The Only Girl in the World, by Maude Julien

I love reading stories of survival.  This is most certainly one of those.  I finished this a couple weeks, ago but life keeps being life and taking up all my time.

This woman... You know, I have to believe that God made certain spirits super strong and wise because He knew what they would be up against when they came to this earth.  She was born into an interesting situation.  I say interesting, but really... there are no words.

Her mother was six when her father found her family.  They were struggling and he was wealthy, so he said he would take care of her.  He promised she would have the best education and be well-looked after.  He did just that.  She was in boarding schools and received the finest education.  His purpose was a twisted one, to say the least.  As soon as she was of marrying age, he married her.  He wanted to raise up a child of his own - born on a specific day with blonde hair and a girl.  Somehow he orchestrated the part of that plan he could and she was born on the day he wanted and happened to have blonde hair.  In a nutshell, he wanted to raise a superhuman who would someday rise up among the human race.

She faced grueling tasks in order to shape her into the person he believed she was and would become.  Grueling by definition means extremely tiring and demanding.  That's putting it lightly.  As a child, she only got maybe six hours of sleep a night, had to endure ridiculous "tests", and was never loved either verbally or physically.  But by age 10, she started to see through her father's... I want to say psychotic-ness.  Nothing else can describe this man.  He was delusional in every sense of the word.  She was blessed with a strong mind and was able to finally see her way out of his grasp.  Her mother was brainwashed by him and showed her no love or affection.  In fact, she believed her mother both feared and was in awe of her father. 

The story ends well.  She grows up, is saved by a music instructor who sees quite clearly the situation she was in and how she needed an escape.  He cleverly provided that escape and she was finally able to leave the prison that was her home.  Her survival tactics amaze me.  The things she did to stay sane amaze me.  She is a remarkable woman whose strength was necessary to be able to withstand her childhood and her parents. 

It's definitely a good read.  Shocking and flabbergasting; this woman is amazing.

Letters My Mother Never Read, by Jerri Diane Sueck

After 3 renewals (at three weeks each), plus the original time I had it (also three weeks), plus the five day grace period, I finally found time to finish this book!!

It was good.  ;)

I won't just leave it at that, though. 

This is one young woman's story of survival.  She lost her mother when she was eight to a fire, was abused by her grandmother for two years, separated from her brothers when her own adoptive father abandoned them at an orphanage on Christmas Eve, and faced further abuse from foster parents.  My favorite part about this person is how she not only survived, but triumphantly so.  She found God and chose to never give up though there were many who constantly told her she wasn't good enough and never would be.  She lived most of her life in an orphanage, overcame her cleft palate and speech issues on her own, was never told about how a woman's body changes during puberty and faced those challenges alone, and dealt with her inner turmoil without the aid of others.  She more than succeeded in school, earned her Master's degree and went on to become a nun as a way of saying "Thank you" to her Maker for always helping her through life.  Included in this heart-rending book are letters to her mother asking questions she never got answered, begging for the nurturing and love she so craved, wondering how she could've died and left her alone. 

I think it would be awesome to meet this woman.  She's amazing. 

I've been told by three different people that now I have to read "A Child Called It", as it's a similar story.  I love reading real stories from real people.  The book I'm currently reading (see right) is another one.  :)

Happy reading!