YOU AIN'T GOT NO EASTER CLOTHES: A Memoir

Love, an African-American singer-songwriter living in Seattle, uses her bluesy, honest singing voice as she writes about her chaotic, troubled childhood in Nebraska with a single mother who suffers from schizophrenia. Depicting a Dickensian world where children's homes are staffed by people who despise children ("Don't puke till I get the bucket, godammit...."), Love is unsparing in her detailed memories of her mother's attempted suicide and the cockroaches they share quarters with in temporary housing. Depending on charities, foster homes and friends, Laura and her sister, Lisa, suffer racism from the nuns at her school and the unpredictable, terrifying temper of their mother. Through a confessional narrative, Love details how her mother gets her period after returning from yet another stint at a mental hospital, and the girls have to hush up her rantings because they are all staying at another foster home. Yet Love writes, "even when I felt all but certain that catastrophe and mishap would define our lives, I believed our situation would improve." She makes it through strong and independent from years working her way through school and engagingly tells her story. Agent, Julie Mayo. (Aug.)

Forecast: Adding to the appeal of this book, Love will release a CD of her recordings, each song corresponding with a chapter title—and this combination just might bring her more listeners and readers.