Review: 31 Dates in 31 Days by Tamara Duricka Johnson

Title: 31 Dates in 31 Days

Author: Tamara Duricka Johnson

ISBN: 9781580053662

Pages: 320

Time It Took Me to Read: 3 Days       

When I started reading The Moment, I had a feeling it would take awhile. With my growing pile of books to take back to the library, I figured I could get this one out of the way and return it with my hoard.

Now from first glance, this has “Bitter” written all over it. It’s about a single thirty-something woman from New York. I’ve watched enough Sex and the City to judge this book by its cover (or blurb on the back). However, this is anything but bitter. It has frustration, yes. It has a little bit of heartache, yes. But, bitter it is not.

This 31-year-old woman named Tamara embarked on a dating project in 2009 called “31 Dates in 31 Days.”  She would date a different man for each of the first thirty days and on the thirty-first day, she would go on a second date from the broad she dated over the month. She created a blog from it, which I suspect some of the book is.

Tamara was kinda desperate, kinda hopeless. However, over the coarse of the thirty-one days, she learned how to open up to love, see the positive in people, regain hope in the men of New York, and eventually become marriage-material. In her author bio, it says she’s married. Interesting.

Now, whenever you do a memoir, everyone and their mother will have an opinion about you. She put her life out there for people to judge and read about and that’s brave. However, I don’t think her singledom is due to a terrible personality. She seems sweet, kind, and easygoing. I think she just choose the wrong men and had bad dating habits. That makes this easy to read and easy to cheer for her. You want to see her find love.

I enjoyed reading the book but would definitely fail a reading comprehension test on this one. The men definitely ran together and I began to have trouble distinguishing them. When she chose her second date on the thirty-first day, I had to go back and read about his first date. Still, there was some suspense as to who she would choose and more importantly, did she marry someone from the project? It says she’s married after all.

Grade: B+

Review: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Courtesy of Persphonemagazine.com

Title: Bossypants

Author: Tina Fey

ISBN: 9780316056861

Pages: 275

Time It Took Me to Read: Less than 48 hours

I had extremely high hopes for this one. When I put my name on the reserve list at the library, I was in 50s. I was patient and eventually, Bossypants was mine. Upon learning it had arrived for me, I promptly went at lunch to pick it up.

I didn’t know what to expect but I had some vague ideas. I had hopes for random anecdotes of embarrassing childhood memories and funny perspectives on average things. While the first part of the book rambled and meandered much to my heart’s delight, it eventually slowed down into amusing (but less funny) narrative.

At first, it’s hysterical. I was laughing hysterically at the chapter “All Girls Must Be Everything,” where she talks about women’s bodies and things she feels uncomfortable about but has learned to accept. Here’s a nugget for your viewing pleasure: “Wide German hips that look like somebody wrapped Pillsbury dough around a case of soda” (Fey 25). Funny right?

Then, she begins documenting her career. While it’s fascinating, there is less and less of funny moments and the funny anecdotes I was expecting. Chapters of funny are sprinkled throughout to break up the story (“Dear Internet” and “The Mother’s Prayer for Its Child” are good examples). However, I didn’t expect to read that much about Sarah Palin.

One thing that I absolutely loved is Tina Fey’s voice. There were moments I could hear her voice through her words. Fey is extremely sarcastic throughout this book and because her voice is so strong, the tone of her sarcasm is not lost. Here is another nugget from the chapter “The Mother’s Prayer for Its Child”:

            And when she one days turns on me and calls me a

            Bitch in front of Hollister,

            Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a

            Cab in front of her friends,

            For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it (Fey 263).

Overall, this is a major win for Fey. My high expectations did make me grade this harsher than a book that I had no expectations for. Fey is an extremely gifted comedic writer. I read this baby fast and I would definitely read (and maybe even buy) a sophomore effort. If not for the slow chapters of narrative, this would’ve gotten a higher grade.

Grade: A-

Review: A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Courtesy of  LA Times.com

Title: A Stolen Life
Author: Jaycee Dugard
ISBN: 1451629184

Pages: 288
Time It Took for Me to Read: less than 24 hours

You know I like a book when I read it quickly. There are so many other distractions in my life (if you own an iPhone, you understand) and a book that inspires me to sit down and read…well, that is an enthralling book.

This was a surprising read for me but not surprising at the same time. I love a good crime memoir but I had slightly low hopes for this one. First off, this poor girl (now a woman) has a fifth-grade education. Second, there is a high probability that this was ghost-written. I am not against ghost-written books but my limited experience with them has not been good. For the most part, they suck.

However, Jaycee Dugard’s experience trumps any lack of writing ability. Dugard was famously taken from South Lake Tahoe in 1991. She endured eighteen years of captivity in the hands of her captor, a deranged, delusional convicted sex offender. She was found after a pair of Berkeley campus officers noticed something odd and acted on their female intuition and instincts.

Her perspective is captivating and explains how someone could be bound like emotional handcuffs, instead of physical ones. A good book is not always the most entertaining but also makes you ask yourself the hard questions. Jaycee was positive in even the worst of circumstances and focused on what she has rather than what she has lost out on. I am blessed and Jaycee probably would’ve preferred my life to hers. However, I complain a lot more than she was allowed to. She was thankful for the roof over her head and food to eat and I stress about stupid things. Her story created an appreciation of my own life in me.

While this will never win a Pultizer, it served the purpose she had for this book. She wrote it as part of her therapy and as a way for her kidnapper, Phillip Garrido, to not longer hold any power. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would and gained a little fragment of a life lesson. Bravo, Jaycee. Bravo.

Grade: A