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A Normal Life

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After an unconventional childhood that ended in the tragic death of her mother and the murder of her Alaskan mobster father, Kim Rich was left on her own at the young age of fifteen to fend for her...
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  • 03 April 2018
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After an unconventional childhood that ended in the tragic death of her mother and the murder of her Alaskan mobster father, Kim Rich was left on her own at the young age of fifteen to fend for herself. Ever since then, she began a nearly lifelong pursuit in chasing what most others had—a normal life.

Rich tugs at your heartstrings as you follow her journey toward normalcy, from her teen years, freshly orphaned, through her high school years spent couch-surfing at local families’ homes, then through her college years, a failed first marriage, and a rising career as a journalist. Through frank and down-to-earth storytelling, Rich also tells of her grandfather’s kidnapping, a frightening health crisis, and a six-year attempt to have children.

Picking up right where her first memoir, Johnny’s Girl, left off, A Normal Life recounts the author’s vivid story of being an ordinary girl faced with extraordinary circumstances—at seemingly every turn in life—with grace, humility, and wit.

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Price: $16.99
Pages: 238
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Imprint: Alaska Northwest Books
Publication Date: 03 April 2018
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9781943328505
Format: Paperback
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"Touching, sometimes-humorous. . . [Kim Rich] discusses her bout with breast cancer and the frightening decisions she had to make during that period. She quickly follows with her troubles conceiving a child with her second husband and the efforts they made to create a family via fertility treatments and adoption. . . vibrant and emotionally gripping. For those who read Johnny's Girl and want to know what happened next, this book has the answers."
Kim M. Rich is the author of Johnny’s Girl the nationally acclaimed memoir of growing up in Alaska’s underworld as the only child of gambler John F. “Johnny” Rich and exotic dancer, Frances “Ginger” Rich. Johnny’s Girl chronicles Alaska’s mean streets and her parent’s tragic lives cut short. Rich’s father was murdered when she was 15; her mother had died a year later in a psychiatric institute. The book was reviewed and featured by, among others, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, NPR, Glamour magazine and Entertainment Weekly. The book was adapted into a Hallmark film starring Treat Williams which aired on ABC and is still in syndication. Rich’s undergraduate studies were in Journalism. She began her career with the Pulitzer-Prize winning Anchorage Daily News. She possesses an M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University. She continues to write and teach college. She currently lives in Lafayette, LA, with her husband and three teen daughters.

Dedication

Neverland

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

The ‘Hey, Wow, Man’ School

‘Back to Nature’ is Hazardous to Your Health

A Warm Hat, a Whale, and a C in Chemistry

A Normal Life, Round One

The Right Stuff

New York, New York

The Writing Division

Circling the Center

Being Published

Grandpa and the Gypsies

It’s All Material

A Crossroads

A Normal Life, Round Two

Breast Cancer

When You Wish Upon a Star