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Loading... The Mannyby Holly Peterson
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. surprisingly good. I can't believe I am saying this, but I think I actually like chic books sometimes... (  ) mfoltz80 | Jul 28, 2009 |  I did not enjoy this book at all. The characters were hardly executed thoughtfully and the plot was boringly predictable. Would not recommend. (  ) leb62 | Jul 9, 2009 | meags222 | May 18, 2009 | The Manny by Holly Peterson is the story of Jamie Whitfield, a working mother who is trying to navigate life through high society in New York City, while balancing a needy husband, 3 kids and a demanding job in the television industry. Jamie's husband, Phillip, works long hours and rarely spends time with their children, who are beginning to suffer for make attention, especially Dylan, Jamie's oldest son. Enter Peter, a male nanny, who is able to give the children a male role model and the father figure they crave. Jamie finds herself unhappy in her marriage and soon looks to Peter to fulfill her own needs as well. This book was a really easy, enjoyable read. I identified with Jamie's feelings as a mother and found myself pulling for her. The story was quick and all of the characters were believable. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read chick lit or mommy lit and is looking for a fun read. 4 stars. (  ) picklechic | Sep 21, 2008 | It was only a matter of time. Once The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin came out, and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding became popular, chick lit was in full swing. It was only natural that The Manny by Holly Peterson would be written. For those who enjoyed the shoes in Beth Harbison’s Shoe Addicts Anonymous, or designer clothes in Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, one might enjoy this VERY light beach read. Although it is a somewhat weaker copycat, it might bring a smile or two to moms who find the summer months their biggest dread as schools close!Jamie Whitfield is a part-time working mother of three children ranging from two to nine years old. Her job as a busy news producer as well as being part, with a successful attorney husband who is absent a great deal and let’s just say, not a “hands-on helper”, has Jamie at the end of her rope. Jamie, who is a transplanted Midwesterner, finds the adjustment to the New York scene a constant battle. With her eldest, nine-year-old Dylan, showing more and more signs of withdrawal to the point of being motionless at times, Jamie thinks a male role model would do him some good. Husband Phillip, concerned with supporting his family in the style he thinks they need and are accustomed to where his income of more than a million dollars annually just gets them by, CERTAINLY can’t give up his time to sit with Dylan and see what makes him tick. As a workaholic himself, Phillip can’t imagine someone, especially his own son, having problems that would result in anything not productive. Phillip does give us a glimpse of the man Jamie fell in love with and who deep down loves his children every once in a while, but the times are too few and far between. It is at this point, as things with Dylan get worse, that Jamie decides that a male role model, rather than a nanny, would be the answer. So she seeks out a “manny”. Being in this class of privileged people where buying something can surely solve anyone’s problems, Jamie is optimistic that finding the right manny will solve her problems. And so, we meet Peter Bailey. He is 29 years old and looking for funding for his software business. Peter seems to like children and is kind and very intelligent. It also doesn’t hurt that he is very good looking! The fact that Peter is attentive to Jamie as we, are all things in Peter’s favor. So, Jamie hires Peter and the “nanny of the male persuasion” starts his job! One doesn’t have to be a genius to anticipate that Jamie and Peter will become attracted to each other. That along with subplots concerning Jamie’s hot news report she is wor, and the way the rich are living their superficial lives, moves the story line along as would be expected. Some complications can only help add to the rather predictable plot. The story of course is fictional and rather cliché as it talks about how people in these situations can get into trouble when letting th, but also her unfulfilling marriage? Will we find that Jamie can find happiness with a real man whether he has money or not? That is something you do have to read to find out about! K.Haney© 2008 for Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com (  ) Kanellio | Jul 9, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0385340400, Hardcover)Guest Reviewer: Plum Sykes Plum Sykes burst onto bookshelves in 2004 with her internationally-acclaimed bestseller Bergdorf Blondes, a novel in which she spotlighted the lives of New York’s Park Avenue Princesses. Born in London and educated at Oxford, Sykes is a contributing editor at Vogue, where she writes on fashion, society, and Hollywood. She has also written for Vanity Fair magazine. Her latest novel is The Debutante Divorcee.  "If you want to see rich people act really rich, go to St. Henry’s School for Boys at 3p.m. on any weekday." Or you could just read Holly Peterson’s debut novel, The Manny. The first line of this rather delicious story sets us up for what is to come: a satire of money, marriage, men and mannys. ("The Manny" of the title is actually a male nanny, just another parenting trend for Manhattan’s uber-rich.) Peterson’s heroine is Jamie Whitfield, a middle class girl from middle America who, supposedly, married well. She works as a news producer and it is through her that we get an inside peek at Manhattan’s silly rich. In Peterson’s well-drawn world, Whitfield and her hotshot lawyer husband, Philip, inhabit a specific area of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, dubbed ‘The Grid’. Although Jamie fell hard for Philip when they were in their twenties, little did she realize she was marrying a man who thinks making a million or so a year means he is poverty-stricken, whose personal vanity knows know bounds and whose preferred reading material is books with titles like How To Raise Children in an Affluent Environment. With the ghastly husband getting more revolting by the second, her son Dylan losing his confidence, and Jamie’s work going wrong, it’s not long before Peter Bailey, a thirty year old manny--who also happens to be outrageously sexy--enters the fray. Now, there is nothing more amusing than the posh girl falling for The Help, but upright Jamie holds out--for pages and pages and pages--determined not to cheat on her husband. But when Jamie discovers another Alpha Mom has seduced Peter in her linen closet during a play date, it seems only a matter of time before the inevitable happens. Peterson has a keen eye for the zeitgeist. She describes the world of the hedge-fund billionaires and their excessive desires with sharp precision and a steely honesty. She takes us to their children’s lavish birthday parties, explores the exact kind of fringing their cushions require and even kindly translates their slang for us: "its wheels up at three" actually means "my private plane takes off at three o’clock". Though the detail of such an extreme lifestyle could become suffocating, at its heart the book has a more human crisis to explore--a marriage in jeopardy. The fun comes with the love affair with the Manny. It’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover for the beach. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:04 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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