The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnelln

I've read all of Candace Bushnell's novels and found they were missing that little something that makes me call up my sister in an almost-panic saying "You HAVE to read this!". So when I heard good things about The Carrie Diaries it surprised me. I wanted to read it, but wasn't convinced enough to buy the book full price. The waitlist at the library was years long so I stored the thought away in the back of my mind. Flash forward a year later and I'm on a weekend getaway in Boston, purusing the sale section at Urban Outfitters when I spot the familiar pink and brown cover. I picked it up thinking it must have been mistakenly put there, but when I checked the back the little orange sticker read $2.90! Almost nothing makes me more excited than a good deal...especially when it involves something I wanted to get eventually. If that's not fate, I don't know what is.

The diaries start off with Carrie Bradshaw (from Sex and the City fame) in her last year of high school. There's no Charlotte, Miranda or Samantha, it's just Carrie, a suburban girl in a suburban world, with dreams of becoming a writer. This young Carrie is secure in who she is (or about as secure as you can be when you're 17), smart, non-compromising and funny. Right away I was drawn into her life and found myself delight in all her observations. I couldn't help constantly checking in with TV-Carrie to see if they matched up and I was impressed with how succinctly Candace Bushnell managed to create a true-to-TV younger version of a character millions of people have come to love. I found all of Carrie's thoughts and actions believable and a total joy to experience. For me the whole book carried the same vibe as Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep.

Was it worth the read?
Yes! Not only was it the best book find ever ($2.90 for a new, pretty, hardcover book!), but after an awful movie (the second one, not the first one), it renewed my love for SATC by reminding me what I enjoyedt the show so much in the first place. The ending was FANTASTIC, chills up and down my spine, and I can't wait for the next installment!

Dune Road by Jane Green

I was in a light Chic Lit mood when I picked out Dune Road. I'd read Jane Green's Jemima J. and found it entertaining and easy. The premise of her latest novel sounded promising. Newly divorced mother of two buys small dream home in Conneticut and tries to rebuild her life. She starts working for a famous, reclusive author who's wife mysteriously died on a yachting excursion years before. Lot's of potential for house fawning (which I love), an illicit murder mystery (which I also love), and a peek into the lives of the rich and famous (triple love from me).

Alas, things turned out to be far less exciting than they seemed. The illicit murder mystery was explained in a paragraph (near the beginning!) and there ended up being too many characters, doing not enough of anything to keep my interest for the length of time it took to read the book. My boyfriend even commented that the book must not be so great if I was still reading it after a couple of days...I think you get the point.

Was it worth the read?
Sure, if you're really bored or in need of some filler in your life. I'd recommend reading Jemima J. first, not groundbreaking, but far more interesting!

Book Bites

• Nooooooo!!!! That was my first reaction to the "Hero Complex" article in the L.A. Times. Then I took a minute to think about it and saw the good and bad sides of this new development. Good: The last two Sookie books will be AMAZING and we'll finally find out what's going to happen to Sookie (something I've been wondering a lot with the last few books). Bad: Duh, no more Sookie! Before the last book (which a lot of people didn't like, but I felt like it brought everything back from a dark, dark place) I thought it might be time for the series to end. After reading the most recent book though, I began to see how this could go on and on and I kind of got used to the idea. Yes the quality would have diminished, but there's something so weirdly comforting about Sookie's world that it's nice to have an opportunity to delve into it once a year. So I guess the countdown is on, maybe we should start bets on how it's all going to end?

A quick list of the last five months

We've been lax on our blogging, but that doesn't mean we were lax on our reading (at least I wasn't...Tory has the excuse of a new job :). I've compiled a list of some of the books I've read over the last five months (in no particular order) with quick blurbs about what I thought of them:



Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
I hate to say it, but it wasn't very good. A first for Kelley, in my opinion. Savannah wasn't fleshed out as a character, it's like she didn't have the time to bridge the gap between her as a teen and her as a young adult. There's a sequel coming out, so I'm holding out hope.

Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
I needed a dose of strong Kelley Armstrong and this book did the trick. Eve is a great protaganist and Armstrong's description of the afterworld is imaginative and provides endless possibilities. Super creepy!

Kardashian Konfidential
Yes I read it. And I loved it. What can I say? I always wanted a Brady Bunch family and I always like reading about what it's like to grow up rich in Beverly Hills.

Mini Shopoholic by Sophie Kinsella
Hilarious. I was worried she wouldn't be able to keep Becky's story fresh, but I was wrong. A super fun read. I'd like to write a post on it if I can remember to do it.

Thirst #3 by Christopher Pike
I missed Alissa. And that's why I enjoyed the book, but not because it was a great masterpiece...I have no idea how he'll be writing a fourth after what happened in this book, but I'll be the first to read it anyways.

My Booky Wook by Russel Brand
I loved it. I didn't love him, but heard good things about the book. Now I love him.

My Booky Wook 2: This time it's personal by Russel Brand
Not as good as the first, probably because it's written in real time. He's too close to what he's writing.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Fairytale style writing (without the fairytale ending) of a Dominican family living in New York. A good read.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Interesting, especially if you've ever taken any architecture courses (I have).

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller

I bought this book for $1.99 out of a bargain bin. I liked the cover and I loved the title. It felt like a snowy day book. I wanted it to be one of those fun memoir-like stories about growing up as a girl and I think that's what Rebecca Miller was going for, but it never quite hit the mark. Pippa never rang true. Everyone seemed to think she was amazing, but she never seemed to do anything at all. A lot of the situations she found herself in seemed forced, like Miller was trying to recreate something she'd read somewhere else.

But it wasn't all so contrived. I loved how Miller described Pippa's relationship with her mom in the beginning. Suky was by far the most interesting character and it was sad that her story faded off so shortly. The book itself was too short. The whole thing felt like a movie (which it was) so I thought maybe it translated better on screen. My hopes were too high. The movie was really awful. It was also directed by Miller, which was strange because it had this disjointed feel a movie tends to get when it has too many hands stirring the pot. It turned out that Miller intended the voice of the story to be playful and wacky, judging by the music played whenever Pippa narrated. I was really baffled by the whole thing...how could one person write a book and direct the movie and have both turn out so mismatched?

Was it worth the read?
No. There are so many better girl-growing-up books. Try Catherine Gildner's Too Close to the Falls or Susan Sonnenberg's Her Last Death.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

I first read The Hunger Games a month or two ago and although I was entertained, I thought there were a lot of major flaws with the book. It seemed like a rip off of other YA books that were much better--Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion as one example. I wasn't even going to read the sequel Catching Fire until I found a downloadable audiobook version that I could listen to while I was at work. That further unimpressed me...it was far too much like Twilight in the love-angst department and made Katniss Everdeen (best name ever?) seem like Bella.v2.

Despite my lack of praise for the first two books I felt invested enough in the series to continue on with the third (and there was so much press going around that I felt I had to!). After reading the final installment of the series, I have to say that for the first time ever, I found the last book of a series to be the best. A pretty amazing feat!

With the first two books I took major issue with the whole idea of the hunger games (children being selected to participate in a killing fest on tv?). We were never given a thorough explanation as to how these horrendously barbaric games had come about and why children were used instead of adults. We were expected to take it at face value, which I always find a hard time doing. I love unusual concepts, but they need to be explained so I can understand how they make sense in that world.

The final book was complex and gritty. Things weren't perfect and simply realized, good vs. evil, etc. Katniss really had to come to terms with a lot of things and figure out what she stood for apart from it all.

And in the end, she had to decide who she loved most of all.

I agree with all the criticism about how poorly drawn Gale's character was in the book, but I have to say I thought Peeta or at least the essence of what Suzanne Collins was trying to portray in Peeta came across loud and clear to me. I loved the ending and I thought it was extremely accomplished. You could definitely see how her writing progressed throughout these three books and I can now say I'm excited to see what else she has in store.

Was it worth the read?
Yes. As I said, it's the best book of the three, although you have to read the first two to get meaning out of the last.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Heart of the Matter is simply a book that doesn't have much heart. It tells the story of two women; the wife and the "other woman." Tessa (the wife) has recently quit her job as a professor to become a stay-at-home mom to her two kids. Valerie (the other woman) is a single mom and career woman whose life revolves around her son Charlie. When Charlie gets into an accident Tessa's "perfect" husband becomes his pediatric surgeon and so his relationship with Valerie begins...

Don't think I'm giving away some huge secret by revealing this affair, because that is what the entire book revolves around and it's obvious from early on. The book alternates between Tessa's and Valerie's points of view as the affair progresses. The characters just seem pretty cliche and it feels as though Giffin only brushes the surface. I didn't find either woman particularly likeable, and by the end I was almost glad to be done with them.

The premise behind the novel definitely isn't anything new, but the way in which Giffin presented it was different. I found myself intrigued at first with the alternating perspectives, but the story just didn't develop enough to really keep my interest.

Was it worth the read?

No. I found myself very disappointed in the end and a little bit depressed. I think Giffin should stick to lighter fare until she comes up with a story with more originality and dimension. She has potential, but she hasn't fulfilled it with Heart of the Matter.