This book chronicles the author’s journey from a deeply challenging childhood marked by an absent father, maternal addiction, and poverty to achieving leadership success.

The writing is lyrical, clear, and engaging. She expertly balances emotional honesty with intellectual insight. We follow memories interwoven with psychological insights which speaks to the author’s authenticity and power. The blend of lived experience with scientific explanations offers depth. Her vulnerability shines through when she discusses her memories, struggles, and learning about herself. Beyond recounting her life, this book also discusses her experience going through the next steps of learning more about herself scientifically and starting to heal and grow from her learnings and experiences.

Ultimately, this is a beautifully written, enlightening memoir narrating healing through science, personal history, and self-compassion making the book both relatable and deeply motivational. I highly recommended this for anyone interested in trauma, resilience, and the power of self-directed change.

Engaging and immersive. A recommended purchase in all formats for collections where memoirs and psychology titles are popular.

This is the memoir of Daria Burke, an award-winning business leader and speaker, who shares details of her difficult childhood marked by neglect and poverty. She discusses how she overcame many obstacles to not only achieve success in her career but also confront her past childhood trauma through the help of therapy. Burke is vulnerable in sharing the intimate and upsetting details of her upbringing and it is heartbreaking to hear what she dealt with as a child. This is an inspiring read about how Burke was able to push to be her best in the face of incredible adversity. Burke then explains her multi-year journey into therapy, neuroplasticity, epigenetics, and how she was able to achieve Post Traumatic Growth. This part was initially quite interesting but overall, a bit long and it was difficult to stay engaged after a while. Burke should definitely be proud of what she has accomplished, although it sounds like her unique brain function had much to do with her drive to overcome difficult events, which is not typically the case for most individuals in similar situations. It is nonetheless an impressive and remarkable feat, and an excellent memoir I would recommend to others! I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, which Daria reads herself, and she is an excellent narrator with an engaging voice that is easy to listen to. Thank you to NetGalley, Daria Burke, Legacy Lit, and Hachette Audio for the gifted ALC. This is a voluntary and honest review.

Daria Burke shares her experience of childhood abuse and neglect, and how it has impacted her life and path toward healing. Good blend of personal narrative and research surrounding trauma and PTSD. Engaging, interesting, moving. Very well narrated by the author as well.

Definitely search for TW if you have concerns.

Rags to riches story of Daria Burke, who grew up with parents who were addicts. A mother that was always high and verbally abusive, an absent father - but it was the death of her beloved grandmother when she was 7 that really made her childhood slide into something horrendous.

The author looks back at her life, all of the hardships she had to overcome, all of the abuse and neglect, and how she pulled herself out of a poor neighborhood in Detroit to make something of herself. Daria is proof it is possible. This woman has drive, determination and resilience. Daria reflects on the pivotal event of her grandmother's death throughout different points in the book, using the memories of her grandmother as a balm to cure her wounded soul. As her life progresses, and after years of therapy, she starts taking a closer look at events she thought she had processed. Referencing various psychologists and mental health books, she pushes through her hardships and emerges victorious on the other side.

I listened to the audiobook of this and loved it. I always love memoirs that are narrated by the author. Daria especially has a positivity about her that you can actually hear come through while she is reading this book. It's a beautiful thing. The story was captivating and really reminded me a lot of What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo. Very important trauma memoir. And while the author became successful financially and socially as an adult, she is not pretentious in her writing of this book, and I appreciated that the most. Definitely a good listen.

Thanks so much to Net Galley and the publisher for an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was no ordinary memoir, and quite frankly, I mean that in a good way. It deals with some heavy stuff – addicted parents, a very unstable childhood – but it's not a straight-up recounting of worst times. Burke really does include research from psychologists and mental health experts about how childhood trauma messes you up, which I found really fascinating.

I was restless at first, you know? I mean, I wanted more of the nitty-gritty, the history, the information that told me how she ended up where she is today. I was skimming, kind of, for that old tragedy-to-triumph tale, the secrets to success presented point by point.

But as I kept reading, the way that she put her story together started to make sense. It wasn't this neat, linear thing. It was more flashes of memory interrupted by her interpretation, and then these fragments of science and psychology sprinkled throughout. And actually, it seemed the best way for her to tell it.

There's no beating around the bush about the bad, no laying all of it at her past doorstep. Instead, there's this real vulnerability, this deep sadness that you can feel on every page, but always with this underlying sense of hope.

What I really appreciated is that Burke introduces herself as somebody one might like to meet, not owing to whatever triumphs she may have enjoyed, or in spite of her f***ed-up past. She was implying, "This is me, the complicated package." If she'd merely described bad things that'd happened to her and how she'd overcome them, it would not have felt so real.

Her book about growing up in Detroit in the '80s with her sister. I swear, it was kind of great to read about what they went through. Even I found myself hoping for a sequel, to see what she did later in life, you know? Working corporate America as a Black woman and dealing with whatever awful ex-boyfriends she hopefully had.

The manner in which she talks about healing from generation trauma and learning to know who you are rather than the person everyone wants you to be – that resonated. And although she was estranged from her mother, the manner in which she tried to make sense of her mother's story, the girl her mother never got to be, was powerful. It was as if she was rewriting history on herself.

If you've already read Stephanie Foo's "What My Bones Know," you'll probably find this similar too. Burke does a good job of breaking down the science aspect of trauma and healing in a way that makes sense. There's a lot here about how your brain rewires from bad experiences and how you can actually rewire it.

She also talks about learning to be present for her younger self and releasing unhealthy relationships. And this entire portion on needing to say goodbye to a therapist before she was ready? That really resonated with me, because it made me think of unfinished family business. It makes you think about your own process of healing, you know? There's this very moving moment between her and her grandma and how her grandma's love continued even after she had died. It made me realize how much it is to hold on to the positive memories when you're trying to heal.

"Of My Own Making" left me with the sense that healing is possible, even if your past is a catastrophe. Burke shows that you can't erase what happened, but you can take back your story and move forward with honesty and self-love. She is where she is today because of everything she's been through, not in spite of it, and that's a mighty empowering message.

eBook ARC - 3 Stars
This was an interesting memoir about a successful woman who has overcome her childhood trauma [and folks, some of it is V E R Y traumatic]to live a very full *AND* fulfilling life.

I found this to be a pretty interesting read/story [and naturally, cried some real ugly tears for all she lost as a child *AND* as an adult]. Trauma recognizes trauma, no matter who has healed or not] and the work she did to become the very best version of herself was also fascinating, B U T, there were moments for me that were annoying [and that I almost completely disconnected from]; I am honestly very happy for her [anyone who has suffered trauma is almost automatically excitingly happy for those who have made peace with said trauma, and that is what happened here], but not everyone has the privelege she has [that I 100% acknowledge she worked V E R Y hard for] to get the kind of thereapy she had/has [*AND* that not everyone gets to heal, even if they do have the privelege of therapy] and there were absolutely moments that felt very tone-deaf to me, and I didn't really love those parts of the book.

Overall, it was a good read, and I am glad that I read it. I celebrate that she was able to heal and move on and make her life great, and I know that many people will really benefit from reading this book [so many times, all it takes is reading one book, talking to one person, hearing one podcast etc etc for a person who is traumatized to realize it and reach out for help and I applaud that fully] and for that, I both applaud the author and recommend this book to all who need it.

Audiobook ARC - 4 Stars
The author narrates this and while I struggle with most authors who narrate [not all should unfortunately], that was not the case here. Daria Burke is an excellent narrator [and could easily have a second job doing just that] and it was a real joy to listen to her tell her story. I highly recommend you experience this book via audio; it was a really fabulous experience.

Thank you to NetGalley, Daria Burke, Grand Central Publishing/Legacy Lit and Hachette Audio/Legacy Lit for providing the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

Listen - give me a memoir audiobook read by the author and I'm going to listen to and love it. This particular memoir was so beautiful, it was written so well and the production of the audio was great. I love a memoir about overcoming traumatic childhoods and going on to live a beautiful life. Something specific to this book that I loved was that not only did she talk about her lived experiences (as a black woman, as a person who endured childhood trauma), but she also discussed some interesting science, including neuroplasticity. I also loved how much she talked about her therapy journey, because I truly believe that therapy is something every person should go through at some point in their lives. And, as someone who has gone no-contact with a parent, I also appreciate that she adds to that conversation about it being something that is sometimes necessary for self-preservation.

One of my favorite quotes:
"I would never become the highest version of myself in the place that had threatened to destroy me."

Of My Own Making is Daria Burke's memoir of how she overcame many childhood traumas and came to be a very successful adult. She had an absentee father, a drug-addicted mother, and her other caretaker - her grandma, passed away when she was just seven. As an adult she dives into post traumatic growth, brain development, and the impacts of childhood experiences, to understand her own successes.

This feels like a true rags to riches story, as many people you've heard of in a similar situation (probably) turn out much worse. Her tenacity and strength, along with her desire to understand herself more, were very admirable.

The author narrates, which I feel always makes the most sense for memoirs. Her voice is clear and strong.

Recommended for anyone interested in a story about resilience and overcoming childhood trauma.

Thank you Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the ALC.

This is a well-written memoir of childhood trauma and recovery from complex PTSD. When the author talked about shopping for a second home in the Hamptons, I thought I wouldn’t be able to relate to her story. Once she started opening up about the poverty, abuse, and neglect she experienced and how that affected her, I found her much more relatable.

It’s a good story worth reading, although I didn’t love it the way I did Stephanie Foo’s What My Bones Know. I found Foo’s story a little more informative and inspiring—Burke’s book often left me wanting more. I did appreciate hearing Burke’s perspective as a Black woman in business, and I found her discussion of the brain testing she received from an Amen Clinic interesting.

The audiobook production was excellent, and it was nice to hear the author’s story in her own voice. Her narration was well-paced and easy to understand, and she conveyed the mood and emotions of each scene effectively.

Recommeded for those who enjoy memoirs and are curious about the effects of childhood trauma and post-traumatic growth.

I received a free advanced review copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. I volunteered to provide an honest review.

This memoir shows us that we can triumph after difficult experiences. We learn how every moment is a choice that could define us, define our future; as we grow we are to live with courage and intention anything is possible. Daria searches for answers, and shares her discoveries in her memoir. It’s a beautiful perspective on how we can be an integral part of our own healing.
Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Audio-Legacy Lit for the arc.

Daria's memoir follows her through her childhood, how she fought to get herself out of the cycle, her therapy, healing process, and her search to understand how her childhood trauma has impacted her in every level of her body, mind, soul. She searches for answers, and shares her discoveries in her memoir.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The author (who narrates this audiobook) has overcome so much adversity in her life in order to be at this point. She describes the help she has received from talk therapy and learning about trauma and post-traumatic growth. A beautiful perspective on how one can be an integral part of one’s own healing.