Books I Have Read

This page is VERY outdated!  I have read several books, some really great ones.  I will try to come add some reviews to these:

Searching
by Carol Schaefer (author of The Other Mother)
LOVED this book!  It is her story after reuniting with her son

The Other Mother
by Carol Schaefer  One of the first books I read by another mom

A Legitimate Life - A Forbidden journey of Self-Discovery
by Melinda Warshaw  This is the first memoir I read that was written by someone I "knew" from the online adoption world.   Melinda's book had me feeling an entire range of emotions, even laughter at some points.  Melinda's story is one that proves adoption does not guarantee a better life, nor a life of sunshine and rainbows ~ even if you do get that pony.  Very hard to read at times as a mother who took a chance that this could have been her own child's life...


Lost and Found: A Memoir of Mothers
by Kate St. Vincent Vogl

Lost Daughters: Writing Adoption From a Place of Empowerment and Peace
A collection of writings by the authors at the Lost Daughters blog.  A great book for reading many adopted adult women's feelings and experiences growing up adopted.

Adoption Reunion in the Social Media Age, An Anthology 
Another collection of writings by many.  Adoptees, natural moms, and mental health professionals write about adoption reunion.    

Adopted Reality, A Memoir
by Laura Dennis was a fascinating read.  This memoir did not read as a memoir, it was more like a novel. Laura writes about her adoption, her reunion with her mother, and life with bipolar disorder.  I found most fascinating her descent into mental illness, the hospitalization and treatment.  While I thought I "knew" Laura through the online adoption world, I had no idea what she had lived through!

Secret Storms: A Mother and Daughter, Lost then Found
I haven't read this book yet, it's still on my Kindle waiting for me.  Written by a reunited mother and daughter.

Taking Down the Wall 
by Christine Murphy was a wonderful book with much insight for me.  Christine writes with much honesty her feelings that started as no desire to know about her natural family to 15 years later starting the process of working through the adoption issues she didn't even know she had.

Split at the Root: A Memoir of Love and Lost Identity
by Catana Tully which I am reading right now.  This book also reads like a novel.  A novel of a black girl raised by a German family in Guatemala who wants for nothing, is loved and loves her German family deeply.  Catana's writing is beautiful, almost lyrical at times.  I have just gotten to the part of the book where Catana is starting to awaken to life adopted.

Birthmark
by Lorraine Dusky, another mom who I have become friends with on the www.  This book was groundbreaking as it is the first time a mother of adoption loss wrote about her experience.  Lorraine writes with raw honesty.  SO much of what she wrote in this book (which was published just four months after Christopher's birth) is still relevant and very much true in today's adoptions.  It amazes me to think that she was writing this book about adoption loss at the very same time I was pregnant and "choosing" adoption for my son.  Sadly, very little has really changed in all these years...

Second-Chance Mother
by Denise Roessle is another memoir by a natural mother whom I have come to know in these last five years.  Denise writes of her reunion with her grown son who sadly did not get that promised wonderful life.  Denise writes beautifully of getting to know her son (her only child), the reaction of her parents upon learing that her son is back in her life, as well her learning that her mother had some family secrets of her own.

Becoming Patrick: A Memoir
by Patrick McMahon was a wonderful book.  A memoir of  his search for answers, his reunion with his mother that took me in completely.  

The Gift Wrapped In Sorrow
by Jane Guttman, a memoir of her heartbreak losing her child to adoption, then her later healing search and reunion.

The Primal Wound
by Nancy Verrier and called a "must read" by many in the adoption healing world.  VERY hard to read as a mother who gave a child up for adoption as this is a book that tells of the trauma of living life adopted.

Adoption Reunion: Ecstasy or Agony?
by Evelyn Robinson is a book about adoption loss and grief and how it effects all involved in adoption ~ the adoptee, the natural parents, and the adoptive parents

 ------------------------

This is also a work in progress. 
I haven't had the attention span to read as much as I used to.  
I have several other books that I plan on reading, 
will add my thoughts on them later.  

by Jean Strauss

A reference, written by an adoptee, for anyone affected by adoption.  This book helps you in making the decision to search (for both the adoptee and the natural family), gives advice on the search itself, and ways to navigate the emotional roller-coaster of a reunion.

I found this book to be helpful in realizing the effects of adoption/reunion from Christopher's and his parent's point of view.


by Joe Soll

Adoption Healing... a path to recovery for mothers who lost children to adoption is a unique book. The reader is provided with a description of the immaculate deception imposed on pregnant women and the ensuing tragedy of the loss of their babies to adoption and the profound effects on their lives. This is followed by different methods of healing the mother’s wounds, including inner child work, visualizations, healing affirmations, and anger management. Every chapter includes a Myths and Realities of adoption section, a summary of the chapter and exercises to do on one’s own.

I found this book to be a great help to realizing the deeply buried feelings regarding the loss of my son.  The biggest help was in knowing that the things I was feeling were "normal".  I think that doing many of the exercises for healing did really help me.