When I first began reading this book, I didn't realize it was a reprint. I really enjoyed the closed environment of campus that seemed like it's own little world, the way good campuses do in my opinion. Frederica was such a product of her environment, and I didn't expect to like her as much as I did in her coming of age moments. When she finally starts to realize the truth about Laura Lee, her father's first wife, I had a few laugh out loud moments. I'd recommend this book to readers who enjoyed "Where'd You Go Bernadette?" or books by Katherine Heiny.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

What a delightful, often humorous, always engaging romp in the wacky wonderful fictional world of the Hatch family. Professors David and Aviva Hatch are faculty members and dorm parents at Dewing College located in the Boston area. It is a girls school so their smart savvy teen aged daughter, Frederica fits right in to life on campus.
The Hatches are progressives, active in union affairs and liberal in thought. Frederica, though protected, is treated as a thinking individual with moral and other lessons in humanity of prime importance. In others words, her parents are annoying as hell. Yet, all is well. All is relatively calm and predictable until Laura Lee French, an unexpected intruder from David’s past shows up. Nothing will ever be the same.
From secrets exposed, to ex spouses, to clandestine love affairs with collateral damage, everything changes in a heartbeat. Add in the blizzard of 1978 dumping multiple feet of snow on Dewing and the entire northeast for another layer of life at its most challenging and absurd.
Read with clarity and good pacing by Piper Goodeve, this audio version of Elinor Lipman’s 2007 novel, was enjoyable listening from beginning to end. The characters are endearingly quirky and so clearly defined that it was easy to remember every detail about them. What a fun read with no lack of meaningful lessons about life tossed in to make this one a winner.
Four stars shining stars for a story that kept me coming back for more. My thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for sharing an ARC in return for my honest review.

Eleanor Lipman's novel, My Latest Grievance, was wonderfully entertaining. Set in 1978 at a small nondescript woman's college located outside Boston, it covers the travails of a marginally functional family seen through the bemused eyes of the family's teenage daughter, Frederica.

Frederica's parents serve both as faculty and houseparents for the students at Dewing College. The jumping off point for Lipman's novel is the arrival at Dewing College, of Laura Lee French - Frederica's father's first wife - and also his distant cousin. To Frederica's father's dismay, Laura, a self-absorbed agitator, is hired as a room mother, a position from which she wreaks considerable havoc.

I won't give away the details, but Lipman's reputation for finding the humor in everyday life was reinforced by her skillful description of the predicaments into which Frederica's parents, the school's president and others were thrown by Laura's arrival. I enjoyed the book and, if you want a fun read, Lipman's novel fits the bill.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I enjoyed the main character, and it was interesting to view the topics faced from the perspective of someone this age. A bit slow at times but still enjoyable. The narrator did a good job.

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman was an interesting listen.

Frederica Hatch was born to two professor and raised in a dormitory on the campus of the all-girls college, Dewing College.

Frederica is the unofficial mascot of Dewing College and knows about all the going-ons. She eats with students in the dining hall and is treated like an equal to her parents.

At the age of 16, a new woman enters Frederica’s life after being hired to be the house mother of another dorm.

Laura Lee French strolls into campus and makes quite the uproar.

It’s an interesting story. It was interesting enough to keep to listening but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the advance listen in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Although I've read and enjoyed many of Eleanor Lipman's books, My Latest Grievance, published in 2006, somehow slipped by me. I was delighted to be able to fix that omission with this audiobook. My Latest Grievance is set on the Massachusetts campus of a not-highly-ranked women's college and features a faculty couple, David and Aviva Hatch and their teenaged daughter Fredericka. In addition to their teaching and their fervent union activities, the Hatches are houseparents and they raise Fredericka in a dormitory apartment. Narrated by Fredericka, My Latest Grievance is filled with the same social satire and almost-smart-alecky dialog that characterizes Lipman's work. Piper Goodeve's excellent narration brings the story to life, although even she cannot rescue the last few chapters, where the action gets out of hand and where the ending is a letdown. No spoilers here, so I won't reveal anything except my disappointment with the way in which all the loose ends are tied and the characters do an about-face. Nonetheless, this is a good novel and fans of Lipman's works as well as readers who look for books set in the 1970s and/or on college campuses have a good read in store.

Usually I am a big fan of the Elinor Lipman books but this one fell flat. I did not like the plot or the characters at all. The whole story was odd and I am not sure what the point was and I couldn't decide who was the main character, Fredrica or the ex-wife. It was unnecessarily overdramatic and the end was predictable. Overall this one was a disappointment.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started listening to this one - the description sounded fun, and I love a send up of self-righteous liberal intelluctuals. This one was quite fun - it's mostly told from the POV of a 15/16 year old girl who has been raised by very unconventional parents living in a dorm at an all girls' college. Their lives are upended when her dad's first wife (on whom he cheated with his current wife) comes to the college to work as a dorm mother and ends up in a relationship with the president of the college.

There's a lot about the narration that rings SO true about that specific time in a young girl's life. Nobody knows better than a 16 year old girl; just ask one! I thought it was at turns really funny and biting, and I appreciate the way the humor in this one punched up (not down).

A true delight! And the narrator for this one is fantastic. 4 stars - thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC.

I'm confused as to why this is on Netgalley as it was published in 2006, something I only realized after I had requested it. It was fun brain candy with a light humor element, well-paced, well-edited, and the perfect length to tell the story it was telling. It also introduced me to a new author in whom I might be interested in the future, so overall an enjoyable experience.

This is audiobook gold. At 16 our protagonist discovers that her father was previously married, to his second cousin, and left her for protagonists mother. Soon the first wife is in their lives living on campus and inserting her sef everywhere.
This is a true book about getting to know your parents as people and working out your own identity. it is just beautiful. The narration is perfect too!

An absolute gem and one of the best things I’ve read this year.

Elinor Lipman’s campus novel is a delightfully funny and sweet look inside the life of a girl who grows up on the campus of an unremarkable small college as a sort of mascot/Eloise to the faculty and students.

The voice of the protagonist is just so well-rendered here, and I’m always impressed with writers who can channel their inner teenager and give a truly accurate portrayal of what it’s like inside one’s head at that age. This book gave me my favorite central character that I have encountered in a long time, as well as a terrifically nuanced and fascinating cast of misfits populating the rest of the story.

The book is sharply critical yet delightfully nostalgic about campus life, and while largely a comedy, the story is also exceptionally sweet without ever becoming overwrought and saccharine.

I adored this and will absolutely seek out more by Lipman, whose work was unfamiliar to me prior to reading this.

I just LOVE Elinor Lipman... I actually read this one in hard copy format when it first came out, but requested the audio version anyway because she has such a fabulous way with characterizations, and I had never listened to one of her books before. I'm definitely hooked now - the narrator was perfectly suited to the story and the voices she provided added a roundness to the characters that I found delightful. The story is a fun and snarky one, full of teenage angst and drama as well as a lovely message about the importance of family and being true to yourself. I loved the book but think I enjoyed the narration even more, surprisingly - I can't say enough good things about the value-add of the narration here. The intonations and emotions conveyed were so spot-on with the story and dialogue that it really added a depth to my experience of the book. I loved it!

Freddie Hatch, her parents David and Aviva (very very profesorial), David's ex wife and the new college president and his family make this a very very fun book. Although Freddie does not seem like a girl, then a teenager, but I have a feeling she is one of those "old souls" that are 16 going on 36. The story is a bit absurd at the beginning and then it gets even more absurd at the end, but we the readers are more than willing to cast aside any hope for reality because the story is so delightful. All the characters except for Freddie (and yes, even sometimes Freddie)+ is a little bit crazy, but we forgive them that as it all fits into the story. I hate to say this, but Grace, the president's wife who tries to kill herself, but only kills brain cells is really hilarious--it's one of those situation that if you didn't laugh you would cry. And the best part is the ending--totally unexpected until you think about the whole book and then it makes perfect sense. Enjoy!

3.5 rounded up for the academic setting and the uncommon perspective on an affair.

This is a slow-moving story set at a women's college with serious New England prep school vibes (which I loved!) including dorm parents, faculty children, and d-hall rules. I've been on a nostalgia kick, so I didn't mind how slow the beginning was (quite) as I was just enjoying the atmosphere and vibe. That said, it's definitely something to be aware of.

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting from the blurb, but this wasn't it - in a good way. 'My Latest Grievance' is a story of the mess affairs make, but from the perspective of a child, not one of the affair participants/betrayed partners. I loved that! The protagonist was charming, clever, and frank. I loved seeing the complicated web of lies through her eyes.

Even though the protagonist was a child, this book didn't feel childish or trite. I enjoyed it a lot, but it's a 3.5 rather than a flat 4 (rounded up it's the same, though) because the pacing does lag quite a bit in places. Still, I enjoyed this a lot and would read more from this author!

Thanks, NetGalley and Harper, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.