Erma Bombeck (1927–1996)

I'm glad I didn't read this before I was in my 50s. It is absolutely relevant to my age and place in life. A lambasting of the many "self improvement" books out there which promise to fix everything you didn't know was wrong with you in just 365 pages. I chuckled as I read each chapter, and even though the points are greatly exaggerated for humor value, there is a grain of truth, in fact, I might say a 10 lb. bag of flour's worth of truth in each chapter. The world is out to make us feel show more inadequate to life. It's up to us to push back and say, enough. I am good enough. show less

Erma Bombeck has a unique way of looking at life and of writing about it. She shines through the pages as being a person who can take the sickness with the health and tries her damndest to see the funny in something that could fill you with despair. While many of the stories are laugh-out-loud funny they also induced a wry smile occasionally and when she spoke about her miscarriages I nearly cried. What she doesn't mention sometimes is almost as important as what she does mention.

I would show more recommend it. show less

I’m not sure how old I was when I stumbled across one of Erma Bombeck’s books, The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank, in a second hand bookstore though I think I was maybe in my mid teens. I hadn’t really read anything by a humourist before and I wasn’t expecting to find much in a book written by an old (from my perspective), American housewife amusing but I did. In fact I think it was probably the first book that actually made me laugh out loud. After that I kept an eye show more out for anything else by Erma, at that stage (in the late 1980′s) she had published 8 books but they were difficult to find in Australia. Over the years I have managed to collect five of her books, and read 2 others (courtesy the library).
The Erma Bombeck Collection includes two of the books I already own – The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank, and If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? and a third I hadn’t managed to get a hold of Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession.

It’s delightful to discover just how timeless Erma Bombeck’s sense of humour is. Despite the generation gap and the seismic changes in society, her domestic commentary is still as relevant as it was 40 years ago.
My children regularly ambush me with the need for a costume/cake/working model of a rocket ship the night before it is needed, my husband can never find anything on a shelf in the pantry or fridge without my help and I haven’t seen the floor in my teenage daughter’s room for years. No matter if you are the mother of toddlers or teenagers, and regardless of whether you are a stay at home mum or work full time, it is easy to relate to Erma’s light-hearted diatribes.

Hilarious, heartwarming and wise, this is a wonderful collection of three of Erma Bombeck’s best, and a thoroughly entertaining read. show less

At wit’s end is a series of essays written by Erma Bombeck for her newspaper column in the mid-60’s and collected in this book. The blurb claims that you will laugh out loud at the antics of housewives, husbands, kids and everyone else that Ms. Bombeck covers in this book and you will. The fact that the book was written almost 50 years ago does not matter – the material is timeless and well written. Kids connected by wire to boom-boxes and kids wired to their cell phones are the same show more over time. Family vacations are still hilarious. But the book isn’t all laughs and I admit that I did cry. There is an essay on the Bombeck son who gathered some of his precious toys and his used toothbrush to send to Viet Nam for the soldiers. It was a lesson on children caught in war and the soldiers who were also there. It’s as pertinent today as it was then. The essay on the importance of grandparents using Erma’s irrepressible grandmother was a joy. And the essay on Christmas and how busy it was for a friend who even complained that someone had the gall to have a birthday on Christmas Day – until a small child said this: “I know someone.”

Laugh, cry and enjoy! This book was certainly worth the re-read and I know I enjoyed it more today than when it was first published. show less