Rating: 
Summary: Funny...Is it really like this??
Review: I read this book after hearing an interview with the authores on public radio and was curious. Having never been a nanny, I was not prepared for the craziness they encounter on a daily basis. Thank you for a great book and great laugh-out-loud fun!!
Rating: 
Summary: Why all the hype?
Review: This book left me feeling cheated. It seemed for weeks every bookshop you passed has this best seller propped in their front window. It was on all the best seller lists I chanced upon and had such glowing rave reviews that I did what I almost never do- I bought it in hardcover, not wanting to wait for its paperback release. Three words; What a rip off!Touted as a tongue and cheeck comedy about the have's and have nots in Manhattan told through the eyes of a nanny to the wealthy this was far from comedic. To me this was just endless whining about how unfair life is to the common folk, particularly those who work for the wealthy. There was nothing funny about this book in the least. The neglect Grayer, Nan's young charge, receives from his parents' self absorbtion is sad, but never funny. While poking fun at the self-absorbtion of the parents, Mr. & Mrs. X, Nan fails to realize just how self-absorbed she is herself. I just don't understand why if she was so miserable, why didn't she quit. She was a nanny, not an indentured servant. If you are looking for a light comedy, as this one was hyped, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Silly nonsense
Review: I was expecting something along the lines of the Herriot books, snippets of the Nanny's life with various families. Instead, this is an absolutely silly unrealistic book about narcissitic parents with an abandoned child, left in the care of a 'looking for a guy' nanny. Silly and ridiculous! Pass this up!
Rating:
Summary: I Could Put It Down
Review: I really tried hard to get into the book but I couldn't. I thought I would like it because a lot of people who I know read it and loved it, but I could not get into it, I also thought I would like it because a lot of people who bought The Nannies Diaries also read Ya-Ya Sister Hood, which I loved. This book, I don't know why but it wasn't good to me...I couldn't even finsh it :( I was dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to the hype
Review: I never made it past the first hundred or so pages of this excessively-hyped novel. The novel's main flaw is its lack of anything resembling a plot. The book simply consists of anecdote after repetitive anecdote in which the heartless rich parents ("Mr. & Mrs. X") neglect their 4-yr-old moppet while treating the nanny like dirt. The relentless samey-ness of it first produced boredom, which quickly morphed into irritation at the nanny: if the job is so awful, then quit already, or if you prefer to sell your self-respect for the tax-free $12 an hour the Xes are paying you, then take your money and shut up already. The technical quality of the writing isn't that bad, and I liked the nanny-themed quotes which opened each chapter; but I just couldn't get past the repetitive and dreary plot, or the one-sided characters (i.e., Nanny Good, Parents Bad). It's easy to create characters that are unsavory through and through; it's a lot harder - but a lot more interesting and thought-provoking -- to depict characters with some complexity and nuance, the curious mixture of faults with the occasional virtue that more accurately reflects real people. I suppose there is a subpopulation of folks in NYC who will hang on every morsel of dirt this novel dishes out, furiously trying to analyze which of their wealthy friends "Mrs. X" is supposed to represent. I'm obviously not one of them. I don't particularly care about the lives of the Park Avenue rich, nor do I choose to spend my leisure time reading a dreary and depressing chronicle of emotional child abuse.
Rating: 
Summary: A Guilty Pleasure!
Review: Reading this book was like finishing off a pint of Ben & Jerry's...deliciously wicked fun followed by sort of a sick, unsatisfied feeling.
Like many other reviewers, I gobbled this book up in a few nights. I truly became engaged in Nan's mess: how to stop being treated like dirt without losing her job...and thus, leaving poor little Grayer without anyone to care for him. However, when I got to the end of the book, I felt unsatisfied. Perhaps it was because several questions were left unanswered or perhaps it was because there can be no feeling of satisfaction when there is no true resolution or redemption. Perhaps this was the authors' point. So, go ahead and indulge...it's an engaging read that is also suprisingly thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype
Review: Whoever's in charge of promoting this book should get a raise, because they've done their job quite excellently. I fell for it and boy do I feel like a fool. The Nanny Diaries is boring, predictable tripe. If you're in the mood for a totally brainless read where you can predict each plot twist chapters before it happens, get this book. If you don't like heavy, ham-handed foreshadowing and cardboard, cookie-cutter characters, skip it and read something good like The Chesse Monkeys by Chip Kidd.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: Although I found this book somewhat entertaining, it was not at all what I expected. Frankly I wanted to scream QUIT already. Nanny had absolutely no backbone. I was hoping she actually found the nerve to record the message at the end of the book, but again, that was only wishful thinking. Light easy summer read, but way too much hype.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty Pleasure
Review: Okay, so I didn't buy the book, I did what any underpaid nanny would do, I (finally) checked it out of the library. And no, I'm not a nanny. The writing could stand some work, but overall I enjoyed the book. Yes, it comes to some harsh conclusions about people with lots and lots o' money. But it's not mean if it's true. I have a sneaking suspicion this is true.
Rating:
Summary: Can I get my reading time back?
Review: The book really amounts to very little, just a lot of negative gossip about New York's high society. Sure, that's clearly the fun of it; it's a little like spying. But the book is little more than a mean-spirited extended-play version of Town and Country's society pages. It's relatively well written (of course, as an editor, I know who you can probably thank for that) and not exactly painful, but I wish I'd saved my money--and my precious reading time.
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