Recommended Reading

Please peruse our recommended reading list. Many of these books can be found in libraries nationwide. To purchase these titles, the following specialized sources are recommended:

Amazon.com: A portion of books purchased through Amazon will benefit the AAC.

Just click on one of our links below.

Tapestry Books: A mail order/online bookstore specializing in adoption titles.

Second Choice: Growing Up Adopted  
Robert Anderson
 

       Adoption Reunion Survival Guide: 
       Preparing Yourself for the Search, Reunion, and Beyond
       Julie Bailey and Lynn Giddens
     
 

Lethal Secrets: The Psychology of
Donor Insemination – Problems and Solutions 
Annette Baran, Reuben Pannor and Arthur D. Sorosky
 



  Not Your Normal Family:
  A Single Asperger Womans
  Adoption of Two Down's Boys
  Fiona Barrington

   
Confessions of a Lost Mother 
 Elisa M. Barton.


 

Late Discoveries: An Adoptee's Quest for Truth
Susan Bennett

 
Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self 
 David M.Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schlechter, Robin Marantz Henig.

 



Swimming Up the Sun: A Memoir of Adoption 
  Nicole J. Burton.

  

 
Adoption Politics: Bastard Nation and Ballot Initiative 58 
  E. Wayne Carp
 

Growing Up Is Hard to Do When They Won't Tell You Who You Are
Joann Chace 
 


Birth Fathers and Their Adoption Experience
Gary Clapton
 

 
Fifty Years in 13 Days a Mother/Daughter Reuinon
Katie DeCosse & Jackie Maher

 

Finding a Forever Family: A News Anchor's Notebook
on Domestic Adoption Within the Foster Care System
Christine Devine
 

 
 
Outer Search/Inner Journey: An Orphan and Adoptee's Quest
 Peter F. Dodds.


 

A Love Child's Journey
CKay Duncan


  

Making Room in Our Hearts:
Keeping Family Ties Through Open Adoption 
Micky Duxbury



 
 Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
 Sherrie Eldridge
 

 
Following the Tambourine Man: A Birthmother's Memoir
Janet Mason Ellerby
 

 Intimate Reading: The Contemporary Women's Memoir
 Janet Mason Ellerby

 The Search: A Memoir of an Adopted Woman
 Titia Ellis

 


 
The Girls Who Went Away 
 Ann Fessler

     Blind In One Eye: A Story About Seeing the Possibilities
     David R. Ford
   

 May the Circle Be Unbroken:
An Intimate Journey into the Heart of Adoption
 Lynn C. Franklin
 

 
Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families 
Gigi Kaeser & Peggy Gillespie.

 

 
 
 Blending In: Crisscrossing the Lines
 of Race, Religion, Family, and Adoption
 Barbara Ann Gowan

 

 
 Adoption Constellatiion
 Michael Grand

 
 
Not Remembered Never Forgotten
  Robert Hafetz

 
Without A Map: A Memoir
Meridith Hall

An Unlit Path
Deborah L. Hannah

Mother Country: A Memoir
Jeremy Harding

Good Girls Don't
Patty Hawn
 

  

The Mistress's Daughter
A. M. Homes

In A Country Of Mothers 
A. M. Homes.

 
Finding Me In a Paper Bag:
Searching For Both Sides Now 
 Sally Howard.

  

 
Healing the Hole in A Heart:
One Birthmother's Journey into the Adoption Triangle

 Nancy Mac Isaac

 

 
Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib
Jaiya John

  
  Perspectives on a Grafted Tree:
 Thoughts for Those Touched
  Patricia Irwin Johnston


 

Birthmothers: Women Who Have Relinquished Babies for Adoption Tell Their Stories
Merry Bloch Jones
 

 
He Waited for Me
 Patricia Kamradt

   

 
Adoption: Uncharted Waters 
 David Kirschner, Ph.D.

The English American
Alison Larkin

Listen to Me: Writing Life Into Meaning
Lynn Lauber

 

 
Found
Jennifer Lauck

Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found
Jennifer Lauck

 

 
Still Waters
Jennifer Lauck
  

 

Show Me the Way
Jennifer Lauck

 Once They Hear My Name:
 Korean Adoptees and Their
 Journeys Toward Identity

 Ellen Lee, Marilyn Lammert, Mary Anne Hess.

 Lost and Found:
The Adoption Experience 
 Betty Jean Lifton.

  

 Journey of the Adopted Self:
A Quest for Wholeness
 Betty Jean Lifton.

 

 
Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter
 Betty Jean Lifton.
 

   
 
 Nothing Good Ever Happens to Me:
An Adoption Love Story
Caroline Lindsay

Single Mothers By Choice
Jane Mattes

Finding Our Plade "100 Memorable Adoptees, Fostered
Persons and Orphanage Alumni"
Nikki McCaslin

Becoming Patrick: A Memoir
Patrick McMahon

  Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish
Woman Discovers Her Navajo Roots 
 Yvette Melanson and Claire Safran

 Raising Adopted Children, Revised Edition:
 Practical Reassuring Advice for Every Adoptive Parent 
 Lois Ruskai Messina


 

The Open Adoption Experience -
A Complete Guide for
Adoptive and Birth Families
Lois Ruskai Messina

The Mysteries of Eva Miller Revealed
Eva Miller
 

 Waiting to Forget 
 Margaret Moorman.
 

 
  The Gift of Roots: Heartwarming Reunion
  Stories As Told to an Adoptive Mother
  Dorothy Morrow.

  
 

 To Prison With Love: The True Story of an Indecent Indictment and America's Adoption Travesty
Sandy Musser
 

Reading Adoption: Family and difference in Fiction and Drama
Marianne Novy

Adoptees Come of Age: Living Within Two Families
(Counseling and Pastoral Theology)
Ronald J. Nydam

  

 The Family of Adoption:
Completely Revised and Updated
 Joyce Maguire Pavao


  
  
Adoption Nation (Revised and Updated)
Adam Pertman

 


 
Mother Me
Zara Phillips

 
The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann,
the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption 
 Barbara Bisantz Raymond
 

 
  The Stork Market: America's Multi-Billion Dollar
  Unregulated Adoption Industry
  Mirah Riben, Foreword by Evelyn Robinson




Adoption Encounter:
Hurt, Transition, Healing 
Mary Jo Rillera.

 

 Adoption Searchbook:
Techniques for Tracing People 
 Mary Jo Rillera.


  

Adoption Reuninon: Ecstasy or Agony?
Evelyn Robinson

 

Adoption and Loss: The Hidden Grief
Evelyn Robinson
  
 

 
Adoption and Recovery: 
Soving the Mystery of Reunion
Evelyn Robinson

Adoption Separation: Then and Now
Evelyn Robinson  
 

 
Touched by Adoption 
 Nancy A. Robinson


 
 Saying Goodbye to a Baby:
 Birthparents Guide to Loss and Grief in Adoption
 (Saying Goodbye to a Baby Vol. 1)
 Patricia E. Roles
 
  
Adoption Wisdom:
A Guide to the Issues and Feelings of Adoption
 Marlou Russell.



The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift,
International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam
Dana Sachs

 

  
ITHAKA: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found 
Sarah Saffian.

 

Hunting Shadows
Dan Sandifer
 

Identical Strangers:
A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited
Elyse Schein

 

Searching for a Past: The Adopted Adult's Unique Process of Finding Identity
Jayne E. Schooler 
 

 
Dear Birthmother
 Kathleen Silber & Phylis Speedlin


  


 ORFAN
Corie Skolnick

 The Adoption Mystique:
A Hard-Hitting Exposé of the Powerful Negative Social 
Stigma That Permeates Child Adoption in the United States 
 Joanne Wolf Small

 

 
Adoption Healing ...a path to recovery
 Joe Soll.



Adoption Healing ...
A Path to Recover for Mothers Who
Lost Children to Adoption
Joe Soll
 

 
Wake Up Little Susie:
Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade
 Rickie Solinger

 

The Adoption Triangle
Arthur D Sorosky

Same Smile
Susan Mello Sousa

The Girl In the Orange Dress:
Searching for a Father Who Does Not Fail
Margot Starbuck

  
Birthright: The Guide to Search and Reunion for Adoptees,
Birthparents, and Adoptive Parents 
 Jean Strauss

 

Beneath a Tall Tree
Jean Strauss 

Hide and Seek
Janet Stuessi

Outsiders Within:
Writing on Transracial Adoption
 Edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin

 

 
The Adoption Reunion Handbook
Elizabeth Trindler

   
   The Primal Wound:
   Understanding the Adopted Child
   Nancy Newton Verier.


 

Coming Home to Self:
The Adopted Child Grows Up 
Nancy Newton Verrier

 


Lost and Found:
A Memoir of Mothers
Kate St. Vincent Vogl

 
Giving Away Simone 
 Jan Waldron.



  
 Scattered Siblings:
 An Adoptee's Search for His Biological Roots
 Lawrence A Weeks

 


Secret Thoughts of An Adoptive Mother
Jana Wolff