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Library Journal

Description:

Mamarama: Confessions of a Badass Mother.

During the 1980s and 1990s, punk and rock music changed quickly, and McDonnell, the pop culture critic for the Miami Herald, remained thoroughly captivated by it, from childhood through her career as a writer and reviewer. Embracing popular culture, activism, feminism, and life on the cutting edge, McDonnell transformed herself from suburban Wisconsin daughter into rebel girl, moving from Providence to San Francisco and from New York to Miami in pursuit of her career and the prevailing cultural scene. This narrative, however, is sometimes difficult to follow, as people, trends, and related observations are introduced in frenetic succession. Nevertheless, McDonnell slows down to a savoring pace when focusing on family issues, weaving in the subject of motherhood with a question mark. After McDonnell becomes stepmother to two girls and has a biological son, she comes to terms with being a caring mother and wife while preserving the core of her unconventional, authentic self. The resulting wry and heartfelt stories, as well as the stories of her formative years within her own nuclear family, give this quirky and candid book merit. For circulating libraries with large popular culture collections. — Carol J. Binkowski, Library Journal, Bloomfield, NJ