I love Jen Lancaster's books. By the time I finished this, I rearranged my bookshelves, finally got around to listing that stack of stuff on eBay, threw out a bunch of junk from my makeup drawer, and came up with at least three resolutions of how I can improve my quality of living and increase my crafty factor. The idea of following Martha Stewart is a little intimidating, but following Jen Lancaster following Martha is something I can do! ( )

3.5 stars

In this memoir of Jen’s, she looks back at 2012, when she made an effort to emulate her idol, Martha Stewart. She wanted to get organized around her house and throw great parties…

The memoir included more than Martha Stewart… it included other happenings that year, such as the loss of her beloved dog Maisie. That was the toughest part of the book, in my opinion, but it certainly hit my heart. The other memorable part, for me was her mammograms. Other bits of it were off and on funny. I’m not a Martha Stewart fan, personally, so that wasn’t a draw for me at all. I listened to the audio, narrated by Jen herself, and she did fine with the narration. ( )

Jen Lancaster's newest memoir, "The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING; Or, Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog is laugh out loud funny and touching in parts.

Though I loved, "Bitter is the New Black", "Bright Lights" and "Such a Pretty Fat" I was less enamored with "Pretty in Plaid" and "My Fair Lazy" and felt downright hostile after reading, Lancaster's last memoir, "Jeneration X."

I felt as if the person that I loved to read about all these years was just some cool person I made up in my own head. I remember not believing that the Jen Lancaster that wrote, "Bitter is the New Black" was the same person who seemed to half-heartily write "Jeneration X."

So with some trepidation I selected this novel and I devoured this novel in hours. The Jen Lancaster that many of us have loved all of these years is definitely back.

Lancaster lets her readers know right away that she has had some set-backs in her life that had left her unhappy which I think may have colored her writing in Jeneration X. Right away she realizes that she needs to stop and re-assess what makes her happy and decides to start following Martha Stewart Living as she tries to get organized and settled into her new home. As someone who also bought a new house I have to say I felt for her on the things that she was dealing with regarding her party planning, gardening, and attempts to be organized.

I think Lancaster definitely hits on the fact that many women today do want to be like Martha Stewart in their day to day lives and would love to be able to take some twigs and turn it into a three story centerpiece. However, most of us do not have that skill, and her describing her attempts to be more like Martha often resulted in laugh out loud moments. My favorite section of this memoir was the Easter portion I actually started to cry I was laughing that hard.

I do want to know readers know that the footnotes are gone now so any Kindle people will not have to deal with the hassle of going back and forth in the book. One welcome addition is that this novel includes pictures of Jen, her husband, the dogs, and her friends in various points in the novel.

Picking up "The Tao of Martha" was like hanging with a long-time friend and catching up with each other over margaritas.

I definitely recommend to long-time fans of Jen Lancaster!

I received this novel for free via the Amazon Vine Program. ( )

Jen Lancaster is hilarious and I loved this book. I have acquired 2 more of her books and can't wait to read them. Plus she's a pit bull lover!! ( )

She's funny, loves pit bulls and is a Republican but she makes me laugh so i tolerate that. ( )