Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful rich humor with modern view of love
Review: I use reliable Amazon reviewers a lot to buy books, but I never write. However, after seeing the last review I felt compelled as there are not, as the last writer wrote, glaring Judiaic errors in this compelling truly hilarious novel - in fact I read an online interview with the author -- the narrator is relaying a faulty knowledge of Judiasm to her "audience" because she was never taught by her family - what she knows comes from books and by watching other Jews and guessing. If she had everything right, it wouldn't ring true. I feel the point of Matzo Ball is that everything goes in love. What works works, the arrangement her gay father comes to with her mother mirrors the complicated arrangement the secular narrator come to on her own with an orthdox hunk - and the documentary the narrator is working on reinforces this by the elderly sex anthropologist's comments.As for orthdox men marrying women who will keep kosher in their home but having shrimp and pork outside of the home, that is a very common arrangement. There are many levels of orthodoxy, and in love you can't be a stickler.
Rating: 
Summary: Lifeless
Review: I wanted to like this book, because it is smart and technically well-written, unlike much of the chick-lit being produced out there. There are even a few amusing scenes. Sadly, those scenes are few and far between. The novel reads as though the author wanted to create a primer on Jewish life, which, if you already know a great deal about Jewish life, is alternatingly pedantic and dull. The conflicts did not draw me in, and I genuinely did not care what happened to the characters. I give the book three stars because it is competently written, and that's something in the genre, but overall, I can't recommend it. Just too boring.
Rating:
Summary: Meh, okay
Review: I'm a huge fan of chick lit and Red Dress Ink books, but this book didn't really do it for me. There's a bit too much angst about Judaism and often the angst seems unnecessary and over the top. The characters are likable and the plot has great potential but the author doesn't really deliver. It's fine but it doesn't really provide the distraction I want out of this type of reading. It was a bit too easy to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Fun and Full of Humor
Review: I'm new to the work of Laurie Gwen Shapiro.... I haven't read any of her stuff before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was really pleasantly surprised. I found her new book "The Matzo Ball Heiress" really funny, unique and truly different. Main character Heather Greenboltz is surrounded by a million and done crazy characters and I loved meeting each and everyone. The humor she runs through the story is first class. I really enjoyed this new addition to the Red Dress Ink family and think that Ms. Shapiro might be its newest hit! Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: Pure Fun and Full of Humor
Review: I'm new to the work of Laurie Gwen Shapiro.... I haven't read any of her stuff before, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was really pleasantly surprised. I found her new book "The Matzo Ball Heiress" really funny, unique and truly different. Main character Heather Greenboltz is surrounded by a million and done crazy characters and I loved meeting each and everyone. The humor she runs through the story is first class. I really enjoyed this new addition to the Red Dress Ink family and think that Ms. Shapiro might be its newest hit! Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: A winner
Review: The five Greenblotz cousins sit on the board of directors for the family run matzo company. However, Jake actually runs the firm while his brother handles the Florida sales and documentary film director Heather fills in when Jake needs her. The other two cousins are estranged from this trio. Heather takes a Food Channel crew on a tour of the matzo factory. Later, the interviewer Steve Meyers asks Heather out. When they return to her apartment following their dinner date, he informs her in the middle of sex that his station wants to televise her family's Passover Seder. After throwing Steve out, Heather panics because her family avoids Seders. She dines on ham while Jake has an Irish Catholic lover; the rest of the family is worse. However, Jake informs her that their business is in trouble as the competitors are part of conglomerates that spend a fortune on advertising. They need this show and a family to go with their Seder so Heather begins the hiring process. Of course the dysfunctional Greenblotz rally around the Seder. This is an intriguing look at a Jewish family fully assimilated into the American culture. The story line is fun to follow as Heather struggles to understand her heritage beyond her inheritance with the Seder serving as a symbol between the old and the new. Fans will appreciate this insightful look at the de-Americanization of Heather and her family who discover there is more to being Jewish than chocolate matzo. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Too smart to be CHICK LIT - wonderful
Review: This is a marvelous addition to contemporary novel with abreakthrough cultural approach - a fun combination of multiculturalism, very good writing, funny set-up, great excution and a little sex to spice it all up. I was thrilled to finally read a book where the narrator was Jewish and a sexy character, never whiny even though she has every reason to be as her family is so messed-up (The fathe ris hiding his homosexuality form the Kosher food world, the mother is away every passover, the cousins talk via lawyer). The author never mocks the narrator's family, but has great fun with the family of estranged millionaires. LG Shapiro has a wry gift for desciption (a grandfather with deli belly from too many corned beef sandwiches) and more often than not, true poignancy emerges from what is mistakenly labelled Chick Lit. This should be reviewed as a fun novel in the Roth tradition, a kinder Roth to her people. Roth never had the kind heart LG Shapiro has for her characters.
Rating:
Summary: chuckles on matzo
Review: This is the funniest book I've read in months. Laurie has a great ear for dialogue and nails the cross-cultural issues. Couldn't put it down until I finished.
Rating:
Summary: chuckles on matzo
Review: This is the funniest book I've read in months. Laurie has a great ear for dialogue and nails the cross-cultural issues. Couldn't put it down until I finished.
Rating:
Summary: Break out the Matzo!
Review: This was a delightful book! It was nice to see a book that had another culture in it, too. A bit slow in the beginning, the story is well worth the wait.
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