In honor of Oprah announcing her book club pick of The Many Lives of Mama Love, which I’ve reviewed before here in my September 2023 reading wrap-up, I’m giving the book its own post! Enjoy my spoiler-free book review below!
The Many Lives of Mama Love Book Review
Mama Love, as I like to call this book, was my September book club read for work! It’s a memoir, so I won’t be giving a star rating, but I highly recommend this book! I’ve brought it up in conversation with friends and family multiple times, because it was just that interesting.
Author: Lara Love Hardin
Genre: Memoir, non-fiction
Pages: 319
Release Date: August 1, 2023
“There’s more alcohol at a Little League game than at a Super Bowl party.”
Lara
My Blurb
Lara Love was a blonde, soccer mom who seemingly had it all in her million-dollar California cul-de-sac home. Unfortunately, she secretly has a Vicodin turned heroin addiction. With her business ruined and her husband also addicted, she’s resorted to stealing money and credit cards from cars around her neighborhood and schools to fund her addiction and life.
It all catches up to her when she and her husband are arrested in their picture-perfect home, tragically, all in front of her youngest son. 32 felonies later, Lara is sent to jail where she learns everything about the system for the first time. She learns how rooms and beds are assigned between the inmates – there’s a hierarchy, how drugs and notes are carried in and out, how to trade goods as currency, and the stories of the other women in her block. And through this, she’s able to make it to the top but also gains the trust of the other women, becoming “Mama Love.”
After getting out, she must get her life back on track to get her son back, all while dealing with a system that’s rigged against her. Random drug tests and meetings with multiple agencies, making it nearly impossible to hold down a normal job.
But Lara is able to reinvent herself as a ghostwriter. And she’s really good at it. Before she knows it, she’s meeting and working with the likes of Oprah and The Dalai Lama. She still deals with her past and the shame that comes with it, but as she writes and meets new people with new stories, she’s also healing and forgiving herself.
“I thought what I craved was approval and praise, but it’s simpler than that. I craved acceptance. For all the different versions of me I have been, and all the many lives I have lived.”
Lara
The Many Lives of Mama Love Thoughts
This book was so, so good. Lara Love has had such a life. She makes the turnaround from rock bottom to a happy life almost seem worth it…
Honestly, the first 60% of this book was a tragic train wreck I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to shake her so many times and say stop it, stop ruining your life!! She had many opportunities to start on the right track and stay clean, but she kept getting pulled back into it, specifically by her husband. I just wanted her to leave him. Ugh.
But then, the last 40% things start to take a turn for the better. She’s doing well at work and life. And it almost seemed to go by too fast. I wanted more information and more detail. Although, it’s her life, and she already shared so much, so maybe she wanted to keep some things vague at the end. Highly recommend.
Farewell Thoughts
Let me know if you’ve read or do read Mama Love – in the comments or over on Instagram! If you liked my spoiler-free book review for Oprah’s Book Club Pick of The Many Lives of Mama Love, I’d love for you to share this post!
