6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A MEMOIR RELATED WITH GRACE AND GOOD HUMOR, May 10, 2009
Few can forget Lee Woodruff's first memoir, In An Instant, with its candor, courage and humor. It is the story of the enormous struggle facing Lee and her husband, Bob, after he was severely wounded by a bomb in Iraq. Of this tragedy now she is quoted as saying "With the injuries he had, he shouldn't be alive......He shouldn't be able to walk, talk, much less work. So it's a miracle that we see every day."
She celebrates that miracle and more in her second memoir, Perfectly Imperfect, and narrates it as only she could. Her voice is unforgettable to many listeners but with added touches of determination, joy, and hope for this reading. This listener felt that perhaps the determination came in when she discussed the challenges of having "a boy and a girl on the precipice of serious adolescence" in the family.
This likable, remarkable woman has much to share, and all of it is more than worth hearing as she touches on family, marriage, and friends, all with great good grace and often humor.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
straight from the hip, straight from the heart, April 26, 2009
Perfectly Imperfect is pretty perfect. Lee is utterly honest about herself, which I find incredibly endearing. I laughed myself silly reading the chapter about gift-giving "nothing with a plug, please" as well as while reading "take me out of the ball game!" and "money can't buy me style." And I shed at least a few tears towards the end of the book, in "my dad," "chutes and ladders," and "what I know now." Lee displays a broad range of understanding and empathy for just about every aspect of life, from the mundane to the mysterious, while her love for her family and friends shines through loud and clear.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a wonderful empathetic, sweet book, I felt like I made a new friend!, August 22, 2009
I loved In an Instant. I picked up this only because I'd enjoyed her other book and was curious how their journey was going. But I almost didn't, because I didn't like the title and the cover photo made it look like it was going to be too Nora Ephronish (I like Nora Ephron but I was looking for more from someone who wrote so touchingly and openly about coping with her husband's severe head injury.)
BTW, i also think the smiley knees chapter was the weakest! despite the fact that the celebrity blurbs on the backcover and the jacket inside flap touted her observation on aging as hilarious... I found them sorta superficial, a little sad, but still, the sort of things I do laugh about with my college girlfriends over wine at our periodic dinners --amusing though and, as the blurbs promised, Erma Bombeckish...and I share her feelings about Amusement Parks and how exhausting it is to watch 4 kids have "the time of their lives."
But I was pleasantly surprised at her ability to remember and write touchingly not only about the ordeal with Bob's injury, but also about life's more common challenges-- the discovery of her father's aging and daughter's disability (deafness) (while Bob was away) and how she coped and helped her daughter by talking clearly, loudly, distinctly, repeating herself, repeating herself. It made me love her. Lee has such insight to coping with Life's curves. It really is an advice book as we find in last chapter that is SPOT ON for people dealing with any sort of grief.
I also found comfort in her descriptions of her daughter's mortification when she was dancing so enthusiastically to 70's music at a party... if _Lee Woodruff's_ daughter feels this way and Lee can respect her feelings (by leaving the party) but also continue asserting her right to feel and dance with joy upon exiting--eventually getting her daughter to finally concede that her dancing was hilarious and finally join in--I can do with my own daughter who alternately loves and "hates" me, pushes me away and needs me.
What wonderful vingettes she shares. She, Bob and their 4 kids are so fortunate to have each other and we're so fortunate she decided to share. I love also the chapter on gift-giving. Clearly gifts are not her "love language" ... and it is so sweet how hard (and sometimes cluelessly) Bob tries. I love her description of the worst (clunky stainless steal giaganic Dynesty style oriental "gem" stone vs. the best gift he ever gave her: Arranging for babysitting for her small children and sending her off to a writer's workshop...a loving thoughtful gift that--unlike clunky jewlry or a vaccume cleaner or Victoria's Secret to replace her granny nightgowns-- was selflessly, all about her.
And isn't it nice how what goes around comes around? She gets a writer's workshop and we get the best book of essays on marriage and motherhood since my beloved Erma Bombeck passed --along the lines of Anna Quinlan.
(Lee, tell your publicist)--I'd love to see a syndicated weekly column in the style section of my newspaper and get a regular uplift from your touching, humorous and comforting observations on life. It would be a public service and might help save the newspapers :)
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