#19 on my list, Read 15 new books (#4)

This was book number four for me. I'm a nut for reading true stories about peoples lives. I've always had a fascination with knowing what makes people tick and how they get by in this life with the decisions that are put before them. It started when I was little.

One summer my mom took us to the library almost weekly, there was a contest at the time for the people who could read the most books by the end of the summer. Me being the driven and competative person that I am I was determined to win. I forget what the grand prize was, but that's a mute point since I did win something awesome anyway, 4 tickets to and Oakland A's baseball game!!! It was a fun family outing. Anyway, most of what I read that summer were biographys about historical heros like George Washington, Betsy Ross, Helen Keller and Benjamin Franklin (yes, even at 7 I was a dork).

This book, however, was way beyond that but no less heroic in the sense that an ordinary woman met extrodinary cirumstances head on in order to keep her sanity as well as her family together.

Carolyn Jessop was born into the FLDS and was at 18 married into an abusive family (I'll spare any details). I'm not going to lie, this book was hard to read at times. Carolyn not only talks about the abuse that was leveled against her, but against her sister wives, as well as her children (These were especially hard passages to read in one sitting. More than once I had to put the book down and come back to it at a later time.), and there are a few curse words that are in it as well. However, if you can get through it, by the end of the book, you are cheering for Carolyn and her family as they over come their challenges and learn to live in a world that they were raised to believe as evil, and find not only love in stable relationships, but within themselves as well.