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Planting Dandelions: Field Notes From a Semi-Domesticated Life
Introducing a writer with a keen eye, a wicked tongue, and an appealing take on family.
In the family of Jen Lancaster and Elizabeth Gilbert, Kyran Pittman is the laid-back middle sister: warm and witty and confiding, with an addictively smart and genuine voice-but married with three kids and living in the heartland. Relatable and real, she writes about family in a way that highlights all its humor, while at the same time honoring its depth.
A regular contributor to Good Housekeeping, Pittman is well loved because she is funny and honest and self-deprecating, because her own household is in chaos ("semi-domesticated"), and because she inspires readers in their own domestic lives. In these eighteen linked, chronological essays, Pittman covers the first twelve years of becoming a family, writing candidly and hilariously about things like learning to maintain a marriage over time; dealing with the challenges of sex after childbirth; saying good-bye to her younger self and embracing the still attractive, forty-year-old version; and trying to "recession- proof" her family (i.e., downsize to avoid foreclosure).
From a fresh new talent, celebrating the joys and trials of a new generation of parents, Planting Dandelions is an entertaining tribute to choosing the white-picket fence over the other options available, even if you don't manage to live up to its ideals every day.
In the family of Jen Lancaster and Elizabeth Gilbert, Kyran Pittman is the laid-back middle sister: warm and witty and confiding, with an addictively smart and genuine voice-but married with three kids and living in the heartland. Relatable and real, she writes about family in a way that highlights all its humor, while at the same time honoring its depth.
A regular contributor to Good Housekeeping, Pittman is well loved because she is funny and honest and self-deprecating, because her own household is in chaos ("semi-domesticated"), and because she inspires readers in their own domestic lives. In these eighteen linked, chronological essays, Pittman covers the first twelve years of becoming a family, writing candidly and hilariously about things like learning to maintain a marriage over time; dealing with the challenges of sex after childbirth; saying good-bye to her younger self and embracing the still attractive, forty-year-old version; and trying to "recession- proof" her family (i.e., downsize to avoid foreclosure).
From a fresh new talent, celebrating the joys and trials of a new generation of parents, Planting Dandelions is an entertaining tribute to choosing the white-picket fence over the other options available, even if you don't manage to live up to its ideals every day.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2011
25 people are currently reading
938 people want to read
About the author
Kyran Pittman
2 books43 followersKyran Pittman is an author, blogger, and magazine writer. She lives in Arkansas with her husband and their three sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
July 20, 2011
The stories in this book aren't particularly exceptional in terms of the subject matter - the writer is a 40-something woman who was wild in her youth but somehow found herself married and the mother of three boys. But she has that really rare gift of being able to capture details of everyday life in language that is so perfect that you just want to savor it, rereading sentences or paragraphs over and over. I read this in a couple of days and totally laughed out loud multiple times. It's also a relatively easy read in that each chapter is an independent story, so you can set it down and pick it back up at leisure. The chapter describing how she found herself pregnant with her first son, for example, starts with "I was not very maternal as a child. The attention I gave to my dolls was erratic and occasionally catastrophic, like the time I fed Baby Alive mashed leftovers after the packets of synthetic baby food ran out. She became constipated and moldy, and eventually bugs hatched inside her motorized bowels. It was truly gross negligence. My Barbie dolls were just plain abused. I gave them garish makeovers with felt-tip markers, back-combed their long silken hair into frizzy blond Afros, and left them lying around naked, like skid-row floozies passed out on bathtub gin" It's a sweet and endearing book even as she herself can be sarcastic at times.
May 8, 2011
I know Kyran through our cozy blogworld, and I have loved her writing for years (even before she became a Good Housekeeping contributing editor -- her poetic talent is clear even when not judged by the big ones). I'd always admired her for her way of turning blog posts into short essays, not the journaling you see in most 'mommy blogs.' She has a weight about her.
And so, much of this material was familiar both in story and in tone. I knew several of these stories from our mutual connection and the briefer, real-time, non-contextual versions on the blog. Seeing how she wove the excellent short pieces into longer, more complete essays was interesting and, again, familiar (though I haven't written a book yet, I too turn bits and pieces from blog posts into longer essays). Every essay in here stands without knowing anything of Kyran beforehand; I could just as easily have walked into her life off the internet's streets, a new mother or a net ingenue. And I would like it exactly as much.
The real strength of this work is that it does not paint the role of wife/mother as the easy-peasy romance so many modern mother-memoirists do (or, conversely, hell's roller coaster into all-caps snark and stories intimate with poop). We see here, marriage in its ups and downs: we see a real story with real arguments that could be lifted straight into most marriages I know without anyone being the wiser. And we see the true heroism of staying in a marriage, through it all; we see a realism without (much) product placement or blithe boosterism. At times, due to (probably) the difficulties of siding with one group or another, the living she must go on doing in her family and social environment, she seems almost blindingly equaninimous. I am a 40-year-old mother, I contain multitudes! (She can be an attachment parent and still put her baby in child care while she writes; she can be a frugal hippie and still send her kids to private school. She does not judge any mother, holding hands instead, across the cul-de-sacs and picket fences and barbed wire and interstate freeways.)
I am missing something from this work, though, and that is a narrative thread and a clear chronology. Each essay can stand on its own, and many of them probably could do so in major newspapers and magazines without any complaint and with, likely, acclaim from other mother-writers; I, however, prefer to see a story in beginning-middle-and-end form. Each essay wraps its idea (not story: idea) up nicely at the end and shows the development of wisdom with age. I would like to see the wisdom come on more slowly; I would like to not always know the end of the story at the end (or even, often, only half-way through) each essay. I had expected a book, not a collection, and was mildly disappointed.
It's also hard for me, a mother-writer with three boys and a husband who shares many character traits with Kyran's husband Patrick, to read a book in which the strife never comes (or extremely rarely comes) from the children. In my world, children are not so pacific. But that is my story, I think; Kyran's story is either simply a different one, or any trouble coming from the children is glossed over. I can hardly fault a writer for her easy children (but oh! they seem so easy!).
As someone who has been through many of the same thought-essays in my own head, I would suggest this book for younger mothers and mothers-to-be. It's especially useful for mothers who share something with Kyran -- a husband with a genetic predisposition to boys, maybe; a bad-girl past; a freelance lifestyle; a transplantation to the South. It's a great gift-book, good for reading like an approachable literary magazine: in snippets and at random, quoting passages out loud to your intractable husband or your mama friends on the front porch.
And so, much of this material was familiar both in story and in tone. I knew several of these stories from our mutual connection and the briefer, real-time, non-contextual versions on the blog. Seeing how she wove the excellent short pieces into longer, more complete essays was interesting and, again, familiar (though I haven't written a book yet, I too turn bits and pieces from blog posts into longer essays). Every essay in here stands without knowing anything of Kyran beforehand; I could just as easily have walked into her life off the internet's streets, a new mother or a net ingenue. And I would like it exactly as much.
The real strength of this work is that it does not paint the role of wife/mother as the easy-peasy romance so many modern mother-memoirists do (or, conversely, hell's roller coaster into all-caps snark and stories intimate with poop). We see here, marriage in its ups and downs: we see a real story with real arguments that could be lifted straight into most marriages I know without anyone being the wiser. And we see the true heroism of staying in a marriage, through it all; we see a realism without (much) product placement or blithe boosterism. At times, due to (probably) the difficulties of siding with one group or another, the living she must go on doing in her family and social environment, she seems almost blindingly equaninimous. I am a 40-year-old mother, I contain multitudes! (She can be an attachment parent and still put her baby in child care while she writes; she can be a frugal hippie and still send her kids to private school. She does not judge any mother, holding hands instead, across the cul-de-sacs and picket fences and barbed wire and interstate freeways.)
I am missing something from this work, though, and that is a narrative thread and a clear chronology. Each essay can stand on its own, and many of them probably could do so in major newspapers and magazines without any complaint and with, likely, acclaim from other mother-writers; I, however, prefer to see a story in beginning-middle-and-end form. Each essay wraps its idea (not story: idea) up nicely at the end and shows the development of wisdom with age. I would like to see the wisdom come on more slowly; I would like to not always know the end of the story at the end (or even, often, only half-way through) each essay. I had expected a book, not a collection, and was mildly disappointed.
It's also hard for me, a mother-writer with three boys and a husband who shares many character traits with Kyran's husband Patrick, to read a book in which the strife never comes (or extremely rarely comes) from the children. In my world, children are not so pacific. But that is my story, I think; Kyran's story is either simply a different one, or any trouble coming from the children is glossed over. I can hardly fault a writer for her easy children (but oh! they seem so easy!).
As someone who has been through many of the same thought-essays in my own head, I would suggest this book for younger mothers and mothers-to-be. It's especially useful for mothers who share something with Kyran -- a husband with a genetic predisposition to boys, maybe; a bad-girl past; a freelance lifestyle; a transplantation to the South. It's a great gift-book, good for reading like an approachable literary magazine: in snippets and at random, quoting passages out loud to your intractable husband or your mama friends on the front porch.
May 29, 2012
I {heart} this book. A friend of mine had said that she read this book and it reminded her of me. She has a tendency to read sob-stories, so I avoided it like the plague. Then I was cast in a little national show called Listen To Your Mother with Kyran Pittman and I thought, "Surely the Listen To Your Mother people wouldn't cast an emo-wreck for this show" and I decided to read it. Kyran is so honest and simple and it was a little like reading a long-lost sister's diary. Her words are fun, and her stories are completely relatable. And when I got to actually MEET her and take pictures of her and razz her kid because it was just his birthday and I convinced him that I baked brownies just for him, she was just as down-to-earth and sweet as I imagined her to be. Read it. Read it now. It's a lazy, feel-good read and you'll be so glad you read it. You're welcome.
April 13, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. Kyran discusses her leap from being a wild child to a wife and mother of three. Her path was not easy, and she bares in this wonderful memoir about her life. I love that Kyran is honest about her decisions and what made her decide to "jump the picket fence" into a life she never imagined herself living, all the while keeping a great sense of humor. I could definitely relate to her, being a mother of two who never saw myself in this kind of life. I think it was very brave that she wrote about her infidelities, especially since some things must have been hard for her husband to read about. If you have children, you will find yourself saying "oh, I know how that is" and "I have been there" many times. I highly recommend it!
February 10, 2011
Wonderful book. Kyran writes about jumping the white picket fence-- taking a nontraditional path to marriage and motherhood. As a reader, I felt like I was peering over that fence, indeed, right into her windows, getting a sneak peak at motherhood, marriage and life lived with excellent senses of both wonder and humor. The book is at turns laugh out loud funny and tearjerkingly touching. I loved it.
May 5, 2011
I have to start this book review with a big disclosure: I am friends with Kyran Pittman, the author of Planting Dandelions. She and I have much in common, including long distance love affairs, immigration issues and a house full of testosterone. Since her book is a story about her and her family, and because before reading it I already knew that I loved her and her family, my review is, by default, biased.
That disclaimer out of the way,Planting Dandelions is one of the worst memoirs I've ever read. Just kidding! It's actually one of the best. And I really wouldn't say that if it weren't true.
The title of Kyran's book refers to her long time love of the tiny-yet-hardy plant that many consider to be a weed, but that she considers a flower. The dandelion has become a bit of a metaphor for her life, a reminder that one doesn't have to be like everyone else on the block, that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and that wishing is a worthwhile activity.
In her memoir, Kyran mainly covers the years of her life spent falling in and out love, finally finding "the one," and raising a family with him. Anyone who's ever chucked it all to run away and be with a boy or been a mother unsure of herself and her role within the family and society can definitely relate to her story. I've heard her writing compared to Erma Bombeck's, but Kyran is a funnier, raunchier, and dare I say more honest voice.
If you're looking for a hilarious take on what the "real" modern family is like, an honest glimpse into the confusing, contradictory cesspool of emotions that mothers and wives must wade through, or a treatise on the negotiations and contracts necessary to run a marriage, you will absolutely love Planting Dandelions.
There. Now I've finished the trite and standard book review stuff. I know that many people just read the first part of a review or post, so there's the necessary bits out of the way. Now I can really talk about Kyran and her book.
There are parts of it that are tough to read. If sex talk or graphic descriptions of childbirth bothers you, be warned -- she writes about both of them. I'm a bit of a prude, and I'll say, those parts didn't really gross me out too much, but I did wince or giggle like a pre-pubescent boy at times. But I still can't believe some of what she put out there. She's either brave or crazy, or a bit of both.
It's also tough to read because it's brutally honest. Kyran talks about her failed first marriage, her emotional affairs, and her judgmental feelings toward other women. I like that kind of thing. I think more women need to be writing about that stuff. None of us are perfect, dammit. There are enough craft blogs and beauty magazines out there making us feel less-than because we don't have a perfect home, a perfect marriage, perfect kids or a perfect body. The last thing we need is yet another "momoir" that glorifies and airbrushes the realities that women face.
Kyran's writing is also very different from that of many bloggers-turned-writers and people who write about their lives. It's different because it's good. I know "she writes pretty" isn't necessarily your standard reason a review gives to read a book, but I think it's valid. I hate writing styles that insult my intelligence. Kyran's writing, while relatable and easy to devour, still makes you feel smart. She doesn't talk down to her readers, and she's not afraid to use her brain or big words or make erudite references. And I like that -- it's quite rare in this genre.
But what I love most about Planting Dandelions is how it makes me -- and I'm sure others -- feel. It made me feel like my story is worth telling. That my banal life of packing lunch boxes and paying bills and (not) changing light bulbs is worth remembering, worth preserving. I don't mean that I need to go out and write a memoir. I just mean that, since reading this book, I find myself taking a little more time to find the joy in the carpool line, to honor the importance of listening to my husband, and to reflect on the tradition and history involved in raising my children. While Kyran's story could give me an excuse -- "Hey, nobody's perfect, what am I so hard on myself for?" -- instead, it's given me a new challenge, a new outlook, and a new appreciation of my role as wife and mother. In a way, it's given me a new sense of purpose.
For that, I can truly say that Planting Dandelions is one of the few books that has changed my life. I hope you'll read it and give it a chance to change yours, too.
That disclaimer out of the way,Planting Dandelions is one of the worst memoirs I've ever read. Just kidding! It's actually one of the best. And I really wouldn't say that if it weren't true.
The title of Kyran's book refers to her long time love of the tiny-yet-hardy plant that many consider to be a weed, but that she considers a flower. The dandelion has become a bit of a metaphor for her life, a reminder that one doesn't have to be like everyone else on the block, that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, and that wishing is a worthwhile activity.
In her memoir, Kyran mainly covers the years of her life spent falling in and out love, finally finding "the one," and raising a family with him. Anyone who's ever chucked it all to run away and be with a boy or been a mother unsure of herself and her role within the family and society can definitely relate to her story. I've heard her writing compared to Erma Bombeck's, but Kyran is a funnier, raunchier, and dare I say more honest voice.
If you're looking for a hilarious take on what the "real" modern family is like, an honest glimpse into the confusing, contradictory cesspool of emotions that mothers and wives must wade through, or a treatise on the negotiations and contracts necessary to run a marriage, you will absolutely love Planting Dandelions.
There. Now I've finished the trite and standard book review stuff. I know that many people just read the first part of a review or post, so there's the necessary bits out of the way. Now I can really talk about Kyran and her book.
There are parts of it that are tough to read. If sex talk or graphic descriptions of childbirth bothers you, be warned -- she writes about both of them. I'm a bit of a prude, and I'll say, those parts didn't really gross me out too much, but I did wince or giggle like a pre-pubescent boy at times. But I still can't believe some of what she put out there. She's either brave or crazy, or a bit of both.
It's also tough to read because it's brutally honest. Kyran talks about her failed first marriage, her emotional affairs, and her judgmental feelings toward other women. I like that kind of thing. I think more women need to be writing about that stuff. None of us are perfect, dammit. There are enough craft blogs and beauty magazines out there making us feel less-than because we don't have a perfect home, a perfect marriage, perfect kids or a perfect body. The last thing we need is yet another "momoir" that glorifies and airbrushes the realities that women face.
Kyran's writing is also very different from that of many bloggers-turned-writers and people who write about their lives. It's different because it's good. I know "she writes pretty" isn't necessarily your standard reason a review gives to read a book, but I think it's valid. I hate writing styles that insult my intelligence. Kyran's writing, while relatable and easy to devour, still makes you feel smart. She doesn't talk down to her readers, and she's not afraid to use her brain or big words or make erudite references. And I like that -- it's quite rare in this genre.
But what I love most about Planting Dandelions is how it makes me -- and I'm sure others -- feel. It made me feel like my story is worth telling. That my banal life of packing lunch boxes and paying bills and (not) changing light bulbs is worth remembering, worth preserving. I don't mean that I need to go out and write a memoir. I just mean that, since reading this book, I find myself taking a little more time to find the joy in the carpool line, to honor the importance of listening to my husband, and to reflect on the tradition and history involved in raising my children. While Kyran's story could give me an excuse -- "Hey, nobody's perfect, what am I so hard on myself for?" -- instead, it's given me a new challenge, a new outlook, and a new appreciation of my role as wife and mother. In a way, it's given me a new sense of purpose.
For that, I can truly say that Planting Dandelions is one of the few books that has changed my life. I hope you'll read it and give it a chance to change yours, too.
April 20, 2011
The cover says "a memoir" but that's not quite true. This is a collection of 18 short essays on life and love, risk and romance, mistakes and motherhood ... which collectively provides a significant window into the world of the author without quite becoming a true memoir. But its episodic nature - each essay like a chapter - makes it very approachable and easy to read. Pittman also has a good sense of humor, which she often puts to work. The result is a fun, interesting read with surprising depth. Living as a professional businesswoman with her husband in Toronto, Pittman found her world tipping further and further off-axis, spinning her into a life she never expected. These essays cover the fifteen years that followed, as Pittman finds her way from minidresses to nursing bras, from the tavern to the white picket fence. Along the way she shares some of the most important lessons she learned, with great effect. Some of my favorite essays - D-I-Y Spells Die, Penis Ennui, Back in the Saddle - are truthful, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny. And then came Southern Man, which is hands-down one of the finer pieces I've read about Arkansas and the modern South. Together with Me, the People, Pittman provides a look at America that is both frank and touching. While most of the book serves up lighter fare, its humor, feeling, and insight make it a very enjoyable read. Four stars and two thumbs up.
June 26, 2011
maybe more like 3.5 stars? i really, really wish goodreads let us do half-stars officially.
this is more like a collection of autobiographical essays than a real memoir. the author is a canadian woman living in arkansas with her husband & three young sons. she starts the book by detailing the genesis of her relationship with her husband. she had been married to another man when she apparently started an internet affair. she fled from her marriage after less than two years & gallivanted around mexico for a while before joining him in arkansas. she talks a nice big game about how THIS time, at the ripe old age of like 26, she truly understands the import of marriage & knows that walking down the aisle is the right choice.
so in that respect, the book kind if immediately got off on a weird foot with me. not necessarily the WRONG foot--i did appreciate her candor, & she doesn't really bend over backwards to try to convince the reader that what she did is not that bad or that her first husband was a monster or anything (she doesn't really write about him at all, actually). i got married at a really young age & was divorced within two years, so hey. i know it happens. (though there were no affairs involved in my marriage.) & at the time that this book was published, she had been with her second husband for more than ten years & things were going strong, so clearly she did make a better choice or become more mature or something. but i still have to scoff at someone in her mid-20s talking such a big game about how she's made some mistakes but THIS time, her huge life decision is the right one, she just KNOWS it. i have been 18, i have been 26, & i can say with some degree of confidence that 26 is not really any more grown up than 26. i wish she just would have toned down the grandiosity a little, maybe.
there was a lot to like about this book. i especially enjoyed her descriptions of motherhood, when she wrote about how she intended to do everything totally natural & "perfect" with her first son, doing attachment parenting all the way, making him a jice-sweetened cake for his first birthday etc...& how her great intentions ceded to reality as she had more babies. it was very in line with my theory that everyone is such a great mom before they actually have kids, thinking they have all the answers & know exactly what to do. & although i certainly plan to adopt some elements of attachment parenting with my kid, hardcore attachment parenting acolytes annoy me just as much as their more mainstream counterparts with the SUV-sized strollers.
what did bother me about this book was the hyper-focus on the author's perception of herself as a freewheeling bohemian unfettered by the bourgeois expectations of...well...anyone. it hit a false note throughout the book, like she was playacting at being someone who is all wild & crazy. my suspicions were proven in one of the final chapters, which was all about turning 40 & saying goodbye to the "hot girl" she had once been. she talked about how she has always loved make-up & messing with her hair & feminine clothes, but now she feels she HAS to do it to keep up appearances rather than because it's fun. um. i can't help thinking that a fun-loving free-spirited bohemian wouldn't really stress out that much about a gray hair or some wrinkles. i'm almost 32, i have some gray hair & am starting to get some wrinkles...big fucking deal. i never expected to be 16 forever. i'm certainly not going to tether myself to some kind of beauty regimen in the hopes of achieving the impossible. i guess my point is that this essay, about saying goodbye to youth, was actually about clinging to youth & it didn't tally at all with how the author tried to represent herself in the rest of the book.
this is more like a collection of autobiographical essays than a real memoir. the author is a canadian woman living in arkansas with her husband & three young sons. she starts the book by detailing the genesis of her relationship with her husband. she had been married to another man when she apparently started an internet affair. she fled from her marriage after less than two years & gallivanted around mexico for a while before joining him in arkansas. she talks a nice big game about how THIS time, at the ripe old age of like 26, she truly understands the import of marriage & knows that walking down the aisle is the right choice.
so in that respect, the book kind if immediately got off on a weird foot with me. not necessarily the WRONG foot--i did appreciate her candor, & she doesn't really bend over backwards to try to convince the reader that what she did is not that bad or that her first husband was a monster or anything (she doesn't really write about him at all, actually). i got married at a really young age & was divorced within two years, so hey. i know it happens. (though there were no affairs involved in my marriage.) & at the time that this book was published, she had been with her second husband for more than ten years & things were going strong, so clearly she did make a better choice or become more mature or something. but i still have to scoff at someone in her mid-20s talking such a big game about how she's made some mistakes but THIS time, her huge life decision is the right one, she just KNOWS it. i have been 18, i have been 26, & i can say with some degree of confidence that 26 is not really any more grown up than 26. i wish she just would have toned down the grandiosity a little, maybe.
there was a lot to like about this book. i especially enjoyed her descriptions of motherhood, when she wrote about how she intended to do everything totally natural & "perfect" with her first son, doing attachment parenting all the way, making him a jice-sweetened cake for his first birthday etc...& how her great intentions ceded to reality as she had more babies. it was very in line with my theory that everyone is such a great mom before they actually have kids, thinking they have all the answers & know exactly what to do. & although i certainly plan to adopt some elements of attachment parenting with my kid, hardcore attachment parenting acolytes annoy me just as much as their more mainstream counterparts with the SUV-sized strollers.
what did bother me about this book was the hyper-focus on the author's perception of herself as a freewheeling bohemian unfettered by the bourgeois expectations of...well...anyone. it hit a false note throughout the book, like she was playacting at being someone who is all wild & crazy. my suspicions were proven in one of the final chapters, which was all about turning 40 & saying goodbye to the "hot girl" she had once been. she talked about how she has always loved make-up & messing with her hair & feminine clothes, but now she feels she HAS to do it to keep up appearances rather than because it's fun. um. i can't help thinking that a fun-loving free-spirited bohemian wouldn't really stress out that much about a gray hair or some wrinkles. i'm almost 32, i have some gray hair & am starting to get some wrinkles...big fucking deal. i never expected to be 16 forever. i'm certainly not going to tether myself to some kind of beauty regimen in the hopes of achieving the impossible. i guess my point is that this essay, about saying goodbye to youth, was actually about clinging to youth & it didn't tally at all with how the author tried to represent herself in the rest of the book.
July 5, 2011
From party girl to stay at home mom, Kyran Pittman is living a life that is becoming more and more popular by the minute. Her life revolves around her three boys, her husband and when she can find time…her part-time work writing. Not only does she feel fulfilled by a life of domesticity, but she revels in it. Pittman’s life is a non-stop mile a minute thrill ride that many might be surprised to learn is exactly how she likes it.
When I initially was offered the opportunity to review Planting Dandelions I jumped at the chance, having seen it on Goodreads first, I fell in love with the cover. After I read the synopsis I remember thinking that this was exactly the type of book I could relate to. I’m a stay at home mom with two children under five, I have a very busy husband who’s been practicing law for only a few years now which means he’s rarely home, and I also keep very busy by both writing & outside activities. Basically, Kyran Pittman and myself were near mirror images in many ways, not all, but many. What I was truly eager to read were her positive messages about being a stay at home mom as opposed to the opposite it mentions in the synopsis, Eat Pray Love. It was absolutely that!
Many of the experiences in Planting Dandelions revolve around Kyran’s life after she is married & has children, but what I truly enjoyed was the opening of the story. In the first thirty to fifty pages or so she shares how it was that she came to meet and marry her husband. Surprisingly she was married at the time, but the circumstances surrounding that marriage are shocking to say the least. This is where the story came alive for me in terms of it being a “Chick Lit” type novel and it continued throughout the novel with her mentions back to her “partying & traveling” years.
Kyran’s life with her children was wonderful to read about as well. Like I mentioned earlier, as I wasn’t a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-indulgent travels, this was the exact opposite. It was refreshing to hear how someone could thoroughly enjoy giving of themselves so much and love raising their own children by truly caring for them. What I had hoped for though was more connection. My rating on the book has more to do with this than anything else. It could have possibly been because we didn’t have the same philosophies or also the fact that the story is more of a number of essays compiled into a larger book making it harder to have a continual connection. I’m not exactly sure, but for some reason I wasn’t exactly pulled through the book though it was still excellently written.
With a past that included staying up until last call at the bars to partying in Mexico until she ran out of money it’s hard to believe that Kyran Pittman would relish in a life of diaper changing and carpooling, but she does! Stay at home mom and writer extraordinaire, Pittman proves that you don’t need to travel the world to discover who you really are and what you want out of life. Self-sacrifice and love are what she chooses and her stories take readers to places they see in their everyday lives. I have no doubt that Chick Lit fans who may also happen to be moms (want to be, have been, will be, etc.) will love Pittman’s take on this often daunting endeavor. A wonderful debut and the perfect introduction into the beginning of a very successful novel writing career I’m sure!
Originally reviewed and copyrighted at Chick Lit Reviews.
When I initially was offered the opportunity to review Planting Dandelions I jumped at the chance, having seen it on Goodreads first, I fell in love with the cover. After I read the synopsis I remember thinking that this was exactly the type of book I could relate to. I’m a stay at home mom with two children under five, I have a very busy husband who’s been practicing law for only a few years now which means he’s rarely home, and I also keep very busy by both writing & outside activities. Basically, Kyran Pittman and myself were near mirror images in many ways, not all, but many. What I was truly eager to read were her positive messages about being a stay at home mom as opposed to the opposite it mentions in the synopsis, Eat Pray Love. It was absolutely that!
Many of the experiences in Planting Dandelions revolve around Kyran’s life after she is married & has children, but what I truly enjoyed was the opening of the story. In the first thirty to fifty pages or so she shares how it was that she came to meet and marry her husband. Surprisingly she was married at the time, but the circumstances surrounding that marriage are shocking to say the least. This is where the story came alive for me in terms of it being a “Chick Lit” type novel and it continued throughout the novel with her mentions back to her “partying & traveling” years.
Kyran’s life with her children was wonderful to read about as well. Like I mentioned earlier, as I wasn’t a fan of Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-indulgent travels, this was the exact opposite. It was refreshing to hear how someone could thoroughly enjoy giving of themselves so much and love raising their own children by truly caring for them. What I had hoped for though was more connection. My rating on the book has more to do with this than anything else. It could have possibly been because we didn’t have the same philosophies or also the fact that the story is more of a number of essays compiled into a larger book making it harder to have a continual connection. I’m not exactly sure, but for some reason I wasn’t exactly pulled through the book though it was still excellently written.
With a past that included staying up until last call at the bars to partying in Mexico until she ran out of money it’s hard to believe that Kyran Pittman would relish in a life of diaper changing and carpooling, but she does! Stay at home mom and writer extraordinaire, Pittman proves that you don’t need to travel the world to discover who you really are and what you want out of life. Self-sacrifice and love are what she chooses and her stories take readers to places they see in their everyday lives. I have no doubt that Chick Lit fans who may also happen to be moms (want to be, have been, will be, etc.) will love Pittman’s take on this often daunting endeavor. A wonderful debut and the perfect introduction into the beginning of a very successful novel writing career I’m sure!
Originally reviewed and copyrighted at Chick Lit Reviews.
February 7, 2011
http://www.gerberadaisydiaries.com/20...
Dandelions – the pesky weed that proliferates most yards that all master gardeners spend countless hours and noxious chemicals trying to eliminate. In Kyran’s world, they are harvested for chains, eaten in salads, blown for wishes, and admired for their brilliant yellow color. Much like the metaphor of making lemonade out of lemons, Kyran is taking her marital and maternal dandelions and manifesting them into bouquets.
In “Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life” we are smacked in the face in the opening chapter with a fist full of dandelions with her admitted infidelity – a brawny way to welcome us into her world. It’s not an easy transition, but it is brutally honest, and it sets the stage for her blunt and razor-sharp narrative.
It is always reassuring to read other mothers’ tales and trials and Kyran shares with us the best: From an unplanned pregnancy, to forgetting to pick up her child at kindergarten, to a repeatedly absent Tooth Fairy, to trying to control her children’s intake of sugar, and toy gun control. One of my favorite anecdotes is when Kyran finally succumbs to the evils of sugar, “When my oldest turned one, I made him a whole wheat carrot cake with pineapple sweetened cream cheese on top. Two years later, it was a homemade chocolate layer cake, frosted with butter cream, for my middle child. Three years after that, I ran by the warehouse club and picked up a slab of corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, spray-painted blue, for the baby.” (Quote from the uncorrected proof). I wanted to jump with joy and scream – "I’m not the only one!" Now, if I could only get someone to admit that for all of the portraits they have of their first child – very few exist of their youngest! We are not that much different after all “we few, we happy few, we band of Mothers.” Whether we are attachment moms or helicopter moms or accidental moms, and most recently, tiger moms – we forget, we yell, we neglect, we protect and we love unconditionally. Our hope is that through all of our effort and mistakes our children turn out descent and normal, without any memorable material to write a book about us later.
Kyran branches out into other “field notes” as well – from the threat of losing their home to foreclose, her Southern husband and sons, her shopping spree on 5th Avenue (an absolute MUST read!) and her green-card status (even I, who lived three years in the Great White North, and who knows Oh Canada by heart is still not sure where Newfoundland is, and whether or not it is really a province). She also reminisces about a particular dress – one that I imagine would have been worn by Goldie Hawn on Laugh In – that reminds her of her youth and whether that woman still exists. It is a beautiful reflection on a rich life that continues to evolve.
The only portion of the book where I winced and read with one eye closed was the section where she talks about exploring postpartum sex life with her husband. When you see a fellow PTA mom walking down the street, some visuals are better left unimagined.
Planting Dandelions is a candid portrayal of what life is like in the maternal trenches behind the white picket fence and a welcome addition to the stay-at-home-mommy genre.
Dandelions – the pesky weed that proliferates most yards that all master gardeners spend countless hours and noxious chemicals trying to eliminate. In Kyran’s world, they are harvested for chains, eaten in salads, blown for wishes, and admired for their brilliant yellow color. Much like the metaphor of making lemonade out of lemons, Kyran is taking her marital and maternal dandelions and manifesting them into bouquets.
In “Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life” we are smacked in the face in the opening chapter with a fist full of dandelions with her admitted infidelity – a brawny way to welcome us into her world. It’s not an easy transition, but it is brutally honest, and it sets the stage for her blunt and razor-sharp narrative.
It is always reassuring to read other mothers’ tales and trials and Kyran shares with us the best: From an unplanned pregnancy, to forgetting to pick up her child at kindergarten, to a repeatedly absent Tooth Fairy, to trying to control her children’s intake of sugar, and toy gun control. One of my favorite anecdotes is when Kyran finally succumbs to the evils of sugar, “When my oldest turned one, I made him a whole wheat carrot cake with pineapple sweetened cream cheese on top. Two years later, it was a homemade chocolate layer cake, frosted with butter cream, for my middle child. Three years after that, I ran by the warehouse club and picked up a slab of corn syrup and hydrogenated oil, spray-painted blue, for the baby.” (Quote from the uncorrected proof). I wanted to jump with joy and scream – "I’m not the only one!" Now, if I could only get someone to admit that for all of the portraits they have of their first child – very few exist of their youngest! We are not that much different after all “we few, we happy few, we band of Mothers.” Whether we are attachment moms or helicopter moms or accidental moms, and most recently, tiger moms – we forget, we yell, we neglect, we protect and we love unconditionally. Our hope is that through all of our effort and mistakes our children turn out descent and normal, without any memorable material to write a book about us later.
Kyran branches out into other “field notes” as well – from the threat of losing their home to foreclose, her Southern husband and sons, her shopping spree on 5th Avenue (an absolute MUST read!) and her green-card status (even I, who lived three years in the Great White North, and who knows Oh Canada by heart is still not sure where Newfoundland is, and whether or not it is really a province). She also reminisces about a particular dress – one that I imagine would have been worn by Goldie Hawn on Laugh In – that reminds her of her youth and whether that woman still exists. It is a beautiful reflection on a rich life that continues to evolve.
The only portion of the book where I winced and read with one eye closed was the section where she talks about exploring postpartum sex life with her husband. When you see a fellow PTA mom walking down the street, some visuals are better left unimagined.
Planting Dandelions is a candid portrayal of what life is like in the maternal trenches behind the white picket fence and a welcome addition to the stay-at-home-mommy genre.
July 12, 2012
I was given to understand this was hilariously funny. I would say - this is what happens when a mentally unstable, narcissist eventually takes baby steps towards adulthood. The author starts her book 'in the middle' and gives tidbits of bare background throughout.
Seems very focused on shallow things- the section on not getting lust-looks from men (aging) was tedious at best.
Noticed a tendency to believe in herself - no matter what her beliefs are and if they've changed radically from yesterday.... self confidence is a good thing in general, I guess.... Her absolute certainty that she was a good Mother was interesting, since it seems unlike most Moms that I've met. Most of the Mom conversations I hear are filled with worry for their children and self-doubt.
One thing I liked a lot was her refusal to blame others for her own poor behavior and bad choices. She was very kind about the ex-husband.
Ms. Pittman is very different from myself and I doubt I will read anything by her ever again. However, this book was interesting in that it gave me some insight to into her thought processes - and since she is so very different, it has given me something to think about. Always a good thing.
Still waiting on the funny, though....
Seems very focused on shallow things- the section on not getting lust-looks from men (aging) was tedious at best.
Noticed a tendency to believe in herself - no matter what her beliefs are and if they've changed radically from yesterday.... self confidence is a good thing in general, I guess.... Her absolute certainty that she was a good Mother was interesting, since it seems unlike most Moms that I've met. Most of the Mom conversations I hear are filled with worry for their children and self-doubt.
One thing I liked a lot was her refusal to blame others for her own poor behavior and bad choices. She was very kind about the ex-husband.
Ms. Pittman is very different from myself and I doubt I will read anything by her ever again. However, this book was interesting in that it gave me some insight to into her thought processes - and since she is so very different, it has given me something to think about. Always a good thing.
Still waiting on the funny, though....
April 17, 2011
I won this book through Good Reads First-Reads program.
This book was hard for me to relate to - I guess I am just not at that point in my life - and after reading this book, I'm not sure that I ever want to be. The author shared things in a manner which has convinced me she would be the type of person I would dread being stuck next to at a party - the classic over-sharing in a crass manner person. You know, the one that you and your husband have to have some sort of non-verbal cue for "get me out of here". I'm happy for her that she has made peace with her life and has embraced what has been given to her, but I struggle with seeing how her story is one that is begging to be told. We are given incomplete information about specifics of her past, and yet she almost gives us enough gory detail to draw a map of her vagina from memory.
But I still read the whole thing. It was a book I could see you reading while at the doctor's office. Or you could pass it around your mom group. The author is a woman that seems to always follow her own heart, and that is something that we all should do - I only hope that we also dare to dream even bigger than what we are handed.
This book was hard for me to relate to - I guess I am just not at that point in my life - and after reading this book, I'm not sure that I ever want to be. The author shared things in a manner which has convinced me she would be the type of person I would dread being stuck next to at a party - the classic over-sharing in a crass manner person. You know, the one that you and your husband have to have some sort of non-verbal cue for "get me out of here". I'm happy for her that she has made peace with her life and has embraced what has been given to her, but I struggle with seeing how her story is one that is begging to be told. We are given incomplete information about specifics of her past, and yet she almost gives us enough gory detail to draw a map of her vagina from memory.
But I still read the whole thing. It was a book I could see you reading while at the doctor's office. Or you could pass it around your mom group. The author is a woman that seems to always follow her own heart, and that is something that we all should do - I only hope that we also dare to dream even bigger than what we are handed.
July 26, 2011
I couldn't put the book down. Started it as a beach read and then of course - little man needed more attention jumping the wave, making mud pies and that ulitmate beach nap in 100 degrees on my shoulder. As I snuck in some pages I knew I couldnt put it down but I had to nap was over and the end of day was on the way. So I picked up the book for the train ride to the City a little over an hour on the great LIRR and I couldnt stop turing the pages, chapters were flowing by and my heart fluttered with the love of being young to having children to that almost kick you out of the door, that almost nervous breakdown, feeling of loss, the unknown to the knowing --- it is ALL good and with my mantra - Hope floats and keep it real - Kyran Pittman puts it simply ending the book simply stating live life "..one hundred percent genuine and pure."
March 30, 2012
Very interesting, insightful perspective on going through the normal stages of life. Very real and hysterical at times. Her father was a poet and at times you can tell through her writing as it has a poetry feel Highly recommend to any of my friends.
March 16, 2011
I've known Kyran online for years now and this book is further proof that we only do catch a snippet of people's lives through their blogs. An interesting read, for sure, and a great memoir.
Want to read
September 7, 2016Yay! I just received notification from Reading Group Guides that I was selected to receive a copy of this book. I can't wait for it to arrive!
February 27, 2011
Kyran Pittman lays it all out with revealing essays about life, love the complexities of fidelity and laundry.
June 1, 2012
A memoir of a Canadian living in Arkansas with her husband and three boys.
June 14, 2011
Exquisitely, persistently intelligent and indelible (parts are even edible) those dandelions in Kyran's bouquet.
February 5, 2012
I loved this book. The writing is honest, clever, wise and hilarious.
February 19, 2019
This is a book I should revisit over and over again as I reach each new stage of parenthood because I think the parts I will most appreciate will evolve as my child ages. I found books like WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING to be so clinical that I felt more isolated after reading them. They made me feel ill-prepared for what I had gotten myself into. Alternatively, Pittman is easy to relate to. Her language is intelligent and playful, her wit is sharp, and she seems willing to follow her pen toward the most vulnerable of topics. This book probably gave me a better understanding of my wife's experience in becoming a mother, and it certainly made me feel less alone as a self-doubting parent, if not as a human.
October 4, 2022
I don't often read memoir, particularly not everyday-life memoir. This one is lyrical and full of the beauty of small things - as well as an unapologetic acknowledgement of how hard life can be around them.
December 24, 2023
She has some good insights and an engaging writing style, but I was really put off by some of her ugly language. Shouldn't a published writer have an imagination and vocabulary that goes beyond the F-bomb?
May 6, 2017
I liked her writing about motherhood, but not about relationships. Also too much rough language for me.
June 30, 2021
Series of essays about motherhood and marriage. Lots of humor and great insight!
July 1, 2023
Very good writer. She does bare all, which may be a little more than I needed to know, but she certainly delves into topics all women experience. Very good read.
June 27, 2024
4.5 Really enjoyed the humor and how very relatable this was.
March 27, 2025
Book I think
June 26, 2025
Each chapter is a stage in her life. I could relate to a lot of things she wrote about.
April 1, 2012
The increasingly popular “novel-in-stories” format seems to have a counterpart in nonfiction: the “linked-essays” memoir. Like all memoirs, these books tell a personal story, but the telling is episodic rather than along the straightforward narrative through-line found in both traditionally autobiographical and “experience-based” memoirs. I’ve read a few of these - Dani Shapiro’'s reflective Devotion, Quinn Cummings’' born-from-a-blog Notes From the Underwire and, less recently, Ayelet Waldman'’s controversial Bad Mother - and I'’m gaining a real appreciation for the structure, considered apart from the content. But I appreciated Kyran Pittman'’s Planting Dandelions for both.
The seeds of Planting Dandelions (only a little bit of pun intended) are in the blog Kyran began keeping at Christmas 2005, Notes to Self. That blog led to a contributing-editor’'s job with Good Housekeeping magazine as well as this book, and I read it for several years; it’'s since been retitled and folded into a blog connected with this book, and it's still an excellent example of a blog that you keep returning to because of the writing. That writing carries over to the book. While Pittman is selective about the episodes she’s chosen to include in her memoir - as is completely her right - her voice is never less than honest and intimate as she shares them, and her words are thoughtful and well-chosen. I may be bringing my own filter to this, but the voice strikes me as one honed on a blog, in the best possible way.
There were a lot of observations here that really clicked with me. Kyran lives in Little Rock, Arkansas - just three hours from my old home in Memphis, Tennessee - and we/’ve had the common experience of coming from Northeastern roots and growing to love the American South, with all its complications; the 11th essay in the book, “"Southern Man,"” talked about that adaptation with some references that felt familiar. She'’s experienced infidelity and divorce, and both have influenced her eyes-wide-open approach to her second marriage, now well into its second decade. Her reflections on juggling work and family sound familiar, but I felt they were given additional dimension by her openly conflicted feelings about domesticity (hence the "“semi-”" in the subtitle).
Pittman is forthright about the challenges of marriage, parenting, and combining the two, and her storytelling is often moving and frequently amusing. However, I didn'’t get a sense of things being exaggerated for comic effect; while not always overly serious, it’'s clear that the author has given a lot of thought to the matters she’'s writing about, and reading Planting Dandelions feels like a really good, long, deep conversation.
The seeds of Planting Dandelions (only a little bit of pun intended) are in the blog Kyran began keeping at Christmas 2005, Notes to Self. That blog led to a contributing-editor’'s job with Good Housekeeping magazine as well as this book, and I read it for several years; it’'s since been retitled and folded into a blog connected with this book, and it's still an excellent example of a blog that you keep returning to because of the writing. That writing carries over to the book. While Pittman is selective about the episodes she’s chosen to include in her memoir - as is completely her right - her voice is never less than honest and intimate as she shares them, and her words are thoughtful and well-chosen. I may be bringing my own filter to this, but the voice strikes me as one honed on a blog, in the best possible way.
There were a lot of observations here that really clicked with me. Kyran lives in Little Rock, Arkansas - just three hours from my old home in Memphis, Tennessee - and we/’ve had the common experience of coming from Northeastern roots and growing to love the American South, with all its complications; the 11th essay in the book, “"Southern Man,"” talked about that adaptation with some references that felt familiar. She'’s experienced infidelity and divorce, and both have influenced her eyes-wide-open approach to her second marriage, now well into its second decade. Her reflections on juggling work and family sound familiar, but I felt they were given additional dimension by her openly conflicted feelings about domesticity (hence the "“semi-”" in the subtitle).
Pittman is forthright about the challenges of marriage, parenting, and combining the two, and her storytelling is often moving and frequently amusing. However, I didn'’t get a sense of things being exaggerated for comic effect; while not always overly serious, it’'s clear that the author has given a lot of thought to the matters she’'s writing about, and reading Planting Dandelions feels like a really good, long, deep conversation.
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