Olivia is a stay-at-home mom looking to change up her life when her neighbor Patricia offers her a job as her assistant. Even though she thinks Patricia is a snob, Olivia jumps at the chance to make a little money and get out of her doldrum life. When Patricia tells Olivia about her Me List, a list of things to improve herself, Olivia decides to write one for herself.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I loved Olivia's journey and self discovery. On the other hand, I question whether Olivia is a good partner to her husband. At the beginning of the book we find out she gave her mom all of her and her husband's vacation money (without telling her husband), she starts fostering a dog even though her husband is allergic, and then she just jumps on an airplane for a quick trip (admittedly for a good reason) and basically tells her husband, "Hey I'm going to be gone for the next 6 hours so can you pick up our daughter from kindergarten." I thought she was a bit selfish.
I was also a bit disappointed in what was actually on Olivia's Me List. I thought her tasks would be things that would take a lot of time and would be profound or intense. Instead, we get things like "Go to yoga", and then Olivia goes to yoga once and never mentions it again. Or "Join a book club", and Olivia goes to the book club run by the woman who lives down the street and who is always inviting Olivia to the book club. Not that these are not deep or quality tasks, but it seems like they are just there to check off a list.
I did like the friendship that formed between Patricia and Olivia. I thought the book did a good job of highlighting how hard it is to form friendships as adults and how to keep those friendships going.
I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book because in the first chapter, Olivia gets offended when Patricia asks her to go to lunch at a salad place because Olivia doesn't like salad? Or she only likes salad with cheese on it? I felt like this was a lazy plot device to show that Olivia is messy and unsophisticated because apparently, only elegant and stylish women (like Patricia) eat salads. Sorry, but I don't know anyone who doesn't like a salad.
This book was fine. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.
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