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  • I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering

  • By: Janelle Hanchett
  • Narrated by: Janelle Hanchett
  • Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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I'm Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering

By: Janelle Hanchett
Narrated by: Janelle Hanchett
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Publisher's Summary

"A refreshingly raw, contrasting perspective on the foolproof idea of motherhood." (POPSUGAR)

"By turns painful and funny...A searingly candid memoir." (Kirkus)

"Far from your cookie-cutter story of addiction...[I'm Just Happy to Be Here] describes Hanchett's journey to recovery and sobriety in imperfect and unconventional ways." (Bustle)

In this unflinching and wickedly funny memoir, Janelle Hanchett tells the story of finding her way home. And then, actually staying there. Drawing us into the wild, heartbreaking mind of the addict, Hanchett carries us from motherhood at 21 with a man she'd known three months to cubicles and whiskey-laden domesticity, from judging meth addicts in rehab to therapists who "seem to pull diagnoses out of large, expensive hats."

With warmth, wit, and searing B.S. detectors turned mostly toward herself, Hanchett invites us to laugh when we probably shouldn't and to rejoice at the unconventional redemption she finds in desperation and in a misfit mentor who forces her to see the truth of herself. A story of ego and forced humility, of fierce honesty and jagged love, of the kind of failure that forces us to re-create our lives, Hanchett writes with rare candor, scorching the "sanctity of motherhood," and leaving beauty in the ashes.

©2018 Janelle Hanchett (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"Hanchett offers a startling account of her struggles with alcohol and drug addiction in this raw and riveting memoir....Readers will cheer Hanchett toward her triumphant recovery." (Publishers Weekly)

"By turns painful and funny, [I'm Just Happy to Be Here] explores the pressures of modern motherhood while chronicling one woman's journey toward acceptance of her own limitations and imperfections. A searingly candid memoir." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Janelle Hanchett presents motherhood as we seldom see it: with irreverent humor, brazen honesty, deep love and loss. Her story is about finding peace right in the mess of motherhood, and that's what makes it wonderful." (Jill Smokler, New York Times best-selling author of Confessions of a Scary Mommy)

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    5 out of 5 stars

A courageous book

I have great admiration for the courage it takes to publish a book like this. To bare your soul for all to see, and admit the things that you have done. In a way laying yourself open for judgement. I'm glad the author found a way through the darkness to be able to share her story with others.

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