Take it Like a Mom: A Novel

by Stephanie Stiles

Overview

One thing sets her apart from other modern-day superhero's: mom genes.

Annie Fingardt Forster used to be a lawyer who wore dry-clean only and shaved both legs. But things have changed. Now a stay-at-home mom, she wears cargo pants and ponytails and harbors a nearly pathological hatred towards hipster parents.

With a three-year-old and a baby on the way, Annie knows what to expect...at least, she thought she did. Faced with her husband's job loss, pre-school politics, and a playground throwdown with her arch nemesis, Annie realizes that even with her husband and friends by her side, what she really needs is to learn to suck it up-and take it like a mom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451232540
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/05/2011
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephanie Stiles is a professor of English at Dominican College in New York, where she chairs the department and directs the Creative Writing Program. Her prize-winning poetry, as well as her fiction and nonfiction, have appeared in various contemporary anthologies and journals. She received her doctorate in nineteenth-century British literature from New York University.

Editorial Reviews

Stiles captures the petty and hilarious dramas that overlay stressed-out suburban lives in her debut, an ode to stay-at-home momdom. Lawyer Annie has already put her practice on ice to raise her first-born when she gets pregnant again just as hubby Alex loses his job with his law firm and their son starts preschool. The out-of-work spouse is as grumpy about his change of employment status as he is ecstatic about his expanding family, and their marriage—built on an insanely vast shared knowledge of TV sitcoms—proves both invincible and the source for some sharp, slapsticky dialogue. Fortunately, Annie also wields her razor-sharp wit against her enemies—nauseatingly perfect parents and their bizarre children, largely—and friends alike. Energized by a dubious dog-leash law victory and her husband's determination to find a law practice he actually likes, Annie—brassy, manic, antic—handily crushes her enemies, cements the love of her family, helps out a friend in need, all before bringing baby number two into the world. Stiles's message is to suck it up and get on with life, but what sticks are the laughs. (July)

Publishers Weekly