Sunday, September 25, 2016

Raquel D’Apice, a humor writer and founder of the popular blog The Ugly Volvo, joined me today at 9:30am PST to talk about her hilarious and insightful book Welcome to the Club: 100 Parenting Milestones You Never Saw Coming.

If you missed Raquel D'Apice on today's show, listen here!

From the comedian behind the popular parenting blog The Ugly Volvo comes a refreshing spin on the baby milestone book. Instead of a place to lovingly capture the first time baby sleeps through the night, this book shows what it's like the first time baby rolls off the bed/sofa/changing table, leaving mom or dad in a state of pure terror (it happens). These 100 rarely documented but all-too-realistic milestones—such as "First Time Baby Says a Word You Didn't Want Her to Say"—provide comfort, solidarity, and comic relief for new parents. Laugh-out-loud relatable text and distinctive paper-cut illustrations of these "bad" parenting moments make this a must-have book for anyone entering the mysterious club of parenthood.

Raquel D’Apice is a humor writer and founder of the popular blog The Ugly Volvo. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and son.



Here is some information about Raquel from her site: http://www.theuglyvolvo.com/

I watch a lot of documentaries on Instant Netflix. I love The World According to Garp and everything by Shel Silverstein and I read The New Yorker but mainly I read it for the cartoons. I have a phobia of jewelry. I have a horrible sweet tooth and could easily eat nine boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in one sitting. (Update: I have a cavity.) Sometimes I daydream about living in other countries and then immediately go online to look up the size of the spiders in those countries.

I wear almost the exact same outfit every day. I am married to someone who speaks three languages and there are days when I feel like I barely speak English. I love stand-up comedy and Far Side cartoons and books about science. When I like songs I will obsessively listen to them on repeat for hours or days until everyone nearby wants to throw me and my CD player out a window. Yes, for whatever reason I still play music on a CD player.

I have a very nice mother and an eccentric father. I have two younger sisters and a dog named Tig and a husband who obsessively follows international weather patterns the way other men follow sports. I have a wonderful son who makes me smile a lot of the time. My first car was an old, ugly Volvo that I loved so much and that’s why the blog is called The Ugly Volvo. I wish there were a more interesting story behind it but there isn’t.

I have a book coming out in Fall of 2016 through Chronicle Books. When we get closer to fall of 2016 I will write about that in slightly more detail.

If you enjoy my posts, like The Ugly Volvo on Facebook or follow me on here (www.theuglyvolvo.com) orfollow me on Twitter. If there’s a post you like, please share it with friends as I love writing but am notoriously bad at promoting things. I try to post around once a week.

Professor Stephanie Reich, UCI professor of education and expert on youth and social media

LISTEN to today's show featuring UCI professor Stephanie Reich Stephanie Reich , UCI professor of education and expert on youth and soci...