I picked this up from Blue Bicycle Book shop in Charleston, South Carolina where I am attending the 2007 Bookcrossing convention.

I Killed June Cleaver is a collection of funny and light-hearted essays about parenthood, encompassing the notion that a mother needn't be an over-achiever, and that whatever works is the way to go. One of the few books to address motherhood beyond the infant/toddler phases, I Killed June Cleaver includes such stories as:

"What They Don't Teach You in Childbirth Class"
"Why It Takes Mom a Week to Get Over the 24-Hour flu"
"Laundry Mom"
"The Children's Car Pool Accord"
"The Young Adults Return"
"Mom and Dad Are Doin' It (Or Trying To)"
"It's Wednesday and I Don't Have Any Clean Underwear"
The new model of motherhood in these pages is a loving but human mom, whom you'll never see pushing a vacuum cleaner while wearing cultured pearls. This mom may or may not be a good cook, she's pretty tired, she probably hasn't had time to get a haircut in many months and she more or less calibrates her calendar to her car pool days. Moms today are under more pressure than ever. These humorous essays serve as a relief valve.

I was slightly disapointed in this book. I thought some of it was funny, and some of it I could identify with. There were also stories that were way out there. I disliked The collective Wisdom of Mothers on drugs, The dreadlock suite, the poems, and the section on nursing. Some of the ones I liked best were The McSecret, The broken foot, and Spit-shining the kids. I especially liked the part in spit-shining the kids about mystical invisible dirt that can only be seen in lighting outside the house.

I am sending this out as a mini-ray to Cheesygiraffe and Candieb. I hope you both enjoy it!!

I am sending this out as a ring. Here are the participants:

I got a few more participants on bookcrossing. Here is the list:

Cheesy
Candieb
Guinneth
Crrcookie
UnwrittenLibra
Ariesgirl29
MsJoanna
dnsvm
Bluestocking88

*Kera who is in the UK would like to join, if anyone is willing to ship internationally please pm me and I will rearange the list.


Looking forward to your comments.

Came in today's mail. I will try to read this asap. :)

I was a bit disappointed too. The dread lock one was the most annoying of them. I remember some of the stuff my boys done when they were younger and had to laugh when other mothers went through it too. I'm at the stage now where my oldest is about to become a teen. *blink* Some of the book is bit outdated though. "It's Wednesday and I Don't Have Any Clean Underwear" was my favorite. That one is so me. LOL

2/27/08 9PM: emailed candieb and waiting for a reply back
replied back very quickly and wants it still, I will mail this tomorrow

Of course I replied back very quickly - I'm nothing if not punctual... well, usually. I am bombarded with "must read" books all of a sudden. This one is 2nd in line, so I should start it in about a week. Plenty of time, I'm just grousing and rambling so I don't have to go back to work. ;) Thanks for sending so fast, Cheesy!

Update: Hubby stole this to read ahead of me... I should still get it out within 30 days as long as he doesn't lollygag about reading it... he was giggling in the corner earlier...

I was a little disappointed in this book. It had some really funny shorts in it, but some of them fell a little flat too - like the restaurant - I just didn't think it was funny. Whatever.

My fave was "Spit Shining The Kids", the counting to 3 thing had me rolling. That is SO me. My kids must thing I'm nuts!

Worth a read; was great to grab it and read while taking a work break!

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing off to Guinneth

This arrived safely yesterday - thanks. I have another ring book ahead of it, but it looks like a quick read that I can do in bits and pieces between other stuff.

Unfortunately I found these essays to be somewhat poorly written. Worse, most of them almost struck me as having been penned by someone who didn't even have children! They simply don't ring true. Of course, this may be due to the bad writing rather than an actual attempt at deception.

The housekeeping section was amusing, as was the breastfeeding section (with the exception of the poem, which was awful.)

I still appreciate the opportunity to have read this. It will be on its way to crrcookie as soon as I have an address.

Mailed this out yesterday to crrcookie.

Del. conf.# 0307 0020 0002 4976 5764

This book arrived in today's mail in Waldorf, Maryland!

It looks like a short book so it shouldn't take very long for me to read but I have two other books that I am in the middle of that will have to come before it. I'll probably start trying to contact the next in line very soon as that may be hard with the PMs acting up like they are.

It was travelling with another book. I'll check the journal entries for that one before I decide what to do with that one and where it goes.

This book was an easy read that didn't take too long. I liked the stories in it but I wish that there had been a little more of a story as it felt too disjointed at times. I too felt that several of the stories that were not very funny. Hmmmmmm the idea of this book is good but maybe it needs better writers or a better editor.

I'll be sending it on the the next in line soon.

This book was mailed to UnwrittenLibra on Wednesday, May 14, 2008.

I read and released this book as part of the 2008 Keep Them Moving Release Challenge from the Release Challenges forum.

Received it here in Baltimore, Maryland...thanks!

Finished early this morning in my bed in Baltimore. A fun read, dragged a bit at the end though. Definitely worthwhile.

Mailed off to ariesgirl29 in Cordova, Tennessee via Ocean City, Maryland! Go book go!

DC: 0308 0730 0001 3138 0173

Got in the mail today - thanks! This looks right up my alley - i have one more book to finish, then I'll get to this one. I'll pm next participant right away though so I have the address ready.

On its way to msjoanna - thanks for sharing!

This has arrived. Looks like a quick read -- I'll get to it shortly and will send along quickly.

I expected more from this book. I thought the essays would either be really funny or would have important and interesting commentary to make on modern motherhood. While a few of the essays had a good line or good thought, on the whole, I didn't think they were well written. In fact, I was surprised that many of the authors described themselves as writers because I thought the pieces were mostly pretty amateur and I sort of expected that perhaps the authors were selected because they aren't writers.

Great title and a good concept, but content lacking.

It'll be in the mail on the next post office trip. (mailed 8/5/08)

I received this a a few days ago but haven't had a chance to journal it. It came with another book that my daughter has adopted and thus I haven't had a chance to journal it. This one is going on the top of the TBR pile!