I recieved The Quality of Life Report as a gift recently, I usually don't read this type of book(mystery and horror for me), so I started this book with a not very open mind.
This book is worth reading. Very simple and to the point. It's very entertaining, and will keep your attention. There are quite a few humorous points, that I snickered at, and had to explain to my boyfriend why.
Like all books there were a few points that could have been omitted. But they don't make my opinion of the book any less. I defintely reccommend The Quality of Life Report, and will be passing along my copy to my friends.

I really enjoyed this book, and the satirical way that Meghan Daum tells the story had me laughing and crying, sometimes on the same page. The story is about a young woman named Lucinda Trout who's a television journalist for a NYC program, and she's struggling financially as well as emotionally with survival in the big city. The station sends her on location to a fictional Midwestern town called Prairie City and she immediately falls in love with the small town life and the promises she thinks it has in store for her. She convinces her bosses to let her stay in Prairie City for the coming year in order to do some on-location feature stories for the station. As the job fades into the background, she begins to settle into life in Prairie City and becomes involved romantically with one of the locals who's not exactly what you'd call a "stand up" kind of guy. The bottom line is that she left NYC where she was having problems financially, socially, etc., for a small, Midwestern town with the idea that her life will be simpler and better, but what she finds out is that the grass isn't really greener on the other side, it's just "different" and has it's own share of problems to deal with. Lucinda becomes more and more self aware as she struggles with each change, and although she sometimes feels hopeless, she never gives up hope.

I have read a lot of chick lit and this is not chick lit. It is a commentary on life in the midwest and God help anyone who lives there if this is a true representation. It's well-written, don't get me wrong. But it's a book where at the end, I didn't even like the "heroine" and was so disturbed by the presence of meth in the plot. I know it's real, but there should be a mention of it on the back book cover so the reader knows what they're getting in to!