I couldn't finish it. ( )

Reading this book was basically like reading my own blog. I need to meet Amanda and be best friends with her! I seriously laughed out loud at several points, especially the pool noodle story. If you're a parent and you know how to laugh at yourself, you'll enjoy this book. Oh, and you should probably like drinking as well. But you knew that from the title, right? So pour a margarita and get ready to laugh! ( )

More like a series of sixteen short stories or essays, MOMMY HAD A LITTLE FLASK is a funny, eyes-wide-open look at children and adults, written from the perspective of a mother. My main complaint is there was way too much emphasis on the “flask.” It wasn’t necessary and was distracting. Whatever her point was, it was overdone and probably turned off a lot of readers who would have otherwise really enjoyed the book.
Now to the rest of the book: I was hooked on page 6 when Amanda, a writer and the main character, reacts to an adult using baby talk, in this case “nummers” to refer to the taste of something. Amanda moves on to the use of “wawa” for “water.” She notes that children may say that when they are learning to speak, “But that is no reason for the parent to then begin referring to water wawa. It is the parents who is supposed to teach the child how to speak. The parent is not supposed to adopt the child’s baby talk as the new and improved English.”
Later on she talks of how she “gets overwhelmed by crowds of people but I like being in lines. They imply the presence of a greater system instead of the anarchy of a free-for-all, during which I’d surely be trampled to death. Lines are my friends.”
Amanda is raising her young daughters in an unusual environment. The family lives in Idaho but spends three months during the winter living in Mexico near her husband’s family. The girls attend a Montessori school where they are learning Chinese. She notes the differences between the two cultures: “The playground was minimalist and endearing and somehow reminded me of the simplicity of children at play. It’s good to remember that children are quite capable of playing with a stick and a rock and don’t require video games or even remote-control cars.”
Much of her writing is tongue-in-cheek. One day, she comes home and sees a large number of police vehicles near her house. As she tries to figure out what is happening she thinks, “Maybe they’re keeping a sharp eye out in case the culprit returns to the scene of the crime...because that happens a lot on television and therefore must be true.” Speaking to her father-in-law one day about something he said he states, “You’re going to write about this, aren’t you?” She replies, “No, I promise.” And, of course, she does write about it.
She writes of how her fear of water has led to her children developing the same reaction. When a neighbor asks her if she’s going to a pool party, she starts to say how much she has to do until she learns the pool is heated.
And then there is the chapter when her daughter innocently discovers her sexual feelings long before any of them are prepared to deal with the concept.
She has a delightful way of observing things and describing them, e.g., referring to some Alaskans who venture south to get warm, she writes, “The longer they live in Alaska, the more obsessed the become with finding warm, sunny climates in which they can bronze themselves for their golden years.”
She writes about skiing and writing and how Americans believe “there is only one way and one place to live.”
MOMMY HAD A LITTLE FLASK was a well-written quick read with some interesting observations about both things seen and things analyzed. It maintained my interest.
This book was a free Amazon download. ( )