Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity

Witty and Compassionate! I found this novel to be quite insigh

Witty and Compassionate!

I found this novel to be quite insightful. It depicts characters that are pretty much your next door neighbor. While Lydia is a bit "mom obsessed" we readers can see this as a good thing because she orients her life around her kids and their schooling. Readers can also understand what it is to be part of the in crowed one minute, and out the next while providing us enough information about what thats like also for the people around us. I really enjoyed this novel. There is a subtle yet, shard sense of humor going on. B+

Excellent book - very different from what I expected

I loved this book even though I DON'T come from a privileged background, never attended a private school, and don't even HAVE kids. The characters in this book were just so much more relatable than I normally find in light fiction. There were laugh out loud moments, and scenes that tugged at my heartstrings, but my favorite scene in the whole book is when one character goes the extra mile to do something special for a spouse while the marriage is going through a rough patch....it just doesn't go at all the way I expected (I had already predicted an either the This Selfless Act Saved Our Marriage or This Relationship Can't Be Saved and I Wish You Hadn't Bothered outcome). It just read so much like a real marriage scene that I could picture telling a girlfriend this same story about us ("You won't believe what happened this weekend....!") and seeing her sympathetic headnod. It was a great to read a book that pretty much had a happy ending but didn't feel compelled to wrap everything up with a big red bow. A refreshing read!

Excellent!

I really enjoyed this book. If you have girls, this a must read.

Wonderfully entertaining

This book was interesting to read about the inside story of a group of mothers at a private school outside of DC and the realization that one is the mother of an alpha girl. Lydia is the mother of that alpha girl, Erin who is going into 6th grade and has formed a clique, angering some of the other mothers whose daughters feel slighted they are not involved in the attention. But the dynamics change when a new girl,Faith, transfers in and gets pushed into the circle. Faith's mother is from a family that has given a significant amount of money in the past to the school. But Faith quickly becomes the alpha and pushes Erin out of the circle. The story there sounds like one I have read so many times in the past, but this book deals with the story from the parents side. I like how Lydia is completely clueless that her daughter is an alpha, but quickly learns that not everything about raising a teenager is covered in the books she read.
I love the dynamics of Lydia and her friends. They are so close knit that they treat each others kids as their own. So it seems to hurt more when the girls start excluding Erin more and more and threatens to split the mothers as well. Also the story line of Lydia's husband having to work out of state for a number of months is interesting as well. The satisfying thing is that there is no talk of divorce and they make everything work out okay.
I also like how the group deals with a terrible lie that Faith tells in order to get attention back to her, but her plan backfires. The way the circle of friends helps get to the bottom of the accusation Faith makes is very genuine and shows just how deeply they are all friends no matter what.
This is a great book, and I think even older young adults might like it. Its a good way to see what consequences our actions as teenagers have on people.

Better Than I Thought it Would Be

An interesting look at the queen bee phenomenon from the view point of a parent who's daughter is sucked into that nasty middle school girl drama. Aside from an interesting story I found quite a few pearls of wisdom, especially if you're a mother of an adolescent girl.

What the other reviews seemed to miss

Reading this, I was prepared to dismiss it as another "battle of the school moms" book, but near the end, it began to turn into something else, something the other reviewers missed, but which I found to be important: what if something that has benefited your family for generations turns out not to be good for your child? Ultimately, that becomes Lydia's dilemma with the school. The other girl isn't really the problem, she's the symptom; the fact is that the school itself may not be the best fit for Erin, and Lydia has to choose between the school that has become part of her identity and the needs of her daughter.

A different perspective!

I so loved this book and actually identified with it in many ways. While yes, the families are privileged and my family is not still I, as a mom, could relate as we experienced a similar kind of tight-knit school 'family' in a public school setting. Very unusual but very much a quality asset to our lives we would not have changed for anything! When you live in that trusted 'village' that it takes to raise a child, it is a great place to be! We have sinced moved from that place and our last child has a village too but not truly the incredible experience her siblings did. It was not the struggles of the group I enjoyed but the description of the little things in their lives, how they worked together to raise their children, constructing the quilt of deep friendship.

loved it!

i loved this book so much! i didn't know what to expect when i started reading it, but i was captivated from page one! i couldn't put it down!

Pretty Good

This book was interesting, but I had some trouble empathisizing with the main characters, all of whom lead very privileged lives. I found it difficult to care about the 'problems' at this elite private school and hearing about this uber-PTA mom.

Excellent weekend read!!!

I picked this up in impulse, but it was exceptional. The characters remind me of my friends and her conflicts remind me of my life. There were also moments when I laughed out loud for so long that my husband asked what I was laughing at. I definately recommend this book to anyone looking for a nice escape from reality.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.