"What do we get for driving far? A crusty, dusty, dirty car. Now are we to get it clean? The bathtub? Or the washing machine?" 
Bring your car to The Scrubbly Bubbly Car Wash. In cascading verse and bold pictures, Irene O'Garden and Cynthia Jabar will soap it and rinse it and mop it and dry it. When you drive out, your car will sparkle and shimmer, glisten and glimmer, arid you'll be chanting the catchy refrain.
Roll up your windows and get ready for the wash of a lifetime!

The Scrubbly-Bubbly Car Wash

Children's Books

O’Garden, Irene

Literature & Fiction

Harpercollins

An account of one woman's triumph over food- and body-related guilt describes in a diary form, with line drawings and calligraphy, the author's journey from ascetic eating regimens, through Weight Watchers and other programs, to the present. 25,000 first printing.

Fat Girl: One Woman's Way Out

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Diets & Weight Loss

p&gt;Monologues Characters: 1-12female Unit set This evening of twelve emotionally charged monologues starred Judith Ivey Off Broadway, where its run was extended twice. From ad exec to Midwest mom to care-giver to construction worker, each character is on fire in her own way - with passion, fear, self-discovery, even shopping! Exploring the breadth of women's issues with humor and wisdom, the monologues offer excellent roles for one or more mature actresses. Women on Fire earned the highest rating for audience satisfaction from the Wall Street Journal/Zagat Theatre Survey. 
"Bewitching ... astounding ... heartbreaking." - The New York Times "
"Heartwarming, riveting drama." - NYTheatre.com 
"Fresh, spirited ... plumbing the secret depths of ordinary women." - Backstage. 
"Hot pick." - New York Newsday . 
"A rare and exquisite evening.... Lyrical, touching substantial and ultimately profound.... Cancel all other appointments and treat yourself to this extraordinary evening of sublime writing." -Southampton Press 
"Passionate and insightful.... Each character is memorable." - Riverhead Independent

Women on Fire

Dramas & Plays

Concord Theatricals

Bold illustrations enhance bouncy refrains about an exciting trip to a fun-filled car wash.

Cars, Trains & Things That Go

In this heartfelt poem, the forest announces its wish-list for every season―including sun, mice, and a slug in summer; fruit, song, and spicy smells in the fall; snow, an icy river, and maple sugar in winter; and rain, moist soil, and flowers in spring. And all year long, it wishes for people planting trees and most of all children―rambling, sniffing, and laughing. Irene O'Garden wrote this ode to nature from the responses of four hundred children―plus some of her own―to the question, Forest, what would you like?

Forest, What Would You Like?

Holiday House

Our brothers and sisters know us better than perhaps anyone, and-love them or hate them-our relationships with our siblings are likely the longest relationships we'll have with anyone, ever. In this anthology, Read650's Edward McCann has curated a selection of stories by and about siblings to warm-or chill-your heart. These stories were originally performed live for a full house at The Cell Theater in New York City. 650 shows on wide-ranging topics are produced at venues around the country, and you can learn about submission deadlines and upcoming events on our website or Facebook page. Please help spread the word about the spoken word.

650 | Siblings: True Stories of Rivalry, Reunions, and Redemption

Evans, Julie

Brown, Stephen J.

Lewis, Steven

McCann, Edward

Gredler, John

Levin, Ann

Mercurio, Jackie

Andalibian, Rahimeh

Bolster, Mary Catherine

Essays & Correspondence

Read 650, Inc.

#1 New Release in Alcoholism and Christian Self-Help ─ Memoir and Portrait of a Family at Its Worst and BestSome memoirs shock. Some entertain. Some take us places we’re afraid to go. A rare few move us. Once in a blue moon, a book does it all. This is Risking the Rapids.
Dysfunctional family. Risking the Rapids opens with the shocking death of O’Garden’s older brother, which prompts her and other relatives to seek closure on a journey through the remotest spot in Montana. Described genially as a river “float”, a harrowing journey unfolds. This wilderness trip is contrasted with O’Garden’s account of growing up with her six siblings in a clashing Catholic family.
Alcoholic father, mean mother, Catholic guilt. WCCO-TV personality Don O’Brien was well-known in the Twin Cities and in Minnesota. Whether forecasting weather and trading wisecracks with the anchor on the nightly news, pitching for sponsors, or hosting a Saturday night movie, he was a man people trusted. In private, Don O’Brien’s family life was a far cry from what his fans saw on TV. Little by little we see the corrosion: nightly martinis shared with his wife Betty, an undemonstrative and icy-hearted mother. The neglect. The poisoning of self-esteem. The rigidity demanded by the Catholic church. Competition. Cruelty. All packed into ordinary days and nights as a sensitive girl comes of age.
Anxiety and danger. The children vary in their response to the profound anxiety sown in the offspring of alcoholics. One brother bites his fingers to gangrene. One relentlessly bullies the author, who begins overeating compulsively. One severs all ties with the family. Danger mounts as well on the Montana raft trip, when unusual river conditions swell and speed the waters. Both stories build with escalating intensity to excruciating climaxes.
If you read and liked books such as The Liars’ Club, The Wounded Heart, Coming Clean, Change Me into Zeus's Daughter, or Remember Me As Loving You, you will want to read Risking the Rapids.

Risking the Rapids: How My Wilderness Adventure Healed My Childhood

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

TMA Press

This warm and thoughtful book is arranged in six sections: Domesticities, Idiosyncracies, Botanies, Vitalities, Technologies, and Sympathies, ending with The Pushcart Prize-winning essay “Glad to Be Human.” It varies in tempo, from short succinct pieces to longer essays, and is punctuated throughout with pithy one-liners. (“We’re not made of matter, but of mattering.”) 
Join O’Garden in her kitchen or her garden to hear her concise, often funny, observations. Travel with her to Paris, Budapest, New York, Jerusalem to experience the beauty and pain of witness. Sit beside her in the Alzheimer’s unit as she finds a new way of sharing with her sister. Explore the natural world with her, trekking the deep caverns of Carlsbad, investigating the wide reaches of the Everglades and gazing out through our starry galaxy itself. Celebrate our common pleasures, our common sorrows, our shared humanity.

Glad to Be Human: Adventures in Optimism (Positive Thinking Book, for Fans of Learned Optimism, Anne Lamott, or Elizabeth Gilbert)

Religion & Spirituality

Poetry. Women's Studies. Sparkling musicality, deep emotion and discerning reflection distinguish O' Garden's poems. Here is a fine intelligence at work--and at play--revealing a tonic perspective in a range of poetic expression, including lyric, narrative and her own innovative "fulcrum" forms. Her close observation and sensual delight in language make FULCRUM an experience both grounding and uplifting. "For many years now, the poet, playwright, and memoirist Irene O'Garden has been a hero to me. I think of her as a walking, writing, beam of light...numberless others will come to know her gifts and, most of all, her captivating talent for wonder and marvel."--Elizabeth Gilbert "Fulcrum is a stunning assessment of human life on the planet, ...a newer version of The Waste Land...the poems once read will become part of you and help you 'know the knowing that we know.'"--Yuyutsu Sharma "Somewhere between Wordsworth and Dylan Thomas but soaring on her own wings, Irene O'Garden flies high, taking language to new strata with effortless-appearing dips and ascents which made me gasp."--Laura Shaine Cunningham "Her technique suggests influences ranging from Donne to Bishop, from Frost to Moore. Soulful and rewarding, these poems remind us that 'We're not made of matter but of mattering.'"--T.R. Hummer "Beautiful imagery, powerful emotions, simplicity, complexity and thought-provoking subjects--all drawn from relatable life experiences...This is a beautiful collection."--Professor Jane Kinney-Denning of Pace University

Fulcrum: Selected Poems

Poetry

Nirala Publications

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Books by O’Garden, Irene