**This book was received as a free Advanced Reader's Copy**I think I may be the wrong audience for this book. While I worry about everything under the sun (and a few things above it as well) I just couldn't relate to the author and her life. Now granted, I'm a single woman with no kids and only a few cats to keep me company, but in theory we were kind of similar at those times where she was single in the book.
Confessions of a Worrywart is Susan Orlins memoir of her life from middle school until the present. A lot of it has to do with her obsession over boys; meeting them, doing things with them, finding that one and special love. Although she's not one for settling and actually bounces around searching for what she wants for awhile. She goes on to meet a man whom she marries and has kids with (3 daughters) and settles into the role of raising them until something comes along to change that as well.
This is a memoir, so it is about Susan. And I'm sure in person she is really interesting, she sounds confident and fun to be around based on this book. But actually reading about her life in that big of a time span, I just had trouble keeping interested. I'm not boy crazy by any means, and I found the amount of time she spent obsessing about men inconceivable to me. Although I do admire the way she appreciates her single time and isn't afraid to do anything on her own, I feel that a lot of it she didn't seem to enjoy because she was too busy worrying about a man showing up. Her daughters make small appearances in this book, and I would have liked to find out more about their lives; what careers they went into, etc. Her ex-husband she wrote about fairly and it seems like they've got a working relationship for the kid's sake.
The book was well written. Orlins puts a little humor into her books, although I was a little startled at the beginning when certain sexual things were just throw right in there with no warning. It doesn't bother me at all, it just completely switched the whole tone of the book when I wasn't expecting it. I did find that the book was a little overly long and detailed for my taste. But once again, that could be because I couldn't relate to the author. It was broken up into chunks of years that were mostly in a time consistent order and situations within those chunks of years. I found her stay in China especially interesting and it was probably one of my favored parts of the book. One thing I do have to say though, is that this book talks about her being a worrywart. I really didn't see any of that worrying until well over a hundred pages into the book, and even then it wasn't something I associated with a worrywart, just a normal amount of worry. The memoir was more about life in general.
People who grew up in Orlin's surroundings might get a better appreciation for this book than I did. While it was easy to read and had well articulated thoughts, I just couldn't get into the book.
Confessions of a Worrywart
Copyright 2013
277 pages
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