Sunday, March 21, 2010

Why is my Mother Getting a Tattoo?


Synopsis

Despite her forty years and a successful career as a rock journalist, Jancee Dunn still feels like a teenager, especially around her parents and sisters. Looking around, Dunn realizes that she’s not alone in this regression: Her friends, all with successful jobs, marriages, and families of their own, still feel like kids around their moms and dads, too. That gets Dunn to thinking: Do we ever really grow up?

Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? explores this phenomenon–through both Dunn’s coming to grips with getting older and her folks’ attempts to turn back the clock. In a series of hilarious and heartwarming essays, Dunn conspires with her sisters to finagle their way into the old family homestead, dissects the whys and wherefores of her parents’ obsession with newspaper clippings, confronts the seamy side of the JC Penney catalogs she paged through as a kid, and accompanies her sixty-something mother to a New Jersey tattoo parlor, where Mom is giddy to get a raven inked onto her wrist. And Dunn does it all with humor and insight.

This book by Jancee Dunn is so funny. I just loved it. I read this book for the ManicMommies March book club. The ManicMommies book club gives away the book club selection every month and I had the privilege of winning this one. We had a book club call on the 17th with Jancee. She was funny, we couldn’t stop laughing. The call was scheduled for 45 minutes and we finally ended (even though no one wanted to) after 90 minutes.


Every chapter of the book I was able to relate to myself except one. For example, she writes a chapter about her parents sending her articles. The articles sent from her mom could range from anything and everything and from her father “if you don’t heed this article, prepare for a grisly mishap in your own home” type of articles. I loved that chapter because it reminded me how many times my mom would send me local articles. Most of the time I could figure out why but sometimes I did not get them at all and would have to call home. This started for my mom and I when I went away to college. It just became her way and continued on. Every now and then my Aunt will send me articles or my Uncle will email them. They have no one how much I love receiving them.

I recommend this book even if you can’t connect to every chapter. It is a fast and easy read. It is the perfect pick up and put down book, perfect for a busy mom. I am going to get her other two books from the library: But Enough about Me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet and Don’t You Forget about Me. I hope you get them out and enjoy the read!

2 comments:

  1. Great review! I do recommend Don't you forget about me - it's good.

    We had so much fun last week, didn't we? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mari was just talking about how much fun you guys had with this call!

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