Rating: 
Summary: Not What It Seems
Review: Obviously senior citizens were not the original target audience for The Playgroup. The title is clever, but misleading. I thought it was going to be a novel about the stresses and strains of young motherhood. The Playgroup is definitely not a 'lite read.' It is a coming-of-age novel for young mothers, but - - Be prepared! For some in Middle America, I imagine it will have the shock value of a Francois Sagan or a James Baldwin novel. The story line, character development and the issues kept me hooked. I even shed a few tears toward the end, and there were moments when I couldn't put it down. This is a novel that dramatizes, in a realistic and readable style, how a hip West Sider deals with her angst and a situation I could never have envisioned when I was the age of the protagonist. It is about a very angry young women who gradually, over the course of a year, takes on responsibility for her own behavior and begins, after a critical slip, to make more healthy life choices. I particularly liked the evolving mother-daughter dialogue and the mother's insights about how 'A doesn't necessarily mean B'. Here is the mother talking:'Well, I used to think, for instance, if A - your father got indicted, it would mean B - I couldn't love him anymore......But A happened. He got indicted and - guess what? I still loved him. He got indicted and all that meant was - he got indicted. Or, I thought if, A - I stop drinking, then B - my life will work and everything will be okay. But I stopped drinking and all it meant was - I had stopped drinking. ... I still had an ex-husband in jail and an angry adolescent daughter and ..."
This is an important life lesson that we each have to remind ourselves every day of our lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's be honest...
Review: This book is no Nanny Diaries. The dialogue is trite and the characters are boring. Good sex scenes, true...but a girl needs more. I should have just read Penthouse...
Rating:
Summary: nannie diaries plus
Review: this is a real page-turner--funny, hip, edgy, but with darker
themes. ellie is a tough but vulnerable heroine and she takes the reader into her view of Manhattan east/west side mommydom and her unique (?) experiences there. Pitch-perfect for her age-group. don't miss this one!!!
Rating:
Summary: Definitley NOT the Nanny Diaries
Review: This is not part of this new wave of "chick-lit", this is a REAL novel. IT has depth, it's comical, it's sexy, and best of all it has a FREAKN' POINT (which is lacking in most books these days). Sure those fun fast fashion foward books about rich people and petty problems are great for plane rides and long baths, but it kind of gets redundant after a while. While rich people and their lives are still part of the mix, the author doesn't over-focus on that. Instead she focuses on real emotions and real reactions. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the main characters' whining and self indulgence, and the fact that she began to do to her children what she was mad at her mother for (which is focusing on her 'disease' and not on her child). BUT that makes her even more realistic! That is what human nature is about, making mistakes, being selfish, ect. Im tired of picture perfect protagonists letting all of the other characters do the dirt while they live a squeeky clean life. I think the authors are trying to live through their main characters! Great Read! Not Fluff! I picked this book for our first read in my book club!
Rating: 
Summary: So irritating to read
Review: This is the kind of book that makes the reader think: "Gee, if thing got published, certainly I can spend an afternoon writing and get published." Absolutely agree with the previous writer re: embarrassing sex scenes which I think are the worst offense, of many, in this book. I'm all for some seduction in a book but these read like the writer's fantasies described in the crudest and most immature manner. They remind me of a friend who uses the same language while the rest of us give eachother awkward and uncomfortable looks (and all of us discuss our sex lives openly). The characters are ridiculous, completely unbelievable, and nobody I would ever want to meet. It's hard to get involved with them because you find yourself looking down on them. If I were 14 this might be a fun read, but at 34, married, kids and a very successful career, I found it nothing but irritating. Did make it to chapter 4 though.
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