Girl with Glasses

My Optic History

By: Marissa Walsh

Narrated by: Margie Lenhart

Length: 2 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Being a Girl with Glasses isn't just a style choice; it's a way of life. If you've ever had your specs steam up when walking into a bar, squinted into the sun on the soccer field, or laid eyes on a new haircut only after your locks are strewn across the floor, you know what it's like to be a GWG. Marissa Walsh has worn glasses since third grade. Now - 10 pairs of glasses, one pair of prescription sunglasses, and endless pairs of contacts later - she has fully embraced her four-eyed fate. As she recounts her optic history through the lenses of each pair of glasses - from the Sergio Valentes and the Sally Jessy Raphaels to the pseudo John Lennons and the dreaded health plan specs - at last she found them...the perfect pair. Marissa's comic look at a life behind glass is at once a poignant personal journey and a wry, canny exploration of just what it means to be a glasses-wearing kind of girl. Peppered with pop culture references and complete with appendixes of resources, classic GWG moments, and helpful tips on finding the right frames for your face, Girl with Glasses will give you reason to commiserate with your shortsighted sisters and celebrate your less-than-perfect vision.

©2006 Marissa Walsh (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

a story I can relate to

If you could sum up Girl with Glasses in three words, what would they be?

Fun, interesting, different.

Any additional comments?

Being a wearer of glasses, I could very much relate. What an interesting and different way to sum up ones life.

Existenetial Listlessness…with Glasses

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

As I listened to this memoir, I kept waiting for the vignettes to tie together into a coherent whole, a purpose, a direction, a pivotal and climactic moment…yet they remained disconnected. As a girl with glasses, I assumed that other girls with glasses were seekers after philosophical meaning in life too…but writer had a rather different experience of life as a girl with glasses.

Has Girl with Glasses turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not particularly. I prefer a memoir, though, that has a sense that life has a telos--that there is a growing meaning and sense of purpose. I was let down by the straight stream-of-consciousness style of this particular memoir.

What three words best describe Margie Lenhart’s performance?

Playful, light-hearted, modern

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. I was hoping to hear a more thoughtful experience of life.

Did not finish

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Maybe teens

What could Marissa Walsh have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

How could the performance have been better?

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Girl with Glasses?

Any additional comments?

Maybe i did not read enough about the book before downloading it. maybe if i have read it, i would not buy it

Calling all four-eyes

If you've worn glasses for longer than you can remember, this is the book for you.

If barns and bat sh&t look the same to you without glasses, welcome.

If tortoise shell is an epithet, com'ere.

This book is a hoot. While I can't vouch for the exclusively girl-only experiences, everything else is spot on. Makes me proud to have survived. And reminds me that I've had my present pair way to long. Thanks Marissa.

You Get What You Pay for - It Was Free!

I should have listened other reviewers and not wasted several hours of my time listening to this. It reads like a teenage girls diary. the books is basically the author remembering incidents in her life that really don't have much to do with wearing glasses. They could have happened to people that don't wear glasses too. The author also has a tendency to throw in a few sentences about people here and there that seem to be unrelated to what she had been talking about in that chapter. Then there is the narrator. She reads like she is reading a childrens books with overzealous expression. Make a bad book even worse. Same your time if it is free and save your money if you have to pay for this!

Diction too fast to enjoy

I didn’t follow the story because the reader was so fast I couldn’t follow it. When I slowed the speed it was also too difficult to follow .

Horrible

Don't waste your time or money.
This "book" is random comments about the author's life pertaining to her glasses history.
Doesn't deserve the stars I had to give it to get this review to post...

Adorable!

I loved this cute light hearted book about us GWG's. It was an easy quick read just when I needed it!

What is the point?

What disappointed you about Girl with Glasses?

I didn't understand why I should care about the author's experiences. After listening for a while, I wondered if the author is a celebrity and that's why this book exists, because I couldn't think of another reason (after some research, I don't think she is). But I didn't find anything in this book for me, and the stories were completely unremarkable.

Has Girl with Glasses turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes.

How could the performance have been better?

Didn't like the 'cutesy' tone used. Not sure why section headings were read so soon after the end of the previous section and then there was a break before the next section started.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

It sparked the desire to not finish it. And for a year, I did put it away. Then I gave it another chance and I am realizing I should have stuck to my original decision to stop listening.

What is the point of this story?

I listened as long as possible hoping it would catch my interest. Alas, it failed.