First up was Happy Ever After, the last book in the Nora Roberts series I was reading. This book was as predictable as the first three and I have to say if I wasn't so damn anal and needing to finish what I've started, I probably wouldn't have read it. That said though it was an easy enough read and probably great for the hopeless romantics out there. I am glad that I can also cross "Read Nora Roberts" off my list officially now ;)
Book two was Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi. Overall a good read but not quite what I was expecting it to be. I also couldn't relate to a lot of it because so much of her eating disorder had to do with her identity of being a lesbian. I appreciated her process but also found it difficult at times to align with what she was discussing. However, I love love loved a piece of the ending where she discussing eating disorders versus ordered eating. She describes ordered eating as that of which we do not think about our eating in terms of calories fats etc but eat to feel full and good and healthy. A teacher once said that eating disordered individuals have a negative relationship with food but she doesn't believe that is fair to say since healthy individuals do not have relationship with food at all. The way de Rossi describes it makes perfect sense and it is such a goal to strive for, perhaps unachievable and perhaps realistic long term wise.
So for a long time I've wanted to read Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell. I've struggled each time I've picked it up. After reading One Fifth Avenue last month by the same author I was again inspired to try again. This time I listened to it on CD and actually made it through the book (yay!). I think the issues I was having, and still had, is that it's really nothing like the show/movies/new books (Carrie Diaries). There are some similar names used and Big and Carrie are in a relationship, oh and there is also a Samantha Jones who might be as close to similar for the tv show, but aside from that it's nothing like the newer versions. I'm happy I finally made it through, but I also am going to choose to believe in the Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha from the show that I fell in love with.
Steve Martin has been a favorite of mine, I guess since Father of the Bride at least. When I realized that yes in fact Shopgirl and The Pleasure of my own Company were written by him, and not some author with the same name as him. I immediately pulled them off the library cart and took them home. They were good, more sexual than I expected them to be, but I guess that's cause I still saw the actor/author through my kid eyes and not through my grown up eyes able to see him as an adult male. An Object of Beauty, his newest novel, was as great as I expected it to be. It took a moment to get into it, possibly because of the art history of it, but it was really enjoyable and sad to see it end. Don't get me wrong, I like the art world (thanks parents) but the book was a little difficult for me to understand at first since I don't much about the buying/selling part of the art world. In any case though I'm glad I stuck with it and I'll continue reading Martin's books if he keeps writing them.
I'm a fan of Paris, especially the Eiffel tower, which I feel fortunate to have seen up close and personal some years ago. So when I saw the cover of Paris Hangover by Kristen Lobe I added it to the to read list. I forgot about what it was about until I ordered it as a read for my vacation last month. The concept seems pretty inspiring, high powered NYC woman gives it all up to move to Paris to live out her dream. The book is set up cutely with each chapter divided into a few repeating parts. "The search for Monsieur Right" "A few slightly annoying details I didn't anticipate" and "Sublime pleasure du jour." I like this division and it definitely works for the book. Other than that I can't say it was a good book. The supposed heroine prides herself on being a skinny, not so smart blonde, drunken slutty woman. Seriously. It was very Sex and the City meets Paris with just one character but without the great friendships and feminism in it. And of course there is a fairy tale ending, which I don't feel like is giving anything away since you know this 5 minutes into the book. That being said I don't regret reading it, especially since I read it on the airplane to vacation and maybe what I needed was a crappy romance novel disguised as a Parisian novel.
Oddly enough I ended up with two similar romancy type books on my vacation. The last book I read in February was You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs by Laurie Graff. This story is of a NYC Jewish actress looking for love. The chapters are various points in her life with various men all leading to the ending. This book though another "search for Mr Right" type book was not quite as sappy or annoying as the book above. The heroine dates, and yes sleeps with, quite a few men but it isn't as drunken slutty as the other novel. You feel for this woman and the funny dates she winds up with. They aren't just bad men they are odd and some of them are good but she chooses herself or her career over. One of them is a "famous" actor who takes her back to his house to make her dinner and after dinner starts acting like a dog, barking and the works. There is a "perfect" man (read: Jewish doctor) but whom she doesn't tell she is Jewish immediately and then loses not because she was dishonest but because he doesn't want to marry a Jewish woman even though that's what he has said he wants. (This chapter is titled "Shiksa syndrome" or something like that. It's a cute book. The only regret I had reading it was that the second to last chapter would have worked much better as the last chapter in my opinion. She gives up on the men and adopts a wonderful dog. That to me is a good ending and still allows me as a reader to believe she could end up happy. Instead the author takes it another chapter and gives us a different sort of happy ending. I was happy for the character but it was also a little disappointing.
All in all it looks like my February reads were on theme for the Valentine's month. March is new Jodi Picoult month!!!!!!!!!
