‘DEAR SISTER’ DOCUMENTS WRONGFUL INCARCERATION FOR KILLING THE ABUSER
Memoir author to join Finding Our Voices online book discussion
Published in the PenBay Pilot
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 6:00pm
The author of Dear Sister will join the April 30 discussion of domestic abuse hiding in plain sight, misogyny in the courts, and sisterly bonds, in the Finding Our Voices online book club on Tuesday April 30, at 6 p.m.
Michelle Horton will join the discussion of her just-released memoir Dear Sister in the Finding Our Voices online book club on Tuesday April 30. (Promotional photo provided by Finding Our Voices)
Michelle Horton will join the April 30 discussion of her just-released memoir Dear Sister: A memoir of secrets, sisterhood, and unbreakable bonds in the Finding Our Voices online book club.
Horton's sister is Nikki Addimando, mom of two who killed her partner in self-defense in New York in 2017. He was a popular community gymnastics coach and the courts disregarded the years of torture she sustained at his hands, some of which he filmed and posted on porn sites, in sentencing her to a prison term of 19 years to life.
This injustice was featured in the documentary film And So I Stayed, which was shown at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville in summer 2022, along with two short Finding Our Voices movies by Matthew Siegel. The founder and CEO of Finding Our Voices Patrisha McLean, as well as subjects of the short films Christine Buckley and Courtney Davis, joined the filmmakers of And So I Stayed for a post-screening panel discussion.
The 90-minute Finding Our Voices Zoom discussion of Dear Sister on Tuesday, April 30, at 6 p.m., is free and open to the public. To sign up, visit https://bookclubs.com/clubs/23834/join/0c701b/ or contact McLean directly at hello@findingourvoices.net
“This is an exquisitely written book that hits home because of how routine it is in Maine for women domestic abuse victims to be criminalized and male perpetrators to be gifted Get Out of Jail Free cards,” said Patrisha McLean, founder and CEO of the grassroots nonprofit Finding Our Voices, in a news release. “Topics Michelle raises that I feel privileged to be able to discuss with her on April 30 are the role of family and friends when domestic abuse is suspected, the normalization of extreme porn, and the appalling ignorance around domestic abuse as well as misogyny among those charged with protecting victims, including lawyers, Guardian ad Litems, judges and juries."
The Finding Our Voices online book club looks at life through the lens of domestic abuse with authors usually joining the discussion. Past guests include Sarah Perry with After the Eclipse about her mother’s murder in Bridgton, Maine, and Katherine Miles with Trailed, about the murder of a Unity College student while hiking the Appalachian Trail. The Finding Our Voices book club is hosted by the online site Bookclubs, "Building Community Through Books”, which was founded by Anna Ford of Midcoast Maine.