Rating: 
Summary: A wonderfully well-written romantic escape novel.
Review: A great escape novel that I was glad to have read after completing a rigorous and exhausting 3-month work assignment. I completely escaped reality! The book is engrossing. Initially, I was taken aback by the lusty and obscene language, but it certainly set the stage for the plot and characters development. Ms. Ciresi captured the essence and tradeoffs of life and all the issues and subissues intertwined therein. This includes: living in the city compared to the suburbs, the workplace job/career struggle, mother/daughter/sister ties, religious paradoxes, and most of all the complexities in making an unconventional male-female relationship work. Ms. Ciresi's subtle and not so subtle humor made me laugh out loud. I even had tears at times and found myself turning to my husband to tell him the "latest" Lisa event. It's definitely an adult-theme novel and not one for everyone. However, if you enjoy racy, funny books you will enjoy this one of a hardy young American woman (raised as an Italian Catholic) attemting to conquer her real and fictional demons.
Rating: 
Summary: A romantic comedy with emotional punch
Review: I love this book - I gulped it down, staying up until 3 am to finish (and yes, I work), then started a closer re-read right away the next day.I admit I picked the book up looking for a light, funny read - and it *is* very funny (laugh-out-loud at times), sharp, honest, and witty, with dialogue that zings - but it's something even better, a comedy with emotional punch, with moments that also made me cry. I loved both of the main characters - which is not to say I liked everything about them - and found them very real, if very flawed. A large part of the appeal of the book is Lisa's voice - not to mention her smart mouth - but polite, cautious, decent Ebencomes across as equally appealing. The attraction - and conflict - betwen the two also feels very real and strong - at times sweet, at times wrenching. The book also repays multiple readings. Seemingly throw-away lines (even something as innocuous as a discussion of Jane Eyre) take on new meaning in the light of subsequent events. As well the sheer quality of the writing stands out more. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Dont' be turned off by the cover!
Review: What a shame that this book has such a clichéd, girly cover and silly title. Masquerading as chick lit, 'Pink Slip' is actually a genuinely funny and moving novel. No doubt, if it had been written by and/or for men, would have been an award-winner and book-club selection. Bravo to Ciresi as well for making me laugh out loud-I can't count how many bestsellers I've read recently that were skillfully done but suffocatingly serious. A worthy addition to the meager canon of non-Yale, New Haven-set literature, as well! The complicated, sexy and often painful courtship is one of the few modern fictional relationships I've encountered that really rang true. Lisa and Strauss aren't perfect for each other, hurt each other endlessly and have their share of annoying habits. The lingerie of the title comes into play as one of Strauss' less-than-politically-correct quirks, and you end up liking him more for it. I really hated to see these two go at the end of the book. The world Ciresi creates is compelling enough even to sustain subplots on AIDS and the Holocaust without too much strain. As much as I hate the "moaning married couples" genre, I'll definitely be reading the second book on Lisa and Strauss, and anything else I can find by Ciresi.
Rating:
Summary: a delightful read!
Review: I'm female graduate student in a physics-related subject. Unfortunately I am pretty disillusioned by men (seen too many weirdos in my field!) and also by most fiction written for women (too wordy and/or banal). However, I was so riveted by this wonderful book that I played hooky from the lab for an entire day to stay home and read it. I could write a lot about the quirky heroine and her sweetly irreverent cousin Dodie, but the book is worth reading mainly because of the character of Eben Strauss. He's definitely on the endangered species list - gentle, moral, considerate, loving as well as professionally successful. I am not ashamed to say that I was touched to the point of tears. (for the record, "The Bridges of Madison County" didn't have the same effect on me.) Although the author has drawn upon several stereotypes, the clever dialog paints the characters as eminently REAL, 3-D people. Hope to see more books by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Dont' be turned off by the cover!
Review: What a shame that this book has such a clichéd, girly cover and silly title. Masquerading as chick lit, 'Pink Slip' is actually a genuinely funny and moving novel. No doubt, if it had been written by and/or for men, would have been an award-winner and book-club selection. Bravo to Ciresi as well for making me laugh out loud-I can't count how many bestsellers I've read recently that were skillfully done but suffocatingly serious. A worthy addition to the meager canon of non-Yale, New Haven-set literature, as well! The complicated, sexy and often painful courtship is one of the few modern fictional relationships I've encountered that really rang true. Lisa and Strauss aren't perfect for each other, hurt each other endlessly and have their share of annoying habits. The lingerie of the title comes into play as one of Strauss' less-than-politically-correct quirks, and you end up liking him more for it. I really hated to see these two go at the end of the book. The world Ciresi creates is compelling enough even to sustain subplots on AIDS and the Holocaust without too much strain. As much as I hate the "moaning married couples" genre, I'll definitely be reading the second book on Lisa and Strauss, and anything else I can find by Ciresi.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book
Review: This was my first Rita Ciresi book, and it won't be my last. I opened this book with the best of intentions of only reading for a couple minutes, and ended up devouring it in two hours. The way Ciresi brings the characters to life, and weaves them into such an intricate and superb story line is pure magic. This was one book that ended way too soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Pink Slip not worth the time
Review: The plot about Lisa and Strauss, her boss, is somewhat fun, but the way he's written I found him dull and unemotional. The rest of the plots aren't worth the time - why she is losing weight, the sexual energy with the brother-in-law, lashing out at her mother - except the relationship with her cousin, Dodie. It would have made for a much more succinct story to have the relationship with Lisa and Strauss be parallel to her relationship with Dodie. It was drawn out in many places and too in-depth about extraneous issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh!
Review: I was extremely disappointed with this book. Not only did I find the characters completely unlikeable, but the situations they were involved in were also totally boring. I couldn't stand the main character and couldn't care less about what happened to her. This book dragged on forever and it wasn't worth finishing. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible!
Review: I could barely finish this book! How others can state otherwise is beyond me. The book is extremely slow and the characters are so dull you hate them half way through the book. The cover is completely misleading giving the impression of a light hearted fun read as it states "Lisa's mother wants her to get married so badly that anyone in pants will do" doesnt make sense at all since there was no character development between Lisa and her mom. By the end of the book I was skipping pages to see how it would FINALLY end! Skip this book, its one pages too many and very boring!
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: I thought this would be fun reading but the pacing proved to be so excruciatingly slow that I had to put it down after three honest tries at resuscitating my interest. Doesn't the writer know anything about pacing? It seems like that would be one of the basics of craftsmanship!
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