Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan

This year's theme is You Learn Something New Every Month and we kicked off the year with a good one, Kelly Corrigan's Glitter and Glue, which is a memoir about how Corrigan reconciled with her mother after growing up more or less feeling like her mom didn't care very much about her. 

While we spent some time talking about the book, we spent more time (intentionally this time!) talking about our own experiences relative to the book. In the book, Corrigan's mother tells Corrigan that her father is the glitter and her mom is the glue. We took turns talking about which of our own parents were which and which we were in our own childrearing adventures. Then we moved on to talking about when we finally appreciated or understood our own moms. We really did learn so much about each other with each of these questions. Many of us grew up in really big families and it was certainly a different experience than those of us who did not; both mom and dad tended to need to both be glue with that many children or they had to take turns more often. 

Everyone loved this book. Those who listened to it really loved that the pieces where Corrigan is voicing how her mother's voice sounded in her head as the reader did a terrific job. Those of us who read the most recent edition of the book shared how, in 2014, Corrigan wrote a second follow up to the book that gives readers closure with the family that Corrigan lived with during her time in Australia and a Q&A with her mom. We all would recommend this book as book a book to read purely for enjoyment and for book club discussions. We could probably have talked about the book for another hour but the restaurant kicked us out!