'My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag... and Other Things You Can't Ask Martha' by Jolie Kerr

Official Summary:
The author of the hit column “Ask a Clean Person” offers a hilarious and practical guide to cleaning up life’s little emergencies

Life is filled with spills, odors, and those oh-so embarrassing stains you just can’t tell your parents about. And let’s be honest: no one is going to ask Martha Stewart what to do when your boyfriend barfs in your handbag.

Thankfully, Jolie Kerr has both staggering cleaning knowledge and a sense of humor. With signature sass and straight talk, Jolie takes on questions ranging from the basic—how do I use a mop? —to the esoteric—what should I do when bottles of homebrewed ginger beer explode in my kitchen? My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag proves that even the most nightmarish cleaning conundrums can be solved with a smile, the right supplies, and a little music. 

Review:

Can a how-to about cleaning be chock full of useful tips and funny? The short answer is a resounding yes! The longer one is that Jolie Kerr manages to deliver a no-nonsense but chuckle inducing step-by-step home cleaning guide for the masses with 'My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag...' - a title that by itself is attention grabbing and fun.

It's not often that how-to's are reviewed on T.T.P., and this is the first none-wedding planning title to make the cut, but it needed to be shared. Kerr's slightly self deprecating, tell it like it is style makes you feel as though your getting advice from a good friend and not reading it because your a disaster of a thirty-something whose never heard of laundry bluing and the amazing thing it does for your whites.

Bottom Line: If you've ever found yourself at a lose when faced with a mess, a yellowed shirt or just need affirmation that your using the right stuff on your floors, this slightly off-kilter guide should be in your arsenal. Doesn't matter if you consider yourself a clean freak or a slob, this one gets a T.T.P. guarantee. You'll like it, and you might even pick up a few new tricks for keeping the kipple* at bay.

*For those that need a definition, well, it is my humble opinion that you should read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Really. Add it to your list now. Thank me in the comments later. In the meantime, the definition as provided by Urban Dictionary:

Kipple is a word coined by the remarkable science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It refers to the sinister type of rubbish which simply builds up without any human intervention. Eventually, one day, the entire world will have moved to a state of kipplization.

Bridal Title #4: '51 Ways to Save Money and Still Have a Chic and Fabulous Wedding!' by Laura Pepper

Official Summary:

There are plenty of ways to save money on your wedding day. But chic and tasteful ones? '51 Ways to Save Money and Still Have a Chic and Fabulous Wedding!' introduces these to you in this entertaining how-to guide. There's nothing tacky or distasteful here: just good old fashioned money saving tricks that you might not have thought of before. You'll save the price of this book, plus much much more! If you want a chic and fabulous wedding, and still enter marriage with enough money to enjoy newly wed life, then this guide is for you!

Review:

When I downloaded this title the last thing I felt like I needed to do was check the page count, but at $2.99 for a forty-two page book - that with all the extra tall "section headers" and double spacing it end up being less than 20 pages of actual information - I couldn't help but feel ripped off. But that's both a blessing and a curse in this particular instance.

On one hand the it would have been nice to have the longer, more in-depth explanations of her money saving tips. Things like "23. Serve Wedding Cake as Dessert. ‘Cos who really needs two desserts anyway?" were as curtly delivered as they were offensive in their numb obviousness. While we're on the topic of Laura's tips, most of them fall into the category of 'DUH' teetering on the edge of 'WTF?'. Nothing struck me as being chic and/or fabulous and every last one of them could have been copied directly out of any wedding forum anywhere on the internet. But don't just take my word on it, go take a quick spin on Google and search 'Wedding Money Saving Tips', and if you don't find an army of people suggesting you hold your big day in a friend or family members back yard, making your own flower arrangement, having your wedding on an off day (or season), avoiding any holidays or borrowing, begging and stealing anything and everything you can possibly get your hands on than I'll eat my hat.. well, A hat anyway. And at the end of the day I guarantee that the advise you get from that one quick web search will be more thoughtful and useful than the quick one- to two-paragraph quips that Pepper gives in this guide.

On the other hand, at least the title only took about 15 minutes of my time to read - so not the worst experience I guess.

Bottom Line: A rip off of epic proportions that says absolutely nothing insightful about how you can save money on your big day. Do yourself a favor and keep to the forums and the $2.99.

Bridal Title 1: 'Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing A Fantastic Wedding On A Realistic Budget' by Denise and Alan Fields

A few days before Christmas I went from girlfriend to fiance and like every other bride-to-be once my head stopped swimming reality set in. I now had a party to plan. A big, expensive, 130 people on the guest list party.

Right.

I'm not going to try and kid myself here. While I've planned corporate parties for 300, I've never planned this kind of party and never, ever when my own credit card was involved. I wanted... no needed some info to help prepare me for the battles ahead. Enter 'Bridal Bargains' as my first choice read.

The author's summary promises money saving hints and tips in addition to guidance on navigating the rocky, pariah ridden landscape that is wedding planning. Good stuff if they deliver even better when it's laid out in a fun, functional way.

So let's say this is good stuff that falls just short of great. As my first, and so far only, bridal title, I really appreciated the conversational, honest tone that the author's have. It just oozes confident experience. And the cost saving hints are actually things that seem both reasonable and executable. No previous experience necessary - this one is perfect for us novices.

Where this title falls short is that while the cost saving hints are great, they get repeated over and over again. With the repetition I feel as though the book could have been about a third shorter. The repetition also makes it an interesting adventure to find the tip you're looking for. Nothing bothers me more about a book designed to be used as an informative handbook that you need to dig through. I'm not a fan of playing detective and if it weren't for the search function gained through my Kindle, well, after the first read this book would have been pretty useless. That said, with bookmarks and keyword searches, this reference title is absolutely awesome.

Bottom line: If you don't have a clue where to start your planning and you'd like to build a good, cost saving baseline this one is for you. If you're independently wealthy and don't care about surprise fees, flower costs, or are thinking about picking this one up in print, walk on by.