Hey Natalie Jean: Advice, Musings, and Inspiration on Marriage, Motherhood, and Style

by Natalie Holbrook

“Natalie Holbrook’s sensibility is stylish and playful, as well as practical, loving, and down-to-earth. Hey Natalie Jean is a terrific read for anyone who wants to make her life more beautiful.” – Gretchen Rubin

The blog Hey Natalie Jean has won a cult following with writer Natalie Holbrook’s honest, inspiring, and often witty posts on topics like marriage, babies, nesting, and style. Natalie’s first book, Hey Natalie Jean is one part manifesto and three parts ideas, projects, and advice. Beautifully illustrated and whimsically designed, the book offers twenty-five essays and how-tos that serve as a guide to making date-night magic in the middle of the mundane, successfully exploring the city with a three-year-old, and creating a satisfying daily routine that still leaves room for little adventures and lots of magic.

Natalie’s optimism, creativity, keen eye, and zeal for life are palpable, and she encourages others to make their lives beautiful with ease. This heartfelt, personal collection of essays and photographs shows Natalie’s ability to identify and describe life’s lovely incidentals in the everyday routine of errands, play dates, and naps. Inspiring, moving, and whip-smart, Hey Natalie Jean is an honest look at the hard work and courage that go into creating a beautiful life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Parenting, Biography Memoir

176 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2015

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book feels a lot like chatting with a friend who has great taste in shoes and gives really good pep talks. I've been reading Natalie's blog for years and I liked getting everything I enjoy about it—photos and essays on motherhood, style, and life in New York—in physical book form. It's surprisingly insightful for being such a quick, light read and I love the ultimate message about how making your life beautiful is a meaningful, worthwhile pursuit.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, Natalie Holbrook. How do I begin to describe Natalie Holbrook? Natalie is a 'lifestyle/mummy' blogger, author of the stupendously popular Hey Natalie Jean blog (formerly Nat the Fat Rat), NYC resident, wife, mother and fairly awesome all-round individual.

Hey Natalie Jean The Book is basically an extension of Hey Natalie Jean The Blog. Natalie's unique style, tone and behaviour shines through the pages of this book in much the same way that her voice shines on the blog. There are essays on motherhood, struggles with infertility and an absolutely heartbreaking love note to Natalie's Granny Goose. And just like with the blog, we're given a few more lighthearted chapters to balance it all out.

Beautifully designed, filled to the brim with gorgeous photos and a full on resources section, this book is a darling addition to my coffee table. I've long adored Natalie's writing - through blogs, tweets and emails - and can now add her book to the list.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who expected this book to be anything but what it is can cool it. Although I do wish more of the writing was new, I really enjoyed reading one of my favorite bloggers in book form. Essay about Granny Goose made me cry a little and the book is a pretty one. I'd put it on my coffee table, if I had a coffee table. Lots of good stuff in here.

"You know, nothing makes a day feel more pointless than crawling back into an unmade bed at the end of it."

"It is a daily task to stop and remind myself that whether or not this season of life is particularly difficult, it is still just a season. I am always surrounded by a beauty that I can choose to focus on instead. Even in pain, there are moments I'll remember with fondness, experiences I'll take to my grave with pride. This is it. Right now. And even if the happiness I make for myself today is so silly and insignificant, it counts. And I'll be so grateful that I paid attention."

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a long time reader of Natalie's blog and picked up her book to discover if she expanded on her daily posts or just transferred her musings to the paper page. With a few exceptions, there was little new content for her readers. The book is full of photos with the majority being iPhone images, blurry and captured in the moment, not nearly as powerful as when viewed in an emotional blog post or on Instagram. Many of Natalie's topics work better online, especially fashion, home decorating and her love of New York City.
Surprisingly her book made me feel sad. I don't know why her often inspiring, witty and entertaining blog translated in print to a feeling of "little-girl-lost-in-adulthood" but it did to me. I'll continue to read her blog and cross my fingers that this little mother finds herself in the big city.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what I expected from this book. I am familiar with Natalie's very distinct writing style-- she is the type of person who starts a sentence without knowing how it's going to finish, and what she could say in five words, she'll say in fifteen. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I would argue that her writing style is what's made her so popular in the blogging world, but man, it was distracting in book format. I think my problem was in my expectations of the book. 9/10 of the time, Natalie's blog is full of frivolous, non-important subjects that don't really float my boat, but the reason I keep reading is because of that 1/10th of posts that are really, really good. They are well-written, important, and powerful. I was expecting the book to be more of the 1/10th, not full of subjects like how to put on fake eyelashes and why rugs are so stressful.

I would have given this book a 3/5, because it was a perfectly average, quick read, but the quality of the book was....not great. The weird underlining makes it look like book report, but the pictures? I don't know if it was just my copy of the book, but they were obviously pictures she took with her iPhone. It looked like a low-quality Blurb.com type book. I'm not going to spend $20 on a book with pictures that look like that.

If you are a die-hard fan of Natalie's, I say check this book out from the library and have at it. Otherwise, you aren't missing out on anything special.

[Sarah Christensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suffered through this book because it was a birthday gift from a friend who likes Natalie's blog.

The writing is horrendous, fake, & contrived. The chapters where she's not talking about herself, she talks about home decor & such... but none of these chapters have any new ideas (by any stretch of the imagination). In fact, all the trends seem to be at least two years old & something most bloggers have moved on from.

Most of the photos are grainy & blurry, & clearly taken with the author's iPhone. It just looked so unprofessional & almost like a high school English project.

The idea is okay but the writing style is so forced, confusing, rambling & honestly annoying, I could barely finish. After, I decided to check out the blog to see if I'm just old & not in her niche - turns out the one "chapter" I found somewhat enjoyable was actually a viral blog post she wrote years ago. The post was basically recycled into this smorgasbord of all-over-the-place, headache-inducing ramblings.

The book is less than 200 pages & mostly pictures, but I still had to really force myself to finish it. Not worth the money (or time!).

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I liked it. So there.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/what-h...

https://www.elle.com/life-love/a29438...

These two articles both showed up in "Recommended by Pocket" in my browser, caught my interest and made me interested in Natalie. I am familiar with a few Mormon mommy blogs but hadn't heard of Nat the Fat Rat/Hey Natalie Jean.

This was a smallish coffee table style book, part lifestyle guide part memoir. A very fast read with tons of (admittedly low quality) pictures and essays that never spanned more than a few pages.

Knowing (from the above articles) that she was already facing the end of her marriage when she was writing this, it makes the absence of her husband make a lot more sense - he's mentioned, but almost as an aside. A lot of her essays read as if she is a single mother. Strongest parts were her musings on motherhood, how to make a new place feel familiar, and how to keep depression at bay.

[McKenzie Hyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would give this more of a 3.5. All of her essays about motherhood and infertility are so so good. The tone of those pieces just felt out of place with the beauty/fashion tips. Also, I know you can read almost all of the stuff in this book on her blog. I love Natalie so I’m a little biased and I would probably still buy this book because it’s a nice little collection of some of her “greatest hits.” I should note that I still liked the beauty and fashion tips and anecdotes, but they felt like they belonged in a different book altogether.

[Jane Ha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something unabashedly happy about nesting, making your own corners in a strange new place, fond memories of grandmother, and the joy of washing your hair only once a week.

What part of me thought adorning yourself and your home with a vision was frivolous? Or weak? Or useless? And since when? This book brought that all-too-serious, judgmental woman out of me and wrapped her in a throw blanket. You can chill, it told her. There’s quiet power in striving for beautiful things. After all, it’s what helped you make a strange city home.

[Lezlee Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can read this in one day which I did. You can contemplate how you were blogging during the same years Natalie was blogging. How when this book came out it all seemed so aspirational yet achievable and yet maybe it was a façade. You can think about how your own life was on a weird trajectory with a lawyer husband and looming divorce. How all of it in retrospect is more obvious.

[Catherine Streeter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Admittedly I was not expecting much from this book, but I really thought there’d be a lot more of her good and powerful writing and less of the product recommendations that make it feel like a blog post. The great stuff was really great but the rest was just kinda ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Desiree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Natalie’s book so much that I read it all in one sitting. I am happy to say I will be letting her know tomorrow. I enjoyed every second of it, from the intimate details of her personal struggles to the fashion advise (I had to look up Peplum). What a voice!

[Ashley Sellers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like breathing fresh air.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely beautiful and well written. Natalie is so profound yet relatable and funny. Looking forward to more from her

[Angeline Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were to sum up Natalie with a quote, it would be this:

“What’s so wrong with being personal, anyway? Whatever anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

This is also my mantra, and something I wholeheartedly live by.

The beauty of Natalie’s blog lies in that it is not just a compilation of photos, not simply an outsider glimpse into a stranger’s life, but more so a dive-in to a conversation and heart-to-heart with someone I feel like I know personally. Like catching up with a friend-- a good friend, where no topic is off limits: Trivial matters, the big questions of life, women and friendship issues, bad times and the good. I began reading Natalie’s blog in the time of my life before I had close female friendships, and it was in those days that I began to wish for them-- for girlfriends-- as it became suddenly clear to me that this was something that I had been missing my entire life.

Reading someone’s blog over a long period of time is akin to something special. People leading parallel lives, with one person's life experiences coloring the experiences of the other, the Reader. The best way I can describe this is the relationship of Julia Child and Julie Powell in the movie Julie & Julia. The juxtaposition of two separate lives-- lives in different places yet weathering similar experiences-- with one deriving comfort and inspiration from the trials and joys of the other. As time passed by and I found my first female best friends, I have Natalie to thank for teaching me to be a better friend, to figuring out what it means to have good and healthy friendships, and how to cultivate that. There were times when Natalie would write something that would prompt me to reassess myself and my life, to come to terms with who I am and to be okay if that didn’t fit with the picture I had painted in my head. I especially will always remember Nat’s Christmas tree posts providing me with much needed holiday cheer during a very hard winter season (and propelling me to madly adorn my entire apartment with twinkly lights).

I love that Natalie fights for the things she wants, rather than wallow in the self-pity that some others do not have to fight for these things, such as her baby. I love how she is honest about her struggles, about her self-doubt and anxiety, and her hopes. I love that she doesn’t feel that she can’t be trivial, silly, or feminine in order to be taken seriously. I love Natalie’s philosophy of making life beautiful, of making a place your home, and finding beauty and humor and happiness in the ordinary and mundane. I am thankful for Hey Natalie Jean and the comfort that it has brought me throughout the years.

This book is beautiful, unique in its formatting and full of heart that gleams off the text and the photos that color the pages. I loved this book, and give it five stars for it being a fantastic and wonderful, true-to-herself first book by Natalie Holbrook. I am sure that this is the beginning to a line of many others to come, and I cannot wait to read what she will say next.

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After 50 or so pages, I had decided this was a three-star book. Too much of it was recycled blog material, the chapter ordering seemed haphazard, and I found some of the chapter titles irritating. But then I sat down and actually read for a couple hours, letting things bleed together, and realized that her writing makes me want to write and her perspective makes me want to slow down and savor the little things that are actually big things.

I've always appreciated Natalie's honestly and willingness to talk about things that are hard or politically charged. She doesn't shy away from truth and I so admire the way she's navigated life in the often unforgiving spotlight.

I wouldn't reread the whole book, but there are certainly essays I plan to use as life mentors; I'll keep them close and reference them on off days.

"It is a daily task to stop and remind myself that whether or not this season of life is particularly difficult, it is still just a season. I am always surrounded by a beauty that I can choose to focus on instead. Even in pain, there are moments I'll remember with fondness....This is it. Right now. And even if the happiness I make for myself today is so silly and insignificant, it counts. And I'll be so grateful that I paid attention."

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a reader of Natalie's blog long enough to still call her Nat the Fat Rat. When a blogger I read publishes a book, I generally try to buy it because it seems fair after consuming their content for free for so many years. Many of the reviewers on Amazon have complained that the book is too much like her blog - too many fluffy essays on not washing her hair or applying false eyelashes and not enough serious essays like the ones on being a queen and her grandmother. Personally, I like the mix of fluff and serious on her blog, so I liked it in the book. I would love to read a book of Natalie's with nothing but more serious essays, but for a first time blogger book, I was happy with this. My only complaint would be that it was pretty short.

Other complaints I've seen have been about the quality and formatting of the paper copy of the book, which apparently costs $20. I bought the kindle version for $10 and was perfectly satisfied with the way the iphone photos looked on my computer screen because they look the same on her blog. So I guess I would recommend sticking to the digital version if you're going to check this out.

[Ashleigh Son · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Natalie's blog and have read it for years (even back when it was called Nat the Fat Rat). As soon as I found out she wrote a book, I ordered it. Until now, it has been sitting on my bookshelf, so I am finally taking the time to review it. The first thing I noticed, and my reason for the 3 star rating, is that some of the chapters were basically copy-pasted blog posts. This includes "sponsored" posts (recommending clothes and products). My honest feedback: a book has to be pretty damn good and devoid of repeat content in order to earn 4 stars or higher. As for the content itself: that Meg Ryan chapter was as confusing as it gets. That said, it was still enjoyable to read. Her family is cute, and her personality is quirky and honest. She did her best with the book and poured her heart into it. My favorite chapters were about her grandma and also about her thoughts on motherhood. I am sad that she doesn't blog anymore, because she was one of my favorites. If you are a diehard fan of her blog, you will probably appreciate having this book to remind you of the many good years spent reading it.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A major weakness with blogs—even the ones we bookmark and frequently re-visit—is that the words are digital ephemera. As much as a blog post may resonate with us, we lose the link, get distracted, lose track of it, and someday the URL will be changed or deleted. I loved this re-hash of Natalie's work. I'm drawn to her back-and-forth between the reflective and the trivial, because, frankly, that's how I roll too. As an on/off reader of the blog, the book came exactly as anticipated. My only (completely subjective) complaint is that some of my favorite posts weren't included in the bunch. Maybe next time.

[Emily Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love every chapter in this book (sometimes it felt like a blog in bound form), but the ones I did love--I just reveled in. Natalie is honest and witty and wise, and in some of the more personal essays, such as My Own Private Idaho, and the final chapter, all of that and more shines through rather effortlessly and brilliantly (because of course it's never really effortless, is it? :) ). She's definitely a 'kindred spirit' (and fellow Meg Ryan enthusiast) and very intentional person. This is a quick read, but well worth it; I'll reread certain chapters and look forward to her next book of advice and adventures.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! Possibly because I know Natalie and I felt I was in a room with her just chatting it up with me. I remember when Natalie lived in Moscow and I was asking her about her career and all she wanted was to be a mama. She would give up everything for that. I love being a wife and mother and I always appreciate other women who feel the same way.

In this book and in life, Natalie has a way of making you feel good about yourself and cheering you on. She's just a truly lovely person.

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Natalie Holbrook's book isn't perfect for everyone, but everything in it was perfect for me. As a long-time reader of her blog, sitting down with this book felt like cozying up with a best friend for a diet coke and a chat. There are moments of quiet reflection, moments of sillyness, points of brutal honesty and points of kooky crankiness. "Hey Natalie Jean" was a summer vacation read that I'll actually hold on to, and revisit on tired nights or sad afternoons. Having it on my bookshelf makes me feel better about the world.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not the normal kind of book I read (romances all the way!) but I've "followed" Nat for years through her blog, and when I heard she was putting together a book, I was super excited! I already knew about a lot of the stories & tips she shares here, but it was worth reading them all together. I like the format - stories & tips & LOTS of photos. Very nicely done! I love her writing style - reminds me a lot of my own, very conversational and REAL. I think she writes like she talks when you're with her in person, and I really enjoy it! : )

[Liz Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another blogger turned book writer. I've been reading Natalie's blog for a few years and enjoy a lot of her writing. It seems like there was a lot of unrealized potential here. The stories are really short and don't go as in-depth even as some of her blog postings do. I was hoping there'd be real chapters here, but sadly it didn't happen. It seems like she would have been capable of more in-depth content-- I blame the editors.

[Emma M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalie's blog was one of the first that I ever started reading. I can't quite pinpoint what it is but I feel like I relate to her. . .at least the her that she shares with the entire planet. I love her writing style and I appreciate her honesty. I also not-so-secretly hope that her son and my daughter fall in love in the very distance future. Anyway, this book was everything I had hoped it would be and I really enjoyed it!

[Caryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did I love this book? Oh, let me count the ways. Every time I picked up this book, which honestly only took me a couple days to read through, I felt like I was getting a mini coffee break with a dear friend. It was refreshing, delightful, snort-laugh inducing, heartwarming, and encouraging. Natalie feels like the best friend I never met.

Full review: http://bookshelf.threebooksanight.com...

[Martha Ware · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed it! It felt like a fun chat with a good girlfriend. Getting into the nitty gritty about hair and make up and style and then also discussing the heavy topics. All around very thoughtful and sweet. Also made me cry a few times. And made me want to catch up on allllll the Meg Ryan movies.

P.S. Was that a thinly veiled jab at Taza at one point in there? Huh.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had taken this off my to-read list after hearing some poor reviews but I ended up deciding to give it and a chance and I'm glad I did. Surprisingly, I cried at least 4 times I think while reading this - I'm emotional mama now, what can I say? This was just a fun, easy-going, relaxing read for me.

[Gena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmmm.

Pros: Good hair care tips! She has a good eye for style.

Cons: Conspicuous consumerist extraordinaire! (Sites Gwyneth Paltrow as a personal hero.)

Most of it was kind of twee. Sweet and silly. The parts with gravitas were her touching essays about her husband's breakdown and her fertility struggles.
Browsing shelf find.