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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Really liked this book--the conclusion of "Good in Bed". I could relate well and sympathize with the characters. This is one that will stick with me for a while.
I picked this up at the airport. I'd enjoyed Good in Bed, so I figured this would be good for the flight. And it was. Except for I really really should have brought kleenex with me on the plane. I'm weeping copiously and I don't have any kleenex!
This book has a really remarkable quality of being highly unpredictable. There were several surprises throughout the course of the story.
This book felt a lot less like a fantasy than the previous one (although the husband/father still had a bit of "too good to be true" quality) and I enjoyed the sort of self-awareness the book had about being the second book of a best-selling book.
On a side note, this is the second book about the fall-out of writing books that I've read in the last week. What's going on? Should I be taking this as some sort of sign? Like, "Emily! Write that book you want to write! But be really really careful not to write anything too close to the truth!" We'll see. If the next novel I read is also about this, something is definitely going on.
This book has a really remarkable quality of being highly unpredictable. There were several surprises throughout the course of the story.
This book felt a lot less like a fantasy than the previous one (although the husband/father still had a bit of "too good to be true" quality) and I enjoyed the sort of self-awareness the book had about being the second book of a best-selling book.
On a side note, this is the second book about the fall-out of writing books that I've read in the last week. What's going on? Should I be taking this as some sort of sign? Like, "Emily! Write that book you want to write! But be really really careful not to write anything too close to the truth!" We'll see. If the next novel I read is also about this, something is definitely going on.
I have read the majority of Jennifer Weiner's books. My first two, I read while living in Pittsburgh and they made me miss Philadelphia. This book, however, made me appreciate the warts people hide about life--fear, hope, disappointment. There is no neat, pretty bow to tie it all up. It has, hands down, the most realistic and heartfelt chapters about human loss ever...it was though someone read my inner most feelings about regarding loss and its aftermath. A truly beautiful, heartfelt read.
So excited that Jennifer Weiner had a new book out - fast and enjoyable read.
Sequel to Good In Bed. The author did a good job of adding to the original storyline and developing the characters. I enjoyed the book but not as much as the first one.
Don’t you always hate it when you find an author you think you’re going to really love, read a few books and know it’s great, and then get one rotten apple of a book that just turns you off? That’s what happened to me last year while reading Jennifer Weiner. I thought I’d found an author that was in the running for one of my favourite authors. In Her Shoes, The Guy Not Taken: fabulous reads that I really enjoyed.
Then I got to Weiner’s first book: Good in Bed. It was admittedly a struggle for me to get through this. I wasn’t entirely certain why though.
I decided this year to try reading her again. I ended up picking up Certain Girls, which is the sequel to Good in Bed. Probably not the smartest move on my part because if I didn’t care for the first, why would I torture myself with the second one?
It actually turned out to be an incredible read. The book felt nothing like the first book despite centering around the same character. The plot was gripping (edge of my seat, especially near the end… I was like… WHAT THE HECK!?… in a good way though), and the characters were intriguing.
I think the main reason I enjoyed this more because it was lighter than the first. Candice spends the majority of the first book in utter depression, which can be a downer for anybody, not to mention if you’re feeling bummed to begin with. Whereas with the second book she’s much more accepting of herself for who she is.
Ultimately I really enjoyed this book, and am actually looking forward to picking up another one!
[ Originally posted to A Novel Idea on February 18th, 2011. ]
Then I got to Weiner’s first book: Good in Bed. It was admittedly a struggle for me to get through this. I wasn’t entirely certain why though.
I decided this year to try reading her again. I ended up picking up Certain Girls, which is the sequel to Good in Bed. Probably not the smartest move on my part because if I didn’t care for the first, why would I torture myself with the second one?
It actually turned out to be an incredible read. The book felt nothing like the first book despite centering around the same character. The plot was gripping (edge of my seat, especially near the end… I was like… WHAT THE HECK!?… in a good way though), and the characters were intriguing.
I think the main reason I enjoyed this more because it was lighter than the first. Candice spends the majority of the first book in utter depression, which can be a downer for anybody, not to mention if you’re feeling bummed to begin with. Whereas with the second book she’s much more accepting of herself for who she is.
Ultimately I really enjoyed this book, and am actually looking forward to picking up another one!
[ Originally posted to A Novel Idea on February 18th, 2011. ]
I love Jennifer Weiner's books precisely because they are so close to home (I am an insecure plus size who shares many of the self doubting thoughts and self deprecating sense of humor her characters often have)and so very well written! Her books and short stories have level of personal detail I admire very much and in many ways I feel I learn from as a writer simply by taking them in. They're also very cathartic in many ways that any other "chicklit" (honestly I don't think the moniker suits her fiction, its great stuff and I've even turned my fiance on to her books its that good!)writer has trouble really conveying. Her characters are smart, funny, real and endearing. ooh boy this one got me!
Certain Girls is a follow up to Good in Bed and continues the story of Cannie Shapiro nine years after the previous book ended. Here we find Cannie still dealing with many of the same self doubting issues despite her happy ending and several years of steady, loving security with Peter and her daughter Joy through whose eyes we see another view of Cannie and the dreaded start of the teen years. She's relaxed after the anxiety and anger of her breakup and Joy's traumatic birth; throwing herself into being the best mother she can be to her only child and setting aside her drama writing career in favor of writing sci-fi books under a pen name. Things have been good for Cannie but they're starting to get complicated as her daughter Joy begins to rebel and push away from her mother and Peter starts talking about the idea of surrogacy so that they can have their own child.
Things get very complicated for both Cannie and Joy as they both struggle to resolve the issues affecting their lives. Joy feels overwhelmed and smothered by her mother's attention and love and her own struggle to define herself as a young teen. Cannie is unable to see from her daughter's perspective and struggles to understand her lowered grades and hostility while trying to decide of she's ready or able to consider Peter's interest in another child.Thigns only get more complicated when Joy reads Cannie's first semi-fictional novel and tries to wrap her head around the woman she knows and the roman a clef version of her mother she finds in the book.
Reading the book was as always a very fast process ( I think Stephen King is one of the very few other authors who have this affect on my reading pace) and it was a truly affecting novel about both Joy and Cannie's issues coping with the past and the coming changes of the present. There were a few moments of surreal fantasy in the first book about Cannie (the Hollywood segment is what I refer to here) but this one sticks to the very real moments in the character's lives and pulls us along a pretty good clip as things progress. Being a mother who's also struggled through a difficult birth and the threat of infertility (though mine thank goodness isn't as severe and final as Cannie's was) I could identify very closely with her sense of loss, fear and anxiety about trying again. As with many things taking that plunge is as fraught with terror and fear of failure as it is with the haunting desire for those sweet smells and sensations that come with being a new mother. Making the decision to try again in that mind set is sort of like choosing to jump off a cliff and remembering too late how much it could hurt going down.
As for Joy's teenage angst I found myself wanting to smack her quite often but had to remind myself that yes even I was a serious pain in the ass at that age and that most kids are. This was quickly followed by the thought "Oh crap this could be my five year old in a few years..." and "Am I overwhelming him like that? Will I?". As the mother and daughter continue to but heads and Joy keeps more and more of her struggle to understand herself and her mother to herself the tensions only get worse for both of them culminating in a few very serious flights of rebellion and one of the most startling events I could have read for the characters.
Finishing the last 80 pages or so was like turning into one of those weeping wrecks often depicted in film planted in front of the lifetime network or a chick flick with a bucket of ice cream. I wept until the very last word swearing I was gonna kick Weiner's ass for turning my tomboy not into romances (ok a few) or chick flicks (yeah yeah a few of those too) self into a weepy stereotype. Even so thanks Ms. Weiner I loved it!
Certain Girls is a follow up to Good in Bed and continues the story of Cannie Shapiro nine years after the previous book ended. Here we find Cannie still dealing with many of the same self doubting issues despite her happy ending and several years of steady, loving security with Peter and her daughter Joy through whose eyes we see another view of Cannie and the dreaded start of the teen years. She's relaxed after the anxiety and anger of her breakup and Joy's traumatic birth; throwing herself into being the best mother she can be to her only child and setting aside her drama writing career in favor of writing sci-fi books under a pen name. Things have been good for Cannie but they're starting to get complicated as her daughter Joy begins to rebel and push away from her mother and Peter starts talking about the idea of surrogacy so that they can have their own child.
Things get very complicated for both Cannie and Joy as they both struggle to resolve the issues affecting their lives. Joy feels overwhelmed and smothered by her mother's attention and love and her own struggle to define herself as a young teen. Cannie is unable to see from her daughter's perspective and struggles to understand her lowered grades and hostility while trying to decide of she's ready or able to consider Peter's interest in another child.Thigns only get more complicated when Joy reads Cannie's first semi-fictional novel and tries to wrap her head around the woman she knows and the roman a clef version of her mother she finds in the book.
Reading the book was as always a very fast process ( I think Stephen King is one of the very few other authors who have this affect on my reading pace) and it was a truly affecting novel about both Joy and Cannie's issues coping with the past and the coming changes of the present. There were a few moments of surreal fantasy in the first book about Cannie (the Hollywood segment is what I refer to here) but this one sticks to the very real moments in the character's lives and pulls us along a pretty good clip as things progress. Being a mother who's also struggled through a difficult birth and the threat of infertility (though mine thank goodness isn't as severe and final as Cannie's was) I could identify very closely with her sense of loss, fear and anxiety about trying again. As with many things taking that plunge is as fraught with terror and fear of failure as it is with the haunting desire for those sweet smells and sensations that come with being a new mother. Making the decision to try again in that mind set is sort of like choosing to jump off a cliff and remembering too late how much it could hurt going down.
As for Joy's teenage angst I found myself wanting to smack her quite often but had to remind myself that yes even I was a serious pain in the ass at that age and that most kids are. This was quickly followed by the thought "Oh crap this could be my five year old in a few years..." and "Am I overwhelming him like that? Will I?". As the mother and daughter continue to but heads and Joy keeps more and more of her struggle to understand herself and her mother to herself the tensions only get worse for both of them culminating in a few very serious flights of rebellion and one of the most startling events I could have read for the characters.
Finishing the last 80 pages or so was like turning into one of those weeping wrecks often depicted in film planted in front of the lifetime network or a chick flick with a bucket of ice cream. I wept until the very last word swearing I was gonna kick Weiner's ass for turning my tomboy not into romances (ok a few) or chick flicks (yeah yeah a few of those too) self into a weepy stereotype. Even so thanks Ms. Weiner I loved it!
Three and a half stars, simply because Weiner is always an entertaining read, full of dark and dry wit and lots of plot twists. She trots out a big one here, but it's believable and heart-rending. The best parts of the book are conversations--between Cannie and her husband, Peter, for example, or the things Cannie's sister Elle says.
People are transformed--or not. They are redeemed by their goodness, and their flaws.
And--as always--life goes on.
Recommended for someone who'd like a nice hit of smart chick lit.
People are transformed--or not. They are redeemed by their goodness, and their flaws.
And--as always--life goes on.
Recommended for someone who'd like a nice hit of smart chick lit.
Another great read by Weiner...good followup to the hysterical Good in Bed. Can't wait for the next installment...hint hint! It was great to see the same situations from both Cannie's perspective as well as her 13 year old daughter...brought back some memories of my own!