The Madwoman and the Roomba

April 1, 2020
A sequel of sorts to The Madwoman and the Volvo. Now in her mid-50s, Atlantic contributing editor Loh returns with another lighthearted look at her life. Following her take on menopause, the author turns her attention to a period in life that is as complex--and anxiety-producing--as ever. "I'm the sort of neurotic who secretly believes my actions control the universe," she writes. "On airplanes, I hold the plane up by clutching the armrests." Loh jumps around quite a bit, moving in her offbeat way through a wide variety of topics: her ex-husband, a broken tooth and necessary dental care, mice in the house, the necessity of a colonoscopy, helping her daughters with their schoolwork ("Thus far, I've resisted being a Tiger Mom. I can't face the pressure of parenting really gifted children")--not to mention "Physical Update Number 301: The Flyaway Retina." For her birthday, the author dabbled in goddess energy, purchasing tarot cards and "Pema Bollywood goddess pants" and throwing herself a party with her girlfriends, who were asked "to bring any one of 'the three C's'--champagne, chocolate, or cheese." She was not pleased with her ayurvedic massage and laments that women are expected to stay fit, trim, and moisturized at age 55 and beyond. Discussing her fights with her husband over money and work, how many older women prefer to live alone, and an invitation to an Ariana Huffington party, the author injects enough wit to make the subjects entertaining. However, it often seems like Loh is unsure of how to get from point A to point B, and many of the topics receive too little exploration. Although the reading is fast-paced and sometimes funny, most of these anecdotes of the mundane are unremarkable. A mildly amusing collection for the author's fans.

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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.

May 1, 2020
Middle age comes at you fast, and Loh's (The Madwoman in the Volvo, 2014) chronicle of a year in her life illustrates the highs and lows of being in one's fifties. Through a series of zingy anecdotal entries, readers follow Loh on her journey to make sense of the world as a newly minted 56-year-old. She recounts a bevy of experiences, including her colonoscopy prep, being audited by the IRS, her partner's enthusiastic Mardi Gras parties, being a C-Plus Tiger Mom to her two teen daughters, an exploration of single friends' postcohab lifestyles, and an Ayurvedic oil experience gone awry, all in hilarious detail. Her warm, chatty, stream-of-consciousness style will attract book clubs as well as those looking for reassurance that they, too, are doing OK despite unsuccessful stabs at homemaking and dealing with hot flashes. Fans of her previous memoirs and of her bite-sized NPR podcast, The Loh Down on Science, will scramble to pick this up and dive back into Loh's world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)