S. J. T. (cactuspatch) reviewed on + 40 more book reviews
"Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl" is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time! (Maybe since Erma Brombeck came out? Yeah, I know, shows my age!)
Sure to tickle your funny bone if you live in the country OR have kids, as Susan McCorkindale delights us with not only her challenges faced when her husband transplanted her from living in the city (you know, that place where Starbucks, shoe stores and Victoria's Secret are on nearly every corner) to the "Country" where power suits are traded in for bib overalls and chickens peck her new pedicure to death.
(Like one of the previous reviewers said, why isn't she wearing boots? - Well, honestly I've never been a city girl, never was into high heels and Starbucks scene...But hearing the humorous side of it, makes me understand where she is coming from, and sometimes dumb mistakes make us learn faster than any advice could have done!)
And truly, I believe that self-depreciating humor is the best "good clean fun" type of humor an entertainer can give us.
Besides sharing her own grappling with the new culture she is thrown into (for instance, finding out from the local moms' group that they moved from the city where she thought crime and terrorism endanger her children, just in time to have to buy orange clothing and hats for her children to wear on their own farm when school starts, since they will be leasing their farmland out to deer hunters!)- (I'm from Texas...even to me, that sounds so stupid but it's true!) That's why it's funny.
But many of her witticisms are from looking at what most mothers and often all of us women face, no matter where we live...she's just choosing to see it with humor!
...moving into an old house with no locks on the bathroom doors, while raising two young sons.
...the creativity of young boys who are finally potty trained, but now want to design "art" on the toilet bowl. (Hopefully on the toilet bowl).
...the experience of falling into the toilet bowl at night, when her husband forgot to put the seat down...and being stuck because she was 8 months pregnant!
...and...how we see our bodies!
- About loving "Victoria's Secret":
"Right now for a mere twenty-eight bucks, I can get boobs. Something I've wanted since my best friend Roma returned from summer camp with cleavage..."
All through the seventh grade she stuffs her starter bra with Saran Wrap and powders herself with Miracle Grow, which only "pooled in her posterior" when she took showers. "Thirty years later the real miracle is finding pants that fit my 38DD derriere."
(That was a good one!)
(Like I said, these are experiences of a younger generation...in my generation, we padded our bras with toilet paper, as did a friend right before her 7th grade ballet recital, and her solo was embellished with a long white stream of TP coming from the top of her ballet suit, getting longer and longer as she unknowingly but gracefully twirled into teenage embarrassment Hell.)
This book is a delight, and a tickle and a joy to read. It's both an insight into the younger generation's view of womanhood and of family living, and the continuity of generations of ridiculous situations experienced by mothers while raising children (and husbands.)
Find a copy and let it exercise your tickle bone!
~Enjoy!
Sure to tickle your funny bone if you live in the country OR have kids, as Susan McCorkindale delights us with not only her challenges faced when her husband transplanted her from living in the city (you know, that place where Starbucks, shoe stores and Victoria's Secret are on nearly every corner) to the "Country" where power suits are traded in for bib overalls and chickens peck her new pedicure to death.
(Like one of the previous reviewers said, why isn't she wearing boots? - Well, honestly I've never been a city girl, never was into high heels and Starbucks scene...But hearing the humorous side of it, makes me understand where she is coming from, and sometimes dumb mistakes make us learn faster than any advice could have done!)
And truly, I believe that self-depreciating humor is the best "good clean fun" type of humor an entertainer can give us.
Besides sharing her own grappling with the new culture she is thrown into (for instance, finding out from the local moms' group that they moved from the city where she thought crime and terrorism endanger her children, just in time to have to buy orange clothing and hats for her children to wear on their own farm when school starts, since they will be leasing their farmland out to deer hunters!)- (I'm from Texas...even to me, that sounds so stupid but it's true!) That's why it's funny.
But many of her witticisms are from looking at what most mothers and often all of us women face, no matter where we live...she's just choosing to see it with humor!
...moving into an old house with no locks on the bathroom doors, while raising two young sons.
...the creativity of young boys who are finally potty trained, but now want to design "art" on the toilet bowl. (Hopefully on the toilet bowl).
...the experience of falling into the toilet bowl at night, when her husband forgot to put the seat down...and being stuck because she was 8 months pregnant!
...and...how we see our bodies!
- About loving "Victoria's Secret":
"Right now for a mere twenty-eight bucks, I can get boobs. Something I've wanted since my best friend Roma returned from summer camp with cleavage..."
All through the seventh grade she stuffs her starter bra with Saran Wrap and powders herself with Miracle Grow, which only "pooled in her posterior" when she took showers. "Thirty years later the real miracle is finding pants that fit my 38DD derriere."
(That was a good one!)
(Like I said, these are experiences of a younger generation...in my generation, we padded our bras with toilet paper, as did a friend right before her 7th grade ballet recital, and her solo was embellished with a long white stream of TP coming from the top of her ballet suit, getting longer and longer as she unknowingly but gracefully twirled into teenage embarrassment Hell.)
This book is a delight, and a tickle and a joy to read. It's both an insight into the younger generation's view of womanhood and of family living, and the continuity of generations of ridiculous situations experienced by mothers while raising children (and husbands.)
Find a copy and let it exercise your tickle bone!
~Enjoy!
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