Practically Still a Virgin:
An Adoption Memoir

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A gripping adoption memoir about identity, trauma, relinquishment, reunion, recovery, and the search for belonging.

Born in Canada and adopted by American parents, Monica Hall grows up in Anchorage during Alaska’s turbulent 1970s oil-boom era. At fifteen, she survives sexual assault and becomes pregnant. Pressured to relinquish her daughter, her only known blood relative, Monica begins a decades-long search for family, truth, and belonging.

Practically Still a Virgin follows Monica from childhood trauma and teenage rebellion through addiction, recovery, and reunion. It is an unflinching story of reclaiming your identity and refusing to let the past define who you become.

MH handwritten initials signature

About the Author

Monica Hall is an author, speaker, and wholeness coach whose work explores adoption, identity, trauma, recovery, resilience, and healing.

Born in Canada and adopted by American parents, Monica spent her first four months in foster care before being raised in Anchorage, Alaska. At fifteen, she became both an adoptee and a birth mother, an experience at the heart of her memoir, Practically Still a Virgin.

Monica’s essays have appeared in Women Writers, Women’s Books and the Anchorage Press. For more than 40 years, she has mentored people through difficult life transitions and helped them recognize the stories and patterns shaping their lives. She is also the creator of Hall Pass to Wholeness™, a framework designed to help people reconnect with their own voice and move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and self-trust.

Monica lives in Northern California, where she continues to write, speak, coach, and spend time with her family.

  • “A testament to the strength and tenacity of the human spirit . . . powerful, heartwarming, and absolutely inspiring!”

    —Mary Youngblood, Indigenous adoptee, two-time Grammy winner

  • “A gutsy story about overcoming loss and triumphing over pain. Monica Hall’s courageous, riveting story is ultimately about love.”

    —Kim Rich, author of Johnny’s Girl: A Daughter’s Memoir of Growing Up in Alaska’s Underworld 

  • “Sparkles with honesty, wit, and passion. We are with the author every step of the way as she  struggles to become her best self, and to understand and draw meaning from the unusual events of her life. This memoir is a powerful addition to the literature of adoption and reunion.”

    —Patricia Moffat, author of She Turned Her Head Away

Start a Book Club

If you’d like to read Practically Still a Virgin as your next book for your Book Club, I’d love to pop in as a guest! Contact me to set it up.