A Perfect 10

June 29, 2020
Comedian Land (I Ain’t Doin’ It) delivers witty rants on life in this raucous testament. After posting her first sarcastic video on social media in 2017 and seeing it take off, Land jumped into her career as a stand-up comic, traveling the country and refining a routine that poked fun at her religious childhood, divorce, and life as a single mother raising two children. Land zippily careens through topics such as growing up in the South (“Hometown stores where everyone knows your name and anyone can discipline you in the absence of your mama”) and the oddity of millennials’ language (“CMC (call me crazy), but all these new words have me wondering how to crack the code on today’s streets”), but also offers moments of seriousness in which she explores how her faith has given her perspective and encourages readers to reassess their priorities, change, and grow. “Know that it is OK to be where you are in your season—unashamed, unapologetic.” The final chapter on finding new love is especially moving. Land’s revealing anecdotes and heartfelt encouragements will appeal to Christians who enjoyed Rachel Hollis’s Girl, Wash Your Face.

September 15, 2020
A comedian offers humor and wisdom from a life spent "trying to stay afloat." West Tennessee native Land grew up in a small town "where family and church were at the center of everything I knew" and women "learn to please [and] to agree." She credits this seemingly wholesome background with teaching her "how to perform for God and everybody else around me." Later, as a divorced single mother of two children, Land discovered what would become her trademark sarcasm. In grappling with the pressure society places on women to maintain a certain idealistic physical appearance, she came to the eventual conclusion that even though her body was "two parts Diet Coke, one part hot fudge sundae," she was, of course, still worthy of self-love. Parenting children--especially teenagers--led to other revelations. Where once she thought that raising teens would be as fun and predictable as episodes of That '70s Show, she later realized that being a mother to adolescents looked more like an episode of Law & Order, "except there is no law or order in the day-to-day interactions in my home anymore." Life as a single woman looking for companionship brought its own lessons. Land, who posts popular comic videos on Facebook, became painfully aware that her proclivity to "fix people" had turned her into a "missionary date[r]" who sought to change the men in her life. When she later fell in love with an Indian man 12 years her junior, she regained her faith in good partnerships and also learned that love "may not come packaged the way you think." Warm, funny and down to earth, this book celebrates how "being knocked around by [the] waves" of life is not only salutary, but also the source of the best, most engaging kind of humor. A bighearted and candidly humane memoir.

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