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The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family
by
Mike Leonard
Mike Leonard is a lucky man. It’s not everyone who gets parents like Jack and Marge. At eighty-seven, Jack is a pathological optimist with an inexhaustible gift of gab. Marge, Jack’s bride of sixty years, though cut from the same rough bolt of Irish immigrant cloth, is his polar opposite–pessimistic and proud of it. What was their son, Mike, thinking when he took a sabbati...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
April 11th 2006
by Ballantine Books
(first published January 1st 2006)
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The book starts off with a mishaps right away. The cast of characters mirrored people in my life. The family embarks on a trip across the us in two RV's. The son wants to give his parents a last tour of the country before they can't travel anymore. They visit special places to them as well as familiar land marks along the way. The family's interactions through out the book made me laugh.
What a fun book. I loved the familiarity of Mike's growing up years--the freedom that we shared when the world was not such a scary place--or at least we did not know that it was scary. I was surprised and pleased to find Skoose singing a little ditty that Gary's dad used to sing--how strange to find it validated in print!! ( I used to work in Chicago, in a department store..) I identified with Mike's feelings about seeing his parents age. I wish had the desire to take my mom on a similar journe...more
Aug 15, 2007
Carole
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Middle aged people
Shelves:
memoirs
I loved the writer's style. He's very funny and not afraid to take pot shots at himself. Traveling around the country with his parents and children, you learn that family is what is really important. Also you cannot go back to life as it used to be, it has changed. Be happy with who you are and who you are with.
Perhaps this is an unfair review, as I listened to this book on tape for a book club meeting (and the abridged version was the only thing available to me), but I would not have picked up this book unless it was for a book club. That was a fair judgement, because I didn't find this book interesting at all. I was not familiar with Mike Leonard prior to reading this book, so maybe that played a role in my disinterest. But his stories about his parents aren't all that compelling and aren't even told...more
Fun story about a road trip that reporter Mike Leonard took with his aging parents and grown children.
Marge (Moose) is a pessimist who likes to hoist a few ! Jack is tea totaling optimist happily married to Moose for over 60 years.
This is a story of a family that rent 2 big winnebagos and head off to visit some old memories and to make new ones. But mostly it's the story of love. Married love that has lasted for more then half a century and filial love of a son for his parents (this trip was Mi...more
Marge (Moose) is a pessimist who likes to hoist a few ! Jack is tea totaling optimist happily married to Moose for over 60 years.
This is a story of a family that rent 2 big winnebagos and head off to visit some old memories and to make new ones. But mostly it's the story of love. Married love that has lasted for more then half a century and filial love of a son for his parents (this trip was Mi...more
This book was a nice story about the Leonard family who goes on a cross country RV road trip with the elderly grand/parents. It’s witty and fast reading. Infused with lots of nostalgic tales of growing up in a simpler time and when kids were kids and some hardships endured by immigrants.
Mrs. Leonard is sassy and a spitfire; Mr. Leonard loves to sing whimsical little songs and it’s hard at times to believe these two opposites have been married for 60+ years! They have endured a lot of family sit...more
Mrs. Leonard is sassy and a spitfire; Mr. Leonard loves to sing whimsical little songs and it’s hard at times to believe these two opposites have been married for 60+ years! They have endured a lot of family sit...more
This was a delightful book. The author decides to take his aging parents and 3 of his grown children in RV trek across the country, visiting places significant in the family's history. He tells about incidents that occur along the way and stories that are shared between family members. This was one up those upbeat books that made me feel good and hopeful about life. There were parts where I laughed out loud. The author's parents were fascinating and endearing. I could see myself turning into the...more
Four pages in and there's already cursing. My book club's going to hate it, but things are looking up for me!
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Well, I'm finished now, and extremely curious about my book club's reaction. This book is bursting at the seams with positive family feeling, while also presenting them in a realistic light, cursing and light alcoholism included.
These kinds of "aw, shucks, ain't my family great" memoirs aren't really my thing, but it wasn't painful to read or a complete waste of time. The people were...more
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Well, I'm finished now, and extremely curious about my book club's reaction. This book is bursting at the seams with positive family feeling, while also presenting them in a realistic light, cursing and light alcoholism included.
These kinds of "aw, shucks, ain't my family great" memoirs aren't really my thing, but it wasn't painful to read or a complete waste of time. The people were...more
I should pay more attention to what my friends read. Beth read this two and half years ago and gave it 4 stars. I just picked it off the library shelf knowing nothing about it or Mike Leonard. It's the story of a trip he took for a month with his parents and three of his adult children and a daughter-in-law in two rented RVs, visiting sites from the family's history, and ending with the birth of the first child in the 4th generation. I laughed a lot, but also cringed at the Irish Catholic sweari...more
LOVED this book! Mike Leonard does a great job of telling the story of their cross-country drive and mixing in memories from his childhood and adult life as well as stories from his parents' lives. It's like a family history, biography, and novel all in one. I love the way he describes his children because you can tell he's so proud of them. And I fell in love with his parents, especially his dad. I really enjoyed the whole thing. I laughed out loud multiple times and even shed some tears. And t...more
If you're looking for a fun, good and worthwhile read, I highly recommend this one.
It's a true story of a family traveling cross country in an RV. This isn't akin to slap stick humor movies like "Vacation" or "RV," although there are passages that made me laugh so hard, I either peed my pants or cried. The grandparents make the book--what treasures! I envy the Leonard's because I never had an opportunity to do something like this with my grandparents. Now, as a parent, I want that for my kids a...more
It's a true story of a family traveling cross country in an RV. This isn't akin to slap stick humor movies like "Vacation" or "RV," although there are passages that made me laugh so hard, I either peed my pants or cried. The grandparents make the book--what treasures! I envy the Leonard's because I never had an opportunity to do something like this with my grandparents. Now, as a parent, I want that for my kids a...more
The Ride of Our Lives is life affirming, alternately hysterical and poignant; rich in heart and humor with only one fault. It is almost too rich. Two-thirds of the way into the book, you feel like you have eaten too much chocolate. But it is a good feeling.
Are we having fun yet? Most people avoid vacations that involve both their grown children and their elderly parents. Perhaps NBC journalist Mike Leonard doesn’t have that common sense. He went on a cross-country trip with two RVs with his folk...more
Are we having fun yet? Most people avoid vacations that involve both their grown children and their elderly parents. Perhaps NBC journalist Mike Leonard doesn’t have that common sense. He went on a cross-country trip with two RVs with his folk...more
I really enjoyed this book because it included two of my favorite things - road trips and quirky family stories. Three generations of a family (80 year old grandparents, 60 year old dad and kids in 20s & 30s) take a road trip from Arizona to the northeast and then end their trip in Chicago for the birth of the first great-grandchild (4th generation to the family). Many stories were shared - happy, sad, embarrassing, and poignant. A quick and entertaining read - I even teared up a little at t...more
Mike Leonard is a feature writer for the Today show, and in this combined autobiography/travel story, his family travels in two rented RVs from Arizona across the southern states and up the Atlantic coast, and then back to Chicago. The occasion is Mike’s gift to his elderly parents, the ultimate family reunion. Jack and Marge Leonard, well into their 80’s, are real characters, and such opposites that one wonders how they could have stayed married for sixty years. Along for the ride are two of M...more
I picked this book up at the library. I was pleasantly surprised to find a DVD enclosed, that had the "Today Show" segments of his month long RV trip with his parents. I really enjoyed reading about his travels, and I wished there were more about his actual travels, and less about his growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the 1950's/1960's. His parents really reminded me of Kathy Griffin's parents in her reality series--they could have been neighbors. The parents were the real stars of this book....more
Mike Leonard, an NBC correspondent on the Today Show, is a pretty funny guy. It's just that most of the places and travails he writes about were of not much interest to me.
Rent a huge RV and go with the parents and the wife and kids on a five week trip from the Phoenix area to the East Coast--that was the plan. Some pretty wicked criticisms of himself and his family as Leonard interweaves reminisces of his life into the present journey.
Lot of potential, unfulfilled, IMHO.
Rent a huge RV and go with the parents and the wife and kids on a five week trip from the Phoenix area to the East Coast--that was the plan. Some pretty wicked criticisms of himself and his family as Leonard interweaves reminisces of his life into the present journey.
Lot of potential, unfulfilled, IMHO.
Parts of this autobiography/memoir are hilarious. Mike Leonard's parents are polar opposites who raised a loving and funny family. Leonard's gift is in finding the lesson and/or symbolism in small, seemingly insignificant events. But even a gift can be overused to the point of being tiresome. The Today Show snippets of this "journey" were much more entertaining than the book. Still, I'm glad I got to know Jack and Marge even if Leonard's writing style is a bit repetitive.
I grabbed this for our roadtrip thinking it was going to be hokey. Turns out, it's a hysterically written story about 3 generations of family traveling together in the Holiday Rambler providing a memoir of Mike Leonard's life. Wonderfully woven into the current events are memories from his past and his elderly parent's past. His mother practically had me in tears of laughter. The ending is sweet and gives one a reminder of all the little things that are important in life.
Mike Leonard is a feature correspondent for NBC News. This memoir is framed in a cross-country trip he took a few years ago with his octagenarian parents, three of his adult children, and a daughter-in-law. I liked this book. I think I would haved liked it even more if it had been less about Mike Leonard and more about his children and his refreshingly fascinating parents. I was left wondering how his three brothers, pictured with him on the book's cover, had chosen to spend their lives.
Imagine all that you might learn about your relatives if you decided to travel across country with them in a motorhome! Mike Leonard took his elderly parents and his adult children on a driving adventure where they visited old neighborhoods, colleges, friends, and best of all shared many wonderful stories and laughs. This is a very funny family and I enjoyed each of their stories and life lessons.
A male friend recommended and gave this book to me as we were leaving on our drive to Texas. Now I know that our tastes in books is very different.
I never watch the Today Show - in which Mike Leonard apparently has a segment. Maybe if I did and I was a man, I might have given this book a 3 star.
Why did I finish this book? It was one of only two books I took along.
I never watch the Today Show - in which Mike Leonard apparently has a segment. Maybe if I did and I was a man, I might have given this book a 3 star.
Why did I finish this book? It was one of only two books I took along.
A very entertaining book. I have only had one experience traveling and/or camping in an RV, so it was amusing to read a book written by someone who isn't really a camper either. It was a bittersweet book - the author taking his elderly parents on a cross-country trip to visit places that were important in their lives. A real laugh-out-loud read.
I think we all read this book in our house the spring before getting our trailer at Lakeside. It was a fabulous retelling of Mike Leonard's journey across the country in a motor home with his aging parents. I love Mike Leonard's pieces on the Today Show and this was just a longer version. It's funny and touching. A great read for just about anyone!
What an entertaining & enjoyable ride! The author takes us on a road trip with his parents & children which turns into a bonding life experience for all of them. Mike Leonard writes from the heart, adding his marvelous sense of humor to the family's many adventures. You'll fall in love with his quirky aging parents! A wonderful story.
This was a book that was full of quirky characters and wonderful descriptions of the differences in the generations. The author, in taking his parents and several children on a long RV-style road trip, creates a wonderful opportunity for several generations to get to know each other better. Our readers enjoyed the way the author cut back and forth from past to present. His writing was spare but with wonderful detail. We enjoyed reading about how he stumbled upon his life's work. Especially poign...more
Memoir of an RV trip he took with his parents and children across country through the memories of their lives-mildly interesting since he grew up in Glencoe as one of 4 boys, but would be more interesting for his own family. Does set the record straight that the good old days weren't really that good.
True story of an NBC feature writer taking his elderly parents on a 30-day road trip with 3 of his adult children. Parts of the story are hilarious. To me, the author spent too much time complaining about the habits of his parents. It was a good read though but nothing memorable.
What a wonderful little book. Marge reminds me of my mom (who recommended the book) and Mike's stories of growing up with 3 brothers helps me imagine what my husband's childhood was like. Stories of RV'ing around the country solidified doing this as high on my bucket list.
This was a travelogue of a man taking his 80 year old parents and grown adult children on a cross country RV adventure across the US. His parents are very funny, very different, and swear often at the unexpected. Overall a fun read with a funny DVD included of video footage.
Mike Leonard keeps a really nice journal of his trip through 18 states with his elderly parents, his 2 sons, one daughter, and one daughter-in-law with the ultimate destination of Chicago for the birth of his first grandchild. It was a good story with a very sweet ending.
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Dec 08, 2011 10:15am