Customer Reviews
So sad the book is over! 
2008-08-11
I just finished this book and LOVED it! My friend recommended it to me and now I want to recommend it to everyone else. I must have laughed out loud at least 100 times plus I found it very touching at points. You won't be disappointed, this is a must read.
FINALLY, SOMETHING REAL 2008-06-17
In this age of cheap laughs with little substance, it's refreshing to read something that's as funny as it is genuine. The adventures of Julie Klam come from a place of bracing honesty; at one moment hilarious, the next devastating. This is a new voice, one we'll be hearing more of in the future. Pay attention.
Please excuse my daughter 2008-06-05
I loved this book! Miss Klam's writing is so accessible and touching. I feel like I know her. This book would be fabulous on film.
Poor little rich girl 
2008-05-31
I've finally discovered the answer to a question I've had for a long time: what exactly do housewives do all day long? Well, Julie Klam wrote a memoir. Yup, a bored housewife who was too lazy to go out and get a job even before she married has written a memoir about being absolutely "normal." And let me preface this review by saying that every memoirist, by getting their work published, opens themselves up to having their life criticized by the Average Jane.
She grew up in a wealthy suburb, where she played hookey from school in order to go shopping with her mom. Later, she had trouble getting a job, so she chalks this up as "I was brought up to believe that women don't work." Please. Klam's just l-a-z-y. Then, she dates an ex-con who steals $17,000 from her, and badgers her next boyfriend, Paul, with constant e-mails about wanting to get married. The rest of the memoir is a boring series of wedding details, baby details, and complaints about how horrible Klam's life was now that she couldn't afford to get her hair colored and that her size zero jeans didn't fit. Poor Julie. Furthermore, she wants a job where she can afford to "go out to lunch and get [her] hair done and go into Barneys and buy five hundred dollars' worth of makeup." Then she goes on to complain about being forced to shop at Gristedes (a New York chain grocery store)! Someone please, please tell me this woman isn't serious. At one point, where both she and her husband are out of work, Klam asks, "why has this happened to me?" a refrain usually more suitable for someone who has suffered real things. Klam is a completely self-absorbed, parasitic twit who refuses to take responsibility for her actions and has no awareness for the people around her. What she needs is a good therapist.
The book might have been saved by good writing; however, the writing here is stale and flat. Klam tries to be funny, but fails miserably. Klam could have explored some emotional truths in this, book, but all she does is recite a list of things she did or things that happened to her. And she tells us what er theme is, instead of showing us. Don't waste your time on this stuff; it's much better spent reading a memoir by someone who actually has an interesting life.
Klam can tell a story, just like her mom 2008-05-27
I'm not surprised that the reader who had the foresight to major in pre-med and then go on to med school wasn't wild about Julie. But for those of us who may have delayed adulthood, procrastinated about finding the right career, or slacked off in general, Julie's story is about the rise and vindication of the ultimate coddled kid. She has a funny, congenial way of telling the tale of how she meandered through life and ultimately found herself to be good at something and attractive to a successful and wonderful guy. Although Julie's life might not be a blueprint for everyone, it worked for her and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it.
I can't say WHY... 2008-05-26
A woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance. Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York. Her mother was sharp, glamorous, and funny, but did not think that work was a woman's responsibility. Her father was fully supportive, not just of his wife's staying at home, but also of her extravagant lifestyle. Her mother's offbeat parenting style-taking Julie out of school to go to lunch at Bloomingdale's, for example-made her feel well-cared-for (and well-dressed) but left her unprepared for graduating and entering the real world. She had been brought up to look pretty and wait for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. But what happened if he never showed up?
When Julie gets married to a hardworking but not wealthy man-one who expects her to be part of a modern couple and contribute financially to the marriage-she realizes how ambivalent and ill-equipped she is for life. Once she gives birth to a daughter, she knows she must grow up, get to work, and teach her child the self-reliance that she never learned.
Delivered in an uproariously funny, sweet, self-effacing, and utterly memorable voice,
Please Excuse My Daughter is a bighearted memoir from an irresistible new writer.
Top 10 Reasons I Loved this Book 2008-05-12
1. The author is hilarious.
2. The author is smart.
3. The author is completely relatable.
4. Her humor and experiences transcend beautifully into novel form.
5. Any 20 or 30 year old woman who doesn't know what she wants from life, where she's going, or how she's getting there will enjoy this story.
6. The author's genuine love and affection for her family and friends swelled in my heart and made me realize how much I love my family and friends.
7. The author shares her experiences working in really cool jobs, like Letterman and VH1.
8. Her experience buying her wedding dress, and her reaction afterwards, were the exact same as mine. LOL!
9. She reveals her true feelings about her honeymoon instead of playing the "it was fabulous!" card.
10. I bought this novel knowing nothing about it or the author, and realized after it ended (too soon) that I had read and loved many of her magazine articles over the last year.
Or just get a life... 
2008-04-24
Maybe I'm missing something, or maybe I was in a particularly grinchy mood when I picked up this book. Or maybe I just read one too many books about kids who transcended real hardship (like a few tours in foster homes) and did okay.
I love memoir and I love transformation-and-growth stories.
But as one reviewer said, it's hard to feel sympathetic to Julie Klam. She writes well. She had some up and down moments. Her childhood didn't prepare her for the real world of work. Maybe this sort of dynamic is interesting as a study in adult development, but it's neither unique nor especially suspenseful. I empathize more with her brother Matt, who can't see why she's still without a job.
Julie Klam had some great gigs. She got an article into O magazine. She knew how to work the publishing world. We don't hear about that. Instead, we hear about how she wasted time, how she got ready for her wedding, and infinite details of her difficult pregnancy.
One test of memoir is, "Could anyone but the author write this book? Is this life truly unique enough to compete with novels?"
I suspect millions of women could write about pregnancy, beloved grandparents and varied family members. The author needs to find not so much a voice but a subject worthy of her writing talents. How about a how-to book on, "How to get Esther Newberg to be your agent?"
That's more of an achievement as writing this book.
Loved it! 2008-04-23
I read this book straight through. I could not put it down. So many parts of the author's life seemed to remind me of my own life. For example, I feel like I was with her in Florida when she visited her grandfather. Julie Klam really struck a cord with me. This is a book I will not forget.
No Wonder David Letterman Loves Julie Klam, I do too! 2008-04-16
This book is divine! I started reading it at 3 pm and finished it at midnight. Then I got up the next morning and started reading it again. It's laugh out loud funny and incredibly poignant. Julie Klam's portraits of the people in her life are vivid, three dimensional and recognizable. And like Frank McCourt, she doesn't judge them. My family is crazy in a whole different way than Ms. Klam's. The curveballs life has thrown me have been entirely different - but her writing is so human, so honest and so immediate that I felt like she could have been describing big hunks of my personal journey too. Because what she does with her writing is gets at the core, universal experience of loving your mom and falling in love and being afraid of the unknown and falling on your face but getting up. And, her comedy is so singular, that images from the book keep returning to my mind in the week since I've read it and make me laugh all over again. Anyone who has ever lost a beloved pet will weep at she sits shiva for Otto. No wonder David Letterman loves her. And her family. And Paul. I do too!
