Currently reading:

I thoroughly enjoyed Julia Sweeney's last book, God Said Ha!.  When I heard she was coming out with a new book, I begged Simon and Schuster for a copy.  I'm not above groveling for the right collection of words.  GSH was laugh-out-loud funny; I'm hoping this one is too.  I'll let you know....


If it's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother
by Julia Sweeney
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

“I took so long to assemble my lovely family. If only they would disappear.”

 While Julia Sweeney is known as a talented comedienne and writer and performer of her one-woman shows, she is also a talented essayist. Happily for us, the past few years have provided her with some rich material. Julia adopted a Chinese girl named Mulan (“After the movie?”) and then, a few years later, married and moved from Los Angeles to Chicago. She writes about deciding to adopt her child, strollers, nannies (including the Chinese Pat), knitting, being adopted by a dog, The Food Network, and meeting Mr. Right through an email from a complete stranger who wrote, “Desperately Seeking Sweeney-in-Law.” She recounts how she explained the facts of life to nine-year-old Mulan, a story that became a wildly popular TED talk and YouTube video.

Some of the essays reveal Julia’s ability to find that essential thread of human connection, whether it’s with her mother-in-law, who candidly reveals a story that most people would keep a secret, or with an anonymous customer service rep during a late-night phone call. But no matter what the topic, Julia always writes with elegant precision, pinning her jokes with razor-sharp observations while articulating feelings that we all share.Poignant, provocative, and wise, this is a funny, and at times powerful, memoir by a woman living her life with originality and intelligence.