As her parents' only daughter, Kelly Corrigan (The Middle Place) grew up adoring and being adored by "Greenie," her joyous, optimistic dad. But her relationship with her firm, proud, stoic mother was much more complicated. When Corrigan was in high school, her mother summed up the family dynamic: "Your father's the glitter, but I'm the glue." It would take Corrigan years to realize how much she needed both.
After college, Corrigan took off on a round-the-world trip with her best friend, hungry for the exciting life experiences she doubted she would find in an office job. When she ran out of money in Australia, though, she found herself working as a live-in nanny to the Tanner children, who had just lost their mother to cancer. As Corrigan tiptoed through the family's grief, making school lunches and wondering how she could possibly provide real comfort, she began hearing her own mother's voice in her head: instructing, calming, offering wry commentary and sound advice. Through six quiet months, Corrigan gained a new, deep appreciation for the woman who had raised her.
Corrigan's voice is warm and engaging, and she treats the Tanners' grief and her own callow younger self with grace and compassion. Poignant and funny, heartbreaking and deeply wise, Glitter and Glue is a deeply resonant meditation on fear, growing up and the complex, life-giving bond between mothers and daughters. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams