Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife Review

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(More customer reviews)A ghastly book by the sadly misnamed Sarah Smiley. I have a weakness for domestic memoirs (Jean Kerr, Shirley Jackson, Erma Bombeck) and I am, myself, a military wife, so I was excited to find this book and fully expected to enjoy it.
I hated it. A lot. With the exception of books about serial killers, I don't believe I've ever read a book with a protagonist I liked less. 260 pages of whining. No empathy for anyone: poor Sarah always has it worse. Her mother (an admiral's wife) comments that deployments used to be worse back in the days before email. No, says Sarah, email is worse because there is more disappointed anticipation. ?!?
A friend suffers a miscarriage and Sarah has to be literally shamed into going to help her (Sarah doesn't like blood, you see). Nowhere in the remainder of the book is there an inkling of sympathy for this woman (also a military wife) who has had three miscarriages, the last one while her husband was deployed. It's all about Sarah (who has to babysit for the woman's older child).
Another friend's husband is sent home from the deployment and their family must relocate to California (from Florida) in a month. The reasons for this are not specified, but I can tell you that an officer isn't usually sent home early from a deployment for good behavior. Sarah's response? First, jealousy that her friend's husband is coming home; second, discontent that she (Sarah) will be losing her friend!
The worst, though, is her treatment of her husband, whom she is mad at throughout the entire book. To use one example only: Sarah's husband sends her an email -- one that would have broken my heart had my husband sent it to me -- in which he writes sadly that he will miss seeing their new baby's first smile, just as he missed seeing their older son's. Sarah's response to this? To be angry because that was the only email he sent her that day.
I finished the book only because I was hoping she would grow up! Nope, though. She was just as self-absorbed and whiney on the last page as she had been on the first. I came to Amazon and read the reviews and found several people who said something like "I don't know anything about the military, but now I have an understanding of what military wives go through." I hate the idea that people will read this tripe and think it is in any way representative of me, or of any of the fine military spouses I have known!
And this was a memoir! I can't imagine writing a book in which I acted like a spoiled brat from page 1 to page 260 and allowing it to be published with my picture on the front! Of course, Sarah doesn't think she is a spoiled brat -- oh no! Sarah pees champagne and poops gold bricks and is the white-hot center of the universe...
Once I finished it I threw the thing in the garbage. Yep, the garbage. Usually I donate books I don't want anymore to the library, but that didn't seem final enough in this case. So it's on its way to the York County Waste Treatment Facility right now. And I'm not a bit sorry!


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A former Navy brat and present-day Navy wife, Sarah Smiley knows better than anyone that weddings and funerals-even childbirth!-take a backseat to Uncle Sam. And it seems that every time the young, nationally syndicated columnist gets comfortable with her routine, her husband is sent away for an unexpected deployment. What follows is a true test of strength and wit that even Sarah's nit-picking mother-in-law couldn't have prepared her for. From raccoons in the attic to getting locked out of the house in cowgirl pajamas to developing a crush on her handsome doctor, Sarah learns that growing up means taking a leap-and sometimes going a little overboard. In this memoir, she exposes it all with candor, heart, and a whole lot of laughs.

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E-Mail to the Front: One Wife's Correspondence with Her Husband Overseas Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow! Where to start? Before reading E-MAIL TO THE FRONT, I appreciated America's military families in a vague sort of way. Yes, I knew they worried about their loved ones who had been deployed thousands of miles away and that it must be difficult for them to cope with the absence of a missing husband or wife, but I had no real concept of the everyday sacrifices they make on our behalf. This book changed all that!
What is it like to have a toddler and a newborn, move two thousand miles away from your family and friends, and then wave good-bye to your husband for six months? How do you manage to get a job (as a trial lawyer, no less), deal with the usual array of childhood illnesses, feed the dog, mow the lawn, and manage the million and one details of family life while also trying to keep your marriage thriving by having phone sex on monitored lines from thousands of miles away? Read E-MAIL TO THE FRONT, and you'll find out how! Ms. Holliday gives us a look into the real challenges military families face--not the sometimes whitewashed, rah-rah version we see so often in the media. This sometimes funny, sometimes poignant account of how she survived her husband's two deployments will make you want to go up to the next military family you see and say "thank you." And I want to say "thank you" to the author for this wonderfully written, thoroughly entertaining book that opened my eyes to what it's like for the families left behind!

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"6/9: Evidently I wasn't supposed to put so much oil in the mower. The smoke went away fairly quickly, though. Connor even got to go for a ride in the fire truck."Alesia Holliday has survived scenes like this and more while her husband, a naval flight officer, has been away on military duty. They have forged a different kind of marriage-one that the 1.5 million current active-duty service members and their families will identify with. E-mail to the Front has a large built-in audience that boasts a camaraderie strengthened by shared difficulties and discoveries. E-mail to the Front consists of short commentaries by Alesia and an e-mail dialogue between her and her husband while he was on deployment. In text filled with empathy, gut-level honesty, humor, and unflinching support, chapters cover everything from "Departure: Only 183 Days to Go" to "Rebellion of the Appliances" to "It's Like Being a Single Mother, but I Can't Date." E-mail to the Front will appeal to everyone who appreciates the courage of those who choose to serve their country, the families who are meeting the challenge of military duty, and those who love and support them. Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry has written a cover quote for the book, and best-selling author Suzanne Brockmann said "This book should be required reading for all Americans."

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