Diane Warner's Complete Book of Baby Showers: Hundreds of Ways to Host a Unique Celebration

Rating:
Summary: There's more than just the traditional Baby Shower...
Review: ...I'm a busy Hostess, always planning Baby Showers - and always looking for new and fun ideas. Diane Warner has a wonderful collection of themes with ideas on how to carry the theme through the invitations to the decorations and food. She inspires readers to think beyond the traditional Baby Shower with great ideas and useful tips for a fun approach to Baby Showers. You'll have as much fun hosting the Baby Shower as your guests will have enjoying it!

Rating:
Summary: Spend the [money] on mom-to-be, not on this book!
Review: This book has a few useful suggestions for shower themes, but is otherwise useless. The games are all pretty stupid and sound boring. I'd be embarassed to ask my guests to play them. Even many of themes are pretty bad (although there are a few good suggestions). As an example, Warner suggests a theme where you ask all the guests (including the men) to come pretending they are pregnant (i.e. with pillows stuffed under their shirts). If I were the mom-to-be, I'd probably turn right around and leave the party when I saw that. Late pregnancy is unpleasant enough without being made fun of for it. The recipes section is even worse. Most of the foods sound remarkably unappealing. To top it off, the beverages section is packed with recipes for alcoholic drinks. Maybe it's me, but I can't imagine anything dumber than making a champagne punch the centerpiece of your buffet...remember, mom-to-be (the guest of honor) can't drink! Especially if she would otherwise it, it seems terribly thoughtless and inconsiderate to serve alcohol. The only value I derived from this book is some very clear ideas about what not to do. It happens, that all of the things I learned not to do were a) things the book suggested doing, and b) things it would never have occurred to me to do anyway. Take the [money] you were going to spend on this book and buy something for the baby.

Rating:
Summary: Spend the [money] on mom-to-be, not on this book!
Review: This book has a few useful suggestions for shower themes, but is otherwise useless. The games are all pretty stupid and sound boring. I'd be embarassed to ask my guests to play them. Even many of themes are pretty bad (although there are a few good suggestions). As an example, Warner suggests a theme where you ask all the guests (including the men) to come pretending they are pregnant (i.e. with pillows stuffed under their shirts). If I were the mom-to-be, I'd probably turn right around and leave the party when I saw that. Late pregnancy is unpleasant enough without being made fun of for it. The recipes section is even worse. Most of the foods sound remarkably unappealing. To top it off, the beverages section is packed with recipes for alcoholic drinks. Maybe it's me, but I can't imagine anything dumber than making a champagne punch the centerpiece of your buffet...remember, mom-to-be (the guest of honor) can't drink! Especially if she would otherwise it, it seems terribly thoughtless and inconsiderate to serve alcohol. The only value I derived from this book is some very clear ideas about what not to do. It happens, that all of the things I learned not to do were a) things the book suggested doing, and b) things it would never have occurred to me to do anyway. Take the [money] you were going to spend on this book and buy something for the baby.

Rating:
Summary: A fun book packed with great ideas!!
Review: This is a great book on Baby Showers..the best I have seen! It is so so well written with easy to understand ideas for really cute, unique baby showers!! Diane Warner's sense of humor also shines through, making this a pleasure to read. I gave a baby shower for my best friend, using a combination of ideas gathered from this book, and everyone raved! I highly recommend this book to others who want to give a really fun, great baby shower for someone!!
Linda