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

A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing

Lara Love Hardin

$34.99

Paperback

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English
Endeavour
30 January 2024
'Lara Love Hardin shares compelling and important truths in her beautifully told personal story.' PIPER KERMAN, author of the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Orange is the New Black
'Thrilling, funny, heartbreaking 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 the no. 1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Boy

'Compelling and timely' BRYAN STEVENSON, author of the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

The Neighbour From Hell is the astonishing tale of Lara's descent from middle class soccer mum with an enviable lifestyle, beautiful home and family to an opiate addict and identity thief. Convicted of 32 felonies, her children are taken away and she is placed in a local jail.

In this strange and frightening new world, she has to get grips with life behind bars. Lara becomes known in prison as Mama Love. She helps the women around her get to grips with their own troubles, writes letters for them, acts as an advocate, and comforts them in their darkest moments. Soon she climbs the jailhouse social ladder to become 'the shot caller' showing that jailhouse politics and PTA politics are not that different.

Through her incarceration, Lara reveals a world where makeshift furniture is made from tampon boxes and snicker bars are currency, a world of brutal corruption and abuse, and of surprising humanity and tenderness.

Her story gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of the women in jail she spent time with and the very real challenges they, and she, faced trying to make it out of prison, regain custody of their children and start life afresh.

By:  
Imprint:   Endeavour
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 214mm,  Width: 134mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   320g
ISBN:   9781804190524
ISBN 10:   1804190527
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

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.

Reviews for The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club): A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing

"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 * Compelling and timely. * Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy * 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 * A courageous and inspiring memoir * Kirkus Reviews * A suburban mom weathers addiction, jail, and parole in this roller-coaster debut memoir... Hardin mixes despair and comedy in her evocative prose: ""I carefully pick through the bottom-of-purse debris until I find some small brown chips.... I don't know if I'm smoking heroin or food crumbs or lint, but I feel the anxiety slowly leave my chest."" This redemption story feels well earned.' * Publishers Weekly * 'Laced with penetrating wit, written with unsparing honesty and manifesting irrepressible resilience, The Many Lives of Mama Love is a book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. It speaks to our common human experience of suffering and the healing that can follow.' * Gabor Maté M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller, The Myth of Normal * This book will make you laugh, cry, and realize that everyone deserves a chance and, sometimes more than one. A powerful, poignant memoir filled with grace, enlightenment and love. * Dr. James Doty, author of the New York Times bestseller, Into The Magic Shop * Hardin reveals who we truly are deep inside: infinite souls of limitless possibility. We are far more than the sum of what we have done and not done, what we have and do not have. In her profound, moving memoir, Hardin is honest, courageous, and challenges us to exceed the limiting definition we impose on ourselves and one another. We all can be redeemed. * Dr. Lisa Miller, psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Spiritual Child *"


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