found that person at the age of 23, in Kenneth J. Rose, a San Diego attorney who gave her a job as a legal secretary.
Rose saw in Brown something she did not yet recognize in herself: her intelligence. "He acted like I was smart, and it just blew me away," she says. Nevertheless, as her responsibilities at work increased, so did her drug use. At one point, she lost her apartment and went on a four-day crack binge, winding up without her shoes, wearing nothing but a green dress, now brown with filth. "I happened to pass a window," Brown recalls, "and saw my reflection. My eyes were sunk in my head. My lips were burned and scabbed from the crack pipe. You could see my ribs. I had seen death before on other people. But I'd never seen it on me."
She walked nearly 60 blocks to Rose's law firm, where she told him for the first time that she was addicted to drugs. Rose got on the phone and found a bed in a rehab program, then assured Brown that her job would still be there when she got out. "Ken's white," Brown observes. "I'm black. He's Jewish. I'm Christian. Society says we're supposed to hate each other, but he has shown me unconditional love. If it hadn't been for Ken, I'd be dead or in jail."
Once she got clean, despite never having finished high school, Brown enrolled in community college. It took her five and a half years to get through a two-year program while working full-time, and another two years to finish her BA. Brown then applied to five law schools and anxiously waited for the responses. The first four were rejections. "I thought all my dreams would go up in smoke," she recalls. "But I opened that last letter from the University of San Francisco, and girl, not only did they accept me, they gave me money."
Defying all expectations, Brown graduated from law school this past spring. What she didn't know until she heard her name read out is that the faculty had voted to give her the school's highest honor for outstanding scholarship, activities, and character.
"It was a wonderful feeling," Brown says. "Most of my life, people hated to see me coming, 'cause I'm gonna beg for some money, I'm gonna steal something, I've got some angle. So for people to actually vote on me and say, 'We like her. We like what she stands for'—that was a complete turnaround for me."
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Post by megan on May 27, 2008 10:57:08 GMT
Wow! What an inspirational story. Thanks for posting it Hannah. It shows that ANYTHING is possible, and the important thing is not to give up hope.
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Post by hannah24 on May 29, 2008 4:01:13 GMT
God Megan I know it well, there's a rainbow after storms though. Beautiful rainbows of that give us hope!
There is hope we've only to believe it - writing is the gift storms gave me! I really hope I can inspire others when I write - what a great reward to see others heal!
I've managed to purchase the book on line - (the Ebay price was going up too much its a good sign its becoming known)and I ended up getting it with postage for under $20 Aus. When I'm finished it I'm happy to send it over if anyone would like it.
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