This book is a series of shorts stories/essays/articles on a variety of topics. It is very light-hearted and silly. Mindy discusses her high school friends. her family, her career, her fashion issues, and other non-life determining frivolousness.
It was a quick read and easy to skip around if you get to a chapter that you don't find very interesting. I read it over the course of a couple of weeks and skipped a few parts.
My favorite parts were this quote about high school:
“Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.”
I also liked a chapter when she talked about marriage and her parents. She basically said the marriage should be a partnership and good-working relationship. It doesn't need to be all about soul-mates and besties. You can be best friends and talk with someone else, but then still work together well with your spouse and enjoy the things you have in common. I couldn't find the quote I liked the best about her own parents, but this one was decent.
“I don't want to hear about the endless struggles to keep sex exciting, or the work it takes to plan a date night. I want to hear that you guys watch every episode of The Bachelorette together in secret shame, or that one got the other hooked on Breaking Bad and if either watches it without the other, they're dead meat. I want to see you guys high-five each other like teammates on a recreational softball team you both do for fun.”
The story is set in a small backyard shed, called "room." The characters are a mother and her 5 year old son, Jack. The mother was kidnapped and has been held captive in this room for a number of years. Jack was born in the room and has never seen the outside. The book is written from his perspective. Eventually they make an escape attempt and then the last part of the story is about their transition to the outside world.
As far as reading it goes, it was intriguing and I couldn't put it down. I read it in just a few days.
When I was finished, however, I didn't really like it. It was sad and yucky (5 year-old breast feeding makes me uncomfortable). The mother did what she could to educate the little boy within the confines of the room. The transition was pretty rough for both of them. It was a sad story about something that has actually happened to people, but you hope it never happens to anyone you know.
The positives themes of the book are the unbreakable bond between the mother and her son as well as the hope that there will always be a way out of awful situations. I liked those ideas.
Should you read it? Sure, if you want. There is also a movie. I didn't see it and don't want to. It is rated R and I'm sure a lot of things that are innocently and naively explained from the perspective of a 5 year old in the book are more explicit and graphic in the movie. The book was not rated R.
Amelia Earhart: Young Air Pioneer by Jane Moore Howe
The book was a very brief introduction and I would like to read a "real" book about Amelia Earhart. I've always thought she was a fascinating figure.
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