{"title":"Lauren Hough","description":"\u003cp\u003eExperience Lauren Hough's sharp wit and unflinching honesty. Perfect for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Jia Tolentino, delve into essays exploring class, identity, and the search for belonging.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"leaving-isn-t-the-hardest-thing-book-lauren-hough-9781529382525","title":"Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing","description":"'Hough's conversational prose reads like the voice of a blues singer, taking breaks between songs to narrate her heartbreak in verse, cajoling her audience to laugh to keep from crying' - The New York Times  'Hough's writing will break your heart' - Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women  'Each one told with the wit of David Sedaris, and the insight of Joan Didion' - Telegraph   'This moving account of resilience and hard-earned agency brims with a fresh originality' - Publishers Weekly  Searing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.  As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond \"The Family.\"  Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.  At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49524597096721,"sku":"GOR013012310","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49741749256465,"sku":"NGR9781529382525","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49912217174289,"sku":"GOR013811901","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51882328555793,"sku":"GOR014443637","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1529382521.jpg?v=1750861451"},{"product_id":"leaving-isn-t-the-hardest-thing-book-lauren-hough-9780593080764","title":"Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER * \"A memoir in essays about so many things--growing up in an abusive cult, coming of age as a lesbian in the military, forced out by homophobia, living on the margins as a working class woman and what it's like to grow into the person you are meant to be. Hough's writing will break your heart.\" --Roxane Gay, author of \u003ci\u003eBad Feminist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSearing and extremely personal essays, shot through with the darkest elements America can manifest, while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe--to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile--but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond \"The Family.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. She's taken pilgrimages to the sights of her youth, been kept in solitary confinement, dated a lot of women, dabbled in drugs, and eventually found herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in \u003ci\u003eLeaving Isn't the Hardest Thing\u003c\/i\u003e interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. 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As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond \"The Family.\"  Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.  At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742330003729,"sku":"NGR9781529382495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49967401599249,"sku":"GOR011708059","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50445574242577,"sku":"GOR012840904","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1529382491.jpg?v=1751149261"},{"product_id":"monster-of-a-land-book-lauren-hough-9780593686621","title":"Monster of a Land","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLeaving Isn't the Hardest Thing\u003c\/i\u003e comes an update of John Steinbeck's trip in \u003ci\u003eTravels with Charley,\u003c\/i\u003e a cross-country journey exploring modern America with Lauren Hough's signature observational wit, searing social commentary, and perspective as someone who knows what it's like to truly exist on the margins in this country.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eMonster of a Land\u003c\/i\u003e is so much more than a road trip book--it's about the trips we never take, the people we lose before we get the chance, and what happens when you finally get in the goddamn car.\" --Jennette McCurdy, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHalf His Age\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eI'm Glad My Mom Died\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Lauren Hough has always been haunted by the road trips she never got to take: no money, no vacation days, no car capable of making the trip. So, upon finally finding herself in a situation where such a trip might be possible--being a writer may not always pay better than being a bartender or a cable guy, but at least the schedule's flexible--she leaps at the chance, refurbishing a ramshackle 2001 Dodge van and setting off from Austin, Texas with her Husky mix Woody by her side.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Her influences feel obvious--but a lot has changed about the United States since the 1962 trip John Steinbeck chronicles in \u003ci\u003eTravels with Charley\u003c\/i\u003e. And Lauren Hough isn't John Steinbeck--unless the Noble Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e had a secret past as a six-foot-tall lesbian and Air Force vet. But even better as a social lubricant than beer, a dog is the ultimate conversation starter. With Woody as wingman, Lauren chats--at gas stations and restaurants and auto shops and bars--with an incredible cross-section of Americans from all walks of life and every possible political perspective. And as she circumnavigates the country, she documents, with all-too-rare empathy, what it means to be poor, to be marginalized, and to be seen as Other in America.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Part travelogue, part social commentary, and 100% Lauren Hough, \u003ci\u003eMonster of a Land\u003c\/i\u003e unites her poignant vulnerability, her hilarious narrative voice, and her razor-sharp insights into a journey that will show us how far we've come as a country, and how far we still have to go.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53618049220881,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53618049253649,"sku":"NIN9780593686621","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780593686621.jpg?v=1780489413"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-lauren-hough.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}