SOS Podcasts by Rosamaria Mancini; Gingered by Ryan G. Murphy; Two Hilarious Memoirs About Life, Love, Podcasts, and Red Hair

 

SOS Podcasts by Rosamaria Mancini; Gingered by Ryan G. Murphy; Two Hilarious Memoirs About Life, Love, Podcasts, and Red Hair

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Because I am very behind on my work, both this and the next review will feature two books with similar topics and themes.

When you want to laugh about life's daily routines and problems, you may want to turn to a memoir. Some deal with darker aspects and are dramatic as they discuss the author's struggles. Then there are some that discuss struggles with a smile, nod, and a chuckle or two. 

The books, SOS Podcasts by Rosamaria Mancini and Gingered by Ryan G. Murphy are the latter. They are hilarious memoirs about life, love, learning and communicating through social media, and living with the curse of having red hair.

SOS Podcasts is a lighthearted witty memoir about author Rosamaria Mancini’s life in Italy and Germany with a military husband, two young children, and a growing interest in listening to podcasts.

Mancini describes herself as “a big pain, a lot to deal with, and overbearing” and a born worrier. She attributes these traits to a life of constant change. She moved to Italy for a career in media where she married Marco, an electronics specialist in the Italian Air Force and had a young daughter. They moved to a NATO Base in Germany where Mancini gave birth to a son. 

In Germany, Mancini felt a tremendous culture shock. Since she came from an Italian-American family, she was able to adjust to life in Italy, speak the language, and adapt to the culture though she was mocked for her American ways and disliked many things about the country like the constant red tape. Her time in Germany however was a much more stressful situation. She was worried about the language, the cold weather, and the rumored preciseness and efficiency.

 To combat these anxieties, Mancini made sure her family stuck to various rules like wearing layers of sleep during a scheduled time. These rules, her overbearing nature, and difficulty in making new friends made Mancini a “fish so far out of water that (she) might as well be in the Gobi Desert." In her loneliness, Mancini made a new friend, one that became, as she described it “a new savior: Podcast.

Through podcasts, Mancini learned about important topics like femicide, wrongful convictions, climate change, immigration, student loan debt, and vaccination controversies. She learned about cooking and child care to help her with household responsibilities. She practiced prayer and meditation for stress relief. She got hooked on comedy and Fiction shows. Podcasts proved to be a source of education and information for Mancini.

There seemed to be a podcast for every occasion to help with Mancini’s various conflicts and questions. For example, she had trouble getting along with the other military wives. The podcast, Life Kits proved to be such a valuable source of comfort so much that Mancini considered its host, Julia Furlan, to be a friend.

Podcasts like the Pregnancy Podcast and The Birth Hour soothed any fears and answered any questions that Mancini had about her pregnancies. Podcasts like The Longest Shortest Time and Care and Feeding provided advice on parenting when she had difficulties raising two small children. Skimm This gave her a youthful perspective on popular culture and social trends. Dear Sugars helped her process her guilt and grief about her father's death. It seemed that any life change had a podcast to go with it.

Mancini also found podcasts that reflected or created various interests in her life. A beautiful chapter on Mancini and her family observing Christmas markets and traditions adds to her recommendation of Rick Steves Germany and Austria. Listening to cooking podcasts like La Scossapizza gave her a chance to get in touch with her Italian roots by preparing the cultural food. Mancini became fascinated by storytelling podcasts like Serial because of their ongoing serialized format.

Mancini has some recommendations for advice on spiritual and emotional well-being. Journeys of Faith with Paul Faris helped center her into her Catholic faith. While NPR’s Up First, BBC’s Global News, and New York Times’ The Daily are useful for the current news, The Good News Podcast is an antidote for lighter, hopeful, and more humanitarian stories. 

SOS Podcasts is a love letter from a woman to her favorite media source. It lets the Reader know that there is a podcast and a story for just about every feeling, activity, interest, and experience.

Gingered is a hilarious side splitting memoir about something that I am quite familiar with:  having red hair.

Ryan G. Murphy's red hair was an asset in his young years when he modeled for stock photos and acted in commercials and bit parts. Unfortunately when he began school, his hair became less of an advantage and was a means for other kids to bully him. This chapter reminds Readers that schoolchildren will find any reason, any excuse to pick at something different to ostracize and bully others.

Even as an adult Murphy still felt scrutinized because of his hair. Many strangers remarked on it. Girls refused to date him because of it. He is often asked if he is one of several red haired people such as Damien Lewis, Prince Harry, Ed Sheeran, or Kevin-”not a famous Kevin or anything. Just Kevin.”

Murphy had a colorful childhood with two doting parents and particularly his charming and conniving grandfather who created and sold bootlegged VHS. Much of Murphy's stories depict his loving relationship with his outrageous, impudent but devoted grandpa. 

Murphy goes through many of the milestones in a young person's life with a light comic touch. Things like first kiss (“Adult kissing is not really kissing at all. It's opening your mouth into someone else's mouth, wrestling your tongues and then spending the next few minutes wondering what the Hell you are supposed to do with your hands”), getting punished (“My Dad was angry three times when I was a kid”), getting into fights with other kids (“I was punched in the face on a Sunday. Punched in the ear if we are being specific.”), receiving sex education in a Catholic school (“They tried to scare the puberty out of us by guaranteeing that we'd all get AIDS then separated the boys and girls into different classrooms.”), attending high school (“High school was a lot like grammar school only with more penises.”), his first girlfriend (After he shaved his red hair, she gave him a baseball cap and he responded: “Even with only peach fuzz on top of my head, she still couldn't stand my red hair.”), college adventures (on taking three girls in a date to see Passion of the Christ: “The dinners were great. We got buzzed sipping on Bahamaritas-feeling all fancy and flirty-the perfect tone setter. Then Jesus had to ruin everything like always.”), finding a long term partner (He knew that his future wife, Pam, was The One after they quoted Zoolander to each other.), his difficulties with anger management (“When a UPS truck is chasing you at eighty miles an hour down the Staten Island Expressway, you start to evaluate your life choices.”)  

These universal milestones are individualized by Murphy's deft writing and witty observations. 

With red hair and a sharp wit, Murphy knows how to stand out in a crowd.