THE MANY LIVES OF MAMA LOVE

This smart, courageous book was a perfect start to my reading year, filled with reflection and humanity. Lara Love Hardin was a seemingly typical suburban mom, but she had a secret: an all-consuming heroin addiction funded by identity theft. This memoir is the story of Hardin’s incarceration, and return to sobriety and society. Her sometimes harrowing, often heartrending path to redemption is told in unsparing detail, as she learns to let go of shame, own her mistakes and redefine who she could be: a mother, wife, literary agent, bestselling author, and friend.
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This is an eye opening memoir filled with gasp-out-loud moments recounted in Hardin’s even, restrained voice. In part what makes the story so compelling is what Hardin *doesn’t* do. She describes her crimes and mistakes, but she doesn’t try to excuse them. She shares stories of betrayal in prison and in her community, but she doesn’t vilify the perpetrators. She informs, but doesn’t preach about, a justice system that is unfair and broken. She doesn’t play the victim. The result is a story that is moving, powerful and perspective changing - an amazing book to begin the new year.
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One day, in jail, Hardin negotiates with a deputy for ingredients to bake banana bread. Bartering with confiscated contraband, she secures a savvy success for the deputy, the inmates and herself, so she can feed people and “make her soul feel good again.” Banana bread is one of the most unassuming things to come out of an oven, something you can make with kids, or when fruit starts to brown. But in prison it can be a gift of empowerment, generosity and empathy, which is the best kind of bake there is.

You can find this banana bread recipe here !