Raising Myself

“A gut-wrenching, cleareyed coming-of-age memoir…clean writing well serves this account of a child’s abuse and survival.” —Kirkus Reviews “Beverly Engel saved my life by showing me, and millions of others, how to recover from the aftermath of abuse. Now, we get to discover the woman behind the recovery movement. Through her personal story, Beverly illuminates how quickly our innocence can be destroyed by the subtle choices those who are supposed to love us make, and more important, teaches us how to have hope for a better future.” —Rhonda Britten, Emmy Award-winner, best-selling author of Fearless Living, founder of Fearless Living.org. "This story of reinvention is a must-read for anyone needing evidence that your past doesn’t define you." —Bookstr “When we write a coming-of-age memoir, we become the witness to the life of the child we once were, someone who did not have the larger perspective of the writer/narrator. Raising Myself asks the reader to join Beverly Engel as an abused and neglected child, to see the world through her eyes. The reader is comforted in knowing that she will survive and heal, and the book gives hope to those who have been lost.” —Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers; author of Don’t Call Me Mother, Song of the Plains, and Power of Memoir “Beverly writes with poignancy and insight about a horrific childhood that could have broken her spirit. Raising Myself is the remarkable journey of a lost child becoming an empowered young woman. We follow Beverly as she journeys from one mishap to another, searching for herself, searching for love, searching for meaning. The fact that she was successful at maneuvering through the minefield of her childhood is a testament to her courage, strength, and resilience. There is brutal honesty here, but there is also a great deal of hope.” —Susan Forward, Ph.D., author of Mothers Who Can’t Love and Toxic Parents “It’s easy enough to tell women to 'say no' but, in reality, there is nothing easy about saying no if you are a woman. Engel’s book doesn’t only shed light on why this remains true, even in the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp, but it provides readers with critical, pragmatic tools and strategies designed to confront and report gender harassment, sexual assault, and childhood abuse effectively.” —Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger