Another book I picked up based on the cover! I love books written in diary, email, blog, letter format. This one was written in blog entries over the course of a year. The blogger is a 50 something traditional English mum & wife. She is so clueless about the lives of her children & husband. So many times I laughed out loud! I love how she always turned to a cup of tea to cope when life threw her curve balls! I read this book quickly & found it hard to put down. I loved the English background, settings & characters. I also loved how the main character changed into a stronger wiser female. I was happy that things worked out for the whole family in the end. Life isn't perfect or always the way we want it to be but there is joy & contentment in making the best with what you have & are given. That sums up this wonderful book! ( )

I received this as an advance copy and it is now available. Very funny novel that reminds me of a Sophie Kinsella crossed with Major Pettigrew Takes a Stand. Constance is a middle aged British woman who lives a good life but needs to meddle in everyone's life. This means she misses much of what is really going on - her housekeeper dries her underwear on Constance's husband's heater and Constance thinks it is a cultural difference. Her son will do anything to get out of being fixed up with women and has excellent fashion sense and has a lot of male friends. Her teenage daughter is a nutcase who runs away and joins a reality show. Constance is also blind to the attention that is being paid to her by a fellow lovesick bell ringer. We view her life and it's troubles after she signs up for facebook and begins a blog. What results is a funny midlife crisis and knowing when and when you can't fix everyone's troubles until you deal with your own. ( )

Being a sucker for anything BritLit, I enjoyed this book. Constance Harding decides to start writing a blog on the “new” laptop her husband gave her for the holidays. Right off the bat the reader realizes that poor Constance is pretty much clueless about her life and family. An example; the computer has an inventory sticker on it from her husband’s law firm and she attributes that to his affixing it on the laptop in a show of “corporate loyalty”.
It soon becomes obvious that Constance’s life is not the wonderful world she blog’s about. Her son is a confirmed bachelor who remains as incommunicado as he possibly can. Her husband Jeffrey seems to always be in a funny mood. Her sullen and slovenly maid, Natalia, leaves her underwear to dry in Jeffrey’s office. Last but not least, her daughter Sophie is a total brat who is going off the France, supposedly to study some sort of environmental issues. Constance writes about all of their quirks at full face value.
I really loved reading the little vignettes of Constance’s life and her observations on the lives of her neighbors. I kept picturing Hyacinth Bucket as I read all of the little nuances of situations that Constance had no idea were in front of her and wrote about in her blog. I could just see readers of the blog saying Oh My God! What was she thinking!
The interesting thing is that Constance ends up fooling us all in the end. There is more to her than meets the eye and Ms. Radford did a good job of lulling us into thinking the Constance was a one dimensional character and then Bang! Not so much.
There were some parts that were a little draggy but overall this is a fun first book by this author. ( )

The format of this book is in blogs, which I have to say I liked. Hard to believe someone could be as naive as this woman, but I think that really adds to the ironic comedy that occasionally ensues. She manages to miss all the signs, that things are not well in her family, but when she does gradually come to the realization I love how she responds. Somewhat unbelievable but entertaining nonetheless, this was a fun and easy read. ( )

I really enjoyed this story of family life, narrated by Constance in her blog. Her naivety is at the heart of the story as her family are growing and moving on. There are several plot twists that are obvious but not to Constance and some of her introduction to a new technological world including Facebook are hilarious. Then the crunch comes and it is strange but somehow works.
For me this was the story of what happens to a family as children grow up and move on, what roles there are in the family and how they change. What children can teach their parents, practically and emotionally but ultimately how we need each other however flawed we are.
This was similar for me in theme and tone to Dawn French 'Tiny Bit Marvellous' ( )