Customer Reviews

What Do You Do All Day?: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

How much do I LOVE when I find a book where the heroine is hilarious, angry, potty-mouthed and lovable all at the same time? Reading the book was like spending time with an incredibly cool new mommy friend, like one of those playdates where you let the kids play with old cheerios and you and the mom fall in love and drink wine. Exactly what I want to do all day.

If you've ever been asked "What do you do all day?" after you've spent the last umpteen hours fixing mac n' cheese, putting wheels back on a Tonka truck and having tea with Barbie, this book is for you. Amy Scheibe captures the feelings of all stay-at-home moms on the brink of desperation with both sensitivity and humor. It's Desperate Housewives, Manhattan style. Read it when the kids go for their naps.

I am reading this book now and am LOVING it!! As a former executive and a current SAHM, (stay at home mom), I know first hand how challenging it can be sometimes to trade in meetings and promotions for diapers and bottles. Scheibe captures it all with humor and aplomb! Highly recommended.

This book is so far-fetched it became lame to read. I mean, really, the main character's world is just too neat, she loves herself a little too much, the children are also just so obedient. PLEASE! Where do these authors get their material?

I got bored of it. And I agree with the reviewer who gave it one star - the humor isn't that great either. She's hardly witty.

I agree with some reviewers that the character of Jennifer is not likable, but it's not the main reason to dislike this book. After all, some of the greatest works of literature have despicable characters in them. This book is just simply poorly written. The plot ... oh, wait, there is no plot. It feels like the author made a list of current parenting issues, pop culture references, cliches, platitudes, and bad puns and tried to build a story around them. It is unstructured and wholly uninspired.

Much funnier and smarter than "I Don't Know How She Does It" which the jacket compares it to, and Jennifer Weiner's chick-lit books. One of those books that makes you feel like the author knows you and all the crazy thoughts going through your SAHM head. Great Stuff!

It is obvious that the author of this book has never actually BEEN a SAHM and that she thinks she is far superior to anyone who is. If I could have given it less than one star, I would. I never thought there would be a "chick lit" book that would actually piss me off, but this one has done it. The main character is so condescending, smug and conceited that I want to fly up to NYC and confront her. As a SAHM myself, I am disgusted with some of the assumptions and generalizations this author makes. I actually can't put the book down because it's pissing me off so much, I can't stop reading it. The more I read it, the madder it makes me. ARGH!

For the record MS. Scheibe, there are some women out there who are SAHM's who don't resent our children, don't resent our husbands, aren't bored, aren't stupid, don't miss working, never plan to go back to work and aren't feminists. They say authors should write what they know about, what they've actually experienced.... you should take that advice, ma'am!

The reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because I believe that all authors need a little wiggle room in both directions after their first book.

I have to say that I am a little baffled by the reviews posted here that are less critical and mor vitriolic. What Do You Do All Day? is clearly one woman's take on the not so wonderful world of motherhod. I think the honesty of her character is to be applauded. All too ofetn when people write about motherhood, in fiction or non, we always have to hear about how wonderful it is. And, if it is not so wonderful, how it will all just get better. And that is the whole problem. There is no bitterness in What Do YOu Do All Day? There is no anger. There is just the reality of one woman's experience. And that of her friends.

From this book we can all glean that motherhood is just like Romper Room. In between takes. When all the kids are destroying the set. Because that is what it is like most of the time. And the diference betwen Romper Room and real mommyho is that mother's can't yell, "CUT!" and send the naughty ones home. Or the teething ones. Or the ones who ae supposed to be potty trained even though that only goes as far, sometimes, as the child telling you in clearly enunciated English that he or she needs to be changed. It is funny the first time. Or the second. And maybe even the third. But the point I saw In What Do YOu Do All Day? is that it happens all the time. That is what makes it motherhood and more than just fiction.

As far as the folks who think that anyone Black woudl take issue with this book, I wonder why? Is it not realistic nough because Angie is not the au pair? Before you get ready to shoot back with the authentcity question please know that I am an EXTEREMLY middle-class Black woman from New York typing this. A couple of degrees and starched white collar. There comes a point when hearing that the only relationship a white and black women can is adversarial is really lame. Especialy in New York. Believe it or not, some of actually do get along. Really well. We don't count the number of friends by the color of their skin, nor do we judge them. But we respect each other enough to acknowlede that we do, in fact, look different and have different backgrounds that may, in fact, be useful. Not just in motherhood, but in life.

Why would gay people be angry? Ms. Schibe seemed to hit the nail right on the head and anyone taking a walk through the Uper West Side of NYC or Ocean, NJ would be able to attest to that.

It is no secret that not all books are for everyone, and to give a thoughtful critique of the really good ones, especially in this forum, is what makes both the starring system and the "Was this review useful to you?" stuff valuable for folk looking to read a good book rather than the reviews of bitter folks looking to have something negative to say just because they can.

What Do You Do All Day? is an really good first novel about the parts of motherhood, family and the in-laws that most people are afraid to tackle because all three have been deemed to sacred for anything other than waxing praise. It is also an exploration of complex friendships as well as the never ending self-discovery that comes with having kids, and friends with kids and friends who swear never to have them, their husbands, their boyfriends and the strangers on the street who just don't understand why the screaming kid in the stroller sometimes just has to win the battle.

Being a stay-at-home mom is complicated and sometimes depressing. But this woman never really does anything to help herself. Every time she has a real problem--her daughter's school, her marriage, feeling like she needs a job, and other stuff--somebody else comes to the rescue and ta da, it's fixed. The big emotional revelation at the end feels less important and traumatic to her than having to socialize with some annoying people. She comes off as really self-centered and unaware.

Also, she is really surprised that her daughter would be friends with an African-American. She seems even surprised that an African-American exists at her daughter's school. Then she decides it will make her cool if she has an African-American friend. The main character doesn't understand that when she does this she is treating the African-American woman like a trophy and not a person, even if she ends up liking the woman for herself later.

This book tries to make the difficulties and ambivalence of motherhood funny and understandable, but since the character is so helpless and out-of-touch, it ends up making a lot of moms look really bad: feminist moms, working moms, stay-at-home moms, rich moms. That is the most depressing part of the book.

While I liked the subject matter in general, and some of it was dead-on, some parts of the plot were a little unlikely and fell a little flat for me. A little unrealistic for most of the SAHMs I know (swearing, drinking, minor drug usage). If you like this genre it's worth a read, but it's definitely not going to be a classic.