Rating: 
Summary: A must read for all married couples!
Review: I've read the "Pink Slip" by the same author and loved it, so I looked for another book by Rita Ciresi. I found this one but the reader reviews were mixed. I went ahead and bought it any way and finished it in a week. What a great book! It really shows the emotional struggles that go through the minds of a married couple -alternating between the husband and wife, but in a truly loving way. I loved the book! I guess the mixed reviews came from - my guess - comparing this book to "Pink Slip". But the two are not comparable! One book deals with two people falling in love that have many differences - backgrounds, religion, age, careers, families, etc. - and how they are able to overcome them, and the second book (which is a sequel) shows how they cope with married life.
Excellent book, one of my favorites!
Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: It's hard to believe this tedious novel was written by the same author who crafted the artful stories in "Sometimes I Dream in Italian" or the entertaining "Pink Slip." This book drags on with meaningless detail from it's boring beginning to its unsatisfying end.
Rating: 
Summary: a followup to Pink Slip
Review: Lisa and Eben, the main characters of "Pink Slip", have now been married for 5 years and are the parents of Danny. They are trying to have another baby but it is revealed that Lisa's wild past has given them both chlamydia and it is increasingly difficult. They can only have conceive on certain days of the month.The story is told by both Eben and Lisa in alternating chapters. Lisa is a stay-at-home mom who aspires to be a writer and is given the opportunity to publish in Playboy magazine. her storyis about a man who almost strays from his wife, and Eben, who recently has been promotes, fears people will see it as based on their own marriage. They are also selling their home to buy one where they can entertain more now that Eben is promoted. Cynthia Farquhar is their attarctive real estate agent, on whom Eben has a crush and with whom Lisa starts a friendship. This is not the greatest by Ciresi by a long shot, and it is pointless that it is a follow-up because it does not build on the original story. There is no mention of Lisa's deceased cousin Dodie, with whom she was so close growing up, or her overbearing mother. It was a bit tiresome to read actually, like it had no real plot.
Rating:
Summary: Not the follow-up I expected
Review: Rita Ciresi's continuation of _Pink Slip_ will undoubtedly be met with fanfare. The first novel where we saw Lisa struggle to grow up and all that entails has transported us into the future, five years later. The ending of the first novel felt abrupt to me so starting up again five years later was frustrating. As I was reading _Remind Me Again Why I Married You_, I tried to remember why I liked the first novel so much. (All the honesty, the relationships between Lisa and her family, and Eb's endearing but goofy ways) Well, the honesty remains but it didn't reach me the same, kind of like seeing it everyday for five years. Gone are the family members who would have been a great resource for exploring married life. It was like Lisa and Eben were on their own. I miss the old characters. Eb's quirky traits just seem so middle-aged here. The honesty was here but somehow not a revealing. The book is told in alternating voices between Lisa and Eben. I like the idea of that but it wasn't pulled off completely. Lisa had so much moxy and life in Pink Slip that she seems to have sold out here. Maybe that is the intent. Not once did Lisa and Eben show that they grew to love each other. I was disappointed but there's the honesty card coming up again. Not once did I think about not completing the book. I wanted to see where Rita was headed. I may not like the transportation but the trip was worth it. Just because the story isn't what I wanted it to be, Rita Ciresi stayed true to what her story for Eben and Lisa was.
Rating:
Summary: Not the follow-up I expected
Review: Rita Ciresi's continuation of _Pink Slip_ will undoubtedly be met with fanfare. The first novel where we saw Lisa struggle to grow up and all that entails has transported us into the future, five years later. The ending of the first novel felt abrupt to me so starting up again five years later was frustrating. As I was reading _Remind Me Again Why I Married You_, I tried to remember why I liked the first novel so much. (All the honesty, the relationships between Lisa and her family, and Eb's endearing but goofy ways) Well, the honesty remains but it didn't reach me the same, kind of like seeing it everyday for five years. Gone are the family members who would have been a great resource for exploring married life. It was like Lisa and Eben were on their own. I miss the old characters. Eb's quirky traits just seem so middle-aged here. The honesty was here but somehow not a revealing. The book is told in alternating voices between Lisa and Eben. I like the idea of that but it wasn't pulled off completely. Lisa had so much moxy and life in Pink Slip that she seems to have sold out here. Maybe that is the intent. Not once did Lisa and Eben show that they grew to love each other. I was disappointed but there's the honesty card coming up again. Not once did I think about not completing the book. I wanted to see where Rita was headed. I may not like the transportation but the trip was worth it. Just because the story isn't what I wanted it to be, Rita Ciresi stayed true to what her story for Eben and Lisa was.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty witty
Review: This novel, about unsure married partners and parents of a young child, seemed to have that grain of reality throughout. I liked the way the author went into their minds and, for better or worse, laid out their feelings. I am going to backtrack and read what I've missed by Ciresi as this was my first book by her I've ever come across.
Rating:
Summary: not as good as the first
Review: Two problems kept this book from living up or past "Pink Slip". As other reviewers have mentioned, the omission of just about every wacky secondary character in "Pink Slip" greatly weakened the book. Lisa's family, mainly. Since Ebb was working at the same place as he was when we met him, I couldn't help but hope that we'd bump into Peggy or Hook again, just anyone to break up the relentless focus on Ebb-Lisa/Lisa-Ebb. However, stereotypical they were, those former characters added, not detracted, from "Pink Slip." Now with the two protagonists having marital trouble and difficulty communicating, other less serious characters would have been a real treat. I was also disappointed that Lisa's potential agent made an intriguing appearance than disappeared for pages and pages, while I slogged on through many references and jokes about bodily functions/sex. Like in the movies, it always seems that the heroine ultimately has to choose between a career and taking care of a family full-time. While Lisa still seemed determined to write, her potential career as a novelist seemed to just fizzle out in the last few pages. I was hoping against hope that she'd actually publish her book, but alas, the author left that up in the air. How nice it would be to see a book/movie/tv show where the female protagonist stayed true to her dreams that didn't necessarily involve romance. Oh well.
Rating:
Summary: Women's lit for the intelligent reader
Review: What is original about Rita Ciresi is she's not only funny and honest, but she's masterful at her craft. Her latest book is more literature than a beach read, so if you want something candy-coated, this is not the book for you. However, I believe Ciresi's writing continues to be thoughtful and provoking, and stops to make you think about life and the woman's place in it. This book *is* different than Pink Slip, although I think in a good way. The main character has grown up and now faces new challenges, including discovering her niche in the world and what marriage is really about. Remind Me Again is intelligent, funny, a good read. You'll enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Five Stars for Ciresi!!!
Review: What Rita Ciresi writes is definitely more lit than chick-lit, but it's also a type of smart chick-lit, smart in that there's a wry sense of humor and sensitivity to language at work that's not found in the vast majority of chick-lit titles that crowd the front displays of every bookstore these days. Ciresi's new novel, as with her previous books, does more than simply take the reader on a romp in the life of young professionals; she explores her characters with depth, the result of which is that you care about the people in her books and, consequently, you remember them. If you want something better written and more intelligent than Harlequin's Red Dress Ink series, I'd give REMIND ME AGAIN WHY I MARRIED YOU a try; and if you like the work of Lorrie Moore or Elinor Lipman or Nora Ephron, you most definitely want to add Ciresi to your reading list!
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