Jaycee Dugard’s memoir, ‘A Stolen Life,’ is part inspiration, part therapy

“A Stolen Life,” Jaycee Lee Dugard’s memoir of 18 years in captivity, landed on electronic bookshelves shortly after midnight Tuesday.

On its cover is a photograph of a smiling, toothy little 11-year-old, tongue out, blond hair tumbling down her shoulders -- Jaycee, free, before she was kidnapped by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and held as a sex slave in a ramshackle compound in their Antioch backyard.

There’s also a pine cone -- the last thing Dugard remembers touching before she was dragged into the Garridos’ car as she headed to the school bus in 1991. She calls it “a symbol that represents the seed of a new beginning for me.”

Earlier this year, the Garridos pleaded guilty to multiple charges of kidnap and rape; they are in state prison serving sentences that will likely keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Dugard, who gave birth to Garrido’s two daughters while in captivity, is working to adjust to her new life. Her memoir, released officially today, is dedicated to her girls -- “For the times we’ve cried together, laughed together and all the times in between.”

After she was kidnapped at age 11, Dugard never set foot in a classroom again. Now 31, she acknowledges that her memoir “might be confusing to some.”

“A Stolen Life” was published less than two years after Dugard and her daughters were rescued. In an author’s note at the volume’s outset, Dugard says the book is her “attempt to convey the overwhelming confusion” she felt during her years with the Garridos and “to begin to unravel the damage that was done to me and my family.”