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Midlife Happy Hour: Our Reward for Surviving Careers, Kids, and Chaos
Finalist for Foreword INDIES Book of the Year for Humor. #1 Bestseller on Kindle. 5-Star Review from Foreword Clarion Reviews. Winner of 2017 Independent Press Award for Midlife. Named a "Distinguished Favorite" for Humor from the 2017 Independent Press Awards. Elaine Ambrose boldly writes her latest kiss-my-attitude book as a sassy sequel to Midlife Cabernet. Ambrose shares her festive life experiences and career-crushing anecdotes as she explains how to remain relevant after age 50, why grown children make great travel companions, and how to balance midlife without falling over. Ambrose notes that her feminine mystique sprung a leak after years of competing as a funny female in a serious male job market. Now the hard work is done, and she invites midlife women to join her for Happy Hour.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2016
63 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Elaine Ambrose
25 books51 followersElaine Ambrose is an award-winning, bestselling author of 12 books, 14 eBooks, and 4 audiobooks. Her books have won 10 national writing awards in three genres: humor, memoir, and children's books. Her new children's book is titled Melody's Magical Flying Machine and features a girl with Down syndrome as the narrator. Midlife Cabernet won two national humor awards, Publishers Weekly reviewed it as “laugh-out-loud funny!” and Foreword Reviews wrote that the book was “an argument for joy” similar to Erma Bombeck. Her book, Midlife Happy Hour, was a finalist for Foreword INDIES Book of the Year and won First Place for Midlife from the Independent Publisher Award. Her memoir Frozen Dinners won Distinguished Favorite awards from the New York City Big Book Awards and from the Independent Press Awards. Her children’s book, Gators & Taters, won an award for Children’s Literature from the 2018 Independent Press Awards. Her bilingual children’s book, The Magic Potato – La Papa Mágica, was selected by the Idaho State Board of Education for the statewide curriculum. Ambrose’s award-winning syndicated blog posts are published on several websites, and one humorous post became one of the most-read posts in the history of The Huffington Post. Elaine lives with her patient husband in Eagle, Idaho.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 21, 2017
Enjoyed this book made me laugh out loud haven't read a book like that for a while
November 8, 2017
A very enjoyable read written from the view of a woman who has now reached her prime and continues to insist on enjoying life after she has hip-and-shouldered out of the workforce and the kids have left the nest.
Full of humorous memoirs of past experiences and the current biological & anatomical adjustments that is now encountered, along with some valid points of contemplation and words of wisdom.
Although the central character/s are women, any males reader - like me - is still able to laugh/smile at the memoirs, and take a serious note of the contemplations and words of wisdom. [It's actually a pity that I've never come across a male author who can tackle, in the same way, the same points that envelope a man's physical &/or psychological changes when he becomes old &/or becomes of no more use to the employment treadmill.]
Well worth a read.
Full of humorous memoirs of past experiences and the current biological & anatomical adjustments that is now encountered, along with some valid points of contemplation and words of wisdom.
Although the central character/s are women, any males reader - like me - is still able to laugh/smile at the memoirs, and take a serious note of the contemplations and words of wisdom. [It's actually a pity that I've never come across a male author who can tackle, in the same way, the same points that envelope a man's physical &/or psychological changes when he becomes old &/or becomes of no more use to the employment treadmill.]
Well worth a read.
November 26, 2017
Enjoyed most of the book except for the part the narrative changed from story telling to patronising voice.
Most favourite section was "The Joy of Traveling with (Grown) Children"
.... I wanted to tell them their kids grow up in about two days. Soon they’ll have time and energy to wear nice clothes, speak in complete sentences, go to the bathroom alone, enjoy sex without locking the bedroom door, and carry purses without wet wipes.
.... I wanted to tell them to slow down, because I knew where they had been and where they were going. The memory made me tired.
.....I think midlife is the best time to be alive. It’s like Happy Hour. We’ve finished the hard work, and now we can relax and enjoy ourselves. And we’re sure as hell not ready yet for closing time.”
Most favourite section was "The Joy of Traveling with (Grown) Children"
.... I wanted to tell them their kids grow up in about two days. Soon they’ll have time and energy to wear nice clothes, speak in complete sentences, go to the bathroom alone, enjoy sex without locking the bedroom door, and carry purses without wet wipes.
.... I wanted to tell them to slow down, because I knew where they had been and where they were going. The memory made me tired.
.....I think midlife is the best time to be alive. It’s like Happy Hour. We’ve finished the hard work, and now we can relax and enjoy ourselves. And we’re sure as hell not ready yet for closing time.”
January 26, 2018
A give up on very few books, but this one I just couldn’t keep going. Probably my sense of humour.
June 22, 2019
Memoir with Attitude
Memoir is a difficult genre which made it hard to give it more stars even though I enjoyed the book. It worked for me because I'm a baby boomer who could really identify with someone who chose to see the humor in situations one needed to rise above. It's a good choice for those days when you anticipate having your reading interrupted fairly often or when recovering from an illness or when you need a bit of a mood lift. It would also be a good choice for a midlife book club that is about the wine and wanting the book to be an easy, quick read with many possible starting points for discussion and getting to know each other better.
Memoir is a difficult genre which made it hard to give it more stars even though I enjoyed the book. It worked for me because I'm a baby boomer who could really identify with someone who chose to see the humor in situations one needed to rise above. It's a good choice for those days when you anticipate having your reading interrupted fairly often or when recovering from an illness or when you need a bit of a mood lift. It would also be a good choice for a midlife book club that is about the wine and wanting the book to be an easy, quick read with many possible starting points for discussion and getting to know each other better.
October 5, 2019
Really enjoyed this book, so true! Lots of laugh out load parts
May 30, 2021
It was cute and I enjoyed it.
August 2, 2021
This book made me chuckle more than once. A very relatable story. It's an easy, fast flowing story that will leave you with a smile.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews