Review: Some fun, but problems too
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2013
The punny title drew me in. As a mother who has carried the load, I looked forward to the fun in this book. It was there, but perhaps not in the abundance I hoped for. I recommend this book with some reservations.I'm a tough audience for humor. My husband writes a humor column and struggles to find lines that will cause me to do more than smile. I smiled occasionally as I read this book, but didn't find it laugh-aloud funny. I was also troubled by some problems that seemed new-author amateurish. One non-spoiler example: Part-way into the story, there is a segment a couple of pages long about one major character looking through Internet ads for large homes, what her husband calls her "house porn." The description is interesting and lengthy, but never referred to again. It doesn't seem to have purpose. Other shorter tangents seemed irrelevant or not worth the time and space they required.The book also contains some rare valuable insights. One example: A woman with a difficult mother-in-law has a moment when she identifies woman-to-woman and comes to understand the source of the older woman's attitude, increasing her own patience.Overall I call this a diverting, 3-star "okay" book. A careful edit (and reducing it by 10-15%?) would likely make it stronger.