People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges

People I Want to Punch in the Throat

by Jen Mann

A debut collection of witty, biting essays laced with a surprising warmth, from Jen Mann, the writer behind the popular blog People I Want to Punch in the Throat
 
People I want to punch in the throat:
• anyone who feels the need to bling her washer and dryer
• humblebraggers
• people who treat their pets like children
 
Jen Mann doesn’t have a filter, which sometimes gets her in trouble with her neighbors, her fellow PTA moms, and that one woman who tried to sell her sex toys at a home shopping party. Known for her hilariously acerbic observations on her blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat, Mann now brings her sharp wit to bear on suburban life, marriage, and motherhood in this laugh-out-loud collection of essays. From the politics of joining a play group, to the thrill of mothers’ night out at the gun range, to the rewards of your most meaningful relationship (the one you have with your cleaning lady), nothing is sacred or off-limits. So the next time you find yourself wearing fuzzy bunny pajamas in the school carpool line or accidentally stuck at a co-worker’s swingers party, just think, What would Jen Mann do? Or better yet, buy her book.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays, Audiobook, Comedy, Book Club

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2014

About the author

Jen Mann of People I Want to Punch in the Throat is the hilarious author of the New York Times best seller, People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges and Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat. She also contributes to and publishes the New York Times best selling I Just Want to Pee Alone series of books. Her books are inspired by her immensely popular blog People I Want to Punch in the Throat. Jen lives in Kansas with the Hubs and her two children, Gomer and Adolpha - no, those aren't their real names, their real names are actually worse. Jen spends her free time crafting and volunteering with the PTO. Seriously.

You can purchase her books here: http://amzn.to/QSie2T

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

the title of this book is fantastic, and appeals to my own simmering inner rage towards all the various types of people i myself would like to punch in the throat. i didn't know anything about this woman before i read the book, although she has a very successful blog, but you know me - i don't have my finger on the pulse of the interwebz so good. so i didn't know that her blog was about motherhood and married suburban life, which is way out of my range of experience, and might be why i didn't love this book as much as i had hoped to.

but it's still very enjoyable. i love her voice - her lack of vanity as she recounts her struggles with her tightwad "hubs" and the various ways she doesn't fit in to her cookie-cutter suburban town - saying the "wrong" thing, letting her kids do their own homework, not getting into the spirit of a sex-toy party. she's funny and awkward and she's gonna embarrass the hell out of her kids when they get old enough to notice. but in a good way; one that when they outgrow the teen-embarrassment years, they will look back on and think "my mom is pretty cool."

but the subject matter - her dependence on her cleaning woman, her desire to own a mini-van, her hubs' monitoring of her spending, while amusing, didn't really speak to my own experiences, so it was a sort of removed amusement, and not one of recognition. also, while she definitely isn't a suburban stepford wife, she is far too domesticated to ever actually punch someone in the throat. she has more pique than actual rage.

but if you can relate to her stories of carpools and school bullies and juggling a career and children and a hubs, this is probably a book you want to read, because she's really charming, and there are definitely giggles to be had, even if you are a childless urban lady like myself.

come to my blog!

[Dan Schwent · Rating 3 out of 5]

People I Want to Punch in the Throat is a collection of blog posts from the blog of the same name.

I got this from Netgalley.

Being a regular contributor to two book blogs and a neglecter of a personal blog, I'm no stranger to blogging so I had ulterior motives for requesting this. I often wonder if people would pay a paltry sum for a distillation of my bloggings.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat covers a wide range of topics, like parents doing their kids homework for them, meeting her husband on the internet, secretly coveting a mini van, hating to clean, her three year old being a racist, getting tricked into going to a swinger's party, and various points in between. They're all pretty funny.

Jen's writing style is pretty damn funny. I quoted numerous lines out loud to my girlfriend, who laughed before asking me what the hell I was reading. I kept picturing Tina Fey playing Jen in a movie or TV version of the blog.

It's a pretty funny read but, no surprising considering the source, you're reading a bunch of blog entries. It's like reading a collection of Chuck Klosterman essays without all the pretension. It was really entertaining but I'm not sure I'd want to pay for it when I could get it for free elsewhere. How many times have I said that... ?

3.5 out of 5 stars. Funny and definitely worth the time.

Correction: Jen informed me that the material within isn't gleaned from her blog and is in fact available nowhere else.

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok..so I liked this book. A shit ton of my friends didn't like it. They will probably get trolled by me. Hell...someone has to do it.

Anyways..Jen Mann..I think she is my sister from another mister, mom or some crap like that. She does't do too well as room mom. Yeah, so maybe I did get replaced by one of those plastic moms the one year I was brave enough to try it. She might wear her pajama's in the car pick up line-don't judge..it's a hard world out there. The neighbors might not like her..not saying anything about that because my husband says I have to place nice with them now.
I think we might be twins. Except she makes a whole hell of a lot more money that I do. I'm the cheapie hubs in my story.
Plus I DO NOT want a mini van.

Anyways, give this book a try even though half of goodreads is wrong about it.
And Jen...........



I received an arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to punch this author in the throat.

[Elizabeth Salinas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know if my vocabulary is equal to the task of expressing my disdain for this book, but I will try, because I truly believe that if I save one person from wasting time or money on this, mine will have been a life well lived.
I thought I would like this book. I had never heard of the blog, but the title made me laugh. I live in the suburbs and have two children. I am about the same age as the author, and have been a room mom and involved in the PTA, so one would think I am exactly the demographic to appreciate and enjoy this book. Perhaps that's the problem--while I know many people with overscheduled children who wouldn't ever admit to feeding their families non-organic fruit, nobody I know pontificates about their choices like seemingly everybody the author meets does. The encounters and conversations she relates don't ring true at all. I've lived and worked in six different states, and unless the people of Kansas are just insufferable jerks a breed apart from those in the rest of the country, I can not buy what she's trying to sell. They mostly seem like contrived situations set up so the author can reply with a snappy putdown or a self-righteous speech to demonstrate her superiority. Do I believe that every story David Sedaris writes happened exactly as he describes? Of course not--humorists exaggerate for effect, but skillful humorists do it believably, and don't insult our intelligence.
The author purports to hold "humblebraggers" in contempt, which is ironic because the whole book amounts to an extended humblebrag--"I may be disorganized, underachieving, fluffy, unkempt, and foul mouthed, but really that's what makes me so much cooler and more together than those Dolce and Gabbana-wearing empty-headed suburbanites."
And, oh yeah, it's not really funny (unless you think punctuating every other sentence with the word "f*ck" makes things funny, in which case shouldn't you be finishing your algebra homework?).

[Kelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

People I want to punch in the throat:

-Anyone naive enough not to realize the screen name JenXxx might be misconstrued as anything other than a play on "generation X."
-Those apparently unfeeling assholes who tell their neighbors that "they would have been smarter to use $13k to redo their kitchen rather than waste it on surgery for their dog."
-People so insecure that they can't just own up to wearing pajamas all day.
-^^^x1000 when this is a bigger concern than your missing child.
-Immature couples who can't handle cleaning their own house for 6 fucking months before hiring a cleaning lady in order to avoid marital problems.
-Any parent who thinks, "Hey, it's ok if her kid beats the shit out of my kid because she gives me cool gifts and invites me to her book club."
-Writers who make points through means of overly-long, made-up conversations.

This book was terrible. I think I chuckled twice, once about how slow the internet used to be and once about something with carnivals and corn dogs that I can't remember. Is this really a memoir based off of a real-life blog? Because this can't be real. I repeatedly wanted to tell her to grow up and at one point yelled aloud, "BORED," and hit skip to jump to the next section.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you ever head for a drive-through or a school pick-up line in your pajamas because there just wasn’t time to get dressed? (And I mean flannels with bunnies on them, not black sweats that pass as regular clothes.) If so, you probably told yourself that there was absolutely no way you’d be required to get out of the car. But then...WTF? Well, it happened to Jen Mann, with hysterical consequences. This pajama chapter was one of my favorites. But there are tons of other stories I loved, from how she met her husband through AOL, to dealing with her racist preschooler, to handling her 5-year-old who sounds like Dr. Phil and gives wise marital advice—Mann tells it all and makes us laugh.

It’s fun to read about a sane, nice person who speaks up against all the jerks in the world. Her style is blog-like in that it’s easy-schmeazy conversational, though each essay feels complete. Her insight, always humorous, makes her an instant hero. I kept wishing I’d have the nerve to say half the things she said. We see ourselves in her, we relate to her. She has a good eye for the absurdities of everyday life in the ‘burbs. And she’s not embarrassed to confess that she’d really love to have a minivan. I love how she’s self-effacing.

But now my complaints. The title was misleading. No biggie, but I expected rage with a humorous bent, and maybe a chapter for each bozo she wanted to punch in the throat. Instead, this book was really tame. She starts off with a touching and funny story about how she met her husband. Though he bugged her, I’d hardly say she wanted to punch him in the throat—and she ended up marrying him, so her predominant emotion certainly wasn’t rage. The book was mostly about annoying and absurd suburbia. Yes, there were lots of people who bothered her with their inanities and selfishness, but she didn’t really seem to get outraged enough.

There was one chapter where her kid was getting badly bullied by a vicious kid (think The Bad Seed). Mann was pissed, but not pissed enough. I was the one who was pissed at her for turning it into a funny story instead of taking it more seriously. I thought she should have done more to prevent future bullying, and I wished she’d had more sympathy for her poor kid. Maybe she did but just didn’t tell us. I wanted to be told. I didn’t want to think the bully was allowed to continue hurting her kid and others.

And the title mentions competitive crafters. I expected stories about the crazy craft world of knitters, beaders, card-makers. But no, she meant parents who do required school craft projects for their kids, and there’s just one puny and sort of boring chapter about it. Surely it wasn’t title worthy.

Occasionally, as with all funny books, the humor seemed forced, like the author was trying just a little too hard to crack me up. Those times, the joke sort of fell flat, went on a little too long, and seemed awkward. Luckily it didn’t happen very much.

Another problem for me—the suburban moms were just too bitchy, dumb, and heartless. Mean malignant monster moms. They said horrible things to each other; I had trouble believing such evil people exist. But I just don’t want to think Mann lied. I must think of it as harmless embellishment. No way could she remember all the conversations verbatim. She could have introduced the dialogues with something like, “the conversation went something like this….”, a subtle confession that she made some of it up, and I would have felt better.

There were way too many chapters on moms. Most were funny, but I’m past the days of carpools and PTA meetings, and it got old. Besides, I’ve had my fill of reading about bitchy moms (Big Little Lies was bad enough). The first half of the book was less mom-ful and I liked it a lot better.

Okay, enough complaining. Even though, as usual, my complaint board runneth over, I liked this book. I always looked forward to picking it up. I liked every single essay, which is unusual.

I’ve decided I like books by bloggers—two fun ones are Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling. And one of my all-time favorite books is the brilliant graphic gem Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. I’d appreciate it if the funny blogger people ditched their insanely long titles, but still, I’m a sucker for their lively books. Blogs are especially great for those of us who want fast, easy, funny, and short—food for my adult ADD. They often are a nice break after reading a long and serious fiction gemstone.

Sassy, witty, hilarious, and honest, this collection of essays about life in the suburbs is a fast, fun read. Grab it if you want some laughs.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

ARC received from NetGalley. Thank you, NetGalley!

Confession: My name is Kelly and I’m addicted to reading blogs. I started reading the People I Want to Punch in the Throat blog back when a certain “Overachieving Elf on the Shelf” post went viral. When I found out the author lived in the same area as me, it added even more enjoyment to some of her posts. Although I don’t still follow the blog religiously, I was excited to see a book version available and figured it would provide some hardy-hars.



Well, things didn’t work out quite as planned. A more fitting title for this book might have been First World Problems of Entitled Suburbanites. The stories in this collection attempt to point out how many assholes the author has to deal with on the daily. The trouble was, I didn’t find the stories to be very funny and in many of the situations I found the author to be the asshole rather than all of the people she was complaining out. Which would be absolutely fine – if she owned her assholery instead of coming off as “holier than thou” in so many of the entries. Maybe me living in the same area and being familiar/having many of the same experiences backfired and lessened my enjoyment rather than enhanced it???

The one story that had me LOLing was either the truth or a continuation in the awesomeness of the urban legend which is called “The Suburban Swinger”.



I’m not so naïve as to believe swinging doesn’t exist in fly-over country. In fact, I’ve even had an unfortunate incident where the “hubs” and I were asked to partake (trust me, if the two of us are the hot ticket on the menu, you probably want NOTHING to do with this particular club). According to People I Want to Punch in the Throat, there is a certain neighborhood known for its high number of residents who might not be opposed to “swapping keys” with the neighbors. This book points out that the houses are marked with giant white landscaping boulders to either warn or welcome new *ehem* friends(?). The power of Google/Realtor.com confirmed solo white boulders in a sea of mulch exist in several of the homes currently for sale. My morbid curiosity tells me I must buy a high-powered telescope and move to this neighborhood immediately in order to ewwwwww and ahhhh over the potential grotesquery of the over 50 swinging set.



Correction: Must WIN LOTTERY and then move to this neighborhood immediately, etc., etc., etc. because the house I like has an asking price of $1,000,000. Plus I’ll have to pay someone to haul that big fucking rock out of the yard.

When it comes to blogs-to-books, this was no Hyperbole and a Half or Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, but you could definitely do worse. I’m sure many will find this to be hilarious. It just wasn’t my particular cup of tea.

[Tucker Almengor · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Image TK]
Many thanks to Hope at Tantor Audio for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

3.5 Stars!

I really enjoyed this collection of funny stories! I don't want to call it a memoir because it's not an overarching story. It's really just a bunch of stories that are, for the most part, unrelated. I actually really enjoyed this! It made it so that I could read one story at a time! It was a bite sized book.

I also really loved the fact that the author was so irreverent and brutally honest. I think more people should be like that.

And finally, I loved that the author narrated the book. She did a very nice job.

| Goodreads | Blog | Pinterest | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Jen Mann’s hilarious tales of life as a young mom in Kansas City with her blunt-bordering-on-rude, cheapskate husband Ebenezer and her sensitive son Gomer and precocious daughter Adolpha (names have been changed to protect the guilty). Because we know the same competitive moms. You know whom I’m talking about. The perfectly coiffed and dressed mom whose child never has a meltdown and who doesn’t understand why you don’t have time for Pilates or enough money for Le Ploutocrate, her favorite three-Michelin star restaurant. Sometimes she’s a stay-at-home; sometimes she has one of those jobs where you can actually go out to lunch. She will always be blonde. She is better than you; you know it, and she knows it. Her kitchen is clean, she made her kids’ Halloween costumes, and instead of the simple frosted cupcakes you made (or, as likely, bought at Kroger), hers are shaped like Minions or My Little Ponies. Unless her children never touch gluten or refined sugar. Then she somehow made admittedly delicious cupcakes out of carrots, kale, dates, and agave syrup. Yes, I’m bitter.

I don’t know if it’s being a real-estate agent or a blogger or just a freer spirit than I, but Jen Mann says all of the things that we sweatpants-clad, scruffy moms are thinking. Only more articulately. And funnier — much, much funnier. You don’t have to be a parent to enjoy People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Competitive Crafters, Drop-Off Despots, and Other Suburban Scourges, as it’s hilarious, but parents will laugh especially loudly.

Note: Jen and I have to part company on parents who do their children’s homework. Her son is only in second grade, and somehow has not yet been assigned Homework to See How Smart Your Parents Are. I’m frankly amazed that hasn’t happened yet to young Gomer.

My daughter was 7 and in the second grade when we got our first assignment to create a three-dimensional model of the State ‘o Maine. (We live in Kentucky — but, hey, why not be cosmopolitan?) We were supposed to make up a batter for this play-dough-like substance — I’m not making this up — and then shape it and bake it in a slow oven. Really, second-graders and ovens: What could possibly go wrong? Then we were to paint the state, its surrounding states (and Canada, in our case), include the capital (I was still OK with it thus far), all the major cities, the mountains, all of the rivers and lakes, and the major tourist attractions. Did I mention my daughter was 7? Or that she is a high-functioning autistic? Or that, at the time, her language development was such that she sounded like Bob the Minion?

At 1 a.m. the day it was due, we were still working on this project. I had already had to slice the Allegheny Mountains and relocated them where they actually belong. My daughter and I were both crying. I finally sent her to bed, and finished it myself. I even added a tiny moose with a flag of Maine clutched in its jaws. You won’t be surprised when I tell you that mine wasn’t the fanciest state there. Missouri was just awesome.

[Natalie Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-comprehensive list of people Natalie Monroe wants to punch in the throat:*

*Subject to increasing daily.

1. Those empty taxis that drive away when they see I'm in a wheelchair.



I sincerely hope someone pukes on your floor mats.

2. The college kid who bumped into an elderly waitress, nearly causing her to fall, and smirked. Humanity is full-on doomed if these people are our future.

3. The mom I saw in the subway who conceded to letting her kids go to the library for a mere half hour after they begged. I understand that the life of a working mom is very stressful, what with lost permission slips and misplaced budget reports, but you can't take a few hours out of your life to bring them to the library? Unless you're pitching for Team TV, then I have nothing to say to you.

4. People in business suits who flee from charity-collectors like they're the plague.

Lemme help you with your car there...


5. Those people who text and order food at the same time and hold up the line. Multitasking is the new thang, but if your brain can't handle it, stick to ordering your roast duck linguine.

6. Guys who use the word 'gay' as an insult.



7. Stairs. Okay, they're not a sentient being, but I still hate stairs. Slopes rule.

8. That one guy in class who fakes a British accent to sound posh and get girls. No, dude. It only make people want to punch you in the Adam's apple.

9. Everyone during rush hour.



No one is safe.

10. Myself for not reading this book sooner.

It's funny and perfect to read after a long day at work or school. There's some light slut-shaming and occasions when you can clearly see the other person's side, but on whole, it was great.

ARC provided by Netgalley

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pretty picky when it comes to humour novels. Comedy is so subjective that I don't even check reviews when picking out such books because it's just too difficult to rate. There are many popular humour books that I absolutely hate, luckily this was not one of them.

I often have a hard time with female comics(I know I know I'm betraying my gender) but seriously I just don't find most female comics funny. There seems to only be one available subject for these women and that is sex(usually going on and on about what a "big whore" they are...Amy Schumer I'm looking at you).

What I enjoy(and what this book delivers on),is the other less popular but still entertaining subject of "bad mom humour", and I must admit that I am a sucker for this.

This book was really funny and better than I thought it would be. It's not quite at the level of How Not to Calm a Child on a Plane: And Other Lessons in Parenting from a Highly Questionable Source but it's still a barrel of laughs. I would definitely recommend this, and you don't need to be a mother to enjoy this book.

I look forward to checking out this authors other works. Overall I would rate this as a buy.


Note: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Pst: This book contains lots of swears.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley.

Do you need a fresh take on the kinds of topics a humor/mommyblogger would write about that could lead to a cover mock-up featuring a ruined cupcake? Then this book is for you. It's a tumped up little cupcake of a blog aggregate, probably much better suited to a twenty-minute musing over a cup of coffee than a whole bound book of same. Because same.

Same same same. Same old blogger style. Same old mommy quibbles (y'all, really. They're not even wars. It's just ladies bickering.) Same strategic use of the word "fuck" to establish both "authenticity" (whatever that means this week) and street cred in the wooly world of women who have blogs that feature artfully composed pictures of food that will be cold before anybody gets to eat it, cherubic younguns, and/or Lichtenstein inspired logos.

Sorry. I'm just so tired of it. I'm glad for Jen Mann that she parlayed her blog into a book that a lot of people will probably enjoy. But I don't want to kid anybody about what the book is about: one mom's experience in not fitting in with people she is contemptuous of anyway. Her fish out of water tale would carry a lot more water if she didn't seem like the world's most awkward, well-meaning hypocrite about the crafts, the drop-offs, the rest of it. In fact, I think it's pretty ironic that the apparent target audience of the book is the women getting bitched at and punched.

Blogs and bloggers are great. I read a wide variety (both topic and voice) every day. Yet every time I've read a book by a blogger I otherwise enjoy, I find the book tedious and cease enjoying the blog. There's something worth contemplating here, something about medium and message and how they do and do not work together. I'll get around to it just as soon as I start caring about what other women think of what other women think of them.

[Lyn *GLITTER VIKING* · Rating 1 out of 5]

"people who treat their pets like children"

I am so over this backlash of people all up in arms about people and their pets. My cats are my children. I plan my life around them.

Mann can go and fuck off. Congrats, you are the first name on my list of People I Want to Punch in the Throat.

[La-Lionne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An everyday life stories, yet so funny. Made my weekend.
It reminded me a lot of Petra's review with stories from her bookshop (you should totally write a book about it, it would be a hit).

I always though that one day I would like to leave the big city and move some place quiet.. After reading this book, I'm not sure. Suburban people could be such assholes. Or maybe all of us are assholes, but living in a city, we don't let people close enough to get to know us so they can see the assholness inside of us :).

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are we just accepting that a person who runs a successful blog is claiming to be a "technological idiot who can barely log in to check her email"? Also, the wildly unlikeable 'Hubs' (vomit) feels like the person most deserving of punches to the throat.

[Linda (Miss Greedybooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was awarded this book by NetGalley - Thank you!

The title is one of the best, ever!

This book by Jen Mann was funny, I laughed, chuckled, snickered & snorted through it.

I am surprised a little, she writes about suburban housewife, mother of small children issues that I have no basis of comparison for. So, I credit her even more for making me laugh at her daily problems & solutions.

I was caught right from the short list at the beginning. Then, how she met her husband was so good, I was involved. The marriage and housekeeping problems kept me turning pages, once the baby and school issues began I already liked her way of dealing with things so although I did not identify really, I could understand.

The part I did not like was the strange names EVERYONE has... Ebenezer, Gomer, Adolpha, are just the names of her husband & children - the other housewives & their children ALL have such goofy names - yes, I know the names have been changed to protect the innocent, but really they were too outrageous and ridiculous for me. That being a very little part, the book was fun to read and follow the relationships between Jen and family or other mothers that the children go to school with.

Jen has a good way to phrase things so they are amusing while you can still feel her pain.

I recommend this book for all who could use a good laugh, and can't we ALL use a good laugh these days?

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jen Mann can go ahead and put me on her list of people she wants to punch in the throat. I found her book to be trite, unfunny, and downright mean. If your idea of no-filter humor is a grown man looking into a child's eyes and calling him a liar, or criticizing mothers who put their kids in summer camp as women who just want to get four hours of freedom a day, then by all means, join the party!

[Debbie "DJ" · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. The author is hilarious. Everyday life for mom's makes me glad I have dogs for children. This is just one of those books that is seriously laugh out loud funny. I even found myself rushing in to read excerpts to my partner. We all need a good laugh, and this one requires tissues for tears of laughter. Highly recommended! Thank you NetGalley for another great read.

[Maxine (Booklover Catlady) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A terrifically funny and honest book/memoir that is a good pick me up for you or anyone else you deem needs a jolly good smile slapped on their ugly mug or if you have one of those friends who NEVER snorts when laughing, because they are so laaadylike, get them to read this (in front of you). Snorts galore!

A collection of hilarious and easy to relate to essays from Jen Mann. This book focuses on the perilous and often nightmarish journey and things that a wife and a mother has to partake in (and put up with). Done with humour, honest and wit, Jen shares with us moments of her life from meeting up with her now husband on their first ever date to the perils of garage sales and garage sale bitches.

Each chapter has a creative heading such as "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Sweet-Ass Ride" and goes a little like this.

If I had a minivan, I wouldn't stop with just the automatic doors. I couldn't possibly stop there. My dream is to drive a badass minivan, not just an ordinary minivan, so I'd also need the DVD player with the wireless headphones (please God, with headphones, because I can't listen to Phineas and Ferb when I'm driving - I'll drive off a cliff).

I could relate to so many things in this book, of course a lot of it in Jen's head and what she shows to the other mothers at playgroup and parties is the other version of herself, the polite one. There are adventures like arriving to pick up her son from school in pajamas dun, dun, duuuuun! Yes indeed, but not only arriving in pajamas but because of unforseen circumstances having to get out of the car in front of all the other mothers in them. To make it worse they are fleecy jammies, with matchy-matchy top and bottom and pink with black bunnies. Snort!

With her down to earth personality and sense of humour (even laughing at herself) Jen expresses some real truths about marriage and motherhood, this is not a self-help book at all, it's more a "oh God I DO THAT TOO!" type of book which will encourage snorting, giggling and much delight.

My favourite bit? The garage sale chapter, totally related, been there done that, garage sale queen here baby, I can make a garage sale look like the best department store in town, it's a serious business, let's see what Jen has to say about it (tee hee).

Besides shopping at garage sales, I love hosting garage sales. Every year my mom and I dig through our houses and find a bunch of crap (I mean really terrific stuff) to sell so that we can earn some money so we can go back out and buy some more crap (I mean really terrific stuff) that we'll use for a bit and then turn around and garage-sale in a couple of years. It's the circle of life suburban style.

Sing with me! The circle of liiiiiiiife.....go on, you were singing it right? I heard you.

Lots of fun, light and breezy, if you don't like the F word, don't read it, there is a fair bit of thinking in sentences that include the F word whilst smiling at the enemy (sorry I mean the other mom in the playgroup). 3.5 stars from me.

I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, many thanks!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC for review.

A couple of disclaimers. I was not aware of Jen's blog so I didn't have any preconceived notions about her at all. In addition, this is another one of those reviews where I feel the need to note that I have no children. A good 80% of the content here was kid-related, so I'm probably not the target audience of moms who need to vent to other moms who will understand.

So. The Hubs. She calls her husband "The Hubs" in her blogs. This grated on me. I have no idea why. He also came across as a huge asshole (she says his bluntness is the reason they can't be friends with their neighbors and after reading the exchange between The Hubs and the neighbors whose dog had expensive surgery and calling a toddler a liar I wouldn't want to hang with him either).

The whole thing was a bit weird in that way. Neither Jen nor The Hubs seems to like people very much....maybe that's why she's a successful blogger in that you can interact, but not really.


Overall, Jen Mann is no Allie Brosch or Jenny Lawson, but she was OK.

[Sabrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll be honest - I didn't finish this. When I got to the part about her and her husband falling out with their neighbors because he suggested to them that the money they spent on their dog's leg surgery would have been better spent on a kitchen remodel (because really, who values living beings over material objects? what losers), I decided Jen Mann was added to my list of people I'd like to punch in the throat and I was pretty much done.* I just couldn't get into it after that (not that I was really enjoying it prior).

*Don't worry, I'm a pretty non-violent person and have no intentions of actually punching anyone.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Humorous take on all things suburban. I wasn't familiar with the blog of the same name, so I had no bias going in. Funny and snarky, the writing was well-done, and the chapters/topics were just the right length. I can definitely see further volumes coming in the future from Jen Mann.

Recommended for those that can laugh at themselves and their neighbors, and the shenanigans that go on in everyone's house.

[Cher 'N Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - It was great. I loved it.

Wonderful! I laughed out loud and blew through it in one sitting -- what more could you ask for? The whole book was funny, but if you only have time for one chapter, pick the one on garage sales. Trust me. Recommended for anyone that enjoys snark, witty sarcasm, or has an appreciation for the fine art of passive aggressiveness.

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Favorite Quote: I always say “excuse me” even though I heard perfectly well what the person said. I feel that by saying “excuse me,” I’m giving them a chance to realize they’re being an asshole, and they can change their attitude for the second attempt.

First Sentence: Believe it or not, I’m happily married to a guy who doesn’t mind the fact that I’ve never set foot in a CrossFit class and that I own “good” Crocs and “bad” Crocs.

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

So.... Let's be honest here... Jen Mann has based this whole book on "Mommy Mean Girls" or MMG.



The book definitely had some really funny parts, some 'eh' that was kinda funny, and often some disturbing moments from Mommy Mean Girls. The MMG not only turn on one another to compete, but they often use their kids as robots to push harder and be better than everyone else.

As much as Mann hates on all these women - I feel like she secretly loves them all... I mean, where would she get all this lovely material for her blog and this book?!



... I think there should have been a little shout out to the MMG in the acknowledgements.

___

As for people I want to punch in the throat (other than MMG) - People who use/extremely overuse the phrase "the Hubs" when referring to their husband, partner, spouse, significant other ... *ahem* {Ms Mann}

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

People I want to punch in the throat. By jen mann.
I really liked this book. Jen wrote a collection of short essays.... stories? Short writings... where she tells the reader the times where she wanted to punch people in her life.
This book hit a funny spot in home where you just deal with people each day that makes you want to punch them in the throat.
Raiting: 4 star 🌟

[Yodamom · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I loved parts, liked others and felt a little "meh" here and there. Hey, it was all written in jest some hit the mark with me some went a little off center.
The beginning of the book had me giggling loud enough to wake my poor dog. Her job and coworkers, the party ! The story of her and her husbands relationship was delicious humor. He is a very original man with absolutely no filter on his mouth. He stole the spotlight from her several times, bordering on rude but not tipping over that line. Oh, never fear she calls him on it, and *WAM* you can't help but laugh at it. These two share a snark-fest love bucket of a life. Their most important relationship, the cleaning lady, and when something happens to her, things get serious !
There is a lot of the mommy wars that goes on in play groups, social groups, school... and it is ruthless. Welcome to mommy wrestle mania. She stumbles through rejections from some very odd motherly creatures, bulling, cliquish groupings, and gasp dance lesson sign ups ! Then there are the sweet little children, awww, not, we have racism, biracial children, bitting, children of worth, the manipulations. The parents, LOL, you have to meet some of these parents.
I was a bit lost in the section with the little kids and their issues with school. I think I am just too far down the road from that age that I don't have a funny bone in that time zone.
It was a fun read, light, snarky and filled with everyday average outlandish moments. I think this would be a fantastic book for young mothers.

[Deanna Machi · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are very few books I hate. This is one of them. It’s just a privileged suburban mom complaining about other privileged suburban moms. The nature of memoir is inherently self-absorbed, however this lacks the self-reflection and insight that make reading about other people’s lives a worthwhile pursuit. The lack of self-reflection and insight would have been made up for with humor which is presumably the genre of the book, but the humor falls flat and barely drew a chuckle. The author’s attempts at self-deprecation, don’t leave you laughing with or at her, but cringeing over how critical she is of those she deems to be jerks while missing how she herself is a jerk.

[Sonja Rutherford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like some good snarky mom stories like everyone else - but this is just so over the top, trying too hard, you're the one that's actually the bitch, snarky mom stories. I also really dislike people who think others are going to be impressed by how stupid you think everyone ELSE is (shout out to people who post daily about their stupid co-workers, inside scoop: you're just making yourself look like the asshole). Anyway, at least it's short and I finished it quickly so that I could move on to something else.

[Rissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilariously funny!
The people she has encountered are the types of people you joke about thinking they don't exist. I loved it and am also really greatful that so far I haven't ran into to many crazys. (Even the chapter heads made me laugh) made me think of all the people I want to punch... not necessarily in the throat but people I want to punch in general.