Fifty things that aren't my fault: essays from the grown-up years

Fans of Cathy, rejoice! Cartoonist Guisewite (The Mother-Daughter Dance, 2016) is back with a hilarious collection of essays that will feel very familiar to anyone who ever read the funny pages over Sunday-morning breakfast in the 1980s and '90s. Covering topics that are eminently relatable to today's readers with her characteristic forthright humor, Guisewite's essays are well written and affecting, giving us an insight into where the comic strip might have gone had Guisewite not given it up to spend more time with her growing children and aging parents. It's easy to imagine the eponymous Cathy is the one stuck in a sports bra in a dressing room or aghast as her mother attempts to serve her expired mayonnaise. But Guisewite's writing really sings when she is being sincere rather than slapstick, an unexpected surprise. Fans of the comic will be thrilled at these later-year insights into a character they love and tickled by the scattered illustrations in Guisewite's trademark style. New readers will be charmed by the author's wit and turn of phrase. Ack!--Diana Platt Copyright 2019 Booklist

Struggling with the indignities of aging and the stress of caring for both a teenage daughter and elderly parents, Cathy cartoonist Guisewite finds an outlet for her frustrations in this amusing debut essay collection. Fans of the author's long-running comic strip about an insecure career woman will recognize the themes, especially that of the contradictions in the mother-daughter bond. In "Mother's Day Text Message," just after Guisewite shares her sadness at her daughter's departure for college, she reveals the less sentimental flipside by quoting her daughter's communication at the end of that college year: "can u book me a flite and put $900 in my account so I can ship all my stuff?" Another theme, in "In Loving Memory of the Legs I Used to Hate" and many other essays, is the perennial body-image demon faced by women at all life stages. There is also the loving but fraught relationship of adult children with stubborn, independent parents, as seen in Guisewite's dealings with her own mother ("In spite of how cheerfully I've reassured her what a great driver she is, she knows she's being assessed"). Some will find Guisewite's discussions of shoes and makeup shallow, but women who can relate to her experiences and concerns will enjoy her girlfriendish voice and appreciate the more substantive material. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Cathy comic strip creator Guisewite spent decades (1976-2010) encapsulating single womanhood into popular cartoons but has always wanted to write essays. This collection of 50 pieces of varying lengths (and charming interior line art) serves as the first of the multi-award-winning cartoonist's offerings to the genre. The iconic cover illustration is immediately familiar, even for readers who don't recognize "Guisewite." She hits all the expected notes: singlehood, career, appearance, the trials and tribulations of being a modern woman. These essays work better when they're shorter, and Guisewite finds her voice when she delves into her relationships with her daughter and parents and examines the struggles of aging and loss, which she does with humor and a deft eye for detail. These qualities elevate what could be a dreary, maudlin read into a work with real heart. Readers who enjoyed Cathy are a built-in audience for this title; they'll get to know the woman who struggled to present the insecurity of single career women while dealing with motherhood and a failing marriage. VERDICT Good for fans of Cathy and Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck. Guisewite is not Ephron, but she's not trying to be. She's emphatically, jubilantly, Cathy.-Audrey Snowden, Milford Town Lib., MA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The creator of an iconic cartoon strip shares her quirky humor in prose form.Like millions of other women, Guisewite (The Mother-Daughter Dance, 2016, etc.), creator of the megapopular comic strip "Cathy," has fears, concerns, and outrages; from 1976 to 2010, she expressed them all with a delightful sense of fun. Now that she's retired from drawing her "Cathy" strip, which at its peak appeared in more than 1,400 newspapers, the author turns to prose, presenting short essays and sidebars about her major life change when the strip ended. "I got older," she writes, "which I hadn't factored in, and became even more obnoxious and belligerent than my child or my parents, incapable of even committing to exercise five minutes a day. I thought that when I quit my job, the pace of all the change would slow down. But it didn't. It sped up." The author's topics, many of which she explored in her comic strip, range widely: aging parents who refuse to let go of their stuff and don't feel old despite being in their 90s; how she has outgrown all her shoes; eating and skin care habits and body image issues; inability to fit into a sports bra; desire to commit to an exercise program; terror at trying on a swimsuit; the difficulties of organizing a house; her life with her now college-bound daughter and how much things have changed for women since her own mother was young. Although some of the essays are repetitive and clunky in their attempts at comedy, Guisewite hits the mark more often than not. It's a collection that isn't likely to appeal to readers who were never "Cathy" fans (Ack!), but the author offers a new way to savor the humor of her classic comic-strip character.Absurd and often witty takes on life as a caregiver, mother, and woman. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Fans of Cathy, rejoice! Cartoonist Guisewite (The Mother-Daughter Dance, 2016) is back with a hilarious collection of essays that will feel very familiar to anyone who ever read the funny pages over Sunday-morning breakfast in the 1980s and '90s. Covering topics that are eminently relatable to today's readers with her characteristic forthright humor, Guisewite's essays are well written and affecting, giving us an insight into where the comic strip might have gone had Guisewite not given it up to spend more time with her growing children and aging parents. It's easy to imagine the eponymous Cathy is the one stuck in a sports bra in a dressing room or aghast as her mother attempts to serve her expired mayonnaise. But Guisewite's writing really sings when she is being sincere rather than slapstick, an unexpected surprise. Fans of the comic will be thrilled at these later-year insights into a character they love and tickled by the scattered illustrations in Guisewite's trademark style. New readers will be charmed by the author's wit and turn of phrase. Ack! Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Cathy comic strip creator Guisewite spent decades (1976-2010) encapsulating single womanhood into popular cartoons but has always wanted to write essays. This collection of 50 pieces of varying lengths (and charming interior line art) serves as the first of the multi-award-winning cartoonist's offerings to the genre. The iconic cover illustration is immediately familiar, even for readers who don't recognize "Guisewite." She hits all the expected notes: singlehood, career, appearance, the trials and tribulations of being a modern woman. These essays work better when they're shorter, and Guisewite finds her voice when she delves into her relationships with her daughter and parents and examines the struggles of aging and loss, which she does with humor and a deft eye for detail. These qualities elevate what could be a dreary, maudlin read into a work with real heart. Readers who enjoyed Cathy are a built-in audience for this title; they'll get to know the woman who struggled to present the insecurity of single career women while dealing with motherhood and a failing marriage. VERDICT Good for fans of Cathy and Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck. Guisewite is not Ephron, but she's not trying to be. She's emphatically, jubilantly, Cathy.—Audrey Snowden, Milford Town Lib., MA

Struggling with the indignities of aging and the stress of caring for both a teenage daughter and elderly parents, Cathy cartoonist Guisewite finds an outlet for her frustrations in this amusing debut essay collection. Fans of the author's long-running comic strip about an insecure career woman will recognize the themes, especially that of the contradictions in the mother-daughter bond. In "Mother's Day Text Message," just after Guisewite shares her sadness at her daughter's departure for college, she reveals the less sentimental flipside by quoting her daughter's communication at the end of that college year: "can u book me a flite and put $900 in my account so I can ship all my stuff?" Another theme, in "In Loving Memory of the Legs I Used to Hate" and many other essays, is the perennial body-image demon faced by women at all life stages. There is also the loving but fraught relationship of adult children with stubborn, independent parents, as seen in Guisewite's dealings with her own mother ("In spite of how cheerfully I've reassured her what a great driver she is, she knows she's being assessed"). Some will find Guisewite's discussions of shoes and makeup shallow, but women who can relate to her experiences and concerns will enjoy her girlfriendish voice and appreciate the more substantive material. (Apr.)