The founder of the Heritage Home Foundation nonprofit documents her secret abuse-marked childhood in and out of foster care and what she discovered while investigating the story of her mother's own harrowing past.

"As a horny little kid, Holly Lorka had no idea why God had put her in the wrong body and made her want to kiss girls. She had questions: Was she a monster? Would she ever be able to grow sideburns? And most importantly, where was her penis? The problem was, it was the 1970s, so there were no answers yet. Here, Lorka tells the story--by turns hilarious and poignant--of her romp through the first fifty years of her life searching for sex, love, acceptance,...

When Melissa Francis was nine years old, she won the role of Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. She and her older sister Tiffany were already veteran actresses, having starred in countless commercials and made-for-television movies. As Melissa's star rose, however, her sister's dimmed, and she became invisible to her mother, who was increasingly riveted to Melissa's success. It's a startling account of life in a dysfunctional...

"Carrie Sheffield grew up fifth of eight children with a violent, mentally ill, street-musician father who believed he was a modern-day Mormon prophet destined to become U.S. president someday. She and her seven siblings were often forced to live as vagabonds, remaining on the move across the country. They frequently subsisted in sheds, tents, and, most notably, motorhomes. They often lived a dysfunctional drifter existence, camping out in their motorhome...