Earth, My Butt, and other Big Round Things -- Carolyn Mackler

Big round things.

Yep. I finally got around to reading The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. And you know what? It wasn't anything like I thought it would be. I've had a couple of patrons mention that it wasn't as funny as they thought it would be, so I was expecting dark humor. Regardless of title and cover art, this wasn't a belly-laugh kind of book—I wouldn't really put it into the 'funny' category at all. There was plenty of angst, though.

Even with the angst-factor, it was really good—I felt that the author got a lot of the high school stuff dead-on. Specifically, she captured Virginia's realization that she didn't have to try to fit in OR be invisible. That was the part that really resonated for me, anyway.

It just wasn't nearly as fluffy as I thought it would be. It wasn't mega-heavy or anything, but I felt that there was a lot more substance than I was expecting. The mom-as-famous-child-therapist-who-is-actually-crappy-at-parenting is becoming a bit of a cliche, but it didn't really bother me much. And even though I found the Ani DiFranco references annoying, they were right for the book and the characters.

Word of warning to any Red Sox fans (can you really like another team? I mean, come on. Really.): Virginia is a die-hard Skankees fan. She specifically has a huge crush on nasty Derek Jeter. Barf.