Happy Literary Friday, My Lovelies! Today I'm reviewing Rookie Mistakes: a grown-up's field guide for getting your act together by Kelly Bandas. This is a fun book, and I've become a big fan of Kelly's Instagram reels, too. You can follow her account @kelly_bandas and read her blog HERE.
About Rookie Mistakes: A Grown-Up’s Field Guide for Getting Your Act Together
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (July 19, 2022)
Paperback: 288 pages
In her highly anticipated nonfiction debut, comedian Kelly Bandas uses her trademark humor to recount stories of growing up and becoming a semifunctional adult in a dysfunctional world.
Raised in a devoutly Catholic home, Kelly Bandas spent her entire childhood trying hard not to tick off “the man” or the Lord. And for the most part, she crushed it. But as she got older and began to navigate what it looked like to truly live in a world where gender roles, race, and politics weren’t always so black and white, Kelly realized that her former worldview was beginning to feel like that pair of Forever 21 jeans that used to glide effortlessly over her hips but now required a lot of stretching and acrobatic maneuvering to shimmy into place. And she’s not alone.
In Rookie Mistakes, Kelly shares stories of growing up in a church-centered, male-dominated society and how those experiences shaped and primed her for a new chapter of life. In this debut collection of essays, Kelly shares:
- Funny, fast-paced, and uplifting stories
- Encouragement for women who are tired of feeling like they will never measure up—and kind of don’t want to anyway
- Inspiration to find your voice, your power, and your people
- Kelly shares everything from laugh-out-loud accounts of Oregon Trail-themed first kisses to heartfelt insights gleaned from navigating life as a Christian feminist doing her best not to screw up being a parent of a child with a disability, in a trans-racial family.
Rookie Mistakes is the call-to-action millennial women everywhere have been waiting for.
About Kelly Bandas:
Kelly Bandas is a writer and comedian best known for her popular Instagram and TikTok videos satirizing everything from millennial motherhood to social media culture. Her work can be found literally anywhere you have an internet signal (if your internet isn’t working, try turning off the wifi and then turning it back on again . . . or honestly, it could be your router.) Whether she’s hosting her not-at-all dorky Outlander support group or speaking up about things that really matter, Kelly’s mission is to always empower and lift up other women through community, inclusivity, and laughter.
My Review:
This book is definitely written for millennial women, so if you know one, I'm quite confident she would enjoy reading it. However, as a Gen Xer, I loved it too, especially the part about Kelly's being a Fenway Park Ambassador as a teenager. I really enjoyed the story about how she was forced to be Wally (Boston's mascot, Wally the Green Monster) because she came to work one day looking bad after having cried all night after a bad break-up. She was also a ball girl in college when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. Kelly was born under a lucky star! Although not as dire as the Cubs' World Series record, it had been 86 years since the Red Sox had advanced to the series.
Y'all know that I'm a huge Cubs fan, and I enjoy how much attention the Cubs' ball boy Fabian gets during home games. He has his own fanbase, and Jon Sciambi gives Fabian lots of airtime, and it's fun for the fans. Kelly also received lots of attention as a ball girl, some of it good (catching foul balls and giving them to fans was her #1 job) to not so good (hit in the face with a ball, which was featured on ESPN). I also thought it was fun reading about how Kelly and a friend were able to make it to the last games of the series and back home to Boston. That story would make a great movie, by the way.
One touching part of the book is when Kelly and her husband Brian embarked on an international adoption adventure and brought home their third son CJ. Kelly is the perfect mom for CJ because she is a speech-language pathologist, and he's deaf. She shares how God moved her to consider adoption, and the ways in which God gave her confirmation that this is something he wanted for her life is inspiring. This wasn't the only inspiring story, just my favorite. I wish I could share every essay with you, but my post would be way too long. This book is full of funny, uplifting, and inspiring essays. I enjoyed them all, and I think you will, too.
Disclosure: I received a paperback copy of Rookie Mistakes from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Until next time...
Happy reading!
Ricki Jill
Ricki Jill
I don't know her, but the book sounds funny...and Outlander support group did you say? Hmmm. My daughter just made me start watching. I may need to check her out! Thanks!
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