Booklife Review

This poignant, hilariously relatable story of rivalries, friendship, and starving to squeeze more from life opens with suburban mom Olivia yearning for wine, rifling through clearance underwear at Target, and generally feeling piled upon. Soon, she gazes out the window at her neighbor, Patricia, the top realtor in town, a woman who seems “so perfectly polished when Olivia’s life was so perfectly not.” But when Olivia agrees to be Patricia's assistant, she discovers that Patricia's life isn’t exactly what she thought. The list of tasks that Patricia gives her—stage rooms, schedule showings, and update listings—are all expected, but Patricia asking Olivia to make a “ME List” of her own is a project that Olivia never saw coming.

Picking ten goals to move her out of her middle-aged comfort zone, Olivia aspires to climb out of the funk she has been in for so long. Writing with brisk scenecraft, playful wit, and heaps of empathy, Balko (The Things We Keep) seizes this premise’s ample opportunity for comedy moments of feeling, and light tension, as Olivia dares to try ziplining, homemade coffee, and difficult conversations with her mother. The biggest surprise: Olivia never could have anticipated that figuring out how to deal with Patricia would eventually be moved to the top of her list.

The Me List is a touching tale about the complexities of friendships, the importance of holding back judgment, and what it takes to navigate the rocky path that life becomes as we get older. Balko combines heart and snark that bring to life this journey of self-improvement, producing a book that fans of wise (and sometimes wised-up) domestic comedies will find impossible to put down. The lesson is resonant: Olivia discovers that a ME List is not so much about accomplishing tasks and checking boxes as it is about discovering and enjoying yourself and those closest to you.

Takeaway: Funny and wise story of friendship, rivalry, and climbing out of a rut.

Comparable Titles: Sara Goodman Confino’s For the Love of Friends, Kathleen West’s Are We There Yet?

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A