The Midwest Survival Guide: How We Talk, Love, Work, Drink, and Eat…Everything with Ranch by Charlie Berens.

5/5 rating. 282 pages.

Book #46 of 2022. Read December 11, 2022.

This book was incredibly entertaining! If you want one book that explains me to a T, this is it!

I am a true Midwesterner through and through, and this book just cemented that fact as Charlie continually made statements about Midwesterners that were spot on for me:

• Says “ope” all the time. Check.
• Apologizes all the time. Yep.
• Hardest worker in the room. Can’t help it.
• Nice to a fault even when treated like hell. That’s me. I say something and I mean it and gosh darnit I say hello to everyone I see.

This is such a good book and if you have any Midwesterners in your life, or are one, you’ll absolutely love it!

Charlie’s 5 Midwestern Rules to Live By:

1. Apologize
2. Help
3. Be nice
4. Work hard
5. Keep your word

We might be simple in many ways, but it’s hard to not love the type of people who make you feel important and will always go out of their way to help.

“Money doesn’t make you rich, people do.”

“With friends like these, you don’t need gas home. Because you’re already there.”

Quotes:

“Scientists have ascertained the ten US cities with the most unpredictable weather, and every single one is located in the Midwest. (Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Minnesota’s Minneapolis and St. Paul top the list.)”

“As for longer travel, why hassle with an airport when you can just drive there in twelve to fourteen hours?”

“Point being, big family + Midwest = probably not flying for the first couple decades of your existence. Because driving is not only cheaper; it’s also ‘fun.’ Even if your destination is fifteen hours and forty minutes away.”

“It wasn’t until years later that I’d learn the lesson Shirley was teaching me. When life gives you weeds, make dandelion wine.”

“What a long way we’ve come since 2008. Social media changed America’s political arithmetic. But I think this may be a more productive equation: PB&J + Nowhere to go = Can’t be worse than Twitter.”

“To be fair, and no joke: researchers at Arizona State and Kansas State ran tests to determine if Kansas was ‘flatter than a pancake’ and, compared to a pancake bought at a local IHOP, proved that it was.”

#books #bookrecommendations #bookreview #midwest #charlieberens #ope #booktoread #midwesterners

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