Janelle Hanchett reading/signing "I'm Just Happy to Be Here" - May 9th

Time Tested Books

is proud to present

Janelle Hanchett

reading/signing

I'm Just Happy to Be Here:

A Memoir of Renegade Mothering

Wednesday, May 9th, 7:00pm

 

“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, NYT bestselling author and founder of ScaryMommy.com

I’M JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering is not the addiction memoir we’ve come to expect, particularly from a mother. Descending into the depths of addiction after having children, and failing to stay sober even after they were removed from her care, Janelle Hanchett is a voice that rarely speaks. Though ultimately redemptive, her memoir - unflinching, ruthless, and wickedly funny – unapologetically confronts the sanctimony of motherhood and rejects the idea that a “mother’s love” is enough to save her from herself. Hanchett insists on finding peace in that central paradox: We are tasked with the “most important job in the world,” but unfortunately we’re only human.

Pregnant at twenty-one by a man she’d known for three months, Hanchett, the creator of the popular blog Renegade Mothering, made the potentially reckless decision to get married and embrace motherhood. She almost immediately found herself bored, directionless, and lonely, seeking too much relief in too many cocktails.

Over time, this questionable drinking habit spiraled into full-blown substance abuse, until life became bedtime stories and splitting hangovers, cubicles and multi-day drug binges. For ten years, Hanchett grappled with the unyielding progression of addiction, bouncing from rehab to hospitals to therapy and the occasional hippie cleansing ritual on her quest for sobriety, before mercifully finding it in a way she never expected.

Raw and unconventionally inspiring, I’M JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE chronicles Hanchett’s journey from Mormon values to young motherhood to abysmal addiction to sobriety, but rejects the finality of neatly wrapped redemption. Even on the other side of addiction, Hanchett illuminates the restlessness of motherhood – its unfulfilling, mundane nature alongside its beauty.

I’M JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE speaks to the “imperfect” mother; the one who isn’t simply overcome by joy after having a child, who longs for normalcy but cannot maintain it, and who might fly into a fit of rage if she receives one more piece of unsolicited parenting advice. With shameless transparency, Hanchett illustrates that not all women are natural-born mothers—some have to constantly work at it, and make peace with the fact that they will never get it quite right or fit perfectly into the mothering world. To her hundreds of thousands of readers, Hanchett has become the mother who “says what we’re all thinking but are too ashamed to admit.”

Now sober, still married to that man she’d only known for three months, and the mother of four, Hanchett reveals with brutal honesty and heart-rending prose the power of imperfection, love, family, and, ultimately, motherhood—no matter how you manage to do it.

Photo credit: Sarah Maren

JANELLE HANCHETT created the website "Renegade Mothering" in 2011 because she needed to know if the rest of the mothering world was crazy or she was. Writing after her kids went to bed and while she was supposed to be working, Janelle attracted an audience of millions of readers. She holds a BA in English from UC Davis and an MA in English literature from Sacramento State. She lives in northern California with her four children and husband, Mac, who thinks "getting dressed up" means shaving his forearm tattoo.

This event is FREE and everyone is invited.