If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits?If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits?
Score Classic
What it's about
Erma Bombeck, the beloved newspaper humorist, writes about suburban family life in the 1970s: the chaos of kids, a husband who never notices anything, the PTA, diets, car pools, and the endless fight against laundry, from the point of view of a mother who has seen it all.
Why it's worth reading
It spent 13 weeks at #1 on the New York Times list. Bombeck made millions of parents laugh at their own lives.
You'll love it if you liked
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First YearGood to know
It's light, short and very much of its time.
By the numbers
- Readers51 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics0 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Bestseller45 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
Where it ranks
Why it made the list
Reads as
Thought-provoking, Funny, Uplifting
If you like this, read next
Breakfast of Champions
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Portnoy's Complaint
A Modest Proposal
A Confederacy of Dunces
Tales of the CityExplore the best-of lists
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Quick answers
Is If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits? worth reading?
Yes. It spent 13 weeks at #1 on the New York Times list. It ranks #1,670 of the 2,816 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 66.9 (the best book we found scores 99).
What is If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits? about?
Erma Bombeck, the beloved newspaper humorist, writes about suburban family life in the 1970s: the chaos of kids, a husband who never notices anything, the PTA, diets, car pools, and the endless fight against laundry, from the point of view of a mother who has seen it all.
How long does it take to read If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits??
About 6 hours (226 pages), or about 2 weeks at 30 minutes a day.
What should I read after If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries—What Am I Doing in the Pits??
If you liked it, try All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris or Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott.