Rating: 
Summary: Slow and Bad language
Review: This book started off fairly interesting, but as I progressed, the F word began to appear and I quit. Do not recommend this mundane, uninteresting book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ending Needs Work
Review: The book is really droll, and I enjoyed it, but the ending is unsatisfying. It's very abrupt, and the reader never finds out what ultimately happens in the subplot...Nanny and her sort-of boyfriend, H.H.
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Summary: A wicked satire on our reality
Review: The Nanny Diaries is no doubt a wicked bawl with snappy dialogues and hilarious encounters. Nan, the central protgonist is juggling her studies at NYU and being a nanny to Grayer X under the watchful eyes of demanding and querulous Mrs. X. The book is saturated with her trials - like running extra errands and searching for a particular type of lavendar linen water, dressing Grayer for a Halloween party, whizzing through "family outings" with eccentric groups of people and hounding Mrs. X for her salary. It is however, beneath the cloak of laughter that we find The Nanny Diaries weirdly disturbing for the portrait of dysfunctional families when Nicolas Kraus and Emma McLaughlin weave poignancy into the relationship of nannies becoming more of a surrogate mother. Infidelites of Mr. X and betrayal, Mrs. X's relentless control over Grayer is what makes The Nanny Diaries a textured social commentary under the comical gloss-over. The characters are vividly portrayed with sensitivity - and it is over issues like installing Nanny-cams, negligent mothers that makes it a witty and sardonic read. It also raises the question as to whether these encounters are fact or fiction. It's a satire on our reality.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This book was great! I loved it. The stories the narrator tells are both funny and sad at the same time. This is a great quick read, a nice beach book. The whole book paints a really comical picture of upper class life in Manhattan. The book is bittersweet, though. I hope this doesn't really happen (though I'm sure it does). This is a must read for everyone who's ever babysat.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, funny, but...
Review: An interesting and entertaining story. Worth reading, ESPECIALLY if you have babysitting experience in Manhattan (as I do, and I am sad to say this tale is not as much of an exaggeration as we would wish it to be). Humorous and witty, but I do have a few criticisms. There is a lot of brand-name-dropping that will mean nothing to most readers outside of New York. I realize the point of these casual references is to establish the stratum of society in which X family resides, but it will be useless to unfamiliar readers. For example, "Lotte Berk"=exclusive Manhattan exercise studio, "Bonpoint"=extremely high-end French retailer of childrens' clothing, "Grace's"=over-priced gourmet food market in East 70s.
Also, parallel stories involving Nanny's own family, roommate issues, etc. were not as entertaining and were a bit distracting. Implications of Nanny's own family wealth, noted with such references as pedicures at Elizabeth Arden and various anecdotes about her grandmother, are incongruous with the image the authors have created of normal Nanny vs. outrageous X family.
Rating:
Summary: So funny.......
Review: I laughed and laughed and laughed........This book hits it right on the head. Some of the accounts are so realistic and I thought I was there. I've done a bit of babbysitting and the attitudes and situations are very similar. I'd highly recommend this book as a light summer read. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: How "Hollywood" types raise their kids...
Review: Rich parents, neglected brats, an overworked caregiver. First-novelists and former nannies McLaughlin and Kraus get the details right: in acid asides, they limn the decor, trendy therapies, and the pretensions of social-climbing Manhattanites. It's the woebegone children who often suffer, according to the authors' young heroine (her name: Nanny), a child-development major at NYU. Mrs. X, a perfectly groomed Park Avenue princess, hires Nanny to care for four-year-old Grayer, and the girl does her best to comply with a long list of rules. The boy is rarely permitted to play inside the luxurious apartment, eat anything made with refined flour, and so forth. Mrs. X is too busy with committee work and salon treatments (and keeping an eye on her philandering husband) to do much mothering. Though Grayer is a holy terror, Nanny has a way with kids-and a family of her own to give advice when the tot falls ill. Racking cough? High fever? When Mrs. X is away at a spa and has left orders that she's not to be disturbed for any reason, Nanny's mother diagnoses croup. But "tragedy" strikes again: Nanny is hoping for a lavish Christmas present but all she gets is earmuffs. When she isn't microwaving tofu snacks or teaching Grayer the intricacies of the Hokey Pokey, Nanny indulges in daydreams about the Harvard hottie she's been flirting with in the elevator-and participates in obligatory gripe-and-gossip fests with her girlfriends. Should she tell Mrs. X about the black thong panties that Mr. X's bitchy mistress left behind? And how about going with them to Nantucket? There's nothing to buy there except candles and nautical trinkets, and her employers are sure to be at each other's throats. When Nanny quits, she tells off Grayer's indifferent parents at last, having discovered they they've been spying on her through a nannycam concealed in a stuffed bear. Sometimes farcical, largely sincere-and ultimately trivial.
Rating: 
Summary: Good at first, but becomes mundane
Review: I enjoyed the beginning of this book, but as I kept reading it became more and more mundane. The story becomes repetitive, and it is actually hard for me to finish the last 75 pages. I would not recommend this book to people who get bored easily.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful surprise!
Review: I originally only read this book because its authors grew up in my home town--but I was wonderfully surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it! It was sharply funny while still being caring--not self-consciously cynical or angst-ridden as often "modern" novels are. I'm looking forward to seeing anything that might come out from these writers in the future.
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Summary: And they didn't really tell ALL there is to tell . . .
Review: Having lived in NYC with three children, suffered through nursery school and kindergarten applications and interviews, I can say with authority: IT'S TRUE! We lived in a building where every child had a nanny, whether the mom worked or not. Those caregivers were under strict instructions not to bring their charges home before 5:30 pm, so that they would be absolutely exhausted and able to stay up only for a quick bath and meal (given by nanny) before bed. Sometimes I would see the poor things trying to sleep as the nannies sang to them and shook their strollers on the walk home to keep them awake. The birthday party circuit was a fixed element of life in the Upper East Side. I will never forget my surprise and distaste at Jeremy's Place (THE place for birthdays, for about five minutes). He pranced and played to the birthday child like a court jester, frequently punctuating his patter with comments like, 'And whoooose the most important person in the room today? Justine'sssssss FATHER, whose paying for this little party! Just kidding!' Jeremy was a really nice guy who had figured out how to make money off these people, and I didn't fault him for it. (Several years after we left New York I found Jeremy's birthday party book and bought it, hoping it would really tell all. It didn't; but it was full of great party ideas.) One of the last parties my son attended was on the West Side, in some improbably huge space containing classic cars, in which kids sat to be served burgers and fries by 50's-style waitresses. I thought that was kind of neat, but by third grade he was already over it. The book is an exaggeration of the lifestyle, it's true. But not so much of one that I couldn't recognize the outlines of several Upper East Side templates-- more than a stereotype, sort of the Platonic version of themselves. I felt sorry for the child in this book the same way I felt sorry for the children who were being raised by housekeepers and nannies who inevitably resented the children because they were treated so shabbily by the parents. If 'The Nanny Diaries' had told the real truth about their lives as serfs, they would have mentioned that.
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