As a writer and a mother of three, I’ve always been fascinated by the nature vs nurture question when it comes to resiliency. It’s a key theme in both of my memoirs, and I’ve addressed it in my many book presentations, from a TEDx talk to lectures at a men’s prison. In 2017, I served as the writer-in-residence for the Creative Nonfiction MFA course at the University of Kings College in Halifax, and I’ve heard amazing stories while teaching memoir writing at Vancouver’s Capilano University. My five book picks—a mix of fiction and narrative non-fiction—are among the best examples of resilience. So where do I stand on the nature vs nurture question? Nature all the way!
This is my all-time favourite book because it’s such an incredible story of a girl’s resilience and ultimate success after an insane childhood. And it’s SO well-written—despite Jeannette’s horrific circumstances, I laughed as often as I shook my head in wonder. This is the book that made me finally start writing my own memoir after decades of thinking about it!
Now a major motion picture starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.
This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' but alcoholic parents.
At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane,…
I’m a sucker for crazy childhoods, and Frank’s story of abject poverty left my jaw hanging open on nearly every page. But what makes the book amazing is how he manages to tell the story with so much charm and humour, and how he refuses to give up on his family or himself. Frank is truly one of the most resilient humans on the planet.
The author recounts his childhood in Depression-era Brooklyn as the child of Irish immigrants who decide to return to worse poverty in Ireland when his infant sister dies.
The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth
by
Verlin Darrow,
A Buddhist nun returns to her hometown and solves multiple murders while enduring her dysfunctional family.
Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California when her elderly mother suffers a stroke. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series…
When a friend gave me this thin book, it sat on my shelf for ages because I find Holocaust stories so hard to read. But when I finally cracked it, I read the whole thing in one sitting. Again, the key to this story is the author’s ability to find humour and optimism during his horrible circumstances…and I love how he turns it into a self-help book of sorts at the end.
One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.
Humans are not the only animals on the planet who can be resilient. I read this as my first real chapter book when I was 8, and I remember bawling my eyes out in my secret tree fort at least once while doing so. The funny thing is that I’m not even really a dog person, but Buck’s story of survival and heroism touched me like no other.
Puffin Classics bring together the best-loved stories to a new generation.
In The Call of the Wild life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survivial. Can he rise above his enemies and become the master of his realm once again?
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
I read this entire series on my son’s recommendation and literally cried from laughing so hard. Resiliency might not be the first word that comes to mind with these books, but to me, Greg’s story is a classic example of how this trait comes into play in the everyday lives of children and their families. Even though Greg rarely triumphs, he keeps leaning into life and new experiences. And that’s what resiliency is all about—we don't have to experience horrific poverty or a war to develop it within ourselves :)
The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to
It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.
In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star…
Caught up in the counterculture movement of the late 1960s, Cea Person's grandfather traded the suburban comforts of California for a pot-smoking, free-loving, clothing-optional life under a canvas tipi in the Canadian wilderness. As a child, Cea knew little about the world beyond her eccentric, hand-to-mouth existence, but her teenage mother, Michelle, found something lacking: a man. With Cea in tow, she hit the road for a journey full of adventures with a variety of unsuitable boyfriends. Craving stability and safety, all Cea wanted was to be normal. Left to practically raise herself, she promised to find a different life from her dysfunctional upbringing. Determined and resilient, Cea reinvented herself through a successful international modelling career, but her new life brought its own challenges.
Warm and vibrant, Cea's voice transports readers through a riveting childhood off the grid, adolescent modeling success, motherhood, and her struggle to confront—and come to terms with—her past.
