Diary of an unedited mum

Jools Oliver's book, Minus Nine to One: Diary of an Honest Mum, leaves a lot to be desired. Unless you love the Olivers, exclamation points and emails.

The book narrates Jools and Jamie's journey from trying to conceive their first child, getting pregnant with their second daughter and throughout the older kid's first year.

Jools could have used a more opinionated editor. The book reads like a (long) email. She has a fondness for exclamation points! When she can't conjure up the words to describe a situation she tries to resolve it by adding emphasis. This surely gets her point across better than words would!

As with everything Jamie Oliver, the book includes beautiful photographs, only here it's less about the food and more about their family. Although... there is a photo that bothered me. It is meant to be of Jools and Jamie having dinner on the night they inadvertedly conceived their second child. Why would they invite a photographer to dinner the night they had sex for the first time postpartum? Ours was a lot more casual, intimate and careful.

This book does not contain any useful information for pregnant moms looking to benefit from someone else's experience; nor is it a particularly enjoyable read. Then why did I read it start to finish in two days? I actually am obsessed with everything Jamie Oliver, and I am a sucker for nice pictures, especially when they offer an inside look into someone's family life. So while this book is not particularly informational or well written, it is sure to please the voyeur in all of us.