Laura Bennett's "Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?'

It's hard to miss Laura Bennett. She's the model-tall, red-haired, black-dressed finalist from season three of "Project Runway" (originally on Bravo, now on Lifetime), raising six kids in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Bennett (accidentally?) leaked word of her sixth pregnancy mid-way through filming "Project Runway" (oops!), sending ripples through the land of reality TV.

As if having five kids and being on a reality show competition weren't enough, this announcement set up Bennett as The Mom Who Can Do It All. Her clothing, even under the insane deadline pressure that "Project Runway" inflicts on its designers, was elegant and meticulous, making it clear that this woman can easily handle a small army and ensure that each soldier wears a perfectly tailored uniform.

Since "Runway," Bennett has launched an apparel line on the QVC network and writes a column for editor Tina Brown's online news buzz website, The Daily Beast. Now, like any good 21st-Century designer, Bennett has repurposed, stitching her Daily Beast columns into a book.

Bennett is eye-catching on the cover of Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? A Mother's Guide to Sanity in Stilettos, striking a mod-'50s pose Ó la "Hints-from-Heloise" and looking 2010 glam in her trademark little black dress and towering heels with toys at her feet and sippy cup in hand.

Lines lifted from Roseanne

In Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?, Bennett sends a sassy, irreverent look at motherhood down the runway. We've actually heard some of these lines before, from a defiantly unglamorous comedienne named Roseanne Barr. One of the best takes ever on motherhood is from Barr: "If they're all alive at the end of the day, then I've done my job." Bennett says as much to her husband when her brood experiences too much togetherness during Christmas break: "Peter, are all the children alive and accounted for?"

Although Bennett's commentaries aren't entirely original, they're as sharp and quick as a sewing machine, occasionally striking so close to home for me that I felt pinched by the needle.

"I reluctantly cried "'uncle' and turned the apartment over to the kids," Bennett writes. "Kitchen appliances are buried beneath notices of field trips past and present, and artwork I can't be caught throwing away. Every television sits in a nest of the tangled miles of cords and controllers it takes to power the various video game systems." It's the story of my life.

Tongues wagging

Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? will surely set matronly tongues wagging: The stay-at-home-moms will jab at Bennett for her nannies, her manny (male nanny), her housekeeper, and of course her multi-faceted career. (Yawn— so what else is new?) Other Manhattan moms wielding Hermès and Tiffany may applaud the book as "the real deal" on raising kids in the 21st-Century urban jungle. (A mani/pedi is more than "me" time: It's self-preservation!)

From my perch here in New York's "sixth borough" of Philadelphia, I look at the book as all in good fun. Bennett reveals her old-fashioned parenting theory (let the kids entertain themselves already!) with a 21st-Century twist (i.e., as long as they're plugged in and enjoying a modest supply of junk food). It's easy to relate when Bennett reveals tricks of the modern mom, as in: "I've never once in 15 years baked a cupcake for a classroom birthday. Why would I, when Cupcake Café can do it better, cheaper and faster?"

However, the structure of the book feels rather sloppy. It's easy to see that these pieces are not cut from whole fabric. I would have preferred to know outright (rather than learn from researching The Daily Beast for this review) that much of the book is taken directly from Bennett's columns. In fact, the book "“ with its choppy transitions and fall-short ending "“ would read better as a true collection of those columns.

The book ends with Bennett's youngest son Finn, lost for a few stark moments at a drill for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, being returned to his dad on the shoulders of New York police officer. It's a sweet snapshot of parenting in the Big Apple, but does it really sew up this book? I'm not asking for fancy accoutrements, but Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? feels like a cocktail dress with a dangling hemline.