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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Well written and fun but part of this weird trend with Bauer where she has young female main characters with absent or dead beat dads who find surrogate father figures only to have them die to move the plot along. Same goes for the equally good Hope was Here and both are a little creepy as a result.
Wonderful and well-developed characters in realistic situations. A really fun/funny read with some important truths.
This was a sweet book about a girl who has grown up prematurely. Her father is an alcoholic, and even though her parents have been divorced for years he still shows up drunk and trying to make it up to Jenna and her family. Her mom works night shift as a nurse, and her younger sister Faith is the beauty of the family. The one thing that Jenna feels good at is selling shoes. And then she gets the opportunity of a lifetime traveling with her company's owner to other stores, ending the trip with a stockholders meeting. Along the way she learns more about herself and life, as well as makes many new friends.
My two complaints are one, I would have liked to have seen more of what happens to Jenna after her adventure ends. Does she go out with her crush? Does she stay with her job at the shoe store? Does her dad fix his alcoholism? I was left wanting to know more. My second one is that religion is taken rather lightly. Not necessarily disrespectfully, just not reverently. Other than that I enjoyed reading this book.
My two complaints are one, I would have liked to have seen more of what happens to Jenna after her adventure ends. Does she go out with her crush? Does she stay with her job at the shoe store? Does her dad fix his alcoholism? I was left wanting to know more. My second one is that religion is taken rather lightly. Not necessarily disrespectfully, just not reverently. Other than that I enjoyed reading this book.
Jenna is very mature, and very into shoes. Smart writing, real emotions, etc. etc. My first Joan Bauer! Not as funny as I was led to believe but a nice intergenerational story.
adding for completeness of my reading history but don't remember enough to review.
This is the kind of book about women that the world needs, which is to say it is in no way chick-lit. The protagonist is an ugly-duckling teenager who loves to sell shoes and chaffeurs her 70-something boss around the midwestern and southern US. The majority of the book is spent with this teenage girl, who is anything but frivolous, and a hard-as-nails septuagenarian. There are a couple kind-hearted shoes salesmen and a drunken father, but these are just bit parts. At this book's heart is a story about business and ageism--romance is but briefly mentioned and brushed aside. These women are business-minded and empathetic in a way rarely seen in female characters. Both Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone show that women can be brutal businesswomen without being stone-cold bitches.
Proof that not all books about females are about female concerns. Books about women can be, in fact, books about the world just the same way books about men are. If only more people would write books about women that weren't romances that perpetuate stereotypes.
Updated to add: Passes the Bechdel Test, handily: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheBechdelTest?from=Main.BechdelTest
Proof that not all books about females are about female concerns. Books about women can be, in fact, books about the world just the same way books about men are. If only more people would write books about women that weren't romances that perpetuate stereotypes.
Updated to add: Passes the Bechdel Test, handily: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheBechdelTest?from=Main.BechdelTest
This book has one of the best opening scenes ever. And it's a good, tight book, but feels a little younger than young adult, despite the age of the heroine.