Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
By: Lauren Hough
3.40
Format: 314 pages, Kindle Edition
Searing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with th…
Want to Read $ 9.99"There are few codes held more deeply among the poor, the religious, and the uneducated than that it is good and healthy and wholesome parenting to hit your kids. That their kids grow up with anger-management issues, who like hitting almost as much as they like getting hit, is not taken as evidence that maybe they're wrong here. Its right there in the Bible: "Spare the rod, and spoil the child." The Bible also says, "Violence begets violence." But the Bible says a lot of dumb shit."-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"People describe falling in love as meeting someone who they feel like they've known all their lives. Someone who understands them immediately. To me, that seems more like a nightmare than a fantasy. I always thought love meant the process of discovery, the work to understand someone. I want to know what it feels like when someone tries to figure me out, and keeps trying. I want someone to ask the questions and listen to the answers. I want to be studied the way I study others and learned the way I learn them."-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"I told him it would be a week, seven to ten days to get a new line. He said through his teeth he needed an exact day. I gave him my supervisor's number. This whole time, his wife was in the kitchen wiping a clean counter. I was filling out the work orders and emailing my supervisor to give him a heads-up on a possible call from a member of every cable tech's favorite rage cult when his wife knocked on my van window. She stepped back and called me "ma'am." Which was nice. Her husband with the tucked-in polo shirt had asked my name and I told him Lauren. He heard Lawrence because it fit what he saw and asked if he could call me Larry. Guys like that use your name as a weapon. "Larry, explain to me why I had to sit around here from one to three waiting on you and you show up at 3:17. Does that seem like good customer service to you, Larry? And now you're telling me seven to ten days? Larry, I'm getting really tired of hearing this shit." Guys like that, it was safer to just let them think I was a man. She said she was sorry about him. I said, "It's fine." I said there really wasn't anything I could do. She blinked back the flood of tears she'd been holding since god knows when. She said, "It's just, when he has Fox, he has Obama to hate. If he doesn't have that . . . " She kept looking over her shoulder. She was terrified of him. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just need him to have Fox." I got out of my van."-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"Those are the moments I’m proud of. The times I saw through them. The times I made them work to break me, even though I knew they would. The times I questioned the lies being fed to me, though everyone around me believed. I learned early that if everyone around you has their head bowed, their eyes shut tight—keep your eyes open and look around. I’m reflexively suspicious of anyone who stands on a soapbox. Tell me you have the answers and I’ll know you’re trying to sell me something. I’m as wary of certainty as I am of good vibes and positive thinking. They’re delusions that allow you to ignore reality and lay the blame at the feet of those suffering. They just didn’t follow the rules, or think positively enough. They brought it on themselves. I don’t have the answers. Maybe depression’s the natural reaction to a world full of cruelty and pain. But the thing I know about depression is if you want to survive it, you have to train yourself to hold on; when you can see no reason to keep going, you cannot imagine a future worth seeing, you keep moving anyway. That’s not delusion. That’s hope. It’s a muscle you exercise so it’s strong when you need it. You feed it with books and art and dogs who rest their head on your leg, and human connection with people who are genuinely interested and excited; you feed it with growing a tomato and baking sourdough and making a baby laugh and standing at the edge of oceans and feeling a horse’s whiskers on your palm and bear hugs and late-night talks over whiskey and a warm happy sigh on your neck and the unexpected perfect song on the radio, and mushroom trips with a friend who giggles at the way the trees aren’t acting right, and jumping in creeks, and lying in the grass under the stars, and driving with the windows down on a swirly two-lane road. You stock up like a fucking prepper buying tubs of chipped beef and powdered milk and ammo. You stock up so some part of you knows and remembers, even in the dark, all that’s worth saving in this world. It’s comforting to know what happens next. But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that no one fucking knows. And it’s terrifying. I don’t dream of a home and a family, a career and financial stability. I dream of living. And my inner voice, defective though it may be, still tells me happiness and peace, belonging and love, all lie just around the next corner, the next city, the next country. Just keep moving and hope the next place will be better. It has to be. Just around the next bend, everything is beautiful. And it breaks my heart."-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
If you liked the memoir plot in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough , here is a list of 9 books like this:
1. Everything I Never Wanted to Be: A Memoir of Alcoholism and Addiction, Faith and Family, Hope and Humor
By: Dina Kucera
3.74
Format: 216 pages, Paperback
Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera is the true story of a family's battle with alcoholi… read more
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- nonfiction
- biography
- memoir
"There are millions of people out there who live this way, and their hearts are breaking just like mine. It’s okay to say, “My kid is a drug addict or alcoholic, and I still love them and I’m still pr…"-Dina Kucera, Everything I Never Wanted to Be: A Memoir of Alcoholism and Addiction, Faith and Family, Hope and Humor
"I thought over and over about what I was going to do when Carly overdosed and died. How would we go on? And then I knew: I wouldn’t go on. And then I realized that it was just going to be too painful…"-Dina Kucera, Everything I Never Wanted to Be: A Memoir of Alcoholism and Addiction, Faith and Family, Hope and Humor
"When I was about nine, my siblings and I fell out of our moving van at an intersection. My dad didn’t notice for about five blocks. It was back before seat belts. It was also back before parents used…"-Dina Kucera, Everything I Never Wanted to Be: A Memoir of Alcoholism and Addiction, Faith and Family, Hope and Humor
"I felt empty and sad for years, and for a long, long time, alcohol worked. I’d drink, and all the sadness would go away. Not only did the sadness go away, but I was fantastic. I was beautiful, funny,…"-Dina Kucera, Everything I Never Wanted to Be: A Memoir of Alcoholism and Addiction, Faith and Family, Hope and Humor
2. Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story
By: Ingrid Ricks
3.95
Format: 288 pages, ebook
What would you do if your Mormon stepfather pinned you down and tried to cast Satan out of you? For… read more
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- nonfiction
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3. Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up in Polygamy
By: Dorothy Allred Solomon
3.83
Format: 416 pages, Paperback
"Probably the best book ever written about polygamy. Neither an apologia nor an exposé."― Salt Lake… read more
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- biography
- memoir
- cults
- religion
- nonfiction
4. In Search Of My Sexy Old Self: Re-discovering sex after sixty and beyond
By: Cathy Thomas
4.10
Format: 206 pages, Paperback
Why has sex just stopped? That's the question Cathy asks herself when sexual intimacy dwindles and … read more
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5. Breaking Clean
By: Judy Blunt
3.71
Format: 412 pages, Paperback
Blunt has turned the memories of her childhood and young adulthood in rural Montana into a beautifu… read more
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- nonfiction
- biography
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Similar categories in Gloria Swanson's Swanson on Swanson book and Lauren Hough's Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
7. A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance
By: Jane Juska
3.48
Format: 288 pages, Paperback
“Round-heeled” is an old-fashioned label for a woman who is promiscuous—someone who nowadays might … read more
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- feminism
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8. The Girl Behind the Painted Smile: My battle with the bottle
By: Catherine Lockwood
4.00
Format: None pages, Paperback
This version is now retired and has been republished - you will find the new edition on this page. … read more
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9. Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters
By: Jane Goodall , Dale Peterson
4.14
Format: None pages, Hardcover
AFRICA IN MY BLOOD is an extraordinary self-portrait in letters of Jane Goodall's early years, from… read more
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10. In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing
By: Lee Woodruff , Bob Woodruff
3.75
Format: 320 pages,
In one of the most anticipated books of the year, Lee Woodruff, along with her husband, Bob Woodruf… read more
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11. Cutted Chicken in Shanghai
By: Sharon Winters
4.01
Format: 243 pages, Paperback
An American woman takes a cultural fling into China and finds humorous and engaging adventures as h… read more
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- nonfiction
12. On Top of the World: Five Women Explorers in Tibet
By: None
4.06
Format: 32 pages, Paperback
Describes the adventures of five Victorian women, English, American, and French, who explored Tibet… read more
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13. This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
By: None
3.43
Format: 98 pages, Hardcover
In January 2006, after the Republic of Liberia had been racked by fourteen years of brutal civil co… read more
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14. Move to Millions: The Proven Framework to Become a Million Dollar CEO with Grace & Ease Instead of Hustle & Grind
By: Darnyelle Jervey Harmon
4.29
Format: 310 pages, Paperback
Ready to break through the six-figure plateau? Discover an actionable strategy to cross over the mi… read more
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- nonfiction
15. Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives
By: Anne Michaud
4.29
Format: 199 pages, Kindle Edition
Why do good women stay with bad men? What if political wives are just as calculating as their in… read more
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"The political wife came forward and publicly vouched for her straying man. If she could continue to trust and believe in him, the public could too – or so the script went."-Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives
"For each of these women, the fear of the unknown — of leaving a marriage and casting off alone — may have bound them to a marriage where there is insensitivity, neglect, or even outright abuse. Peopl…"-Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives
"What we witness playing out in the relationships of our public figures we risk finding acceptable in our private lives. Feminists have connected women’s sexual subordination to their unequal status i…"-Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives
"To leave the marriage behind is to step out of the spotlight. It means fading into normalcy, returning to ordinary life, perhaps an impossible admission for women who have built their egos on being o…"-Anne Michaud, Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives
16. Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love
By: Aimee Cabo Nikolov
4.30
Format: 150 pages, Paperback
Her family secrets burst in the spotlight when Aimee and her sister went to the authorities. In thi… read more
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- nonfiction
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"#metooasachild"-Aimee Cabo Nikolov, Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love
"We can be beacons of light"-Aimee Cabo Nikolov, Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love
"Unconditional Love conquers all!"-Aimee Cabo Nikolov, Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love
"God is the Cure, Love is the Answer"-Aimee Cabo Nikolov, Love is the Answer, God is the Cure: A True Story of Abuse, Betrayal and Unconditional Love
17. Last Girl Standing
By: Trina Robbins
4.05
Format: 196 pages, Paperback
From dressing Mama Cass to being pelted with jelly babies as she helped photograph the Rolling Ston… read more
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18. Uncultured: A Memoir
By: Daniella Mestyanek Young
4.08
Format: 339 pages, Hardcover
In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a … read more
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"Daniella,"-Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir
"The body keeps the score."-Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir
"I can run and run, but I’m always still here."-Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir
"...the only real friend I had, and would ever have, was myself."-Daniella Mestyanek Young, Uncultured: A Memoir
19. The Triumph of Rosemary
By: Marylin E. Atkins
3.98
Format: 268 pages, Paperback
Baby Rosemary - born to an Italian teen and a married black man in Detroit in 1946 - is adopted fro… read more
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- memoir
20. Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
By: Lauren Hough
3.40
Format: 314 pages, Kindle Edition
Searing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with th… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Lauren Hough's Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing book and Lauren Hough's Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
- audiobook
- biography
- memoir
- lgbt
- feminism
- cults
- religion
- nonfiction
- essays
- queer
"There are few codes held more deeply among the poor, the religious, and the uneducated than that it is good and healthy and wholesome parenting to hit your kids. That their kids grow up with anger-ma…"-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"People describe falling in love as meeting someone who they feel like they've known all their lives. Someone who understands them immediately. To me, that seems more like a nightmare than a fantasy. …"-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"I told him it would be a week, seven to ten days to get a new line. He said through his teeth he needed an exact day. I gave him my supervisor's number. This whole time, his wife was in the kitchen w…"-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
"Those are the moments I’m proud of. The times I saw through them. The times I made them work to break me, even though I knew they would. The times I questioned the lies being fed to me, though everyo…"-Lauren Hough, Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
21. Remnants
By: E.H. Regan
4.66
Format: 82 pages, Kindle Edition
Some things are not ours to haveBut we take them anywayMy dear there is a consequenceA price you'll… read more
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