In the hilarious sequel to the bestselling "momoir" This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, A.K. Turner returns with the mayhem of motherhood. From preschoolers blurting obscenities in public places to living with her in-laws in Mexico, Mommy Had a Little Flask delivers a delightfully raw and honest account of family life in Turner's latest laugh-out-loud confessional.Praise for A.K. Turner"It's rare for a writer to actually make me laugh out loud, but A.K. Turner does just that." -Robin O'Bryant, author of Ketchup is a Vegetable & Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves"I laughed out loud at Mommy Had a Little Flask, but make no mistake, this book is equally heartfelt and humorous as A.K. Turner delves into all the wonders, challenges and horrifying playground moments of parenting--the most extreme sport there is." -Cameron Morfit, Sports Illustrated"Empty bladder before reading." -Laurie Notaro, New York Times bestselling author of The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club."Witty, honest and funny as hell. Fans of This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store are guaranteed to have another great time." -Holand Peterson, author of the Eville seriesThis Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store "candidly reveals and revels in the flaws and dysfunctions of the author and her family. Turner is not afraid to voice her private thoughts and never takes herself too seriously... refreshingly honest." -Publishers Weekly "Did Erma Bombeck ever guzzle vodka? If she did, she might have come close to the ribald domestic humor in Turner's "momoir" This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store." -The Quivering Pen"The perfect cross between Nora Ephron, David Sedaris, and Chelsea Handler." -Elaine Ambrose, Menopause Sucks."If laughing at ourselves is the best medicine, then reading A.K. Turner will ensure you live long enough to drive your own kids crazy."-Stacy Dymalski, comedienne and author of Confessions of a Band Geek Mom
AK Turner is The New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning Vagabonding with Kids series, as well as This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, Mommy Had a Little Flask, and Hair of the Corn Dog. Her works have received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, IPPY Awards in Humor and Travel, Foreword Indies Awards, Independent Press Distinguished Favorite, and inclusion in BookLife’s Top 5 Indie Books of 2014. She is a contributor to the anthologies Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana (Traveler’s Tales), Little White Dress (Mill Park Publishing), I Just Want to Be Alone and I Just Want to Be Perfect (Throat_Punch Books) and a coauthor of Drinking with Dead Women Writers and Drinking with Dead Drunks. Her work has been featured online at Scary Mommy, In the Powder Room, The Huffington Post, Nickmom, Felicity Huffman’s What the Flicka?, The Quivering Pen, Multicultural Kid Blogs, and Artocratic, among others, and in the print publications Cloudbank, Idaho Magazine, The Idaho Statesman, Treasure Valley Family Magazine, Boise City Revue, and Folio Literary. She lives in Idaho with her husband and two children, but travels frequently as a part-time digital nomad. Learn more at VagabondingWithKids.com.
Looking forward to read the other offerings of A K Turner now !! ....... She's delightfully raw , honest , disarmingly frank and can probably relax the most stressed person on earth . I hadn't laughed out this loud since I read Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a shopaholic ...... Have become a fan now , after also reading her Drinking with dead women writers ........ I hope she writes something about her teenage years or spinsterhood ...... Its always refreshing and genuinely heart warming to encounter a witty , honest , humorous female and A K Turner's surely one of the finer breed !!!
This is a really terrific and quick read! I read this book and the first one after the other, and enjoyed the hilarity of both. I didn’t always agree with some of the author’s parenting choices, and definitely not with the constant state of inebriation, but there were a ton of things that made me laugh loudly because, as mom of a six-year-old, I could identify and nod my head in agreement. I’m looking forward to reading book three!
Funny read, essays of a down to earth mom who likes her alcohol and doesn't have an interest in pretentious asshattery. I read the first book of essays and was glad to see this one pop up. Despite not having children, I like her writing and still find ti all very entertaining.
Good book which reminded me of a blog. Interesting what kids say and definitely one for those who have had those little moments when a child announces something which isn't true.
Not really all that impressed or enamored of this book. Truth be told, it’s a 3.5 star rating, but didn’t want to belittle it with 3 stars, so i rounded up. I’m sure some of these little anecdotes are truthful, but with embellishments. But for me, the result was not particularly humorous or entertaining. It was an attempt to make her normality humorous and entertaining. I was happy to have it end.
I appreciated the "normalcy" of the story, and that it held humor about parenting, relationships, and choices. Good storyline that had me laughing and nodding in agreement. First set of books I've ready with this kind of direction and I think they were well written. Thanks for a great story!
This was entertaining and relatable but felt like one long blog post. This was the first book I ever read from this author so maybe I'm just missing something.
More like a series of sixteen short stories or essays, MOMMY HAD A LITTLE FLASK is a funny, eyes-wide-open look at children and adults, written from the perspective of a mother. My main complaint is there was way too much emphasis on the “flask.” It wasn’t necessary and was distracting. Whatever her point was, it was overdone and probably turned off a lot of readers who would have otherwise really enjoyed the book. Now to the rest of the book: I was hooked on page 6 when Amanda, a writer and the main character, reacts to an adult using baby talk, in this case “nummers” to refer to the taste of something. Amanda moves on to the use of “wawa” for “water.” She notes that children may say that when they are learning to speak, “But that is no reason for the parent to then begin referring to water wawa. It is the parents who is supposed to teach the child how to speak. The parent is not supposed to adopt the child’s baby talk as the new and improved English.” Later on she talks of how she “gets overwhelmed by crowds of people but I like being in lines. They imply the presence of a greater system instead of the anarchy of a free-for-all, during which I’d surely be trampled to death. Lines are my friends.” Amanda is raising her young daughters in an unusual environment. The family lives in Idaho but spends three months during the winter living in Mexico near her husband’s family. The girls attend a Montessori school where they are learning Chinese. She notes the differences between the two cultures: “The playground was minimalist and endearing and somehow reminded me of the simplicity of children at play. It’s good to remember that children are quite capable of playing with a stick and a rock and don’t require video games or even remote-control cars.” Much of her writing is tongue-in-cheek. One day, she comes home and sees a large number of police vehicles near her house. As she tries to figure out what is happening she thinks, “Maybe they’re keeping a sharp eye out in case the culprit returns to the scene of the crime...because that happens a lot on television and therefore must be true.” Speaking to her father-in-law one day about something he said he states, “You’re going to write about this, aren’t you?” She replies, “No, I promise.” And, of course, she does write about it. She writes of how her fear of water has led to her children developing the same reaction. When a neighbor asks her if she’s going to a pool party, she starts to say how much she has to do until she learns the pool is heated. And then there is the chapter when her daughter innocently discovers her sexual feelings long before any of them are prepared to deal with the concept. She has a delightful way of observing things and describing them, e.g., referring to some Alaskans who venture south to get warm, she writes, “The longer they live in Alaska, the more obsessed the become with finding warm, sunny climates in which they can bronze themselves for their golden years.” She writes about skiing and writing and how Americans believe “there is only one way and one place to live.” MOMMY HAD A LITTLE FLASK was a well-written quick read with some interesting observations about both things seen and things analyzed. It maintained my interest. This book was a free Amazon download.
Synopsis:"In the hilarious sequel to the bestselling "momoir" This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, A.K. Turner returns with the mayhem of motherhood. From preschoolers blurting obscenities in public places to living with her in-laws in Mexico, Mommy Had a Little Flask delivers a delightfully raw and honest account of family life in Turner's latest laugh-out-loud confessional."
My Review: After finishing This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, I knew I had to read more by Turner. I listened to the previous one on audio with her as the narrator, but this time I just had the ebook. I must say a lot of the humor got lost reading the print book, I missed her sarcasm. It still made me chuckle but there was no laughing so hard I had tears this time. It was still funny but felt a little flat to me. I guess I know to get her books in audio in the future.
I downloaded this book a while back because it was free and the hilarious title caught my eye. I'm sure glad I did. A.K. Turner is clearly the best friend that I haven't met yet. She gives a real, brutally-honest account of parenthood through the eyes of a fully-dysfunctional mother just like myself. I laughed out loud many times throughout the book. If you're a mother with a sense of humor who's likely reading this review with a glass of wine in hand, pour yourself another and read this book.
P.S. Amanda, if you're ever in town, look me up so we can go out for drinks.
Free kindle download. I have surgery tomorrow and wanted something light. Fortunately this is pre, rather than post surgery or I'd be ripping out stitches. Used to live near Boise, lived in Anchorage and Fairbanks (note-Sitka has a year long rain festival instead of icy weather) and fell down a Sun Valley ski slope on my butt and had to be rescued because no one informed me I could do a face pivot.
This is a very, very easy read. However, don't read it when others are around because you will be laughing out loud. (Caveat, that's only true if you're a parent with children.) It rings true, and not just because she's similar to me in many ways. She's also different in other ways, yet I found her to be hilarious. I read this in about three sittings, and had to stop a few times because I was laughing too hard.
Reading this book was basically like reading my own blog. I need to meet Amanda and be best friends with her! I seriously laughed out loud at several points, especially the pool noodle story. If you're a parent and you know how to laugh at yourself, you'll enjoy this book. Oh, and you should probably like drinking as well. But you knew that from the title, right? So pour a margarita and get ready to laugh!
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
This book was not quite what I expected. I thought the book would be funny stories about motherhood instead of a collection of stories about the author's extended family and her experiences. It was an interesting read though and entertaining.
This book was a nice little belated Christmas gift from BookBub: a freebie by an author whose previous work I enjoyed immensely (This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store). Mommy Had a Little Flask wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as the first, but the author has a great style and interesting stories, and the book was a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon on the couch.
I like Turner's writing style but would prefer a real novel as opposed to just snippets of different events. She's very witty and I am a mother of 2 and we have a lot in common which is why I'm entertained by her books, but given her writing talents would like to see something with more depth. Thanks!
I'd love to be adopted by this family! I loved reading of the daily antics of mom/children, wife/husband, and in-laws. very similar to the kind of comedy on "Modern Family" in that each character adds a different layer of comedy and at the end of the day you just know this family loves each other.
I enjoyed this book. I didn't rate it higher because I don't think I'd actually like the author if I met her and I assume this is memoir not fiction? If I'm wrong and it is fiction I'd give it 4. It was entertaining and I'm not usually one to laugh outloud to myself at books or movies, and I did actually laugh out loud while reading this. Good parody of the early years of motherhood.
Reading this, I wanted to judge her so badly. I mean, it was right there on my lips. But then, I found myself laughing and shaking my head agreeing with her. I love her honesty, and while she is kind of annoying and bitchy, it's funny. There were several parts that made me laugh and snort, and I really appreciate those moments. I needed to laugh and this did the trick.
This book is awesome. A.K. Turner finds humor in everyday situations we can all relate to. Her book reminds me how therapuetic it is to laugh off the more annoying, and totally embarrassing, moments in life. I loved This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store so I couldn't wait for this book to be released. I loved this sequel as much as the first! Both of the books are hilarious!
if I lived in Boise, I would love to have a regular happy hour w Amanda Turner. It takes a sense of humor to raise children and she definitely has one. Reading it was like having a hilarious, rambling conversation w your funniest mom-friend. Very entertaining from start to finish, I highly recommend reading it.
There are all kinds of moms out there. I can relate to Amanda. The only thing I don't share with her is a love of cooking. I'm great at making reservations. Some mom books fall short, this one does not. I can also relate to the annual trek to visit the in-laws. I wish my visit was to a cool area of Mexico. I feel like I just left a visit with a friend.
Ahhh, the joys of parenthood. Laugh out moments abound in this quick, funny read. Turner finds humor in everyday situations we can all relate to, including her quirky family. Her book reminds us how therapuetic it is to laugh off the more annoying, and totally embarrassing, moments in life.
Amanda has done it again...making any imperfect parent feel less alone in the world of parenting, all while making me pee a little from laughing while I read. I can't wait for a third installment...well played Ms. Turner, well played.
I was not familiar with the author before reading this book. I thought it would be funny but I don't enjoy hearing people complain. To me the author was just ranting throughout. Also constant alcohol abuse "jokes" don't make me laugh. The author should have kept a journal instead of writing a book.
A. K. Turner's "Mommy Had a Little Flash" is a really funny memoir most adults can relate to. The antics of the author's two darling little girls made me laugh, as did the hilarious descriptions of things that happened to the family.
Sorry to say I can't even finish this book! As a mom of 4, I was looking forward to a witty story about motherhood, marriage and life. This book is not that book. I had high hopes for this book, and I'm very disappointed!