Family Legends, Family Lies is a powerful memoir about a woman who was a victim of child sexual abuse. The abuser was her maternal grandfather, who was a Bishop in the American Lutheran Church. The memoir focuses on finding inner strength by speaking truth rather than describing in graphic detail about the sexual abuse. The author first worked for a Wall Street brokerage firm and later made a switch to work as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy. While employed by the Navy, she experienced intense sexual harassment from a superior. After resigning, she continued to receive credible death threats to drop her sexual harassment complaint. The memoir also dives into the suppressed relationship that the author has with her adoptive mother, Gretchen. The time period of much of the memoir is 2002, which is the year that the Boston Globe broke the news of pedophile priests being transferred around in the Catholic Church. This provides the impetus for the author to embrace the truth even as Gretchen wants to keep the abuse secret. To overcome the lasting emotional pain of child sexual abuse, the author takes up mountain climbing, which becomes the overarching metaphor for the peaks and valleys of her pain. The memoir also addresses the roles that women play in allowing child sexual abuse to occur within families.