And Other Suburban Scourges - Competitive Crafters

I thought this was going to be a funny "motherhood" book in the style similar to Jen Lancaster, but I didn't find it particularly funny at all. I found it to be a rather sad commentary on suburban America and how we are raising our children. I am sure the author meant to convey some of the ridiculousness that's out there, but this went over the top in such a way I could not suspend my disbelief and not imagine her just telling everyone to screw off and moving out of there. If my children were treated like her son, I think I'd be a bit more ballistic, not remain in the book club with the bully's mother. Not funny.

The humor I did see came at her expense or the expense of her family, and I really didn't find that funny. It was a bit depressing after a while.

There was hardly any new material in this so-called book. I'm a follower of her blog and I recognized every single story until I was 71% finished with the book. But even then, there were only 2, maybe 3 chapters that were new material. Why pay $7.99 for a collection of stories you can read for free on her blog. Save your money for a real book.

I was expecting something really funny, but this was book was totally boring. I don't like to give negative reviews and I am not a hard reviewer at all. But this one, really? Not funny, not interesting, and the poor author doesn't even seem to have a nice husband. Sorry :(. Save your money for something else. So many great books out there!!

This book started off alright, then it quickly nose-dived in to a bottomless pit.
The humor part was alright. The use of curse words was a bit excessive during the second half of the book but it did not bother me that much.
It was the values held by the writer (more noticeably her husband) that bothered me and made this book less than an average read.

Her husband often came off as mean, cheap and downright self-centerd. (e.g. judging people who spend money to rescue their pets, being a jerk to children, thinking that her wife who works too should do all the housework, etc.) It was really questionable when the writer said he was the love of her life.

Some of the stories about parenting really made me cringe. For example, during one chapter which covered her child getting physically bullied at school, the writer received nice gifts from the bully's parent as an apology. Despite her child continued being bullied afterwards due the lack of parenting on the bully, somehow the writer still adored the bully's mom because 'she is nice' and wanting to join a bookclub hosted by the bully's mother. She put her personal interests before her child. Stories like this are just horrible.

I expected this to be good after seeing Jenny Lawson's recommendation. It turned out to be a disappointment. Don't waste your time and money, totally not worthwhile to read.

You have to be kidding me..... This is just poor.. really trivial drivel.
If you are a bored out of your mind low IQ soccer mom... you may get a laugh.
But for the rest of us, this is not worth reading.
WOW bad.

Not only have I read her books, I was fortunate to meet Jen in Ann Arbor during a book tour! She's exactly what you'd expect, and her candid take on life is a great representation of what we're all thinking anyway! Read her books, all of them!!

I suppose I am not the same age and living through the throes of motherhood in the burbs. This was all over the place, poorly written and constructed. I quit at bout two thirds of the way through as I kept hoping it would get better and it didn't!

I really wanted to like this book. While I identified with some of the challenges early in marriage as well as some of the parenting stuff, the author came off as a whiny brat. Her "quips" (complaints) about life in general are not that funny and her attitude toward children in general has me wondering why she has any of her own. I got about halfway through, and now I want to punch her in the throat, with this book.

I had high hopes for this book and started reading it as soon as I received it. It's not my cup of tea, I got to page 39 and will not finish it. I felt it was a constant rant about her experiences, not funny to me and just left me feeling drained.

It came as no surprise that the author's tone was biting and condescending. With a title like "People I Want to Punch in the Throat," I expected acerbic humor. This book delivered that. What came as a surprise was to what extent filthy language was used. The book is full of f-bombs and potty-mouth language. If you are offended by this, you probably should avoid anything the author writes. While I don't enjoy that sort of thing, I can overlook it if the book is funny enough. In my opinion, about 25% was funny--not enough to compensate for all the swearing. And although I do think there is a target audience for this author, I don't believe that everyone will be able to relate to many of her personal experiences or appreciate her toxic sense of humor. (And, by the way, saying that someone "doesn't have a filter" is often just a euphemism used to describe a mean-spirited person who disregards the feelings of others.)

The thing I found puzzling about the author is how she made nice with the mother of a child who was bullying her son. It seemed so out of character and unreasonable.

I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone I know, but clearly, there are people who will really enjoy this. In fairness, there were some very funny moments, and the author is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Not only have I read her books, I was fortunate to meet Jen in Ann Arbor during a book tour! She's exactly what you'd expect, and her candid take on life is a great representation of what we're all thinking anyway! Read her books, all of them!!

I suppose I am not the same age and living through the throes of motherhood in the burbs. This was all over the place, poorly written and constructed. I quit at bout two thirds of the way through as I kept hoping it would get better and it didn't!

I really wanted to like this book. While I identified with some of the challenges early in marriage as well as some of the parenting stuff, the author came off as a whiny brat. Her "quips" (complaints) about life in general are not that funny and her attitude toward children in general has me wondering why she has any of her own. I got about halfway through, and now I want to punch her in the throat, with this book.

I had high hopes for this book and started reading it as soon as I received it. It's not my cup of tea, I got to page 39 and will not finish it. I felt it was a constant rant about her experiences, not funny to me and just left me feeling drained.

It came as no surprise that the author's tone was biting and condescending. With a title like "People I Want to Punch in the Throat," I expected acerbic humor. This book delivered that. What came as a surprise was to what extent filthy language was used. The book is full of f-bombs and potty-mouth language. If you are offended by this, you probably should avoid anything the author writes. While I don't enjoy that sort of thing, I can overlook it if the book is funny enough. In my opinion, about 25% was funny--not enough to compensate for all the swearing. And although I do think there is a target audience for this author, I don't believe that everyone will be able to relate to many of her personal experiences or appreciate her toxic sense of humor. (And, by the way, saying that someone "doesn't have a filter" is often just a euphemism used to describe a mean-spirited person who disregards the feelings of others.)

The thing I found puzzling about the author is how she made nice with the mother of a child who was bullying her son. It seemed so out of character and unreasonable.

I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone I know, but clearly, there are people who will really enjoy this. In fairness, there were some very funny moments, and the author is probably laughing all the way to the bank.

I think that this is the "thing" lately with the aging Gen Y (I guess it's "Y"? late 30s/early 40somethings?) set. Mommy blogs, and then there are all the subsets of Mommy blogs, and if you are really good at getting an audience, maybe a book deal. Suburban mom-bloggers come in various flavors - there are the sardonic intellectuals (Dooce.com - is that still a thing?), the callback-to-gentler times god-and-country ones (I recently reviewed The Antelope in the Living Room: The Real Story of Two People Sharing One Life - by Melanie Shankle of "Big Mama" blogging renown), and then there's evidently a passive-aggressive sub-genre here in _People I Want to Punch in the Throat_.

Do I sound jaded? I keep wanting to love these bloggers. I keep wanting to spot the next Erma Bombeck (late, and great in her tales of a suburbia past.) And I keep finding women who sound just a bit more like sitcom writers. GOOD sitcom writers, but still...

Jen Mann kind of lost me early on, with the story of herself and her husband and their initial meet-not-so-cute, wherein Mann paints a picture of the "Hubs", as she comes to call him as kind of an over-the-top obtuse jerk. He's genuinely, aggressively and egregiously rude as portrayed, supposedly as a defense mechanism because he's just so gosh-darned smitten with Jen. I know writers pick and choose the bits of real life that they share to bring out themes in a characterization, and here it's obviously a comic effect she's after, but I winced. I winced more when she related a story of a highly respected co-worker who lured unsuspecting newbies annually into a 4th of July swinger hot tub bash. How convenient was it, in terms of making the story a howler, that the local municipality closed off the co-worker's subdivision every July 4th, so that the author and her husband were trapped in the gross fat old swingers' paradise? Cue laugh track.

Another quibble. Jen and Hubs are supposed to be difficult people with loose mouths and no external filters. Did I mention that they are real estate agent? Presumably successful real estate agents, the author would have us believe, because she repeats in several places that it's not like they don't have the money (to do this or that), it's just that the Hubs is notoriously cheap, stingy and penny-pinching.

So how does that work again? On my planet, people who do well SELLING THINGS know how to schmooze. Or at least when to keep their mouths shut.

I'm sure Erma B. embellished plenty in her day, but when the master was at it, you couldn't readily see the inconsistencies.

Author uses the "F' word a lot and seems to regard herself as being rather daring in doing so. Huh? At least she uses it appropriately and not gratuitously, but calling repeated and conspicuous attention to her own use of it is just goofy.

The search for the next great chronicler of the trials and tribulations of the American wife and mother, continues.

My sister recommended this book and I was looking forward to reading it. After 3 chapters, I was done. Mean, silly and constantly swearing. What that tells me is that the author isn't very smart. Anyone can swear over and over and over again, and after awhile it's not funny or shocking. Dumb book.

I wanted to love this book. There is a genre of mom-writing which is charming, sardonic and makes you say "Me TOO! I thought it was just me??"
It's basically like sharing a laugh with a good friend over mutual misadventures in adulthood and mothering. Or as I like to call them #momfails.

And while this book LOOKS promising (it has a cupcake on the front after all) it is NOT that kind of "me too!" book. Unless you're mean and you like feeling better about yourself by nitpicking other people.

It is not about the mutual camaraderie (why do I always spell that wrong?) of adult women who are making and raising little people while still feeling like the misfit in 7th grade gym class. In each essay of this book, there is an underlying sneer on the part of the author. There is a sense that, despite her self-effacing ownership of being a geek with little fashion sense, the author looks down on the Dolce and Gabbana-clad moms in her Kansas city suburb.

It's not self-deprecating (which is charming and inviting), it's others-deprecating (which is insecure, petty and mean).

So when the author craves a mini-van swagger wagon with DVDs and automatic door openers, that's quirky. The tag-whore moms in her circle who crave expensive yoga pants and over the top birthday parties for their kids are just shallow and dead-eyed Stepford wives.

The moms who stand in the box store are a bunch of spiteful gossips. But highlighting how your neighbors' husbands run around on their wives in your National Bestseller is... what exactly?

She spends the book carping on other moms for beings so damn judge-y and is, in turn, critical and superior of the other moms who don't want to be her friends (gee, I wonder why?)

Instead of buying this book, take the money you would have spent, buy a bottle of cheap and delicious wine, invite a friend over, let your kids run through the sprinkler in your front yard and spend an afternoon in more positive pursuits that reading this mean-girl crap.

Evidently I'm very much in the minority because I found this book to be pointless and its author vacuous. Worse, it is billed as hilarious, but I found almost no humor in it at all. The whole time I was reading it, I kept asking myself what about the author's life makes it worthy of a memoir. The answer for me was, nothing. If I were to create my own list of people I want to punch in the throat, very close to the top would be anyone who refers to her husband as "the Hubs."

I bought this book based on the great reviews, but it is so awful that I had to quit after a few chapters. As soon as I read the cutesy, cringe-worthy nickname for her husband "The Hubs", I wanted to punch somebody in the throat. It is astonishing to me that so many readers find her hypocritical rant so funny. Apparently, all one needs to have is a limited vocabulary of curse words (how cute!), a sense of humor, and a lot of chutzpah to sell books today!

That line about tossing the book aside comes from the great Dorothy Parker. Having great respect for books, I'm not advocating doing physical harm to this book. However, if any book deserved such treatment, this one does.This is the first time I've reviewed a book that I didn't read beyond the first two chapters. Those first two chapters were vile. The author comes across as an unpleasant grump who viciously rips anyone who doesn't think the way she does. I am not anti-vulgarity, as long as it's not overused. Mann can't seem to write a paragraph without overloading it with profanity. The last straw was her constant reference to her husband as "the Hubs". If you must attempt to read this book, do yourself a huge favor and get it from your local library. If you dislike the book as much as I did, you'll not have wasted $16 on it, unless you throw it into the trash compacter and have to pay the library for replacement.

When I ordered this book, I was expecting a funny book about people the author didn't like. OK, there is some of that, but this is much more. It is an autobiographical account of quite a few years of a family's life. It is told in a very funny and original style, and I really liked the way the author told the stories. I will give a warning. There is a lot of language used in this book. The author says she has no filter, and I can see that coming through loud and clear, so if you are offended by fairly common use of expletives, this might not work for you. Aside from that, I recommend this book very highly. It is a very fun read, and I zipped through it in a day. Good stuff!

I read this book, but only because I requested it from the store Vine, otherwise after a bit I would have put it down and not finished it. I never followed her blog so I wasn't prepared for the whiny holier-than-thou attitude that just leaps off the page at you. Some bits are funny, and some bits you'll say "oh heck yeah" but for me there weren't enough of those bits to make it enjoyable. I kept it by the bed and read bits and pieces till I got through, it took me way past the time frame I had allotted to read it...it just was too negative for me. There is a way to write about things that drive you crazy and make it humorous...I didn't get that from this book. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

I want to punch myself in the throat for reading this book. It really made me wonder, "Does anyone who refers to their husband as "the Hubs" have any right to publish anything with this title?" If there is such a thing a hate-reading, that's what I did with this book. After the first page I wanted to see just how shallow, materialistic, and downright petty this woman could get, (the answer is: add incredibly to the beginning off all of those words) all of which could be forgiven if she was actually funny at all, but alas... (If you are my worst enemy and you are reading this, I still give it one star.)

If you've ever visited Jen Mann's Blog, People I Want To Punch In The Throat, you know what a great writer she is. Funny as can be, yet poignant and heartwarming at the same time. As a member of the "sisterhood in the suburbs", I could swear that she used to ride in the car with me, because she wrote about so much of that whole suburban mom not like the Barbie Doll Perfect Moms experience that we must be related.

In this book, she shares stories of many years of suburban living, and really does tell it like it is, slightly off color language and all. In fact, that's what makes her seem alot like me......no real filter, and happy with it. She manages to take the irritating true to life stuff and make it uproariously funny. Certainly a mood lifter. Like other reviewers, I've already read it twice, and know that I will be reading this one again and again, both for laughs and the knowledge that comes with seeing that someone understands how it feels.

However, don't think you need to a Mom or live in Surburbia to get. this book. If you have any sense of humor and love of the absurdity of life in general, you'll laugh out loud while nodding your head in agreement more times than you would expect.
Keep It Up Girl, we need the laughs!

Jen Mann, author of “People I Want to Punch in the Throat,” is a piece of work. Yes, she is opinionated. Yes, she is self-centered. Yes, she is profane. Yes, she would be the wrong person to cross. And, yes, she is funny.

Who are all these people she wants to punch out? They’re preschool mothers and their obnoxious spawn. They’re office mates with devious lifestyles. They’re camp followers and their obsessive drive to get the best for their developing prodigies. They’re pretentious people, pesky telemarketers, nosy neighbors, overprotective parents, and, well, pretty much anyone who gets crossways with the author’s frame of mind. If I was her husband, Hubs, I’d wear a spiked dog collar at all times because he is always asking for a throat chop.

Here’s the thing about Jen Mann. Her outlook, while crusty, is hilarious and runs completely parallel with mine. The annoying people she describes are the same people I run across…irritating and completely unworthy of occupying space in a civilized society. They don’t have a clue about their idiotic behavior and tend to denigrate those who can’t understand their attitude. I don’t know if she really confronts them as forcefully as she describes, but I’m sure they get the point she is making. I suspect she’s also a nicer person than she lets on.

She is profane and has a “don’t give a s**t” attitude. She’s comfortable with that persona and just as at ease if you choose to not read her book because it offends you. But you will miss a lot of sensible reflections and opinions, and, for sure, will miss a lot of outstanding humor. There are two things I don’t get because they’re not explained. How did Hubs get that nickname? Is he the center of her universe or does everything revolve around him? Based on her description, I don’t think so. And what are her children’s real names? Mann says they are worse than Gomer and Adolpha, the names assigned to them in her book. If so, I’d like to know what they are.

This is an entertaining book. Don’t get turned off by the language that is more humorous than obscene. Loosen up a little and let some else’s miseries wash over you. It’s a warm, languid bath that summons up a nice glass of pinot gris. Under those conditions a grin would seem appropriate.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

Okay, let’s face it, that title is FUNNY.

And when you find yourself away at 2 am with no chance of falling asleep, you look for something amusing to entertain yourself. I found this book.
Piece of advice, don’t try reading this book while your husband is trying to sleep right next to you. Best get up and go into the living room. There are several times you will laugh out loud.
The book is a series of short stories inspired by Jen’s blog about parenting and the fun associated with raising kids. From class mothers, to soccer games to garage sales, every story is told in a way that you end up nodding, having experienced the exact same situation.
I’m not going to spoil the stories, but am going to suggest you read this on a day you are too exhausted to think, home sick or just wondering what is motherhood all about.
Some stories are better than others, but then again, some moments in life are better than others.

I liked it.

I suppose my only complaint about this book is that so much of it does focus on local mothers. I totally get that, once you have kids, your lives begin to revolve around them, and most of your stories involve them, but I wish Jen had been able to do a bit more about her pre-parenthood years. The initial story, about accidentally attending a swinger's party, had me honking with laughter. And also checking out my neighbors' lawns for big white rocks.

Not to say the parenthood section isn't good. I get the feeling I'm about to start meeting all those wonderful mothers in the next couple years, and possibly worse, since I'm in Silicon Valley, one of the major capitals of spare cash and hipster leanings. I was particularly amused whenever Jen deployed a hidden but very much intended f-word to the more prickly mothers.

I do believe I'll be sending this to my sister, the next time it isn't weird for me to give a gift. Not only because she, as a mom just about to put her first kid in preschool, will begin to wish she could follow Jen's strategies, but because I have literally punched my sister in the throat.

It really is a bonding experience.

A few years ago I came across a link to Jen Mann’s screed against Elf On The Shelf on facebook. Despite being childfree with no real understanding of Elf On The Shelf and it’s phenomenon, I clicked the link. Mann’s rant was epic and hilarious. I told myself I would continue to read and watch her blog. However, I am a bit lazy and terrible at internet-ing, so I stopped paying attention to her blog. When I saw that People I Want To Punch In The Throat was coming out in book form, my memory was jogged and I just knew that I had to read Mann’s book. Comedy isn’t easy and from what I remember about Mann’s Elf On The Shelf rant, she has real talent for being funny. Suffice to say, I expected People I Want To Punch In The Throat to be a barrel of laughs and for once, my expectations were totally met.

People I Want To Punch In The Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots And Other Suburban Scourges opens with Mann’s story of meeting her husband via AOL. It made me nostalgic for a simpler time when everyone was into AOL Instant Messenger and meeting people from the internet was dangerous. The book continues with a story about Mann’s wedding day and some grown up items, and then continues with her life and adventures living and raising her children in Kansas suburbia. Even though my life is drastically different from Mann’s given that I live in a super-rural area where I am pretty sure people don’t even have playgroups, I found myself able to connect with Mann’s narrative. She writes of people with pretension and snobbery in such a hilarious way. I think we’ve all come across humblebraggers no matter where we live or our lifestyle. We all know those people who like to one up everyone around them. Like Mann, I too often want to punch those people in the throat, but refrain.

There are some chapters that definitely stick out more than others. Among my favorites were when Mann and her husband accidentally go to a picnic at a swinger’s house as well as one about Mann’s son Gomer being bullied by this one girl whose mom is actually really awesome and runs this exclusive book group. Also her stories about people to watch for at garage sales was super funny too. To be honest, this entire book is hysterical and worth reading.

I have a mouth like a sailor, so there was absolutely nothing in this book that offended or shocked me. I loved how Mann seemed so down to Earth in this book and like the sort of person I would enjoy being neighbors with. People I Want To Punch In The Throat is the type of book that I read in a blink and then went around telling everyone I work with who actually has a sense of humor to read. I mean, I would not recommend this book to someone who prefers books with no swearing or “clean” books. However, if you are salt of the earth or roll your eyes at suburbia, you should pick up a copy of Jen Mann’s People I Want To Punch In The Throat.

Once again a catchy titled book threw me into the arms of an unknown author whom I quite enjoyed. This book is a somewhat standard collection of a real woman’s adventures in life. Jen, an average middle-ish aged Kansas native who is fairly crass and deceivingly funny provides her take on the booming internet era, living in suburban Kansas, and most of all, parenting and all of the joys and drama that comes along with navigating through school and other parents.

I can’t say that this book has made me a Jen fan, but it was funny enough at parts to warrant spending more of my time listening to her stories. Several loud laughs were had, a few snorts and a few judgmental sneers at the absolutely ridiculous moms that exist in this world definitely brought me a great few hours with Jen’s book.

The only REAL issue I had, aside from wanting to slap Jen a few times, tell her to grow some balls and basically just be a different parent than her, was her absolutely AWFUL choice of narrator for the audio version. I would have loved to hear Jen do this herself. Other than that, again, a pretty standard output. It seems like there are a ton of “real account” books being written these days and with Jen being, at least to me, a completely unknown person, it was slightly difficult to wonder WHY I was listening at points.

This book was stupid and I wish I could get those hours back that I spent reading it. I found the stories just that; stories. The author tries to be funny but just ends up sounding like a jerk. Her lack of compassion for the neighbor's dog and her admission that the rabbit they won lasted less than a month because they didn't take care of it, all make me want punch her in the throat.

I've been a long-time follower of Jen's blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat, and have been really looking forward to reading her latest book. I've also read Jen's other book, Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat, and her anthologies: I Just Want to Pee Alone, and I Just Want to Be Alone.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat had some of Jen's popular posts from her blog included---really, when an author is a blogger first that is expected and not at all a surprise or even a negative factor, in my opinion---but also had tons of new material. I loved every chapter, and found myself laughing out loud so many times while reading this book! I liked that I got to know Jen a little better, and I absolutely loved reading about how she and The Hubs met. Their courtship was the stuff of legend and it made me like her even more.

Jen is so funny and sarcastic, which makes her writing so much fun to read. I love how she unabashedly says what I'm secretly thinking about people. She has chutzpah, spunk, and style. Every time I read one of her posts or one of her books, I am left wanting more. More laughs, more rants, more observations on the characters in the world of mothers.

It's ironic to me how I have encountered so many of the same types of moms that Jen writes about. It's this element of witty characterization that makes her writing stand out for me. Jen excels at figuring people out, and telling us about them in the most hilarious of ways. I think what I admire most about Jen, besides her writing and her sass, is her ability to stand by her own beliefs even when they aren't popular or in line with what everyone else is doing. She's strong, and she'll pass that strength on to her children, hopefully with a dose of her humor as well.

I highly recommend People I Want to Punch in the Throat and can't wait to read Jen's next release!

It took me a few chapters to get into this book. Mann does a whole lot of criticizing, especially for someone so judgmental of judgment. And, at points, she could be a bit melodramatic and snarky.

Also, it was hard for me to believe that moms (like the ones she criticizes) actually exist. Has she seriously encountered a mother who believes (and says out loud) that her JOB in life is to make her children happy? That if one kid wants pizza and the other kid wants a burger, she will get BOTH for dinner? That just seems crazy (and probably embellished?) to me. But maybe not.

Regardless, Mann is most funny when talking about her interactions with fellow mothers . There were more than a few comments that made me laugh out loud. "Watch It, that Room Mom'll Cut You" was one of my favorite chapters.

Then again, I also liked the stories that featured her husband. I especially enjoyed the chapter, "Who Needs Dr. Phil When We Have Adolpha?" (I, too, can't buy my husband a gift--especially a video game--without him telling me to return it because he can find it cheaper online.) Mann's husband makes an appearance in about half of the chapters, and the interplay between the two of them is pretty entertaining.

Thankfully, for all her criticism of everyone else, Mann is exceedingly and refreshingly good at acknowledging her own shortcomings. Just when you think she is going to push it a bit too far with the bitchy judgment, she somehow manages to rein it in with a "yeah, but what do I know" comment that makes her seem very likable and down-to-earth. FYI, there are plenty of f-bombs in here, but I thought that they were all well-placed and totally called for--and, ultimately, I thought the swears actually added to the humor of her stories.

Overall, I ended up enjoying reading this book. It's a quick read, but definitely an entertaining one.

Received via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

I think you could say what I've been doing on Netgalley is playing. Poking around at the available books, seeing if there's anything I actually would be interested in reading. There's a lot of cheesy romance on there, some fantasy novels that make me want to roll my eyes so hard I fall off my armored unicorn.

But I saw the bright, bold title on this book, and paused. And I started to get tingly. If there's one thing I love more than trashing fantasy novels, it's reading snarky humor novels. I requested it without knowing anything more about it, and when it came in, I speed-read through the book I was currently reading to get to it.

Jen Mann does not disappoint. And this book lives up to its title. After reading each story, I was left wanting to punch people desperately in the throat. God help anyone who stands before me in Gucci sunglasses.

The essays are short enough to not get bored, but long enough to give you fat, juicy details. And I am a hoar for details. If she'd just said she drove to her son's school in fuzzy pajamas, I wouldn't have been satisfied until I knew if they were Betty Boop or Tweety bird. Lo and behold, they were bunnies, and I knew I'd picked the right book.

Also, I wear pajamas everywhere. Let those Gucci wearing beetches try judging me, they'll end up with my green fuzzy slippers straight up their skinny jeaned arse.

Seriously, did I mention I want to punch people in the throat now?

I am not a mother, so the majority of these chapters really should have been lost on me. I will never know the pain of my child cutting the leg off his paper gingerbread man and gluing a popsicle stick in its place and shaming himself before the pristinely done gingerbread men of the rest of the class.

I do take the niece to her extracurriculars, but I never once had to do battle to get someone to spend quality time with her so I could run to the grocery store and get 20 minutes of peace.

And I never had a group of mothers judge me for the theme of my niece's birthday parties.

Despite having nothing in common with Mrs Mann, there was not a single chapter in this book I didn't enjoy, and didn't laugh about. This wasn't clutching the belly, guffawing like a lunatic laughing. It was that good, smooth, constant smiling. That's when I know I'm reading a good book.

I'm a superuser of Jen Mann, and I need another fix ASAP.

As all book lovers know, we all love the library. I keep updated with them on facebook and noticed they posted a picture of the Author and her National Bestseller book. The title alone captured my attention and something deep inside me decided to read on. So I read the article and realized this certain woman was a blogger herself in the beginning and decided to turn her blogs into books. I think somewhere we can all relate either wanting to turn our blogs into books or we at least need some humor in our lives and know we are not the only one’s who want to literally slap the s*** out of some people! I realized from the story, that her book was going to be a comical but factual set of events that will not only make us say….OMG, yes I totally have been there, we must know the same people to the yes, I wanna punch someone in the throat! I am telling you, once you start reading this book, you will not put it down. I did read it almost in one day, all the while screaming yes, slap that no good…..lol

5 stars, I love this author and she does have more books that you can read! Listen to her tales of how she met her husband, how she had her kids, how she dealt with a co-worker that had a 4th of July celebration plus more…..you will laugh till you can laugh no more!!!