What Took Me So Long!?! - Bossypants by Tina Fey

I am a big Tina Fey fan.  I am one of the three people who still faithfully watch (Ok, DVR) SNL every week AND think it's funny and I've done so for most of my life.  I never missed a 30 Rock.  I've read magazine articles, movie reviews, watched Tina's hosting gigs....but it took me for-ev-ah to read Bossypants.  My book club chose it as our summer read and I'm so glad that they did.  Upon some reflection, it turns out that due to my skyscraper pededstal view of Ms. Fey, I was afraid that a whole book might knock some of the stars out of my eyes.  I needn't have worried!


This book is not just a fantastic look at one of America's brightest women, but it also counts as an ab workout.  I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt and I annoyed my beachgoing family.  It's fair to point out that I share Ms. Fey's dry humor, self-deprecating spirit, and I'm roughly the same age: all factors that might make this book more relatable, but I can't imagine anyone wouldn't laugh at these chapters.  It does read like a collection of essays, and I had read one or two before in my super-fandom.  It's also fair to say that if you are a big fan, you won't necessarily know more about Tina Fey from reading this.  She shares hilarious stories and some of the "secrets of success" but she (wisely, IMO) keeps her private life veiled to a degree.

It would be hard for me to pin a favorite chapter, but the stories of her honeymoon and magazine photo shoots and the chapter about her father were real stand-outs.

All the stars! 5 out of 5.

Being A Parent Is Terrifying Enough - Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

I wanted a page-turner and that's what I got. 

Kate's teenage daughter Amelia has jumped from the roof of her school after a cheating scandal. Or maybe that's not what happened, and Kate, a successful lawyer and single mom, decides to investigate as she comes out of the fog of her grief.


The alternating timelines and POVs make for a suspenseful read, but the plot is a bit ridiculous once you look back. Several times during my reading I felt manipulated as a woman and mother. 


I've decided that publishers are pushing what I'll call "mom horror". Books like Defending Jacob and Reconstructing Amelia suck you in by preying on your very worst mom fears, but when the ride is over and you look back, you see that the fear was really preposterous. The silliness of the timing and intensity of the drama surrounding Amelia was hard to overlook once I finally closed the book.

3 stars.

Turns Out I'm An Old Adult - Unteachable by Leah Raeder

Unteachable by Leah Raeder

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



While I've been hearing a lot about the New Adult genre, this is my first NA title and now I'm pretty sure that I'm light years from the target audience. I'm an Evan, not a Maise. I'm also not a romance reader, so I had hoped for this to be a little more of a psychological drama instead of a romance, because teacher/student=ick.

Maise is 18, and meets Evan (early 30s) at the local fair.  They fall in love (lust?) in 30 seconds on a roller coaster (of course).  Once Maise heads back to school she discovers that Evan is her teacher, which adds a wrinkle to their budding lustship.  Never mind!  Maise is broken and smart and dangerous and Evan makes her feel all better and helps her come alive.  I never figured out any of Evan's personality traits, other than "hot" (Maise's interpretation) and shady (mine).  Hot sex ensues. Few conversations take place that are not about the status of their relationship.  Blech.

After finishing this I still can't come up with a single reason that Maise likes Evan. He's hot and it's fun to be risky? She feels different when she's with him? That's all I got, and it wasn't enough to make me care about their journey. I would have been much more interested in an evaluation of Evan's shady behavior.

I think this is really popular among the target audience, so we can chalk this review up to (a) I'm old and (b) I really hate romance novels.  But I will keep trying to find one that I like!



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"Mom, what's the 'gadget'?" - The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read this book aloud to my 9yo and neither of us really loved it.

Set in the 1940s in New Mexico at the site of the Manhattan Project, this historical fiction deals with a subject that certainly is not familiar to most children today: WWII and the atomic bomb. Klages does a great job of filtering everything through the lives and viewpoints of children (Suze and Dewey) so there is just a sense that the "gadget" is causing either celebration or unease with the scientist parents feverishly working on the project. The subject matter opened plenty of options for dialogue with my daughter to explain the conditions of the world at the time, and the ramifications of the bombs.

The plot moved slowly, and while the themes were heavy (war! death! abandonment! women in science! bullying!) the novel felt almost quiet in tone. Lots of detail for setting and actions made the book seem sluggish at times.

Overall, while I would say neither of us felt glued to every word, this book opened up some great discussions and provided my daughter an excellent glimpse of the difference between a child in Los Alamos in the mid forties and a child today.



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Ashamed in my Membrane: I'll Never Be That Smart! - The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I hear that movie rights have already been sold and that Matt Damon is our Mark Watney. Finding out that he's hot ticks the final box on the Total Package checklist. Mark is our astronaut, trapped on Mars, so it's not surprising that he's totally brilliant. His determination against all odds makes him a great hero to root for. And his quick, dark wit makes him an absolute joy to spend 369 pages with. He's a fantastic character, and I thoroughly enjoyed his story.

It's hard to say too much about The Martian without giving away a lot of key plot points. It's got enough adventure and sci-fi to thrill fans of those genres, but has such a great way of making the narrative seem accessible and believable (that feels weird to write) that it could be enjoyed as a bestseller by those who aren't traditional sci-fi readers. According to the bestseller charts, that's what's happening!

There were a few passages so heavily steeped in technical details that I caught myself skimming, but more often I found myself gasping and laughing at Watney's incredible ingenuity. Recommended for everyone!



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They caught this crab! - The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is yet another wonderful example of why I am glad to be in a book club. I would never have chosen this book for myself. In fact, I approached it with a rather dour "Well, I'd better get this over with!" attitude. Nonfiction in winter? Strike one. I'd rather read a thriller or epic to sweep me away from the gray days. A SPORTS story?! Strike TWO! I have some weird unidentified genetic deficiency that makes me completely uninterested in sports competitions--and the irony of my current strike system is not lost on me. And what I perceived to be the endless paragraphs dedicated to the mechanics and the who's in-who's out of the rowing nearly had me calling strike three.

And then the Washington rowing team traveled to Poughkeepsie in the hopes of reaching the Olympic trials, and I realized I couldn't put the book down. I was deeply invested in a nonfiction SPORTS story!

Brown's extensive research and narrative style are certainly to blame for what is now my rave review. Story arcs were complete, characters very well-defined, and settings vividly described. I hung onto every passage about Germany's propaganda ramp-up for the Olympics, eager for the next installment. Joe Rantz's life and struggles could have been a whole book in itself. And I eventually understood all the focus on the mechanics of the rowing contests.

The stand-out for me was really Brown's epilogue. If I needed one more thing to fully win me over, it was his flawless concluding remarks regarding the importance, significance, and emotion of the story of the boys in the boat. I even got a little choked up. 4+ stars.



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