A Year in Van Nuys

Sandra's really having a Bad Day, in fact, she's having a Bad Year! Sandra's just turned 36 years old, has eye bags, and is no longer Young, Hip, and Fresh. If she feels this bad at 36, I wonder what's she going to be like if she makes it to 46 years old. Sandra's a writer trying to write that great American novel, but she's got writer's block. She also writes for a failing women's website, and has a TV sitcom based on her life that's due out soon but it looks like it's a failure already. She's neurotic, a mess and quickly becoming a non-achiever. She hopes to make "Haggard" an admired term of endearment in LA.Well, reading this book is like an adrenaline rush. Most of this book was very entertaining. There were some very funny chapters I could easily relate to. Sandra has a lot to say, and where she gets all this information & ideas from, I don't know. It's amazing! I found myself caught up with her and rushing right along with her to the end of the book. She looks at life in a crazy, and different sort of way. I think Sandra has only begun to express herself, and there's lots more to come in print from her. Let's hope so. She's funny, crazy, and a delight to spend an evening with. Recommended!

After spending uncounted months commuting from my place in suburbia-like Orange County, California to my boyfriend's less than palatial abode in Van Nuys, this book came along. It had me laughing out loud from the first page (the zone-approved turkey) and wiping my eyes at the last. For anyone who's ever thought they should write a memoir, or wanted to be like or murder a sibling, or, heck, anyone who's wondered what the hell's wrong with Californians... this is a great read. Just don't try to read it on your birthday... with a handful of Tylenol PM's.

I hadn't expected to like this book as much as I did. Just after reading it, I went on a weekend with "the girls" and found myself quoting endlessly from it, including her... ...description of cheap gyms in LA, complete with the ladies in big undies loofaing in the shower ...searingly accurate account of the tossing (and non-tossing) of the conversational ball ...biting critique of You've Got Mail! Okay...so my descriptions aren't funny, but this book is. Buy it. Read it. Claim the funny stuff as your own. I HIGHLY recommend this book and will read her other books as well.

Have you ever had the experience of reading a book and, despite the fact that you've never met the author, felt that it was written JUST FOR YOU? Well, that's what reading A YEAR IN VAN NUYS was like for me. Never mind that I've never set foot in Van Nuys; I could relate so much to Sandra, in her mid-30s, her youth passing her by, wondering, where's that novel I should have written -- heck, where's my Oscar? I can't remember the last time a book made me laugh so hard as I was nodding, "Yes, that's so TRUE!" Sandra is the funniest woman in America and you don't have to be a Southern Californian to love this book. I'd place her right up there with David Sedaris, Merrill Markoe and Al Franken in the pantheon of Authors Who Make Me Laugh Hysterically.

This wonderful book made me laugh out loud so many times that other people in the room began to eye me strangely. Honest, engaging and so winningly written that I read the entire book in one big delicious gulp.