About this title: From beloved daughter to abused foster child to prostitute and gang member, Brown took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it. Now an attorney at one of the largest firms in California, she vividly recounts her story.
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Description: Fine. Trade Paperback. Three Rivers Press, 2007. Fine Book. Overall, a clean and tight, lightly read copy. Media mail packed in protective bubble lined shipping bags, Priority in a Flat Rate Envelope. Shipped quickly. Prompt response to questions. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Date Published: 2007-04-10
ISBN-13:9781400052295ISBN:1400052297
Description: Good. Cover has very light edgewear & bumped corner tips. Uncreased, but lightly tilted spine. Free of handwriting. In protective packaging usually sent same day ordered. Non-smoking home. 20, 822F-I answer emails quickly & package items so that a truck could run over them. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishers, New York
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781400052288ISBN:1400052289
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Stated First Edition; clean and tight with slight wear to the dust jacket. read more
Description: Fine in Fine dust jacket. Hardcover. Crown, 2006. 7th Printing. Fine Book in Fine Dust Jacket. Price Intact. Overall, a clean and tight copy to add to a collection or read and enjoy. Dust Jacket protected with a new archival cover. Bubble wrapped and shipped promptly in a box. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780553818178ISBN:0553818171
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780553818178ISBN:0553818171
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2006-02-28
ISBN-13:9780553818703ISBN:0553818708
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS LTD Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780553818178ISBN:0553818171
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 544 pages. (544 pages) features the story of a girl named cupcake, beginning when, aged eleven, she is orphaned and placed in the 'care' of sadistic foster parents. but there comes a point in her preteen years when cupcake's story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark disturbing journey through hell. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishers, New York
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781400052288ISBN:1400052289
Description: 470p., previous owner's signature, first printing, dj, jacket reproduces four polaroid family snapshots. Autobiography of an African American addict who beat the odds to become a successful San Francisco lawyer. read more
Edition: 1st
Binding: hardcover
Publisher: Crown, New York
Date Published: c2006
ISBN-13:9781400052288ISBN:1400052289
Description: Laura Duffy dj. fine, fine dj, black & bright yellow bds. Clean, tight, giftable. 470 pgs, ISBN: 1-4000-5228-9. Autobiography of once messed-up author, now a successful lawyer in California. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780553818703ISBN:0553818708
Description: New. Remainder mark. Near fine in publisher's quarter bound boards in good dust jacket with 2 x 2.5 cm closed tears to rear. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781400052288ISBN:1400052289
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Really nice first edition, inside text crisp & clean & tightly bound! Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 470 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Not good. Not good. A Piece of Cake was my book club book for this month. When someone recommended it, it sounded interesting enough, the story of a girl's descent into drugs and prostitution. I read it over the weekend while house-sitting / puppy-sitting. Not good. Not good. It was 300 hundred pages of repetition of her doing drugs, telling herself she wasn't an addict, doing a few "business arrangements" when she needed the money. Just when I thought her life couldn't get any worse and that she hit rock bottom, I turned the page and found out I was wrong. Yeah, she went into rehab and made something of her life, but to me it didn't redeem the rest of the book. The story quality, if it's even all true, which I sincerely doubt given her heavy drug and alcohol abuse, doesn't make up for the poor writing. Not something I ever wanna touch again with a ten foot pole."
"The most inspiring biography I've ever encountered. I cried, laughed, and felt the painful moments of her life as she struggled with drug/alcohol addiction and was often homeless because she ran away from her abusive foster family. There were many times when I felt so angry at the corruption of the foster care system and how often she was not believed when she showed her back welts from multiple whippings and yet she was still placed in the same abusive foster home time after time.
When she finally cleaned up her life after going to rehab, I was jubilant over her many accomplishments-big and small. Taking classes at her community college, starting from very basic level math courses as a result of constantly skipping high school, to eventually going to law school and graduating with honors at age 38. Her faith in God and the way that she asked Him to sustain her with even the smallest of details such as needing dishes, and a mattress made me realize how alive He is in her life.
Of all the abuse, rape, homelessness, and gang violence that she endured, she was able to forgive everyone in her life and learned to lean on God to keep her sober, drug free, and to always have hope.
It's amazing story that touched me so deeply and makes me want to adopt foster children."
"Before I started reading this book, I read several reviews of it. They varied--either people really like it or they didn't. I really liked it.
Of those who didn't they complained generally about one of two (or both) things: 1) The story was too unbelievable; therefore, it must be exaggerated or falsified in some way; and 2) The book is poorly written--has bad grammar and obvious transitions, for example--and probably should have been written by a ghost-writer.
I disagree with both of these points. Anyone who thinks the story is "too unbelievable" is clearly too sheltered and needs to take a few moments to come out of the safety of suburbia to see what the rest of the world is like. If someone thinks for one moment that these kind of things do not happen to children across our country and that the results are not those shared by Cupcake Brown, I've got a bridge I can sell him/her. Those of us who have experienced abuse know what it can do to a kid and how it can effect him/her. And those people will relate to and understand Cupcake Brown and her memoir--even if her experiences are different and perhaps more extreme. One thing this memoir does well is show you how and why a fractured and abusive childhood can lead to a life of crime and substance abuse. It makes it make sense. If there's one thing this memoir is, it is real, in every sense of the word...
...which brings me to point 2: the writing. The writing makes this book a quick read, and it also makes it real. It would be harder to believe or understand the story Brown has to tell if it were written without the slang, the cheesy metaphors, and the obvious transitions. This is a woman who dropped out of high school. Then, she studied criminal justice at a community college. Chances are, she never took an elective creative writing course, so what do you expect? She went to law school. She writes in the to-the-point way of lawyers. If you want long, obtrusive, flowery metaphors, then this book is not for you--because that's not what this book's about. Furthermore, except for when she does so purposely in dialogue or when transcribing her thoughts, Brown does not write grammatically incorrect sentence. She may write simple sentences, but she does write them correctly. It irks me when people who do not even know grammar themselves review work like this and claim the grammar throws them off. I studied grammar for 6 years. Between her and her editor, Brown wrote a book that is pretty much grammatically correct.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was quick and the story was good. It is real (and because it is, if you can't handle bad language, you shouldn't bother). A part I really related to was the "Marcia Brady" past. I, too, created a Marcia Brady past for myself, and I, too, was afraid of what revealing the truth of my past would bring, of what people would think...particularly after I worked so hard to break free of it. This book, I am, sure will give courage to others who also need to let go of their Marcia Brady pasts and allow them to see that accepting your past is accepting who you are, and only through so doing can you ever truly make something of yourself in life or be happy.
Part of what this book does is expose the failures of the child welfare system in this country and the ignorance of our society, so in a way, this book was written for those people who claim this story can't be true. Yes, it's sad; yes it's shocking; but yes, it's true and it can happen. Perhaps most importantly, though, the book gives hope to us all--hope that those who the system has forgotten or failed that they are worthy and can do and be something better; hope to those feeling defeated that things can get better; hope to those who feel alone that they aren't; hope to us all that with a strong support network and our inner fighter, we can conquer our biggest obstacles and achieve our biggest dreams."
"This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to read true stories about real people we can relate to!!"
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