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Objects of My Affection

by Jill Smolinski (Goodreads Author)

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 1,189 ratings · 260 reviews

In the humorous, heartfelt new novel by the author of The Next Thing on My List, a personal organizer must somehow convince a reclusive artist to give up her hoarding ways and let go of the stuff she’s hung on to for decades. Lucy Bloom is broke, freshly dumped by her boyfriend, and forced to sell her house to send her nineteen-year-old son to drug rehab. Although she’s lo...more

Hardcover, 310 pages

Published May 1st 2012 by Touchstone

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6th out of 17 books — 3 voters

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May 22, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, library_books

I have given up on this book about halfway through ... here's the breaking point at which I decided enough was enough ...

Lucy, the protagonist, has a flashback to a night when she was woken up by her teenage son, announcing that money was needed to pay for the cab in which he'd just arrived. She goes out, hands the guy three twenties for a $53 fare, whereupon he berates her for letting her son visit crack dens. Whoa! My first thought was, "I had no idea that cabbies are summoned to crack dens, w...more I have given up on this book about halfway through ... here's the breaking point at which I decided enough was enough ...

Lucy, the protagonist, has a flashback to a night when she was woken up by her teenage son, announcing that money was needed to pay for the cab in which he'd just arrived. She goes out, hands the guy three twenties for a $53 fare, whereupon he berates her for letting her son visit crack dens. Whoa! My first thought was, "I had no idea that cabbies are summoned to crack dens, where they willingly pick up patrons?" The author seems to equate crack dens with say "dive" bars. Ummmm ... no.

Early on, Lucy had engaged in a bout of self-pity over her boyfriend Daniel having "dumped" her, mysteriously intoning "If only it had been for another woman ..." As it turns out, he stopped seeing her because she refused to address said offspring's drug problem. To me, THAT'S a valid reason; "dumping" would be along the lines of "sorry ... just not working out."

The kid, Ash, is away at rehab in Florida during the story, though Lucy speaks of him as though he were dead. Again, early on, we're told his father had stopped contact, saying Ash's visits were "disruptive" to the (new, second) family, implying I suppose a self-centered, hostile father and step-mother. Later, not long before I bailed, Ash calls his mother to say that he realizes his substance abuse stems from being "abandoned" by his father, but Lucy is to blame because "You didn't try to stop me using drugs!" Sounded to me like he's a spoiled brat, who refuses to own his actions, but hey ... I'm just a mean old curmudgeon I guess.

Besides the continuous moaning-over-Ash, there was too much of a chick-lit erotica aspect commenting on both Daniel and Niko, the hot guys she's thrown in with on her new job. Janet Evanovich got to the lust-triangle thing first, which I didn't like then, finding it even worse several copycats later.

What does work (and why I stuck around so long) is the character of Marva, the artist whose house she's been hired to de-clutter. Even there, I wanted to smack my mp3 player, as a proxy for Lucy, when she threw a huge hissyfit over a package containing three Dale Chilhuily bowls that arrives one day at the house, accusing Marva of "sabotaging" her work. HEL-LO ... Marva obviously ordered them long before Lucy was hired!

Marva had interesting potential, but I feared I might need drugs myself to deal with another reference to St. Ash. Ugh!

The audio narration seemed a slightly off fit in that Lucy sounded a lot younger than nearly 40, but then again, she is an immature, clueless character.

(less)

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Dec 10, 2012 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

When we meet Lucy Bloom at the beginning of this book her life has become spartan. In order to send her only son to a drug rehabilitation centre she has sold her house, sold her belongings and even gave up her relationship. The only thing she has left is her beat up red sports car and an upcoming job interview to be a personal organizer. When she accepts the job she has no idea what she has let herself in for and when she meets the lady of the house, Marva she realizes she is going to earn every...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Hannah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There were some really great parts about this book. Like for instance the plot, most of the characters, the dialogue and the pace of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed those parts. The parts that I didn't appreciate were the parts with the intimacy and some of the other characters. I felt that the intimacy was way too graphic for a fiction novel. I can understand getting intimate without going into all of the details... I was uncomfortable listening to it- it was just awkward. Here we have this grea...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Tifferz rated it 5 of 5 stars

I want to say first off that the cover of this book is so cute and fun! I was sold on this story by the cover and blurb and Ms. Smolinski pulled off a cool story. Lucy is a mom that loves her son and seems to let tragic things pass her by. I think for her to cope she puts up walls. I saw Lucy grow as a Mom, friend and lover. It was nice to see her take the steps she needed. I was laughing as Lucy and Marva get to know each other and develop a friendship. Daniel is a great guy and Nelson cracked...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Danielle Rossman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hoarding seems to have become a national phenomena that seems to be growing in voyeuristic followers. Cable television is littered with shows that depict this sickness in ways that illustrate the people who hoard as crazy and demented. When I received Jill Smolinski's novel Objects of My Affection I was ready for a journey that I thought would remind me of such shows that I truly despise...I was wrong! Meet Lucy Bloom: Her troubled son's drug addiction has led her to sell most of her possessions...more Hoarding seems to have become a national phenomena that seems to be growing in voyeuristic followers. Cable television is littered with shows that depict this sickness in ways that illustrate the people who hoard as crazy and demented. When I received Jill Smolinski's novel Objects of My Affection I was ready for a journey that I thought would remind me of such shows that I truly despise...I was wrong! Meet Lucy Bloom: Her troubled son's drug addiction has led her to sell most of her possessions and even her home to pay for his pricey rehabilitation center in Florida called The Willows. She has divested herself of a lifetime of stuff and since she once wrote a book about this process, she views it as a simple and step by step procedure that any person can do. Meet Marva Meier Rios: Her troubled son Will is looking for someone who can clean and organize her home that is exploding with all sorts of things from fine art to candy wrappers. She is a famous artist, a bit eccentric and on a personal deadline...dead line! Lucy lands the job despite Will's suspicions as to whether she will be able to handle his acerbic and most difficult mother...Marva must also approve any items that are thrown away! Yes! even a chip bag or candy wrapper!...Smolinski handles what at first turns into a very heated battle with candor and humor. Marva and Lucy are often at odds as Marva tries to avoid the process and Lucy wants to be full throttle forward into it. While it is easy for Lucy to let go of things, Marva's hoarding is more complex. Lucy who is dealing with her own pain over her son Ash's addiction comes to see this, and helps Marva towards the project ahead...with lots of fighting along the way! Lucy is forced to confront her own issues while helping Marva adjust to throwing much of hers both physical and mental away. Each woman has issues with their sons, and the objects in their lives are reflections of those problems. As Lucy goes through the layers of things in Marva's house, they reveal details about the owner...and that Marva can actually be quite a good egg...and a rotten one! Marva has secrets that will be revealed throughout the novel, none bigger then her purpose and deadline which I will not reveal as I do not want to be a spoiler for the reader!...But also, the location of her most famous painting 'Woman Freshly Tossed' which will lead Lucy, Marva and Lucy's ex-boyfriend Daniel on a road trip of hilarious proportions!...I also want it to be clear that Marva is not some crazy hoarder from a cable show...she is limited in expressing affection, eccentric to an extreme, but she is also a person struggling with love lost and things that happened to her in the past. This is a most engaging story not because it reveals a popular obsession, but rather because it reveals ordinary people and their vulnerabilities. It reaches deep to expose how mothers love their children, but still make mistakes...and the damage those mistakes can cause. But most of all, it is about how personal reflection, finding friendship and love and coming to terms with our failures. And how we can nurture new affections when we attempt to to divest ourselves of old burdens...physical and emotional. Smolinski has gone deeper then one might imagine from the cute cover art because this is not mere chick lit., but rather about true life and how we live it...successes, failures and sometimes too much stuff in our junk drawers!(less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Right off the bat I am going to tell you I cannot stand Lucy Bloom only because I've seen enough Dr. Phil and Intervention episodes to know that she is doing absolutely everything wrong with her son. And it drives me NUTS through the entire book. But I will say that despite me wanting to smack Lucy up constantly, I eventually came around to liking her at the end because she finally gets it.

I loved the story line with Marva- she seems like a really fun crazy person you'd like to get drunk and ch...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Autumn rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book quickly became an object of my affection. I was surprised by how much I loved it. It was such a great story and I think most people can identify with both Lucy and Marva.

Lucy is middle aged, recently dumped, living at her friend's house, looking for work, and just checked her son in to rehab. Marva is a famous artist turned hoarding recluse. Marva's son hires Lucy, who is an organizational expert, to clean out his mother's house. While Marva is willing to have it done, like many hoarde...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a Certified Professional Organizer, I'm always dubious about fictionalized accounts of the work we do and the portrayal of our clients. I guess I'm protective of both my professional reputation and that of the people with whom I work. So, while I was interested in the book, I was on guard for signs that the topic was going to be sensationalized or stupid. For the most part, it wasn't.

Objects isn't great classic literature, but for Chick Lit, it's fairly well done. Lucy, the protagonist tells...more As a Certified Professional Organizer, I'm always dubious about fictionalized accounts of the work we do and the portrayal of our clients. I guess I'm protective of both my professional reputation and that of the people with whom I work. So, while I was interested in the book, I was on guard for signs that the topic was going to be sensationalized or stupid. For the most part, it wasn't.

Objects isn't great classic literature, but for Chick Lit, it's fairly well done. Lucy, the protagonist tells her first-person narrative with matter-of-fact deprecation, a bit of unravelling delusion, and some humor. She's got a failed relationship, a failed writing career, and a son for whom she's sold her house and most of her belongings so that she can him to rehab. The set-up is simple -- she takes on an "organizing" job for someone who turns out to be, in Smolinski's interpretation, a hoarder. At this point, my annoyance meter is on high alert, because Lucy has no real professional organizing experience, has no training or experience with working with hoarders, and the character is written in such a way that Smolinski doesn't realize how little she knows about actual hoarders OR how professional organizers interact with and refer to such clients.

Pausing my wearied outrage at her poor understanding of hoarding (and diabetes!), I found it otherwise developed into a pretty good narrative. There's a little romance (with a few red herrings), a little modern family drama, a little mystery and the requisite happy ending. Is it realistic in almost any respect? No, like good Chick Lit, it's not. This is a book to read when you're nursing a cold, or on the beach, or just need something mild and comforting. Smolinski's book won't ever been taught in college English classes, but she creates a tight narrative that closes every open loop, resolves every issue, and creates a ready-made Lifetime movie-of-the-week with Tyne Daly as the imperious artist client Marva and just about any perky 40ish blonde actress as Lucy. Empty calories, but ultimately satisfying.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2012 Barbara rated it 3 of 5 stars

“Objects of My Affection”
By Jill Smolinski

“Objects of My Affection” by Jill Smolinski is a novel that combines a professional organizer, a hoarder, a drug addict, romance, potential suicide and much more. At first glance, the novel seems to be an easy, entertaining read. Not so. After a few chapters, the real story begins to make the reader consider her life and objects with a new mindset.

Lucy Bloom is a broke, single parent who has been recently dumped by her boyfriend. She is forced to sell he...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 10, 2012 Carla rated it 4 of 5 stars

On the surface, Objects of My Affection is the story of Lucy Bloom-who just lost her job and her boyfriend, shares a bedroom with the four old daughter of her friend at her house where Lucy is staying, and has a teen age son with a serious drug problem that Lucy has trouble acknowledging. Out of desperation, Lucy takes a job clearing out the house of the eccentric and reclusive painter Marva Meier Rios, who has a hoarding problem that Marva has trouble facing (literally and figuratively). As Luc...more

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May 16, 2012 Luanne Ollivier rated it 4 of 5 stars

Objects of My Affections is author Jill Smolinski's third novel.

I always enjoy looking at covers first, imagining what the story inside will be. Moving on and lots of baggage? And I wasn't far off.......

Lucy Bloom (loved the name) has seriously downsized - in fact she's sold just about everything she owned, including her house. Why? Well, her son Ash is an addict and she finally got him to go to a rehab, but needed the money to finance it.

Lucy had mild success with her initial book Things Are No...more Objects of My Affections is author Jill Smolinski's third novel.

I always enjoy looking at covers first, imagining what the story inside will be. Moving on and lots of baggage? And I wasn't far off.......

Lucy Bloom (loved the name) has seriously downsized - in fact she's sold just about everything she owned, including her house. Why? Well, her son Ash is an addict and she finally got him to go to a rehab, but needed the money to finance it.

Lucy had mild success with her initial book Things Are Not People - an organizational and de-cluttering guide. That book has gotten her an interview with Will Meier. He's the son of reclusive (and difficult) artist Marva Meier Rios and there is a deadline for clearing out the clutter in the house. Lucy lands the job, but what she finds is more than simple clutter - Marva's home could be featured on one of those television shows about hoarding. There's a deadline to meet and Marva isn't going to make it easy - she needs to look at each and every item before a decision is made.

The cover of Objects of My Affection immediately brings chick lit to mind. And yes it is, but the story is much more than that. There needs to a be another genre heading - Chick Lit with Heart, Chick Lit with More? Something along those lines. For while Smolinski's book is light and breezy and does include the requisite hunky guy and missed meanings and connections, there's more to the story.

Jill handles some serious situations and topics with thoughtfulness and candor. Hoarding of course, which usually involves an underlying catalyst not dealt with. And the opposite - Lucy herself is able to let things go with no problem. I thought that Ash's drug use and Lucy's struggle to deal with it was done very well - it read as quite real. Relationships of all sorts are explored with an emphasis on mothers and sons.

I really enjoyed Lucy's ex boyfriend Daniel. His sense of humour, his caring, giving nature and his honesty made him one of my favourite characters. Nelson, the care nurse was also quite funny. And for reasons I'm not quite sure of, I actually found myself enjoying Marva over Lucy. Marva's crotchety ways actually endeared her to me! But, that's not to say I wasn't cheering for Lucy to succeed.

As one of her characters says " it's clear that everything here at one time was worth something to you but that doesn't mean it has to be forever. They're holding you back from the life you could have. Let it go."

Smolinski has crafted a warm, funny, sweet read that touches on the question what do we keep in our lives and what do we need to let go? Food for thought....

Recommended summer reading - tuck this one in your beach bag for 2012. (less)

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May 09, 2012 Lisa Christen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here is an easy read for anyone who wants something light, with a bit of humor and feelings thrown in for good measure. This story is about Lucy who had a boyfriend and now doesn't, had a son but had to put him in drug rehab, and once had a home but had to sell it to put her son in drug rehab. And, she's in her late 30's. It's not a real downer of a book, though, so don't give up. There is humor in this story.

Lucy takes a high-paying job to help a reclusive, eccentric, hoarder painter de-clutter...more

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May 01, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Take two women. Each has a son, each has issues – different yet similar. One has spent her life doing things “her way” alienating many, becoming famous, losing a lover and finding out that things are more important to her than people. The other has given up everything, her home, her things her self-esteem to put her addict son into rehab. She, too, has lost a lover and feels that people are more worth holding on to than items.
What happens when these two meet and try to work together is a wonderf...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobooks-read, mindless-chic-lit

This is a great book to read during spring cleaning time! The main character has wonderful antecdotes to share regarding organizing and getting rid of things. Having been hired to clear out the entire house of an eccentric, hoarding old lady, she has to find creative ways to pry stuff from the clutches of her difficult client. The job is a huge challenge but she needs the money as she just sold her home and all of her belongings to pay for her 19 year old son's drug treatment. If the job is fini...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Mary (BookHounds) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, from-publisher-author

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

This is the story of stuff and how that stuff creates memories and causes people to horde stuff so they don't lose the memories. When Lucy, the author of a book called Things Are Not People about organizing stuff, sells off everything to put her son, Ash, into rehab, she finds herself without the people she loves as well. Her boyfriend, Daniel, has left her and now Ash won't speak to her. Broke and homeless, Lucy is hired to help artist Marva Meier Rios clean up her hording wa...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Paul Pessolano rated it 4 of 5 stars

“objects of my affection” by Jill Smolinski, published by Touchstone.

Category – Fiction/Literature

Lucy Bloom has a lot of problems. She is divorced and just been dumped by her boyfriend and making matters even worse her son is a drug addict. She has sold her house and just about everything she owns to put him in a top notch drug rehabilitation program. She is living with her friend and is sleeping with her friend’s young daughter.
Life can’t get much worse.

Lucy sees a way out. She has written a b...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Regina Spiker rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hoarding, artists, drug-addiction, humorous, romance

A humorous look at a down-on-her-luck organizer, Lucy Bloom, who takes on the daunting challenge of defusing the "professional hoarder" and eccentric artist Marva Meier Rios' Craftman's style home of excess clutter - some useless and some worth a great deal of cash. Lucy, who just wrote a book, that bombed in sales, on organizing your home not only has to be more than good at her job but also be discreet. Heaven forbid if a newspaper reporter would get a juicy story out of Marva's mess! Lucy's c...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: listening-to

I'm not sure I groaned aloud or not- internally I groaned as I listened... The book is about a famous artist who is also a hoarder. She is trying to get her affairs in order so she can commit suicide. As the reader, you figure this out long before the characters do. Naturally she has a snotty son who seems detached and greedy- Naturally Lucy, who is hired to do the decluttering is recovering from a relationship and falls in lust with one of the workers... No surprise that she has to reconnect wi...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hoarding is a hot topic. There are television shows, magazine articles and now this book that address hoarders and their problems. Lucy Bloom is a professional organizer who wrote a book titled "Things Are Not People." It catches the attention of Will Meier. His mother is Marva Meier Rios, a famous painter who is also a hoarder. Lucy has sold everything to send her teen age son to rehab in Florida. She needs the money and takes the job. One of the many catches to the job is that Marva must see e...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Northwestreader rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ms. Smolinski’s prose flows easily and her writing has a very conversational flavor to it—it almost feels like Lucy, the main character, is sitting with you and telling you her story. I think Lucy would be a kick to spend an afternoon with! I found the book easy to engage with and compelling enough to keep me reading.

While the story focused on a hoarder (a big topic on reality TV these days), it was really about relationships. Although some of the characters were a bit quirky, they all had misse...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Agnes Mack rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-the-publisher

I received a copy of Objects of My Affection courtesy of the publisher, and after reading a brief plot outline I was really excited to receive it. Unfortunately, despite the interesting idea, it didn't work for me.

The story is that of Lucy, a divorced single mother whose life is in a tailspin. Her 19 year old son is in a drug rehab facility, she was forced to sell her home to pay for said rehab, her long-term boyfriend has left her, and she's lost her job. Luckily, an opportunity arises and she's...more I received a copy of Objects of My Affection courtesy of the publisher, and after reading a brief plot outline I was really excited to receive it. Unfortunately, despite the interesting idea, it didn't work for me.

The story is that of Lucy, a divorced single mother whose life is in a tailspin. Her 19 year old son is in a drug rehab facility, she was forced to sell her home to pay for said rehab, her long-term boyfriend has left her, and she's lost her job. Luckily, an opportunity arises and she's hired to use her skills as a professional organizer to clean out the home of a famous reclusive painter.

While the story was interesting enough, the writing left much to be desired. It was written as a 1st person narrative, and frankly I found Lucy to be pretty annoying a lot of the time. I think she was supposed to be 'quirky and fun' but she came across as just scatterbrained and, well, kind of stupid. Eventually she does see the error of her ways and finally fixes some things in her life, but watching her flounder around and be walked all over for 4/5 of the book wasn't particularly enjoyable.

There was also a moment when a few characters 'discovered' something that I guess was supposed to be a surprise, but the author laid so many really obviously clues that it was not at all surprising, and instead I was just annoyed that the characters took so long to figure it out. Speaking of being non-subtle, the author would frequently way over-explain things, which just makes me feel like she thinks her readers are stupid. For example, if there was a gentleman kissing a woman and the gentleman was married (that did not happen in the book - I am avoiding giving a specific example so I don't give away the book), then the author would detail the kiss and say something like, "The kiss was complicated. He was married, which made it less than simple. Because he was married, the woman wasn't sure how she felt about it." Yes, we know, thank you!

There were a few times that the author simply didn't seem to know what she was talking about. Like the time Lucy said she was going to sign her son up for Narcotics Anonymous . . . you don't sign people up for N.A. You just go. Or the time Lucy was reading over someone's Will, the person said they wanted their ashes scattered at some bridge, and then Lucy proceeded to discuss how she was pretty sure that was illegal - unless of course they could find a dishonest funeral director. Two seconds of research would have shown her that funeral directors don't usually scatter the ashes, families do. Later in the book there was a scene involving an urn filled with ashes, so I'm really not sure what the deal was. There were many other inconsistencies that just took me out of the book and made me roll my eyes.

All that said, this wasn't the type of book that was so awful it was aggravating to read. The pace was nice, I was able to read it for hours at a time without getting bored, and I'm sure many people will really enjoy it. I just felt that with such an interesting backstory and such interesting characters, a different writer could have taken it a lot further.(less)

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Jul 09, 2012 Bonita rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: 18 and older

Recommended to Bonita by: Fiction Lit.com

Objects Of My Affection

By: Jill Smolinski

Genre: Romance Fiction

Reviewed by: Bonita L. Ledzius

Reviewed on July 9, 2012

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Published in: 2012

The world is spinning out of control for Lucy Bloom. Her son is in drug rehab in Florida, which she paid for by selling her home. The book she wrote about organizing you life and home is a failure as far as sales go. The man Lucy has loved for two years has left, because of her son’s drug addiction, and now she has lost her job a...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Marca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kind of a loopy story that I ended up liking. Lucy Bloom is the mother of an adult son who is a drug addict. She sold everything, including her house to send the kid to rehab. Needing a job, she got a certification as a personal organizer. Lucy is hired by the son of a famous, but reclusive artist (Marva) to de-hoard Marva’s house. How hard can it be? Lucy wonders. Well, if you have ever watched Hoarders on TV, you know how hard it can be. The story deals with hoarding in a realistic way and Luc...more

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May 27, 2012 Laurel-Rain rated it 5 of 5 stars

When Lucy Bloom, personal organizer, sells her home and most of her possessions to afford her son Ash's drug rehab, she needs a job that will bring in enough to finance her new life.

Her new job turns out to be the most challenging one she's had: oversee the decluttering of a "hoarder" artist's home, and do it discreetly. The downside is she has a very limited time to accomplish the task, but if she does, she'll receive a huge bonus.

It sounds fairly straightforward, but soon Lucy discovers that h...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Jenan rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I read the jacket info on this book, I had to dive in. Like the protagonist, I have a hoarder in my life. Fiction is a great way to inform the public about this topic. Much of the information provided about hoarding is accurate. It was refreshing to see a happy ending for someone with the condition, although I'm doubtful that it is an accurate or typical outcome.

A professional organizer, who is really an untrained woman brinking on financial and emotional disaster, takes a high-paying gig t...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Mayda rated it 3 of 5 stars

You think you have problems? Poor Lucy Bloom is broke, homeless, jobless, her boyfriend has dumped her, and her son is in rehab for his drug addiction. She has the prospect of a job clearing the clutter out of an elderly artist’s home, but that is easier said than done and Lucy’s road to happiness is blocked by debris. This tale is an interesting one, if you have clutter concerns, but it could have used some serious editing. It gets a bit repetitive and you’ll guess the ending long before you ge...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes I don't like to read books that include a topic that hits too close to home. I was nervous about the topic of hoarding. I'm not a hoarder. I'm just a normal mom with a big family who wishes her house was a bit cleaner and a bit less cluttered. But watching Hoarders on TV makes me very uncomfortable. I get up and start cleaning and throwing things away. I just have this visceral reaction to the show.

So I had a bit of a conundrum. Do I read this? Will it make me uncomfortable?

Well it did...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Amara rated it 3 of 5 stars

The blurb advertising this book marked it as a humorously told tale, and I didn't think it was funny at all. It treated some really serious subjects: mental illness, drug addiction, suicide, and the way we twist the truth inside our heads to suit us. I had the audio, and the narrator really bugged too --it waslike she continually had a frog in her throat. You know when teen pop singers have that little catch in their voice to sound more emotional? She did that The. Whole. Time. Really distractin...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed the book and its balance of what (or who) has meaning to us. Smolinski includes people and experiences, not just things, as recipients of our attention and affection. That created greater interest and enjoyment of the book and its story lines.

In order to finish the book in time for our book club, I made my husband listen to the book with me during our commute together. He liked it so much that he wanted to listen to it when we got home--even though he missed the first two thirds of th...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cute story. Sort of a chick-lit novel for the over 40 set. Main character is a single mom. Her teenaged son is in drug rehab. She takes a job as a personal organizer to help a famous artist who has become a hoarder. She really needs the money from this job because she literally had to sell everything she owned (except her car and some clothes) to pay for her son's rehab. Most of the story is fun. Her relationship with her son is a struggle to read though. I think that's the point, but it made me...more

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About Jill Smolinski

I am the author of the novels Objects of My Affection, The Next Thing on My List and Flip-Flopped. I love calling in to book clubs, so visit my web site if you're reading one of my books and would like me to join in the discussion.

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Objects of My Affection

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