An Erma-Bombeck style of humorous articles covering everything from marriage to writing to buying a new car with cash, Joyce takes an unorthodox yet-so-true look at life. Most of the stories tickled my funny bone; others made my nose sting with tears because what she wrote was so touching.
Want examples? Let's start with the story about how she cut off an SUV in order to get to the gas station before they changed the prices. After a harrowing (and funny) description of her aggressive driving, she discovers she saved $3.50:
"So I nearly killed us for roughly one third of a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream? Cool."
OR her explanation of the "bird" finger fits in God's plan: "If there were fewer jerks in the world, we'd only have four fingers." (She says it made sense at the time; it still does.)
OR her assessment of self-defense tips: "Go for your attacker's gonads. Get real. I want to stay as far away from them as possible--and besides, I have trouble with zippers, too."
While all the chapters were funny, some were deeply profound: her evening of space geekdom where she met some of the original astronauts and realized that they were ordinary men, or the man who cornered her at a reading to tell her the story of someone he knew--a story he'd wanted to write for decades, but could never do; the story he wanted her to write. "Story tellers are the glue between people who lived before and those who live now--and those who live in the future," she said. And when her husband replied that it was a great responsibility, she countered, "No, it's a blessing."
You are truly blessed, Joyce, and I feel blessed to have read your book.
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