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Good Girl: a memoir of overcoming rape, breast cancer & fundamentalism
Laura Jensen Walker was always a good girl. Growing up in the Midwest in the 1960s, she was a polite, straight-A student who respected her elders, went to church on Sunday, and never gave her parents any trouble. Bookworm Laura was the poster child for good girls everywhere. Until one fateful night in a college fraternity house.
A dreamer and optimist who always bounced back quickly from disappointments and hard times, Laura buried the memory of the-thing-that-must-not-be-named. After that awful night, she plunged headlong into life, joining the Air Force and flying a typewriter across Europe in an exciting, death-defying job as a clerk-typist.
This is the journey of a "good-girl-gone-bad-gone-good-again" and her search for belonging and acceptance, with funny and not-so-funny detours through boot camp, Britain, book-burning, breast cancer, and born-again evangelicals. Ultimately, it's a story of resilience. Victory. And healing.
"GOOD GIRL is that rare find - a memoir of tough times that is neither harrowing nor saccharine but rather brutally honest, sharply intelligent, courageous, clear-sighted, and even funny. Yes, you will boil with sympathetic rage, but the smooth-as-silk writing turns every page into a pleasure and Laura Walker's indomitable spirit will make you stand up and cheer.
--Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of In Place of Fear and the bestselling Dandy Gilver series
A dreamer and optimist who always bounced back quickly from disappointments and hard times, Laura buried the memory of the-thing-that-must-not-be-named. After that awful night, she plunged headlong into life, joining the Air Force and flying a typewriter across Europe in an exciting, death-defying job as a clerk-typist.
This is the journey of a "good-girl-gone-bad-gone-good-again" and her search for belonging and acceptance, with funny and not-so-funny detours through boot camp, Britain, book-burning, breast cancer, and born-again evangelicals. Ultimately, it's a story of resilience. Victory. And healing.
"GOOD GIRL is that rare find - a memoir of tough times that is neither harrowing nor saccharine but rather brutally honest, sharply intelligent, courageous, clear-sighted, and even funny. Yes, you will boil with sympathetic rage, but the smooth-as-silk writing turns every page into a pleasure and Laura Walker's indomitable spirit will make you stand up and cheer.
--Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning author of In Place of Fear and the bestselling Dandy Gilver series
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 1, 2022
3 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Laura Jensen Walker
35 books211 followersAward-winning author Laura Jensen Walker has written several books, including the Lefty nominated historical fiction, DEATH OF A FLYING NIGHTINGALE. Dubbed "riveting and affecting" by NYT bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal, this book spotlights a group of real-life overlooked women heroes--the Flying Nightingales--from WWII. An Air Force veteran formerly stationed in the UK, Laura had the great honor of interviewing the last living Flying Nightingale, before she passed.
Bibliophile Laura fell in love with mysteries after reading Trixie Belden in the fourth grade, Her cozy mystery debut, MURDER MOST SWEET (2020) was nominated for an Agatha Award, and her next cozy, THE ALPHABET SLEUTHS, releases in Feb. 2026. Publishers Weekly says about the book: "Walker's feisty, funny, and fully realized seniors easily sit beside the casts of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB and THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB in the coy pantheon. Readers will be charmed."
THE POSTMISTRESS OF PUDDLINGTON, Laura's second historical novel, features women on the home front in WWII England and releases in August 2026. She is currently at work on a women's fiction novel (aka book club fiction.)
Laura flew a typewriter across Europe in Uncle Sam's Air Force in her twenties, and lived in England for three years where she became a lifelong, tea-loving Anglophile. Shenow lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband and their two rescue pups.
Bibliophile Laura fell in love with mysteries after reading Trixie Belden in the fourth grade, Her cozy mystery debut, MURDER MOST SWEET (2020) was nominated for an Agatha Award, and her next cozy, THE ALPHABET SLEUTHS, releases in Feb. 2026. Publishers Weekly says about the book: "Walker's feisty, funny, and fully realized seniors easily sit beside the casts of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB and THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB in the coy pantheon. Readers will be charmed."
THE POSTMISTRESS OF PUDDLINGTON, Laura's second historical novel, features women on the home front in WWII England and releases in August 2026. She is currently at work on a women's fiction novel (aka book club fiction.)
Laura flew a typewriter across Europe in Uncle Sam's Air Force in her twenties, and lived in England for three years where she became a lifelong, tea-loving Anglophile. Shenow lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband and their two rescue pups.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 10, 2022
The Good Girl is an amazing story of survival. The author has laid bare the most terrifying and hurtful events of her life in a courageous and honest book that was gut-wrenching, yet hopeful in its strength. I couldn't put it down once I started reading.
I very highly recommend this book to everyone.
I very highly recommend this book to everyone.
July 27, 2022
Powerful, fantastic book
I can't even begin to articulate how good this book is. Funny, moving, heartrending, inspiring... It's all that and more.
I can't even begin to articulate how good this book is. Funny, moving, heartrending, inspiring... It's all that and more.
June 18, 2022
Books, like conversations, can allow us to see inside a writer's heart, mind, and soul--especially, if you read several books by the same author. I have read numerous books (fiction and non-fiction) by Laura Jensen Walker, each of them offering a glimpse into her personality, character, and humor.
However, her memoir, "Good Girl," pulls back the curtain completely and to let readers see the authentic, raw truth about the woman behind the keyboard. Laura Jensen Walker's courage, resilience, and humor are woven throughout her memoir. Some parts of her story I knew from earlier non-fiction works, but her memoir took me on a deep dive into her life, allowed me to experience what it's like to feel like drowning in painful memories, and then to kick off the tangles holding one under and rise to see the world in a new perspective.
Laura Jensen Walker states near the end of her memoir, "After decades of reacting in fear, I choose courage." I, too, felt after taking the journey with her that I had the power to choose courage, no matter what circumstances I faced in life. That is the power of words. That is the power of story. That is the power of the words in this story.
However, her memoir, "Good Girl," pulls back the curtain completely and to let readers see the authentic, raw truth about the woman behind the keyboard. Laura Jensen Walker's courage, resilience, and humor are woven throughout her memoir. Some parts of her story I knew from earlier non-fiction works, but her memoir took me on a deep dive into her life, allowed me to experience what it's like to feel like drowning in painful memories, and then to kick off the tangles holding one under and rise to see the world in a new perspective.
Laura Jensen Walker states near the end of her memoir, "After decades of reacting in fear, I choose courage." I, too, felt after taking the journey with her that I had the power to choose courage, no matter what circumstances I faced in life. That is the power of words. That is the power of story. That is the power of the words in this story.
June 21, 2022
An incredible story of strength and faith
I loved this book. From its painful first chapter through the triumphant journey, Laura paints a true heartfelt picture of her story of trauma, disease and pain overcome by the God who was with her all along. I highly recommend this to anyone struggling with who they are and why they are here. Let Laura lead to to the love of a God who never lets us go, even when we let go of Him at times. Well done!
I loved this book. From its painful first chapter through the triumphant journey, Laura paints a true heartfelt picture of her story of trauma, disease and pain overcome by the God who was with her all along. I highly recommend this to anyone struggling with who they are and why they are here. Let Laura lead to to the love of a God who never lets us go, even when we let go of Him at times. Well done!
June 12, 2022
Books are meant to make us laugh, to make us feel, to make us think, and to entertain – GOOD GIRL does all of that along with a blast from the 70s past. Laura Jensen Walker’s memoir is the real deal. She reveals all of herself – the good, the bad and the ugly. These pages shimmer with authenticity. Most of all, this is a book of hope with a capital H.
June 10, 2022
I enjoyed it immensely. It made me cry, laugh, and get angry and frustrated, but it is also hopeful. It had everything you could want in a biography.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews