One woman refuses to let her greatest mistake define her in this stunning memoir from author and literary agent Lara Love Hardin. As a child, Hardin used books as an escape from her tumultuous family life, but as she got older, she turned to more risky avenues like sex and drugs, eventually becoming a drug-addicted suburban mother. Hardin’s balancing act all came crashing down the day she was arrested for over 30 counts of identity theft. From the surreal opening of this candid tale, we were utterly astonished by Hardin’s path from stealing her neighbor’s credit card to score drugs to becoming a celebrated writer. And we were fascinated to read about how much she learned from self-help books while serving time in prison (where she earned the nickname “Mama Love”). Dark, funny, and inspirational, The Many Lives of Mama Love proves that truth can be so much stranger than fiction.

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