Cherry: A Memoir

Mary, Karr

Biographies & Memoirs

Picador

In this paperback of her long-awaited sequel, we find Karr once again trying to run from the thrills and terrors of her psychological and physical awakening by violently crashing up against authority in all its forms, shuttling between the principal's office and the jail cell. Yearning, like a typical teenager, for the ideal love or heart's companion who will make her feel whole again, she throws in her lot with an varied and outrageous band; surfers, yogis, bona fide geniuses. Karr's edgy, brilliant prose careens between hilarity and tragedy. Although there are other memoirs that pay close attention to the process of self-creation and destruction that young girls go through, with all its accompanying anguish, self-consciousness and inertia, there is no one who writes about it like Mary Karr. Her prose is lustrous and cinematic, her humour earthy and irresistible. And the dramas and happenings of her life are of an intensity that few others ever experience.

Cherry : A Memoir

Cherry (Tpb)

Pan/Macmillan

Read by the author5CDs/ 6 hoursMary Karr told the prize-winning tale of her hardscrabble Texas childhood with enough literary verve to spark a renaissance in memoir.  The Liar's Club rode the top of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, and publications ranging from The New Yorker to People picked it as one of the best books of the year.  But it left people wondering: How'd that scrappy kid make it outta there? Cherry dares to tell that story.  Karr picks up the trail and dashes off into her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom.In this long-awaited sequel, we see Karr ultimately trying to run from the thrills and terrors of her sexual awakwening by butting against authority in all its forms.  She lands all too often in the principal's office and--in one instance--a jail cell.  Looking for a lover or heart's companion  who'll make her feel whole, she hooks up with an outrageous band of surfers and heads, wannabe yogis and bona fide geniuses.Karr's edgy, brilliant prose careens between hilarity and tragedy, and Cherry takes readers to a place never truly explored--deep inside a girl's stormy, ardent adolescence.  Parts will leave you gasping with laughter.  But its soaring close proves that from even the smokiest beginnings a solid self can form, one capable of facing down all manner of monsters.

Cherry

Arts & Literature

Random House Audio |

The Liar's Club

This memoir of growing up poor in a Texas refinery town is from a time long gone but from a place that feels eternally rural south. A handful of the town's workers gather regularly to drink salted beer and spin tall-tales. They're the Liar's Club. And to the girl whose father is the club's undisputed champion, they exude a glamour that lifts her from ordinary life. But there are other lies, darker, mmore hidden. A mad, puritanical grandmother; a vast inheritance squandered in a single year; endless emptied bottles; and the abuses inflicted on an eight-year-old girl -- these are the demons that the author must exorcise. Felled with wit and stripped of any self-pity, THE LIAR'CLUB is a contemporary classic. (from the jacket).

BOOKS-ON-TAPE, INC.

Liars Club

[*Read by the author - Mary Karr] Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and ''black belt sinner,'' providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process (plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told -- and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth). As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today's most popular literary forms -- a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

The Art of Memoir

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

HarperCollins Publishers and Blackstone Audio

A celebration of curiosity, compassion, and the surprising power of fear, based on the New York Times bestselling author and renowned professor's 2015 commencement address at Syracuse University. ''Being smart and rich are lucky, but being curious and compassionate will save your ass.'' Every year there are one or two commencement speeches that strike a chord with audiences far greater than the student bodies for which they are intended. In 2015 Mary Karr's speech to the graduating class of Syracuse University caught fire, hailed across the Internet as one of the most memorable in recent years, and lit up the Twittersphere. In Now Go Out There, Karr explains why having your heart broken is just as -- if not more -- important than falling in love; why getting what you want often scares you more than not getting it; how those experiences that appear to be the worst cannot be so easily categorized; and how to cope with the setbacks that inevitably befall all of us. ''Don't make the mistake of comparing your twisted up insides to other people's blow-dried outsides,'' she cautions. ''Even the most privileged person in this stadium suffers the torments of the damned just going about the business of being human.'' An ideal -- and beautifully designed -- gift for a graduate or for anyone looking for some down-to-earth life advice, Now Go Out There is destined to become a classic.

Now Go Out There: (and Get Curious)

Self-Help

Happiness

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