1 of 1 copy available
When Mele Bart told her boyfriend Bobby she was pregnant with his child, he stunned her with an announcement of his own: he was engaged to someone else.
Fast forward two years, Mele's daughter Ellie is a toddler, and Bobby and his fiancée want Ellie to be the flower girl at their wedding. Mele, who also has agreed to attend the nuptials, knows she can't continue obsessing about Bobby and his cheese making, Napa-residing, fiancée. She needs something to do. So she answers a questionnaire provided by the San Francisco Mommy Club in elaborate and shocking detail and decides to enter their cookbook writing contest. Even though she joined the group out of desperation, Mele has found her people: Annie, Barrett, Georgia, and Henry (a stay-at-home dad). As the wedding date approaches, Mele uses her friends' stories to inspire recipes and find comfort, both.
The "delicious" (The Seattle Times) How to Party with an Infant is a hilarious and poignant novel from Kaui Hart Hemmings, who has an uncanny ability to make disastrous romances and tragic circumstances not only relatable and funny, but unforgettable. "[Hemmings] perfectly captures modern parenthood among the privileged and, with moments of concise poignancy, the silent shames of motherhood...The pleasure of Hemmings's levity and wisdom more than sustain the reader. We cheer for her warm, self-deprecating characters and hope they continue to laugh together instead of crying alone" (The New York Times Book Review).
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 9, 2016 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781508217800
- File size: 208491 KB
- Duration: 07:14:21
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 27, 2016
In her funny and sensitive fourth novel, Hemmings (The Descendants) explores the intersection of personhood and parenthood. Mele Bart is a single mother in San Francisco navigating the world of potty-training specialists, elite preschools, playdate etiquette, and nanny envy. To top it all off, she is contemplating attending the wedding of the father of her child, the man who left her when she told him she was pregnant. After multiple failed attempts at seeming like another perfect privileged mother, Mele finds refuge among the other misfit parents in her daughter’s playgroup—Annie, Barrett, Georgia, and Henry. With their encouragement, she decides to revisit her dream of becoming an author and enters a cookbook-writing contest sponsored by the San Francisco Mother’s Club. Interspersing recipes inspired by her own life with recipes inspired by the other parents in her group, all of whom are dealing with feelings of inadequacy, Mele devises a cookbook that is equal parts introspection and sharp observation. Mele’s candor, her friends’ stories, and some hilariously cringe-worthy interjections from the Mother’s Club online message board come together in a layered narrative that is both ruthless and empathetic, satirical and sincere. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management. -
Joy Osmanski gives a graceful and attentive performance of this charming and often hilarious addition to the Mommy-Lit shelf. The title refers to a possible title for a possible cookbook the heroine hopes to write. Mele is a San Francisco single mother whose faithless baby daddy is getting married to someone else, and wants their daughter to be the flower girl at his wedding. Her mommy support group includes Henry, a rich and handsome married father and husband whose life is unraveling; see if you can guess where that's going. Osmanski handles drama and comedy with equal deftness, and there's plenty of both here, as Mele's friends tell her their stories so she can weave them into her cookbook proposal. It's wonderful fun. B.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine -
November 1, 2016
Mele, single mother of Ellie, joined the San Francisco Mother's Club (SFMC) to be matched with the perfect playgroup, something that never happened. Two years later, she's part of a rogue, "laughing, shit-talking, texting, even talking on the phone" fivesome that came together organically at the playground they all frequent. They've recently decided to go "official" with SFMC for the benefits, one of which, for Mele, means entering the SFMC Cookbook Competition. Completing the intimately detailed questionnaire yields wild and zany answers that reveal how Mele improvises (including the truth), seeks (even steals), and obsesses (over Ellie's father's desertion and his impending wedding). Interspersed with Mele's self-examination are entertaining glimpses of her eclectic playgroup; between trying too hard to impress and managing fraying familial bonds, Mele's four BFFs provide just the right recipe for companionship, support, and raucous good times. Hemmings (The Descendants) mixes the best and worst moments of parenthood with plenty of snark and delight. With her buoyant, charming voice, Joy Osmanski proves ideal for eliciting eye-rolling sympathy and head-nodding empathy. VERDICT Audiences in search of a chuckle-inducing, bitingly smart read will surely enjoy listening in. ["Effectively captures the judgmental, overly prescribed nature of today's parenting assumptions": LJ 8/16 review of the S. & S. hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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