Another Bad-Dog Book - Joni B. Cole, Author

 

‘I had found myself up, thinking about all the ways my husband and I weren’t best friends:  how we had nothing in common (children don’t count), and how we were going to end up in just a few short years like so many other empty nesters who look at each other across the middle cushion of their corduroy couch and think, Wow.  What now?  Why am I with this person?  I hate corduroy.’

 

‘my eight-year-old daughter...asked me if she could have an end-of-summer party…  “I want it to be a water party,” my daughter said… Over the next couple weeks, my daughter winnowed down her guest list to six best friends and we loaded up on squirt guns and other water-party supplies.  The morning of the event, she came downstairs already dressed in her bikini, and handed me a piece of a paper.  At the top she’d printed – Mommy’s Dos and Don’ts.  “What’s this?” I asked.  It’s a list,” she explained, “so you know how to act at the party.”

 

These are just two of the many fears and ‘crises’ faced by the author as she, as well as her family, move on into the world of ‘getting older.’  While reading I couldn’t help but remember some of these very incidents in my own life.  The story ‘The Boy of Summer’ reminded me of the boy who occupied, maybe not my time but my mind during my summer at age 13. Joni's story ‘A Few Minutes of My Time’ reminded me that I’m computer blonde so when people talk to me about anything technical I have to ask that they speak English and not ‘computerish.”  And believe it or not but we all go through ‘Identity Theft.’   It happens every year on December 31^st when we make our New Year’s resolutions.  We spot someone and decide we want to look, act and be that person.  So we proceed to try our best to steal their identity for ourselves.

 

The stories included in Another Bad-Dog Book bring the reader both laughter and recognition.  I have to recommend this book for both women and men.  If you’re a woman I feel you will be able to relate to most of the events and feelings that take place as the author goes through her ‘midlife crisis.’  If you’re a man, this book can be a great tool in helping you understand why the women in your life have taken on a personality that is totally different from the one you fell in love with.  Believe me, male or female, you can’t help but love this book.