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Title details for The Bad Mother's Handbook by Kate Long - Available

The Bad Mother's Handbook

A Novel

by Kate Long
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
BAD MOTHER RULE #1: NEVER, EVER, DO WHAT I DID!
For seventeen-year-old Charlotte Cooper, it’s too late. Despite her best efforts to finish school, tune out her angry, slightly hysterical mother, and cope with her loving but dotty grandmother, she is unexpectedly (now that’s an understatement) pregnant. And don’t even mention the jerk who knocked her up.
Charlotte’s mother, Karen, is trying to convince herself that there are worse things than becoming a grandmother at thirty-three. For instance, there’s wanting to kill Charlotte for the mess she’s made of her life. Between struggling to pay the bills and halfheartedly filling out questionnaires on Internet dating sites, Karen uncovers a scandalous family secret involving her own birth, and then falls back into bed with her sexy ex-husband. So much for perfect timing.
In the meantime, Karen’s mother, Nan, is having a wee bit of trouble with names (sometimes her own). But that doesn’t keep her from retaining a few things she’d rather forget. Of course, Nan knows that everything will work out fine for Charlotte and the baby–these things usually do. Now, if only she could put the pieces of her own fragmented memory together, she might have an interesting tale or two to share.
In this wickedly funny, disarmingly moving novel, three generations of mothers learn that it’s the simplest mistakes that can change your life forever. With wit and wisdom, Kate Long proves that there are as many kinds of mothers as there are daughters, but the love that binds them all is what truly matters.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 18, 2007

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780307416896

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780307416896
      • File size: 515 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 28, 2005
      Three independent, prickly women living together in ex-Council housing sort out life and love in this funny, touching and utterly winning debut, a U.K. bestseller. Not only has 17-year-old Charlotte just gotten dumped by her pretty-boy lover, she's also discovered that she's pregnant. It's like history repeating itself, considering that her mom, Karen, had her when she was 16. Karen's going to kill her, Charlotte thinks, and she's half right: Karen's so mad at her smart, independent daughter for ruining her chance for college that she could just about hit her on the head with a skillet. Then there's Nan—Karen's aging, batty adoptive mother, who burns important mail in the toaster and always seems to need a change of her colostomy bag—whom both Charlotte and Karen love and want to strangle. Long tells the story of Charlotte's pregnancy, Karen's search for her birth mother and Nan's tough past through shifting first-person sections (Nan's voice, with its working-class Northern lilt, is particularly strong), moving wittily and gracefully toward an ending that's happily realistic. Good secondary characters—Karen's lazy ex, Steve; Charlotte's sweet would-be love, Daniel—round out a lovable cast in this story about growing up at 17, facing life head-on at 33 and letting go at 81.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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