Book Review: Dear Daughter

Dear Daughter: The Best of the Dear Leta Letters is a deeply touching, heartfelt book by dooce.com creater Heather Armstrong. Although the letters have already been published on her blog, she artfully and wonderfully arranges them to create quite the adorable sucker punch of love.

This collection is a great addition to any mother or daughter's bookshelf. Armstrong writes about the funny, the poignant and the down and dirty side to parenting, without pulling punches.

Some hilarious & wonderful gems from the book include:

-Leta discovering the expletive "We were sitting on the porch moments after I'd watered my potted plants. Without warning, a puddle of water from one of the pots snaked its way under your hand, and you jerked it up and yelled, "What the hay-yull?"

-"You're smart, little one," your father said as he shook his head. "Can you say, 'I'm smart'?" You giggled and said, "I'm fart."

-Instead, you say [Mama] like a beer-bellied construction worker who wants his dinner now, so he screams, "WOMAN! Bring me them there pork rinds!" The part where he says WOMAN!, that's how you say Mama.

Any regular followers of her work sees nearly every day how much Leta and now her second daughter, Marlo, mean to her. And it was a treat to read the love so apparent on the pages of this slim volume.