Rating: 
Summary: If you like Patricia Heaton, you'll love the book
Review: I would have given this book 5 stars but only because there were no pictures included within. It misses them. Otherwise Heaton comes across as likable and as real as the character she plays on TV. She pulls no punches that the road for stardom has more rocky twists and turns than a clean smooth drive but doesn't dwell on them and instead turns it into a positive one with humor of life's ups and downs. Her descriptions of her childhood were nostalgically and lovingly brought to life and her in between actress jobs were vividly entertaining. While grateful for her Hollywood success she writes refreshingly of the unreality of it as well. In this book I found Patricia Heaton, an insightful and wise woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Irreverent,absolutely!
Review: I'm very conflicted about my feelings after reading Patricia Heaton's book! Some of what she writes is humorous,but much of it comes across as down right MEAN! Calling Donald O'Connor an old coot is neither funny or nice. The man has talent she could only dream about! She writes about her growing up when life was more simple. I can relate to that! I understand her loss when her mother died when she was so young. I applaud her praise for the stay at home moms. What bothers me is the fact that she gripes so much about sending her kids to private school. Parents should be involved in their children's school whether it's public or private. Teachers need parental support! They are NOT your child's babysitter or nanny. Maybe,she should give the public schools a chance. Let her kids see what the real world is like! I can't believe I bought this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Patty, you rock!
Review: I've always been a huge fan of Patricia Heaton's and this book just cements my admiration of her. She's her own woman and every page of this memoir-ette tells why. She doesn't linger on the dark chapters of her life, treating things like her mother's death, her drinking problems, and drug experimentation factually without protracted navel-gazing. I was a little surprised that she gives her failed first marriage only a passing mention in an unrelated sentence but it's consistent with the often tongue-in-cheek-without-being-overly-flippant tone of the book. She gives no "dish" on anyone but herself and that's probably the reason for the perceived slight.Her insights on family, faith, and work are candid, perceptive, often poignant and sometimes downright inspiring (even though she'd probably cringe at hearing that word!). It's not enough that she's talented and beautiful, she's also witty and much sharper than most pencils in the Hollywood box. Her independent spirit allows her to be unapologetic about being an active feminist who defends stay-at-home moms and is against abortion and a devout Presbyterian who still does a little swearing and prays the rapture will come before she has to have "the sex talk" with her boys. An amusing and endearing read, this book is captivating and impossible to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Motherhood and Hollywood
Review: If you are reading this, you must have read her book also. And, if you liked and enjoyed reading the book, like me, you will LOVE listening to this audio version too, read by Patricia herself. The package comes with 4 CD's with running time of approx. 5 hours. There is just something different feeling in experiencing the book from the author's own mouth. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining with too much profanity !
Review: My wife and I both read "Motherhood and Hollywood..."
and enjoyed it very much.
We always watch "Everybody Loves Raymond" and also tape it for later to watch again when there are no more.
It seems a lot of Patricia's life is the basis for some of the
shows.
The only negative is I wish Patricia Heaton had used the same moral sensitivity she did when she walked out of the awards show. Her book had way too much profanity. None at all
would have been better. What's the old saying: People who use
profanity only do so because they don't have an adequate
vocabulary to express themselves.
Remember when Clark Gable said, "Frankly my dear.....
Well look where we are now !
OK, I'll get off my protest podium.
I just hate profanity. When you've had a parent that used
profanity in every sentence , you grow weary hearing it.
It's only a two-hour read. If you don't like it you haven't
wasted that much time.
Rating:
Summary: Normal in Hollywood?
Review: Patricia Heaton and I were born 8 days apart, in different Ohio cities. We both grew up in loving families, and attended parochial schools. That's where the similarities seem to end. Patricia has four young sons, I have one neurotic dog. She is a famous TV star, and I'm, well, not. But the overwhelming feeling I had after reading this book was, "I would love to have lunch with her sometime." Take for example a marital conversation Patricia recounts. She read in a book that, "instead of fighting . . .couples should say the word 'tone' when they feel they are being unfairly accosted verbally." Patricia and her husband, "tried that once without much success. It began with me nicely asking him to take out the garbage and him saying 'Tone.' So I toned his tone. He toned my toning of his tone. Our marriage counselor told us we were both tone deaf. My husband thought Tone Def would be a cool name for a rap group or a record label." Not only did I laugh out loud, I turned to my husband and informed him that someone has been listening in on our conversations. You will undoubtedly have a similar deja vu experience as you read this book if you are married or have children, if you were once a child, if you ever worked at a survival job, or if you are now a fabulously successful TV star. Buy Patricia Heaton's book, pour a tall glass of your favorite beverage, curl up on the sofa and treat yourself to a funny, insightful, real and touching read. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Lisa Umina, author of Milo With A Halo
Review: Patricia your book was great. It was nice meeting you at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Cleveland. I hope your boys enjoyed my book. Much success and thanks for keeping us laughing. When is the next book coming out?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Since I love Everybody Loves Raymond and I am from Cleveland, I really looked forward to this book. I was vastly disappointed. I know she got a lot of help from her brother, a columnist at the PLAIN DEALER because it seemed as if more than one person was writing it. The same thing was said multiple times---if I had a dollar for every time she said her mother died when she was 12 (I'll bet this was mentioned 12 times) or that she was from Bay Village or Cleveland (another 12 times)---. It was as if she wrote a few chapters and forgot what she wrote. It was distracting. And where were the pictures of when she was younger? NOT ONE PICTURE in the entire book. And the humor was cynical rather than funny. I would not recommend buying this one.
Rating:
Summary: Now Everybody can Love Patty
Review: The Emmy-Award-winning actress who portrays the beleaguered Debra Barone on _Everybody Loves Raymond_ has written her autobiography to prove to us that, unlike her TV counterpart, Patricia Heaton has real friends and relatives who *do* love and support her. The title of the book is a bit misleading, though. While she talks about being a wife and mother and raising her four boys, and she describes her road toward becoming a successful actress, often the monologue returns to memories of her childhood. Growing up Catholic in a western suburb of Cleveland, she went on to major in drama at Ohio State and then (of course) went off to The Big Apple to make it big. There she subletted apartment after apartment and worked as a waitress, modelled shoes and wrote copy while trying to get auditions. We follow her path (almost predictably) to Los Angeles and her eventual arrival on the _Raymond_ series. She writes the way she talks, and some of the childhood stories are laugh-out-loud funny. One of the most amusing scenes comes when the Heaton family hosts "a Negro couple" for dinner on the very same night in 1966 that the Beatles appear on _The Ed Sullivan Show_. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s -- when entire neighborhoods were our playgrounds -- have similar moments tucked away in our heads. If we could join in her conversation here, we'd soon be swapping stories and having a merry old time ourselves. Ms. Heaton tells a few tales on herself: she wet the bed until the age of ten, lost her mother to a brain aneurism when she was twelve, had plastic surgery several times. And there's a lot she keeps to herself, too. A first marriage is mentioned in passing, a few drug references are thrown in here and there. And she tells no tales on her series co-stars, except when she talks about the cast's trip to NYC on September 10, 2001, in order to promote the new season. The actress already had a commendable perspective on the entertainment business and her own success by that time. What she lived through that week helped to reinforce it as well as her commitment to her family. This book is a quick read that's not a "tell-all" but is definitely a "told enough."
Rating:
Summary: A SURPRISINGLY WELL WRITTEN BOOK FROM A WONDERFUL ACTRESS
Review: The work that Patricia Heaton does on the CBS hit sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" is truly remarkable. In her role of feisty, put-upon suburban housewife Debra Barone, she brings depth and dimension to her character with great grace, cutting humor and a wide emotional range. She is, for me, the single best thing about this terrific show. Indeed, her work in one standout episode (I believe the title is "Bad Moon Rising"), in which Debra deals with a nasty case of PMS, is some of the very best I've ever seen a sitcom actress give us...and I'm not forgetting the likes of Lucille Ball, Loretta Swit and Shelley Long when I make that statement. I hope that it was for this episode that Ms. Heaton won one of her back-to-back Emmys, in 2000 and 2001. Ms. Heaton is also, inexplicably, one of the small screen's least ballyhooed beauties, with one of the nicest smiles on TV. For these and other reasons, I was very interested to read what she had to say in her 2002 autobiography, "Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine." Well, the not-so-new news is that not only does the book let us learn where Patty Heaton came from, and how she got to the high place she is at today, but that it does so with much self-deprecating humor as well. Ms. Heaton writes as if she were telling us her story and views of life over a few drinks in the backyard of her Los Angeles home. The book is chatty without being gossipy; indeed, many readers may be disappointed that more "dirt" is not dished regarding the "Raymond" show's cast and crew.
Rather, the book is organized into three sections. In the first, we learn of Heaton's youth, growing up in a staunch Catholic family in a Cleveland suburb that sounds like Hooterville or Mayberry, from the author's descriptions. In part two, Patty comes to the Big Apple, and we learn of the many so-called "survival jobs"--eight years' worth of them--that Ms. Heaton endured. Finally, in part three, Heaton lands in L.A., and eventually, after her second marriage, some minor film parts and assorted TV work, nabs the role on "Raymond" for which she is best known. During the course of the book, Heaton gives us her views on modern-day education, child rearing, religion, acting awards, and stay-at-home moms. So yes, we DO get to know Ms. Heaton to a certain degree. Such topics as her first marriage and her brief drug dalliances are given the barest of mentions, and not mentioned at all are her other relationships, her production company, and her pro-life stance, which latter has set her apart in the Hollywood community. She doesn't even mention how she landed the plum role of Debra Barone! Still, it IS Patty's book, and I suppose it's her right to choose to include or exclude whatever she likes. This is hardly an in-depth autobiography (at 207 pages, how could it hope to be?); more like cherry-picked snapshots of what makes Ms. Heaton tick. To her credit, the book was written with no assistance from a ghost writer, and so Ms. Heaton should feel proud to have written a fun, lighthearted but telling book all by herself. Many of the lines in it are laff-out-loud funny. I never thought that I, a nonpracticing Jewish man who is ardently pro-choice, would ever have much to say to the proudly religious and openly pro-life Patricia Heaton if I were ever fortunate enough to meet her, but she comes across as such a fun and decent person in this book that I now think there'd be no problem. And really, how can any woman who's into "Jonny Quest" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" NOT be a fun person?
That said, I must add that a close reading of the book reveals some minor problems. Ms. Heaton refers to Moses Cleveland, the founder of her hometown; that should be Moses Cleaveland. The word "shearing" is used instead of "shirring," and "phased" instead of "fazed." Officer "Tootie" of the classic "Car 54..." TV show is referenced; that should be "Toody." And for some reason, Patricia insists on peppering her book with dozens and dozens of urinary, fecal, menstrual and throw-up references. Was Patty trying to be funny with these, or to show that she could be as coarse as the best of them, or what? In any case, these minor quibbles hardly detract from what should be essential reading for all fans of this wonderful actress. So do we really learn how to get a job like hers, as the title promises? Well, I suppose that if we read between the lines, the answer is to be born with God-given good looks and considerable talent, to keep trying and struggling, and maybe, just maybe, you'll catch a break. Fortunately for all of us, Ms. Heaton got the breaks that she so well deserved. And now, perhaps we can coerce another book out of her...
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