Rating: 
Summary: Don't Waste Your Money
Review: Mediocre book. If the characters are going to be 2-dimensional, then the book should have some other redeeming quality but instead it is cliche-ridden and about as well written as a grocery list.
Rating: 
Summary: Light, Engaging Summer Read
Review: This was a very engaging book. Great summer read!! Entertainment without requiring much thinking from the reader. The characters were named X, H.H., etc. The book truly made few demands on the reader for brain power. It was fun to peak into the lifestyles of Park Avenue wealthy, social ladder types. Nanny's adventures with the Xes moved quickly. I couldn't figure out how a girl from a stable, happy and fairly well to do family herself, finishing a post grad degree at NYU could be such an incredible doormat. Perhaps it tells of the servitude mentality required of employees of the very wealthy. The boy Grayer was cute enough. I loved the names of all the kids in the book. I think in real life Grayer may have been a little more of a behavior problem. His parents were so unavailable. The ending could have been fantastic, but ultimately it was a big letdown. There was a very pleasing closure with one character in the book, which promised even greater closer to come. Not so. The love interest story between Nanny and H.H. was left dangling, although I think there may have been a hint as to the end of that story in the aknowledgements. (see, I even read the aknowledgements trying to learn more about how the story ends.)
Rating: 
Summary: Not very talented but true
Review: Could just call the authors original or talanted, but... Being at one point in my life a nanny for rich cannot agree more.
You grow to love their kids and as soon as you inconvenience them you are discarded. In overall engaging book but mostly for those of us who had been there, nothing new though.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing view of wealthy Manhattanites
Review: I purchased this book because it is on the New York Times bestseller list. To be honest I was expecting a light-hearted fun read. However, this is actually a chilling account of child abuse and neglect at the hands of two self-obsessed and cold hearted parents. I would hope and pray this is not an accurate account of people who hire nannies in NYC. But if it is, I am deeply saddened. Is it so competitive and shallow now in Manhattan, that parents would be so abusive to their child? Especially one so young? These are questions, I hope are addressed by people so that perhaps this kind of socially accepted abuse will cease.
Rating:
Summary: Nanny Dearest
Review: Two young nannies lock pram wheels in the park, start talking, swap nanny war stories, embellish some of the better ones, whip up a few over-the-top whoppers just for shock value, then write everything down as fast as their crayons can scribble. The result: a book with one-dimensional characters and a slapsticky sitcomical plot. Although this book has much to commend it, the authors never quite realize the potential of their material.Mistake #1: Depersonalizing the characters. By giving their protagonists generic names and personalities, the authors keep us at arms-length. Nanny never surprises us: she does her best, takes the heat for everything, and rarely seems to wonder if she could do anything to improve her lot. Even though we're inside her head, we can't understand her lack of motivation. Throughout the not-exactly-a-shocker penultimate scene I kept waiting for her to inform the parents of the enormity of their decision; instead, she spills the beans about Mr X's paramour. Pathetic. Too, Mrs. X is as predictable as a summer thunderstorm: lots of noise, not much substance. Sure, I know moms who are depressed and moms who can't deal with their kids and moms who are essentially detached from their kids' lives--but Mrs. X is a caricature of what she could and should have been. And little Grayer? The authors have managed to divest the child of any of the charm or vivacity that normally characterizes the preschool set. I guess they were trying so hard to make him anonymous that they did not realize they had turned him into a shadow of a little boy. He's not just Grayer--he's Grayest. Most of the supporting cast is similarly shallow. The philandering Mr. X, the vile Ms. Chicago, Nan's wise dad, the token third world nannies that Nan meets, Nan's boyfriend, and a dozen others seem more like props than people. Mistake #2: Forgetting about plot. During the yearlong stint with the X family, the same interactions continue to recur in different settings (Halloween party, park, Nantucket, playdates). Before too long, Same Old becomes real old. At the end of the book, Nanny has a diploma and a hottie boyfriend, but apparently floated through those months without developing any insight into herself or her situation. And although there's a huge difference between a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old, Grayer seems permanently stuck in the sandbox. Mistake #3. Focusing too much on the lifestyles of the rich and fabulous. Forget Upstairs, Downstairs. Nanny wants to make sure the readers understand that she (the authors?) is familiar with all the accoutrements of fine living and affluent society. Just to make sure we get the point, there are frequent references to her being a Chapin alum and to her relationship with her genteel, educated, upper middle class family (grandma went to Vassar and shops at Henri Bendel). By trying so hard to show that the X family is in no way (except for having more money) superior to Nanny and is in many ways (morally, psychologically) inferior, the authors undercut the inherent humor of the master-servant genre. The reader is left with the uncomfortable feeling, as another reviewer noted, that Nanny is about ten years shy of becoming a Mrs. X herself. I am not surprised that this book is on the summer best seller list. It's a good beach read--fast (even the editors missed a number of typos) and light. And when the authors write from the heart--for example, the interview prologue--the book zings with charm. Most of the time, unfortunately, the authors seem way too guarded with their material (fear of lawsuits?) and thus a book that could have been a five star earns only three twinklers.
Rating:
Summary: The Nanny Diaries
Review: I really enjoyed this book, and I have to say that it is definitely worth reading. However, I should caution you that, while it might be "hilarious" on the surface, partly due the the tone in which it is written, it is actually extremely sad-- though good-- novel.
Rating:
Summary: What a letdown
Review: Simply put, if I'm going to read what basically amounts to a best-seller trifle, I demand satisfaction. I want resolution and comeuppance and happy endings. This ain't Virginia Woolf. I was not looking for a "real" (i.e. bummer) ending. This novel manages to be both light as a souffle and leave a bad taste in your mouth at the same time. So much for fun summer reading.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I had that 3 hours back
Review: I was so disappointed in this book I had to write a review. The writing is extremely poor and Nanny's character comes across so pathetic I found myself annoyed. She is portrayed as a girl with no backbone that never does anything to please herself. Her charater was so weak that, as she is being fired, she does not even have the courage to comment on the fact that she's being underpaid by over $1000. And the H.H. storyline...sorry everyone, i am a new york city girl and trust me no Harvard Hottie would give a girl like that a chance. That storyline was definitley made up in an attempt to make this book interesting. I'm not saying the way Mr & Mrs X treated Nanny was right. I'd just like to prevent someone from wasting their time on this book. I can't believe those two are making money off this.
Rating:
Summary: A nice surface novel
Review: I won't lie, I enjoyed this book, but I found Nanny's character frustrating as in how much abuse from the X's she put up with. The take on the rich uppercrust seemed one-dimensional to me, and I never got a good feel for Nanny, particularly in her saga with H.H. I often wondered if the author didn't elaborate on the wrong things.
Rating:
Summary: "masochist diaries"
Review: I admit, I wanted to peek behind the opulent facade of the wealthy and hear that its not as gracious as it all seems...But thats all there was to this book! This is the story of a doormat named 'Nan' who lacks self-respect and then is resentful when others don't respect her either. She takes good care of her charge, despite her obvious lack of a spinal column, but she's bitter, not witty and sardonic when she's trying to be sarcastic. I wanted to slap her through the whole book! I held out to the very end hoping she would have a nice straightforward, grown-up, talk with her employer 'Mrs. X.' In this talk, Nan would find her backbone and her employer would rediscover her heart. both characters would learn something from the experience and move forward.....Nope the ending is saccharin and stupid. The characters are annoying, and too many are brought into the story only to mistreat poor, boring, cream puff-Nan. the writing style is bland and tired. I think this book must have been written by two doormats who are trying to gain some self-respect by being vindictive. I really hope its out of their system. To think that they could write and publish something else about Nan makes me cringe. I can't, for the life of me, figure out all the critical acclaim. This is a crummy book.
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