The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club)

'' The Many Lives of Mama Love contains notes of Wild , Orange is the New Black , and Catch me if you Can'' -The New York Times ''Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.'' PIPER KERMAN, author of Orange is the New Black ''Thrilling, funny, heart-breaking and moving. I''ll return to this book when I need to be reminded of the power of the human spirit.'' DAVID SHEFF, author of Beautiful Boy ''Hardin is an aptly named genius with a heart of gold'' ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU ''A book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire'' GABOR MATe M.D., author of The Myth of Normal ''A hilarious and heart-breaking confession that will not let you go until it is done - and then it will haunt you.'' LORI GOTTLIEB, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Reading was her first addiction; but then came opiates. And so, despite the appearances of a perfect picket fence life, Lara steals credit cards and goes through people''s mail, raiding identities to sustain her addiction until eventually she finds herself in a Californian prison. She has to get to grip quickly with life behind bars. She doesn''t know the street world of Santa Cruz so isn''t sure who to be afraid of, defer to, or lord above - but she does know how to pretend. Within weeks, she understands every gang and all the prison slang, and is doling out advice and writing letters for the other girls in prison. She finds she has a talent for writing under the guise of others, for absolute empathy with them. Before long she''s earned herself a nickname: ''Mama Love''. The Many Lives of Mama Love is a beautiful, page-turning memoir about a powerful, redemptive journey with a surprising final act. It''s about reaching rock bottom and clambering back up; about healing, shame and self-forgiveness, and about writing yourself a new path, with a different destiny. ...

Vorwort
A page-turning, funny and poignant memoir about Lara Love Hardin's journey from soccer mom to identity thief and opiate addict to New York Times bestselling ghostwriter, via a Californian prison.

Autorentext
Lara Love Hardin is a literary agent and author. Previously co-CEO of Idea Architects, she is the founder of True Literary. Lara is a four-time New York Times bestselling co-writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life and the 2018 Oprah Book Club pick The Sun Does Shine, which she co-authored with Anthony Ray Hinton. In 2019 she won a Christopher Award for her work 'affirming the highest values of the human spirit', was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and shortlisted for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Zusammenfassung

"Once you start reading, be prepared, because you won't want to stop." -Oprah Winfrey

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK New York Timesbestselling author Lara Love Hardin recounts her slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter in this harrowing, hilarious, no-holds-barred memoir.

No one expects the police to knock on the door of the million-dollar two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors' credit cards.

Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She finds that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party andLord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes, and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly learns the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder and acquires the nickname "Mama Love," showing that jailhouse politics aren't that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.

When she's released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she's legally co-opting other people's identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with the Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin-there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove to herself that she is more good than bad, among other essential lessons.

The Many Lives of Mama Loveis a heartbreaking and tender journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done.