• Home
  • About Me
  • Life
  • Reading
  • Gardening
  • Subscribe by Email
  • Referral Codes

Kimberussell.com

a blog by Kim Russell

October 14, 2014

All Fall Down review and a Max update

All Fall DownAll Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This review contains SPOILERS!
Allison Weiss begins abusing pain pills because she has to take care of her kid, deal with her father who has Alzheimer’s (but not really, because he lives with her mother), take care of the house and write five blog posts a week.

This…this is what most of the women I know do every day, except those women actually have to leave the house to go to work and have to do more than 500 words. But fine, I’ll suspend my disbelief a bit and go with the idea that Allison is a special snowflake.

By the way, this isn’t Allison’s fault. Her newspaper reporter husband got a book advance and then made her leave Philadelphia to live in a McMansion! And then her blog was discovered and she was hired as a writer and made so much money! And she has to take her child to school!

My gripes:

I’d take pills too, if Ellie were my kid. Methinks the wrong Weiss had prescriptions.

I ROARED at the notion that Dave, the Philadelphia newspaper City Hall reporter, having conservative attitudes. I worked at a newspaper too, and I think it’s genetically impossible for a newspaper reporter in this area to be anything less than 100% DNC-4-lyfe.

Why AA and not NA?

For an author named Jennifer who wrote a main character named Allison, she did a lot of ragging on the popularity of the names Ashley and Brittanys. As a Kimberly, it’s my duty to tell you that the names Jennifer, Allison, and Kimberly were REALLY popular in NJ/PA in our time. We were the Ashleys/Brittanys of the 70s/80s.

I’m about the same age as Allison, but her mother who should be slightly younger than mine is written as so very old. Not just because of her … problem … but her hair, makeup, etc seems more of my grandmothers’ styles. I don’t know why she’d be some sort of Meghan Draper wife when she came of age much later than that.

And her mother managed to solve her lifelong problem in a few weeks, by the way, without rehab.

I wanted to read more about Allison in rehab. We went from the events surrounding Ellie’s birthday and flashed forward to Allison out and living her clean life again.

At the end of the book, how in the hell did they manage to have two separate households in Philadelphia with only Dave working and Allison having blown so much of her own money on pills?

Here on Goodreads, two stars means “it was ok.” And there were parts that were very, very good. I found her scenes with Dave heartwrenching, and her aching for how they used to be punched me in the gut. But the book was about 85% a leadup to rehab, and 10% what happened afterward. That 85% was very redundant.

Disclaimer: I grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ and still live in the area. I experienced a great amount of schadenfreude at Allison’s descent because I would have gone to high school with her hoity-toity, nose-job-at-16 self.

View all my reviews

***

Max’s blood glucose level actually went up yesterday (wtf?) so in addition to increasing his insulin dosage (we are up to 6 units 2x a day) we are switching him and Ollie to a higher-protein grain-free dog food. He has another blood test Saturday. Sigh.

Posted In: Home and Family, Reading · Tagged: book review, diabetes, max

Previous Post Blockhead forever
Next Post Friday 5: Wrap It or Cap It

Hello!

About Me

I've been blogging for over twenty (2 decades! 2-0!) years and I'm apparently one of the few over-50 female bloggers who haven't sold out to THE MAN yet; hence this blog remains quirky, homespun, and unprofitable. No big. However, if you're from Disney, Doritos, or Dave Matthews Band, I'm open to talk about selling out.

I live in Southern New Jersey with my husband WM, and our dog Murphy. I'm an adult who likes Disney but not a Disney Adult. I used to work a fun (really!) office job in Philadelphia, but since March of 2020 I'm a work from home hermit. So if you're looking for a childless, slightly round, marginally boring GenX woman's blog to follow, you've come to the right place! :)

Subscribe to my posts via email

A weekly email that will contain links to that week's posts.

Archives

Goodreads

Kimberly's bookshelf: read

The Duke and I
liked it
The Duke and I
by Julia Quinn
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
liked it
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Spare
really liked it
Spare
by Prince Harry
tagged: memoir, own-ebook, and nonfiction
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
really liked it
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
by Glory Edim
The Guest List
really liked it
The Guest List
by Lucy Foley

goodreads.com

Pinterest

Visit my profile on Pinterest.
Privacy Policy

“I am I because my little dog knows me.” – G. Stein

Advent week 2 - Peace

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Spent a lovely evening with my lovely family. #hol Spent a lovely evening with my lovely family. #holidays
Advent week 1 - Hope Do not get lost in a sea of Advent week 1 - Hope 

Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. - Representative John Lewis
I believe this is what’s called “adulting.” I believe this is what’s called “adulting.” #holidays
We need a little #Christmas. Right this very minut We need a little #Christmas. Right this very minute. Candles in the window. Carols at the spinet. #dogsofinstagram
You can still have a cozy day without having the “aesthetic.” Sometimes your cozy place has a dog crate in front of it. Sometimes the toilet bowl cleaner scent overpowers your candle. It’s still perfect. #cozy #reallife #genx
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2023 Kimberussell.com · Theme by 17th Avenue