Rating: 
Summary: Seriously funny
Review: Poor Nan. A student at NYC in need of a little cash, she's applied for a job as parttime nanny to four-year-old Grayer, the son of Mr. and Mrs. X, who live on Park Avenue in Manhattan and have money coming out of their ears. Poor Grayer. Not only is he already being groomed for college, but his mommy's got him signed up for everything from ice skating to French lessons and if he doesn't have a play date for the afternoon he's probably got a Mommy and Me meeting (to attend with his nanny). He's an okay little guy who wants his old nanny but soon accepts Nan as her replacement. All he really wants is his daddy's attention, the one thing he can't have. Daddy is too busy living it up with his mistress, Ms. Chicago, who Nan discovers on an eventful Halloween night when she is dressed up as none other than a giant Tellytubby. Nan is horrified, but she's too busy with all Mrs. X's outlandish requests on her time, from picking up dry cleaning and dozens of party supplies to attending a weekend party out in the country -- her worst and final experience with the Xes. Though she still loves Grayer and has hung in there for him literally through sickness and health, even a nanny can take only so much.Cowriters Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, both former nannies, have created in THE NANNY DIARIES a story only an insider could have told. Both hilarious and heartbreaking, light and serious, full of a young woman's touching love for her little charge and the outlandish excesses of a filthy rich upper crust family, this novel really struck a cord with me. As someone who has been a live-in nanny myself (albiet for a small incomed country family), I completely understand Nan's attachment to Grayer and felt for her as she struggled to adjust to the bizarre world created by the Xes. I laughed with her through the impossible play dates, cried with her over Grayer's neglect, and cheered with her at the end when she finally got to have her say. You go, Nanny! Anyone who likes light and serious domestic novels and everyone who has ever taken care of someone else's kids will find THE NANNY DIARIES irresistable.
Rating:
Summary: a great book, I would even call it harrowing
Review: Harrowing because you know that everything about this wildly inconsiderate family, especially the mother, Mrs. X, is leading to catastrophe. Nan (conveniently her name is also her title, thus denoting the "Every Nanny" quality of the treatment she receives) is hired to look after 4-year-old Grayer, the cute offspring of a materialistic dysfunctional rich family in NYC. Grayer has toys galore, French lessons, play dates with little friends with the tiresome pretentious names of the 1990s (Carter, Christabelle, Josephina, Darwin.) I do like that Sima, the El Salvadoran nanny for Darwin, is depicted in what is an accurate situation for many people -- she holds a degree in Engineering but there are no jobs, so she took the nanny position to make ends meet for her own family, whom she never gets to see because Darwin and his family demand so much attention. She is more educated than her employer, yet gets treated like garbage because she is subservient to them. Nanny is not just a babysitter -- she quickly becomes an indentured servant raising the child. Mrs. X proves to be the biggest child of all -- she can't do ANYTHING by herself except maybe shop. That's why she needs a housekeeper and nanny to look after her apartment and single child even though she has no job. Mr. X is missing for most of the book, apparently hard at work (more like "hard with the women at work".) Nanny gets caught up in so many thngs that are not supposed to be her business and what is just a job threatens to consume her whole life. Nan has spirit and spunk; she finds joy in Grayer. You just know that the more Nan cares for him, the worse off he will be if his parents don't start partaking in his life -- Nanny is never meant to be a permanent fixture, his parents are. But Grayer isn't even an emotional hostage in his parents' war with each other -- they don't give him enough attention to make him one. You read this book, knowing it can't possibly end well for the poor kid, but hoping that it somehow will.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty Pleasure
Review: Those ridiculously fun nights when you FINALLY hook up with that friend you've been meaning to see for so long, you find the PERFECT bar, have excellent martinis, get a nice buzz going, and then, tongue loosened, hair down, you hear ALL ABOUT what's REALLY going on at work. NO WAY! THAT DID NOT HAPPEN???!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!? OMG!!! That's what the Nanny Diaries is like. It's too formless and superficial to be effective biting social satire. The writing is not particularly strong, and even the anecdotal material (which is what this book really is) circumnavigates any kind of character or plot development, but that's OK. If you're looking for a gossipy distraction, this book is innocuous fun. Although it will make you angry. This sweet, bright-eyed NYU student, smart and compassionate, enters the priviliged world of Upper East Side money. She gets dragged deeper and deeper into a sick, disintegrating household and must fend for herself, while at the same time trying to pour as much emergency love on the spoiled, neglected child suddenly thrust in her care. The ridiculously absurd tidbits about the extremes these people go to avoid their own familes (and any kind of work) will leave you open-mouthed. The book's portrait of Mrs. X, the antagonist, is a bit extreme. The woman makes Medea look like Katie Couric. Obviously a lot of what went on came from genuine experience, but at times the characters are exaggerated beyond the point that's really necessary, or believable. And, in other cases, the characters could have grown just a bit more. Nanny's romantic relationship with her "Harvard Hottie" is cute, right out of a "Sex and the City" subplot. The main problem for me was that it becomes increasingly harder to identify or care about a main character so increasingly passive and victimized. Nanny doesn't do nearly enough to change her situation, or fight back, and therefore not enough of a conflict ensues to keep this story on fire. The ending will most likely leave you disappointed, because the long hoped for climax of confrontation and revenge never happens. Still, for me, it was nice to re-visit a pre-9/11 New York City that was free and innocent, still on the upswing, so that families on Park Avenue could drop $4,000 on their kid's costumes for a Halloween Party without so much as a sigh, and the club Chaos was still in SoHo.
Rating: 
Summary: Light and fluffy
Review: This is a good enough read when you just need a distraction, and can't concentrate too well. It's entertaining on some aspects, but most will be very irritated that "Nanny" doesn't tell "Mrs. X" to shove it, love for the kid or not.
A word to other reviewers though - if you hate the book so much (for instance, the reviewer with the subject "GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT GARBAGE THROUGHOUT!") posting your review nearly a dozen times in a month isn't necessary. Once is plenty.
Rating: 
Summary: Sad, but touching
Review: It seems alot of readers found this book to be very funny. I didn't. I found it to be very sad. As a parent and child care provider, I felt deeply for poor little "Grover" who's affections were so manipulated by his mother and ignored by his father. I desperately wanted Nanny to tell Mrs. X to shove off, but loved her for not doing so for the child's sake. Though I was deeply moved by the story of Nanny and Grover's relationship, I found the story to be a troubling portryal of our society. A page turner that left me with much to think about.
Rating:
Summary: Only worth it if you didn't pay for the book yourself.
Review: Not a whole lot to say about this book. It was amusing and a quick read. The type of book you read on the train/bus while commuting to work. Easy to put down and pick up days later. Honestly, if people like the "X's" actually exist, they shouldn't be having children. I wouldn't pay full price for this book. Check it out of the library or borrow it from someone. Pray that they don't make it into a movie.
Rating:
Summary: Nanny just say NO!
Review: Both the author were former nannies themselves. At the start of the book their is a disclaimer, this is probably why we have the characters "Nanny" and "Mr. and Mrs X". Nanny meets the X's in the park one day, she is taken aside and asked to be their new nanny. Appears the old nanny is being replaced as she asked for a week off to visit a dying relative. Nanny knows she should run but she needs the envelope of cash to pay her rent in expensive Manhattan as she finishes off her last year at NYU. After her first struggles with Grayer, Nanny is accepted into his life as his new pal. Things go from bad to worse with the X's though soon Nanny is picking up dry-cleaning, picking up items for dinner parties, covering up for a cheating Mr. X and always running to class and thesis lectures late as she was waiting for Mrs. X to come home. Though I can understand that Nanny didn't want to abandon Grayer, I wanted her to get a backbone and stand up to the X's. However, as a starving student I probably would have taken all the punishment from Mrs. X too. The story made me laugh out loud several times especially the Halloween and thong incidents. A book that everyone should pick up, you'll learn to appreciate your babysitter a whole lot more.
Rating: 
Summary: Unreadable Pap
Review: It is disheartening that such a shallow, smug, self-congratulatory, artificial, hackneyed, tricked-up, hyped piece of junk has such a large, enthusiastic audience. I think that speaks volumes about the audience.
Rating:
Summary: read it in one day
Review: this book was indeed worth the hype - a view into the worst kind of wasp parenting. you keep wondering why "nanny" doesn't quit her horrible job, but at the same time you know why... the beautiful and heart-wrenching descriptions of four year old wonder and love leave no doubt.
Rating:
Summary: I used to be a nanny
Review: I loved it. I was a nanny, and none of the stuff that happened to these characters happened to me, but I still liked it. I can recommend it to anyone that asks me about it.
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