Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Glitter and Glue

By: Kelly Corrigan
Narrated by: Kelly Corrigan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.75

Buy for $15.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

A memoir from the author of The Middle Place about mothers and daughters - a bond that can be nourishing, exasperating, and occasionally divine.

When Kelly Corrigan was in high school, her mother neatly summarized the family dynamic as "Your father’s the glitter but I’m the glue." This meant nothing to Kelly, who left childhood sure that her mom - with her inviolable commandments and proud stoicism - would be nothing more than background chatter for the rest of Kelly’s life, which she was carefully orienting toward adventure. After college, armed with a backpack, her personal mission statement, and a wad of traveler’s checks, she took off for Australia to see things and do things and Become Interesting.

But it didn’t turn out the way she pictured it. In a matter of months, her savings shot, she had a choice: get a job or go home. That’s how Kelly met John Tanner, a newly widowed father of two looking for a live-in nanny. They chatted for an hour, discussed timing and pay, and a week later, Kelly moved in. And there, in that house in a suburb north of Sydney, 10,000 miles from the house where she was raised, her mother’s voice was suddenly everywhere, nudging and advising, cautioning and directing, escorting her through a terrain as foreign as any she had ever trekked. Every day she spent with the Tanner kids was a day spent reconsidering her relationship with her mother, turning it over in her hands like a shell, straining to hear whatever messages might be trapped in its spiral.

This is a book about the difference between travel and life experience, stepping out and stepping up, fathers and mothers. But mostly it’s about who you admire and why, and how that changes over time.

Praise for Glitter and Glue

“I loved this book, I was moved by this book, and now I will share this book with my own mother - along with my renewed appreciation for certain debts of love that can never be repaid.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love)

“Kelly Corrigan’s thoughtful and beautifully rendered meditation invites readers to reflect on their own launchings and homecomings. I accepted the invitation and learned things about myself. You will, too. Isn’t that why we read?” (Wally Lamb, New York Times best-selling author of We Are Water)

“Kelly Corrigan is no stranger to mining the depths of her heart.... Through her own experience of caring for children, she begins, for the first time, to appreciate the complex woman who raised her.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)

©2014 Kelly Corrigan (P)2014 Random House Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"In this endearing, funny, and thought-provoking memoir, Kelly Corrigan’s memories of long-ago adventures illuminate the changing relationships between mothers and children - as well as everything else that really matters." (Gretchen Rubin, New York Times best-selling author of The Happiness Project)
"Kelly Corrigan parses the bittersweet complexities of motherhood with humor and grace. Her writing has depth and buoyancy and light. It's a river on a summer day. You slip into the current, laughing, and are carried away by it. Glitter and Glue is a perfect gift for anyone with a mother." (Mary Roach, New York Times best-selling author of Stiff and Spook)

What listeners say about Glitter and Glue

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    323
  • 4 Stars
    102
  • 3 Stars
    37
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    291
  • 4 Stars
    80
  • 3 Stars
    35
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    291
  • 4 Stars
    82
  • 3 Stars
    32
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love!

I could not love this more. What a beautiful and messy story of life, being mothered, and being a mother.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The perfect pre-Mother’s Day Read

I’ve had this title in my Audible queue for well over a year and decided it was time to give it a listen. I’m incredibly picky about the sound of a narrators voice, so I was delighted to find that the authors tone and cadence was to my liking.
The story is heartfelt, well written and a great example of how mother/daughter relationships aren’t all sunshine and happiness. They are messy, complicated and often turbulent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful & funny

Kelly is a funny and charismatic storyteller. It makes me want to read more. Thanks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Funny and poinant; great for moms with older moms

I saw this book in print but decided that I wanted to hear the author's voice. She obviously imitated her mother's vocal and speech patterns, which I found delightful. Our relationships as daughters are often complex, and Kelly "Corrigan nails it.

She tells of a temporary nanny job while traveling with a friend and making a difference in the lives of her recently motherless young charges. Her desire to be both far from and yet linked to her mom is delightful. Her memories of how her own mom handled things as Kelly was growing up are interspersed with her time in Australia as the nanny.

The book shifts to later in Kelly's life, and the continuing need for and tangled relationship with her mom. Overall I'd call this a love story. No relationship is perfect, but in the end, Corrigan realizes the gift of her mom being the glue in her life, which she can be for her own children.

I will read this again and give it to my daughter who now has a growing family. If you want an honest book, written with humor and love, but not saccharine, this is a book for you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

grєαt вσσk!

lσvєd thís вσσk- í wísh í wσuld hαvє rєαd ít єαrlíєr, líkє, αftєr mч mσm lєft whєn í wαs 7...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Great Book for Moms

So relatable! Hopeful, especially when we Mom’s are in the trenches of child rearing. This story gives you a glimpse of the end result.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A daughter learning to appreciate your mother

Light reading, but it is beautiful. For daughters and mothers great insight into great love.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful.

well done Kelly. <3 I loved your story, so relatable so many pieces I see in my own life, great book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another awesome Kelly Corrigan masterpiece

Absolutely adore her style of writing and keen ability to hone in on all aspects of family. Hope she never stops writing!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved every minute of the author's narration.

Kelly Corrigan tells a great story about the glue that holds a family together...the mother. Her narration is wonderful; I love her "mother's voice" best of all. I promise you will laugh and cry as you listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful