A Piece of Cake
A Memoir
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4.8 • 812 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The heart-wrenching, uplifting tale about a woman named Cupcake
“[Cupcake] Brown’s confessional . . . memoir is one you can’t easily put down. Her life is nothing short of a miracle.”—Chicago Sun-Times
There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, and homelessness.
Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.
And that’s when things got interesting. . .
Orphaned by the death of her mother and left in the hands of a sadistic foster parent, young Cupcake Brown learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs.
A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving in its frankness, this is the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take.
Praise for A Piece of Cake
“[Brown] reflects now with insight and honesty on her experiences. . . . An engaging account . . . of a remarkable life filled with pain and wisdom, hope and redemption.”—San Fracisco Chronicle
“Dazzles you with the amazing change that is possible in one lifetime.”—Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cupcake Brown (that's her real name) was 11 in 1976 when her mother died. Custody of Brown and her brother was given to a stranger their birth father who only wanted their social security checks. He then left them with an abusive foster mother who encouraged her nephew to rape Brown repeatedly. Brown got better and better at running away. A prostitute taught her to drink, smoke marijuana and charge for sex. Her next foster father traded her LSD and cocaine for oral sex. Eventually she went to live with a great-aunt in South Central L.A., where she joined a gang. Almost 16, having barely survived a shooting, she decided to quit gangbanging. Drugs were her new best friends. A boyfriend taught her to freebase, but then there was crack, which was easier. Before long she was a "trash-can junkie," taking anything and everything. It wasn't until she woke up behind a Dumpster one morning, half-dressed and more than half-dead, that she admitted she needed help. Brown conveys this all in gritty detail, and her struggle to come clean and develop her potential she's now an attorney with a leading California firm and a motivational speaker ends her story on a high note. Booksellers, watch out Cupcake's gonna sell like hotcakes. (On sale Feb. 28)
Customer Reviews
I love it
I really really like this book I never was a reader but this book catch my eyes and begin reading .
Cupcake Brown is Awesome! : )
Truly a inspiration that you can come from the worst of places and still achieve great accomplishments. Truly a great read. Cupcake Brown is Awesome! :{)
I loved book!
Loved, loved, loved this book and Cupcake! What a powerful story!