I funny meditation on parenting. Mele was an enjoyable character to follow but I did find this one a bit boring in the end.

When she told him she was pregnant, he told her he was with someone else.
While having very little to do with her or the child, he comes back into life, requesting the child be in his wedding.

Mele Bart has been on her own for a long time. She's done everything to make sure her choices didn't punish her daughter. She joins a cookbook writing contest inadvertently and she ended up finding the people that are her home.

This book could have taken a tragic turn, but Kaui Hart Hemmings makes the heroine of this story strong and the story something that will resonate with readers.

This book was fun, light and refreshing. Kaui Hart Hemmings has a unique writers'voice. I will seek out more of her novels.

I wanted to like this book more. I loved the title and the premise and was ready for a fun read. I felt bored and anxious to finish this move to get on to my next book.

Lots of witty one-liners, great come-backs, and outlandishly hilarious answers to the Mommy Club questionnaire. Also, liked the food angle, with turning her friends crazy stories into recipes. Cute, quick read.

General

How to Party with an Infant by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Pages: 240 (Hardcover)

Published: by Simon & Schuster August 9th, 2016

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Parenting



Links: Goodreads/Amazon

Overall Rating: 3/5

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley, but that does not have a sway in my reviews. I am a human being with thoughts of her own, and I am not obligated to automatically give this book five stars.



The Review

"Don't judge me," Annie says, but Mele says something that makes her feel better. "Why not?" Mele says. "It's what moms do. And it's okay."
When I began my journey with this book, I wondered, 'What is this story about?' Is it about Mele and her daughter? Is it about Mele and the cookbook she's making? Is it about relationships and Mele's growth as a mother? All of these scenarios somehow make it into the book, but the point that stood out was the idea that there are several methodologies in parenting; it seems regardless, parents will judge other parents if they don't follow the same methods in child rearing.

The story, while entertaining, overused the 'me versus them' narrative. Mele, the single, unemployed, mother who is receiving help from her parents back in Hawaii uses her cookbook/blog platform and her San Francisco Mommy Club as a means to observe and criticize the upper-class citizens living in the Bay Side Area. This is all Mele contributes. She plays a victim in her story. Mele doesn't mind handing out criticism, but she doesn't favor receiving it.

It is disappointing to read a text that is flat but humorous. Hemmings is a witty author and the words she writes on the page are brilliant, but what didn't work was the lack of characterization in her leading characters. Though they were intellectual and their banter was hilarious, these characters such as Mele and Annie stayed static. Ending this review, I have to ask, should main characters be dynamic in the sense that they experience change?

I thought this book would be. A sort of survival guide for moms with toddlers. It was so much more. You do t have it have a toddler to read this at all! It is smart and hilarious. Amazing!!!!

Cute and funny book about a bit of an oddball parent's group in San Francisco. I liked the main character and the framing device of her submission to a cookbook contest, but found the random chapters about other people in the playgroup didn't really fully connect (and also didn't understand why all the characters other than the main character seemed to have a teenager as well as a toddler). I also fund the mommy wars/mean moms satire stuff to be a bit over the top. 3.5 stars.