The Book:
Yoga Pant Nation by Laurie Gelman (Class Mom #3)
Published July 13th 2021 by Henry Holt and Co.
Date read: June 22, 2021
The Characters:
Jen and her family
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Jen Dixon of Overland Park, Kansas—fearless mother of a fifth-grade boy and two thirty-something daughters—is used to juggling a lot, from her mission to become a spin instructor, to stepping in as the most acerbic class mom ever (again), to taking care of her two-year-old granddaughter. But when the PTA president throws her a mandate to raise $10,000 for the fifth-grade class, even unflappable Jen is going to need more than her regular spin class to get her through this final year at William Taft Elementary School.
In the midst of new complications—organizing the class overnight to Topeka, an unexpected spin class fan in the form of her husband’s crazy ex-wife, and trying to navigate her parents’ sudden descent into apparent delusions—Jen hardly has the patience to listen to yet another half-baked idea (come on, ladies, another wrapping paper sale?) from WeFUKCT (We Fundraise Until Kingdom Come Team), her fundraising committee. But if anyone can get elementary parents to pull off the impossible, it’s Jen Dixon.
With her always irreverent and laugh-out-loud humor—boldly holding forth on those things you’re thinking, but would never dare say out loud—Laurie Gelman shines a light on the indignities and hilarities of modern parenting.
The Review:
Audio review: I adore audiobooks that are narrated by the author. I feel like it really ensures that the book is interpreted exactly as intended, with all the voices and inflections that the author had in mind while writing it. Audiobooks narrated by the author always make me at least 50% more interested in listening rather than reading.
I thought the pacing was perfect, and was able to listen to this one at the maximum available speed as the narration was clear and articulate. The production was top-notch.
Book review: This whole series was so fun! I love Jen and her snarky no-BS attitude. They are the perfect light, fun, guilty-pleasure read. Don’t go into it expecting high-brow literature or a scintillating plot, but if you enjoy a fun, jokey, momlife book, this one’s for you.
I love the drama of the first two books, and we got some of that in this one too. It also tackled some more real-life issues, which was a nice change of pace.
Although this could be read as a standalone, I believe it would be much more interesting to the reader to have gotten more background on Jen in the first two books.
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