Be Happy or I'll Scream!: My Deranged Quest for the Perfect Husband, Family, and Life 
asked by reviewer on November 21, 2006 5:04 AM
Be Happy or Ill Scream! is for every married woman who has found just the tiniest bit of disconnect between the image of a perfect family in her headthink The Brady Bunch or The Huxtablesand the evidence in front of her eyes. Instead of darling and compliant rosy-cheeked children and an adorably tolerant husband ready to go along with zany shenanigans, most women are faced with kids who view family outings with all the enthusiasm of hardened inmates forced to bust rocks in roadside Alabama and a husband who would trade every last one of her kooky ideas for just a teeny bit more sex and a hot meal on the table at six. Sheri Lynch is a superb humorist of modern marriage, mores, and motherhood. Her take on what life is really like inside a marriageas opposed to what it looks like on the holiday card versionwill ring both wacky and true for any woman who was ever foolish enough to dream of the perfect marriage and family.
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As you will note from most reviewers on this book, we began as fans of the Bob and Sheri radio show of which the author is co-host, I fall into that category as well. I did not have any particular expectations about the book, but I found it very enjoyable.
From the viewpoint of someone who listens to the show A LOT you might find some of the stories repetitive because you have definitely heard them before, but there are new tidbits thrown in even for the most avid listener.
Sheri structures the book well and her writing style is very professional. This isn't just some radio personality who decided to write a book. She has a gift for storytelling that I think a lot of people overlook, whether it is on her show or in this fun book.
If you enjoy the show or enjoyed books by authors like Erma Bombeck (Please Don't Eat the Dasies) then you will enjoy this book as well. Hey, you don't even have to have kids to appreciate it! (That is for those married but without children like me :)
From the viewpoint of someone who listens to the show A LOT you might find some of the stories repetitive because you have definitely heard them before, but there are new tidbits thrown in even for the most avid listener.
Sheri structures the book well and her writing style is very professional. This isn't just some radio personality who decided to write a book. She has a gift for storytelling that I think a lot of people overlook, whether it is on her show or in this fun book.
If you enjoy the show or enjoyed books by authors like Erma Bombeck (Please Don't Eat the Dasies) then you will enjoy this book as well. Hey, you don't even have to have kids to appreciate it! (That is for those married but without children like me :)
reviewed by fabio on November 29, 2006 6:26 PM
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Sheri is great on the radio show she co-hosts however her humor did not work so well in this book of random thoughts and statements. The idea for the book, transforming and organizing her family, is good but I found the book to be way too scattered to be considered a good read.
reviewed by bookworks on November 29, 2006 7:28 PM
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We can't have it all, I've heard before.
But I think the more appropriate statement is: We can't *do* it all...or can we?
Just open Sheri Lynch's new book, "Be Happy or I'll Scream" to see for yourself how utterly impossible it is to live up to the television standards of the fun, frolicking happy life that pop culture is shoving in our faces, and more importantly, our kids faces.
Sheri's book taught me a huge lesson: Our kids could care less about Tee-pee Hotels and the World's Largest Ball of Yarn...until the grow up and turn into adults, have kids of their own and then lament or wonder why they never did anything special when they were kids...
That's right...corn mazes are the work of a Sadist, RV campers are best reserved for old age (unless you want to feed your babies beer and fried fish and then clean vomit off the fold-up couch at 3:00 a.m.) and husbands are notorious for rolling their eyes at their wives until they have been convinced that "it" was their own idea. But, oh the places we will go, and oh the lessons we will learn if we take travel with Sheri and her family up and down the east coast and it's interios.
Sheri's book shows us that the lesson isn't in the history plaques on the sides of the highways, but rather in the journey...and that the most important lesson of all isn't that we need to spend more time "doing" with our families, but rather we should spend more time *being* with our families.
Because in the end, that's what it all comes down to...time. And it's a limited resource, so we should grab it while the gettin's good.
But I think the more appropriate statement is: We can't *do* it all...or can we?
Just open Sheri Lynch's new book, "Be Happy or I'll Scream" to see for yourself how utterly impossible it is to live up to the television standards of the fun, frolicking happy life that pop culture is shoving in our faces, and more importantly, our kids faces.
Sheri's book taught me a huge lesson: Our kids could care less about Tee-pee Hotels and the World's Largest Ball of Yarn...until the grow up and turn into adults, have kids of their own and then lament or wonder why they never did anything special when they were kids...
That's right...corn mazes are the work of a Sadist, RV campers are best reserved for old age (unless you want to feed your babies beer and fried fish and then clean vomit off the fold-up couch at 3:00 a.m.) and husbands are notorious for rolling their eyes at their wives until they have been convinced that "it" was their own idea. But, oh the places we will go, and oh the lessons we will learn if we take travel with Sheri and her family up and down the east coast and it's interios.
Sheri's book shows us that the lesson isn't in the history plaques on the sides of the highways, but rather in the journey...and that the most important lesson of all isn't that we need to spend more time "doing" with our families, but rather we should spend more time *being* with our families.
Because in the end, that's what it all comes down to...time. And it's a limited resource, so we should grab it while the gettin's good.
reviewed by versed on November 29, 2006 7:30 PM