Audio version sounded like a shitty kid microphone. ( )

I absolutely love Laurie Notaro! I have read 4 of her books now and really enjoyed them all. She has a crazy, quirky sense of humor that I can really relate to. She takes the mundane and blows it out of portion in ways a lot of think about but don't say or do. My favorite chapter in Housebroken was about her reading that "Tidy Life" book - laugh out loud funny. Although, from one Italian to another, I will have to debate her on a true Italian "gravy" recipe - why would you add a can of tomato SAUCE to your own homemade sauce recipe? - but I love that she carries on her Nana's tradition. I highly recommend this fun book when you need a light read. ( )

This is a book of essays by humorist, Laurie Notaro. It's about her failures in her life mostly to do with cooking, cleaning, and other things related to housekeeping. She also tells about her relationship with her Mom mostly when she (Laurie) was buying or renting a house. It seems she is able to find humor in just about everything going on in her life. Two of the funniest essays had to do with her trying to make homemade Twinkies and the other was trying to control a pile of leaves in her front yard which grew very high before the "leaf pick-up people" finally arrived.

This is a fast and easy read but I felt the recipes included were unnecessary and were just to make the book a bit longer. I can't even comprehend what listening to the recipes on an audio version would be like. Here's the main reason this book gets only 3 stars: Ms. Notaro has an abrasive personality which must be what leads her to use such vulgar language. I cringed when these words were included because they were totally unnecessary. If the author feels/thinks that using this kind of language makes her writing funnier, she is grossly wrong. ( )

Very funny (if occasionally raunchy) collection of humorous essays from a sassy broad (and I mean that in the very best sense), generally focusing on the domestic. (Hint: Erma Bombeck she ain’t.)

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself in one of these 25 takes on frequently-frustrating modern life, from dealing with parents as an adult to passing along life’s wisdom to the next generation, all with Notaro’s signature cockeyed slant. (I’m in two of them, I promise you.)

And that’s a large portion of what makes this book such a fun read. Your only problem will be forcing yourself to put it down between takes, the better to savor each one. ( )

So sad to say I have never heard of Laurie Notaro. My library recommended this book to me since I like to read memoirs and humor. Unfortunately there was not enough humor for me. I laughed a few times, but mostly just read and wondered what the point was at the end of some of Notaro's essays.

Notaro's essays mainly focus on her life living in Oregon with her husband and her not so tidy life/house. We get to read about how she had grapes turn into raisins and apparently ate them. I maybe shuddered during that one essay. And also we get to read about how stacks of paper/bills/etc. come to her house to live and never seem to go away. I just didn't get most of it, and since I have a freaking aversion to walking into what sounded like a pre-hoarder house (is that a thing?) I didn't find it as cute and lovable as Notaro did.

I also give authors who write memoirs kudos though for opening themselves up. Notaro let's readers into her everyday life and also provides details about things in her past (such as when she first started taking her nephews to The Waffle House) and trying to rent a house with her mother while she still lived in Arizona.

The flow was up and down for me depending on what essay I was reading.

The setting for the most part is Oregon with some comments about her upbringing or specific events in Arizona.

The book jumps around a lot, but eventually ends and I just kind of nodded my head and went well I finished it. Not bad, not great, just a nice read. ( )