The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

 

Title: The Many Lives of Mama Love:  A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

Author:  Lara Love Hardin

Narrated by:  Lara Love Hardin

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 59 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

 

Do you like to read memoirs?  I love memoirs.  I feel like I learn so much from them about people from all walks of life.

The Many Lives of Mama Love was one of my favorite audiobooks from August, and honestly one of my favorites from this year.   Lara Love Hardin poured out her heart in this memoir.  She tells the story of her addiction, her incarceration, and her redemption as she pulled herself back out to the other side.  Lara was a mother living in a nice neighborhood, but underneath it all she was addicted to heroin and stealing her neighbor’s credit cards to pay for the habit.  She and her husband were arrested, and she ended up in jail.  While in jail she discovered the power structure within and the personal stories of her jail mates.  As a forty-something mother with a master’s degree, she is able to use her powers for good to help others and is nicknamed Mama Love.  She also decides that she is going to go clean for herself and her children.

After she gets out of jail, she becomes a successful ghostwriter of New York Times bestselling books.  I was amazed listening to how she was able to meet with people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama.  She still had setbacks and moments of doubt, but she persevered.

Lara Love Hardin narrated the audiobook herself and it made this a very personal story.  I felt inspired listening to it and how hard Lara fought for a new life.  This book really showed how addicting drugs are and that they can become more important than anything else.  It also showed how many people get stuck into the jail system and how hard it is to get out.  I loved that it was a story of redemption.  You can make a mistake in life, but you can change your life.