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

A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

De: Lara Love Hardin

Narrado por: Lara Love Hardin

Duración: 8 h y 59 m

Resumen del Editor

“Once you start reading, be prepared, because you won’t want to stop.”—Oprah Winfrey

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • New York Times bestselling 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 and Lord 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 Love is 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.

Lara Love Hardin is a literary agent, author, and president of True Literary. Prior to founding True Literary, she was the co-CEO of Idea Architects. She has an MFA in creative writing and is a five-time New York Times bestselling collaborative writer, including the #1 bestseller Designing Your Life and the 2018 Oprah’s Book Club pick The Sun Does Shine, which she coauthored with Anthony Ray Hinton. She lives in La Selva Beach, California.

©2023 Lara Love Hardin (P)2023 Simon & Schuster Audio

Outstanding Read

Wow- what an inspiration LLH is! Loved her story and how she navigated life after being incarcerated. Loved hearing her read it. Best book so far of 2023☺️

Great writer!

Such a great story and the writing takes it over the top. Such a great listen!

Honest truthful insightful

Offers a few kernel’s of truthful insight from an assist’s perspective which is different and not always portrayed. It was an honest account of what life is like as an addict mixed in the reality of everyday life and the high bar that is set for productive members of society and the pressure society places on addicts.
Life is about choices and the choices one makes makes you life. I enjoyed reading this novel from the addicts perspective which was honest and truthful. Having gone through this issue in my own family, I could relate to each and every word she was saying and picture of an addicts like that was painted.

So good!

Pulls on all your heart strings. Felt relatability and honest. Heart breaking and joyous at the same time. So good I didn’t want it to end!

Memorable

Thanks for sharing. Good choice to have the author read her own story. Well written and read. You feel like you’re sitting having a cup of coffee and she’s telling it to you. Gives hope to others who may need it and reminds us that none of us is perfect and Ned grace sometimes.

What a wonderfully written and admirable story!

I know it’s cliché, but this story really moved and inspired me. I appreciate the rawness and honesty in which the author describes her deepest insecurities and addiction. I found myself connecting with her so easily because she didn’t pretend or brush the challenges under the rug. I felt so proud of her!

Great story of triumph!!!

Not knowing anything about the book or story going in, I was gripped and surprised by every chapter, every trial, defeat and accomplishment. You can never say never. Anyone can fall in to a bad situation and change your life forever. It’s how you make it right in the end!!!!! Great job.

Lara's learned self love

What a feel GREAT story! I'm glad I embarked on your journey. Thank YOU for you sharing your happy soul with such humility and gratitude.

Wonderful true story

Very inspiring and thought inducing. . This woman is what we should all strive to be. Never gives up

One of the best books I've listened

The amazing author, Lara Love Hardin, writes (reads) in such a way that you feel her life experiences as she's going through her story. I cried with her and celebrated with her. Her memoir is real and raw and full of love. I highly recommend it.