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The Fun Widow's Book Tour
From the author of Inheriting Edith comes a brave new novel about the intersection of art and grief after the tragic loss of her own husband in 2017. Mia used to be fun. She was the class clown; a member of the mile high club; the mom who made her sons giggle with her bad British accent and well-placed tickles. But three years after the death of her husband, there’s no time for that. She’s the only parent they have. Now, her memoir is out and she has to promote it. But how to sell herself when her heart is still broken? And so her three best friends—Chelsea, Rachel and George—organize her book tour in their respective hometowns. With her father Ira on deck for the boys, Mia sets off on a week-long journey to San Francisco, Chicago, and her hometown. Although, Mia’s not just going for herself. Armed with her trademark agenda, she plans to fix her friends’ lives as a means of repayment for all they’ve done. And reluctantly visit Judy, her new stepmother, because she has to—not because she wants to. But even the best agenda is often rendered useless by reality, and Mia realizes that the stories she’s been telling herself are just that. Stories. If she can rewrite who she is now by revisiting who she was then, maybe she can reignite the flame in all of them.
272 pages, Paperback
Published March 14, 2023
43 people are currently reading
13488 people want to read
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November 4, 2022Being the first reviewer of a book here is SO MUCH PRESSURE. And if I had loved it, being the first to give it 5 stars would be the biggest honor ever. But I didn’t love it. And I feel horrible about that because it’s very much based on the author’s life and in this novel the MC is a writer is who is devastated by negative reviews. But I don’t do pity reviews so I’ll focus on what didn’t work for ME. Because reading is personal and maybe Fishman and I just aren’t each other’s people?
First of all, the fat-phobia in this book is staggering and made me want to absolutely scream at all the characters. If that’s indicative of how the author and her friends and family talk and think, then they definitely aren’t my people. Also, COVID. It takes a very special tone for me to be able to read about COVID and this book didn’t have it at all for me - which was hard since half of the book had COVID as a major plot point.
Overall, I think this book should have been a memoir. It’s a novel about a young widow who has not moved on one iota since her husband died 2 years ago and this widow is an author who wrote a memoir about her grief. And the REAL author is a young widow who wrote a novel about it? It’s all too meta for me! I would have rather read a memoir than this because in the move to make it into a novel the minor attempts at humor fell flat for me. It was just too sharp. I can read grief but I have a hard time reading bitterness and this read as bitter to me.
BUT here’s the thing. I’m not a young widow and maybe this book will be an absolute balm to the souls of widows and divorcees. So I’m not star-rating it here. I want this book to find its reader. It’s just not me, unfortunately.
First of all, the fat-phobia in this book is staggering and made me want to absolutely scream at all the characters. If that’s indicative of how the author and her friends and family talk and think, then they definitely aren’t my people. Also, COVID. It takes a very special tone for me to be able to read about COVID and this book didn’t have it at all for me - which was hard since half of the book had COVID as a major plot point.
Overall, I think this book should have been a memoir. It’s a novel about a young widow who has not moved on one iota since her husband died 2 years ago and this widow is an author who wrote a memoir about her grief. And the REAL author is a young widow who wrote a novel about it? It’s all too meta for me! I would have rather read a memoir than this because in the move to make it into a novel the minor attempts at humor fell flat for me. It was just too sharp. I can read grief but I have a hard time reading bitterness and this read as bitter to me.
BUT here’s the thing. I’m not a young widow and maybe this book will be an absolute balm to the souls of widows and divorcees. So I’m not star-rating it here. I want this book to find its reader. It’s just not me, unfortunately.
April 8, 2023
Three things…
1. I LIKE this Zoe Fishman. She writes with such spunk, and I can always use more spunk. I will be happily diving into her back list. Oh, and the audiobook narrator (Andi Arndt) was exceptional!
2. A pet peeve of mine is when the cover (in this case, casual & cutesy) does not match the content. I’m guessing Zoe didn’t have much influence here.
3. I felt like the story just stopped. Not much closure at the end, but then again, it’s a loose memoir and life is certainly like that!
1. I LIKE this Zoe Fishman. She writes with such spunk, and I can always use more spunk. I will be happily diving into her back list. Oh, and the audiobook narrator (Andi Arndt) was exceptional!
2. A pet peeve of mine is when the cover (in this case, casual & cutesy) does not match the content. I’m guessing Zoe didn’t have much influence here.
3. I felt like the story just stopped. Not much closure at the end, but then again, it’s a loose memoir and life is certainly like that!
January 3, 2023
This book started off really strong for me so I had high hopes but as it went on things started feeling flat to me. Overall it was a decent story about a woman trying to pick up the pieces two years after her husband's death and find herself.
Things that worked for me.
Her friends supporting her through the death of her husband even though they lived all over the country.
Her friends supporting her career and trying to help her with the book tour and her career.
How loving and caring her son's were.
How it showed the changes of the pandemic in stages.
Even though her dad didn't like that she didn't want his wife there in the end he respected it.
Her bonding with her dad's wife at the end.
Things that didn't work for me.
Why does she only refer to her sons as the dudes?
Why are most of her friends in hate their spouses.
The ending. It just ends there wasn't resolve.
Overall I'm giving it 3 stars. It was pretty good but to me there wasn't any resolve at the end and a few things that just felt off.
Things that worked for me.
Her friends supporting her through the death of her husband even though they lived all over the country.
Her friends supporting her career and trying to help her with the book tour and her career.
How loving and caring her son's were.
How it showed the changes of the pandemic in stages.
Even though her dad didn't like that she didn't want his wife there in the end he respected it.
Her bonding with her dad's wife at the end.
Things that didn't work for me.
Why does she only refer to her sons as the dudes?
Why are most of her friends in hate their spouses.
The ending. It just ends there wasn't resolve.
Overall I'm giving it 3 stars. It was pretty good but to me there wasn't any resolve at the end and a few things that just felt off.
March 21, 2023
3 1/2
Mia’s husband died unexpectedly two years ago. The grief has been intense. She thought she could keep a part of him alive by writing a memoir that she’s now trying to promote as the world is about to close down due to the pandemic. She visits each of her best friends before lockdown as part of her book tour, but also because she hopes she can repay some of the kindness that they’ve shown her since her husband’s death in Zoe Fishman’s The Fun Widow’s Book Tour.
Much to my disappointment early on in my reading was to discover that there is no fun widow in this book. It’s a sarcastic title because Mia is a long way from feeling fun or funny or anything close to normal. Unfortunately, Mia is also one of the prickliest, most self-absorbed characters I’ve ever read about who is strangely unaware of just how self-absorbed she really is. I won’t say that she exhibits any change as the book progresses but every once in a while there is a glimmer that Mia can view circumstances beyond her own grief. Those glimmers are what kept me with The Fun Widow’s Book Tour.
Ultimately one little passage made me continue and almost like this book. There was a moment where Mia’s pain was palpable, almost a universal pain that anyone (despite Mia’s assertions that we couldn’t conceivably know what she’s going through) could tap into. It’s instances like this where the author reaches their reader, shows a vulnerability we either understand, empathize, or sympathize with. It moves beyond the main character’s prickliness and demonstrates humanity. I can feel for her because I have felt such pain.
As Mia visits each of her best friends, initially judging their relationships and finding them wanting, she is able to ascertain some truths. Not all relationships are the same. Not every relationship has to emulate yours to be fulfilling or good.
One of the most heart-breaking sequences for me was Mia’s treatment of her step-mother. Despite being an adult within inches of middle age, she behaves like a spoiled brat to Judy, the woman her father has married. She makes no attempts to understand that he might be lonely, that he deserves to continue living. She simply thinks about herself and behaves horribly toward Judy. Does that change as covid is about to assert itself? Well, you’d have to read the book to find out.
I won’t come away from this review telling you that I liked The Fun Widow’s Book Tour. I don’t think Zoe Fishman’s writing is for me but obviously is for others. I might try another to see if this is a one off despite knowing that the author’s reality (being an unexpected widow due to similar circumstances, raising two boys known as the dudes, living in NYC after Atlanta, being a writer who has written a fictional account of a writer’s memoir about her husband’s death (yikes!!), etc.,) is very similar (almost the same) to Mia’s whom I’m not certain I could spend an afternoon with is off-putting. But as I learned as I read this book and found parts that actually spoke to me: you never know.
I will suggest that this could conceivably be your-mileage-may-vary.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Mia’s husband died unexpectedly two years ago. The grief has been intense. She thought she could keep a part of him alive by writing a memoir that she’s now trying to promote as the world is about to close down due to the pandemic. She visits each of her best friends before lockdown as part of her book tour, but also because she hopes she can repay some of the kindness that they’ve shown her since her husband’s death in Zoe Fishman’s The Fun Widow’s Book Tour.
Much to my disappointment early on in my reading was to discover that there is no fun widow in this book. It’s a sarcastic title because Mia is a long way from feeling fun or funny or anything close to normal. Unfortunately, Mia is also one of the prickliest, most self-absorbed characters I’ve ever read about who is strangely unaware of just how self-absorbed she really is. I won’t say that she exhibits any change as the book progresses but every once in a while there is a glimmer that Mia can view circumstances beyond her own grief. Those glimmers are what kept me with The Fun Widow’s Book Tour.
Ultimately one little passage made me continue and almost like this book. There was a moment where Mia’s pain was palpable, almost a universal pain that anyone (despite Mia’s assertions that we couldn’t conceivably know what she’s going through) could tap into. It’s instances like this where the author reaches their reader, shows a vulnerability we either understand, empathize, or sympathize with. It moves beyond the main character’s prickliness and demonstrates humanity. I can feel for her because I have felt such pain.
As Mia visits each of her best friends, initially judging their relationships and finding them wanting, she is able to ascertain some truths. Not all relationships are the same. Not every relationship has to emulate yours to be fulfilling or good.
One of the most heart-breaking sequences for me was Mia’s treatment of her step-mother. Despite being an adult within inches of middle age, she behaves like a spoiled brat to Judy, the woman her father has married. She makes no attempts to understand that he might be lonely, that he deserves to continue living. She simply thinks about herself and behaves horribly toward Judy. Does that change as covid is about to assert itself? Well, you’d have to read the book to find out.
I won’t come away from this review telling you that I liked The Fun Widow’s Book Tour. I don’t think Zoe Fishman’s writing is for me but obviously is for others. I might try another to see if this is a one off despite knowing that the author’s reality (being an unexpected widow due to similar circumstances, raising two boys known as the dudes, living in NYC after Atlanta, being a writer who has written a fictional account of a writer’s memoir about her husband’s death (yikes!!), etc.,) is very similar (almost the same) to Mia’s whom I’m not certain I could spend an afternoon with is off-putting. But as I learned as I read this book and found parts that actually spoke to me: you never know.
I will suggest that this could conceivably be your-mileage-may-vary.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 24, 2023
I did not enjoy this at all. If I had to read one more sentence with words ," the dudes" I think I would have gone crazy.
The book has so many references to weight that it was very unpleasant to read. Her words are regurgitated and a thesaurus might have helped.
Sorry to be so harsh and negative but this is just my take on it. I hope others will enjoy it more than I did.
The book has so many references to weight that it was very unpleasant to read. Her words are regurgitated and a thesaurus might have helped.
Sorry to be so harsh and negative but this is just my take on it. I hope others will enjoy it more than I did.
February 27, 2023
This was the longest read ever on a book, I should have DNF-ed from the get go.
After reading 84% of it - because I was still hoping and waiting for anything even slightly significant to happen, I had to give up.
So we have a mother and author, who lost her husband and is left with her two "Dudes" (her small sons), grief, and a complicated relationship with her father.
This relationship should not have been as difficult, as she made it out to be, and the protagonist seemed to me like she was a very selfish, all about herself and her feelings occupied mother.
Seemed like she wanted to be praised as a mother, but did not give her own, now elderly father, the same courtesy of accepting him as a parent.
So since the last book she wrote about was a memoir which was more about her grief than anything else (I mentioned "selfish" and "boring" previously) and did not sell well, she decided to go on her own mini book tour to promote her book.
And it looks like, her readers were not very impressed...
So this is a book that is exactly, what the protagonist wrote.
I was just hoping and not trying to give up and honestly waited for the book to pick up - but If I would have known, I would really had not wasted my time on this "blah" of a book.
In good conscience I can not rate this book with more than a single star - for effort.
That's all.
Can and will not recommend.
December 6, 2022
Author Zoe Fishman mines her own personal story of losing her husband and turns it into a sweet, moving and at times unbearably sad novel of grieving the live of your life while being forced to carry on with your life. There is so much truth, love and friendship in this book. And heartbreak and hope. A very personal, wonderful novel.
March 9, 2025
בעלה של מיה נפטר באופן פתאומי ומשאיר אותה אלמנה. הספר נפתח ביום שבו מתפרסם ממואר שכתבה, שמתמקד בבעלה המנוח.
הביקורת לא מקבלת את הספר באהבה, והיא יוצאת למסע קידום מכירות בן 5 ימים, שמארגנות שלוש חברותיה הטובות. כל אחת מארגנת ערב קריאה בעיר מגוריה. מבחינת מיה יותר משזה מסע מפגשי קריאה של הספר, זו הזדמנות לפגוש את חברותיה (ולנסות לחלק להן עצות שיתקנו את חייהן).
הקשר של מיה עם בעלה, נוגע ללב. הספר מעביר היטב את הכאב שלה והאבל ואת הצורך למצות את החיים.
הדמויות מעוררות סימפטיה ועגולות. ספר מקסים. מתוק -מריר.
הביקורת לא מקבלת את הספר באהבה, והיא יוצאת למסע קידום מכירות בן 5 ימים, שמארגנות שלוש חברותיה הטובות. כל אחת מארגנת ערב קריאה בעיר מגוריה. מבחינת מיה יותר משזה מסע מפגשי קריאה של הספר, זו הזדמנות לפגוש את חברותיה (ולנסות לחלק להן עצות שיתקנו את חייהן).
הקשר של מיה עם בעלה, נוגע ללב. הספר מעביר היטב את הכאב שלה והאבל ואת הצורך למצות את החיים.
הדמויות מעוררות סימפטיה ועגולות. ספר מקסים. מתוק -מריר.
April 11, 2023
Fun Widow's Book Tour is a poignant and beautiful book, and as I read I kept recommending it to close friends because I thought it would resonate with them for so many reasons - the reality of coping with profound grief; managing life as a single parent; the struggles of being a writer. I truly appreciate and admire Zoe Fishman for putting her heart out there so bravely and honestly in this memoir-as-a-novel.
August 28, 2023
Overall, this book was good, but felt a bit too scattered. I liked the inside look at writing and publishing. I liked that Mia called her sons "the dudes" and so did everyone else. But, like I said, there was too much going on. It almost felt like the author was making a book with all the leftovers from other books. Mia was supposed to be doing a book tour and the book isn't getting good reviews. She is also trying to fix each of her friends' lives even though she really needs to focus on her own. (I get this. Easier to deal with their problems than face your own, but it still felt a bit flat.) She is dealing with her aging father and a stepmom she has never liked. Oh, and then Covid magically appears with no warning but she is still on the road promoting her book. I thought it was interesting that her own widowhood inspired the story and maybe that is why the story felt a bit cluttered: how do you edit out even the smallest parts when they feel so dear?
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.
March 15, 2023
I really enjoyed this deeply personal novel about grief and moving on after the sudden loss of a beloved partner.
Three years after the death of her husband, writer, widow and single mother Mia has a new memoir out that is getting mixed reviews. Struggling to find herself again after being so much for others over the past few years, she goes on a book tour with the plan to have some fun and reconnect with her stepmother.
Great on audio narrated by Andi Arndt, this was a relatable and easy to listen book and my first by the author. Highly recommended, especially for fans of books like Evvie Drake starts over or The invisible husband of Frick Island.
Three years after the death of her husband, writer, widow and single mother Mia has a new memoir out that is getting mixed reviews. Struggling to find herself again after being so much for others over the past few years, she goes on a book tour with the plan to have some fun and reconnect with her stepmother.
Great on audio narrated by Andi Arndt, this was a relatable and easy to listen book and my first by the author. Highly recommended, especially for fans of books like Evvie Drake starts over or The invisible husband of Frick Island.
March 7, 2023
Mia is an author, a widow, and mother to two boys, “the dudes.” This book is about her navigating the loss of her husband, Mia’s relationships with her 3 close friends, and features a little bit of what life was like early in the pandemic. With all these features, it rings a little like it could be Zoe’s own memoir.
I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to lovers of women’s fiction. I think you would especially enjoy it as a 38-45 year old because there are some pop culture references.
Thank you to HarperCollins, William Morrow, and NetGalley for this advanced reader’s copy.
I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to lovers of women’s fiction. I think you would especially enjoy it as a 38-45 year old because there are some pop culture references.
Thank you to HarperCollins, William Morrow, and NetGalley for this advanced reader’s copy.
May 31, 2023
I wanted a fun escape and fun is in the title of this book. Grief and losing a husband too soon is the major focus of the group. It felt detached even though it was the center of the book. I do like the idea of you have to rediscover yourself after a relationship ends, and not enough people do that.
How did this book find me? It was a CloudLibrary recommendation.
How did this book find me? It was a CloudLibrary recommendation.
March 30, 2023
I loved this book and thought that author Zoe Fishman did an excellent job touching on various aspects of being a widow. I especially loved the dynamic between Mia and Ira. Overall, a touching novel.
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July 11, 2023Zoe Fishman is an auto buy author for me. So this is a biased review. Thoroughly enjoyed this book! She’s always been so forthcoming about her life, especially as a young widow, so this just made me love her more! Fiction, but definitely part memoir.
December 30, 2024
I liked the premise-a novel that’s really a memoir of a writer navigating the death of her husband.
August 9, 2023
Kinda ‘meh.’
August 8, 2024
Didn't finish it...thought it would have more humor, it was quite dry and tedious. I wasn't willing to finish it to find out if it got "fun"
May 31, 2023
I loved reading this book! It was filled, laughter, tears and love!
April 30, 2023
Kind of like the book reviews in this book, I felt it was lacking in depth. I expected more from the widow and not so much a biography of her husband.
April 24, 2023
This was a short, but fun, read with a satisfying ending. I think the author could have lengthened the book to include more character development.
May 1, 2023
2 1/2 stars
First thing to know about this book is not to be bamboozled by the bright cover and title. There is nothing fun in this book. This is a book about a woman, Mia, whose husband died two years earlier. She’s still feeling completely self-involved and sorry for herself. She writes a book that’s supposed to be a memoir, but it’s not about her. How can you write a memoir that’s not about you?
She says this memoir is about her husband, to memorialize him, but we learn very little about her husband. We don’t know what he really did for a living. We don’t learn about how he died. All we really know is that she tells us that he was a good husband and wonderful father. That’s pretty meager stuff for a book about him.
Mia has two sons, but neither seems to have a name. They’re referred to, by everyone in the book, as “the dudes.” Mia will sometimes go beyond that and call them her elder and younger. Either way, it got remarkably annoying after the first few uses. Those boys seems to be dealing very well with their father’s death. Then, again, we’re not really shown much of their lives.
We see a little more of Mia, but we still don’t learn that much about her. We are told much more about her father and step-mother and her friends that we are about Mia. I could probably walk up to her friend George or Rachel and her husband and be completely at ease with them because we learn so much about them. I don’t see doing that with Mia. Even at the end of the book, she seemed an awkward stranger, whiny and depressed. She really needed to take a page from her father’s book an start to move on. Instead, she remains mired in a puddle of gloom. I would think that was hard to do with two young children. They tend to naturally pull you out of such woe. Mia is also a taker; she takes her friends' support, money, hospitality, gifts, and appears to return very little.
Here’s some news for you, Mia. If you’re not in it, it’s not a memoir. Here’s more for both Mia and author Zoe Fishman to know: this is a book you should probably have written for yourself, maybe for your family and friends to read, but not published. I feel like you foisted your self-pity on me. I do offer Ms. Fishman my condolences on her loss, for this book is based on her experience after the loss of her own husband, but honestly, it doesn’t offer anything positive or helpful for others.
If this book wasn’t already depressing enough, adding in the pandemic just made it worse. Why do so many authors think I want to read about how Covid 19 brought the world to a halt? Not to mention, I’m pretty sure that the author had the dates for when things happened during the pandemic, like the start of mask wearing, grocery disinfecting, and lockdown wrong. She has everything happening in the first week or two of March 2020, but I’m pretty sure most of that didn’t happen until mid-March to early April of that year.
So if death and a pandemic aren’t enough to bring you down, Mia is constantly bemoaning her weight. She apparently suffered from anorexia at points in her life. Others make fun of her and her weight, too. It’s not exactly fat-shaming, but it’s not something I feel the need to read about.
.
I had trouble staying connected to this book or its characters. It’s flat, depressing, slow-moving, and offers little to assist any reader who might find him/herself in a similar situation of losing a loved one. Both the actual author and the fictional Mia should have listened more to their editors. While the technical writing, things like punctuation, syntax, grammar, and such is fine, the book in its entirety is tedious and dull.
I don’t recommend this book, and it’s unlikely that I’ll be reading any other books by this author.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
First thing to know about this book is not to be bamboozled by the bright cover and title. There is nothing fun in this book. This is a book about a woman, Mia, whose husband died two years earlier. She’s still feeling completely self-involved and sorry for herself. She writes a book that’s supposed to be a memoir, but it’s not about her. How can you write a memoir that’s not about you?
She says this memoir is about her husband, to memorialize him, but we learn very little about her husband. We don’t know what he really did for a living. We don’t learn about how he died. All we really know is that she tells us that he was a good husband and wonderful father. That’s pretty meager stuff for a book about him.
Mia has two sons, but neither seems to have a name. They’re referred to, by everyone in the book, as “the dudes.” Mia will sometimes go beyond that and call them her elder and younger. Either way, it got remarkably annoying after the first few uses. Those boys seems to be dealing very well with their father’s death. Then, again, we’re not really shown much of their lives.
We see a little more of Mia, but we still don’t learn that much about her. We are told much more about her father and step-mother and her friends that we are about Mia. I could probably walk up to her friend George or Rachel and her husband and be completely at ease with them because we learn so much about them. I don’t see doing that with Mia. Even at the end of the book, she seemed an awkward stranger, whiny and depressed. She really needed to take a page from her father’s book an start to move on. Instead, she remains mired in a puddle of gloom. I would think that was hard to do with two young children. They tend to naturally pull you out of such woe. Mia is also a taker; she takes her friends' support, money, hospitality, gifts, and appears to return very little.
Of course Mia wasn’t in the memoir! Mia had lost herself just trying to stay alive.
Here’s some news for you, Mia. If you’re not in it, it’s not a memoir. Here’s more for both Mia and author Zoe Fishman to know: this is a book you should probably have written for yourself, maybe for your family and friends to read, but not published. I feel like you foisted your self-pity on me. I do offer Ms. Fishman my condolences on her loss, for this book is based on her experience after the loss of her own husband, but honestly, it doesn’t offer anything positive or helpful for others.
If this book wasn’t already depressing enough, adding in the pandemic just made it worse. Why do so many authors think I want to read about how Covid 19 brought the world to a halt? Not to mention, I’m pretty sure that the author had the dates for when things happened during the pandemic, like the start of mask wearing, grocery disinfecting, and lockdown wrong. She has everything happening in the first week or two of March 2020, but I’m pretty sure most of that didn’t happen until mid-March to early April of that year.
So if death and a pandemic aren’t enough to bring you down, Mia is constantly bemoaning her weight. She apparently suffered from anorexia at points in her life. Others make fun of her and her weight, too. It’s not exactly fat-shaming, but it’s not something I feel the need to read about.
.
I had trouble staying connected to this book or its characters. It’s flat, depressing, slow-moving, and offers little to assist any reader who might find him/herself in a similar situation of losing a loved one. Both the actual author and the fictional Mia should have listened more to their editors. While the technical writing, things like punctuation, syntax, grammar, and such is fine, the book in its entirety is tedious and dull.
I don’t recommend this book, and it’s unlikely that I’ll be reading any other books by this author.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.
January 4, 2025
(2.75 rounded to 3.0).
Mia (aka Zoe Fishman) was a 30-something writer whose husband dies suddenly leaving her with two boys to raise, a mortgage to pay, and a life to rebuild without him. In order to cope with her grief, Mia writes a memoir about her first three years as a widow. She has three very close friends who help and support her even though they live in other cities. A childhood best friend, Chelsea, who was her close companion from grade school to graduation lives in Atlanta. Rachel was Mia’s roommate in college and there through all of Mia’s experimentation with life now lives in Boston. And George, who was Mia’s roommate, friend, and partner in crime when she lived in Manhattan in her early 20s. Mia has kept her friends close throughout her marriage and the early years of motherhood to two elementary school age boys, known only as “the Dudes” in the book and in life. For her book tour, she is booked into each of these cities for an appearance and to touch base with her friends—a badly needed opportunity to touch base with some of the most important people in her life. She also has a father willing to drop everything (including his wife that Mia resents) to move into her house to act as surrogate parent to the Dudes so she can promote her memoir about her grief and recovery following her husband’s sudden death. To complicate things, the COVID Pandemic begins to spread during her tour and creates a conflict between finishing the tour or rushing back to the Dudes.She procrastinates until flights are cancelled and she has to drive for 13 hours with her stepmother to get home.
The “aka Zoe Fishman” in the description above is a nod to the fact that her real life husband died suddenly and she was made a single parent with her own Dudes and she used her writing as a therapeutic tool to cope with her emotions. When she wanted to turn a series of letters that she wrote to her deceased husband into a memoir like book, she was told that because she was not famous there would be minimal interest in such a book. So she turned it into a novel and here we are with a book that fictionalizes much of her experience. The book is actually a better presentation of female friendships than a book about losing her husband. The characters are adequately developed for the purpose but there could have been so much more. The relationships with her family and friends was the strongest point but I kept wanting to know more. The writing on the Pandemic was superficial which I found myself almost resenting. All in all it was an average read. It kept me reading (and hoping) to the end which left me with a whole new feeling of dissatisfaction. I have discovered that this author has a backlist of 6 best selling books with close to a 4.0 rating on each one. So I am going to consider that maybe this book was not for me and plan to pick up another of her books to determine if she maybe is not the best author for me.
Mia (aka Zoe Fishman) was a 30-something writer whose husband dies suddenly leaving her with two boys to raise, a mortgage to pay, and a life to rebuild without him. In order to cope with her grief, Mia writes a memoir about her first three years as a widow. She has three very close friends who help and support her even though they live in other cities. A childhood best friend, Chelsea, who was her close companion from grade school to graduation lives in Atlanta. Rachel was Mia’s roommate in college and there through all of Mia’s experimentation with life now lives in Boston. And George, who was Mia’s roommate, friend, and partner in crime when she lived in Manhattan in her early 20s. Mia has kept her friends close throughout her marriage and the early years of motherhood to two elementary school age boys, known only as “the Dudes” in the book and in life. For her book tour, she is booked into each of these cities for an appearance and to touch base with her friends—a badly needed opportunity to touch base with some of the most important people in her life. She also has a father willing to drop everything (including his wife that Mia resents) to move into her house to act as surrogate parent to the Dudes so she can promote her memoir about her grief and recovery following her husband’s sudden death. To complicate things, the COVID Pandemic begins to spread during her tour and creates a conflict between finishing the tour or rushing back to the Dudes.She procrastinates until flights are cancelled and she has to drive for 13 hours with her stepmother to get home.
The “aka Zoe Fishman” in the description above is a nod to the fact that her real life husband died suddenly and she was made a single parent with her own Dudes and she used her writing as a therapeutic tool to cope with her emotions. When she wanted to turn a series of letters that she wrote to her deceased husband into a memoir like book, she was told that because she was not famous there would be minimal interest in such a book. So she turned it into a novel and here we are with a book that fictionalizes much of her experience. The book is actually a better presentation of female friendships than a book about losing her husband. The characters are adequately developed for the purpose but there could have been so much more. The relationships with her family and friends was the strongest point but I kept wanting to know more. The writing on the Pandemic was superficial which I found myself almost resenting. All in all it was an average read. It kept me reading (and hoping) to the end which left me with a whole new feeling of dissatisfaction. I have discovered that this author has a backlist of 6 best selling books with close to a 4.0 rating on each one. So I am going to consider that maybe this book was not for me and plan to pick up another of her books to determine if she maybe is not the best author for me.
March 17, 2023
A fortysomething, midlist novelist sees her husband off to work one morning. That evening, he is in a coma; he dies a few days later, leaving her with two young sons. As a way to process her grief, the widow decides to write a book about her husband and her pain.
In the plotline of “The Fun Widow’s Book Tour,” the novelist-widow, Mia Macher, writes a memoir. In real life, award-winning novelist Zoe Fishman turned her tragically similar experience into this novel about Mia writing a book about her experience.
Those intertwined roots are only part of this book’s complicated personality. In its breezy style and focus on women’s friendships, it’s partly chick lit (although Mia angrily rejects that label when a friend’s husband pins it on her own work). Fishman also interweaves a Covid narrative, philosophical musings on fate, family dynamics, and a gentle satire of the publishing industry.
Of course, much of the plot and many of the characters are in fact “made up.” Mia’s longtime best friends – George, Rachel, and Chelsea—organize a book tour for her memoir in their hometowns of San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta, respectively, after her publisher refuses to sponsor more than a sliver of publicity. (That description of publishers is definitely nonfiction.) Covid unexpectedly shreds the itinerary, and suddenly Mia finds herself driving home to New Jersey from Atlanta with Judy, the stepmother she despises.
If George’s, Rachel’s, and Chelsea’s motivation for the tour is to boost Mia’s spirits along with her book sales, Mia in turn sees the excursion as an opportunity to help her friends rethink their struggling parental and romantic lives.
Unfortunately, just like the book tour, this novel is burdened with more expectations than it can fulfill. George’s and Chelsea’s problems are barely flicked at, though Rachel gets a bit more ink. Covid pops in and out as an occasional annoyance, not the terrifying shadow it actually was for the first year until vaccines became generally available. The Judy story doesn’t really show up until the last 20 pages, and then it’s quickly settled. What about Mia’s panic that her novel will be a flop? After one discouraging review and two so-so audiences, that topic peters out.
The book’s strongest parts are Mia’s heartfelt grief over the loss of her husband and her intense love of writing. As she puts it, “The impossibility of turning her idea into four hundred pages was possible. And if that was possible, then anything was possible.” (Adapted from my review in the New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book... )
In the plotline of “The Fun Widow’s Book Tour,” the novelist-widow, Mia Macher, writes a memoir. In real life, award-winning novelist Zoe Fishman turned her tragically similar experience into this novel about Mia writing a book about her experience.
Those intertwined roots are only part of this book’s complicated personality. In its breezy style and focus on women’s friendships, it’s partly chick lit (although Mia angrily rejects that label when a friend’s husband pins it on her own work). Fishman also interweaves a Covid narrative, philosophical musings on fate, family dynamics, and a gentle satire of the publishing industry.
Of course, much of the plot and many of the characters are in fact “made up.” Mia’s longtime best friends – George, Rachel, and Chelsea—organize a book tour for her memoir in their hometowns of San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta, respectively, after her publisher refuses to sponsor more than a sliver of publicity. (That description of publishers is definitely nonfiction.) Covid unexpectedly shreds the itinerary, and suddenly Mia finds herself driving home to New Jersey from Atlanta with Judy, the stepmother she despises.
If George’s, Rachel’s, and Chelsea’s motivation for the tour is to boost Mia’s spirits along with her book sales, Mia in turn sees the excursion as an opportunity to help her friends rethink their struggling parental and romantic lives.
Unfortunately, just like the book tour, this novel is burdened with more expectations than it can fulfill. George’s and Chelsea’s problems are barely flicked at, though Rachel gets a bit more ink. Covid pops in and out as an occasional annoyance, not the terrifying shadow it actually was for the first year until vaccines became generally available. The Judy story doesn’t really show up until the last 20 pages, and then it’s quickly settled. What about Mia’s panic that her novel will be a flop? After one discouraging review and two so-so audiences, that topic peters out.
The book’s strongest parts are Mia’s heartfelt grief over the loss of her husband and her intense love of writing. As she puts it, “The impossibility of turning her idea into four hundred pages was possible. And if that was possible, then anything was possible.” (Adapted from my review in the New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book... )
April 6, 2023
I received an ARC of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway, and I had pretty high hopes for this story! While I still think the general story and concept about a single mother working her way through the grief of losing her husband is valuable, I didn't love the execution.
Maybe it was because it was an unedited ARC, but the story felt messy. One minute the narrator is talking about one then, then suddenly switches to an entirely different thought. I found myself confused a lot. There also didn't seem to be a main focus of the story. I also found it odd that the woman's children never were named but only referred to as "the dudes" or "the elder" and "the younger" while the friend's children had names. Was that a placeholder before final edits? I'm not sure.
Finally, there were a lot of problematic aspects to the story. It was very fatphobic for one. I thought maybe that would resolve, but in the end it just seemed like fat shaming for no reason. There was also a bit of micro aggression racism and homophobia/sexism, that the author brushed over the resolutions, like she wanted to show that she cared but didn't want to put much effort into it? This kind of prejudice is not really excusable, so that knocked my rating down quite a bit.
And then the whole Covid thing was weird. Again, I kept thinking the book was going to be about self exploration and growth but then it became about meddling in her friends life and then, oh, suddenly Covid is happening and that's the main plot.
I was entertained reading this book, but overall it felt unfinished, like I was reading the very first draft (maybe I was?). I think if the author had spent more time on it maybe it could've been great! I still think some of the concepts of being a widow are valuable, especially since this is a personal experience of the author. Not my cup of tea, but maybe it will work for you!
Maybe it was because it was an unedited ARC, but the story felt messy. One minute the narrator is talking about one then, then suddenly switches to an entirely different thought. I found myself confused a lot. There also didn't seem to be a main focus of the story. I also found it odd that the woman's children never were named but only referred to as "the dudes" or "the elder" and "the younger" while the friend's children had names. Was that a placeholder before final edits? I'm not sure.
Finally, there were a lot of problematic aspects to the story. It was very fatphobic for one. I thought maybe that would resolve, but in the end it just seemed like fat shaming for no reason. There was also a bit of micro aggression racism and homophobia/sexism, that the author brushed over the resolutions, like she wanted to show that she cared but didn't want to put much effort into it? This kind of prejudice is not really excusable, so that knocked my rating down quite a bit.
And then the whole Covid thing was weird. Again, I kept thinking the book was going to be about self exploration and growth but then it became about meddling in her friends life and then, oh, suddenly Covid is happening and that's the main plot.
I was entertained reading this book, but overall it felt unfinished, like I was reading the very first draft (maybe I was?). I think if the author had spent more time on it maybe it could've been great! I still think some of the concepts of being a widow are valuable, especially since this is a personal experience of the author. Not my cup of tea, but maybe it will work for you!
March 17, 2023
I won this book in a goodreads give away and I enjoyed the fast (but not light) read. I haven't been able to find a book to keep my attention lately and this one did the trick. Mia is a single mother of two young boys with her husband dying suddenly a few years earlier. The book is very meta, as the story starts with the publication of her memoir regarding her husband's death and how she went on after.
I liked Mia's journey in this book and her relationship with her three best friends: Rachel, George and Chelsea, who were all very different and from different stages of her life. I also liked the memories shared of her relationship with her parents. The book is sad, but that is to be expected and not a bad thing. The regrets Mia has about the time she did have with her husband are understandable and I actually did enjoy a sort of "behind the scenes" look into the publishing world.
I thought it was interesting that, as far as I can tell, we never hear her sons (the "dudes"), her mother or her husband referred to by name. I don't think they ever tell us how her husband died though there are references to him in the ICU that made me think it was a car accident?
I did feel like many things were sort of glossed over or finished too fast. Even after finishing the book I totally don't understand why Mia was so resentful of Judy (her father's new wife) and then the relationship was just sort of fixed by their long car ride together. Also, I just dislike reading about March 2020 in any book in general, especially if it doesn't need to be there, because it just wasn't a fun time. And I don't think it necessarily served a purpose in this book except to force Judy and Mia to ride in a car together.
All in all, I do recommend this book for a quick and captivating read.
I liked Mia's journey in this book and her relationship with her three best friends: Rachel, George and Chelsea, who were all very different and from different stages of her life. I also liked the memories shared of her relationship with her parents. The book is sad, but that is to be expected and not a bad thing. The regrets Mia has about the time she did have with her husband are understandable and I actually did enjoy a sort of "behind the scenes" look into the publishing world.
I thought it was interesting that, as far as I can tell, we never hear her sons (the "dudes"), her mother or her husband referred to by name. I don't think they ever tell us how her husband died though there are references to him in the ICU that made me think it was a car accident?
I did feel like many things were sort of glossed over or finished too fast. Even after finishing the book I totally don't understand why Mia was so resentful of Judy (her father's new wife) and then the relationship was just sort of fixed by their long car ride together. Also, I just dislike reading about March 2020 in any book in general, especially if it doesn't need to be there, because it just wasn't a fun time. And I don't think it necessarily served a purpose in this book except to force Judy and Mia to ride in a car together.
All in all, I do recommend this book for a quick and captivating read.
June 8, 2024
This read like a memoir to me even though it is a fictional account. But I continue to think of it as a memoir. Books that I plan on rereading I rate as 5 stars. As someone who was widowed at 44 when my 2 sons were in grade school, I still seek out books about widowhood and only parenthood even 20 years out in my widowhood journey. This is because these accounts resonate with me in a world that largely expects widows to get over it and not complain about how hard it is. The reason it is so challenging for widows with children is because they need to grieve and figure out to only parent at the same time. Ms. Fishman explains that she didn't think people would read a memoir about her loss since she is a mid-tier author. I certainly would have and remember one from some years back about a young widow who became a pastor (completing a grad school program) in honor of her late husband's dream of doing so. I hope Ms. Fishman might reconsider it or as an alternative write a follow-up to this novel. I would love finding out what happens to Mia, her family and friends in the coming years. Reading this made me feel understood and accepted. In the early years of my grieving I didn't have the will, capacity or time to write about my experience. It is fortunate that an actual writer had the courage and vulnerability to create this work. We need these accounts for new or existing widows to garner support. And to help those not experiencing widowhood, gain insight and compassion for those that are. Extra kuddos for the inclusion of the pandemic in the second half of the book. I strongly believe that the only way we can collectively grieve is by our working through the past and art and literature give us the means and opportunity.
April 5, 2023
Review of The Fun Widows Book Tour:
I love books that take hard subject matter like grief and transmute it into humor or something really generative…
I know that this book hits home for the author because she lost her husband and is raising two boys just like her fictional protagonist who also wrote a book about it to mixed reviews.
There is a lot here for me to relate to.
Having lost my mom as she also did and being a single mom of two boys, I thought that I would really enjoy this one and even have a few cathartic moments.
I unfortunately didn’t.
The main character decided to focus a lot on her friends bad marriages, always talking about how lucky they were to have marriages at all, while leaving her two boys which were never ever referred to by their names only as ‘the dudes’.
This got so redundant that even the other people in the book called them that, rendering them basically non characters, which seemed wrong in some way to not have them apart of the story.
It took away a lot of heart that I think this book could have had.
Her deviated focus, her no name children, the traveling during the beginning of Covid. There were just too many elements that took away from me being able to relate to her.
She also was very judgmental about how her own father handled the grief of her mother dying and remarrying.
I didn’t find hardly any retrospection except the very common ones we all hear all the time and was left feeling estranged from the story.
I see what the author was trying to do and I appreciated some anecdotes in this story, it’s a fast read, but it just lacked a little magic for me.
🌟🌟🌟
Thank you Goodreads for sending me a copy!!! Even if it wasn’t my favorite, I love getting to read books that take me out of norm!
November 9, 2022
3.75⭐
Zoe Fishman brings relationships to life in this emotional rollercoaster of a novel. Parts of this book were so well written, I felt like I was in the book! I would love to read more from this author in the future.
Mia is a widow with two sons, "the dudes", and she just released her new memoir about the loss of her husband. It's raw, depressing, and cathartic for her to write. It's been 2 years and she is still processing her grief and learning to be a single parent. When her friend suggests she turns her release into a book tour, despite the low reviews and sales, she decides to go for it. She goes to the 3 locations her best friend's live and stays with them while she tours.
Along the way, we meet each friend and Mia confronts them about their issues in their own lives/helps them work through their relationship troubles. She feels like she has completely different perspective now that her partner is gone, and she wants to encourage her friends to love and work hard on their marriages.
The book touches on the pandemic quite a bit, and while I realize it played a role in the plot/setting, I didn't enjoy reading about it. #toosoon? I'm over hearing about covid in any form and it could have been left out of the book, in my opinion.
Overall, I did really love chunks of the book. It was a good book and I think it's worth a few hours of your time to read it. I would love to read more of her books in the future as well, her characters are so well developed!
Thank you to netgalley for an eARC to review.
Zoe Fishman brings relationships to life in this emotional rollercoaster of a novel. Parts of this book were so well written, I felt like I was in the book! I would love to read more from this author in the future.
Mia is a widow with two sons, "the dudes", and she just released her new memoir about the loss of her husband. It's raw, depressing, and cathartic for her to write. It's been 2 years and she is still processing her grief and learning to be a single parent. When her friend suggests she turns her release into a book tour, despite the low reviews and sales, she decides to go for it. She goes to the 3 locations her best friend's live and stays with them while she tours.
Along the way, we meet each friend and Mia confronts them about their issues in their own lives/helps them work through their relationship troubles. She feels like she has completely different perspective now that her partner is gone, and she wants to encourage her friends to love and work hard on their marriages.
The book touches on the pandemic quite a bit, and while I realize it played a role in the plot/setting, I didn't enjoy reading about it. #toosoon? I'm over hearing about covid in any form and it could have been left out of the book, in my opinion.
Overall, I did really love chunks of the book. It was a good book and I think it's worth a few hours of your time to read it. I would love to read more of her books in the future as well, her characters are so well developed!
Thank you to netgalley for an eARC to review.
June 23, 2024
I liked the idea of the book, but not really the execution. All of the characters annoyed me, most of all the MC. The friends honestly all seemed kind of shallow and mean. The tour itself was ruined from Covid and it acts like people just met but with masks but that is not what I remember about the start of Covid AT ALL. People were not going places. It was home; everything -everything- was virtual. Masks didn’t come until a little later. I do imagine it is a challenge to write about such a major event that happened so recently because everyone had a little bit different experience and still remembers it (it’s too raw still for many, I’d venture) and I struggled with how flippant she was about it. Today, okay. But in 2020 it was terrifying. Maybe I have a unique perspective since I work for a hospital.
Also the dudes, I hated that moniker, although for no good reason. I may have been okay with something like the boys or the kids. Something about the dudes just was like nails on a chalkboard to me for some reason, but that might just be me.
I got this book bc it was short and seemed like a non-romance (I hate romance) summer read, and I appreciated its length. But it wasn’t my favorite.
One positive thing I gained from this book: I realize I often say to people facing a major challenge “I can’t imagine”. And this book explained why that’s not a great thing to say to someone facing grief, so I will try to be more mindful of avoiding that!
Also the dudes, I hated that moniker, although for no good reason. I may have been okay with something like the boys or the kids. Something about the dudes just was like nails on a chalkboard to me for some reason, but that might just be me.
I got this book bc it was short and seemed like a non-romance (I hate romance) summer read, and I appreciated its length. But it wasn’t my favorite.
One positive thing I gained from this book: I realize I often say to people facing a major challenge “I can’t imagine”. And this book explained why that’s not a great thing to say to someone facing grief, so I will try to be more mindful of avoiding that!
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