I listened to the audiobook and loved the narrator, perfect for the characters in this book. I loved the author’s writing style, it reminded me of Gilmore Girls dialogue. The storyline was interesting and so different from anything else I’ve read lately. Highly recommend this one!

There wasn’t a moment where I didn’t like this book. The floor characters and wacky storyline was amazing. And the narrater was brilliant!

I really enjoyed listening to My Latest Grievance, it's full of quirky characters and some interesting humor.

16-year old Frederica Hatch has had a very unconventional upbringing during the 1960's and 70's. Her parents are both professors at a small Massachusetts college where they are dorm parents in order to make more money meaning Frederica has grown up in a dorm. Life becomes more interesting for her when her father's ex-wife is hired as a dorm mother for another dorm. To say she has some mental health issues is an understatement and Frederica who at first befriends Laura Lee gets very upset when her behavior does not match what Frederica thinks is acceptable.

There were times that I questioned Frederica's reaction to happenings but I had to remind myself she's a teenager. Elinor Lipman created many characters who are anything but perfect, which makes for a fun read (listen). I found myself chuckling at times which I take as a credit of the author and narrator.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Listening Copy.

A family living on a college campus is an interesting concept. It seems like that family oils be rather progressive but it’s actually the opposite, they are fairly traditional they just live a different life. I think her parents are kind of cool for making it work how they do cuz they love their jobs and just stick with it regardless of what other people think .

🌀Synopsis
Federica lives a different life than most. Her whole family still lives in a college dorm. Her parents both work at the school and that allows them all to live there. Federica is disappointed with that thought and longs for a normal house and normal life.
When Laura Lee enters the picture her life changes. She finally has someone cultured to learn and talk to. Laura Lee lives life her way and she’s determined to not conform for the college. It isn’t long before her eyes are known and being spread around the college.
Now the college has decisions to make and when they impact Federica, she realizes how fickle she’s been.

I found this book, 'My latest grievance' by Elinor Lipman quite annoying at times, especially read as an audiobook. Another book where the main character is an impressionable 16 year old who is opinionated and headstrong. The constant repetition of the word 'said' really got to me, 'I said', 'she said', 'I said' felt like a childish argument.
Frederica Hatch was born and raised by liberal professors who took to raising their daughter as a social experiment. Living on the campus of college where her parents work, they live, breathe, eat and work the at the college. (American text read, University). Frederica has always been treated as an adult by her non-conformist parents. So much so that Frederica only ever refers to her parents by name. When Frederica learns of her father's previous marriage to anothet. Frederica becomes obsessed with Laura Lee and who she was. When David's mother meddles and reintroduces Laura Lee to the Hatch's lives, all manner of chaos ensues.
For me, this was another slow burner, one that peaked around Laura Lee's involvement with a married man on the campus they work at.
By the end, an adulterous tale and an insight into the lives of others and what secrets can be uncovered.

Just finished the audiobook of this 2006 published novel. A great listen with a great narrator.

Frederica Hatch was born to college professors and was raised in a dorm of a small women's college by her "house parent" parents. There's nothing her liberal parents don't discuss with her, and they certainly don't shield her from the world. So when Laura Lee French shows up with a past that directly affects her family, Frederica is way to curious to not try to find out everything about this woman.

What started out as a really entertaining story turned serious, and by the end the redeeming of a particularly heinous character left me frustrated. I do love Elinor Lipman's writing, though. She's a great storyteller with a very sardonic sense of humour.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

"My Latest Grievance" by Elinor Lipman is a Family Drama and Coming of Age Story Sprinkled with Humor!

This is my first Elinor Lipman novel and right after reading it, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, in a kinda-sorta good way...

"My Latest Grievance" begins with a solid, yet odd, backstory about professors Aviva and David Hatch and their precocious 16-year-old daughter Frederica, who is also our protagonist.

Frederica feels smothered by the nontraditional lifestyle her parents have raised her in. They live in a dorm at Dewing College, a women's college where Aviva and David teach and where their daughter was born. Frederica is craving a change. Something different from what she's come to expect from her predictable parent-team.

In walks Laura Lee French, a new dorm mother, who also happens to be David's ex-wife...

There wasn't a moment when I didn't think this story was going off the rails but the flawed characters, the mixture of topics, and wonky, wacky humor grew on me. It was Frederica's bright, bold narrative that kept me listening, with the deep love and frustration she felt for her parents and the desire and longing for something new and different to enter her life. "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind here.

The audiobook is narrated by Piper Goodeve whose narrative and voicing adds another layer of believability to the character of Frederica.

"My Latest Grievance" is quirky, over-the-top, eye-rolling, and thought-provoking entertainment. Will I read another Elinor Lipman story? You betcha!

3.75⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Elinor Lipman for an ALC of this book. It has been a pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review.

Really enjoyed this audiobook.

This book was originally published in 2006, and there was an audiobook produced at that time narrated by Mia Barron. There is a new audiobook just released narrated by Piper Goodeve. I have no idea why it was re-done and re-released, but I had the opportunity to listen to both versions via Hoopla.

This is basically a coming of age story about Frederica, who was born and raised in a dormitory at Dewing college where her parents have been houseparents and professors her entire life. They are progressives and fight for the college and union employees. It's currently 1977 and Frederica discovers that her father was married to someone before her mother. Enter Laura Lee, Dewing College's newest houseparent. Drama ensues.

Honestly, I liked the original narration better. I thought that both narrators did a good job portraying Laura Lee as the flighty woman she is, but I loved the vocalization given by Mia Barron a bit more. Either way, the audiobook is a great way to experience this book because it's humorous and enjoyable all the way around.

All of the characters are so earnest in their own ways, and I was captivated by Frederica and how she navigates them all with astuteness beyond her years. Lipman is a master writer, I've enjoyed many of her books and somehow missed this one the first time around so I'm happy to have experienced it this time. Definitely recommended.

This book was not for me. You can write teenagers without making them so annoying. The writing was immature and just hard to like. I didn’t realize this was a re-release and I honestly don’t know why they bothered.

Firs published in 2006, My Latest Grievance is now being enjoyed by a new audio. It's 1976 and Frederica Hatch is turning 16 years old. She has lived all of her life in a dorm at Dewing College, a second-rate all-women's college in Massachusetts, where her parents are professors, dorm parents, and union activists. Frederica has had hundreds of "older sisters", the freedom to move freely around the campus, and because of her parent's focus on their academic and union activities, she feels as if she has largely raised herself. Her parents, David and Aviva, are so outspokenly honest with Frederica as she grows up that they felt compelled to anatomically correct Frederica's Barbie dolls and no subject appears to be off-limits. So Frederica is stunned to discover that her father was married before to a distant cousin, Laura Lee French, and that Laura Lee is moving to Dewing College to take a job as a dorm mother. Predictably chaos ensues as it only can in a small, tight-knit community where everyone knows your business, gossip is queen, and major scandals make life worth living. A fun novel exploring warmth, love, and redemption as only a social satire can.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this audio e-arc.*

This is the rerelease on audio of a Elinor Lipman book originally published in the early 2000’s.

I found it very difficult to stomach the main character. I know teenagers are tough anyway but she was just…oomph. Very much a know it all without any life experience to know much of anything yet.

Was it her upbringing with hippie parents? The college campus that raised her right along with said parents? Or the reemergence of her fathers as yet unknown first wife that rocked her world? Whatever it was I did not enjoy her.

The audiobook is done well, though, with great narration.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and the author for the ALC

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman - This was clearly a re-release on audio, ad the story published in 2007!! I wish I would have known this earlier. I picked this on premise that it would be funny. What I found out is that it was extremely young and so immature (even from the adults) that the satire was lost on me and I didn't care for anything about the halfway mark. I nearly DNF'd.

Introducing the Hatch family, where the parents are professors and dorm monitors at a women's college. They raised their daughter, Frederica, in the dorms and we meet her at age 16. Things become very interesting (and I was hoping for a bigger train wreck) when her dad's first wife takes a job at the college.

The plot was the second I've read in a month with young characters and immature adults. It's not really my thing, I think big Eleanor fans (I know she has a following) will enjoy her banter.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to listen in exchange for an honest review.

"My Latest Grievance," by Elinor Lipman, is a fun, often zany novel about the mayhem that ensues when Frederica, the very precocious daughter of two progressive sociology professors, unwittingly introduces her father's eccentric ex-wife Laura Lee (whose existence she has just discovered) to their staid New England women's college. Brimming with period details from its 1970s setting and driven by Frederica's whip smart and wry narration, the novel caroms from one absurd situation to another as Laura Lee blithely upends the lives of everyone in her orbit, including Frederica's family, the new college president and his wife, and a particularly hapless priest. Laura Lee wore on me at times, and some of the situations resulting from her meddling are legitimately tragic, but Lipman manages to keep the tone fairly light throughout by means of Frederica, whose never less than winning presence provides warmth, wit and a welcome sense of humanity. Note: I listened to the audiobook of this title, and narrator Emily Lawrence did an excellent job striking just the right tone throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Dreamscape for providing me with an audio ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

Oh wow, this book. This book was too good. I enjoyed it thoroughly both the narration and the writing are too good.

“It was a noteworthy lesson, even for someone who'd been fed a daily diet of italicized lessons: that people in high places, luminaries with advanced degrees in Classics and in possession of excellent manners, can disappoint you as profoundly as anyone else.”
― Elinor Lipman, My Latest Grievance

The best part of the book is it isn't complicated. I read few days back somewhere that not every book is about a profound life learned lesson and although a part of me did not agree with it me being a classic lover but I know it is the truest statement for every reader out there.

My Latest Grievance is one of those books which I will count as my favourite and I'm sure that I will grab all other books by the author. It is simple, uncomplicated without any lessons to preach and yet it teaches us about how humans are so colourful beings. One can be so thoughtful and other can be so thoughtless or disregard how their actions can affect others. The story isn't simple though but it never felt heavy or overly sad.

Every character is flawed but you fall in love with everyone. Our protagonist Frederica Hatch has no constrains, she is bold, dynamic and caring. She cares for everything around her, at first even for Laura Lee even after she being her father's ex wife. That's how good natured she is. Her parents even though seem dry and uncaring at the start of the book, in the end you will end up loving David and Aviva both.

Laura Lee made me feel " Is she for real" and even though she irritated everyone even readers I'm sure from the point she makes her way in Dewing college, she makes one think, she is just born this way. Some human beings are just the way they are and they can't really help it.

Highly recommended if you like satire and light and cheeky humour. This book is for you.

Thank you Netgalley and dreamscape media for this wonderful audiobook ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Loved this audio book. Told from the point of view of Frederica who is growing up in the dorm of a small women's college with her "House Parents" and hundreds of girls to raise her. Everything is modern and edifying until a new "House Mom" comes to campus and turns everyones life upside down. It was the perfect story for me to read after a lot of heavier novels. #NetGalley #HarperPaperbacks

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for proving me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This was a quick read and it was a quirky happy kind of book with humour which was a nice change to what I normally read. Frederica lives on the College Campus with her parents as they are both professors at the College. One day a new den mother is hired at the College and it turns out to be Frederica's dad's first wife. WHAT, dad had a wife before mom? Sit back and enjoy the ride!!!

I read this book through NetGalley , it started out good but then seemed to really drag after about half way through. The story is set in the 1970’s and is about a girl and her life living in a college dorm with her parents who are professors and her interesting relationship with her Father’s ex-wife .

This is a story told by a high school student who has lived her entire life in a college dormitory apartment. She finds out, to her shock, that her father had been married before. Her parents are very liberal and very self-important college professors. When the father's ex-wife decides to also become a dorm mother on the same small campus, Frederica gets to know her better.

This story is about different personalities (sometimes clashing), gossip, and life on a small college campus.

I listened to the audio version of the book. The narrator was great.

Elinor Lipman is a keen observer of human nature, and her books are always funny and wise. This soon-to-be released audiobook was a delight to listen to. Teenage Frederica is a terrific main character--too precocious for her own good sometimes but confident and endearing. Lipman manages to convey her wisdom beyond her years combined with a very teenage cast of mind. That is not an easy job. Much of the novel is told through dialogue, which at times felt somewhat unwieldy, but the story is charming and the ending is perfect, and all in all it was a fun and satisfying audiobook treat.

This is an older publication, but perhaps they are rereleasing the audiobook. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to listen to an ARC.

This was my first Elinor Lipman book and I found this to be a light and delightful journey into the fictional world of the Hatch family. Professors David and Aviva Hatch are faculty members at Dewing College in Boston. Their smart and sassy daughter, Frederica fits right into life on campus.

The Hatches are liberal in thought, so Frederica's more individualized thinking at time causes them to be frustrated with each other. They work through their differences as a family and all works out well with them. But then, as times perfectly, Laura Lee French - an unexpected intruder from David's past shows up and nothing will be the same.

Secrets are exposed, ex spouses reappear, secret love affairs come to the surface - everything changes. This all takes place during the Blizzard of 1978, where multiple feet of snow fall on Dewing which just adds an extra layer to the chaos that ensues.

I found the characters here to be endearing quirky and sympathetic. The way Lipman brought them to life made the story so memorable for me. Every time I thought I was going to stop at the end of a chapter, I just kept coming back for more. The feeling of not being able to leave their story behind had so much to do with the narrator Piper Goodeve. Her clear voice and well timed pacing added so much to my reading pleasure.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the chance to listen to My Latest Grievance and share my honest review.