Planting Dandelions: Field Notes From a Semi-Domesticated Life [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Kyran Pittman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 28, 2011

Introducing a writer with a keen eye, a wicked tongue, and an appealing take on family.

In the family of Jen Lancaster and Elizabeth Gilbert, Kyran Pittman is the laid-back middle sister: warm and witty and confiding, with an addictively smart and genuine voice-but married with three kids and living in the heartland. Relatable and real, she writes about family in a way that highlights all its humor, while at the same time honoring its depth.

A regular contributor to Good Housekeeping, Pittman is well loved because she is funny and honest and self-deprecating, because her own household is in chaos ("semi-domesticated"), and because she inspires readers in their own domestic lives. In these eighteen linked, chronological essays, Pittman covers the first twelve years of becoming a family, writing candidly and hilariously about things like learning to maintain a marriage over time; dealing with the challenges of sex after childbirth; saying good-bye to her younger self and embracing the still attractive, forty-year-old version; and trying to "recession- proof" her family (i.e., downsize to avoid foreclosure).

From a fresh new talent, celebrating the joys and trials of a new generation of parents, Planting Dandelions is an entertaining tribute to choosing the white-picket fence over the other options available, even if you don't manage to live up to its ideals every day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[This is a] hilarious, searing essay collection. . . . [Pittman's] tales of modern motherhood are fearless and addictive."
-People (four stars)

"In this wry, warts-and-all memoir, Good Housekeeping contributing writer Kyran Pittman offers up snapshots from her life, and she is nothing if not very, very human. ...[Her] confessional tone is balanced with her clear affection for family life in all its messiness. Now a mommy of three, Pittman is just as passionate when writing about life in suburbia as when musing on postpartum sex...Being a mom isn't always (or even usually) glamorous, but Pittman recognizes the beauty of family life in this interesting, funny and fresh entry in the mommy memoir genre."
-Bookpage

"Crisp, witty dispatches from the domestic front by a former wild child. . . . The author writes with an acerbic intellect, blending self-deprecation with reflective back-patting into cohesive life stories that are relatable and, thankfully, usually funny."
-Kirkus

"Kyran Pittman is a fresh new voice in non-fiction-honest, intimate, and thoroughly smart. Her self-perception and integrity make us cheer her on as she goes through her domestic trials-and at the same time feel confident that she will emerge from them unscathed. I highly recommend this book."
-Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West

"Kyran Pittman is a warm, honest, very funny writer. I loved her book."
-Julie Klam, author of You Had Me at Woof

"Kyran Pittman's searingly honest confessionals, and her expert wit, should serve as a model and inspiration for all the former 'bad girls' who've crossed over into motherhood."
-Neal Pollack, author of Alternadad

About the Author

Kyran Pittman is a contributing writer for Good Housekeeping. She lives in Arkansas with her husband and three children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (April 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594488002
• ASIN: B0062GJXIQ
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A stranger in the strange land of motherhood, marriage and the white picket fence. Contributor to Good Housekeeping magazine, keeper of a book of days at PlantingDandelions.com, and idle prattler at twitter.com/kyranpittman. See KyranPittman.com for full biography, schedule of events, book excerpt and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So good... May 5, 2011

By Kath Hale

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Not much got done around my house until I finished this book, because Planting Dandelions is that good. Kyran's prose is always frank, sometimes outre, often funny, and pared to perfection. Her poet's ear for language is sure. Several times I had to hold my place with a finger on a paragraph in order to study the opposite wall, thinking about what I'd just read and viewing my own experiences through her lens. Kyran writes with courage and candor, and, as a result, I understand my own choices better. Underpinning the chapters is a dry wit enhanced by a keen sense of the absurd, and often the result is flat-out hilarious. I recommend it highly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Traditional Mom Memoir April 29, 2011

By Charles G. Campbell

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a wonderful book. There are two main reasons. Well, maybe three. First of all, it is by a gifted writer, who can make her readers laugh out loud and cry immediately afterwards. Second, this is a courageous memoir about a woman who just wasn't "cut out" to be a mother, but then discovered just how thrilling being a Mother can be. Third, Kyran Pittman has the courage to admit things about herself that all of us can relate to, but few of us would share. This is an honest book about a real person, who came to marriage and motherhood full of flaws, incongruities, and fear. And she triumphed. If this book doesn't become a best seller,I will lose a lot of bets.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your typical memoir May 5, 2011

By Amy Bee-Dot

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have to start this book review with a big disclosure: I am friends with Kyran Pittman, the author of Planting Dandelions. She and I have much in common, including long distance love affairs, immigration issues and a house full of testosterone. Since her book is a story about her and her family, and because before reading it I already knew that I loved her and her family, my review is, by default, biased.

That disclaimer out of the way,Planting Dandelions is one of the worst memoirs I've ever read. Just kidding! It's actually one of the best. And I really wouldn't say that if it weren't true.

The title of Kyran's book refers to her long time love of the tiny-yet-hardy plant that many consider to be a weed, but that she considers a flower. The dandelion has become a bit of a metaphor for her life, a reminder that one doesn't have to be like everyone else on the block, that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and that wishing is a worthwhile activity.

In her memoir, Kyran mainly covers the years of her life spent falling in and out love, finally finding "the one," and raising a family with him. Anyone who's ever chucked it all to run away and be with a boy or been a mother unsure of herself and her role within the family and society can definitely relate to her story. I've heard her writing compared to Erma Bombeck's, but Kyran is a funnier, raunchier, and dare I say more honest voice.

If you're looking for a hilarious take on what the "real" modern family is like, an honest glimpse into the confusing, contradictory cesspool of emotions that mothers and wives must wade through, or a treatise on the negotiations and contracts necessary to run a marriage, you will absolutely love Planting Dandelions.

There. Now I've finished the trite and standard book review stuff. I know that many people just read the first part of a review or post, so there's the necessary bits out of the way. Now I can really talk about Kyran and her book.

There are parts of it that are tough to read. If sex talk or graphic descriptions of childbirth bothers you, be warned -- she writes about both of them. I'm a bit of a prude, and I'll say, those parts didn't really gross me out too much, but I did wince or giggle like a pre-pubescent boy at times. But I still can't believe some of what she put out there. She's either brave or crazy, or a bit of both.

It's also tough to read because it's brutally honest. Kyran talks about her failed first marriage, her emotional affairs, and her judgmental feelings toward other women. I like that kind of thing. I think more women need to be writing about that stuff. None of us are perfect, dammit. There are enough craft blogs and beauty magazines out there making us feel less-than because we don't have a perfect home, a perfect marriage, perfect kids or a perfect body. The last thing we need is yet another "momoir" that glorifies and airbrushes the realities that women face.

Kyran's writing is also very different from that of many bloggers-turned-writers and people who write about their lives. It's different because it's good. I know "she writes pretty" isn't necessarily your standard reason a review gives to read a book, but I think it's valid. I hate writing styles that insult my intelligence. Kyran's writing, while relatable and easy to devour, still makes you feel smart. She doesn't talk down to her readers, and she's not afraid to use her brain or big words or make erudite references. And I like that -- it's quite rare in this genre.

But what I love most about Planting Dandelions is how it makes me -- and I'm sure others -- feel. It made me feel like my story is worth telling. That my banal life of packing lunch boxes and paying bills and (not) changing light bulbs is worth remembering, worth preserving. I don't mean that I need to go out and write a memoir. I just mean that, since reading this book, I find myself taking a little more time to find the joy in the carpool line, to honor the importance of listening to my husband, and to reflect on the tradition and history involved in raising my children. While Kyran's story could give me an excuse -- "Hey, nobody's perfect, what am I so hard on myself for?" -- instead, it's given me a new challenge, a new outlook, and a new appreciation of my role as wife and mother. In a way, it's given me a new sense of purpose.

For that, I can truly say that Planting Dandelions is one of the few books that has changed my life. I hope you'll read it and give it a chance to change yours, too.