Rating: 
Summary: I laughed, I cried
Review: Ms. Ciresi's got a winner here. Her beautiful writing style weaves together several complex story lines, all with humor and heart. The characters spring to life off the written page-- so much so that I found myself thinking about them long after I finished the book. Really an enjoyable read.
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Summary: whitty young professional woman has the chutspa to go for it
Review: enjoyed this book very much. In fact I'm reading parts over again because it brought back many memories of growing up in metro NYC. This young, whitty professional goes for what her heart wants. The author has a wonderful way of using the english language. A truly entertaining book. I'll keep, and read again.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVED this book!!!
Review: I would stop whatever I was involved in during the day and go read some of this book. It is not only funny,it is also very human. Most of us have been where Lise is. Juggling home and work, tolerating our mothers and looking for the right balance in all of them. I would recommend this book to anyone who needed a good laugh... and a good cry!
Rating: 
Summary: Book explores romance
Review: Six feet, 175 pounds of sexy, synthetic male flesh topped with glamorous red hair - the only man in Lisa's life is the one her mother bought her. In Rita Ciresi's Pink Slip, Lisa's mother tires of worrying about her single daughter and thus buys "Security Man," a convincing-looking blow-up doll, to ride in the front seat of Lisa's car, to ensure that no one will attack the seemingly solitary woman. "He looked just like Perry Como. I couldn't resist," says mom; Lisa decides to toss Red Rover (the dummy's) out onto the side of the highway. After a string of dead-end relationships and affairs, the only man who has any staying power in 25-year-old Lisa's life is her gay cousin, Dodie. After watching her cousin stride up the ladder of success on Wall Street and rack up one happy relationship after another, Lisa makes the move to the burbs to find her own money and love, in whichever order they happen upon her. As an editor at a medical company, Lisa finds herself surrounded by waspy, gossipy females and very few available men. Eventually, though, she finds romance with her boss, Strauss, a fellow Italian. The pair trade Italian names and attempt to one-up each other with mom stories. "My mother beats throw rugs - with a big wooden spoon - over the back porch railing to get the dust out." "My mother waxes the kitchen floor on her hands and knees." "Beats vacuuming the ceiling. Really. I kid you not. My mother vacuums the ceiling." Strauss and Lisa's office affair reads like a steamy harlequin romance novel, complete with the office security guard who discovers their relationship. Strauss and Lisa sneak out during lunch hour for a quickie at his house, only to find the cleaning lady. They end up taking a romantic stroll through the woods, tracking muddy prints all over the office upon their return. Dr. Peggy Shoenbarger, boss to both Lisa and Strauss, finds the muddy evidence - the standard chaos ensues. Ciresi keeps her readers' interest with the love story in Pink Slip, with the proper dash of sex scenes thrown in as added incentive. On the more serious side, Lisa's struggle with her mother and the constant memory of her deceased father are hauntingly believable. These family sentiments give the novel much of its charm. Glimpses into Lisa's Italian-Catholic family and Strauss' Italian-Jewish family give depth to the story, where there otherwise would be very little. A running subplot about Strauss' father's Holocaust experiences seems slightly out of place, but finally ties into the rest of the story in the last chapter. The main problem with Pink Slip involves Ciresi's bold attempts to flesh out her gay characters. She tries, but fails. Dodie struggles with his own identity during the AIDS scare of the '80s. Dr. Shoenbarger, meanwhile, is merely laughable as a stereotypical lesbian. Ironically, Lisa writes her own novel in Pink Slip - she admits her problem in character development is making her gay characters believable. Perhaps Ciresi realized her own weakness.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read!
Review: After all of the "chick lit" duds I have been reading lately, this is a breath of fresh air. I was so engrossed that I tried desperately to read it through in one sitting, but life would not allow me to, so it took me a couple of days.
I loved it. It's believeable, well written, and positively great! Lisa(r) is a strong character, and "watching" her grow up and learn to love was heartbreaking at times, and make me cheer for her at others.
Cheers to Rita Ciresi for writing such a great book about a young woman who finds herself, instead of a fairytale, in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful! A "Chick Lit" book with meat
Review: I loved it -- from the cover it does seem to be a fluffy, "chick lit" book, and it is fun, but it also has a serious side. Lisa Diodetto (yes, it means "God said" in Italian, which is interesting given Lisa's moral dilemmas) is grappling with the issues a lot of young women deal with today..establishing a career, moving to a suburb from a city (or vice versa), finding a meaningful love interest after a string of meaningless ones, trying to deal with her mixed feelings toward her family, etc.
She has a wonderful, funny and close relationship with her gay cousin, which provides much of the comic relief and funny lines of the novel, but I particularly loved the whole exploration of the office romance...especially, one between a subordinate and boss. So what happens if two people in that situation really do fall in love (and it does happen quite often in the real world)?
I also especially enjoyed the parts about Lisa's dealings with her family, which are not ideal...I think many people can relate to the whole less-than-perfect family situation.
I agree with the reviewer who said the first 30 pages or so were slower, but it does get much more absorbing after that.
Thanks to Ms. Ciresi for writing such an entertaining and yes, thoughtful book for women both young and old. I hope she writes many more! I will buy any of them.
Julia Wilkinson, author, My Life at AOL and other books
Rating: 
Summary: don't know what to make of it
Review: This book is packaged as light and fun, but it's a long, slow read. It's not cohesive -- it reads like several short stories strung together. The book is supposed to be a romance, but the weakest relationship by far is between Lisa and Strauss, who won't even let him call her by his first name. When the story revolves around her family, it gets funny and readable and moves along fairly quickly. When it bogs down in her relationship with her boss, it's just boring. The ending felt abrupt and forced and was very disappointing. I know it's supposed to be a happily-ever-after for Lisa, but I just felt sorry for her.
Rating: 
Summary: Started good but got bored....
Review: When I started reading this book, I was pretty into it, but then I got REALLY bored. It just seemed to move too slowly for my taste. I got bored with the characters and decided to give up on it. Hopefully I will enjoy her other novel, although I'm not definite that I will purchase it...
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.
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