Zora Anderson is a 30-year-old African American middle class, college educated woman, trained as a chef, looking for a job. As fate would have it, ...
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May 01, 2011
Saloma
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In the beginning of this story, I really thought the ending COULD happen, but the author veered in another direction in the middle of the book, so that I completely banned the thought from my mind. Then, in the end, it DOES happen. I wanted to hate this book... after all any book that gets me to root for what I normally consider wrong or immoral actions, is not one I normally like. But in this story, there was more to it than at first blush. The author says in an interview: "I actually beli
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Nov 02, 2010
Rachel
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To read more reviews check out Reading Rendezvous on MISS at www.missomnimedia.com/tag/reading-rendez...
In Lori Tharps’ new novel Substitute Me, Zora Anderson, an African American and college dropout, is having trouble; she is caught in between her overly ambitious parents and her relaxed lifestyle. She fears that her life choices do not comply with her parents’ dream for her. With no life plan, Zora runs as fast as she can away from her ambitious and driven family towards a more rela More...
In Lori Tharps’ new novel Substitute Me, Zora Anderson, an African American and college dropout, is having trouble; she is caught in between her overly ambitious parents and her relaxed lifestyle. She fears that her life choices do not comply with her parents’ dream for her. With no life plan, Zora runs as fast as she can away from her ambitious and driven family towards a more rela More...
Jan 01, 2011
Monique
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So finished this short little book in one day and honestly dont know how I feel about it..For the first hundred or so pages I thought it was just a case study on a new mother, her fears and concerns hiring a nanny and then a look into the mindset of the nanny.. I read about their lives, the precocious child in the middle of the family with minimal references to the husband or anything else interesting then bam the book takes off in a totally unexpected way that made me so mad..I wanted to love t
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Aug 12, 2010
Notorious
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Stop by www.notoriousspinkstalks.com to win a copy.
“Substitute Me. Looking for a nanny who will take care of my six-month-old baby as if he were her own. Five full days a week. No cooking or cleaning required. Must love children and be prepared to show it. References required.”
Be careful what you ask is so cliché, but sometimes we just want to take it all back and start over. Kate Carter doesn’t think anything of it when she placed the article in her local pa More...
“Substitute Me. Looking for a nanny who will take care of my six-month-old baby as if he were her own. Five full days a week. No cooking or cleaning required. Must love children and be prepared to show it. References required.”
Be careful what you ask is so cliché, but sometimes we just want to take it all back and start over. Kate Carter doesn’t think anything of it when she placed the article in her local pa More...
Aug 24, 2010
Rachel
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 09, 2010
Carla
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When Kate was ready to return to work after a six month maternity leave, her Nanny ad read "Substitute Me", and she was thrilled when Zora seemed to be just that. I thought this book was going to be more fluff than serious, but instead it took on some really tough issues, like working moms, racial differences, and the really interesting issue of how young black women have to live up to the opportunities that their parents, grandparents and great grandparents struggled so hard to give
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Jan 16, 2012
A'ndrea
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Lori Tharps’s Substitute Me follows the story of Zora Anderson, a college dropout out turned nanny as she struggles with her lack of ambition and family’s hopes for her life. The daughter of upwardly mobile black parents, Zora is expected to have a white collar career. Instead, Zora finds herself as “the help” for affluent white families, just as her ancestors had been. Her new employer, Kate Carter, is eager to get back to work after having a baby, and upon hiring Zora, jumps headfirst back int
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Nov 03, 2010
Heather
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Kate is about to return to her high powered ad-exec job after a six month maternity leave for her newborn son, Oliver. Though she's a very caring and devoted mother, Kate feels a void in her life that can only be filled by resuming her career. When she discovers the perfect nanny named Zora, things seem to be looking up for her. Zora is a godsend to Kate. A thirty year old woman who has had a vast amount of experience with children, Zora is having difficulty deciding what she wants to do with he
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Jun 12, 2010
eb
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A very readable tale of a black woman nannying for a white couple and feeling guilty about failing to meet her parents' expectations. The story is compelling, and Tharps has interesting and subtle things to say about race, but the prose is bad. On every other page, someone "tries to keep a straight face," for example. And Tharps needs to commit to memory this part of Strunk and White: "Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs but load their attributives with explanato
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Dec 15, 2010
Melissa
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Six months after her baby, Oliver, is born, Kate Carter is ready to return to her high-powered at a public relations agency. She hires Zora, a thirty year old Black woman with au pair experience. Zora is great with kids, but still doesn’t quite know what to do with her life. She accepts the job, thinking it will only be a temporary position to hold her over until she finds a “real job.”
As Kate takes on major new projects at work, she starts to rely more and more on Zora to take care of More...
As Kate takes on major new projects at work, she starts to rely more and more on Zora to take care of More...
Feb 23, 2011
Vicky
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Substitute Me is the story of Kate, Brad, Ollie and Zora.
Kate is getting ready to return to work and wants the perfect person to watch her son, Ollie. Brad is ambivalent to the process.
Kate meets Zora and hires her right away.
Seems like a simple story of a working mother and her family. Really, this book takes on some racial issues as Kate is white and Zora is African-American. This book also addresses issues of wealth and expectations from opportunities give More...
Kate is getting ready to return to work and wants the perfect person to watch her son, Ollie. Brad is ambivalent to the process.
Kate meets Zora and hires her right away.
Seems like a simple story of a working mother and her family. Really, this book takes on some racial issues as Kate is white and Zora is African-American. This book also addresses issues of wealth and expectations from opportunities give More...
Nov 29, 2010
Jan
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Sep 08, 2010
Charity
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I read this in three days. First, this isn't the type of novel I usually pick up. I don't want to read about someone's everyday life and everyday ordinary troubles. I need one or a combination of the following: murder, car chases, space chases, aliens, dragons, wizards, planets blowing up, end of the world infectious diseases, etc. Having said that, I found myself intrigued with a world completely foreign to ME.
Kate is ambitious, but she has a child and someone needs to take care of More...
Kate is ambitious, but she has a child and someone needs to take care of More...
Mar 30, 2011
Rashida
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Le sigh. The topics of this book should hit me in the gut right? Working mom, dealing with the childcare conundrum, Buppy type, etc. I mean, I've convinced myself that daycare is philosophically and morally superior to a nanny, because... well just because I said so. So I should love it or hate it, right? I don't, I can't muster passion either way. I think that Tharps is a more than capable writer, and I will read more of her stuff. But the actual unfolding of the story just didn't sit wi
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Oct 31, 2010
Elizabeth
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Substitute Me
October 18, 2010
Lori L. Tharps
Ms. Tharps definitely made this an interesting read. Showing the contrast of different positions in life, regardless of age, race or gender. But also showed how people of different races interact and how parents feel about the choices their children make in choosing careers. I didn’t like the fact that two of the main characters had an affair but for someone that is placing their career over the family in the number of hours they ar More...
October 18, 2010
Lori L. Tharps
Ms. Tharps definitely made this an interesting read. Showing the contrast of different positions in life, regardless of age, race or gender. But also showed how people of different races interact and how parents feel about the choices their children make in choosing careers. I didn’t like the fact that two of the main characters had an affair but for someone that is placing their career over the family in the number of hours they ar More...
May 11, 2011
Kat
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I really enjoyed this book. I had a few qualms with some predictable (and cliche) turns in the plot. Yet, I think the gravity of the issues that many women and families face today (juggling work, relationships, and domestic chores) really overshadow those qualms. It would be a great novel to use for a book club - so many areas to discuss (racial and identity issues, gender issues, and concerns about the modern two-income familial situation). All in all, I highly recommend this book to folks
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Jun 19, 2011
Jessica
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After weeks of maternity leave, Kate Carter is getting ready to head back to work. But she has one very important task left before she returns to her job at a public relations agency. She needs to find a nanny for her son Oliver. Zora Anderson, a 30 year old African American woman is looking for a job. Her parents would kill her if they knew she was applying to be a nanny, but Zora just isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life yet.
Once Zora gets the job, everything seems perfect More...
Once Zora gets the job, everything seems perfect More...
May 25, 2011
Stephanie / seenonflickr
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Aug 18, 2011
Ari
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At first Zora sounded a little like me (or at least she had similar opportunities I have had and want to have, such as living in Europe or at least another country for awhile. We lost our connection whenever cooking was mentioned, haha) "she loved cooking, she loved traveling, and she liked kids. She liked feeling useful, and she liked being in beautiful spaces. She loved music and dancing and the taste of a foreign language rolling off her tongue. She loved reading literary fiction with mu
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Nov 24, 2010
Katrina
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Kate Carter is ready to go back to work after maternity leave and she would like to hire a nanny. Zora Anderson, a college educated black woman, is in need of a job.
Zora was afraid of what her family thought of her chosen profession, but she didn’t let their narrow-minded opinions prevent her from doing what she loved to do. “They used to call it being a slave, but today the job is called being a nanny.” Those were Zora’s words on page 199. Nanny/Slave – I don’t see the comparison. Z More...
Zora was afraid of what her family thought of her chosen profession, but she didn’t let their narrow-minded opinions prevent her from doing what she loved to do. “They used to call it being a slave, but today the job is called being a nanny.” Those were Zora’s words on page 199. Nanny/Slave – I don’t see the comparison. Z More...
Aug 30, 2010
Toni
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A young, White, professional mother and wife, Kate, places an ad for a nanny for her baby when she must return to work from an extended maternity leave. She is looking for a "substitute me", someone who will care for her child as well as she does. She hires Zora, a 30 year old African-American women who is still trying to decide what to do with her life, much to her successful family's dismay. Even though Kate's husband, Craig, isn't too keen on the idea of having a Black nanny, it tu
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Aug 11, 2010
Reads4Pleasure
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Thirty year old Zora Anderson has floated from place to place and job to job on a whim. Moving on when things become too much to handle, she finds herself in New York with a place to stay, but in desperate need of a job. The college-educated daughter of upwardly mobile parents, Zora realizes that she's not living up to the goal her parents have set for her. Even still, the former au pair in France decides to give being a New York nanny a try.
Kate Carter is headed back to work afte More...
Kate Carter is headed back to work afte More...
Jun 11, 2011
Susan
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Who is the villain and who is the heroine in Lori L. Tharp's novel "Substitute Me"? Zora Anderson is a 30 year old, African-American, college educated woman who is looking for a job. She becomes the nanny/housekeeper for Kate and Brad Carter a white married couple with a new baby, despite the fact that she knows her family would be mortified at her "regressing" to the black woman stereotype of the past. The development of relationships and the complications that ensue are th
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Jul 01, 2011
Krissy
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I was a bit confused as I finished the book. The back cover promised that "Substitute Me" would give book clubs plenty to talk and argue about. One reviewer said, "Days after finishing it, I'm still debating who the villain is." But it all seemed rather cut and dry for me. The villain and/or villains? Totally pegged. This book didn't really lead me to ask any further questions. Either I missed something, or the reviewers did.
Mar 10, 2011
Jill
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This is a smart, thoughtful story about a young prosperous white couple, Kate and Brad Carter, who hire a nanny who is black, Zora Anderson, to take care of their six-month-old son Oliver, or “Ollie.”
This book is ideal for a book club selection. In fact, I tend to agree with author Carleen Brice who wrote that there is so much to talk about, you might want to schedule two book club meetings to discuss it all!
This book is ideal for a book club selection. In fact, I tend to agree with author Carleen Brice who wrote that there is so much to talk about, you might want to schedule two book club meetings to discuss it all!
Feb 02, 2012
Patriciaw
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Although the premise of the Black woman working as a nanny for the yuppie white couple who eventually falls for the husband might seem a little cliched, what makes this story work is the writing. The fresh voice of Lori Tharps captures the sights, smells, places and people of New York with flair.
Tharps offers a conclusion which will satisfy some readers and yet may offend others. The only question is whether Zora, Brad and Kate will rise above the pile of smouldering ashes.
Tharps offers a conclusion which will satisfy some readers and yet may offend others. The only question is whether Zora, Brad and Kate will rise above the pile of smouldering ashes.
Jul 26, 2011
Allysia
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"After reading the back of the book I thought I knew what was going to happen, thought I had it all figured out. But the book surprised me. The author really took her time building the characters and the story line - almost too long to be honest but once it was revealed it moved very fast and surprised me at the end. Was it believable? I'm not so sure. Was it entertaining? Yes, for the most part.
Jun 06, 2011
Temple
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I didn't enjoy this book while reading it. It was after I walked around with it in my head for a day or so that I was able to appreciate Tharps' nuanced storytelling.
There are several tales in this story which don't jump out at you because the writing seems, at first glance, simplistic (which I think shows the authors talent as a writer). The woman still finding her place in the world beyond what is considered an acceptable age. The woman who has reached all the "prescribed" More...
There are several tales in this story which don't jump out at you because the writing seems, at first glance, simplistic (which I think shows the authors talent as a writer). The woman still finding her place in the world beyond what is considered an acceptable age. The woman who has reached all the "prescribed" More...
Sep 29, 2010
Jenifer
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 07, 2011
Butterflypages
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I highly recommend this book! Lori Tharps is a great writer. The book has many entry points for readers. I like the way she develops each character such that you see their growth and how their actions, thoughts, etc contribute to the plot. The book will hold your attention. I would have loved to read this book in a book club.
