The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

A comic exploration of a year in the life of an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” (Los Angeles Times) best-selling author.

Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement. . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat?all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.

The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. Including a new epilogue hilariously recounting her family’s quarantine experience during the pandemic, The Madwoman and the Roomba is a “wildly funny” testament to Loh’s “brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience” (Henry Alford).

 

1133534112
The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

A comic exploration of a year in the life of an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” (Los Angeles Times) best-selling author.

Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement. . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat?all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.

The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. Including a new epilogue hilariously recounting her family’s quarantine experience during the pandemic, The Madwoman and the Roomba is a “wildly funny” testament to Loh’s “brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience” (Henry Alford).

 

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The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

by Sandra Tsing Loh
The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem

by Sandra Tsing Loh

eBook

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Overview

A comic exploration of a year in the life of an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” (Los Angeles Times) best-selling author.

Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement. . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat?all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.

The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. Including a new epilogue hilariously recounting her family’s quarantine experience during the pandemic, The Madwoman and the Roomba is a “wildly funny” testament to Loh’s “brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience” (Henry Alford).

 


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393249217
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 06/02/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

About The Author
Sandra Tsing Loh is a writer and performer. Her work has been heard on NPR’s Morning Edition and This American Life. Her book The Madwoman in the Volvo was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014. Loh lives in Pasadena, California.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

The Tooth 1

"Winter" Is Coming HERE

"January"

Welcome to the Jungle (aka: Mice!) 13

"February"

Rebirthing Shoots of Grass in the Ice

"cheese therapy"

Pema Bollywood/The Goddess Within/Fifty-Sixth Birthday/My Goddess, Myself 25

Home Self-Care 44

Stanford Swimming 57

"Spring" into Action

"March" … into What?

Forest Lawn 69

Sleeping with Arianna Huffington 77

"April" Is the Crudest Month

It's Taxing: The Rube Goldberg Machine, Surprisingly, Breaks Down 91

Physical Update Number 301: The Flyaway Retina 97

The March for Science 101

Flabbra Mom 108

"May" I Have a Couple of Ambien?

C-Plus Tiger Mom 125

"Summer"

A "June" of One's Own

Let's Commence 139

Can't Think of Anything Clever to Say about "July"

101 (If You Count Each Piece of "Extra" Checked Baggage) Arguments Against "Summer Fun" (A Wee Rant/Digression) 149

July 4th-ish 157

A Very Hindu Audit 166

I'd Rather Be "August" Wilson

Tampa 185

"Fair into "September"/"October"/"November"/"December"

Marriage in the Middle Ages: I Do or I Don't? 199

The Fantasy of Living Alone 208

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: The Hip 218

The Gynecologist 221

Down the Tubes 223

Going Medieval Atkins 226

In a Spin 229

Getting Sirius 231

Me and My Massage Chair 233

Villager Number 31: "Storm of Joy" 238

Thanksgiving 247

The Gardening Fairy 251

Mr. Loh's Not Afraid to Be Naked 255

Acknowledgments 273

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