The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

Sunday, July 11, 2010 By 10 Comments

Just fresh out of college, Andrea Sachs or Andy, 23, thinks it’s time to get a job. She soon finds herself as junior assistant to Miranda Priestly, highly-feared Runway magazine editor and also one of the most powerful women in the world of fabulous fashion.

Since she has never read Runway or any other fashion magazine, Andy has to rapidly learn the ropes in order to survive as Miranda’s assistant. She’s also not the sort of girl to swoon over the latest Prada bag or Jimmy Choo shoes or starve herself to stay skinny.

She’s also being reminded constantly that she’s lucky to be working for Miranda Priestly, and that millions of girls would die for the job. But it’s tough attempting to carry out various tasks in a short amount of time for the ever-demanding Miranda. To stay motivated, Andy assures herself that she’d stick it out as Miranda’s slave assistant for a year and she’d be able to be a writer for The New Yorker. It seems that working for Miranda can get you places!

I’ve watched the movie starring Anna Hathaway and Meryl Streep many, many times and I love it! The clothes are superb and to-die-for. Meryl’s performance as the boss-from-hell Miranda is perfect. Although most scenes from the novel have been adapted into the movie, their storyline weren’t the same. Compared to the book, the movie is considered a feel-good version.

Not that the book isn’t all that chirpy and light-hearted but Andy has had to deal with serious issues. For example, her best friend Lily is an alcoholic but Andy couldn’t bring herself to talk to Lily about it. In the movie, Andy’s boyfriend, Nate is a chef while in the book, the boyfriend, Alex teaches in a school in South Bronx where the students come from troubled homes.

I kind of breezed through the 391-page book. Some parts were dragging, for instance when Andy keeps complaining about Miranda. Also, I cringed a few times just from reading about all the wasted food that Miranda never ate. Andy doesn’t know when Miranda arrives at the office in the morning and she orders her breakfast every ten minutes so that when Miranda arrives, the meal will be steaming hot. All the previously ordered and now cold, meals will be dumped into the trash. Just like that. Isn’t that wasteful???

Miranda does have a lot of responsibility in her hands and she needs to overcome the challenge of balancing work with personal life. Therefore, being her assistant is not easy! I wonder how a typical day goes by for Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine.

Well, what do you think of the book? Is it really that difficult to be assistant to a fashion editor and do these editors have fussy demands?

Popularity: 6%

Filed Under: Authors W, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles D

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Allison Bottke

Thursday, January 21, 2010 By 7 Comments

My sister asked me, ‘Why someone your age would read this kind of book?’

True, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing is about older women who are reaching middle age or are already past that age group.

But it is still a fun, light-hearted read and I learnt more about these baby boomers.

This is the first of three novels in the Va Va Va Boom series. From the book:

The “boom” refers to the baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1964. Baby boomers today, of which approximately 38 million are women, represent 28 percent of the U.S. population. Boomer women are some of the healthiest, wealthiest, and best-educated women ever to hit midlife.

When I hit 50, I’d sure love to look like Susan Anderson. Folks compliment that she looks better than women who are younger than her!

Anyway, Susan works hard to be where she has come to be. She owns a hip and happening salon in Las Vegas called Disco Diva. Customers go there not only for professional haircuts and styling but they are also nurtured and comforted by the boss herself.

Susan believes in God-cidences instead of the usual coincidences. She always looks on the bright side of things and constantly turns to her Creator for guidance and solace. With that, she’s always lending a helping hand or just being there for someone in need.

Initially, her relationship with her husband, Michael was somewhat non-existent. They rarely saw each other as they worked at different times of the day. She works during the day while he works at night. When she leaves for work, he’s only just returning home for his sleep. They only get the chance to spend time with each other during meals and on Mondays but that had to be cancelled at times.

A dilemma occurred when Susan and Michael began to pursue their hopes and dreams at the same time without first discussing everything. Finally, they agreed to go ahead with both their plans and vowed to somehow make everything work out.

Michael was building his dream home while Susan was working on having a bigger place for her salon and creating a museum to showcase her precious disco memorabilia. She had her friend and mentor, Lily to fund the entire project while roping in the help of the young and dashing Ryan Power to manage it. They also have Tina to help out with the inventory of Susan’s entire disco collection. Together, the four of them, excluding Michael, make a wonderful team.

Michael rarely drops in to help Susan with her project. Susan, on the other hand, is doing as much as she can for her husband’s and her own project. She also has to attend to customers at her salon. With so much going on, her close friends and online support group worry for her and urged her to get some rest. Will both projects be completed smoothly? Does Susan have the strength to cope with everything that’s going on?

The novel is 437 pages long but the chapters are kept short. The author also made it 54 chapters, which I suspect was inspired by Studio 54, Susan’s favourite disco in the 70s. It’s a quick and easy read, a chick lit kind of book but it’s also Christian fiction.

To avoid a long, monotonous read, there are also e-mail correspondence between Susan and her online boomer babe friends. They have never met in real life before and only communicated via technology such as the Internet, video camera and of course, the telephone.

For the first half of the book, Susan seems to be a lively and confident mature woman who carries herself well. However, I was surprised when she suddenly broke down and went completely hysterical when something unexpected happened. The sudden transformation of her character was unbelievable. Perhaps I’m not 50 so I wouldn’t know how women that age would act.

But still, it was an enjoyable read from a different perspective. I don’t always read books about middle-aged folks. Among those I remember is A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and that was somewhat hilarious. This book somehow only managed to get one chuckle out of me. The rest of the time was purely a relaxing read. It’s also a great opportunity for me to discover more about the disco era during the 70s and 80s!

***Thanks to Audra Jennings from The B&B Media Group for sending me this book to review.

Other reviews: CeeCee, Nightreader

Popularity: 3%

Filed Under: Authors B, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles Y

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 By 5 Comments

The first book of the popular Shopaholic series, Confessions of a Shopaholic! It has another title, too, which is ‘The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic’. Yup, we meet Rebecca Bloomwood and in this book, she and Luke aren’t together. Yet. I wanted to know how they met and boy, it’s all absolutely exciting. I couldn’t stop reading last night and just kept turning the pages to know what happens next!

Rebecca or Becky is 25 years old and she completely adores shopping. She’s a financial journalist at Successful Saving magazine. Although she finds her work hopelessly boring, she sticks to it because it’s a job and she gets paid. Oh, she also gets bombarded with numerous letters from her bank and Visa. Why’s that? Well, she’s spent too much and hasn’t paid the bills yet, that’s why!

Finally, taking her dad’s advice, without his knowledge, she tries to C.B. which means ‘cut back’ on her spending. However, she ends up spending more money instead. When she felt like there’s no more hope, her flatmate, Suze, suggested that she tried to Make More Money so she can pay off her bills.

Somehow, Becky applied to be a Saturday shop assistant at a clothes store. Sure, she loves clothes and all, but hiding a pair of jeans from a customer??? That’s hilarious! You never know what she’ll do next. She makes up lies and all kinds of stories just to get her own way and to me, she comes across as a very selfish person.

How’s her relationship with Luke in this book? He’s deemed a genius and he built his company, Brandon Communications from nothing. Also, he’s in the list of the 100 Richest Bachelors. Tarquin, Suze’s cousin, has also made the list. He’s interested in Becky but she’s not that into him, unfortunately. Anyway, things changed after she spotted him in the richest bachelor list.

Becky thinks that Luke Brandon likes her. But, she’s not quite sure. She even had a good time choosing a luggage bag with him. Apparently, the luggage was for his girlfriend! Was she furious when she found out! And all the while she thought that he actually liked her. Since then, she’s never trusted him and decided to hate him.

At the beginning of the book, only bad things happened to her. Partly because she caused them to happen. You feel sorry for her and yet you just want to laugh out loud at her silliness! It’s like the other Shopaholic books I’ve read. And I have two more books to go – the one where she gets married and the other one with the baby!

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: BookChica

Popularity: 6%

Filed Under: Authors K, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles C Tagged With:

Shopaholic Abroad by Sophie Kinsella

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 By 14 Comments

The story in this book occurs before Shopaholic & Sister but I don’t mind because it’s quite fun when you know what’s happened already. All I needed to know was HOW it all happened.

It’s still about Becky Bloomwood, excessive shopper. As usual, she buys stuff she fancies and then forgets all about it. She can’t pack light and is just an incredibly unrealistic person. I feel she’s an over-confident person and when disaster befalls her, she’s landed in total shock. Not good.

Anyway, she managed to land herself in a huge debt and what’s worse, it’s been splashed onto the Daily World newspaper, for all in England to read! She only found out about it while on a holiday weekend with her career-obsessed boyfriend, Luke. Haha! She’s obsessed with shopping while Luke is obsessed with making it big in his career and in New York!

Her flat mate and best friend, Suze has tried to warn her to control her shopping but Becky is such an impulsive shopper. Becky even bought numerous frames made by Suze even though Suze insisted that she’ll make one especially for her. However, Becky bought the frames because she wants to encourage the other customers in the shop to buy them as well.

I was quite annoyed at the part where Becky’s neighbour, Tom, who was getting married to Lucy. She came to the wedding alone, so what? Why should the bride and the other guests keep asking her where’s her supposed boyfriend, Luke? That was simply childish. Well, it was partly because all of them thought Becky is in love with Tom and they were expecting her to break down any moment during the wedding. I felt sorry for her then!

It’s titled Shopaholic Abroad because Becky goes to New York with her boyfriend, Luke. He might be transferring his business there. She then meets his mom and it was indeed a memorable experience for her albeit a horrible one! And are TV people always making empty promises even though they sound so darn convincing?

It’s an entertaining and light-hearted book. The ending was as sweet as sugar as it’s a happy ending.

This book is also published as Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.

Other Bloggers’ Reviews: bethany

Popularity: 39%

Filed Under: Authors K, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles S Tagged With:

Shopaholic & Sister by Sophie Kinsella

Monday, July 16, 2007 By 6 Comments

My first Shopaholic book! No, I didn’t buy it but I was extremely lucky to have borrowed it from my university’s library. Usually, popular fiction books such as this Shopaholic book would have flown off the shelves in the blink of an eye!

I’ve quite enjoyed reading her Undomestic Goddess book, so I was looking forward to a nice and easy read with Shopaholic. And easy it was!

The word ‘Shopaholic’ sounds interesting enough and it’s almost become a frequent usage in daily conversations and jokes. Well, for me though!

I think I should have read the first book in this Shopaholic series, which might be The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. But, it doesn’t matter now which book I read first as it’s really easy to understand the story and also to understand Becky Bloomwood who completely adores shopping!

In Shopaholic & Sister, Becky’s already married to Luke Brandon and the story starts with their traveling around the world kind of honeymoon. They planned to travel around for one year but after ten months of living like nomads, the Brandons decide to go back home in London.

Becky got the idea of going back home unexpectedly and surprise her parents and friends as well. She doesn’t know that there would be a surprise waiting for her at home, too.

Anyway, all did not go as planned. She expected everyone to be eager to hear stories of her travels but so much has happened at home that her stories had to take a back seat. The surprise her parents gave her was: She has a sister! Half-sister actually. Becky’s dad had a relationship with another woman way before he met Becky’s mom. And the sister tracked them down!

Since Becky’s best friend, Suze, has found another friend to hang out with, she looked forward to spending quality sister-time with Jess, her newfound sister. To me, I feel that Becky is too overconfident and expects other people to find her ideas and activities useful and fun.

But it’s probably because she’s enjoyed spending time with Suze so much before that she thinks Jess would have the same interests, too. For example, shopping! To Becky’s great dismay, Jess hates shopping! In fact, Jess is the total opposite of her. While Becky buys almost everything and anything she lays her eyes on, Jess is quite a spendthrift. She tries to save money whenever she can and thinks before buying, unlike Becky, who buys stuff on impulse.

Then, things start to go wrong. Jess hates Becky and said they might not even be sisters. Becky thinks her husband, Luke, is starting to hate her, too for spending too much money and not thinking rationally. She also thinks that Luke wants her to be more like Jess.

So, when Luke goes to Cyprus on a business trip, Becky hastily packed her stuff and heads off to Cumbria to find Jess. To apologize and to ask for help. And also to learn to be more like her, if possible!

However, when she reaches Jess’ front door, she is SO NOT welcomed there. What do you think will happen then? Will Becky just give up and go home without reconciling with Jess? Is Jess really her half-sister?

This book tries to be funny but at some parts, I am just annoyed. For example, how can Becky not know the exchange rates for money? She is a financial journalist! She should know. And Becky’s quite childish for a grown-up, too. All in all, I like this book for its simple storyline and that makes reading it easier and faster!

Popularity: 38%

Filed Under: Authors K, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles S Tagged With:

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

Saturday, March 31, 2007 By 2 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to be a high-powered lawyer at one of the most prestigious law firms around? To wear black suits all day and constantly check your e-mails every thirty seconds?

Welcome to Samantha Sweeting’s world. She’s one of the brightest lawyers at Carter Spink and never had any weekends off. She works all day and only arrives home late at night until she had to depend on her ever-caring neighbour to receive her mails and other things for her.

Samantha worked at Carter Spink for a good 7 years, giving her all. All she ever wanted was a partnership there. When she finally got it, she finds something unexpected among the piles of papers on her messy desk, which will ruin her entire career. Feeling shocked and more stressed out than ever, she leaves her office in a hurry and somehow ended up at an unfamiliar place.

When she stopped at a house to ask for a glass of water, she’s mistaken for a housekeeper arriving for her interview. Before she knew it, she made up incredible stories about her ‘housekeeping experiences’ to her would-be employers, Mr. and Mrs. Geiger. They were so impressed that they hired her immediately.

This is the first Sophie Kinsella book that I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. It is the book to read if you are looking for something light and hopelessly funny. I also cannot believe that Samantha can’t iron a shirt or even sew on a button! But, the part where she was trying to figure out how to use the washing machine was hilarious. I’ve never come across any washing machines with complicated pre-wash programs like A3-E2, H4, whatever.

Besides that, I don’t understand why she kept insisting that she likes being a housekeeper although she silently retaliates each time orders were being thrown at her. She obviously doesn’t like being bossed around. I mean, who would?

Samantha also falls in love with the gardener, Nathaniel. Initially, she was not sure of the mixed signals coming from him and was about to give up trying to get him interested. But, soon, things turned out well and Samantha started feeling happy being where she was.

While reading, I simply could not wait for the part where her employers and their obnoxious niece will find out who she really is! Samantha thought she was able to keep things a secret but things are not as easy as she thought they would be.

It’s a funny book, though I doubt there can be a real-life Samantha Sweeting somewhere!

Buy The Undomestic Goddess

Popularity: 37%

Filed Under: Authors K, Genre - Women's Fiction, Titles U Tagged With:
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