Author:  Amy Ferris
ISBN 13:  978-1-58005-297-9

Click Here To Purchase Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis

It’s all in the delivery.  That’s how I feel about this absolutely outrageously perfect book.  Yes, I said perfect.  Because the beauty of each and every chapter is literally in the imperfections that life throws at us every day.  Is a midlife crisis a mixture of tears, humor, pain, and hilarity?  You bet it is.  At least, it is through this author’s eyes.

Erma Bombeck, I still believe, did this best.  She told the truth.  Not since the death of Ms. Bombeck have I read an author who could literally “nail it”…until now.  In this fantastic book, Ms. Ferris offers up, without apology, everything she feels, sees, and does during this most frustrating part of a woman's life.  Yes, the inevitable Menopause.  The writing is raw and sweet, as she delights the reader with paragraph after paragraph detailing her 3:00 AM experiences.  I haven't gone through Menopause yet, but I, too, have wavered between jumping off a bridge in order to end all the stupidity surrounding me, or pushing someone I love in front of a car.  With every troubling thought that rushes through the female mind, the most frequent conclusion that we arrive at is that someone’s life has to end.

I want to share a couple of revelations that hit me right between the eyes.  The author wrote that it was her obligation and responsibility to acknowledge and hold dear the privilege of her own life.  I have to say…Bingo!  Yachtzee!   She called 'Midlife' a reinvention of the wheel.  And I learned a great deal.  So much so, that I will keep this book on my bedside table when 'Midlife' hits, so I can always know that someone else once felt as bad as I will. 

The author talks about her father, who died far too soon.  That, unfortunately, is something I do share with her.  She also speaks volumes in very small paragraphs about her mother – a wonderfully brilliant woman who, unfortunately didn't really like kids but had them anyway - who is now suffering from Alzheimer's.  This, thankfully, is something I do not share with the author.  But her words brought tears to my ears when she wrote candidly about the regret and resentment that beam from her mother’s eyes.  She also asked a question that really struck home for me…How do you retire from writing?  Can you just log off one day and say “I’m done?”  I hope not.  Without that release, the power and freedom of imagination that can appear on a blank page, I think I’d cash it ALL in and call it a day.  Even though the author admits to having writers block for four years, she still continued on and has produced a sweet, satisfying, hysterical book.

I want to do this author and this book justice.  So I'm going to do something she asks in her pages.  Early on in the book, Ms. Ferris writes that she wants readers to find their view...tell their story.  So…I will.  And I'm going to pick one of my favorites that comes from motherhood:  One day the television was on.  My daughter was about five years old at the time.  A commercial came on and, unbeknown  to me, my child found it fascinating.  After it was over, she ran into the kitchen and asked me what reptile dysfunction was?  I responded so fast..."Well, honey, it's an alligator with a limp."

I want to thank the author for her honesty - brutal - which I truly enjoy, her sense of humor, and the power behind her messages – good and bad.  She wants us to laugh until we cry, and sometimes cry until we laugh.  Get mad, get mean, get even...live life.  Ms. Ferris, I'm probably the only one out of the two of us who's extremely happy that you went through Menopause.