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Anne Lamott was born on April 10, 1954 in San Francisco, California. She began writing when she returned to California after spending two years at Goucher College, but her early efforts, mostly short stories, met with little success. The turning point in her writing came with a family crisis, when her father was diagnosed with brain cancer. She wrote a series of short pieces about the traumatic effect that serious illness has on a family. These pieces were published, and they eventually became the basis of her first novel, Hard Laughter, published in 1980. During the 1980s, she wrote three additional novels, Rosie, Joe Jones and All New People. In 1989, her life took another turn when her son was born. Her next book, published in 1993, was a non-fiction effort called Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. She wrote ironically, but candidly, about her struggles to adjust to her new role as a mother and a single parent, and her experiences with everything from sleep deprivation to financial and emotional uncertainty to concerns about what she would tell her son when he was old enough to ask about his absent father. Operating Instructions proved to be even more successful than her novels, and led to interviews on network news programs and a regular spot on National Public Radio. Her other works include Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life; Crooked Little Heart; Blue Shoe, Imperfect Birds, and Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son. Her title Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. Her title Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair and Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace also made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life… (more)
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith 2,320 copies, 46 reviews
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith 1,861 copies, 38 reviews
Blue Shoe 1,220 copies, 18 reviews
Crooked Little Heart 917 copies, 10 reviews
Imperfect Birds 657 copies, 43 reviews
Rosie 622 copies, 9 reviews
Hard Laughter 491 copies, 4 reviews
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope 441 copies, 22 reviews

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Born in San Francisco, Anne Lamott is the author of five novels and three works of nonfiction, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. She has been a book reviewer for Mademoiselle, a restaurant critic for California magazine, and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. She also writes a popular column for the on-line magazine Salon, which Time magazine noted "could alone be the Best of the Web." Anne Lamott lives in northern California with her son, Sam.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Anne Lamott's book Me, My Hair, and I was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Anne Lamott's book Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Anne Lamott's book Some Assembly Required was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Anne Lamott's book Imperfect Birds was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

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