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

"The Many Lives of Mama Love" by Lara Love Hardin is a harrowing, hilarious, and no-holds-barred memoir that recounts the author's slide from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot caller and her unlikely comeback as a highly successful ghostwriter.

Lara Love Hardin was a seemingly perfect cul-de-sac housewife, but she was hiding a shady secret: she was funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors' credit cards. Convicted of thirty-two felonies, she became inmate S32179. Jail was a class system with a power structure that was somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. But Lara quickly learned the rules and brought love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbed the social ladder and acquired the nickname "Mama Love."

Upon her release, she reinvented herself as a ghostwriter, legally co-opting other people's identities and meeting Oprah, meditating with the Dalai Lama, and having dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past followed her, and she had to learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove to herself that she was more good than bad.

"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. It is a story of resilience, forgiveness, and the power of love to heal even the deepest wounds. 📚❤️