Glitter and Glue: A Memoir

Another excellent Kelly Corrigan. Greenie would be proud (of course he'd be proud if she made him a macaroni necklace) and her mother would be able to actually give her a solid compliment. Reading Kelly Corrigan is like sitting in a room with your BFF, drinking a glass of wine and listening as she catches you up on the latest events of her life. Her story of a complicated, ever changing mother / daughter relationship is amazingly relatable; add that to the fact that she is an excellent storyteller, a very likeable narrator and you have a great book. I rarely ever give a book 5 Stars but I felt this book deserved it. Clearly written from the heart, it is a story about a woman discovering what an excellent mother she had been blessed with although she spent the first half of her life taking her mother for granted, trying to change her and at times even wishing for a more 'fun' mom. First, caring for children whose mother had recently passed away and then parenting her own children made her understand and fully appreciate her mother. The story was so absorbing, I kept having to do a reality check and remind myself the book is a memoir, not fiction. It wasn't going to have a tidy little ending with Kelly swooping in like 'Mary Poppins' and willing the family she nannied for into eternal magical happiness. I also found myself wanting her to fall in love with Evan and stay with the family forever but then remembering that I have read her other books and I know that's not how the story goes. I highly recommend reading this book.

A thoughtful novel about a daughter who learns new appreciation for her own mother, when she is a part-time nanny for two children in Australia who recently lost their mother to cancer. Part travelogue, part reflection, part stream of consciousness, this book is touted as a reflection on mothers and daughters. However, though there was this aspect to it, I found the book interesting simply because it was written in the first person, and I think it is more a memoir of the author's trip. As such, I found it more appealing than simple "reflection". This is the way most of us learn about various aspects of life: our perceptions and thoughts change as we simply live through experiences which were not intended to make us think about what actually does come out of the experience. For this reason, I liked it, though I was confused at first as it was not what the review led me to expect. It also reflects on experiences we have where we get close to people, and have an influence on their lives, and they on ours, then because of geography or circumstance, we know we will never actually see them again. And that is sad, but just the way life works. We take from these experiences what we need at the time, and give what we have to give, then move on.

Corrigan is an excellent writer and of course that makes any book a delight. Here she focuses in on her relationship with her mother and how it changes during the years as they both face the various problems in life..humor is used to balance out the more difficult parts and I did smile often. Although her father was definitely her cheerleader it was her mother's steady hand that guided her as she made her own journey through life.... Recently I read three books which centered on the mother daughter relationship .......all were different, all thought provoking....,,. for complete contrast, read WITH OR WITHOUT YOU by Domenica Ruta..,,,definitely not the middle class struggle for independence but rather a war between the gutter and sidewalk....underlined with love...dangerous mother dangerous love. ALL GONE by AlexWitchel, describes how she tries to deepen her relationship with her aging mother and better connect through food and recipes.......memories of lives well lived.

I hate to pan a book written by someone who has faced her illness problems. But I had trouble connecting a to b in the plot. And lacing all that back to mom as the glue was even harder. It is an easy quick read. And I wish the author good health in the future.

I have read Ms. Corrigan's previous two books & really liked them; however, this one is her best! Although she details her life when she traveled to Australia after graduating from high school, the deeper meaning throughout is motherhood; her own mother, her eventual mothering; and the mother figure she became when taking a nanny job in Australia. The image of her mom is never far from her mind, the 'glue' which kept her family together through her childhood, and the one she called first when getting a diagnosis of malignancy for the first time. Her dad was always fun, her biggest cheerleader, but her mom, with whom she butted heads as a teen, was the glue who kept not only her family together, but kept HER together throughout crisis after crisis. Great read! I do not wish Ms. Corrigan any more life tragedies, but sure would love another book!

I was drawn to this novel as I have a toddler daughter of my own and it has been interesting to see how my own relationship with my mother has changed since becoming a mother myself. I have heard and read wonderful things about Corrigan, so was really excited to read this on my kindle. Overall, it's a well written book, with sweet, funny, and sometimes sad anecdotes about her mom and her family life, as well as how being nanny to children who had recently lost their own mom made her appreciate her mother more. I did feel like there as a big "something" missing---whether it was seeing how that affected how she raises her daughters, or how it changed her relationship with her mom after she got home from Australia--SOMETHING. I will definitely read another book by Corrigan, though.

Reading one of Kelly’s books is like sitting down at lunch with your hysterical soul sister who’s been there, done that, so full of wisdom that you want more and more of this girl who writes like the wind with her heart. You want that lunch to go on into dinner and into the night below the stars with a glass of wine so you can hear her life stories and keep telling yourself, "Yes! My feelings exactly! You too?!" This sister of yours just has a way about her, and the Mindful Readers are forever devoted students in this world of Kelly Corrigan. We read. We listen. We learn so much from her. We are always moved to tears. So in this book Glitter and Glue we thank Kelly once again for her lighthearted journey, this time reliving life with Ma, Mary Dwyer Corrigan, the woman she admires, I’m sure, most in this world; the woman who’s shaped her into the person she is today; the mother, grandma, and queen she’s come to understand and respect most beautifully. Because moms are like that: We appreciate them more powerfully at certain times and in different ways throughout our lives. And we miss them desperately when they’re gone. So like the metaphor used in this book, moms mirror the queens in chess. We must always be aware of them. Protect them. This book will inspire moms and daughters, but as I am a writer with two sons, I bear witness that Glitter and Glue will turn any mom's world upside down in the most perfect, sobbing-mommy mess kind of way. A good way. “The mother is the most essential piece on the board, the one you must protect. Only she has the range. Only she can move in multiple directions. Once she’s gone, it’s a whole different game.” | Kelly Corrigan

Corrigan's book "Glitter and Glue" is a sweet and insightful memoir into the her relationship with her mother at a particular stage in her life (a young twenty something trying to discover herself and explore the world). Corrigan starts making the connections many of us will make about how one's childhood (and the people in it) can affect us and influence us on a deeper level than we may realize, particularly as we start to grow older and mature. I wish the author delved a bit more about how her relationship with her mother changed post-trip and into older adulthood (especially as she was battling cancer), but perhaps she felt diving into those stories would have strayed too much from what she felt was her tipping point. This is a nice little story that will make you think even more about your relationship with your own mother.