‘Mimi Smartypants’ a funny, fast read

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BY REBECCA J. ROBERTS / Lincoln Journal Star

(“The World According to Mimi Smartypants,” Avon Trade, 237 pages, $12.95, paper).  I have a blog. No shocker there; you probably do, too. I read somewhere (online, probably) that something like 10 percent of the adult population is blogging (and yes, I made that number up — haven’t you learned yet that you can’t trust anything you read in a blog? Oh, right, this isn’t my blog, this is the newspaper, in which everything you read absolutely can be believed ...).

Not only do I write a blog, I read blogs. Lots of them — personal ones mostly, written by people I have not met and do not wish to. Worse, I’m a lurker — they never even know I’m there, peeking through their virtual windows, but hey, it’s their fault for not closing the blinds, right?

One of my favorites is by one Mimi Smartypants, the pseudonym for a 33-year-old medical editor in Chicago. Decidedly urban and bitingly funny, a consummate storyteller and listmaker, Ms. Smartypants (sorry, we never learn her real name) mixes literary intelligence with lowbrow humor.

Don’t be fooled by the cover, with its skinny legs in pink high heels, perched atop a globe, and a cheesy quote I’m sure the author finds appalling. This is not “chick lit” about losing weight, finding a man (she already has one, but her life doesn’t revolve around him) or panting over designer clothes. She’s unashamedly articulate and intelligent, with a twisted bent — someone you want to drink yourself silly with  on dollar beers while discussing The Chicago Manual of Style and obsessive-compulsive disorder and oral sex, possibly all at the same time.

“The World According to Mimi Smartypants” had me laughing out loud, alone in bed, at 3 in the morning — and not for the usual reasons. As with most blogs, there’s little of redeeming value here, as she’d be the first to tell you. She decidedly aims away from Learning a Little Bit About Life. But this is a funny, fast read, and if it makes the everyday a bit more entertaining, who’s to say there’s no value in that?

Rebecca J. Roberts is the Journal Star’s nation/world editor.