The Pile of Stuff at the Bottom of the Stairs

[FourFortyFour]

Does anyone have this book and has read it?

Not yet but have added it to my list of summer holiday reads. Hope it isn't to depressing

Just waiting for it to arrive from Amazon

Would you let me know what you think when you have read it please? I have so many books yet to read I can't justify more just yet unless it is amazing.

Can someone remind me what it is about? I've read lots of book reviews recently trying to compile my holiday list, don't want to order it unless I can read it several times. I too have far too many books FFF

I've read it's v funny. Not at all depressing, actually ultimately heartwarming. It's quite mumsnet, that sort of humour and reality. It about a woman who creates a spreadsheet of everything that pisses her off but really its a sort of love story after the love story . I think description can sound banal but actually it's got some interesting questions about equality and feminism. Don't know if you can read it several times but you'll def want to pass onto friends.

On my wish list. Waiting for my kindle!

I really liked it - felt like an especially grown up and witty chick-lit that I couldn't put down. I have read a lot of heavier stuff recently and it was a nice break.

I saw it yesterday but couldn't bring myself to spend £12.99 on another book when I had spent loads yesterday already and have lots of books still to read. I started a Jodi Picoult but it hasn't grabbed me yet and I have been too tired to read more than a magazine.

I read it, and loved it. It felt witty and real - and as Polly says it does raise some interesting questions about equality and 'homemaking' - and made me very irritated with my DH - who has many similar "kick things out of the way rather than pick them up" traits. As a full time control freak with a part time job it did have a lot of resonance for me. Also, it is very funny - I think everyone should read it!

Blimey £12.99! Not that on amazon. £8 or something I think. I once bought a slim literary hardback for £18.99. It was like a hundred pages and worked out something horrific per word. This book felt more like paperback price ie good value. It's one of those hardbacks without a cover? What's with all the different book formats? I like those big paperbacks you can only get at airports.

Ps queen, did it make you feel irritated at dh? At end I felt quite ahhhh bless towards fictional one and my own. At least not tosspot banker type...

It was a hardback. I forgot they cost more.

Yeah but cheaper sort of half way house hardback. Just don't understand all these formats and pricing and why some paperbacks are more expensive than hardbacks, why some come out only in paperback etc. Anyway sure separate discussion, but this book def worth £8 if not 12.99!

So want to talk to someone about this book. Am halfway through and am completely freaked out because someone has got inside my head and taken out all my thoughts, made them much funnier and less random, and then put them in a book. Mary is me. But with better looking dh. Am trying to work out how it's going to end (don't spoil) as think it's going to have to be happy but can't see how it can end well.
We live in a flat so don't have stairs to have piles at the bottom of, but do have tables, floors, mantlepieces etc. My list would def start with way that dp never checks to see whether what he's flushed has actually gone down. So disgusting... Oh god, going to have to name change as don't want world to know I go round checking contetns of our toilet!

It is indeed genius! I loved it. So many home truths to be sure. Everyone with kids should read it (and it might be an idea to read it before you have kids to get a taste of what's to come).

It's a rubbish book! Got so annoyed with main character whinging on. Such microscopic complaints and so laboured and unfunny. More like a sub par bit of Daily Mail journalism than a real novel imho

I am reading this now. My first thought was that the author had to be a MNer!

I am enjoying it as a better class of chick-lit. Agree the main character is a bit moany but it is witty and The List is so something I would do if driven to distraction by a somewhat feckless husband.

It's a shame that it's not a little more high brow/fierce - there is a real attempt explore issues around feminism but the weakness/one-dimensional nature of a lot of the other characters stifles that opportunity and so we end up with a few one-way musings of Mary and then fall back into the romance-novel-by-flash-back so we can see why she fell in love with Joel in the first place.

I am interested in seeing where it goes

Just in the middle of this now. The woman is definitely a mnetter! I'm finding I can really identify with the main character, it's very well observed. I don't know if that is because the author is so astute or because it is literally lifted from the pages of mumsnet.