Mothers-in-Law Do Everything Wrong (MILDEW)

Liz Bluper and Renee Plastique start from a code word: MILDEW, short for Mothers-In-Law Do Everything Wrong. It gives women a joking shorthand for a familiar side effect of marriage, the mother-in-law, and a way to talk about her with other women.

This is a humor and self-help book for wives who struggle with their husbands' mothers. It collects comic anecdotes from real women, coping strategies the authors present as workable, and a quiz that scores how a mother-in-law behaves. The aim is to let readers laugh off the tension instead of carrying it, and to show them others share the same frustrations.

Mothers-in-law are addressed too. The authors report that some who took the quiz were surprised by their results and changed their behavior afterward. Bluper and Plastique also say they are hearing of less marital stress and better family relations among readers.

The tone is light, chatty and openly comic, with short, easy pieces that can be read in any order. It suits a reader who wants commiseration and a few practical ideas, and who will probably want to pass passages along to friends.