Just Jennifer

Everything is Perfect When You’re a Liar by Kelly Oxford (It Books, April 2013)

Kelly Oxford is a stay at home mom who achieved fame when she racked up over half-a-million followers on Twitter; she was named one of Time magazine’s top tweeters two years in a row and has gathered, and expounded upon, her 140 character missives.  One of the phenomena that social media and its accessibility has created is instant celebrity: in this case, humorous anecdotes that when stretched beyond the 140 character limit sometimes feel just that, drawn out and not as funny as the short, terse observations from her blog.  Hyperbole and self-deprecating humor may not be for everyone, but some of the stories are funny and nothing is sacred from her childhood to the embarrassing teenage stories that everyone has to growing into adulthood and parenthood, albeit she a little slower than some.  The story of how Oxford started tweeting and how she became so wildly popular is missing and would probably be an interesting one.  Gone are the days when Mom and Dad pull out a childhood photo album to embarrass a teen child’s date: now, in all likelihood, everyone has already read about it on Twitter.  Parents, especially moms, will find many of the stories familiar and funny, not to be taken seriously, which is probably the best piece of wisdom to be gleaned from the book: don’t take it all so seriously, enjoy the good times while you have them.