After rape it's common to feel as if you will never again be able to determine which direction is up, let alone how to start the process of fitting together the pieces of a life shattered by violence. Fortunately, help can be found in many places, and one source of encouragement, hope and guidance is the veritable library of books written by and for survivors. While not exhaustive, the titles contained here belong to books that we believe are of significant value to those who are in the healing process, regardless of whether that process is twenty minutes or twenty years old. They can also be important and enlightening reading for family and friends of survivors.
In this list, you’ll find books that address the very personal impact of rape on its survivors, personal memoirs and accounts of rape and recovery written in the survivor’s own voice, resource books on the history and sociological impact of rape, and guides to help those close to a rape survivor cope and assist in the healing process.
We’d like to know about books that other survivors have found helpful and inspiring. If you know of another book that should be on our list, please tell us about it.
Recovering from Rape
by Linda E. Ledray
When You Are the Partner of a Rape or Incest Survivor: A Workbook for You by Robert Barry Levine
I Am The Central Park Jogger
by Tricia Meili
Hours of Torture, Years of Silence: My Soul Was the Scene of the Crime
by Teresa Lauer
The Truth About Rape
by Teresa Lauer
Telling: A Memoir of Rape and Recovery
by Patricia Weaver Francisco
Sexual Assault: Will I Ever Feel Okay Again?
by Kay Scott
Working With Available Light: A Family's World After Violence
by Jamie Kalven
After Silence: Rape and My Journey Back
by Nancy Venable Raine
I Never Called It Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Surviving Date and Acquaintance Rape
by Robin Warshaw
Sexual Violence; Our War Against Rape
by Linda Fairstein
Enter Whining
by Fran Drescher
Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape
by Susan Brownmiller
The Sexual Healing Journey-A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
by Wendy Malt
Lucky
by Alice Sebold
Where I Stopped: Remembering a Childhood Rape
by Martha Ramsey
Transformation Soup: Healing for the Splendidly Imperfect*
by SARK
Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing with Your Wonder Full Self*
by SARK
*As survivors, we understand that there comes a point in many healing journeys where all the talking, all the therapy, all the journaling and all the “taking back the night” don’t feel like enough. There comes a point for some when a desire surfaces to express pain and healing through artistic or spiritual channels. The books written by SARK are one answer to that desire. SARK, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, has written a series of whimsical (and honest and funny and outrageous) books that speak to the power of creativity, of trusting personal wisdom and of rejoicing in the beautiful bodies and souls that we all are. You can learn more about SARK by visiting her website: http://www.planetsark.com, or by opening any of her books.
fiction book list
We have also found a number of works of fiction that address the subject of rape or integrate a rape storyline with responsibility and honesty. There are virtually hundreds of books that include the assault of a main or peripheral character, but these are standouts among them.
We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
The Survivors Club
by Lisa Gardner
The Elegant Gathering of White Snows
by Kris Radish
The “Alex Cooper” novels
by Linda Fairstein
The Rookie Club
by Danielle Girard
Tenth Circle
by Jodi Picoult
The Slow Moon
by Elizabeth Cox
The Atonement Child
by Francine Rivers
The Ritual Bath
by Faye Kellerman
The Sacrifice of Tamar
by Naomi Ragen
Rape: A Love Story
by Joyce Carol Oates
No Other Option
by Marcus Wynne |
