Cherry

Cherry (2000) by Mary Karr. Karr, author of "The Liars' Club," has followed up that incandescent memoir with this, the story of her coming of age in the aptly named Leechfield, Texas. Karr's prose is spectacular; she is, after all, a poet as well as a writer of memoirs. The book really comes alive when young Mary Karr enters her "hippie" phase, goes to the beach and hangs out with the surfers, and gets high on every substance available (except heroin, which she tries once and doesn't like). Her acid-fueled hallucinations of the last few chapters of the book are enough to put me off of drug use for the rest of my life. My god, this woman lived dangerously! I didn't love this book quite as much as "The Liars' Club," but I also found it hard to put down. Grade: A-