Book List - Diaries & Personal Narratives
| Journals Cobain, Kurt 789.14 C652 View it in Our Catalog The suicide of Kurt Cobain, the central creative and spiritual force behind the grunge rock band, Nirvana, left his admirers with a profound sense of loss. This collection, selected from over twenty notebooks, gives fans a rare opportunity to gain an intimate glimpse into the creative mind of the grunge rocker. Actual notebook pages are reproduced and are filled with the musician's drawings, thoughts, desires, moods, lists, and declarations. | |
| Hole in My Life Gantos, Jack x 92 G211 View it in Our Catalog Looking for quick money for college, celebrated writer Jack Gantos finds himself caught up with drug smugglers and is sentenced to prison. There he must deal with daily prison violence and the guilt at the devastation he has brought upon his family. By keeping a secret journal, written between the lines and in the margins of a prison copy of the Brothers Karamazov, he learns about the power of writing. | |
| Sickened : the memoir of a Munchausen by proxy childhood Gregory, Julie 616.8582 G822 View it in Our Catalog Julie Gregory is a victim of a strange form of child abuse--Munchausen by proxy disease or MBP. Her mother feeds her handfuls of pills, withholds food or instructs her to "act sick" and drags Julie to hospitals and doctors to find cures for her “illnesses”. Too young to realize that she really isn’t sick, Julie does what she is told to do. Not until she attends college does Julie begin to suspect the real causes of her ill health. | |
| The Diary of Ma Yan: the struggles and hopes of a Chinese schoolgirl Ma, Yan 92 M11 View it in Our Catalog Born in a poor area of rural China, 13-year-old Ma Yan describes how she overcomes many hardships to attend school. Her goal is to get an education so that she will not have to work in the fields for the rest of her life. This diary inspired the creation of the Association for the Children of Ningxia (to which a portion of the book's proceeds will be donated), dedicated to helping others like Ma Yan stay in school. | |
| A Child Called “It”: an abused child's journey from victim to victor Peltzer, Dave 362.74092 P393 View it in Our Catalog This graphic story tells the tale of one child’s horrors and abuse at the hands of his alcoholic mother. Starvation, poisoning, and stabbing are but a few of the tortures the author endured in his young life until one teacher saw what was happening and took a stand. Sequels--The lost boy : a foster child's search for the love of a family (362.74092 P393-1) and A man named Dave (362.74092 P393-2). | |
| Always Running: la vida loca, gang days in L.A. Rodriguez, Luis J. 301.450972 R695 1994 View it in Our Catalog Luis Rodriguez is a poet and a journalist. But he wasn’t always. Once he was in a gang in East L. A. Luckily, he got out. He left his family and moved to Chicago to clean up his life and start over. This book was written to “tell it like it is” in the hopes that others could learn from his mistakes. | |
| The Burn Journals Runyon, Brent 179.7 R943 View it in Our Catalog Brent Runyon was 14 years old when he set himself on fire. He wrapped himself in a bathrobe, stood in the bathtub and doused himself with gasoline. In this memoir, Runyon describes the year that follows his suicide attempt. He speaks candidly about his physical and emotional recovery. | |
| Persépolis Satrapi, Marjane View it in Our Catalog Persépolis, written as a black & white graphic novel, follows Marjane through her childhood and young teens in Iran. The political upheavals of the country are the giant backdrop upon which her personal dramas are described. | |
| Persépolis 2 Satrapi, Marjane 740.9954 S253-1 View it in Our Catalog Persépolis 2 continues Marjane’s story as she flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna only to return to Iran where she must confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence. | |
| Katie.com: A girl's life online Tarbox, Katherine 364.153 T179 2004 View it in Our Catalog Katie was 13 when she started chatting. She was busy with school, the swimming club and piano lessons, but she still had free time on her hands. Chatting let her meet people anonymously and ‘talk’ about what was going on in her life. That’s where she met Mark. He was older; he said he was 23. But he seemed to understand her and they started to talk about everything. This is a cautionary true story. Things got out of hand and Katie’s chatting became an experience that changed her life forever. | |
Other authors to read: