A Stolen Life: A Memoir Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen. For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse. For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived.A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.---The pine cone is a symbol that represents the seed of a new beginning for me. To help facilitate new beginnings, with the support of animal-assisted therapy, the J A Y C Foundation provides support and services for the timely treatment of families recovering from abduction and the aftermath of traumatic experiences—families like my own who need to learn how to heal. In addition, the J A Y C Foundation hopes to facilitate awareness in schools about the important need to care for one another.Our motto is “Just Ask Yourself to . . . Care!”A portion of my proceeds from this memoir will be donated to The J A Y C Foundation Inc.
File Size: 14545 KB
Print Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (July 12, 2011)
Publication Date: July 12, 2011
Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
Language: English
ASIN: B004ZZS4CC
Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray: Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #8,867 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #1 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > West #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Counseling & Psychology > Mental Health > Sexual Abuse #9 in Books > Self-Help > Abuse
Wow!! Thanks to Kindle, I was able to download the book at about one in the morning, and it's now seven in the morning. I have not read a book in one sitting, or in one night for years!People who saw the ABC interview with Diane Sawyer saw how warm and lovely this young lady is, and her book is like the interview but a hundred times warmer and more personal.Jaycee's story is refreshing in that it's written by her, and not from a co-author. Much of the book are pages and pages taken from the actual journal entries she wrote while in her backyard prison. You can tell that her journal entries read in much same way as the rest of the book, so in a sense, the entire book is a continuation of her journaling and her ongoing mission in life to help others. For example, it's hard to tell when you're reading from her old journal entries from her more current writings of when she's authoring this book. It's really all one voice, and you definitely get a feel for how her voice resonates through.Some readers on comment sections of news sites have mentioned they don't want to read the book due to graphic scenes being portrayed. Yes, these scenes are there, but written in a very mature way that I think people should really read. The book doesn't focus on these scenes, as rather the book focuses on simply sharing her story and conveying her sense of hope that's still beaming today. But the sexual abuse scenes are important to all of America as they describe horrifying sexual acts that often go by generic terms like 'rape' and 'molestation.' But what do those mean? Jaycee paints a much clearer picture, and in doing so, acts as the voice for all the victims of sexual abuse that can't share their story.
The first thing you need to know about Jaycee Dugard's book, is it is indeed a very difficult thing to read. It is a beautifully written, pull no punches account of the 18 years she spent in captivity with a very sick man, Phillip Garrido.In a note from the author at the beginning of the book, Dugard explains that she wrote the book to attempt to convey the overwhelming confusion she endured during her years in captivity and to begin to unravel the damage that was done to she and her family. She chronicles her experience with brutal honesty. She writes about missing her mother and worrying that she will never see her again. Her dependence upon her kidnapper grows the more he isolates her from the world. For long periods of time he was the only other human being that she saw.Before I bought the book, I wished that would list the Table of Contents, so here it is for you:Author's NoteIntroductionThe TakingStolenThe Secret BackyardAlone in a Strange PlaceThe First TimeFirst KittyThe First "Run"NancyEaster: Phillip on an IslandChristmasLearning I Was PregnantDriving to a TrailerWaiting for BabyTaking Care of a BabySargeSecond BabyThe Starting of Printing for LessBirth of Second BabyRaising the Girls in the BackyardNancy Becomes "Mom"Pretending to Be a FamilyCatsSurvivingDiscovery and ReunionFirsts for MeMilestonesThe Difficult Parts of LifeFinding Old FriendsTherapeutic healingMeeting with NancyTherapeutic Healing with a TwistAs you can tell from the Table of Contents, she spares no detail.
This is a beautiful book.What I have come to understand is that this is not a book about a kidnapping. This is a book about a spiritually gifted woman navigating her way through a life marked by deeply moving events. I am humbled by what I have read.Ms Dugard is able to continue down a path of personal growth under the most constrained circumstances. The journal entries from her captivity, both as a child and later as an adult, reveal the amazingly positive energy she carries within her. She has the capacity for self-reflection at a young age, even though she is denied any personal autonomy. Later, she is able to build a semblance of a normal life for her children, home schooling them with her own curriculum despite only having a 5th grade education. She plants a garden, cares for her animals, even manages a business. All of this while enduring the constant abuse of a hyper-controlling, drug-addicted psychopath.I am deeply inspired by her ability to keep pouring love out into the world despite being treated so horridly. Rather than turn away to some dark place, Ms Dugard performs a kind of spiritual judo, reflecting back love and compassion on the animals in her care, the children she's struggling to raise and the distant memory of her mother. She is able to resist the temptation to spew forth hatred upon the perpetrators of her abuse. Instead, she lets it go and moves on to a better place.Frankly, I'm a bit ashamed that my initial interest in this book was based on sensationalist media coverage of the events surrounding her rescue. I was expecting to learn more about her captors and what kind of person would commit such a horrendous crime. After finishing the book, I've realized that don't care about them.
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