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Marvelous memoir of a difficult upbringing. Books saved her, and it shows. ( )

I have a new favorite lesbian writer. ( )

Both the book and Winterson's "performance" of reading it are brilliant. I felt as if she were sitting next to me in the car telling me her story. It's the story of her growing up and then more recent years...skipping some time in the middle of her life. If you've read Oranges you'll enjoyed this very much, but even if you've never read a word of Winterson's writing this is an excellent memoir about mothers--adopted, biological, chosen--and daughters, about learning how to live in the world, about claiming your life. But it's not just about mothers and daughters so don't be put off. And its certainly not about mothers and daughters in any sappy kind of way, but in the raw grittiness of how things are or can be. It's about Winterson's life, her desire to write, her reading, English literature, industrial northern England, going mad, finding love, etc. The only draw-back to listening to this rather than reading it is that I couldn't underline the poignant moments, the bits of philosophy or beautiful sentences that I'd like to go back to and appreciate. I plan on reading the book in the future so I can do just that. ( )

my intro to her fabulous writing ( )