When Kelly Corrigan was in high school, her mother neatly summarized the family dynamic as “Your father’s the glitter but I’m the glue.” This meant nothing to Kelly, who left childhood sure that her mom --- with her inviolable commandments and proud stoicism --- would be nothing more than background chatter for the rest of Kelly’s life, which she was carefully orienting toward adventure. After college, she took off for Australia to see things and do things and Become Interesting.

 

But in a matter of months, she faced a choice: get a job or go home. That’s how Kelly met John Tanner, a newly widowed father of two looking for a live-in nanny. And there, her mother’s voice was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked. Every day she spent with the Tanner kids was a day spent reconsidering her relationship with her mother.

 

This is a book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers. But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.

 

“I loved this book, I was moved by this book, and now I will share this book with my own mother --- along with my renewed appreciation for certain debts of love that can never be repaid.”

-- Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE

Glitter and Glue: A Memoir
by Kelly Corrigan

• Publication Date: February 17, 2015
• Genres: Nonfiction
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• ISBN-10: 0345532856
• ISBN-13: 9780345532855