“I designed a heavenly serene side flower garden for peaceful resting and entertaining friends and family outdoors. That year for my birthday, my mother and father gave me fifty bucks. I took the money and bought bricks for a sidewalk patio that I drew up and spent time reading on the best way to lay the bricks to make a straight walk that rounded in the middle and then went straight again. It was so beautiful, and all around the outer sides were flowers of pink and white. It was a work of art, and it aroused many wonderful comments from family, friends, and neighbors that they were impressed with my talents. I was happy with my peaceful place to rest and have fun; it was important to me to rest peacefully in life while living it.”
– an excerpt from the book
ARPress is honored to publish My American Terrorists: Home Grown Family Terrorists…Does She Escape? by America. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
In a time when truth feels negotiable and people scroll past other people’s pain like it’s background noise, My American Terrorists hits differently. It’s not just a memoir, it’s a mirror. Through her story, the author known only as America forces us to look at what happens when silence, manipulation, and power go unchecked: in families, in workplaces, and in society at large. Her personal battles with abuse, corruption, and injustice might be unique in detail, but the themes echo everywhere today: the struggle to be believed, the fight to stay human in systems that dehumanize, and the desperate need for honesty in a world built on half-truths.
You ever read a book that feels less like reading and more like sitting across from someone who’s just… finally telling their truth? That’s what My American Terrorists feels like.
Written by an author who simply goes by America, this isn’t your average memoir. It’s raw. It’s messy. It’s human. And honestly, that’s what makes it so compelling.
The book traces America’s life from her early years in Springfield through love, marriage, motherhood, and a series of gut-wrenching betrayals that would break most people. She’s not shy about the hard stuff: family dysfunction, workplace abuse, a justice system that failed her more than once. There are moments where you almost want to look away, but then she pulls you back in, not for sympathy, but for truth.
It’s beautifully thought-provoking how she balances pain with this stubborn hope. Even when she’s describing the worst moments: losing her home, being alienated from her children, getting dragged through courts and accusations; there’s this quiet thread of resilience that runs through it all. You can tell she’s writing not just to tell her story, but to help others who’ve been through similar darkness.
It’s not a “perfect” book in a literary sense, some parts wander, others hit like a freight train. But honestly, that’s kind of the point. Life doesn’t move in neat chapters, and neither does America’s story.
The author herself is fascinating, using a pseudonym not to hide, but to reclaim. In her dedication, she thanks a priest, her writing group, and even someone who once called her “crazy.” You get the sense that this book was her way of saying, “Here’s the truth. Believe it or don’t. I’m telling it anyway.”
If you’re into stories about resilience, survival, and clawing your way back to peace after chaos, or if you just appreciate someone laying it all out, unfiltered, My American Terrorists is worth your time.
It’s not an easy read, but it’s an important one.
Sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is write the truth, and America did exactly that.
My American Terrorists: Home Grown Family Terrorists…Does She Escape? by America is now available for purchase via the ARPress Bookstore.