Rating: 
Summary: Nanny Is A Professor
Review: Our narrator explores the nuances of New-York-City Nannying without, perhaps, the verbal graces of Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte; however, her youthful energy and honesty are wholly engaging and convincing. (Give the authors a few years, when their deeper senses of irony will bloom.) I love the demos of democracy, and current American classism is so well illustrated here that by the book's end, I wished to don a red cap, to behead both Mr. and Mrs. X, and to carry their countenances on a pike down Park Avenue. The narrator's family, humane and common-sensical, laughes at the excesses of plutocracy, which perhaps is a better solution than torching Trump Tower. Give our Bushwacked economy a few more jolts, though, and the hoi polloi will be splintering the Nantuckett digs of the X'es for firewood. THE NANNY DIARIES makes one laugh and cry: ah, Nanny! Ah, humanity!
Rating: 
Summary: compelling but more painful than funny
Review: While this story was compelling, reading it was absolutely painful on many levels. First of all, your heart breaks for the boy. In other reviews, some have questioned why the Nanny is so interested in this boy. I disagree - he's like most 4 year olds - innocent, curious, playful, silly, and it's easy to see why she loves him. But it was also painful for me to witness the X family - especially Mrs. X - walk all over the Nanny -and her taking it! It reminds me of myself when I was her age and I let bosses and the family I worked for (I was an au pair in Paris) walk all over me, too. And I kept reading because I had such high hopes for the ending but was soundly disappointed - it was totally anti-climatic in my opinion. I'm sure that when Hollywood makes this into a movie (in fact, it's the kind of book that makes you think the authors were writing for a future movie deal), they'll change the ending into a typical Hollywood-type, sugary ending. On a positive note, I thought the main character was developed enough that I cared about her and thought about her for days.
Rating:
Summary: Just a Spoonful of Sass
Review: This is one of those addictive reads that you can't put down once you get hooked.
"The Nanny Diaries" covers the same geography as "Mary Poppins," but with far more sass than sugar.
The story centers around Nan, an NYU child development major thrown into the dysfunctional household of a family of extremely infantile New Yorkers.
The novel provides both a comedy of manners reminiscent of Jane Austen as well as a commentary on some of the shallowness of today's modern gentry.
Mrs. X, the mom, gives new meaning to the phrase "momineering," as she is both obsessively controlling of her son and her staff.
The head of the household, Mr. X, is a hollow cad of a man -- sating his own need for ego stroking through a series of empty affairs and meaningless relationships.
The real person who is shortchanged in all this childishness is Grayer, the X's son. He craves love that neither of his parents have a clue how to give him.
Nan copes surprisingly well with this dysfunctional family. She is caught in the X's spin cycle of family drama, but at least emerges from it with her own sense of humor intact.
And, Nan's father gives dead-on advice as to how to set limits with both children and childish adults alike. His paternal wisdom is to be sweet like Glinda the Good for as long as it works, but, if necessary, give folks a flash of the Wicked Witch when it's time to set boundaries.
Rating: 
Summary: no tears from me!
Review: Reading this book made me feel like I should be feeling very sorry for poor "Nan" the nanny.... she has to work sooo hard, is unappreciated, and is asked to do things beyond the realm of pure child care (cook a dinner, run errands while Grayer is at his music lesson, etc.). And she only gets paid $12/hour, with no Christmas bonus!! And the employers have the nerve to question why she has not done anything beyond the ordinary in terms of child development (which is her major, after all). Sorry, this sob story didn't work with me. Nanny isn't working in a sweatshop, for crying out loud! Coupled with incomplete side story-lines (what's up with her dad and Collegiate?), one-dimensional characters (Harvard Hotty, the high school friend) - don't waste your time!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Easy Read
Review: My wife and I picked up this book to read to each other a couple of weeks ago because of all the buzz. We thought that it would give us something to do on the remainder of the lazy summer evenings when we had nothing else to do. We wound up reading it almost every night for about a week, giving up social events and television, leaving us without a book to read together for the rest of the summer. The Nanny Diaries is the fictionalized story of the two authors experiences as nannies in New York City. The main character is named Nanny (or Nan). The story focuses on a job she holds for nine months as the nanny for Grayer Addison X and, as a result of her peculiar employers an all-around servant (or, perhaps more descriptively a baby sitter) for Grayer's parents, Mr. and Mrs. X. Many people think that the book is popular because it gives us a glimpse of the super rich of New York through the eyes of someone who is not one of them but is able to laugh at them. I found the book to be so enjoyable for another reason: Nanny is so sweet and devoted to her charge, Grayer. Grayer is more spoiled than lots of kids, but he is also intelligent and in need of love. It is heartwarming to see him get love from Grayer. We also spend the entire book rooting for Nanny. Rooting for her to get up the nerve to tell off Mr. and Mrs. X in the hopes that this will make them better parents. Rooting for her to graduate and get a good job. Rooting for her to get the boy of her dreams--one of the enjoyable side plots. We do spend a decent amount of the time indulging our less charitable side by feeling superior to Mrs. X, but the goodheartedness of the book keeps this from happening all the time. I would love to discuss all of the many crazy spots that Nanny gets into because of her employers; all the torments that Nanny has to bear while retaining her integrity and tenderness, but I enjoyed discovering all of these for myself, and I think it would be better for other readers to do so as well, so I will end here.
Rating:
Summary: Great Beach Reading
Review: Though obviously one-sided, this is a great peek into the lives of rich and overprivileged New Yorkers and their emotionally abandoned children. Nanny's story is clearly an amalgam of the most outrageous experiences of the two authors, both former nannys. The writing is fresh and breezy and quite funny, but the story is heartbreaking at times; Mrs. X, Nanny's boss, is more concerned with keeping someone under her thumb than her child's emotional well-being, and Nanny's central challenge in the story is focusing on the little boy she is hired to nurture while ignoring the slights his mother doles out. It held my interest and it is just the right length for a weekend away.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it
Review: I started reading this book Sunday evening and by Monday night (including a full night's sleep and a full working day) I was done. Great book and fast light reading. Yes some of the material was serious and depressing, but a lot of it was just plan fun
Rating: 
Summary: oh, please
Review: I had to force myself to finish reading this book! I never felt anything for any of the characters--even the kid. Poor character development, unbelievable coincidences. Okay, so maybe the rich are different. Is that news? It certainly isn't a novel idea! They dress better, eat better and live better than the rest of us--but does it make them interesting? Apparently not!
Rating:
Summary: A Good, Quick Read
Review: The "Nanny Diaries" is touted as light-hearded and funny, it is anything but. However, this does not make it bad. It is disturbing and tense, but draws you in to see exactly how far this truly dysfunctional family will go. Like many other readers, I felt it left me looking for something more at the end.
Rating:
Summary: Been there, done that...
Review: Having been privy to the world of Hollywood Nannies, I really was in the mood for a laugh at this one. I mean I had already heard the outrageous things my compadres were expected to do to care for the children from the Lifestyles of the "sick and shameless," so I expected just as many outrageous tales upon a friend's recommendation. She has read it three times already and [peed] herself silly over it. But I just couldn't laugh. I was angry after finishing the book. Now I am not saying that I disliked it, on the contrary I devoured it. I have no doubts that this book was a compilation of the writers combined experiences and every word must be true. But what I find so disturbing is how well they played out the "Let them eat cake" mentality of the elitist monetary circle. The book brought to mind many similar past events and the pain associated with them. Granted there are a few in the world of wealth as portrayed in the book who cherish family above money and status, yet they are eclipsed by the inattentive parents of wealth who have children for breeding purposes only. No wonder the Kennedy's (save Caroline and the late Jackie, and John, Jr.) have had nothing but problems and the odd thing is they can't figure out where they went wrong with their children. Perhaps this book will enlighten them. But, you girls owe me another book with far more laughs and a little more punch at the end. It would have been better if Nanny had just ripped into the lot of them at the shack on Nantucket... Then the limerick would follow: There once was a Nanny on Nantucket...
Who told Mr. & Mrs. X to ... It...
She kidnapped their son
Went to court and won
Custody of Grayer and his Prada Bucket!
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