Monday 6 January 2014

Book ~ "Notes to Boys and Other Things I Shouldn't Share in Public" (2014) Pamela Ribon

From Goodreads ~ Notes to Boys and Other Things I Shouldn't Share in Public is a "mortifying memoir" from best-selling author and tv/film writer Pamela Ribon. 

Miserably trapped in small town Texas with no invention of the Internet in sight, Ribon spent countless hours of her high school years writing letters to her (often unrequited) crushes. The big question is why she always kept a copy for herself. 

Wince along with Ribon as she tries to understand exactly how she ever thought she'd win a boy's heart by writing him a letter that began: "Share with me your soul," and ends with some remarkably awkward erotica. You'll come for the incredibly bad poetry, but you'll stay for the incredibly bad poetry about racism.

Can you imagine finding the diaries and letters you'd written when you were a teenager and reading them as a adult?  Apparently the author did and this book is her analysis of them.

The book quotes the writings by date and the author cuts in to say what was going on at the time or make a snarky comment.  And other times, the author provides detail about wanting to lose her virginity, her dad having the talk with her about the facts of life, the various boys she'd become obsessed with (some didn't know she existed), etc.

I thought this book sounded like it would be a hoot ... and it was for a while.  But I found it was the same thing over and over and I got bored with it.   And I found it hard to believe that a 15-year-old would actually put down on paper these ramblings.  I felt kind of bad for her teenage self because she was so desperate to be loved.

This book wasn't for me, I guess.

1 comment:

Masshole Mommy said...

Bummer - it does sound like it would be funny, but I guess not.