Friday, November 1, 2013

The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster - Review


The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster

Rating: 3 Stars

Description:  While frantically looking for something in her home Jen Lancaster realized that her levels of clutter and chaos were detracting from her life.  After talking about resolutions for the new year she decided to spend the year living like Martha.

Genre: Memoir

My Impression:  I was so excited when I stumbled upon this book while browsing what my library had under the subject "Martha Stewart".  I've been obsessed with Martha the last couple of weeks for reasons I can't quite figure out.  The summary of this book read like the books The Happiness Project (which Lancaster actually references) and Julie and Julia had a baby with a sense of humor.  I was somewhat disappointed with what I found.  Unlike The Happiness Project there are no clear goals or set ideas Lancaster's working towards.  She mentions living like Martha but there's not much explanation for how she does it.  The vagueness of the whole thing kind of bugged me.  Also, there's a lot about her dog.  For most of the book I was wondering why she dragged Martha into the book at all because the book seemed to be mostly about her beloved dog Maisy being in the last stages of life.  While those parts were sweetly done it wasn't what I wanted from this book.  The parts where she does talk about copying Martha either for party planning or cooking I found very interesting but unfortunately these parts feel few and far between.  This book wasn't bad and if I had read any of Jen Lancaster's other books and really loved her I probably would've gotten more out of it.  However, I was looking for a book about a normal person trying Martha Stewart's methods and this just wasn't it.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?:  No

Would I Recommend this Book?:  Only to someone who really loved Lancaster's previous books.  I wouldn't say don't read it but it definitely isn't a "You have to go out and get this book right now!"

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