A decent summer read, but not nearly as good as What Alice Forgot!

Burned through this during a night of pregnancy insomnia, so probably skimmed too much. Fun, light read!

Fun read, loved her tone and her willingness to show all the mistakes she made! Made me wish I had the benefit of the extended Northern California growing season.

I thought the writing was good and the story was compelling, but I could not deal with all the Idiot Plot elements (thank you, Roger Ebert). Basically none of this could have happened if people weren't such idiots who didn't share VERY IMPORTANT KEY PIECES OF INFORMATION with each other. Or the beyond stupid heroine who just makes incorrect assumptions right and left and then makes terrible, tragedy-inducing choices (not just for her, but for other people) based on them without trying to get her facts straight. Grrr. Frustrating.

My 4-star review might be a little bit misleading, but a book about politics that can keep a not-political-junkie like me so completely engrossed deserves it! Was fascinating to read the behind-the-scenes details around two candidates who both hated playing the election game.

So funny and sweet. It's about an Australian university professor, who very likely falls somewhere on the autism/Aspbergers spectrum, embarking on The Wife Project. I couldn't get The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper out of my head as Don's voice!

The beginning of this book is a case for why we need to bring back the homemaker and return to being a culture of people who create rather than consume. That part had me cheering and phoning up friends to read quotes to them.

But then she got into the "hows" and . . . I loved that less. Many of the people she holds up as examples have taken themselves much farther off the grid than I could go (especially if I wanted my husband to come with me). We're talking not having health insurance, not having cars, living on rural homesteads, homeschooling their kids, etc. This is great for them but doesn't help me as much because my own family compound is still a few years away. (I call chickens!) And don't get me started on the few who believe that relying on monthly government assistance = self-sustaining . . .

But there was a lot in there to motivate and inspire, so I would recommend it to anyone who needs to be reminded that being a homemaker can be much more noble and fulfilling than simply being a full-time chauffeur & babysitter.