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Title details for The Madwoman and the Roomba by Sandra Tsing Loh - Available

The Madwoman and the Roomba

My Year of Domestic Mayhem

by Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Ah, fifty-five. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized twenty-five-year-old's life in an eight-five-year-old's malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat-all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women. The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon "well" drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters' college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. By day's end, we just might need a box of chardonnay and a Roomba to clean up the mess.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 2, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781684579389
      • File size: 248936 KB
      • Duration: 08:38:36

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrated by author Sandra Tsing Loh, this hilarious memoir sets a frenetic pace. Right out of the gate, listeners will hear the chaotic thoughts of a 55-year-old woman who is raising two teenage daughters with a partner who seems ambivalent. Loh recounts her medical woes over the year with the appropriate panic and awe as she encounters each new and unwelcome surprise. Finances are always a stressor; with kids headed to college soon she struggles to "keep up with the Joneses" in an affluent community. As the audiobook progresses and she encounters more challenges, the frenzied pace and tone begin to wear on the listener, though the comedy never flags. S.K.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 13, 2020
      In this collection of let-it-all-hang-out essays, radio personality and writer Loh (The Madwoman in the Volvo) skewers the ironies of midlife. She’s a 50-something born at “the drooping tale of the boom” who possesses “Baby boom tastes on a Gen X budget”—a trait she shares with her partner, Charlie, a freelance theater producer—and the mother to two teen/tween girls living in Pasadena, Calif. Panicked by a cracked tooth and the fact she hasn’t seen a dentist in years, Loh notes, “We’re just show trash, aging bohemians... the ‘artsy’ college thing isn’t going to hack it.” The realization compels her to document “a simple year in midlife” in order to find the silver linings in “feeling old and young at the same time.” She samples Yankee Candles; takes advantage of Groupon deals on massages; has tax issues with the IRS just as her S&M-practicing accountant vanishes; runs amok when she allows a Hindu road crew for a touring guru stay at her home; and, despairing over her C+ Tiger Mom status, stoops to doing her daughter’s homework, resulting in her writing eight riotous poems. Loh’s voice is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and her fun house perspective on the foibles of middle age are intelligent and effervescent. Fans of her previous memoir and her NPR program The Loh Down on Science will delight in this outing.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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