I read several books early last year that were similar to this one and “What Do You Do All Day” is far superior to any of them. Jennifer Bradley is a much more solid and multi-dimensional character, who seems desperately real. It seems to me that books like this often have heroines that are either terribly angry or depressed or happy or organized. Jennifer, rather, was an excellent mix of all characters, acting just the way you generally would expect. Also, it seemed like a lot of women in these books are either workaholics mourning missing their babies or stay-at-homes longing to not be. Jennifer, rather, clearly sees the pros and cons of both lifestyles and definitely cherishs the opportunity to spend time with her children, while missing aspects of her old career.

Additionally, there are a number of other really great characters, none of them falling into the stereotypes so common among this kind of book. Rather, the book takes a great deal of care to analyze Jennifer's decisions in career, family, mothering, friendship, and love, how she relates to those around her, and how she views herself and feels others view her.

All in all, the book seemed so much less cliche than others in the same genre. Still not masterful fiction, by any means, but an obvious front-runner of the genre.

Read my full reivew at: http://everydayreading.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-do-you-do-all-day-by-amy-scheibe.html