Full disclosure: I received a free advance copy of Glitter and Glue from Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review.
After college, Kelly Corrigan packed up for a whirlwind trip around the world with her best friend. They planned to have life experiences and learn things that couldn’t be learned at home. What they didn’t plan on was burning through all of their money so quickly. After unsuccessfully attempting to get a job as a waitress or bartender, Kelly took a job as a nanny to a family that had recently lost their mother. And there, in that suburban Australian home, Kelly suddenly understood her mother’s formerly inexplicable practicality.
I wouldn’t have appreciated this book if I’d read it a few years ago. When I was living at home, rolling my eyes at my mom and ignoring everything she said, the words would have been lost on me. But now that I’m living a thousand miles away from her, making my own decisions and maintaining my own household, I value everything she has to say. I look forward to our weekly conversations. I bounce all my ideas off of her, from how to deal with people at work to what order I should tackle the spring cleaning. Now that I don’t see my mother with any regularity, I appreciate her more than ever before. And that means that I appreciated Glitter and Glue and Kelly’s evolving relationship with her mother all the more.
I don’t really have anything else to say about this book other than to recommend it to anyone who is a mom or has a mom. I know I’ll be recommending it to my mom.
FINAL RATING: ★★★★☆
[also posted here]