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5 Minutes for Books — The Middle Place

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Kelly Corrigan is a mom of two preschoolers. She’s a mom, but she’s also still very much a daughter. She is in The Middle Place. Kelly tells her story by looking back at the role her parents have had in her life, mostly in adolescence and young adulthood. It’s not so much about her specific experiences, but how growing up in her particular family has made her who she is.

So who is she? She’s strong, confident, the life of the party, a mom who might occasionally undertake a big paper mache project, but who is also too-often tied to the computer. But more than anything, she is George “Greenie” Corrigan’s daughter. This book is as much about how a daughter perceives her doting dad as it is about Kelly .

When Kelly is diagnosed with breast cancer in her 30’s, her friends and family rally around her. She is absurdly upbeat when sending out mass e-mails about her condition, not knowing how else to tackle this problem. Her honesty about her experiences with her breast cancer is instructive–chronicling both the emotional and physical changes and hurts she’s experiencing, in a matter-of-fact way.middle-place.jpg

(Kelly has since started a website, Circus of Cancer.org, which serves to guide people in helping a friend through breast cancer. Her photo journal of the entire process is a window into what the patient is feeling and can help those of us on the outside better understand what our friend is or will be going through.)

Reading her story will make you appreciate the family you had, and perhaps make you long for that family that you didn’t have. I laughed aloud, I examined my past and my present, and I hoped right along with her that everything would be okay–for her and for the father who she loves so much.

You can read an excerpt of the book HERE, and see the book club questions HERE.

I have four copies of The Middle Place to give away. If you’d like to win, please leave a comment. I will announce the winners in next week’s column.

The winners of Red Dragon Codex are

#2 Alicia
#8 Bebemiqui

Reader Interactions


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51 Comments

  1. Wow – this looks like a very interesting book. I lost my father in my mid-twenties and am now (20 years later) able to see how it affected me and my siblings. Please enter me. Thanks.

    Reply

  3. I just put this book on my ‘must-read’ list a few weeks ago! I’d love a copy. Count me in.

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  5. Sounds like an interesting book. I lost my mom and dad at an early age, so never experienced “the middle place.” I often wonder about that…

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  10. such a very inspiring book about daughter and father, about having a family and it’s different when you look back through your growing years with them. 🙂

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  11. I’ve been wanting to read this book! The author also has a great parenting video blog called “Half Full: Raising Happy Children.”

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  13. Hey Jennifer,

    Thanks so much for sharing my book with people. I hope you all like it. It’s really about what it means to be a grown up. I sort of came to feel that true adulthood comes when we face mortality, especially our parents’.

    Anyway, I hope the winners give the book a good home and all that…

    Kelly

    Kelly Corrigan
    The Middle Place
    http://www.kellycorrigan.com

    Reply

  17. I saw this author on the “Real Simple” TV show. She seems like a great person! I too was in the middle place. I’d love to read her book! Thanks!

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  19. Sounds like a good book. I just finished reading Deanna Favre’s book on her fight with breast cancer.

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  24. Happy Monday! I have read many interviews with this author and reviews on this book. It sounds delightful. My sister is the middle child and I would love to win a copy and gift it to her. Please enter me in your drawing. Thanks very much…..Cindi

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  28. This would be great! At my small middle school I work at we’ve had no less than three cases of breast cancer in our staff. This book would help me know how to better support them.

    nifferjeno at gmail dot com

    Reply

  32. i am new to the site and found this when i was browsing around. i love to read so this is perfect for me! i’m so glad i found you!

    Reply

  38. Sounds like a wonderful, inspiring story. I would love to read it and pass it on to my mom who battled a rare form of breast cancer that they were lucky to catch.

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  47. That would be an awesome tool for many women – myself included, who just found out my SIL is fighting the big C for a SECOND time in her life at age 41.

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  49. I love your site! About the book, what an awesome tool for friends and family of a breast cancer fighting loved one. Since 2005 six women in my life have been diagnosed with breast cancer and so far 4 have survived woo hoo. Sadly I lost 2 of those six to this disease, one being my own mom. 14 years ago this disease took my husband’s mom as well. Please choose women to win this book who are trying to know what to do or what to say to help their friends and family as they go through this fight of their lives.

    Diana

    Reply