Something New! A book review: Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe

Today I’m veering from my regularly scheduled post detailing the mundane trappings of my day-to-day existence to bring you my first-ever book review for TLC Book Tours.  (Don’t forget to stop by THIS post and enter my free coffee and book giveaway!) What are my qualifications, you ask?  I offer up my 25+ years of experience as a voracious (but not always discriminating) reader and the fact that I teach 20 classes of English Literature each week to reluctant high school students.  Armed with those ‘skills’, I present my review!

• Title: Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe
• Author:         Jennie Shortridge
• Pages:          367
• Genre:          Fiction
• Pub. Date:    May 6, 2008
• ISBN:            978-0451223883
• Price:           $14.00
• Publisher:    NAL (division of Penguin Publishing)

Author’s Synopsis: ”…a woman’s journey from “perfect” to better. Mira is a middle-aged, perimenopausal perfectionist whose goal in life has been to live perfectly. When one small piece of that life is toppled, the rest falls around it, and she finds herself in a car headed north from her idyllic Oregon Coast small town and family, dressed only in a thong and bathrobe, and accompanied by a small singing dog named Patsy Cline. Her car breaks down in Seattle, in a funky old neighborhood known to locals as ‘The Center of the Universe,” and this becomes her Oz, where she can discover who she really is and what really matters.” ~Jennie Shortridge

CWG says:  I’ll admit it: I sometimes judge a book by its cover.  From the moment I opened the padded envelope containing my copy of Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe by Jennie Shortridge, I was smitten.  For someone who has spent whole minutes watching baristas make designs in frothy milk foam on Youtube, the cover was made for me!

Coming from a large (and at times overbearing) Italian family, I was able to identify with Mira Serafino’s family.  From the secrecy and cover-up surrounding Mira’s mother’s death, to her grandmother’s letters advising Mira to overlook her husband’s indiscretions to keep peace in the family, these details are all true of generations past–my family included.

Mira’s departure from her “pefect” self and subsequent journey of self-discovery were simultaneously sad and humorous.  I quickly became vested in the characters and at times wanted to reach into Mira’s world and give her daughter, Thea, a smack on the head for treating her mother so shabbily. 

As Mira began to shed her pretenses and perfectionist behavior, she became more relatable to me.  I loved Shortridge’s eye for detail–giving Mira a pair of non-Mom jeans and an edgy haircut after she emancipates herself from her former life–inconsequential things on their own, but when added to her new lifestyle, help Mira rediscover herself.

An author interview and discussion questions are included at the end of the book, making it an ideal book club selection.  I’d strongly suggest snuggling up with a frothy mug of cappuccino or cocoa and a copy of Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe because you won’t be disappointed in either.