This is a story about the year I exploded into flames...which turns out to be more common than you’d think among forty-something humans. Yeah, we can hold it together in our thirties, with a raft of hair products and semi-tall nonfat half-caf beverages....Come the forties, though, cracks begin to appear....Gourmet coffee splats; the wig slips askew. In other words, my friends, THE WHEELS COME OFF.

Sandra Tsing Loh is the fiercest, funniest, and most incredibly honest voice to emerge from the "mommy war" debates. Here she fires away with her trademark satire of societal and personal irks, prompted by her own midlife crisis, when she realizes she can’t afford private school for her daughter–and her only alternative is her neighborhood’s beyond-repair public school.

Mother on Fire documents Loh’s "year of living dangerously" among pompous school admissions officials, Prius-driving parents, vindictive bosses, and old friends with new money as she first kisses ass–and then kicks it.