I Can Take it From Here, Lisa Forbes

I Can Take it from Here is an honest memoir from Lisa about the trauma she endured throughout her childhood. That cycle of abuse ultimately landed her in jail. But, always an intelligent child, it was in prison that she found herself, and her love of reading and learning flourished. Lisa talks openly and honestly about her past, struggles that lasted well into adulthood, including hardships she faced as a reformed prisoner.

If there was anything that I didn’t care for while reading, it was that the last chapter was a massive info dump. While the information is informative, it didn’t fit in with the rest of the book and would have made a more appropriate afterward. But overall, this was an informative read, and Forbes has overcome so much in her life. Thank you, Steerforth Press, for sending this along.

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About the Book

Riveting, honest, and raw, I Can Take It From Here recounts Lisa Forbes’s harrowing journey into darkness — including a fourteen-year-long stint in a maximum-security prison — and her fierce resolve to understand the effects of the trauma she endured, to take personal responsibility for her actions, and to ensure that her history does not dictate her destiny.

The youngest of six children, Lisa grew up in a Chicago housing project where she endured sexual, religious, and emotional abuse as a little girl. A voracious reader, she graduated high school at 15 and went to work as a secretary in a downtown insurance office, became pregnant at 16 and, at 19, unexpectedly and uncharacteristically committed a violent act, stabbing and killing the father of her daughter.

Providing powerful insights into what we as a society need to learn and confront in the ongoing epidemic of mass re-incarceration, Lisa is a stunning example of an individual who through determination, knowledge, and hard work has been able to reclaim her own life.

The book ends with Lisa’s rousing call to action to support the people—as well as the shorthanded employers—who need the help, and need each other, more than ever.