The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle

I added The Antelope in the Living Room to my library hold list because someone said it was full of humorous stories about marriage. I hoped it was full of funny stories and antelopes. Who doesn't love antelopes? Melanie does a good job of telling her humorous stories but they start to wear thin after a while.

Melanie reminded me of that cousin who gets drunk at Christmas and tells funny stories but spams you the rest of the year with ultra religious, right wing emails/Facebook posts the rest of the year. You kind of like her but not really. Most of her stories are amusing, slice of life tales. How she met her husband. How they bought their house. Their differing opinions about household renovations. A lot of "I'm lucky he loves me because I'm so emotional/anxious/uneducated that if I were him I would have divorced me".  Anyone in a relationship has some of those stories. And afternoon dishing with friends is fine. An entire book of that got on my nerves. There was some religious talk, plenty of church references, and more than a few bible verses. I would up skimming most of that.

I've never read Melanie's blog, Thebigmamablog.com. I probably won't regularly but I might drop in occasionally. She's got a very conversational tone which I like. I just didn't care for how much she put herself down. Others who shared their thoughts on The Antelope in the living room: Books and Beverages, Kindred Grace, and Annie F Downs.
The Antelope In The Living Room satisfies the animal category for the What's In A Name challenge.