Have you checked your family bank account lately? What about your relationship account? These are two questions that the Mama Lit July Book Club read, Mrs. Perfect, poses to the reader through the horrible twist of fate facing its lead character. The follow up to author Jane Porter’s novel Odd Mom Out, Mrs. Perfect follows the life of that novel’s nemesis, Taylor Young: the Super Mom of all Stay-at-Home Moms in a posh Seattle suburb.

We begin by examining Taylor Young’s life, focusing on the external aspects that glimmer like a glossy magazine cover: her days are spent chairing a multi-million dollar benefit auction for her daughter’s school, sipping gin & tonics with friends poolside at their elite country club, wearing expensive designer outfits, living in a lakeside mansion she helped custom design, driving a Lexus SUV. The conversations among Taylor and her girlfriends are plastic, the expectations to live life more extravagantly than others high. But we all know that behind the rich lifestyle lurks actual human beings, and this is where Porter takes the reader deeper, to a place where we can all relate, as moms, as wives, as women.

Taylor Young’s life basically gets hit by a Mack truck carrying surprises about her marriage, her family finances, and brings up thought-to-be buried past relationships (her mother) and brings forth unexpected new relationships (nemesis Marta Zinsser). While some of the scenarios play a little OC-style-dramatic for my taste, the heart of the novel is solid and its message clear: as individuals, we are all much more valuable than what others may perceive our worth to be.

Original theme? Perhaps not, but Porter with her ever present mirror pointed at today’s modern woman thankfully doesn’t leave us there. She takes us beyond the usual “money can’t buy happiness” message and through Taylor Young’s mistakes, family secrets, and her eventual journey to strength and rediscovery, Porter reminds the reader why and how money can’t buy happiness, and also how it is never too late for women to reclaim their own power, their own identities, and in doing so, thus strengthening the family unit as a whole. In today’s uncertain economy, I found this messaging to be extremely timely: Taylor Young may be your next door neighbor, your best friend, your mother, or yourself.

Porter always does a fabulous job of creating characters with flaws that most women can relate to, and strengths that most women aim to achieve. In Odd Mom Out, I completely related with Marta Zinsser’s fierce independent streak and her disdain for stereotypes. In Mrs. Perfect, I found myself relating to Taylor Young’s moments of questioning: what am I doing? Who have I — who have we, as husband and wife — become? Where are we going, and what do we want our children to take away from these life lessons? Porter more than any other female author I have encountered paints such an accurate portrait of today’s modern mother, with such aching love for her kids and such conflict within herself. More than the typical mommy wars books, Porter manages to rise above the stay-at-home versus working mom drama and brings the reader to a higher plateau of questioning, one on which we are all mothers trying to do the best for our families, merely asking ourselves — not society — how we best want to live our own lives. I can’t help but read her novels and end with an “I am woman! Hear me roar!” feeling — in a good way, of course.

Mrs. Perfect is about remembering to nurture the independent, intelligent, highly capable woman inside all of us mothers. It’s a reminder that we are in our relationships together, not separately, and that our relationships with our spouses and partners need tending to as much as our relationships with our children and our friends. Mrs. Perfect is the perfect summer read to remind us all that we are truly capable of moving mountains, determining destinies and changing lives– especially our own.

This is it, moms across the country! Our FIRST Mama Lit Online Book Club discussion! Let the games begin! At the beginning of each month, we’ll post the review for that month’s book club read. Then you have the rest of the month to leave comments and chime in on what YOU thought of the book. We’d just LOVE to hear your input!
Here are some discussion points for each month to get you started:

Please remember to leave your first and last name and your e-mail address in your comments because on the last day of each month, we’ll choose ONE lucky winner at random to receive that month’s fun Book Club Swag! The prizes vary each month, so keep checking back for updates. Here’s a hint: the more you comment, the greater your chances of winning! Obviously, we’ll only count full comments — don’t try to cheat the systerm, here :). Your name will be placed in the pool for each comment you leave in response to the review of that month’s selected book.

Ready to get started? I’ll be posting the review for the July Online Book Club read, Mrs. Perfect, by Jane Porter, shortly! If you haven’t picked it up yet, be sure to order it online at the Mama Lit Boutique! This month’s prize? Sweet & sassy baby/kid tees from the ever fabulous Baby Wit.

Take it from the tag line on the front of the cover, “What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?” Now, imagine that your imaginary friend really was real. Can you even fathom the thought? Well, that is exactly where Jane Margaux found herself in the breathtaking feel of Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson.

I freely admit that I love James Patterson’s pure intense writing. I fell in love with Alex Cross, and scary as it may be, I wanted to strap on a gun and become one with the street just like Lindsay Boxer. Both of these characters made you feel the passion of their cause all by reading the words that flowed from Patterson’s pen. So, understand that I was a bit apprehensive about reading Sundays at Tiffany’s.

I chose to read and review this book for one intent reason, so that I could step out of my ‘normal’ genre of suspense with a twist of murder and mayhem. I wanted to experience James Patterson in a light I have never read him in and I must say, I was not one bit disappointed. Sundays at Tiffany’s started with the sullen dark clouds hanging over me and Jane Margaux, but it ended full of sunshine with Michael happily by Jane’s side and all I wanted was more.

Patterson along with Gabrielle Charbonnet captured the true essence of childhood - our one true friend, that many have but may never share, our imaginary playmate.

As you enter the realm of money and true sophistication, we meet little 8 year old Jane Margaux. She is a lovely young lady, just as her mother, Vivianne Margaux, an extravagant, well-known Broadway producer, has brought her up to be. Jane’s two true loves in life are the Sundays that she spends with her mother at Tiffany’s buying jewelry, and Michael, her imaginary best friend. Right away you see the bond that Jane and Michael share.

What begins the gloom is the day. The day that Michael must leave to be with other children that need his help, now that Jane is able to manage on her own. Jane will forget about him - “They always do.” Unfortunately, the day came and went, the day that Jane will always remember.

Now, grown, a woman in her thirties, Jane’s love for life has been sidetracked by the daunting days at work - a producer - working for her mother, and the dying love for a man that she never truly knew. Her life, breaking into pieces that are fluttering away, she comes upon a man. A man with beautiful green eyes, a dazzling smile, and unforgettable good looks. Could it be her Michael? Now is the time you should believe.

Is Michael truly imaginary? Is Michael truly real? Patterson hit the right spot with me and Sundays at Tiffany’s, so much, that I want more. Escape into the fantasy and true, deep-soul love of two people and believe that anything is possible.

When I was asked to review this book, I jumped at the chance to read what “The Mojo Coach“ had to say. My disappointment began with the cover. To be honest, I would never have picked this book up at a bookstore; the cover is done in neutral browns and is neither motivational nor inspirational. The lack of proofreading makes this a difficult read. Major grammatical and spelling errors are prevalent on nearly every page; I found myself re-reading sentences several times in order to understand what Silber was trying to communicate. However, in the end, I was glad that I saw it through.

The Lifestyle Fitness Program is divided into six parts: Nutritional Fitness, Stress Control Fitness, Physical Fitness, Emotional Fitness, Relationship Fitness, and Spiritual Fitness.

While Silber’s Nutritional Fitness Program will be extremely helpful to women who do not know how to begin living a healthy lifestyle, the information can be elementary and redundant; eat a balanced diet, eat fewer calories, eat less fat, and exercise. This section is not a diet program, but rather a lifestyle program.

Silber’s Stress Control Program is mostly beneficial. She shares some helpful ideas on how women can reduce stress, not only on themselves but also on their children. Silber relates very well to the reader when she divulges her personal struggles with over-scheduling herself and her family. She takes delegating to new, never-before-imagined heights that are probably unattainable to most readers, but her other suggestions are mostly reasonable.

Silber’s Physical Fitness Program is well thought out and easy to follow. It is clear to the reader that this is the area in which Silber’s heart lies. Her writing really seems to come to life when she discusses physical fitness. There are many tips in this section that any reader can adapt to her own routine, whether she is a novice or an experienced marathon runner.

Silber’s Emotional Fitness Program voices the thoughts that most, if not all, women have on occasion. In this section, Silber achieves her goal of motivating the reader to get control of her emotional life by giving her tools to manage emotions effectively. Silber opens the eyes of the reader to how her negative thoughts can affect her health and that of her family. Once again, the reader can relate to Silber’s personal story of triumph.

Silber’s Relationship Fitness Program forces the reader into self-reflection. Silber does a good job of detailing ways to identify negative relationships and gives positive suggestions for how to relate better to others. Silber focuses on how the reader can change her attitude and view point to make her relationships better rather than spinning her tires trying to change others.

Silber’s Spiritual Fitness Program is glaringly devoid of anything spiritual. There are few substantial suggestions for gaining spiritual balance.

Many readers will like that Silber has an online message board where they can share their personal struggles and triumphs. Silber also goes above and beyond by offering additional assistance to readers through her free teleseminars. As an added bonus, fifty percent of Silber’s profits from this workbook go to charity.

Imagine Gossip Girl grew up, Miranda Hobbes became a stay-at-home mom, and Juno kept her baby. Mix these characters’ worlds together and you’re hanging out with Hannah Allen, the sympathetic heroine of Momzillas.

Add the slick, stylized tone of chick-lit classics like Shopaholic Ties the Knot and Baby Proof, and the resulting literary concoction is Jill Kargman’s Momzillas: It’s a Jungle out there on Park Avenue, Baby.

At-home mother Hannah, her investment-banker husband Josh, and their 2-year-old daughter Violet have relocated from San Francisco to New York City’s Upper East Side. After some prodding from her materialistic mother-in-law, Hannah loads Violet into the stroller and runs smack into the most vicious strain of mothers in America: the Momzillas of Manhattan.

Chronicling this stay-at-home mom’s move to moneyed Manhattan and her struggles to fit in with a gossipy clique of over-achieving mothers, Momzillas is an easy-to-read paperback pleasure that feels guilty but never actually induces the mommy guilt. As a less-than-perfect, all-too-human mother, Hannah is definitely no one’s martyr even though she feels an outsider’s pain.

Although the heroines and villains of Momzillas are stay-at-home moms, Kargman writes sensitively about the choices all new moms must make. She diplomatically covers the maternal controversies of breastfeeding, childcare, returning to work, and how much to spend on a little one’s toys, clothes and entertainment.

Many of Hannah’s days and nights in New York are lonely and depressing as she rides the rollercoaster of emotions that goes along with trying to find your place after uprooting your family and moving across the country. But Kargman offers a light, entertaining touch, with as much pop-culture lingo as a movie like Juno, and even includes a glossary to explain the native tongue.

New mothers across a range of geographical and socioeconomic levels will appreciate Momzillas, for the same reasons that a diverse horde of millions relate to Sex and the City’s aspirational characters.

Of course, the Momzillas bubble that Kargman has re-created does seem a bit too carefully constructed at times. Conveniently, all of the main characters are only children, and more than once I asked myself why Hannah doesn’t just pick up the phone and call her own mom in Seattle for sympathy when the going gets tough.

But overall, this glossy glimpse into malicious mommyhood is a light-hearted summer read, a pure pop confection of playground frenemies, preschool anxieties, and perfectly pressed professional nannies.

Mama Lit isn’t just about reviews: we’re about fostering a close community of book lover moms. While many of you reading this may already be part of book clubs in your hometowns, we invite you to join the Mama Lit Online Book Club! Each month we’ll choose a different book to read, usually one that one of our contributors is already reading for review, and then we’ll post our review of the book and let the fun begin! You can sign up for our online book club by clicking on the “Join the Mama Lit Book Club” link above. There’s no pressure to participate each month, but there will be prizes given away each month!

Entering to win our monthly book club prizes is simple:
1. Click on the link above to join the monthly book club and sign up for our Mama Lit newsletters
2. Register to post comments on our site by clicking the Register button in the right sidebar.
3. Read the book that is chosen for our Online Book Club that month
4. Read the review of that book and post a comment with your opinions of the book.
5. After you leave a comment to the Online Book Club Book-of-the-Month, you will automatically be entered into our monthly drawing for fabulous giveaways! Giveaways will vary each month but may include books, stationery, baby, toddler & kid items, mama pampering items, and more!

**BONUS** If you have a blog and link to our website, let us know! You’ll get double the chances to win a monthly giveaway if you leave a comment to the Book-of-the-Month review post AND your blog links to us! Just be sure to mention that in your comment!

JULY MAMA LIT BOOK: MRS. PERFECT, by Jane Porter

Click on the image above to buy this book directly through our Amazon store & help support Mama Lit!

I bought the audio version of Joshilyn Jackson’s latest novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, to fill ten hours’ of soccer tournament drive time with something other than mother-teen daughter arguing. I like women’s fiction, especially Southern flavor; my daughter likes ghost stories and mysteries. TGWSS promised both.

And the promise was fulfilled, in spades. We were so enthralled by Jackson’s storytelling that we not only avoided arguing, we very nearly avoided going home. The climax of the book takes place in a depressed, depressing Alabama mining town called “DeLop.” As we approached our own anything-but-depressed Alabama college town with two more cd’s to go, my daughter plugged DeLop into the GPS, thinking that we could best experience the thrilling resolution there.

Of course, there is no place in Alabama named DeLop.

But depressed, depressing mining towns from which people escape to raise children, who then grow up to raise their own children in gated, upscale, HOA- and gossip-controlled suburban neighborhoods certainly do exist. So do people like protagonist Laurel Hawthorne, a happily-married art quilter whose love for her adolescent daughter, Shelby, directs the movement of Laurel’s life the way unexplained forces move the planchette of a ouija board.

(I learned that this was the name of the ouija board’s moving piece from TGWSS, by the way. I told you it was a ghost story.)

People like Laurel do exist, and they doubtless have their secret struggles, just as Laurel does. The first of hers is a tendency to sleepwalk out the door or window and down the street, often with dangerous implements in hand. The second, and related, is an ability to see ghosts, such as the one who leads her to the body of the young girl drowned in Laurel’s swimming pool. The third struggle is her relationship with her controlling and over-the-top actress older sister, Thalia.

Jackson’s characters are so vivid that you’ll swear you could meet them if you were in the right place at the right time. Her pacing is so masterful that you’ll swear by a hundred different plausible solutions to the mystery of the drowned girl. And her voice is so compelling that an aspiring writer, like me, will just plain swear, out of pure envy.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is more intense than typical “mama lit,” I think, but at its heart is the mystery of motherhood, and how it can only be truly understood in light of our daughterhood. Definitely mama lit material. But don’t worry: there are plenty of bust-out-laughing episodes (generally involving Thalia).

It’s a really, really good read. And should it lead you to Alabama in search of DeLop, be sure to stop by my little town for some mama talk over a glass of sweet tea!

As promised, we really are starting to rock and roll over here at Mama Lit! I’d like to introduce six new contributors:

• Melanie McCluskey (Brooklyn, NY)
• Dannie McClain (Bella Vista, Arkansas)
• Mary Bordner Tanck (Pleasant Hill, MO)
• Lara Colvin (Chicago, IL)
• Erin Kirkland (Anchorage, AK)
• Kalynne Pudner (Auburn, AL)

Their fabulous photos and bios are slowing being added to our About page so be sure to visit.

Books currently being reviewed by contributors:

• The Lifestyle Fitness Program - Interactive Lifestyle Fitness Plan so Mom Can Get Her “Mojo” Back, by Debi SIlber
• Inside Out Girl, by Tish Cohen
• On Becoming Fearless, by Ariana Huffington

Do you have a book you’d like us to consider for review? Are you interested in being a contributor to Mama Lit? Send us an email! We’d love to hear from you.

The transition to motherhood is as sticky as tar. Nobody tells it as straight as Brett Paesel in her rendition of the adjustment from breezy freedom to the chaotic commitment of children.

Paesel’s account of the sleepless nights, the crying jags (both baby and mom!), and the need for mom-camaraderie is honest, hilarious, touching at times, and a bit crass. The book is mostly focused on Paesel’s struggles with new motherhood through frequent gatherings with her tribe of mom pals. As they gather at the bar to gain sanity and respite from the toil of their child-rearing days, the women provide a sounding board and comfort to each other.

Paesel uses witty humor to cope with pregnancy, miscarriage, adoption, and even the absurd acceptance rituals of exclusive preschools. The weekly bar gatherings underscore the need for community at a time when so many new moms feel isolated. If moms who read this book haven’t yet found their “tribe” of mom friends, they will certainly step up their search upon witnessing how Paesel’s group offers much-needed empathy and support.

There is a slightly annoying “ Hollywood ” pervasiveness in the book; even her OB/Gyn was met through acting classes. (What was he taking acting classes for? “Mrs. Green, you look fantastic—I hardly notice the 70 pounds you’ve put on during pregnancy!”). However, there are enough clever gems of humor to make up for this shortfall, such as reversing the “Expected Milestones” chart from what the baby should be able to do by a certain age to what the mother should be able to do by the time the baby reaches a particular age.

I have to say, I’m glad I read this book after having children. At times, Paesel makes motherhood sound so dismal that her account might have dissuaded me. Fortunately, I could enjoy her humorous challenges of parenting because I know they are off-set by as many joyous moments.

Read it, relish the humor…just don’t pass it along to that friend who is on the fence about having kids unless you are hoping to curb the world population.

Before commencing with the accolades for Jenny Gardner’s new book, “Sleeping With Ward Cleaver”, let me say that Jenny is always welcome to have dinner at our house. I can’t imagine how someone who wrote this book wouldn’t be exceptional funny (like Molly Shannon), bright (like Madeleine what’s her name Secretary of State), and perhaps, even a little sarcastic. Just my cup of tea for a dinner guest!

Jenny’s book is a romantic comedy about a working mother who find herself and her husband again through all the paranoia and delusion that we all experience as parents and spouses. Luckily, Jenny’s book helps us all see the humor in the situation. The book is a well written and easy read.

The first chapter had me in stitches. Children puking. Planned and dreaded sex nights. Poorly trained pets. Poop. Oversexed single friends. And a husband who behaves like Ward Cleaver. A little something for all of us to relate to in our own lives.

This is book is the “Bridget Jones Diary” for all of us married and harried mommies! And perhaps, a good gift to give to our younger and single girlfriends. It’s a gentle and humorous way to give them a glimpse of what’s to come . . .

What I love the most about this book is the ending. It left me understanding myself and my husband a little more. I just wanted to give him one of those long and sumptuous hugs that say, “I understand.”

And at the end I was left understanding the delicate dance in romantic relationships a little more. “Sleeping With Ward Cleaver” was the perfect romantic comedy for a 30-something Mommy, who still wants to be a sexy and sassy gal, despite the spit up encrusted on all of my clothing. I can only hope Rob Reiner and friends, will put this sassy book on the big screen!