Author Event: Judy Foreman - "Let the More Loving One Be Me" with Beth Kemler
Judy Foreman, former Boston Globe health columnist, joins us to discuss her powerful new memoir, Let the More Loving One Be Me: My Journey from Trauma to Freedom. Judy will be in conversation with fellow Wellesley College alum, Beth Kemler.
This is a free event but you must RSVP in order to secure your spot. You can do so with the link below (no fees) or by calling us at 781-431-1160 during store hours (also no fees).
You can add a purchase of the author's book onto your RSVP. Copies will also be available for purchase at the event. Please note that you must purchase your copy of the book from Wellesley Books in order to have the author sign it at the event.
If you are unable to attend the event but would still like to buy the book, you can do so by scrolling down. Just remember that buying the book is not the same as RSVP'ing.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
This is the story of my search for truth—first, the truth of a childhood with a sexually abusive, alcoholic father and an emotionally absent mother; then, a search for truth as a journalist and a grown woman.
In this compelling tale, Judy Foreman reveals the terror she felt every night as a girl as she lay in bed frozen in dread, listening for her father’s footsteps coming down the hall.
She recalls his mostly naked body, his stale smell, his silhouette in the bedroom doorway. Worse, in some ways, was her mother’s denial—her insistence that this man was wonderful, her refusal to acknowledge his drinking or his rage. It wasn’t until Foreman spent a high school summer as an exchange student with a Danish family that she began to see how unsafe her own family was; it wasn’t until she went to an all-women’s college that she realized that women had value. Ultimately, this book shows that with time and therapy, it is possible to heal from serious childhood trauma and lead a life of deep fulfillment, rewarding work and, most wonderfully, love. It is a book about the power of emotional courage to change one’s own inner and outer experience of the world, and about what matters most in life: cultivating healthy connections to other people.
“From a shocking and revealing start, Judy Foreman’s memoir is riveting. We can see a woman of great success and envy her hold on life. But in this painfully honest account, we find sexual abuse, parental alcoholism, illness, love, loss, and resiliency. In the end, it can inspire others to overcome the challenges that life may throw at us.” —Matt Storin, retired editor of The Boston Globe
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Judy Foreman is a former Boston Globe health columnist and the author of three works of nonfiction from Oxford University Press. In 2022, she published her first novel, CRISPR'd, from Skyhorse Publishing. A Wellesley College grad (Phi Beta Kappa), she spent three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil and has a master's from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was a Lecturer on Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Fellow in Medical Ethics, also at Harvard Medical School, a Knight Science Fellow at MIT, and a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. She has won more than fifty journalism awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award and a Science in Society award from the National Association of Science Writers. She lives outside of Boston with her husband.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Beth Kemler graduated from Wellesley College in 1966. She received her PhD from Smith College School for Social Work and worked at Boston Children’s Hospital from 1968-2022, where she was a clinician, supervisor, teacher, and administrator in the Outpatient Psychiatry Department. She also served as the Chief of Social Work at Judge Baker Children’s Center for 16 years and had an appointment as Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She has 2 daughters, 3 grandchildren, and currently lives in Chestnut Hill, MA with her husband.
