Book 48 (2011): The Weird Sisters

The one thing I enjoyed about The Weird Sisters was the awesome and repeated use of everything Shakespeare throughout the novel: quotes, character names, references to plays, conversations that take place in almost solely Shakespeare nuances.

Otherwise, this felt like some traditional chick lit, but the serious sort. Three sisters who are all as different as night and day and don't get along and really don't like each other all that well but love each other no matter what, all end up back at their parents' place when their mother is battling cancer.

They are all grown adults, with their own personal battles to fight but come home to do that and then spar like little children.

And of course we all have a happily ever after in sister-land when they finally make nice after all these years.

Obvious stuff, but the repeated Shakespeare makes it worth turning the pages! Okay... and I thought the cover art and texture was pretty cool, too. (336 pages)

B-

Book 3 (2011): Last Night At Chateau Marmont

After I read the last book (Chasing Harry Winston) by Lauren Weisberger, said I would never read another one, yet I did anyway. I think I wanted something light and fluffy and it was on the shelf.

In this book, Brooke and Julian Alter are a young married couple in NYC. Julian is and up and coming musician and Brooke is a nutritionist, working two jobs to support them. When Julian's music career takes off he becomes enamored with the lifestyle that goes with it. Brooke is thrilled for Julian but she wants to continue her own career while he wants her to quit her job and travel with him, enjoying his new found rock star fame. Then he does something stupid, the paparazzi have photos and Brooke and Julian split.

It was just a chick lit novel. It named dropped left and right and pushes along a very expensive and famous lifestyle. I read it, it was quick and painless but I now remember why I wasn't going to read her stuff anymore.

I still say The Devil Wears Prada was her best book to date. (384 pgs)

D

Book 43- Jane Austen Ruined My Life

This started out very strong- the first paragraph made me laugh but by the end of Jane Austen Ruined My Life (by Beth Pattillo) it was merely chick lit. Dang!

Emma Grant gets divorced and loses her job, so she's homeless, penniless and loveless. And it's all Jane Austen's fault, or so Emma thinks. So in an effort to try and resurrect her career, if nothing else, she goes to England in search of the lost letters of Jane Austen.

Once Emma arrives in London she stays at her cousin's house only to find her best friend from college, Adam. Adam and Emma reconnect with each other and even though their friendship is blooming again, she can't tell Adam what she doing because he's a college professor like her and she doesn't want him to infringe on her project.

While she's looking for the missing letters she meets some quirky women who claim to be the guardians of the letters. This group, called the Formidables, make her complete tasks before she can 'see' the letters. And she develops a crush on her friend Adam.

It just screams Chick Lit; I was hoping by invoking the Austen name it would be more substantial but to no avail.

Book 9- The Gift

The Gift by Irish writer Cecelia Ahern is one of those "teach you a life lesson" sort of books, that just feels preaching, like a giant sermon or a Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of thing.

Lou is a jerk with a great job who buys lots of stuff and had lots of money but treats his family, his wife, and his children like crap, and claims he works all the time and is married to his job so he can provide for THEM even though we all know it's just for himself. Not only is he a crappy son (misses dinner with his parents on purpose, plans ways to avoid them, and hands off his father's 70th birthday party to his assistant that he's screwing), father (his daughter says she doesn't like him and his son screams in fear of him when Lou gets close, he doesn't know his children's ages, either) and husband (he cheats on his wife repeatedly with anything in a skirt and goes out drinking with the boys to avoid going home) but he's also a malicious employee, going after a job of a man who used to work in his office who had a nervous breakdown.

So he meets Gabe, a homeless guy and for some crazy reason he gives Gabe a job in the mailroom of his building. Then strange things start to happen and Lou is feeling stressed, knowing he has to be in two places at once. Gabe offers to help him out. And though they do look alike, this isn't a case where Gabe tries to be Lou's twin, but uses "magic" of sorts to help.

And there's a tragic ending. The entire story is told by a close to retirement age cop to a young kid who committed vandalism on Christmas day. The old cop tells the story to the bratty, foul mouthed teenager in an effort to teach him a lesson.

This story is trite and has been told in so many variations in the past, I was amazed it could get published again. I had zero sympathy for the main character Lou, none whatsoever. I realise it was released in time for Christmas but it still rings flat to me.

I was very disappointed in this novel because in the past I have been a fan of author Cecelia Ahern who authored PS I Love You and Thanks for the Memories. I always love that her books are set in Ireland, and specifically I was overjoyed at the settings of Dublin and Howth, both places I've been and have delighted in. But not even my joy with Dublin could make me enjoy this novel. Maybe the next one?

Book 1- Nanny Returns

Nan Hutchinson, NYC nanny extraordinaire, is back 12 years after leaving the employ of the X family.

Since her first appearance in The Nanny Diaries (which was made into a film of the same name starring Scarlett Johansson as the title character), Nan been globe trotting for twelve years with her husband Ryan, aka HH, and now they have returned to NYC. They bought a "fixer upper" house in Harlem, she's opened her own HR consulting firm, and they're thinking of starting a family.

But being back in New York isn't as great as Nan thought it would be. And after a drunken evening visit from her former charge Grayer X, she needs to assuage some of the guilt. She let's Grayer con her into helping his younger brother, Stilton, get into a boarding school since the entire X family is falling apart: money trouble, the X's are finally divorcing, Mr. X moved out, mom is sick, a starlet as a potential step-mother... all this leaves Nan wanting to "fix" Grayer's life, and that of Stilton, because of how it was all left, those many years ago.

And Nan is on her own when her house collapses in pieces since Ryan is off in Africa saving the world. Nan's best friend is busy so she renews a friendship with Citrine, a formerly snotty high school friend- who might haven't changed into a possible good person/ good friend.

Everything unravels between Nan's house, the X's, a crazy consulting job she took for a private school staffed by psychotic board members, and her personal life. Can she cope?

I've waffled between liking this novel and not liking this novel. I appreciate having Nanny back and I like reading McLaughlin and Kraus, who I like as writers and consider the originators of 'chick lit.' What I find unbelievable is that Nan can be so dumb. Why does she let herself get sucked into these situations? I could see what was coming; why couldn't she? And she's a likable character, and a fairly smart character, so I hate it when she's portrayed as stupid, and when she make stupid mistakes.

I also am not a person who had money, I wasn't raised with money, and don't know people with the sort of money as characters in this book are portrayed so it blows my mind when the "rich" people do these horrid things, just thinking about the way the parents reacted to a school situation in the book- and Nan let it go on, even though it was her job to advocate for the teachers. Being a teacher myself, made this section of the book rather hard to take and was certainly not believable; but like I said I don't have money so I don't know how the rich and famous behave. (and yes I know this is fiction, but the co-authors are former nannies so you know some of this has to be fact based...!)

As a reader I also admire the timeliness of the content. Many of the characters, not the rich ones who operated in the X's social circles, had to face financial difficulties and challenges, just like in real life. Some of Nan's friends were working extra jobs or even selling their home and moving in with parents, just like in real life. But of course, the overbearing wealthy are fairly represented here, too.

I'd call this a good beach read, or a snow day read. A few laughs, but often just shaking my head in mock horror and disbelief.