Showing posts with label lauren weisberger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lauren weisberger. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Lauren Weisberger: Chasing Harry Winston

Chasing Harry Winston: C+
Chick lit-ish romance-ish

Emmy is newly single, and not by choice. She was this close to the ring and the baby she's wanted her whole life when her boyfriend left her for his twenty-three-year-old personal trainer -- whose fees are paid by Emmy. With her plans for the perfect white wedding in the trash, Emmy is now ordering takeout for one. Her friends insist an around-the-world sex-fueled adventure will solve all her problems -- could they be right?

Leigh, a young star in the publishing business, is within striking distance of landing her dream job as senior editor and marrying her dream guy. And to top it all off, she has just purchased her dream apartment. Only when Leigh begins to edit the enfant terrible of the literary world, the brilliant and brooding Jesse Chapman, does she start to notice some cracks in her perfect life...

Adriana is the drop-dead-gorgeous daughter of a famous supermodel. She possesses the kind of feminine wiles made only in Brazil, and she never hesitates to use them. But she's about to turn thirty and -- as her mother keeps reminding her -- she won't have her pick of the men forever. Everyone knows beauty is ephemeral and there's always someone younger and prettier right around the corner. Suddenly she's wondering...does Mother know best?

These three very different girls have been best friends for a decade in the greatest city on earth. As they near thirty, they're looking toward their future...but despite all they've earned -- first-class travel, career promotions, invites to all the right parties, and luxuries small and large -- they're not quite sure they like what they see...

One Saturday night at the Waverly Inn, Adriana and Emmy make a pact: within a single year, each will drastically change her life. Leigh watches from the sidelines, not making any promises, but she'll soon discover she has the most to lose. Their friendship is forever, but everything else is on the table. Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.



This, by far, is the worst book out of the three that Lauren Weisberger has written.

While the premise of the book might be interesting, the book is fast paced... a little too fast-paced. There isn't much time to invest energy into the characters and not enough time is spent on each of the three characters. It's a whirlwind, flipping back and forth between Emmy, Leigh, and Adriana.

I still get confused - which one was Leigh again? Was she the one who got dumped or was she the one who is neurotic?

The outline of the book also made a huge difference for me, strangely. Instead of starting new chapters, there are those page gaps in between paragraphs to indicate the passing of time, by which I mean - the passing of months and months of time.

Before you know it, it's Fall. Then it's Christmas. Then it's the end of February.

The time passes and passes and the reader doesn't realize the year is almost over... until it's over. The ending was cheesy, which isn't too bad (I like cheese a decent amount) but a little too coincidental.

And for purely subjective, non-concrete reasons, I can't say that I really really enjoyed this read. Not because I really hated one aspect of the book, but because it was just... un-outstanding.

A C+ for being decently entertaining.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Lauren Weisberger: Everyone Worth Knowing

Everyone Worth Knowing: A+
Bette Robinson & Sammy


When Bette Robinson quits her Manhattan banking job like the impulsive girl she's never been, she knows she won't miss the 80-hour workweeks, her claustrophobic cubicle, or her revolting boss. But soon the novelty of walking her four-pound dog around her unglamorous Murray Hill neighborhood wears as thin as the "What Are You Going to Do With Your Life?" phone calls from her parents.

Then Bette meets Kelly, head of Manhattan's hottest PR firm, and suddenly she has a brand-new job where the primary requirement is to see and be seen inside the VIP rooms of the city's most exclusive nightclubs. Bette learns not to blink at the famous faces, the black Amex cards, or the ruthless paparazzi. Soon she's dating an infamous playboy—and scaring off the one decent guy she meets. Still, how can she complain about a job that pays her to party? But when Bette begins appearing in a vicious new gossip column, she realizes that the line between her personal and professional life is . . . invisible.


I'm sure everyone hear has read and/or seen The Devil Wears Prada, the debut novel written by Lauren Weisberger.

It was funny, I admit.

Weisberger's second novel, Everyone Worth Knowing, is even funnier.
I loved it.

It's about Bette, raised by hippy-organic-earth loving-vegan parents, who after quitting her fairly successful job at an investment banking firm, chooses to work for an event-planning public-relations firm.

While doing so, she becomes the newest girl-toy for Manhattan's hottest and most eligible bachelor, Phillip Weston.

She doesn't really know how it happens.

In what it seems like a mere second, her life becomes flipped upside-down; she's staying out late, going into expensive bars and the trendiest "it" places in town. Everything else that's not part of this rich-people-but-superficially-shallow world gets cast aside.

Strangely enough, it's in this atmosphere that she meets a cutey bouncer at one of the clubs. He sees Bette and realizes that she's different from all of the other party-going girls.. it's when they're put together to put on a huge party that they get to know each other.

(Ohmygosh, may I add in here that Sammy is adorably adorable???!)

This novel thrusts you into the glamour world and the craziness that is event-planning. From Manhattan to Poughkeepsie, New York to Istanbul, Turkey, this novel has it all: romance, laughs, friends, and shitty co-workers. A definite keeper on my shelf.