Girly short stories

I am not a huge short story person, as I like to spend more time with my characters. It is sometimes enjoyable, however, especially since I am going through a no attention-span having period.

The stories in Girls Night In are generally pretty solid. They are by a lot of chick lit authors I already like, plus the book introduced me to some new ones whose books I am now going to check out.

Expanding my chick lit horizons is, of course, always a plus.

Writers love New York

It's not that I don't think New York is a great city. I get a little tired of the books written by/about women who are completely obsessed with it, though.

Momzillas by Jill Kargman is such a book.

It is very New York centered, and the author tries a little too hard with her trendy dialogue.

Here's a sample: "I know, I know: most peeps loathe their MiLs; it's the rule and not the exception. MiLs bug DiLs. They get up in their bidniss."

Do people in New York not just talk like normal people? It has been a while since I've been there.

The book is fun, though, and about child raising in the city. If nothing else it served to make me very glad I don't live there.

More Katie Fforde, more!

Practically Perfect is the second Katie Fforde book I've read in a relatively short period of time. I seem to be on some kind of roll.

She's just SO good, I want to devour everything she's written, but I am trying to pace myself.

Practically Perfect was another winner. British...house remodeling...true love...dogs...it has everything a girl could want.

So recommended. I just don't think you can go wrong with her.

Do I want to move to Wyoming?

I occasionally go through phases where I want to move into the country to a small town. I think it would be fun to have lots of land and know your neighbors and not be in a city or suburb.

The Quality of Life Report, by Meghan Daum is about a woman who does exactly that, moving from New York to the middle of the country and small town America.

I always like to be able to virtually do something by reading about it without actually having to make some huge life change on my own.

The book was good, though the heroine is one of those dumb girls who makes bad choices which as a reader gets a little frustrating. Still, it has managed to stave off my need to move, at least for the time being.

Stephenie Meyer does adults

I know, this is my third post about something Stephenie Meyer has written. I am not obsessed, I promise.

But I just finished (well started, and then finished in the course of a day) The Host, her first novel for adults.

The book is about an Earth where parasitic aliens have taken over and take control of people's bodies. It's the story of one alien and her human "host."

For the first hundred pages of so I was really not into this book. I kept almost giving up on it, but decided I would read at least to page 100. The next thing I knew, I was on page 230 and totally hooked.

It's a little more science fiction-y than I am generally into and than her other books have been, but it's an engrossing story and a fast read, especially for a long book.

If you have liked the Twilight series, I think it's definitely worth trying, although you may have to give it a few chapters.

Can I be British?

What is it about British chick lit? It is somehow so much more interesting than its American counterpart (not that I don't enjoy the American version as well).

Still, there's something about their shops, food, and strange spelling (e.g. apologise) that I just can't get enough of.

My latest discovery? The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne. So fun, it's main character starts a business where she helps men do things like shop and throw parties and just generally whips them into shape. Plus it's the first in a series, which I always enjoy.

Do try it, perhaps with a cup of tea, and you will not regret it.

I love foodie books

It's no secret that I love chick lit. But I have a special place in my heart for chick lit that talks about food.

Although I am not much of a cook, I love food. I like to watch people make it and even better, to read about it.

So I especially enjoyed Sarah Strohmeyer's Sweet Love. It's the story of a woman whose mother is trying to get her together with her first love. She does this by arranging for them to take a cooking class together.

There's a nice story, some romance, and a lot of talk about cooking and eating desserts.

Be warned, I was forced to consume a lot of chocolate through the course of this book so I could keep up with the characters.

Katie Fforde is lovely

I first met Katie Fforde and her books years and years ago. I was living in London for a summer and read Stately Pursuits, and completely fell in love with it and her.

It is everything chick lit should be - fun and romantic and well written and British to boot.

I have enjoyed all of her books since then and spent part of this week curled up with Bidding for Love.

So enjoyable I did not want to stop reading it. City girl moves to the country, find new life, meets interesting people, and falls in love. It's the comfy mac and cheese of books.

A word of caution for readers - the object of her affection? Her cousin. I know. They're supposed to be "distant cousins" but it still kind of skeeved me out the whole time.

Another day, another new series

Another new supernatural series is always a find, and luckily they seem to keep appearing before me.

This time it begins with Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead, who has written some other books that I have enjoyed.

The main character is, as you might think, a succubus who works for the devil. Still, she's pretty likeable and has adventures, crushes, interactions with demons, etc.

This book was entertaining. Not a must read, but I will still probably get the next one.

Love, love this book

Literacy and Longing in L.A., by Jennifer Kaufman was so good that it took me weeks to read it. It was like having a really expensive box of chocolates. I parceled it out a couple pages at a time because I knew once I really committed to it it would be over and I would be sad to be done with it.

Why was it so great? I have to admit that I love books about readers. When the main character said, towards the beginning of the novel "I collect new books the way my girlfriends buy designer handbags. Sometimes, I just like to know I have them and actually reading them is beside the point. Not that I don't eventually end up reading them one by one. I do. But the mere act of buying them makes me happy - the world is more promising, more fulfilling."

As someone with a whole bookcase devoted to books I've bought but not yet read (with more piled n the floor beside it) I could relate and couldn't help but love the narrator.

Books play such a huge role in my life that I like to read about other people who feel the same way.

I loved this book and was, in fact, sad when I finished.

New York, New York

I recently stumbled on the book A Match Made on Madison by Dee Davis.

It is the story of a New York matchmaker trying to set up one of the city's most eligible bachelors. Along the way there are the usual high jinks, misunderstandings, and romantic entanglements.

The book was surprisingly good. The plot was interesting and the characters were likable. I found it a little too self-consciously New York-y though. Each chapter starts with a description of a Manhattan landmark which the heroine then visits. You live in New York, I get it, move on.

That aside, it was a good read.

Second tier reading

As we all know, there are books and then there are books. Even while I tend to avoid anything too heavy, some books are a lot meatier, more involving and affecting. Some are like tiny snacks which, while enjoyable, are quickly read and forgotten.

I read quite a bit of both kinds, and I still enjoy the more snack size fare, even though I get through them quickly (and often while the TV is on in the background).

I have just finished two of these kinds of books.

Insider Dating by Jennifer O'Connell is about a woman who wants to create a database about men in Boston so women can know what they're getting into when they date them. It's a somewhat heavy handed story of someone with daddy issues who eventually learns to love.

I also just read Confessions of an Ex-Girlfriend by Lynda Curnyn. I have to admit, I started wondering halfway through if I had read this book already. On the downside, this book is clearly not all that memorable, but on the upside I was willing to read it again.

The main character in this story is recovering from a break-up and it bonding with girlfriends/dating/learning to love herself/etc.

Both of these stories are good, especially if you want something especially mindless.

At least I can count on someone

After being recently disappointed by an author I thought I liked, I was very glad to be able to enjoy Jane Green's The Beach House. I have liked all of her other books, and this one is no exception.

It takes place at the beach, which I always love since it makes me feel all vacation-y and adds to the escapist summer reading feel.

It's one of those character driven, follow various people and their stories as they intersect and are eventually resolved books that are so often found in women's literature, but you generally like everyone in it and want to see things work out well for them.

The characters are great, and it has just the right amount of intrigue, romance, and gossip-y-ness. Plus I promise a happy ending for pretty much everyone involved.

Amnesia is fun

I can only assume that there are zillions of people who have had amnesia wandering around and I, through some fluke, have yet to meet one. That is the only way I can explain the fact that it is such a prevalent problem in books and movies.

Questionable premise aside, Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella is a great read.

I have consistently loved her other books, especially her Shopoholic series (despite its occasional cringe-y-ness) and was so pleased to find this book was no exception.

The main character wakes up with no memory of the last three years. She has to figure out her new life and the person she is and decide where she wants to go from there.

Enjoyable and recommended.

A new series - with magic, even

During my vacation reading, I stumbled along a fun new book. I was even happier to discover that it was part of a series. (A discovery that takes away that "I don't want to finish the book because then it will just be OVER" feeling).

Enchanted, Inc. is written by Shanna Swendson and is about Katie Chandler, a woman living in New York. In this book, magic is going on all around us (as I have long suspected) but most of us are completely fooled by it. Katie, however, has absolutely no magic and so can see what is really happening (frog princes, talking gargoyles, etc.)

She ends up teaming up with a magic business. Highjinks ensue, plus a crush.

Okay, it's not War and Peace, but it's a lot of fun.

Didn't I used to love Marian Keyes?

Okay, so I would swear that there was a time I was a huge Marian Keyes fan, and that I had really liked a bunch of her books. So I was excited to get her newest one, This Charming Man, out of the library.

And yet, it was really not good.

I was quite disappointed. Did I only imagine I liked her books before?

She tries so hard to make the language sound authentic that it ends up reading like it was written from someone really unfamiliar with the English language. The speakers seem to lack any understanding of articles or transition words and say things like "Food delicious" which is very distracting.

Plus the book is about a horrible, horrible man who does awful things and then pretty much just gets away with it.

I don't know how to explain. Perhaps my standards were too high?

Fun girly goodness

Great summer reading is hard to come by. It's got to be escapist and a good read and just a little trashy. Chasing Harry Winston , by Lauren Weisberger, falls into all of those categories.

It's the story of three friends trying to make changes in their personal and professional lives all the while flitting around with boys and travel and jewelry.

These are all good things. My only complaint is that none of the girls are particularly likeable. I generally wanted things to turn out well, but I wasn't really invested in any of the characters. Perhaps I am just too far removed from fabulous women in New York.

This book is by the author of The Devil Wears Prada, which totally rocks, in both book and movie form. If you've somehow missed that one, read it first.

I thought The Manny would be juicer..

So when I first saw The Manny by Holly Peterson I thought it looked too frivolous. A shocking admission, given some of the things I've admitted to reading, I know.

But I finally got it from the library, and got past my prejudice enough to read it.

The result? Mixed.

It's fairly well written, but none of the characters are quite well developed enough that you really care what happens to them. The main character stays with a lousy husband for pages and pages and pages. Why? Clearly, life's too short.

There's a romance, but even that is a fair amount of build up for not much action.

Plus there's an endless in-depth (one of the few things that is) work sub-plot. Please, if that's what I was interested in I would be actually working, not reading a book called "The Manny."

All in all? Not too frivolous for me, maybe just not frivolous enough.

It's an ex-pat theme

I must want to flee the country, because I can not get enough of these "girl reinvents herself by moving abroad" books. I just finished English as a Second Language by Megan Crane.

This one lacks Paris (sigh) but instead has Alexandra heading off to a Master's program in England.

The characters are fun, and do a realistic amount of partying, drinking, hooking up, and other recognizable, if questionable, decision making.

The love story is good, although a little unresolved for me (who would happily see every story ended with "and they lived happily ever after.")

Although these books send me into a little "it's looking less and less likely that I will move into a flat in Vienna" tailspin, it's nice to know that I can at least read about other girls doing just that.

I love France

What is there not to love about France?

French men, French food, French cheese, French clothes...these things are all magical. So who doesn't like a chick lit book set in Paris? It's the best of all possible worlds, really.

One such book? The Art of French Kissing by Kristin Harmel.

It's one of those "girl changes her life dramatically and pretty much all goes well" but with Paris and lots of sexual tension.

An enjoyable, escapist read.