State Unemployment Information

Carpool Diem

Annie Fleming’s family has always adjusted well to her hard driving career. How could they not? Annie keeps them in line at home with typed, edited, and proofed to-do and not-to-do lists for her husband, her babysitter, and her daughter. (No TV on a school night, please!) But when an obnoxious co-worker conspires to force Annie out of her job, she finds herself out of work and face-to-face with her family, who, it turns out, isn’t quite as well-adjusted as Annie thought. Husband Tim doesn’t have near the follow-through that Annie does (ordered to downsize his employees, he can’t fire anybody!) And daughter Charlotte doesn’t even try to make the local soccer team – a cut-throat, take-no-prisoners system run by Winslow West, a man who dreams of the Olympic gold his young charges will someday win for him.
Here Annie is unemployed and Charlotte’s the one with the quitting attitude? Annie doesn’t think so. She’s determined to get Charlotte on the A team, but finds that the soccer sidelines are more cutthroat than a boardroom ever was.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Could have been better?
I don’t know, I guess it was funny in parts, but I honestly thought it was too OTT. It might have been cleverer to make it a little more believable, and I think it would have been funnier. No coach would ever have a kid out in a thunderstorm. Nor would he be allowed to make his team buy stuff from his stores. Characters instead of caricatures and plausible situations would have made this a better book. I didn’t laugh out loud, and I think anyone truly involved in NJ soccer would feel slightly aggrieved, fiction or not.

Not to mention she made the cardinal sin of saying “offsides”! There’s only one side that you can be off!

5 Stars A fun and light-hearted book
Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (1/08)

Annie Fleming leads a hectic life and as a result is not home nearly enough with her twelve-year-old daughter Charlotte. Her days are planned with detailed schedules and to-do lists (which she is shocked to learn that her family is not following). After losing her job and having to fire the live-in babysitter, Annie gains an insight into how her priorities seem to be focused on the wrong things. She then attempts to reconnect with her daughter through soccer, a game that Annie knows nothing about either on or off the field. She longs for Charlotte’s talent to be recognized and will do whatever she can to get her selected for a spot on an elite traveling soccer team run by Winslow West, who is considered by many to be the best soccer coach who has ever lived.

This book contains several humorous situations. The soccer bulletins written by Coach West contained recaps of previous games and were quite funny to read. I also found myself laughing at Annie’s inability to understand “soccer language” and her attempts to fit in with the other parents. Although the author uses humor to entertain the reader, she also sends an important social message. She exposes the lies and deceit that occur in competitive sports. It was sad to see people striving for a goal they will never reach simply because those in power refuse to give them the opportunity to succeed.

Nancy Star created some interesting and unique characters whose flaws and quirks are greatly exaggerated to make a point. Winslow West’s megalomania nearly resulted in tragedy because the parents put their children in dangerous situations just to please him. Annie’s obsession with having every detail of life planned and appropriately scheduled caused her to feel like an outsider in her daughter’s life. Both examples stress the importance of finding and maintaining balance in one’s life.

“Carpool Diem” is a fun and light-hearted book that contains important life lessons for people who are obsessed with winning or being viewed as successful by others. Be careful what you wish for because it may not be all that you imagined it would.

This book contains several humorous situations. The soccer bulletins written by Coach West contained recaps of previous games and were quite funny to read. I also found myself laughing at Annie’s inability to understand “soccer language” and her attempts to fit in with the other parents. Although the author uses humor to entertain the reader, she also sends an important social message. She exposes the lies and deceit that occur in competitive sports. It was sad to see people striving for a goal they will never reach simply because those in power refuse to give them the opportunity to succeed.

Nancy Star created some interesting and unique characters whose flaws and quirks are greatly exaggerated to make a point. Winslow West’s megalomania nearly resulted in tragedy because the parents put their children in dangerous situations just to please him. Annie’s obsession with having every detail of life planned and appropriately scheduled caused her to feel like an outsider in her daughter’s life. Both examples stress the importance of finding and maintaining balance in one’s life.

“Carpool Diem” is a fun and light-hearted book that contains important life lessons for people who are obsessed with winning or being viewed as successful by others. Be careful what you wish for because it may not be all that you imagined it would.

3 Stars Just For Fun
High-powered corporate Mom is downsized out of her demanding job and channels her energies into her daughter’s soccer career. Annie “finally understands that the disparate worlds many moms straddle, crazy work and crazy home, are not really different at all. And in the end, all anyone is trying to do is find her way.” The depictions of life on the sidelines will have soccer moms everywhere laughing and cringing at the same time.

4 Stars Great book until the end.
I finished this book in a few hours sitting at the pool. It is perfect summer reading. It’s funny and it’s a great way to lighten up after the intensity of club soccer tryouts. I think the team parents could have used more character development but they were interesting in that you may find people you know in some of the characters in the book.

The coach is characterized perfectly as the horror every parent wants to avoid but will find ways to justify teaching their child. His character and newsletters provide the most fun and fascination of the entire book. At times I found myself wishing the book was more about him than about Annie.

All in all the book is quite enjoyable except for the last couple of chapters which just seem to give up and fall into place without warning. If only life, especially club soccer, were that easy.

3 Stars A fun, quick read
I would actually give this three and a half stars. It was a cute take on corporate-wonderwoman-turned-stay-at-home-mom, set against the backdrop of a competitive girls’ soccer team. While the subject was light (think chick lit without the sex), every suburban mom will be able to identify with the challenges and characters Star describes.

A bit wacky at times (a jealous dad sabotages the soccer field in hopes one of his daughter’s rivals will get injured; the over-the-top soccer coach makes the girls practice during a severe thunderstorm and gets his little toe blown off by lightning), it was extremely easy to read and fast-paced. I particularly enjoyed the eyeroll-inducing weekly memos from the obsessed coach).

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