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Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting! | 
 enlarge | Author: Sandra Tsing Loh
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $13.72
You Save: $9.28 (40%)
New (36) Used (16) from $12.38
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 8457
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0609608134
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.6
EAN: 9780609608135
ASIN: 0609608134
Publication Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: R20081202004544H
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Product Description
This is a story about the year I exploded into flames. Which turns out to be more common than you’d think, among forty-something humans. Yea, we can hold it together in our thirties, with a raft of hair products and semi-tall nonfat half-caf beverages and much brisk walking to a lot of interesting appointments. Come the forties, though, cracks begin to appear. One staggers suddenly along life’s path; gourmet coffee splats; the wig slips askew. In other words, my friends, THE WHEELS COME OFF.
Sandra Tsing Loh is the fiercest, funniest, and most incredibly honest and self-deprecating voice to emerge from the “mommy war” debates. In Mother on Fire, she fires away with her trademark hilarious satire of societal and personal irks large and small, including limo liberals who preach the virtues of public school but send their children to fashionable private ones, the proliferation of costly skin-care products that just don’t cut it, society’s obsession with aromatherapy, her Chinese father’s disdain for her life as an artist, and $10 Target pants (“Are they running pants, exercise pants, pajama pants?”) that are the ubiquitous Mother of Small Children uniform.
Prompted by her own midlife crisis, Loh throws her frantic energy not into illicit affairs, shopping binges, or exotic trips, but into the harrowing heart of contemporary, dysfunctional L.A. life when she realizes that she can’t afford private school for her daughter, and her only alternative is her neighborhood’s public school, Guavatorina, where most of the kids speak Spanish and qualify for free lunches. In a theater-of-the-absurd-style odyssey, Mother on Fire documents Loh’s “year of living dangerously” among pompous school admissions officials, lactose-intolerant, Prius-driving parents, mafia dons of public radio, vindictive bosses, and old friends with new money as she first kisses ass—and then kicks it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 right for mothers in the same boat December 1, 2008
Entertaining enough to get through, but pretty lightweight. Seems padded a bit excessively to get enough for a book. Still, it resonates with those of us in the same boat, more or less (i.e., middle-class 40's moms of very young kids).
Worth a few hours November 17, 2008
I was happy to spend a few hours reading Sandra Tsing Lo's amusing opinions on public schools, friendship, scented soups and pathetic baby boomers because I am in a similar place in my life right now.
As an added plus, Loh also mentioned my hero, Richard Feynman, whose autobiographical books (Surely You Must Be Joking, What Do You Care What People Think, etc.) surreptitiously give excellent advice on how to encourage a child's curiosity.
Although I admire Loh's intelligence, honesty and rage, I didn't care for her sophomoric writing style and probably wouldn't buy her other books.
 Funny, witty and honest October 20, 2008
I have been reading Loh since her very frist book came out. Even dragged my husband to one of her shows in San Jose a while back, which I enjoyed emmensely. I have eagerly bought every one of her books. Why? because she is so right on, so without shame or pretense, about all aspects of her life. So without PCness. She is one of a kind. This particular book is so touching. Funny, witty, and honest.
 Mother on Fire October 17, 2008
Great book, really funny and fun to read. I am suggesting it to all my mom friends in LA.
Mother on Fire October 15, 2008
Do not let the humor mask the importance of what Sandra Tsing Loh is saying here. There is a real distortion of reality developing on the part of many middle and upper class parents these days. She addresses this both from the inside and the outside arriving at a position that seems not that unusual but is indeed important for modern parents.
At a seminar for some high powered young people in NYC, the presenter maintained that the qualities that got them where they may not be available to their children because of the decisions they, their cohort, make. When asked how many went to public schools, most raised their hands. When asked how many send their children to public schools, none raised their hands. "That's why your grandkids will not still have what you accumulate in your lives." he said.
Maybe current economic times will change the trend. If so, this book is a pretty hopeful way to look at school for your kids. And it's so much more funny than reading Jonathan Kozol, great as he is.
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