cover image My Parents Were Awesome: Before Fanny Packs and Minivans, They Were People Too

My Parents Were Awesome: Before Fanny Packs and Minivans, They Were People Too

Edited by Eliot Glazer. Villard, $15 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-345-52392-1

Inspired by the website of the same name, Glazer's book includes more than 40 "back in their heydays" essays on parents or grandparents, confirming what we have often suspected, that the people who raised us had extraordinary lives before we arrived on the scene. "My mom was young once, and although this feels awkward to admit, this photo proves she was also good looking." About his mother, Food Network personality Paula Deen, marrying his father Jimmy, Jamie Deen writes, "She took one look at Jimmy and was off. Riding shotgun in that fast car with her feet up on the dash, stealing a sip of cold beer while puffing on her own cigarette%E2%80%94menthol, of course." David Kamp (The United States of Arugula) describes his father Seymour's decades-long tenure at DeAngelis Buick in New Brunswick, N.J., and the honesty and pride with which he worked the sales floor. As is common for themed anthologies, this suffers from unevenness; and not every piece here is interesting, despite trafficking in love, sacrifice, and family. Reading this is at times akin to sitting through a slideshow of someone else's vacation. Photos. (Apr.)