Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing up Groovy and Clueless
By Susan Jane Gilman

To sum in a sentence, this is a memoir book and it’s pretty snazzy. To me, memoirs don’t seem like the best thing to read. It really depends on the person. After reading this one though, I felt like I had been sitting down with the author and she had been telling me little snippets and stories of her life, just like you usually do with friends, families and new acquaintances. She’s got some pretty off the wall stories and has led an interesting life – probably a good thing if you’re going to write a whole book about yourself.

One of my favorite parts of the book is from the beginning, when Susan Gilman was in grade school and stood up in class for Show n Tell. She told her teacher and classmates that her parents would be changing her name to Sapphire. The teacher then asked if that’s what she would like to be called from now on and she said yes. This started a whole series of tales for Show n Tell, including her family moving to New Jersey for her birthday the following year and that she’d have her very own pink bathroom, that she would be dancing in the Nutcracker that weekend, and that she had a new baby sister who she got to name. All lies! She got found out when Gilman’s mom came to school and set the record straight for her teacher. Imaginative mind even then!

If you like little amusing tales and snippets then this may be the book for you. It doesn’t really have any all out “life lessons” but it ends on a happy note with the author content with her life.