Scan barcode
A review by lpm100
#ShalomBayis: Short Stories by Penina Shtauber
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
Book Review
Shalom Bayit
5/5 stars
Penina Shtauber
*******
Of the book:
1. 25 chapters.
2. 246 pages of prose (about 10 easy pages per chapter).
3. A few easy hours of reading, such as over Shabbat.
4. Includes glossary for Hebrew / Aramaic / Yiddish terms. (It is thoughtful, but not necessary because people who would likely read this would already know all of these words.)
5. A small number of spelling mistakes observed (=no editor).
*******
This is the second of these books that I have read by this author, and both of them were probably worthwhile - - even though I would not usually say that about fiction.
In her first book, "ShidduchCrisis," I was unclear whether or not the book was fictionalized retelling of actual things or complete fiction. In this book, the author clarifies that "some encounters are imagined, some are exaggerated, and some exist."
There's no love lost for Haredim in her first book, nor this one and in that way she is a woman after my own heart.
It is a recurring theme here that these husbands are kollel bums who are an overhyped bill of goods that turn out to be clueless in any practical sense of the word.
The second story has a husband that spent the wife's hard-earned money to present her a bracelet and used up the grocery money. And he had no clue what he had done wrong.
Before I moved here, I would not have believed it, but now that I've been hanging around here for 10 years - - it makes perfect sense. (These are guys that don't know how to operate a door knob or a dishwasher or a job application. They can learn a mean page of gemara, but they can't even tell you their times tables up to 12.)
I would say that both books in this series are useful for parents and children. The first can tell you examples of what not to do when you are going through the matchmaking process. And the second can tell you what could happen if you choose incorrectly.
Caveat emptor.
Verdict:
Recommended.
This book was a little bit higher than I would ordinarily have paid.
It would be worth it to me at the purchase price of about $10.
*******
Chapter synopses:
1. Neurotic wife is nervous because a few periods pass before pregnancy.
2. Wife has typical kollel-bum husband who doesn't understand that things cost money that is earned by working.
3. Mousy, scatterbrained wife finds that her out-of-her-league husband has a side dish.
4. Social media discordant couple.
5. Wife decides to become religious midway through a pregnancy and rakes her nails down her secular husband's internal chalkboard.
6. Aliyah-discordant couple.
7. Wife with some maturity issues.
8. Frum wife gets a bit floozyish when away from watching eyes.
9. What to call in-laws even 2 years after marriage?
10. Psychotically machmir wife interferes with husband's relationship with secular family.
11. Wife brings home the bacon, but it causes marital tensions.
12. Two babies and 20 months with attendant stress. Clueless husband.
13. Marriage counseling after 2 months to solve NO CLEAR PROBLEM because that's what everybody else is doing.
14. Neurotic Jewish wife thinks that everybody wants her husband.
15. Husband gains 50 lb after marriage and has the nerve to grouch about his wife when she gains 15.
16. Cheap even beyond Jewish norms of frugality husband.
17. Psychotically machmir husband.
18. Bad sex (for the wife) with a clueless husband who seems unaware that he has a tongue/ ability to order some toys / ability to talk to a therapist.
19. Neurotic couple cannot conceive because of being prisoner of ideas about Taharat haMishpacha.
20. Wife complains about horror stories of women married to smelly men, but then finds out that her husband is even more hygienically scrupulous than she.
21. Not always is the Yiddish proverb true that "a boy's contract with his wife is a divorce from his mother."
22. Neurotic wife's overreaction to husband smoking weed.
23. Wife is so preoccupied with helping everybody else that she forgets about her own home.
24. Somebody waited too long to get married and was surprised when she ended up with a discount rack / remnant husband.
25. A couple of gets to know each other after 40 years of marriage because that's the thing to do when the kids move out.
*******
Good quote:
"Heritage to me was like horoscopes. It meant a lot if you cared."
Shalom Bayit
5/5 stars
Penina Shtauber
*******
Of the book:
1. 25 chapters.
2. 246 pages of prose (about 10 easy pages per chapter).
3. A few easy hours of reading, such as over Shabbat.
4. Includes glossary for Hebrew / Aramaic / Yiddish terms. (It is thoughtful, but not necessary because people who would likely read this would already know all of these words.)
5. A small number of spelling mistakes observed (=no editor).
*******
This is the second of these books that I have read by this author, and both of them were probably worthwhile - - even though I would not usually say that about fiction.
In her first book, "ShidduchCrisis," I was unclear whether or not the book was fictionalized retelling of actual things or complete fiction. In this book, the author clarifies that "some encounters are imagined, some are exaggerated, and some exist."
There's no love lost for Haredim in her first book, nor this one and in that way she is a woman after my own heart.
It is a recurring theme here that these husbands are kollel bums who are an overhyped bill of goods that turn out to be clueless in any practical sense of the word.
The second story has a husband that spent the wife's hard-earned money to present her a bracelet and used up the grocery money. And he had no clue what he had done wrong.
Before I moved here, I would not have believed it, but now that I've been hanging around here for 10 years - - it makes perfect sense. (These are guys that don't know how to operate a door knob or a dishwasher or a job application. They can learn a mean page of gemara, but they can't even tell you their times tables up to 12.)
I would say that both books in this series are useful for parents and children. The first can tell you examples of what not to do when you are going through the matchmaking process. And the second can tell you what could happen if you choose incorrectly.
Caveat emptor.
Verdict:
Recommended.
This book was a little bit higher than I would ordinarily have paid.
It would be worth it to me at the purchase price of about $10.
*******
Chapter synopses:
1. Neurotic wife is nervous because a few periods pass before pregnancy.
2. Wife has typical kollel-bum husband who doesn't understand that things cost money that is earned by working.
3. Mousy, scatterbrained wife finds that her out-of-her-league husband has a side dish.
4. Social media discordant couple.
5. Wife decides to become religious midway through a pregnancy and rakes her nails down her secular husband's internal chalkboard.
6. Aliyah-discordant couple.
7. Wife with some maturity issues.
8. Frum wife gets a bit floozyish when away from watching eyes.
9. What to call in-laws even 2 years after marriage?
10. Psychotically machmir wife interferes with husband's relationship with secular family.
11. Wife brings home the bacon, but it causes marital tensions.
12. Two babies and 20 months with attendant stress. Clueless husband.
13. Marriage counseling after 2 months to solve NO CLEAR PROBLEM because that's what everybody else is doing.
14. Neurotic Jewish wife thinks that everybody wants her husband.
15. Husband gains 50 lb after marriage and has the nerve to grouch about his wife when she gains 15.
16. Cheap even beyond Jewish norms of frugality husband.
17. Psychotically machmir husband.
18. Bad sex (for the wife) with a clueless husband who seems unaware that he has a tongue/ ability to order some toys / ability to talk to a therapist.
19. Neurotic couple cannot conceive because of being prisoner of ideas about Taharat haMishpacha.
20. Wife complains about horror stories of women married to smelly men, but then finds out that her husband is even more hygienically scrupulous than she.
21. Not always is the Yiddish proverb true that "a boy's contract with his wife is a divorce from his mother."
22. Neurotic wife's overreaction to husband smoking weed.
23. Wife is so preoccupied with helping everybody else that she forgets about her own home.
24. Somebody waited too long to get married and was surprised when she ended up with a discount rack / remnant husband.
25. A couple of gets to know each other after 40 years of marriage because that's the thing to do when the kids move out.
*******
Good quote:
"Heritage to me was like horoscopes. It meant a lot if you cared."