false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172602557m/196764.jpg 196764 11 There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gang banging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness. Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty. And that’s when things got interesting... You have in your hands the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years—maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once—when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake’s troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead. Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gang banging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake’s unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster. Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and “angels”—a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotal moments—she slowly transformed her life from the inside out. A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you’ll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you’ll ever take. 436014 2006 A Piece of Cake: A Memoir total:1689|5:611|4:582|3:345|2:112|1:39| 1689 6681 2636 468 2 7 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 12:25:48 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 11:43:51 -0700 2007 A Piece of Cake is a prime example of a story that is much better than the writing. This memoir is the life story of Cupcake Brown, a woman who has overcome abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, prostitution, domestic violence and gang life to become a successful attorney and thanks to this book, a bes...more...]]> 1 5 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 16:43:56 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 16 07:49:16 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Mar 05 08:59:50 -0800 2008 Wed Jun 04 08:31:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Sep 16 13:51:28 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 16 13:56:07 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 11:44:18 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 13:43:23 -0700 2009
Of those who didn't they complained generally about one of two (or both) things:
1) The story was too unbelievable; therefore, it must be e...more...]]> 5 1 true false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 22 00:27:31 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 03 23:21:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 2 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 06:38:17 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 06:57:55 -0700 2008
I picked this up from the express reads at the library. For some reason, the story seemed compelling at the time. It really should have been. A kid from my hometown of Los Angeles overcomes the untimely death of her mother, the ni...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 22 14:21:39 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 16 09:31:27 -0800 2009 But for Cupcake Brown, she's lived every moment of it.

There are two things that I ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 18 15:55:09 -0800 2008 Sun May 04 19:56:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 21 07:49:32 -0700 2007 Thu Apr 17 09:54:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 true false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 09 07:03:32 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 11:03:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Feb 18 16:49:19 -0800 2008 Fri Aug 24 19:17:51 -0700 2007 Mon Feb 18 16:43:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jan 21 20:07:55 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 14:55:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 14 21:28:48 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 14 21:29:00 -0700 2007
I found this book hard to re...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 22 06:52:13 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 07:02:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 16:41:24 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 08:50:09 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 13:12:58 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 10:07:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 12:45:59 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 17 13:19:35 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Nov 06 08:25:25 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 04:52:16 -0800 2008 “A Piece Of Cake”<\u> by Cupcake Brown<\u>. It shows how a young woman has survived rape at a young age, a miscarriage, and abuse by her foster parents. She is a strong woman and has been through a lot.

First, Cu...more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon May 25 20:15:01 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 20:21:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=196764