Gina Ramsey

Burnt Gloveboxes: Embracing Life When It Goes Up in Flames by Gina Ramsey is a good read, and I highly recommend it. The book relates the various mishaps in the life of the Ramseys in Wisconsin and Florida. The author recounts these situations as short anecdotes, dividing them into three parts. The first part contains several stories about her family and life in a rural community. The second part centers on a pet, a Golden Retriever named Rusty Rum Cola, who seemed to cause more mayhem than the average dog should create. And finally in part three, the author offers several stories about some of her experiences while visiting Walt Disney World.

The author is a wonderful storyteller. She has the fine ability to change a mundane, daily annoyance into a struggle of epic proportion. This is how the book receives its humor. The author frequently uses analogies and quotations which are aptly applied, causing an appreciation for the author’s wit. This wittiness compels the reader to want to keep reading the next page. Indeed, the reader will finish this book in a couple of sittings.

I purchased this book thinking I would experience a few belly laughs. After all, laughter is the best medicine. However, I did not experience this at all. As I read, I was very amused, enjoying the wit and wordsmanship. But no belly laughs. Upon further reflection, I realized that the central strength of the author’s storytelling was not in her wit and humor, but in her philosophy of life. Clearly, one can view life as routine and dull interspersed with an occasional unexplained, inconvenient event. Yet the author points the reader always towards seeing trials as opportunities, if not to glean wisdom, at least to become cautious.

Another point that struck me as I read the book was the events for the most part that happened to the author and her husband Paul were not the result of some cosmic joke or malevolent force. No, the events were the consequences of making poor choices. After all, why would anyone leave the car running while unloading packages and not thinking a toddler may get into the car? Also, while husbands are often logical when solving a problem, the author hints that husbands ought to learn to listen to their wives’ intuition. This is a difficult lesson for men to learn, but in order to avoid a lot of mishaps in life, it is best this lesson be learned as soon as possible. Herein is the value of this book. Gina Ramsey may have set out to show readers the humor in mishaps and annoyances, but she also instructs everyone to embrace wisdom by observing others and their actions, good or bad.… (altro)