"My Parents Were Awesome" edited by Eliot Glazer

240 pages

It's hard to imagine what our parents were like before they had kids. For as long as we've known them--our entire lives--we've viewed them as the people who take care of us. We altered their lives so much when we came along that it's hard to imagine what they were like before we came into the world. Well, in many cases, our parents were awesome. They were cool, beautiful, handsome, and fun. Some of them were hippies, rebels, or the life of the party. In this collection of essays, the authors tell us what made their parents awesome. Some share specific stories while others discuss their parents' general fabulousness.

I really loved some of these essays and really didn't like others (which is pretty standard for any collection of short stories or essays, I suppose). Some made me laugh out loud and/or brought tears to my eyes, while others just fell flat to me--to be honest, I thought some of these people's parents were not actually very awesome at all! That said, I enjoyed this collection as a whole. It made me think about my own parents and all the ways that they were/are awesome, and it reminded me that my parents are much more than just parents--their lives do not revolve around me, *gasp*! Oh, and did I mention that there are photographs accompanying each essay? Those funky pics from the 50s, 60s, and 70s make the book worthwhile by themselves.