Happy Housewives by Darla Shine has such an inviting title and charming retro-look cover that I was rooting to love the book. I did enjoy it, but it is so filled with crudity and vulgarity that it isn't even safe to leave lying around the house where a child might pick it up. Which is a shame, since the author's heart is in the right place. This is a cheerleading manual for being a housewife--encouraging women to take pride in the way they run their homes, in their cooking and housekeeping, in their appearance. All noble ends. It's just too bad the author doesn't have a more refined way of expressing herself.
In addition, her constant references to the t.v. show Desperate Housewives is going to date the book *a lot*. I doubt that D.H. is more than a flash in the pop culture pan. One would hope that a book written to encourage and inspire stay-at-home moms would have a longer shelf-life than than.
Overall: worth a library borrow, not a purchase, and keep it out of reach of children.
I recently read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel like Happy Housewives (Darla Shine) has given me somewhat of a new "lease" if you will on being at home.
ReplyDeleteI know for me personally, I have felt extreme frustration over being a SAHM. And, yes, I have used and thought the words that she uses to express her feelings in the book. I don't believe crude and vulgar are correct words to use for the language. I think she demonstrates very well her feelings about the way SAHM's feel about themselves and how other people's perspective is so wrong about SAHM's. This book really made me feel so much better about being home with my family, and it also has some valuable tips on organization, cleaning, scheduling, your relationship with your husband, etc. I don't typically make it a practice to keep my personal library accessible to my children simply because my books aren't interesting to them.