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Not My Charming Mother: How to break away from our mothers’ influences and become our true selves
When you are desperate not to become your mother, moving half a world away may not be far enough to peel away from her influences, but it may give you the distance to embrace your similarities.
Are we destined to have lives mirroring our mothers, repeating their choices, thus cloning their lives? Women have our mothers woven into us, even as we struggle to tear away the fabric and become our true selves. Not My Charming Mother is a quirky and revealing memoir of a girl determined not to turn into her mother. How far must a girl go, and what must she do to have a different life than her charming mother?
Before the age of cell phones and emails, equipped with little more than tenacity and humor, this story follows a daring escape plan, leaving the Louisiana bayous for Italian basilicas. Trading gators for gondolas. I was determined to outrun genetics. This book captures a year-long odyssey as I extracted from my mother’s influential orbit, packed up five cherry-red suitcases, and started a career overseas, thus changing my life’s trajectory. The story showcases what a girl can do with tenacity, resourcefulness, and only a slight tendency to wallow.
One of the many lessons learned included how I took a little bit of my charming mother wherever I went, and it is not always unwelcome baggage. Even though the details described in this book are of a particularly odd quest, aspects of the story are universal. This memoir might make you cringe, laugh and gasp, all on the same page. I hope this book gives my three granddaughters an idea of the traits and approaches they can inherit from me.
Are we destined to have lives mirroring our mothers, repeating their choices, thus cloning their lives? Women have our mothers woven into us, even as we struggle to tear away the fabric and become our true selves. Not My Charming Mother is a quirky and revealing memoir of a girl determined not to turn into her mother. How far must a girl go, and what must she do to have a different life than her charming mother?
Before the age of cell phones and emails, equipped with little more than tenacity and humor, this story follows a daring escape plan, leaving the Louisiana bayous for Italian basilicas. Trading gators for gondolas. I was determined to outrun genetics. This book captures a year-long odyssey as I extracted from my mother’s influential orbit, packed up five cherry-red suitcases, and started a career overseas, thus changing my life’s trajectory. The story showcases what a girl can do with tenacity, resourcefulness, and only a slight tendency to wallow.
One of the many lessons learned included how I took a little bit of my charming mother wherever I went, and it is not always unwelcome baggage. Even though the details described in this book are of a particularly odd quest, aspects of the story are universal. This memoir might make you cringe, laugh and gasp, all on the same page. I hope this book gives my three granddaughters an idea of the traits and approaches they can inherit from me.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 19, 2023
Authentic and quirky story. Nothing harrowing but a strange and revealing story. Would make a great movie.
Displaying 1 of 1 review