New York – Page 6 – Bookmarked!

Why I’ve been hooked on Emily Giffin

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Something Blue by Emily Giffin
Book 21 of 2009- Baby Proof by Emily Giffin

I haven’t been reading as much chick lit as I used to, because in the past couple of years I’ve been pretty hard up in finding chick lit that’s worth reading.

Emily Giffin was a surprising discovery I made last year. It started when I found a hardbound bargain copy of Something Blue (I was amused at the title) for around 60 bucks at a roving booksale (Books and Mags).

I knew it was a sequel so I waited for a hardbound copy of Something Borrowed to come up on BookMooch. The US moocher had to delay my mooch for a couple months so I had to wait, but by sheer luck I found a copy — a hardbound library discard with a couple of breaks in the spine, sitting unnoticed on a bottom shelf at Book Sale, and it was only P10!

As soon as I got the book covered in plastic (call me weird, but I can never read a book that does not have a protective plastic cover), I started reading a few pages just to see if I would like it, and I was not able to put it down.

Something Borrowed is the story of Rachel and Darcy, who are best friends. Darcy is engaged to Rachel’s classmate from law school, Dexter. One night, on Rachel’s 30th birthday, the flighty Darcy is missing in action and Rachel is left to celebrate with Dex. After one drink too many, Rachel and Dex wind up in bed together, and Rachel realizes she’s been in love with Dex all along, and gasp! — Dex feels the same way about her.

You would think it’s pretty hard to feel sympathy for a girl who steals her best friend’s fiance and a guy who cheats on his fiancee with her best friend, but Giffin manages to pull it off. I knew they could have handled it better, and thinking about it makes me cringe a bit, but I was rooting for Rachel and Dex. (On a side note, I am glad my best friend and I have totally different tastes in men!)

Being privy to their secret was sinfully addictive, and I won’t say any more to keep from spoiling it, but I actually read Something Blue because I couldn’t get enough of Rachel and Dex, although the 2nd book is really about Darcy.

I can’t blog about Something Blue without any major spoilers, so let me just say that it’s from Darcy’s point of view this time around. I’m not Darcy’s biggest fan, and it was pretty hard to read a book from the point of view of a character I didn’t really like, but I was relieved that Darcy grew up a lot in this book, and by the end of the book I learned to appreciate her character.

Baby Proof is Giffin’s third novel, separate from the first two but towards the end of the book there is a remote link via one character (Ethan).

The book is about Claudia, a book editor, who appears to have the perfect (=child-free, in Claudia’s perspective) marriage until her husband Ben decides he wants them to have a baby.

Baby Proof tackles a more serious topic, raising questions that are often taken for granted: is a marriage necessarily lacking without kids? Is it okay for a person to not want to have children?

The book is a confirmation of all the things I love about Emily Giffin’s books: real people with flaws, relevant issues, female friendships, excellent introspection, and writing that just keeps you reading, and reading, and reading.

Chick lit authors are a dime a dozen these days, but Emily Giffin is one of the very few who can pull off substance with style.

Aargh. Now I want a copy of Love The One You’re With…

***
(photos from emilygiffin.com)

My copy: hardcover copy of Something Borrowed (library discard), replaced with another hardcover in better condition; hardcover copy of Something Blue, missing its dustjacket; trade paperback of Baby Proof

My rating: Something Borrowed 5/5 stars; Something Blue 4/5 stars; Baby Proof 4/5 stars

Finally — Book 10

I just realized beating last year’s record of 230+ books will be a challenge this year because I am writing about them too, and that considerably slows me down (Gosh, I never thought I’d be able to sustain writing past a couple of books)… But I will attempt to anyway, just so I’ll have some sort of record of the books I’ve finished reading, and at least it’s a good writing exercise.

Book #10 is The Reader by Bernhard Schlink; I’m also putting it down as a European book for the FFP diversity challenge.

I must admit that I do not read Oprah’s book club selections, because they usually don’t interest me and are often the dramatic types of books, which aren’t really my cup of tea.
I actually only got this copy because it was P40 and it came up as a suggested book for FFP discussion (but no one’s gotten around to moderating it).

Anyway, as my first Oprah book, I think I can safely say I was right to stay away.

From start to finish I found the book boring and tedious and I actually finished the book for the sake of finishing it. The relationship between Hanna and Michael was disturbing (36 year old woman and a 15 year old kid?!?), but not in a way that compelled me to read on.

The main problem for me is that it’s so flat — you know Michael is the persona but it reads as if it were an exposition, rather than a narration, with very little feeling, and it’s hard to see the main characters as real people, because they were never fully developed. The plot is weak too, and it stagnates into limpid pools of rambling most of the time.

At least the hype never quite reached the Philippines — I read some reviews that it was really hyped in the US (heh, blame Oprah) and a lot of people were disappointed.

A few points briefly stirred me, but not enough to elevate my opinion of the book (I wish the author developed these more; maybe that would’ve helped):

1) The book is from the German point of view of the Holocaust, which isn’t very common.
2) It touches briefly on illiteracy, and its psychological effects on the person
3) Hanna on the stand being interrogated, and then she turns to the judge and asks, “What would you have done?” — which for me was the only moral aspect of the book that made any sort of impact on me.

Sigh. This book will probably end up in my mooching inventory, unless perhaps Andi wants it, although that might not be such a good idea, as it might depress him…

Maybe the movie’s better.

***
My copy: Vintage trade paperback, P40 from Book Sale

My rating: 2/5 stars

Photo from illiterarty.com

Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Becky Bloomwood is back! This time, with a bump — Becky and Luke’s first baby!

Becky Bloomwood is back in the 5th novel of the Shopaholic series, armed with her credit card as she prepares for the baby’s arrival – booties, designer rompers, prams, you name it and Becky has to have it. So when news of a celebrity ob/gyne Venetia Carter breaks out, Becky has to have her too, and decides to switch from her old ob/gyne. All’s well, until she finds out Venetia is Luke’s ex-girlfriend from college, and still carries a torch for Luke, posing an impending threat to their fledgling family.

My sisters, my mom (yes, my mom likes chicklit, especially Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot) and I are Shopaholic fans, so I was delighted when Tattie (my eldest sister) bought me a copy of Shopaholic and Baby a couple of months ago when I complained that I couldn’t find one (of course now, it’s back in stock).

I liked Shopaholic and Baby, although I think I really love Shopaholic Ties the Knot and Shopaholic and Sister best. Becky is up to her usual antics, but I guess some themes in this book make it a bit more serious than the rest in the series. I guess, Becky has to grow up sometime, well at least more grown-up than Becky has ever been in her life, and it shows in this book.

The supporting cast is still a riot, though, especially Suze, Janice, Danny, and Mr. and Mrs. Bloomwood. Jess is back too, hint, hint, I wish Sophie Kinsella would write a book about her as well, haha like the Shopaholic’s Non-Shopaholic sister. Heehee.

Of course, all’s well that ends well, and it’s still a great addition to the series :)

***
My copy: Gosh, I have three copies of this book – 2 hardcovers (one mooched, one from NBS) and one large paperback…

My rating: 3/5 stars

Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle

This was the first Peter Mayle book I ever read, and I had no idea that he was a travel writer so I was in a totally different frame of mind when I read it, expecting an art heist thriller. But like all Mayle’s books, Chasing Cezanne is more like a travel book than anything else. It also reads like chick lit, which is kind of weird, because the protagonist is male.

The premise was really good: photographer Andre Kelly is off on a shoot when he sees a Cezanne being removed from the premises of a former client. He photographs this event and is embroiled in a chase for the missing painting.

Except that it’s got to be the most leisurely chase I’ve ever read — Andre and his gang (a fastidious art dealer, plus Andre’s love interest Lucy) stop to eat and sightsee (and sleep together) every chance they get, hehe.

The language is languid and dreamy, the descriptions are beautiful and picturesque. No rip-roaring chases here — the book is more like Under the Tuscan Sun than Da Vinci Code.

Even Cezanne is only incidental, you can substitute some other painter’s name in the title and the story wouldn’t change, that’s how little Cezanne. And there’s very little actual art discussed, other than the process of selling famous paintings and a bit of forgery (haha, Incognito was a great movie for that!). Actually I think even the mystery is only incidental, it was just a reason for Andre to get together with Lucy and romp from New York to Paris and the South of France.

Worth reading for the travelogue and food commentary — this is what Mayle does best, and he delivers commendably, but mystery lovers might feel shortchanged.

***
My copy: trade paperback upgraded into a hardcover with dust jacket

My rating: 3/5 stars

Photo courtesy of Amazon (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5154TY62ARL.jpg)

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

This is a book that I remember seeing a lot when I was in Grade School at the LRC, but I don’t know why I never got around to reading it. Maybe it’s because of the long title, haha, or maybe it’s because the cover isn’t appealing to kids.

Most people have probably had dreams of running away (if they didn’t actually run away) as they were growing up. Haha, I remember I used to plan my escape when my siblings ganged up on me, or when I got scolded (except I couldn’t stand the thought of roaming around on the streets in rags, with matching gunky hair and kariton). I think this is why I liked this book so much, because it’s a story about two kids who run away and actually succeed at it.

The book has a Home Alone quality to it, except that they’re at a museum and there are no bad guys, but they do have a mystery to solve.

I loved that of all places that Claudia and Jamie could run away to, it was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art… Now if only we had a museum like that, maybe I’d have run away a long time ago. Haha, Jamie reminded me a lot like my brother, because he was the money shark and like Claudia, I used to be the brains that thought up ways of getting us into trouble when we were kids (uh, like the brilliant idea to polish the parquet with baby powder! boy, did we get punished for that!).

The characters are endearing, and I love that the book shows how smart kids can be, in a way adults would never expect.

There’s an old movie version (1973), with Ingrid Bergman as Mrs. Frankweiler, and a 1995 TV movie with Lauren Bacall as Mrs. Frankweiler. I wonder if I’ll ever get to watch those; I think the book makes for a really fun movie.

***
My copy: mass market paperback, wanting to be upgraded haha

My rating: 4/5 stars