Sharon O'Donnell

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“House of Testosterone” is for all those mothers who live in a constant quandary of figuring out the husbands and sons in their lives. It’s especially for those moms who are outnumbered by males in their own household and find themselves struggling to retain their identity as a woman and their sanity as a human being. There’s the bathroom jokes, roughhousing, miscommunication, and sports (or Power Rangers) on TV all the time

Presenting the paperback edition of "House of Testosterone - One Mom's Survival in a Household of Males".

Brand New Paperback version published by Houghton Mifflin

• New essays added!
• Makes great Mother's Day, birthday, and Christmas gifts!

The hard cover copy of House of Testosterone, released in January, 2007, was named a BookSense notable book for February, 2007. BookSense is a nation-wide group of independent book stores.

As the only female in a household of five, I often find myself lost in a world of sports, bathroom humor, and laundry. It’s a rewarding, yet challenging, experience to live with my husband, Kevin, and three sons. There’s a popular book that proclaims that men are from Mars and women are from Venus; often, though, I don’t think we’re even in the same solar system.

The first point of difference, the experts say, is communication styles. Like most couples, I tend to want to open up and talk about things, while my husband keeps to himself. Once while we were watching a news report about an American man marrying a Russian woman who didn’t speak much English, I turned to Kevin and asked, "How can he possibly fall in love with someone he can’t even communicate with?"

Kevin glanced over at me and blankly asked, "Huh?"

I shook my head. “Never mind,” I sighed.

Sound familiar? Relationships with her husband and children are what Sharon usually focuses on in her non-fiction writing, and she’s found that many readers can relate to such situations. The real life of marriage and motherhood has humor as well as poignant moments that provide much of the material for her columns and her book.

• Watch Sharon's House of Testosterone interview on "View From The Bay" ABC-7 San Francisco - 04/02/2008
• Radio Interview on B98.5 (MP3)
• KDAT Morning Show Interview (MP3)
• WUNC Radio Interview, The State of Things, 1/10/07