Product Description: The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, 'continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal' (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness--and to her astonishing resurrection...read more

The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness—and to her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord—but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity. Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up—as only Mary Karr can tell it.

Product Description: Whether enrolling in college for the first time or returning after an extended absence, this motivational guide provides adult students with a wealth of practical guidance. This thorough handbook explores not only how to succeed academically while balancing family, work, and other important responsibilities, but also addresses how students can learn to confront their fears, increase their self-confidence and resiliency, and create support groups...read more

Product Description: In her fourth collection of poems, self-described black-belt sinner Mary Karr traces her improbable journey from the inferno of a tormented childhood into a resolutely irreverent Catholicism. Not since Saint Augustine wrote “Give me chastity, Lord—but not yet!” has anyone brought such smart-assed hilarity to a conversion story...read more

A trenchant memoir of a troubled American childhood from the child's point of view describes growing up in a an East Texas refinery town, life in the midst of a turbulent family of drunks and liars, a schoolyard rape, and other dark secrets, in a tenth anniversary edition of the landmark autobiography. Reprint.

In her third autobiographical collection of poems, the author of The Liar's Club explores the theme of death, the inevitable storm that comes to the soul. Reprint. (view table of contents)

Amazon.com Review: As a girl idling her way through long, toxically boring summer afternoons in Leechfield, Texas, Mary Karr dreamed up an unusual career for herself, "to write one-half poetry and one-half autobiography." She has since done both, and even when she's recounting a dirty joke, she can't help but employ a poet's precise and musical vision...read more

The author of The Liars' Club shares a candid, funny look at her own sexual maturity growing up in a Texas town, in a lively coming-of-age memoir. 125,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

The author, a poet, recounts her difficult childhood growing up in a Texas oil town

A collection of recorded materials and interviews offers fascinating and candid portraits of some of the leading public figures of the twentieth century, including Stephen Ambrose on Nizon, Edmund Morris on Reagan, and discussions with Cyra McFadden, Frank McCort, and others.