Kelly Corrigan is an author who is best known for her 2008 memoir, The Middle Place, which talked about her relationship with her father and her battle with breast cancer. Readers of The Middle Place fell in love with Corrigan's father. In the dedication to her newest memoir, Glitter and Glue, Corrigan writes, "This one's for you, Ma. Long overdue." Glitter and Glue is an exploration of Corrigan's relationship with her mother and a story about a summer she spent as a nanny in Australia for a family whose mother had died of cancer.

It is a short book, but can provide an opening for book clubs to discuss their relationships with their mothers and the ways they parent.

Spoiler Warning: These questions contain details from all parts of Glitter and Glue. Finish the book before reading on.

1. Corrigan writes in the Prologue, "When I was growing up, my mom was guided by the strong belief that to befriend me was to deny me the one thing a kid really needed to survive: a mother...She looked at motherhood less as a joy to be relished than as a job to be done, serious work with serious repercussions" (3). Discuss whether you agree with Corrigan's mom's take on motherhood and whether this has been your experience.
    
2. When Corrigan is caught shoplifting as a teenager, her mother comes to pick her up and tells her she isn't going to tell her father. Corrigan writes, "Shoplifting was so bad that she could not tell my dad, my booster and biggest fan. The fall would be too far. It would hurt too much. He would love me less if he knew. Which meant that either she loved me less as of that moment, or her love was different than his" (51). Why do you think she didn't tell him? In what ways do you think their love was different?
    

1. When Corrigan leaves for her world tour, her motto is, "Things happen when you leave the house" (16). How does her understanding of this change? What is true about it? What can you actually learn at home?
    
2. Martin and Milly treat Kelly very differently. Discuss why you think this is and what the different relationships teach Corrigan.
    
3. Throughout Corrigan's time in Australia, she only receives a few glimpses of who Ellen Tanner was. For instance, she describes the time Milly asked for soup: "I pull out the most likely resource, a thick book covered in faded blue linen called New South Wales Favourites, and flip around in the 'Soups & Sauces' section. Crumbs fall from the pages. Then, in the margin of page 26, next to the ingredients for 'Fall's Best Minestrone,' I see handwriting -- delicate, easy, feminine -- perfectly matching the composite I've created of Ellen Tanner in my imagination...Her note--to whom I wonder--next to pasta shells says, 'Use barley here.' 'So, okay, here's one,' I say with hesitation. 'Minestrone. Do you like minestrone?' 'Yes,' [Milly says] 'with barley.' 'Ah.' To me. The note was to me, I guess" (97).
   
   How is Ellen Tanner's presence felt in the book despite the fact that she is already dead? Do you think she is similar to how Kelly imagined her?
    
4. What did you think of Kelly's relationship with Evan?
    
5. Were you surprised by how Kelly describes her own parenting?
    
6. How was your relationship with your mother similar or different than Kelly's?
    
7. Did Glitter and Glue make you cry at any points? When?
    
8. Rate Glitter and Glue on a scale of 1 to 5.

• Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan was published in February 2014
• Publisher: Ballantine
• 222 pages