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Raising a Thief
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Brian Kelsey
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
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A remarkable, true story about raising an unusually challenging child, in this case one who struggles to reciprocate love. Unfolding over nearly 20 years, Raising a Thief focuses on the struggles of a Russian orphan Sonya, mistreated early in life and ultimately diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, and the family that adopted and tried to raise her.
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Story
When their only child was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at the age of two, Maryanne O'Hara and her husband were told that Caitlin could live a long life or be dead in a matter of months. Thirty-one years later, Caitlin lost her battle with this devastating disease following an excruciating two-year wait on the transplant list and a last-minute race to locate a pair of healthy lungs. The sudden spiral of events left Maryanne in an existential crisis, searching to find an answer to the eternal question: Why we are here?
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Powerful Story of Tribulation and Love
- By Bob on 05-21-22
By: Maryanne O'Hara
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The Natural Mother of the Child
- A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood
- By: Krys Malcolm Belc
- Narrated by: Krys Malcolm Belc
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner Anna adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as "the natural mother of the child." The Natural Mother of the Child journeys both toward and through common perceptions of what it means to have a body and how that body can influence the perception of a family.
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Excellent
- By Kathryn Bradley on 03-04-23
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The Ungrateful Refugee
- What Immigrants Never Tell You
- By: Dina Nayeri
- Narrated by: Dina Nayeri
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually, she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.
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Amazing story of resilience and compassion
- By PAH on 09-06-19
By: Dina Nayeri
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Hidden Girl
- The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave
- By: Shyima Hall, Lisa Wysocky
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Shyima Hall was born in Egypt on September 29, 1989, the seventh child of desperately poor parents. When she was eight, her parents sold her into slavery. Shyima then moved two hours away to Egypt's capitol city of Cairo to live with a wealthy family and serve them eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. When she was ten, her captors moved to Orange County, California, and smuggled Shyima with them. Two years later, an anonymous call from a neighbor brought about the end of Shyima's servitude - but her journey to true freedom was far from over.
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story
- By Don on 09-26-14
By: Shyima Hall, and others
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Unspeakable
- Surviving My Childhood and Finding My Voice
- By: Jessica Willis Fisher
- Narrated by: Jessica Fisher
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Using the written word as her witness statement, Jessica Willis Fisher tells a lacerating story of finding her voice after two decades of silence and an unforgettable story of risk and faith.
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"Don't tell" culture exposed
- By Angela on 11-03-22
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Mother Daughter Me
- A Memoir
- By: Katie Hafner
- Narrated by: Katie Hafner
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's remarkable memoir, an exploration of the year she and her mother, Helen, spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions. Dreaming of a "year in Provence" with her mother, Katie urges Helen to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoe, Katie's teenage daughter. Katie and Zoe had become a mother-daughter team, strong enough, Katie thought, to absorb the arrival of a 77-year-old woman set in her ways....
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Listen and be swept away!
- By Barbara Quick on 06-02-22
By: Katie Hafner
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Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse
- By: Shane Burcaw
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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With his signature acerbic wit and hilarious voice, 20-something author, blogger, and entrepreneur Shane Burcaw is back with an essay collection about living a full life in a body that many people perceive as a tragedy. From anecdotes about first introductions where people patted him on the head instead of shaking his hand, to stories of passersby mistaking his able-bodied girlfriend for a nurse, Shane tackles awkward situations and assumptions with humor and grace.
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Uplifting
- By PhinzPride on 04-12-20
By: Shane Burcaw
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In the Shadow of the Valley
- A Memoir
- By: Bobi Conn
- Narrated by: Bobi Conn
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Bobi Conn was raised in a remote Kentucky holler in 1980s Appalachia. She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father. An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse.
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Hard Pass
- By Kathryn Liggett on 06-13-20
By: Bobi Conn
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One More for Christmas
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Morgan
- Narrated by: Lucy Tregear
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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For sisters Samantha and Ella Mitchell, Christmas is their most precious time of the year. But this year, they’ll be buying presents for the most unexpected guest of all - their mother. It’s been five years since they last saw each other. But when their mom calls out of the blue, Samantha and Ella cautiously agree to spend Christmas all together in the beautiful Scottish Highlands.
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Cannot Finish
- By Abbe Mortimore on 11-12-20
By: Sarah Morgan
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Not Fade Away
- A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found
- By: Rebecca Alexander, Sascha Alper
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer, and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. Not Fade Away is a deeply moving exploration of the obstacles we all face-physical, psychological, and philosophical. Rebecca's story is an exquisite reminder to live each day to its fullest.
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Loved this!
- By Daryl on 11-24-14
By: Rebecca Alexander, and others
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An Uncomplicated Life
- A Father's Memoir of His Exceptional Daughter
- By: Paul Daugherty
- Narrated by: Robert McCollum
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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A father’s exhilarating and funny love letter to his daughter with Down syndrome whose vibrant and infectious approach to life has something to teach all of us about how we can better live our own. Jillian Daugherty was born with Down syndrome. On the day Paul and Kerry, her parents, brought her home from the hospital they were flooded with worry and uncertainty, but also overwhelming love, which they channeled to “the job of building the better Jillian”. While their daughter had special needs, they refused to allow her to grow up needy - “expect, don’t accept” became their mantra.
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A Story on the Beauties of DS
- By Matthew on 04-16-23
By: Paul Daugherty
What listeners say about Raising a Thief
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous
- 04-09-21
Amazing book
Raising a Thief is a brilliant memoir with a difficult subject. The author has done a fabulous job of laying it bare. Paul and Marina Podolsky adopted a 16-month-old toddler named Sonya from Russia. Over time, they began to realize that something wasn’t quite right with Sonya’s interactions with people. Eventually they understood that Sonya suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder, a condition that makes it very hard for a child to connect with anyone, including their family.
The book describes their phenomenal efforts to get Sonya the help she needed to become a functioning member of their family and humanity. I admire Paul’s willingness to be completely honest about the frustration and hopelessness of dealing with a child’s psychopathic behavior, including the impact on his marriage, his mildly autistic son, and their friendships. Paul and Marina were also forced to deal with their own childhood traumas in their efforts to help Sonya.
Another reviewer noticed some audio glitches. I also noticed them and reached out to the author. He quickly fixed them - they should no longer be an issue.
I highly recommend this book.
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- Melissa M Pytlik
- 02-21-22
Great story
I loved this story and the vulnerability of him sharing it. It was brave to share something so personal - that didn’t have a happy ending or a trial overcome. The audio was honestly pretty terrible (my guess is that it wasn’t professionally recorded?) but the content made it worth listening to.
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- Pam
- 03-26-22
Did Sonya receive a cut of the profits from this? Doubtful
A disturbing read, where the author mines his own daughters private traumas for his own “memoir.” A meandering and nasal attempt at assuaging the authors (justified) guilt dressed as a saintlike description of two self righteous people. While I have empathy for parents who adopted children at a time prior to RAD being a well known diagnosis, most of this takes places in near present time…and regardless, that in itself in no way makes these “parents” to Sonya any less culpable for the repetitive loop of their own one-note control method that unfolded in increasing volume with each chapter.
Final chapter repeats the same message mentioned elsewhere in this book, basically: “Guess we were just special strong people as opposed to all of those other weak siblings/Sonya/etc of ours who failed etc” was also such an obvious tell (ironic bc both parents pride themselves in their ability to “read” people).
Also I picked up on an odd Christian undertone? Esp in the insistence of control, lack of true accountability! You constantly abandoned a child who obviously was screaming I can’t fucking trust you not to abandon me and for minor in true terms in the context of how it was presented. Pay Sonya and apologize to her. GROSS
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