The Playgroup : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: The Playgroup Rocks
Review: Drawn by the sexy cover art, I was well pleased by "The Playgroup". It's really, really funny, but with a pulsing undercurrent of dysfunction. (I wanted to SHOOT her mother Sara- the scenes between her and her daughter Ellie ALONE make this book worthwhile). I found it heartbreaking, tender, and outrageous. You won't be bored, or disappointed- the author obviously has extensive experience in "WaspWorld" and skewers it deftly. I also love the scene where she tapes a gift box to her behindular area as a birthday gift for her dreamy hubby Peter (the "Lyon Burke" of the new millenium)
Bravo "The Playgroup"!

Rating:
Summary: At Last! A Novel for Grown-ups!
Review: I confess. I buy and read all the novels the bookstores display as being "for me," trying to not judge them by their covers which seem designed to attract my "inner-Seventeen-reading-teenager," but I could see at once The Playgroup was something different. I got a little nervous when the jacket mentioned The Nanny Diaries, but a quick glance through The Playgroups' pages increased my suspicion that I had found something rare here -- a new novel for adults. The Playgroup is as every bit as fun and entertaining as the Nanny-Bridget-Shopping-Girl novels, but it's so much more: truly involving, the kind of book that plays on your mind during the day between readings, and you find yourself wondering about the characters and what they will do next. It takes a superior writer attacking an ambitious subject to create that kind of bond between the reader and the writing. The Playgroup is an ambitious, superior and extremly rewarding book.

Rating:
Summary: At Last! A Novel for Grown-ups!
Review: I confess. I buy and read all the novels the bookstores display as being "for me," trying to not judge them by their covers which seem designed to attract my "inner-Seventeen-reading-teenager," but I could see at once The Playgroup was something different. I got a little nervous when the jacket mentioned The Nanny Diaries, but a quick glance through The Playgroups' pages increased my suspicion that I had found something rare here -- a new novel for adults. The Playgroup is as every bit as fun and entertaining as the Nanny-Bridget-Shopping-Girl novels, but it's so much more: truly involving, the kind of book that plays on your mind during the day between readings, and you find yourself wondering about the characters and what they will do next. It takes a superior writer attacking an ambitious subject to create that kind of bond between the reader and the writing. The Playgroup is an ambitious, superior and extremly rewarding book.

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: I just loved this book . I think nelsie is an amazing writer and personaly i think she should do stand up.I loved the flow and the spunk.It wasnt one of those mommy books that has know deepth.personaly I could read this over and over

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written, but needs a copy editor!
Review: I loved the book and found myself thinking that I hadn't read any good sex scenes in a book in years, until this one! (I guess I need to get out more or get a subscription to Penthouse...) Problem was the multiple typos and missing punctuation, mispelled words and misaligned type! Drives an editor like me crazy! The writer is surely smart enough to know the difference between "Your" and "You're" (as one example - pg.9), but her editors were not. Hope that for the second printing (which there will certainly be) Nelsie will insist someone who's taken an English class edit it.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I made it through three chapters of this, and that's only because I was trapped in a car repair shop waiting room. I didn't find any of the writing funny, the descriptions were painfully hackneyed, and there were so many mechanical errors I found myself actually defacing a library book to correct the rampant unwarranted semicolons and missing commas. There's more, of course - the plastic characterization, the embarrassing sex scenes, and the meandering plot, for instance - but I think I've made myself clear. I'd read a few pages before you seriously considering buying this.

Rating:
Summary: Sexy and Hilarious Read
Review: I read "The Playgroup" in one sitting, and I disagree with the reviewer who read only three chapters of it. It described a New York culture without a lot of stereotyping-- but when those descriptions do made their brief appearences, they are very funny (and are based in truth, come on East Siders, confess!) The sex scenes were lively, hot, and plentiful, and the descriptions of Ellie's juggling and managment of her two toddlers were very true and dead-on.
I also applaud Nelsie Spencer for bringing Bulemia and the recovery from this disease into the spotlight. It's not an issue that's covered often enough, and Spencer doesn't overdramatize it.

Rating:
Summary: Much better than the other "mommie" novels...
Review: I wasn't surprised that The Playgroup was funny and sexy... but I was surprised that it also dared to explore much more interesting questions than other "light read" Nanny Diaries-style novels. Even as it made me laugh out loud, The Playgroup brought out deeper and sometimes sadder issues for its mommy-protagonist... addressing difficulties I think will be familiar to any modern urban woman: How do we reconcile our "hip" exterior vision of ourselves with our fragile inner search for identity and love? The review from Ashland is so right... this book will easily make a great movie!

Rating:
Summary: Sexy, funny, serious, should be a movie
Review: Nelsie Spencer's "The Playgroup" catches you off guard -- it's not just a social satire, but also an exploration of motherhood, marriage, expressions of love in all its forms, self-denial and revelation. It's a brave book and a grand achievement for Spencer. Someone should make a movie out of this.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Beach Read that makes you think!
Review: Nelsie Spencer's first novel starts off light and funny -- in fact the opening page is a great bit about why there are no whorehouses for women -- then quickly takes you somewhere darker and more interesting. I loved Ellie! It was so gratifying to read a book with a lead character that is funny and flawed and ultimatley finds her own way back on track (in other words, is not saved by some guy). Because the book is set in New York with a mommy theme The Playgroup is compared to The Nanny Diaries in several reviews. I don't see it. Spencer is clearly a mature writer dealing realistically (and hilariously)with issues that mothers (and adult daughters)are confronted with everyday. This is a book that is a great beach read and makes you think as well. Buy 2; one for you and one for your mom or best friend. (Oh, and don't forget to read the sexy parts aloud to your mate!)