Books like Survivor by Christina Crawford

Jeannette Walls' memoir chronicles her turbulent childhood in a dysfunctional, itinerant family, detailing poverty, alcoholism, and homelessness across the United States as she seeks stability and personal growth.

A memoir of a woman who overcomes a strict survivalist Mormon upbringing in rural Idaho to pursue higher education, ultimately earning a PhD in history at Cambridge.

David Small’s graphic memoir chronicles his battle with throat cancer, the loss of his voice, and his escape toward an artistic future.

The Freedom Writers Diary compiles anonymous entries from 150 Los Angeles youth who, under teacher Erin Gruwell’s guidance, confront violence, racism, and personal hardship, sharing their hopes and challenges in a candid, collective narrative.

An intimate biography by Joan Crawford’s adopted daughter, detailing the actress’s troubled relationships, alcoholism, and the harsh reality hidden behind Hollywood fame.

Joan Didion chronicles the sudden loss of her husband and daughter, exploring grief, memory, and the complex bonds that bind family and life. An intimate memoir that examines mourning and the ritual of remembrance.

A baseball job becomes a journey to reconnect with a father in a sports novel about friendship and family ties.

Whisper follows a teen girl with a cleft palate who must survive in a hostile world that ostracizes those with disfigurements and disabilities.

Reeve Lindbergh’s restrained memoir charts her mother Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s final 17 months, from a Vermont farm to the quiet silence of illness, offering a quiet tribute to a pioneering aviator and her granddaughter’s care.

""This is the story I have been writing for my whole life. With my life." writes Valerie Miner in this account of her family's migration from Edinburgh's tenements across the world. The Low Road explores location and dislocation in a large, poverty-stricken Scottish family. Focusing on the life journeys of her grandmother, her mother, and herself, Miner searches for truth about family members, unveiling family secrets and missing histories. This powerful and moving memoir is a dramatic passage through poverty, immigration, and national and sexual identity." "The Low Road navigates between family fable and fact as Miner leads us through her discoveries about back-street abortion and tuberculosis, orphanhood, exile, estrangement, and reconciliation to reach the place of acceptance and understanding."--BOOK JACKET.