#Review / #Giveaway – Rats, Mice, And Other Things You Can’t Take to The Bank by Leslie Handler

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Life Happens! Leslie Handler shares life as it happens to her and those she loves with this collection of essays. Some are quite funny. Others bring memories of my own life, good and bad.

What I liked about this book is that I could pick it up and read a few stories, put it down and come back another time. I started reading it from the beginning but then found myself skipping around depending on the mood I was in.

Over the course of the book, you get to know the author very well. She is truthful about the ups and downs of marriage, the “joys” of getting older, and her general musings on life. She covers a wide range of topics and while I didn’t always agree with her assessment I found the essays to be very entertaining. She has clearly led a different life than I have so some of her stories didn’t resonate with me as much as others, but I do know this  – we both have had our struggles in life and we both greatly love our husbands and our husbands greatly love us even with all our faults.

One thing that I noted that we share is we both need to manage our anger. Sometimes silly things just make us mad, but sometimes important things really set us off. Her motto like mine is “Just Breathe”. I feel I learned Lamaze breathing not to just help me get through the rigors to give birth to my children but to get through the rigors of life that would follow after the birth of my children. Sometimes it works, sometimes I still blow, but heck I am human and sometimes breathing in and out takes a little explosion to get me started down the calmer path.

Leslie Handler shares her poignant, mostly amusing, truthful stories of life as she sees it and I found them to be very enjoyable to read.